- Grief does not change you. It reveals you. ~from The Fault in our Stars (7/17/12)
- In between stimulus and response there is a space, in that space lies our power to choose our response, in our response lies our growth and our freedom. ~Viktor Frankl~
- Expectations are resentment waiting to happen. (08/08/11)
- Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers. ~Charles William Elliot (08/08/11)
- What you feed will grow and what you starve will die...feed your faith; starve your doubts. (08/08/11)
- Be a filter, not a sponge. ~from Perks of Being a Wallflower (07/01/11)
- "If you make it a habit not to blame others, you will feel the growth of the ability to love in your soul, and you will see the growth of goodness in your life." ~Leo Tolstoy (04/19/11)
- Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative. -Oscar Wilde (03/14/11)
- "Anyone God uses significantly is always deeply wounded... We are, each and every one of us, insignificant people who God has called and graced to use in a significant way... On the last day, Jesus will look us over not for medals, diplomas, or honors, but for scars." -Brennan Manning in Ruthless Trust (3/13/11)
- "May all your expectations be frustrated. May all your plans be thwarted. May all of your desires be withered into nothingness. That you may experience the powerlessness and poverty of a child and sing and dance in the love of God the Father, the Son, and the Spirit." - A blessing prayed over Henri Nouwen by a friend (3/13/11)
- "The reward for conformity was that everyone liked you except yourself." - Rita Maye Brown (3/13/11)
- "Expectations are resentment waiting to happen." - Anne Lamott in Crooked Little Heart (3/13/11)
- We are called to be fruitful - not successful, not productive, not accomplished. Success comes from strength, stress, and human effort. Fruitfulness comes from vulnerability and the admission of our own weakness." - Henri J.M. Nouwen (3/13/11)
- “The desert of which I speak is a desert of the spirit: a place of revelation, conversion and transformation. A true revelation is a very disturbing event because it demands a response; and to respond means some kind of inner revolution. It involves being ‘made over,’ being made new, being ‘born again.’ The desert, then, is a place of revolution. In the desert we wait, we weep, we learn to live.” - Alan Jones (3/3/11)
- "If we maintain the open-mindedness of children, we challenge fixed ideas and established structures, including our own. We listen to people in other denominations and religions. We don't find demons in those with whom we disagree. We don't cozy up to people who mouth our jargon. If we are open, we rarely resort to either-or: either creation or evolution, liberty or law, sacred or secular, Beethoven or Madonna. We focus on both-and, fully aware that God's truth cannot be imprisoned in a small definition. " — Brennan Manning (2/26/11)
- One resolution I have made, and try always to keep, is this: To rise above the little things. ~John Burroughs~ (1/2/11)
- Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom. ~Victor Frankl~
- I think we would be able to live in this world more peaceably if our spirituality were to come from looking not just into infinity but very closely at the world around us-and appreciating its depth and divinity. ~Thomas Moore~
- I would rather live in a world where my life is surrounded by mystery than live in a world so small that my mind could comprehend it. ~Harry Emerson Fosdick~
- Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime. ~Mark Twain~
- It is the peculiar quality of a fool to perceive the faults of others, and to forget his own … You can’t clear your own fields while you’re counting the rocks on your neighbor’s farm. ~Cicero~
- Along the road I walked a mile with Pleasure; She chattered all the way. But left me none the wiser for all she had to say. I walked a mile with Sorrow and ne'er a word said she; But oh, the things I learned from her when Sorrow walked with me! ~Robert Browning~
- Security is when everything is settled, when nothing can happen to you; security is the denial of life. ~Germaine Greer~
- When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be. ~Lao Tzu~
- The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others. ~Gandhi~
- We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. -Aristotle-
- My plea is that we stop seeking out the storms and enjoy more fully the sunlight...I am asking that we look a little deeper for the good, that we still our voices of insult and sarcasm, that we more generously compliment and endorse virtue and effort. -Gordon B. Hinckley-
- Anyone who willingly enters into the pain of a stranger is truly a remarkable person. ~Henri Nouwen~
- Listen better, judge less and forgive more.~ Don Goewey~
- Live each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each. ~Henry David Thoreau~
- The failure to read good books both enfeebles the vision and strengthens our most fatal tendency–the belief that the here and now is all there is. ~Allan Bloom~
- Talents are best nurtured in solitude, but character is best formed in the stormy billows of the world. ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe~
- Leap, and the net will appear. ~J Cameron
- What a wonderful life I’ve had! I only wish I’d realized it sooner. ~Colette
- Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. ~Voltaire
- You have not lived a perfect day, even though you have earned your money, unless you have done something for someone who will never be able to repay you. ~Ruth Smeltzer
- To be humble to superiors is a duty, to equals courtesy, to inferiors nobleness. ~Benjamin Franklin
- When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves. ~Victor Frankl, Holoucast survivor
- A growing relationship can only be nurtured by genuineness. ~Leo Buscaglia
- It is never too late to be what you might have been. ~George Eliot
- The house of my soul is too small for You to come to it. May it be enlarged by You. It is in ruins; restore it. ~Augustine
- Where there is great love there are always miracles. ~Willa Cather
- Never let a problem to be solved become more important that a person to be loved.
- Love is like pi - natural, irrational, and very important! ~Lisa Hoffman
- It isn't the mountains ahead that wear you out; it's the grain of sand in your shoe.
- Let us be grateful to those who make us happy...they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom. ~Marcel Proust
- If you find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn't lead anywhere. ~Frank Clark
- In true love the smallest distance is too great and the greatest distance can be bridged. ~Hans Nouwens
- We need to raise our children with the vision of what they can become.
- Don't postpone joy!
- The question for each man to settle is not what he would do if he had the means, time, influence, and education advantages, but what he will do with the things he has. ~ Hamilton Mabie
- Do what you can with what you have where you are. ~Teddy Roosevelt
- Choose to be forward focused, not past possessed.
- Don't let what you have within your grasp today be missed entirely because only the future intrigued you and the past disheartened you.
- The great opportunity is where you are. Do not despise your own place and hour.
- May you live all the days of your life. ~Jonathan Swift
- Write it on your heart that every day is the best day of the year. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
- Every day comes bearing its own gifts. Untie the ribbons. ~Ruth Schabacker
- Do not accept your present temporary situation as your permanent condition. Make up your mind to get on with your life and to fulfill your divine purpose despite your current circumstances.
- You don't get to choose all the experiences you have, but you do get to choose what to do with them.
- For the person committed to lifetime growth, success is a process, not a destination.
- All of our accomplishments and capabilities are made possible by the talents and contributions of others.
- For a person to keep growing, the central focus always has to be the performance itself - never other people's response to it. You have control over your performance. You never have control over other people's responses, approval, or applause.
- Savor your existence. Live every moment. Do not waste a breath.
- The best way to find faith is by having the courage to doubt.
- Always move toward love.
- The important thing is this: to be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become. ~C. Dubois
- I will not just live my life. I will not just spend my life. I will invest my life.
- Do things for people not because of who they are or what they do in return, but because of who YOU are!
apr 13 2008 ∞
jul 17 2012 +
jul 17 2012 +