Exquisite Moments

Summer weather - like being in love,

is a philosopher’s stone

which turns our ordinary days to gold.

But not the whole day…

For it is never the whole day,

never all our life

which is transformed in any happiness,

but only the exquisite moments.

--Nan Fairbrother

Kindness

Guard well within yourself that treasure - kindness.

Know how to give without hesitation, how to lose without regret,

how to acquire without meanness.

- George Sand

Dreams and Aspirations

Do not part with your dreams or aspirations

for when they are gone

you will still exist,

but you have ceased to live.

- Henry David Thoreau

Time Out

I will be taking a little break from posting to this blog for a while. Life has gotten very busy and the quality of photos and posts is starting to suffer. So please understand if I take a time out. If you miss me you can always drop by my other blog, Lyn's Lifepixels for a little visit. Have a great summer.

What is without periods of rest will not endure.

- Ovid

Persistence

Effort only fully releases its reward after a person refuses to quit.

- Napolean Hill

Peace Within

When a man finds no peace within himself,
it is useless to seek it elsewhere.

- L. A. Rouchefolicauld

Friends

Tell me your friends, and I'll tell you who you are.

- Assyrian Proverb

Meaning Lies In Us

Love is what we are born with.
Fear is what we learn.
The spiritual journey is the unlearning
of fear and prejudices and
the acceptance of love
back in our hearts.
Love is the essential reality and our purpose on earth.
To be consciously aware of it,
to experience love in ourselves and others,
is the meaning of life.
Meaning does not lie in things.
Meaning lies in us.

- Marianne Williamson

People Who Make Us Happy

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy;
they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.

~ Marcel Proust

Fear

You gain strength, courage and confidence
by every experience in which you really stop
to look fear in the face.
You are able to say to yourself,
"I lived through this horror.
I can take the next thing that comes along." . . .
You must do the thing you think you cannot do.

- Eleanor Roosevelt

Nature

God is the great mysterious motivator of what we call nature,

and it has often been said by philosophers,

that nature is the will of God.

And I prefer to say that nature is the only body of God

that we shall ever see.

- Frank Lloyd Wright

Imagination

Your imagination is your preview of life's coming attractions.

- Albert Einstein

Character

You cannot dream yourself into a character;
you must hammer and forge yourself one.

- Henry David Thoreau

Three Rules of Work

Three rules of work:
Out of clutter find simplicity;
From discord find harmony;
In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.

- Albert Einstein

Finding Your Way Back

I know it is hard to accept, but an upset in your life is beneficial,
in that it tells you that you are off course in some way
and you need to find your way back
to your particular path of clarity once again.

~ Susan Jeffers

Loneliness

What should young people do with their lives today?
Many things, obviously.
But the most daring thing is to create stable communities
in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured.

- Kurt Vonnegut

Solitude

It is only when we silent the blaring sounds of our daily existence

that we can finally hear the whispers of truth

that life reveals to us,

as it stands knocking on the doorsteps of our hearts.

~K.T. Jong

Beauty of Nature

The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy

is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet,

alone with the heavens, nature and God.

Because only then does one feel

that all is as it should be

and that God wishes to see people happy,

amidst the simple beauty of nature.

- Anne Frank

Courage

Courage doesn't always roar.
Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying,
"I will try again tomorrow.”

- Mary Anne Radmacher

Happiness

When you look at your life, the greatest happinesses are family happinesses.

~Joyce Brothers

Life's Challenges

Life's challenges are not supposed to paralyze you,
They're supposed to help you discover who you are.

- Bernice Johnson Reagon

Life as a Blank Canvas

I decided I'd treat this juncture in my life
as a blank canvas,
sketch an intention to achieve some good
and let life paint it in.

- Marc Barasch

Splendor of the Rose

The splendor of the rose and the whiteness of the lily

do not rob the little violet of it’s scent

nor the daisy of its simple charm.

If every tiny flower wanted to be a rose,

spring would lose its loveliness.

- Therese of Lisieux

Forgiveness

Evolved people race to see who can forgive first.

- Michael Bernard Beckwith

Create Your Future

Every thought we think is creating our future.

- Louise Hay

Seeking Love

Your task is not to seek for love,
but merely to seek and find
all the barriers within yourself
that you have built against it.

- Rumi

Life Force

We are the miracle of force and matter making itself over
into imagination and will.
Incredible. The Life Force experimenting with forms.
You for one.
Me for another.
The Universe has shouted itself alive.
We are one of the shouts.

- Ray Bradbury

Follow Your Inner Guidance

Every time you don't follow your inner guidance,
you feel a loss of energy,
loss of power,
a sense of spiritual deadness.

- Shakti Gawain

Kindness

Kindness trumps greed: it asks for sharing.
Kindness trumps fear: it calls forth gratefulness and love.
Kindness trumps even stupidity, for with sharing and love, one learns.

- Marc Estrin

Sowing Seeds

Keep on sowing your seed,
for you never know which will grow --
perhaps it all will.

- Albert Einstein

Emerging from Suffering

Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls;

the most massive characters are seared with scars.

- Kahlil Gibran

Do what you can

I am only one,
but still I am one.
I cannot do everything,
but still I can do something;
and because I cannot do everything,
I will not refuse to do something
that I can do.

- Helen Keller

Outstanding

If you want to stand out,

don't be different;

be outstanding.

- Meredith West

Letting Your Beauty and Light Shine

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us most.

We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and famous?'

Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God.

Your playing small does not serve the world.

There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that people won't feel insecure around you.

We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.

It's not just in some of us; it's in all of us.

And when we let our own light shine,

we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own fear,

our presence automatically liberates others.

- Maryanne Williamson (Nelson Mandela used in his 1994 inaugural speech)

Home

Home is where the heart can laugh without shyness.
Home is where the heart's tears can dry at their own pace.

~Vernon G. Baker

Creating Your Future

The future is not a result of choices among alternative paths

offered by the present, but a place that is created--

created first in the mind and will,

created next in activity.

The future is not some place we are going to,

but one we are creating.

The paths are not to be found, but made,

and the activity of making them,

changes both the maker and the destination.

- John Schaar

Thoughts

If you are still being hurt by an event that happened to you at twelve,
it is the thought that is hurting you now.

- James Hillman

Seeing Possibilities

Faith sees a beautiful blossom in a bulb,

a lovely garden in a seed,

and a giant oak in an acorn.

- William Arthur Ward

Grace in Giving

There is nothing forced or self-disciplined
about [generosity] ...
[A generous person] goes out of his way
not because his parents taught him
that's how good [people] behave,
but because he has chosen to be alert
to the circumstances in which he can be supportive.

- Tibor R. Machan

Giving Heart

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

Be Positive

Gladness is akin to goodness.

The world needs all the help you can give

by way of cheerful, optimistic, inspiring thought

and personal example.

- Grenville Kleiser

Generosity

I don't want to be saved.
I want to be spent.

- Fritz Perls

Giving and Receiving

There is a wonderful, mystical law of nature
that the three things we crave most in life -
happiness, freedom and peace of mind -
are always attained by giving them to someone else.

- Anonymous

Compassion

Compassion is not quantitative.
Certainly it is true that behind every human being
that cries out for help
there may be a million or more equally entitled to attention...
How to determine which of one million sounds surrounding you
is more deserving than the rest?

Do not concern yourself in such speculations.
You will never know, you will never need to know.
Reach out and take hold of the one who happens to be nearest.

- Norman Cousins

Choose Your Attitude

Each morning when I open my eyes I say to myself:
I, not events, have the power to
make me happy or unhappy today.
I can choose which it shall be.
Yesterday is dead,
tomorrow hasn't arrived yet.
I have just one day, today,
and I'm going to be happy in it.

~ Groucho Marx

Life

It is not length of life, but depth of life.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Friendship and sharing

Friendship marks a life even more deeply than love.
Love risks degenerating into obsession,
friendship is never anything but sharing.

- Elie Wiesel

Set Free for Higher Dreams

Any real change implies the breakup of the world

as one has always known it,

the loss of all that gave one an identity, the end of safety.

And at such a moment, unable to see and not daring to imagine

what the future will now bring forth,

one clings to what one knew, or dreamed that one possessed.

Yet, it is only when a man is able, without bitterness or self-pity,

to surrender a dream he has long cherished

or a privilege he has long possessed

that he is set free — he has set himself free —

for higher dreams,

for greater privileges.

- James Baldwin

It Has Been a Successful Day

If I have been of service,

if I have glimpsed more of the nature and essence of ultimate good,

if I am inspired to reach wider horizons of thought and action,

if I am at peace with myself,

it has been a successful day.

- Alex Noble

Forgive and Forget

I can forgive, but I cannot forget,

is only another way of saying,

I will not forgive.

Forgiveness ought to be like a cancelled note--

torn in two, and burned up,

so that it never can be shown against one.

- Henry Ward Beecher

Beginnings

The beginning is the most important part of the work.

- Plato

Rain

The best thing one can do when it's raining
is to let it rain.

- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

New Beginnings

There are things that we never want to let go of,

people we never want to leave behind.

But keep in mind that letting go isn’t the end of the world,

it’s the beginning of a new life.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Throw Open the Windows

The windows of my soul I throw

Wide open to the sun.

~John Greenleaf Whittier

Full Heart

In a full heart there is room for everything,

and in an empty heart there is room for nothing.

- Antonio Porchia

Helping Hand

The best place to find a helping hand
is at the end of your own arm.

- Swedish Proverb

Weeds

A weed is simply a plant that wants to grow

where people want something else.

In blaming nature, people mistake the culprit.

Weeds are people's idea, not nature's.

~Author Unknown

Travelling Our Path

I see my path, but I don't know where it leads.

Not knowing where I'm going is what inspires me to travel it.

- Rosalia de Castro

Set Your Sights

Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.

- Andre Gide

Decide ...

The doors we open and close each day

decide the lives we live.

- Flora Whittemore

Isolation

The person who tries to live alone
will not succeed as a human being.
His heart withers if it does not answer another heart.
His mind shrinks away if he hears only
the echoes of his own thoughts
and finds no other inspiration.

- Pearl S. Buck

Beauty

Never lose an opportunity of seeing

anything that is beautiful,

for beauty is God's handwriting --

a wayside sacrament.

Welcome it in every fair face,

in every fair sky,

in every flower,

and thank God for it

as a cup of blessing.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Optimist

An optimist is the human personification of spring.

- Susan J. Bissonette

Food

Food is our common ground, a universal experience.

- James Beard

Means and the End

Cause and effect, means and ends, seed and fruit

cannot be severed;

for the effect already blooms in the cause,

the end preexists in the means,

the fruit in the seed

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Success

There is only one success -

to be able to spend your life

in your own way.

- Christopher Morley

Choose

Choose
The single clenched fist lifted and ready,
Or the open hand held out and waiting.
Choose: For we meet by one or the other.

- Carl Sandburg

Flowers

Earth laughs in flowers.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Easter ...

Easter is not a time for groping through dusty, musty tomes or tombs to disprove spontaneous generation or even to prove life eternal. It is a day to fan the ashes of dead hope, a day to banish doubts and seek the slopes where the sun is rising, to revel in the faith which transports us out of ourselves and the dead past into the vast and inviting unknown.

- Author Unknown

My Sunset Sky

Clouds come floating into my life,
no longer to carry rain or usher storm,
but to add color to my sunset sky.

- Rabindranath Tagore

Live Fully

Live life fully while you're here.

Experience everything.

Take care of yourself and your friends.

Have fun, be crazy, be weird.

Go out and screw up!

You're going to anyway, so you might as well enjoy the process.

Take the opportunity to learn from your mistakes;

find the cause of your problem and eliminate it.

Don't try to be perfect;

just be an excellent example of being human.”

- Anthony Robbins

Difference Between Dog and Man

If you pick up a starving dog

and make him prosperous,

he will not bite you;

that is the principal difference

between a dog and a man.

- Mark Twain

The Most Precious Gift

The most precious gift we can offer others

is our presence.

When mindfulness embraces those we love,

they will bloom like flowers.”

- Thich Nhat Hanh