Be Still

Be still. it takes no effort to be still; it is utterly simple. When your mind is still, you have no name, you have no past, you have no relationships, you have no country, you have no spiritual attainment, you have no lack of spiritual attainment. There is just the presence of beingness with itself.

-- Gangaji

Ability

You never know what you can do until you have to do it.

-- Betty Ford (1918-2011)

I can change

I can change. I can live out my imagination instead of my memory. I can tie myself to my limitless potential instead of my limiting past.

-- Dr Stephen Covey

Be Bold

When you cannot make up your mind which of two evenly balanced courses of action you should take, choose the bolder.

-- General W.J. Slim (1891-1970)

Meeting Life's Challenges

So apt in these trying days, and oh so tough to follow. So tough.

Self-acceptance comes from meeting life's challenges vigorously. Don't numb yourself to your trials and difficulties, nor build mental walls to exclude pain from your life. You will find peace not by trying to escape your problems, but by confronting them courageously. You will find peace not in denial, but in victory.

-- J. Donald Walters

Who you really are

I believe that when you realize who you really are, you understand that nothing can stop you from becoming that person.

-- Christine Lincoln

Wealth

The real measure of our wealth is how much we'd be worth if we lost all our money.

-- Benjamin Jowett (1817-1893)

Time

All we have to decide is what to do with the time we are given.

-- Gandalf to Frodo ("The Fellowship of the Ring" movie)

Learners and the learned

In times of profound change, the learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.

-- Eric Hoffer

God is awake

Have courage for the great sorrows of life and patience for the small ones; and when you have laboriously accomplished your daily task, go to sleep in peace. God is awake.

-- Victor Hugo (1802 1885)

Power

We touch the lives of others in ways we often never know. People sometimes come into our personal world for fleeting moments and can leave us forever changed. We have more power to create or to destroy than we can imagine.

We can leave things or individuals better or worse than we found them.

-- Gail Pursell Elliott

C-ing it through

" Confidence, curiosity, courage and constancy. ...the secrets of making dreams come true. "

-- Walt Disney

Therefore..

Nothing worth doing is completed in our lifetime,
Therefore, we are saved by hope.
Nothing true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history;
Therefore, we are saved by faith.
Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone.
Therefore, we are saved by love.
No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as from our own;
Therefore, we are saved by the final form of love, which is forgiveness.

-- Reinhold Niebuhr

Worries

As for worrying about what other people might think - forget it. They aren't concerned about you. They're too busy worrying about what you and other people think of them.

-- Michael le Boeuf

Taking charge

When we know that the cause of something is in ourselves, and that we (ourselves) are one of the few things in the universe that we have the right and ability to change, we begin to get a sense of the choices we really do have, an inkling of the power we have, a feeling of being in charge... of our lives, of our future, of our dreams.

- John-Roger and Peter McWilliams

Death by John Dunne

DEATH, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so:
For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow
Die not, poor Death; nor yet canst thou kill me.
From Rest and Sleep, which but thy picture be,
Much pleasure, then from thee much more must flow;
And soonest our best men with thee do go--
Rest of their bones and souls' delivery!
Thou'rt slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell;
And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well
And better than thy stroke. Why swell'st thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And Death shall be no more: Death, thou shalt die!


Came across this beautiful poem recently, in Fortunes of War; Guy Pringle reading it aloud to Harriet as their ship leaves Athens for Cairo.

Inside you

Be thine own palace, or thy own jail.

Nothing Is Worthy Of Great Anxiety

Nothing in the affairs of men is worthy of great anxiety.

-- Plato

Patience

Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself.

Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections but instantly set about remedying them -- every day begin the task anew.

-- Saint Francis de Sales

Balance

Fear less, hope more; Eat less, chew more; Whine less, breath more; Talk less, say more; Love more, and all good things will be yours!

-- Swedish Proverb