First Family

I believe it is better to tell the truth than a lie.
I believe it is better to be free than a slave.
And I believe it is better to know than to be ignorant.

- H.L. Mencken

The Family

The family. We were a strange little band of characters trudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another's desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together.

~Erma Bombeck

Gratitude

In ordinary life we hardly realize that we receive a great deal
more than we give, and that it is only with gratitude
that life becomes rich.

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Attitude of Hope

The road that is built in hope is more pleasant to the traveler
than the road built in despair,
even though they both lead to the same destination.

~Marian Zimmer Bradley

Family Ties

Other things may change us,
but we start and end with family.

- Anthony Brandt

Serenity in the Storm

Serenity is not freedom from the storm, but peace amid the storm.

- Author Unknown

Sharing at Christmas

The feelings shared during Christmas will last much longer
than the gifts we receive.

- John A. Jenson

Compassion

How far you go in life depends on you being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and the strong.
Because someday in life, you will have been all of these.

- George Washington Carver

Charity

Charity should begin at home,
but should not stay there.

- Phillips Brooks

Forgiveness

To forgive is the highest, most beautiful form of love.
In return, you will receive untold peace and happiness.

- Robert Muller

Notion of Peace

Peace, in the sense of the absence of war, is of little value to someone who is dying of hunger or cold. It will not remove the pain of torture inflicted on a prisoner of conscience. It does not comfort those who have lost their loved ones in floods caused by senseless deforestation in a neighboring country.

Peace can only last where human rights are respected, where people are fed, and where individuals and nations are free.

- The XIVth Dalai Lama

For the Rest of My Life

For the rest of my life, on this day of days, please help me ...

to do unto others as I would have them do unto me,

to give more of myself, every hour, than is expected,

to set goals and hold fast to my dreams,

to search for the good in every adversity that befalls me,

to perform all my duties with enthusiasm and love,

and above all, to be myself.

- Og Mandino, The Return of the Ragpicker

Sharing to a Friend

This communicating of a man's self to his friend works two contrary effects;
for it redoubleth joys, and cutteth griefs in half.

- Francis Bacon

Reaching out in love

There is a terrible hunger for love.
We all experience that in our lives - the pain, the loneliness.
We must have the courage to recognize it.
The poor you may have right in your own family.
Find them.
Love them.

- Mother Teresa

Kindness of Others

Sometimes our light goes out
but is blown into a flame by another human being.
Each of us owes deepest thanks to those
who have rekindled this light.

- Albert Schweitzer

Perceiving Christmas

To perceive Christmas through its wrappings becomes more difficult with every year.

- E. B. White

Surviving Prosperity

The human race has had long experience and a fine tradition in surviving adversity.

But we now face a task for which we have little experience,

the task of surviving prosperity.

~ Alan Gregg

Materialism

It is preoccupation with possessions,
more than anything else,
that prevents men from living freely and nobly.

- Bertrand Russell

Friendship

A friend is the one who comes in when the whole world has gone out.

- Grace Pulpit

As you shop ...

We give most what we want to receive.

This is something to keep in mind as you shop this holiday season. If you can't decide what someone would like to receive, give them something you would like them to have.

- Lyn

In Memory of My Mother - On the Date of Her Birth

Perhaps they are not stars,
but rather openings in heaven
where the love of our lost ones pours through
and shines down upon us
to let us know they are happy.

- Eskimo Proverb

Spirit of Love

You will find, as you look back upon your life,
that the moments when you really lived
are the moments when you have done things in the spirit of love.

- Henry Drummond

Give, give, give

Whenever you feel ‘short' or in ‘need' of something, 

give what you want first and it will come back in buckets. 

That is true for money, a smile, love, friendship. 

I know it is often the last thing a person may want to do, 

but it has always worked for me. 

I just trust that the principle of reciprocity is true, 

and I give what I want.

 ~ Robert Kiyosaki

Making a living and a life

We make a living by what we get.
We make a life by what we give.

- Winston Churchill

Generosity

Generosity is giving more than you can,
and pride is taking less than you need.

- Kahlil Gibran

Winter

If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant:
if we did not sometimes taste of adversity,
prosperity would not be so welcome.

- Anne Bradstreet

Our Faithful Friend

Dogs have given us their absolute all.

We are the center of their universe.

We are the focus of their love and faith and trust.

They serve us in return for scraps.

It is without a doubt

the best deal man has ever made.

- Roger Caras

Joined for Life

What greater thing is there for human souls than to feel that they are joined for life -- to be with each other in silent unspeakable memories.

-George Eliot

Birthdays

Our birthdays are feathers in the broad wing of time.

- Jean Paul Richter

The Secret of Love

The secret of love is seeking variety in your life together,
and never letting routine chords dull the melody of your romance.

- Anonymous

Life is ...

Life, we learn too late, is in the living, the tissue of every day and hour.

- Stephen Leacock

What Really Matters

And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count.

It's the life in your years.

- Abraham Lincoln

Friendship

Don't walk in front of me, I may not follow.
Don't walk behind me, I may not lead.
Just walk beside me and be my friend.

-- Albert Camus

Lest We Forget

In Flanders Fields
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

- Lieutenant Colonel John Alexander McCrae, MD

War - A Thief

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.

- Dwight D. Eisenhower

Caring for Our Old

Our society must make it right and possible for old people
not to fear the young or be deserted by them,
for the test of a civilization is the way
that it cares for its helpless members.

- Pearl S. Buck

Stephen Lewis on AIDS

The situation of people living and dying with AIDS in parts of Africa is so desperate that even the most basic help will bring solace and hope.

- Stephen Lewis

The Last of the Human Freedoms

Man can preserve a vestige of spiritual freedom, of independence of mind, even in such terrible conditions of psychic and physical stress. We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread ... they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken away from a man but one thing:
the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances,
to choose one’s way.

The way in which a man accepts his fate and all the suffering it entails, the way in which he takes up his cross, gives him ample opportunity—even in the most difficult circumstances—to add a deeper meaning to life.

- Viktor Frankl

Family

A happy family is but an earlier heaven.

- John Bowring

Be the Change

Change will not come if we wait
for some other person or some other time.
We are the ones we've been waiting for.
We are the change that we seek.

- Barack Obama

Never Look Back

I have made it a rule of my life never to regret and never to look back.
Regret is an appalling waste of energy... you can't build on it;
it's only good for wallowing in.

- Katherine Mansfield

Create your life

The life and love we create is the life and love we live.

- Leo Buscaglia

Choosing our Character

How true Daddy's words were when he said:
all children must look after their own upbringing.
Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths,
but the final forming of a person's character
lies in their own hands.

- Anne Frank

Farewell October

October's poplars are flaming torches lighting the way to winter.

- Nova Bair

Stand Up ...

Stand up to your obstacles and do something about them.
You will find that they haven't half the strength you think they have.

- Norman Vincent Peale

Be An Angel Today

Encourage someone today.
Be an Angel to somebody today.
Be a Blessing to those who deserve it and those who do not,
because you may never know whose life you are turning around.
Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.

- Author Unknown

Breast Cancer Hope - YouTube Video

Check out this wonderful tribute video and song from Cloning Einstein. It brings a message of hope to survivors and honours those who have succumbed.

YouTube - Breast Cancer Hope

In Motion - In honour of Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Breast Cancer Awareness Month is winding down, however the fight for a cure and the efforts to assist those stricken with the disease is not. Here are the moving lyrics to the song, In Motion, from the Pink Ribbons Project (Houston) website. You can hear it for yourself at http://www.pinkribbons.org/song/.

In Motion

Looking out to the distance
I see places I've not been
And I won't close these eyes yet
Whilst there's sunsets
I've not seen

I will dance and I will sing
I will live and I will dream
I will be and I will do
I will

Chorus
I will be fearless
I will fear less
I will stay in motion

I will be here beside you
You'll be holding someone's hand
She'll wrap both arms around her
And together we all stand.

We will dance and we will sing
We will live and we will dream
We will be and we will do
We will

Chorus
We will be fearless
We will fear less
We will walk we will run
We will keep moving on
'Til we're breathless
We will stay in motion

- O. Thomas and L. Young

How you live

You don't get to choose how you're going to die, or when.
You can decide how you're going to live now.

- Joan Baez

Disposition vs Circumstances

The greater part of our happiness or misery depends on our dispositions, and not on our circumstances.

We carry the seeds of the one or the other about with us in our minds wherever we go

- Martha Washington, U.S. First Lady

Attitudes

A happy person is not a person in a certain set of circumstances, but rather a person with a certain set of attitudes.

- Hugh Downs

Learning Wisdom

By three methods we may learn wisdom:
First, by reflection, which is noblest;
Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and
Third by experience, which is the bitterest.

- Confucius

Don't Give Up ...

don't give up 'cause you have friends
don't give up - you're not beaten yet
don't give up - I know you can make it good

though I saw it all around
never thought I could be affected
thought that we'd be the last to go
it is so strange the way things turn

don't give up - you still have us
don't give up - we don't need much of anything
don't give up 'cause somewhere
there's a place where we belong

rest your head - you worry too much
it's going to be alright
when times get rough you can fall back on us
don't give up - please don't give up

- Peter Gabriel

Gratitude

At times our own light goes out
and is rekindled by a spark from another person.

Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those
who have lighted the flame within us.

- Albert Schweitzer

Vision

Where there is no vision, there is no hope.

-George Washington Carver

Don't Give Up

When it's dark enough
you can see the stars.

- Persian proverb

Hope

"Hope" is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune -- without the words
And never stops at all.

- Emily Dickenson

Thinking Pink for National Breast Cancer Awareness Month - October

In honour of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I am reprinting an excerpt from “The gift of cancer” from The Cancer Center website.

You may encounter the phrase, “The gift of cancer.” It may take some time, but you may come to see it this way, too.

Every crisis contains the seed of opportunity. Open your spirit as you would open the earth to plant a flower’s seed. Give yourself permission. If you will allow yourself, you can find beauty in any beast, even cancer.

Your journey to these remarkable resources requires no suitcase or ticket. The only prerequisite is an openness of spirit - an attitude that seeks to find blessings in adversity. Prepare to be filled with faith and interior joy. Always seek the light: the darkness will dissipate. By being mindful of the present moment, you likely will discover a totally different world filled with abundance.

“Inhale peace; exhale despair.” “Breathe in hope; blow out fear.” “Inhale healing; exhale disease.” “Breathe in love; blow out turmoil.” Mindful meditations. Sensory awareness. Healing touch.

Let yourself be open to the love that is waiting to surround you. Love is everywhere...waiting to be tapped. Don’t be afraid to tell those close to you how much you love them. Chances are they need to hear those words as much as you need to say them. Likely, you will be astonished at the extent of your support system. Now is not a time for isolation. Express your feelings like you never have before. Always remember: hugs are wonderful healing tools. Allow relationships to strengthen and deepen. Let yourself be open to the love that is waiting to surround you. Love is everywhere...waiting to be tapped. Don’t be afraid to tell those close to you how much you love them. Chances are they need to hear those words as much as you need to say them. Likely, you will be astonished at the extent of your support system. Now is not a time for isolation. Express your feelings like you never have before. Always remember: hugs are wonderful healing tools. Allow relationships to strengthen and deepen.

Recognition and acceptance of death as a natural transition of life will likely come to you sooner than most. Yes, confronting your own mortality is uncomfortable. But you must. The gift of cancer can bring a sense of peace and serenity that few know. After you have dealt with the possibility of dying, you are freed to savor the reality of living.

Live, laugh, love as though your life depended on it - it does. Wiggle your toes in a carpet of grass. Be open to the romance of life. Laugh a lot. Cry when you feel like it. Let the child in you emerge. Talk about your dreams, your fears, your expectations. Take time to listen. Discover your source of peace and strength. Spend time there. Touch and be touched.

In the end, it’s love. Cherish yourself and others. Find joy in everyday experiences. Allow yourself peace. Embrace each day.
Carpe diem!

Perfect Virture

To be able under all circumstances to practice five things

constitutes perfect virtue;

these five things are

gravity,

generosity of soul,

sincerity,

earnestness and

kindness.

- Confucius

Love - Mother Teresa Style

Do not think that love,

in order to be genuine,

has to be extraordinary.

What we need is to love

without getting tired.

- Mother Teresa

What Is It To Succeed?

To laugh often and much;
to win the respect of intelligent people
and the affection of children;

to earn the appreciation of honest critics
and endure the betrayal of false friends;

to appreciate beauty;

to find the best in others;

to leave the world a bit better,
whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition;

to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.

This is to have succeeded.

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Light of Wisdom

Just as treasures are uncovered from the earth,
so virtue appears from good deeds, and
wisdom appears from a pure and peaceful mind.

To walk safely through the maze of human life,
one needs the light of wisdom and the guidance of virtue.

- Buddha

Ocean of Life

Absolute calm is not the law of ocean. And it is the same with the ocean of life.

- Mahatma Gandhi

Your Ship Will Come In

In this beautiful life, there's always some sorrow,
and it's a double edged knife, but there's always tomorrow.
It's up to you now if you sink or swim, just keep the faith and your ship will come in ...

- Great Big Sea

Learning to Fly

“When you have come to the edge of all the light you have

And step into the darkness of the unknown

Believe that one of the two will happen to you

Either you'll find something solid to stand on

Or you'll be taught how to fly!”

- Richard Bach

Free Will

Life is like a game of cards.
The hand that is dealt you represents determinism;
the way you play it is free will.

- Jawaharal Nehru

Don't Waste Precious Time

Death is a challenge.

It tells us not to waste time...

It tells us to tell each other right now that we love each other.

- Leo Buscaglia

Seeking the Gift in Adversity

There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in its hands.
You seek problems because you need their gifts.

― Richard Bach, Illusions

Throw off the bowlines

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.

So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour.

Catch the trade winds in your sails.

Explore.

Dream.

Discover.

— Mark Twain