Lumen Drops

2012-02-14T08:07:00.004-05:00

"The seed of any painful resentment could never take hold, let alone flower, were it not for our refusal to see just how similar is our own character to the one we judge in another."

"If we learn to open our hearts, anyone, including the people who drive us crazy, can be our teacher.”— Pema Chödrön

2012-02-13T19:56:00.000-05:00

Acceptance of what universal nature brings...

2012-02-09T17:15:00.000-05:00

"What a tiny part of the boundless abyss of time has been allotted to each of us -- and this soon vanishes in eternity; what a tiny part of the universal substance and the universal soul; how tiny in the whole earth the mere clod on which you creep. Reflecting on all of this, think nothing important other than active pursuit where your own nature leads and passive acceptance of what universal nature brings." ~ Marcus Aurelius

"Who is it that can make muddy water clear? No one. But left to stand, it will gradually clear of itself." ~ Lao-Tzu Tao Te Ching

2012-02-08T02:55:00.000-05:00

2012-02-03T21:45:00.001-05:00

“As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.”
~ Henry David Thoreau

Aurora Australis by Alex Cherney, January 2012

2012-02-02T21:36:00.002-05:00

"Remember there's no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end." ~ Scott Adams

2012-02-02T09:39:00.003-05:00

Stronger Than Steel

2012-02-01T01:17:00.003-05:00

"When you hold resentment toward another, you are bound to that person or condition by an emotional link that is stronger than steel. Forgiveness is the only way to dissolve that link and get free.” ~ Catherine Ponder

"I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude." ~ Henry David Thoreau

2012-01-29T17:48:00.001-05:00

Living Gracefully With Uncertainty

2012-01-27T00:00:00.000-05:00

"Open-minded skepticism and living gracefully with uncertainty will keep you informed as you change and what is valuable or not valuable to you changes. . .To live with uncertainty as you discover your own truth requires courage. The good news is that this is not a timed test, you have forever." ~ Thomas Campbell, Physicist, Author of My Big Toe, a Trilogy unifying philosophy, physics, and metaphysics

"The further I wake into this life, the more I realize...

2012-01-24T18:13:00.001-05:00

...that God is everywhere and the extraordinary is waiting quietly beneath the skin of all that is ordinary. Light is in both the broken bottle and the diamond, the music is in both the flowing violin and the water dripping from the drainage pipe. Yes, God is under the porch as well as on top of the mountain, and joy is in both the front row and the bleachers, if we are willing to be where we are." ~ Mark Nepo

“We cannot control the reactions of others. However, although people may initially react when you change the way you are by speaking honestly, in the end it raises the relationship to a whole new and healthier level. Either that or it releases the unhealthy relationship from your life. Either way, you win.” ~ Bronnie Ware

2012-01-22T11:12:00.001-05:00

http://www.inspirationandchai.com/index.html

"This planet is not terra firma....

2012-01-20T10:41:00.002-05:00

It is a delicate flower and it must be cared for. It's lonely. It's small. It's isolated, and there is no resupply. And we are mistreating it. Clearly, the highest loyalty we should have is not to our own country or our own religion or our hometown or even to ourselves. It should be to, number two, the family of man, and number one, the planet at large. This is our home, and this is all we've got."

— Scott Carpenter, Mecury 7 astronaut, speech at Millersville University, Pennslyvania. 15 October 1992

The Milky Way, Storms Over Africa

Genetic Biology

2012-01-16T14:05:00.000-05:00

“If we change our interaction with our environment, we change our genetic potential ….so there is nothing fixed in our biology. It’s always changeable. Since we are not fixed… all of a sudden you realize how powerful you are as an individual in controlling your gene expression rather than buying into belief of victims of genetic determination.” ~ Dr. Bruce Lipton

Bruce H. Lipton, Ph.D., a pioneer in the new biology, is an internationally recognized leader in bridging science and spirit. A cell biologist by training, receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Virginia, Bruce was on the faculty of the University of Wisconsin’s School of Medicine and later performed groundbreaking stem-cell research at Stanford University. He is the best-selling author of The Biology of Belief and received the 2009 prestigious Goi Peace Award (Japan) in honor of his scientific contribution to world harmony. http://www.goipeace.or.jp/english/activities/award/index.html

Trust your own process...

2012-01-14T19:12:00.000-05:00

"To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong." ~ Joseph Chilton Pearce

The Rescuing Hug

2012-01-11T18:25:00.001-05:00

Newborn twins, Kyrie and Brielle Jackson, born in October 1995, at Massachusetts Memorial Hospital. Each of the twins weighed two pounds at birth. An article, "The Rescuing Hug," details the first week of their lives. Each were in their respective incubators, and one was not expected to live. A hospital nurse, Gayle Kasparian, RN, fought against hospital rules, placing the babies together in one incubator. When together they cuddled. In this picture, the healthier of the two throws an arm over her sister in an endearing embrace. As a result of their being together again, the smaller baby's heart rate stablized and her temperature rose to normal, her health improved steadily thereafter as they stayed together in one incubator. https://www.nrlc.org/news/2001/NRL04/hugs.html

Act as if you were already happy and that will tend to make you happy.

2012-01-09T16:23:00.000-05:00

"... and I’m obsessed with Africa, the space, the light! Five years ago I spent six weeks there. I thought ‘these people are happy because they don’t know about Bloomingdale’s.' " ~ Susan Zises Green

2012-01-05T16:39:00.000-05:00

2012-01-05T15:55:00.001-05:00

"the spirit within us is more powerful
than the body"

Turtles "High-Five" Just As People Do!

2012-01-04T20:18:00.002-05:00

Imagine ...

2012-01-04T02:00:00.001-05:00

"...a shift from I llness to WE llness" - the Interconnectedness of Being.

“The earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.” ~ Chief Seattle

Nature is Fuel For The Soul

2012-01-02T11:29:00.002-05:00

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100603172219.htm

"Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feetand the wind longs to play with your hair."
- Kahil Gibran

"In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous" ~ Aristotle

Another Chance To Get It Right

2012-01-01T11:35:00.001-05:00

"Don't repeat your mistakes, always try to make new ones"...

for there is always the silver lining of growth

Endings

2011-12-31T10:32:00.000-05:00

"When we come to the last moment of this lifetime and we look back across it, the only thing that's going to matter is 'What was the quality of our love?' " ~ Richard Bach

"Every problem has a spiritual lesson. Get the lesson. Life gets better. Don't get it. And the lessons get harder." ~ Oprah

2011-12-30T08:26:00.001-05:00

"No fear is more false than the fear of stepping outside of the customary world and its ways."

2011-12-28T12:02:00.001-05:00

A response to news of a suicide . . .

2011-12-27T17:54:00.002-05:00

“What a wonderful day when we American's take major depression more seriously, and treat people with the kindness, compassion and patience we give to patients with cancer or some other serious ailment, instead of making them feel weak and cowardly.” ~ Post by WhatASweetBeginning, Huffington Post, 12/27/11

"Be kind to everyone you meet, for everyone is fighting a great battle." ~ Plato of Alexandria

WORDS

2011-12-26T21:02:00.000-05:00

" . . .Don't worry up your mind
People are sick and mean sometimes
Don't worry up your mind
They're only words
It's only words
It's only words"
Lyrics to Words by Ryan Adams

2011-12-24T08:02:00.000-05:00

If there is anything I have learned about men and women, it is that there is a deeper spirit of altruism than is ever evident. Just as the rivers we see are minor compared to the underground streams, so, too, the idealism that is visible is minor compared to what people carry in their hearts unreleased or scarcely released.

Dr. Albert Schweitzer

"When wealth is lost, nothing is lost; when health is lost, something is lost; when character is lost, all is lost." ~ Billy Graham

2011-12-23T10:32:00.000-05:00

Your Critics

2011-12-21T13:52:00.000-05:00

“When you see yourself doing something badly and nobody’s bothering to tell you anymore, that’s a very bad place to be. Your critics are your ones telling you they still love you and care.” ~ Randy Pausch
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Pausch

Water

2011-12-16T12:36:00.002-05:00

Nothing in the world,

Is as yielding and receptive as water;

Yet in attacking the firm and inflexible,

Nothing triumphs so well.

Because of what it is not,

This becomes easy.

The receptive triumphs over the inflexible;

The yielding triumphs over the rigid.

-Lao Tzu

Tao-te-ching

When a stream approaches a series of rocks, it has no preconceived plans for passing them. It does not see the rocks as opponents or as threats to its own existence. The very fluid nature of water tells it how to rightly meet everything in its path. Let this natural wisdom also be in you. Meet everything with a free and flexible mind which is not tied to past experiences. You will then meet all events without alarm, with quiet progress. ~ Vernon Howard

There is no pillow so soft as a clear conscience. Proverb

2011-12-15T13:23:00.002-05:00

"Everybody is unique. Do not compare yourself with anybody else lest you spoil God's curriculum." ~ Baal Shem Tov

2011-12-14T15:15:00.001-05:00

Permanent Relaxation

2011-12-08T09:14:00.001-05:00

"Permanent relaxation comes as we relax our imaginary ideas about ourselves. We must remember that these imaginary self-images are always subconscious, unseen, so a man finds it difficult at first to connect his tension with them. Stated differently, a man cannot see how his self-pictures must always be at war with reality, causing endless tension and distress. It is his realization of all this which sets him free. To repeat, permanent relaxation comes as we relax our imaginary ideas about ourselves." ~ Esoteric Mind Power

Tolerance

2011-12-05T15:34:00.003-05:00

"For a person who cherishes compassion and love, the practice of tolerance is essential, and for that, an enemy is indispensable. So we should be grateful to our enemies, for it is they who can best help us to develop a tranquil mind." ~ Dalai Lama

"I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear." ~ Martin Luther King

2011-12-02T19:25:00.001-05:00

"A quiet mind is one that literally lives in a different world than does the mind that talks to itself."

2011-11-30T08:44:00.001-05:00

“Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.” ~ Mark Twain

2011-11-27T12:17:00.001-05:00

Adorable Baby Owl Loves Being Petted

2011-11-18T20:39:00.001-05:00

"I try to remind myself that we are never promised anything, and that what control we can exert is not over the events that befall us but how we address ourselves to them." ~ Jeanne DuPrau, The Earth House

2011-11-16T12:25:00.001-05:00

Brain Hemispheres

2011-11-13T08:44:00.001-05:00

"The left hemisphere is the side that is concerned only with our human condition. It understands logic, mathematics, sequential relation-ships and the parasympa-thetic nervous system. Its main job is to place everything in this reality into a Time line. This creates the illusion that we are finite, that we are separate from one another and separate from God.

In contrast, the right hemisphere of the brain is the side that represents the creative part of the human biology. This includes music, rhythm, imagination, intuition, humor, dreams and the sympathetic nervous system. The right hemisphere understands that we are infinite, connected in unity to one another and to God.

Peace is only a thought away, and all we have to do to access it is silence the voice of our dominating left mind." ~ Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, PhD

Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor is a Harvard-trained and published neuroanatomist who experienced a severe hemorrhage in the left hemisphere of her brain in 1996.

On Religion

2011-11-10T22:50:00.001-05:00

“I have learned ao much from God that I can no longer call myself a Christian, a Hindu, a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Jew.”

“The great religions are the ships, poets the life boats. Every sane person I know has jumped overboard.” ~ HAFIZ

~

“Nothing has ever been said about God that hasn’t already been said better by the wind in the pine trees.” ~ THOMAS MERTON

~

“Love the earth and sun and animals,
Despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks,
Stand up for the stupid and crazy,
Devote your income and labor to others…
Re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book;
Dismiss whatever insults your own soul;
And your very flesh shall be a great poem.” ~ WALT WHITMAN

~

“When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That’s my religion.” ~ ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Dying Process

2011-11-09T21:49:00.001-05:00

"My experience with the dying elderly is that the disregard for human life arises when we focus on keeping people alive at all costs...leading to immense suffering that is needless and cruel. A true reverence for life, in ALL its stages, honors the dying process on an equal footing with the birthing process, and lovingly guides the dying home with minimal pain, fear and struggle." ~ Eileenla, Author, "Sacred Economics"

“No problem is solved at the level of consciousness at which it was created.” ~ Albert Einstein

2011-11-07T00:04:00.000-05:00

"Grief and gratitude are kindred souls ....

2011-11-05T21:55:00.001-05:00

... each pointing to the beauty of what is transient and given to us by grace." ~ Patricia Campbell Carlson (Letter to a friend)

Murmuration: a natural phenomenon of thousands of starlings all swirling together. . .

2011-11-03T12:21:00.001-05:00

Murmuration from Sophie Windsor Clive on Vimeo.

Love keeps us connected through space and time ~ the story of Christian, the Lion

2011-10-28T15:57:00.002-05:00

This heart-warming video viewed by more than 50 million people.

Christian the Lion. Watch more top selected videos about: Christian the Lion

http://www.bornfree.org.uk/campaigns/big-cats/about/christian-the-lion/

“To experience peace does not mean that your life is always blissful. It means that you are capable of tapping into a blissful state of mind amidst the normal chaos of a hectic life.” — Jill Bolte Taylor

2011-10-27T17:37:00.000-05:00

"Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful." ~ Albert Schweitzer

2011-10-22T08:40:00.003-05:00

"Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents which, in prosperous circumstances, would have lain dormant." ~ Horace 65-68 B.C.

2011-10-21T17:10:00.005-05:00

"Most of our obstacles would melt away if, instead of cowering before them, we should make up our minds
to walk boldly through them." ~ Orison Swett Marden

"We probably only have the opportunity to do a few things really great and do them well. None of us has any idea how long we're gong to be here nor do I, but my feeling is I've got to accomplish a lot of these things while I'm young." ~ Steve Jobs

2011-10-20T18:02:00.001-05:00

Every one of our thoughts, actions or feelings can be traced back to these two root emotions: Love and Fear

2011-10-19T06:57:00.000-05:00

"I offer a genuine insight into how you can, and should, be a rational, science-believing human being and at the same time know that you are also an immortal spiritual being, a spark of God. I propose a worldview that offers a way out of the hate and fear-driven violence engulfing the planet."

— Bernard Haisch, The God Theory

"Sanity begins the moment you admit you're powerless over other people." ~ Martha Beck

2011-10-16T21:41:00.000-05:00

"There came a time when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom." -Anais Nin

2011-10-15T10:55:00.000-05:00

About Anger:

2011-10-14T07:46:00.002-05:00

"I'm holding on to my past and using resentment as a safety net for my failures” ~ Matt, Oprah’s Lifeclass

Oprah Favorite ...

2011-10-13T12:58:00.001-05:00

"The one thing I wished I had become is less prideful. The one thing I will become is more forgiving." ~ @margofrtenn

Your Ego Armor

2011-10-11T18:40:00.001-05:00

"One way to think about ego is as a protective heavy shell, such as the kind some animals have, like a big beetle. This protective shell works like armor to cut you off from other people and the outside world. What I mean by shell is a sense of separation: Here's me and there's the rest of the universe and other people. The ego likes to emphasize the "otherness" of others." ~ Eckhart Tolle

Read more: http://www.oprah.com/oprahs-lifeclass/Eckhart-Tolle-on-How-to-Free-Yourself-from-Your-Ego-Armor#ixzz1aWFdTF8e

All Things are Coming and Going

2011-10-07T10:51:00.000-05:00

'Everything that is happening now will change into something else; every thought and feeling, no matter how intense or dramatic, will one day be immaterial. Without change in yourself, you become stifled and stagnant. As nothing lasts forever, so you can appreciate every moment, fully and completely, knowing it will never happen again. Coming to a still place, gently breathe in and out, silently repeating: And this too shall pass." ~ Ed & Deb Shapiro

1955-2011 Steve Jobs, "Remembering That You Are Going To Die Is The Best Way I Know To Avoid The Trap Of Thinking You Have Something To Lose"

2011-10-06T06:47:00.001-05:00

EMPATHY: EFFECTIVE IN ALL LIFE DIMENSIONS

2011-10-04T14:33:00.000-05:00

. . Empathy is the most important quality in the assessment of applicants to the Harvard Business School’s graduate program, and the top five attributes are all “soft” qualities, such as being a team player, and being able to effectively coach people and understand their perspective . . .

. . .Empathy does not mean sentimentally acceding to the demands of others. Knowing how the other person feels and being able to show it does not mean agreeing with them. I can understand and be open to another perspective, while standing for my own viewpoint. This quality of empathy and the skill to express it underlies effectiveness across practically all life dimensions."

Excerpt From Relationships That Work: The Power Of Conscious Living - By David B. Wolf

Transitions

2011-10-03T05:30:00.000-05:00

Ho’oponopono . . .

2011-10-02T06:08:00.001-05:00

. . . the Hawaiian system that heals oneself ... and the world, too: "I'm sorry", "Please forgive me," "Thank you," and "I love you."

"You are today where your thoughts have brought you; you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you." ~ James Allen

2011-09-30T09:07:00.003-05:00

Until Somebody Softens

2011-09-28T08:03:00.002-05:00

"If you look back at history or you look at any place in the world where religious groups or ethnic groups or racial groups or political groups are killing each other, or families have been feuding for years and years, you can see because youre not particularly invested in that particular argument that there will never be peace until somebody softens what is rigid in their heart."
~ Pema Chödrön

“The most satisfying thing in life is to have been able to give a large part of one's self to others.” ~ Teilhard de Chardin

2011-09-25T12:23:00.002-05:00

Einstein: "... a kind of optical delusion of consciousness"

2011-09-24T07:59:00.002-05:00

"A human being is part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest. A kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from the prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. The true value of a human being is determined by the measure and the sense in which they have obtained liberation from the self. We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if humanity is to survive." ~ Albert Einstein

"Be OK with what is, however you are feeling, whatever is going on, and you have taken the most important step towards freedom." ~ Simon, UK

2011-09-23T15:05:00.002-05:00

Animals Teach Us Spirituality

2011-09-21T20:14:00.000-05:00

In Loving Memory of Petty, Lani, Daphne, Jasmine, the German Shepard, the Dog I Took To the Pound, the Newborn Lost

"That animals touch us in a deep, central place is not a modern-day phenomenon, but one that pervades the history of the human-animal relationship. We sense that we can benefit spiritually in our relationship with animals, and we are right. They offer us something fundamental: a direct and immediate sense of both the joy and wonder of creation. We recognize that animals seem to feel more intensely and purely than we do. Perhaps we yearn to express ourselves with such abandon and integrity." ~ Mary Lou Randour, Ph.D.

Cat Soothing Crying Baby to Sleep

"Lao Pan, an unmarried man without much family, found close companionship with his loyal dog. And even though tragedy, their steadfast bond lives on. Pan lived in the Chinese village of Panjiatun, but died earlier this month at the age of 68. His furry friend was found by villagers at Pan's grave safeguarding the site according to BBC News. The loyal pup refused to leave even after going seven days without food.Sky News reports that since noticing the dog, villagers have been bringing food and water to the gravesite, and are even planning to build a kennel there for the dog to sleep in."

In a heroic story beyond reason, a yellow lab named Reagan made a discovery on an Iowa roadside that saved two precious lives.

Two kittens had been sealed into a bag of Meow Mix, left on a roadside and run over by traffic on a rural Iowa highway about three months ago,WHOTV.com reports.

It was Reagan the dog who dragged the bag home and whined until his owner opened it. Reagan's owner discovered two kittens barely hanging onto life, while the rest of the litter hadn't survived, prompting a call to the Raccoon Valley Animal Sanctuary.

"There was a litter of four or five of them and you couldn't tell if there were two or three [in the bag]...they had been run over by a vehicle. It was not a pretty sight," Linda Blakely of the animal shelter told WHOTV.com.

The Raccoon Valley Animal Sanctuary is now housing the two kittens -- Skipper and Tipper -- who weren't originally expected to live through the ordeal. The two were bottled-fed every two hours and are now back to their normal lively selves, the news outlet reports.

Thanks to Reagan, both kittens are now up for adoption through the Raccoon Valley Animal.

Luke and Tally - this is love...

Turtles High-Five Like People Do!

"Our job is to straighten out our lives." —Joseph Campbell

2011-09-19T21:37:00.000-05:00

"I got half-a-dozen paintings from that shattered plate." ~ Georgia O'Keeffe

2011-09-18T12:41:00.000-05:00

It's not what life sends us, what is important is how we respond to what we receive ...

2011-09-17T13:30:00.003-05:00

"The facts that free us to live richly are often shocking to our smug ego-armor. None is more disturbing to some people
than this one:

You must not live with a calculated motive of pleasing other people. Such motive is ego-centered; it expects some kind of
reward. When the reward fails to come, as it often does, the so-called pleasantness turns to secret resentment." ~ Vernon Howard

~ ~ ~

"Real life isn't always going to be perfect or go our way, but the recurring acknowledgement of what is working in our lives can help us not only to survive but surmount our difficulties." ~ Sara Ban Breathnach

2011-09-14T19:21:00.000-05:00

~ Doreen at Style Maniac

"Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less." ~ Madame Marie Curie

2011-09-13T12:29:00.001-05:00

"Allow situations in your life to become your teacher." ~ Pema Chödrön

2011-09-08T11:53:00.000-05:00

"What is true never fears investigation; what is false... fears everything." ~ Guy Finley

2011-09-06T10:15:00.002-05:00

"Have a mind open to everything and attached to nothing" ~ Wayne Dyer

2011-09-04T12:49:00.001-05:00

Ripples on The Surface of Being

2011-09-03T13:22:00.004-05:00

" . . . the way I perceive the world is like ripples on the surface of being. Underneath the world of sense perceptions and the world of mind activity, there is the vastness of being. There's a vast spaciousness. There's a vast stillness and there's a little ripple activity on the surface, which isn't separate, just like the ripples are not separate from the ocean."

. . . Neither happiness nor unhappiness, however, go all that deep anymore. They are ripples on the surface of your Being. The background peace within you remains undisturbed regardless of the nature of the outside condition.

. . . The “yes” to what is reveals a dimension of depth within you that is dependent neither on external conditions nor on the internal conditions of constantly fluctuating thoughts and emotions." ~ Eckhart Tolle

`

"When every situation which life can offer is turned to the profit of spiritual growth, no situation can really be a bad one." ~ Paul Brunton

2011-09-02T13:40:00.002-05:00

"When you lose, don't lose the lesson" ~ Unknown

~

“ What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared with what lies within us.” ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

2011-09-01T09:17:00.001-05:00

"Love is the first ingredient in the relief of suffering." ~ Padre Pio

2011-08-28T07:02:00.000-05:00

Happy Without

2011-08-26T18:37:00.000-05:00

"Even Socrates, who lived a very frugal and simple life, loved to go to the market. When his students asked about this, he replied, "I love to go and see all the things I am happy without." ~ Jack Kornfield

Prosperity depends more on wanting what you have than having what you want. ~ Geoffrey F. Abert

2011-08-21T16:06:00.001-05:00

Consciousness Connection

2011-08-20T10:27:00.000-05:00

"If ordinary people really knew that consciousness and not matter is the link that connects us with each other and the world, then their views about war and peace, environmental pollution, social justice, religious values, and all other human endeavors would change radically."

~ Dr. Amit Goswami, Theoretical Nuclear Physicist, University of Oregon Institute of Theoretical Science

_

How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard. ~ A.A. Milne Winnie-the-Pooh

2011-08-18T09:52:00.001-05:00

The Three Most Difficult Things For A Human Being

2011-08-15T19:56:00.005-05:00

"They are not physical feats or intellectual achievements. They are, first, returning love for hate; second, including the exclued; third, admitting that you are wrong." ~ From Awareness... the Perils and Opportunities of Reality, by Anthony deMello

_

Taking Things As They Come

2011-08-14T05:35:00.000-05:00

"Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word happy would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. It is far better to take things as they come along with patience and equanimity." ~ Carl Jung

Letting Go The Essence of Awakening

2011-08-13T19:25:00.000-05:00

"The call to let go is common to most spiritual traditions. Non-attachment, surrender, accepting the present, opening to the guidance of a higher power, relinquishing the ego, forgiveness—they all entail a letting go." ~ Peter Russell

"Nothing in life is to be feared, only understood." ~ Madame Marie Curie

2011-08-08T14:03:00.001-05:00

Be True To Who You Are

2011-08-06T20:23:00.006-05:00

“Am I my thoughts, the thoughts that I am thinking? No. Thoughts come and go; I am not my thoughts.
Am I my body? They tell us that millions of cells in our body are changed or are renewed every minute,
so that by the end of seven years we don’t have a single living cell in our body that was there seven years before.
Cells come and go. Cells arise and die. But “I” seems to persist. So am I my body? Evidently not.” ~ Anthony de Mello

_

“ Try to be like the turtle -- at ease in your own shell. ” Bill Copeland

2011-08-03T12:25:00.001-05:00

Unhappiness ...

2011-08-02T09:48:00.001-05:00

" ... with all the negative thoughts and feelings that it breeds -- is a form of greed; this kind of sorrow is produced by a sleeping mind that sees most moments, whatever their given nature -- as never being enough! " ~ Guy Finley

The lama told the prince, who was about to become ruler of the huge kingdom . . .

2011-07-31T12:45:00.002-05:00

“In order to become successful in this world, you need three qualities: wisdom, compassion, and courage. These three will lead to a successful, happy, and fulfilled life.” ~ via Shambhala Sun

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‘Be Content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.’ ~ Lao Tzu

2011-07-30T07:43:00.001-05:00

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

2011-07-27T13:12:00.000-05:00

Injustice/Invisible Justice, Also Known As Karma

2011-07-19T09:12:00.004-05:00

"Question: I spend precious time and energy fuming over what others have done to me. My emotions make me feel like a prisoner of these people… and the more I try to punish them, the less freedom I have to be at peace with myself!

Answer: Here is a beautiful lesson in invisible justice, one that will help you let go of any revenge-filled, self-tangling thought. We need never concern ourselves with whether or not some wrongdoer will get his just due. Here's why: any person who does wrong to another is already punished. More correctly stated, anyone who acts unjustly in life instantaneously ensures that he or she will be corrected by the celestial laws that govern all such trespasses. It doesn't matter one bit that you or I don't see this law enacted to our satisfaction. The fact remains: an invisible system of justice for all already exists. This means we need never judge anyone, nor wish some sentence of suffering upon him or her. This understanding is a gift of great freedom known only by the true few. And we can count ourselves among these liberated ones if we are willing to learn what we must.

There is great wisdom in the timeless idea of letting go and letting God. The love of God transforms all things bitter into something better. This truth proves the existence of a great and universal system of invisible justice. And if we look deeper still, we will find within it the promise of this welcome relief: we are forever relieved of the conflict and misery of wanting to penalize those who may have caused us pain. We can let go of all forms of lashing out at others because we see the truth of how things actually work. Getting wrongly caught up in the conflict of wanting to fix the bad behavior of someone else only opens the door and invites other problems and pain into our own life!

Now we can leave these people alone to their own trials and torment, for we have seen that their negative nature is one and the same as their punishment; and further we have seen that whatever weight we would try to add on to their backs only falls onto our own. To act from this higher self-awareness not only helps free us from the initial pain born of a negative reaction to what others have done to us, but it also keeps us from wrongly investing ourselves in trying to correct what is already in the throes of being corrected! And once we stop locking ourselves up with wasted judgments and their attendant, never-ending worries, we find that not only are we free, but that there's no power in the universe capable of holding us captive again."

~ Guy Finley, Excerpted from Let Go and Live in the Now

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Guilt

2011-07-17T07:04:00.001-05:00

“Guilt was never a rational thing; it distorts all the faculties of the human mind, it perverts them, it leaves a man no longer in the free use of his reason, it puts him into confusion.” ~ Edmund Burke, 18th Century philosopher

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Suppressed Pressures

2011-07-16T07:45:00.003-05:00

"You must remember that other people have far greater inner conflicts and confusions than they reveal. You sometimes see
these suppressed pressures burst through with a flash of anger, sarcasm or accusation." ~ Vernon Howard

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"Our world suffers so much from dogmatic attitudes." ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

2011-07-13T11:37:00.001-05:00

7 Universal Truths

2011-07-09T12:20:00.000-05:00

1. You are exactly where you are supposed to be
2. Fear and pain are life’s greatest teachers
3. Laughter and play are the keys to the fountain of youth
4. Exercise and rest are the keys to vibrant health
5. Touch and intimacy are basic human needs
6. Everything is impermanent
7. Everything is connected

~ via Oh She Glows Blog