We each make a significant difference . . .

"The majority of us lead quiet, unheralded lives as we pass through this world. There will most likely be no ticker-tape parades for us, no monuments created in our honor. But that does not lessen our possible impact, for there are scores of people waiting for someone like us to come along - people who will appreciate our compassion, our encouragement, who will need our unique talents. Someone who will live a happier life merely because we took the time to share what we had to give. Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around. It is overwhelming to consider the numerous opportunities there are to make our love felt." - Leo Bascaglia

“True well-being comes not from accumulating things, but actually letting go of them.” 
~ Steve Taylor

Forgiveness is not always easy.  At times, it feels more painful than the wound we suffered, to forgive the one that inflicted it. And yet, there is no peace without forgiveness.  Attack thoughts towards others are attack thoughts towards ourselves.  The first step in forgiveness is the willingness to forgive. ~ Marianne Williamson

Compassion is not religious business, it is human business, it is not luxury, it is essential for our own peace and mental stability, it is essential for human survival. H.H. Dalai Lama

  

The Stream

In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins - not by strength but by perseverance.  
~ H. Jackson Brown 

The realm of consciousness is much vaster than thought can grasp. When you no longer believe everything you think, you step out of thought and see clearly that the thinker is not who you are. ~ Eckhart Tolle

"Millions of people have no style at all. They are happy." ~ Diana Vreeland

Astronaut, Dr. Edgar Mitchell's Epiphany. . .

"Certain truths seemed brilliantly clear, truths that became suddenly obscured within the atmosphere of the Earth. In space it seemed so obvious that the processes of the universe are innately and harmoniously connected...

“My view of our planet was a glimpse of divinity.”

– Edgar Mitchell

It was all there suspended in the cosmos on that fragile little sphere. What I experienced was a grand epiphany accompanied by exhilaration, an event I would later refer to in terms that could not be more foreign to my upbringing in west Texas, and later, New Mexico. From that moment on, my life would take a radically different course.

What I experienced during that three-day trip home was nothing short of an overwhelming sense of universal connectedness. I actually felt what has been described as an ecstasy of unity.... I perceived the universe as in some way conscious. The thought was so large it seemed inexpressible, and to a large degree it still is."

“You develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it. From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, ‘Look at that, you son of a bitch.” 

― Edgar Mitchell

“The desire to live life to its fullest, to acquire more knowledge, to abandon the economic treadmill, are all typical reactions to these experiences in altered states of consciousness. The previous fear of death is typically quelled. If the individual generally remains thereafter in the existential state of awareness, the deep internal feeling of eternity is quite profound and unshakable.”

― Edgar Mitchell, The Way of the Explorer: An Apollo Astronaut's Journey Through the Material and Mystical Worlds

“Instead of an intellectual search, there was suddenly a very deep gut feeling that something was different. It occurred when looking at Earth and seeing this blue-and-white planet floating there, and knowing it was orbiting the Sun, seeing that Sun, seeing it set in the background of the very deep black and velvety cosmos, seeing - rather, knowing for sure - that there was a purposefullness of flow, of energy, of time, of space in the cosmos - that it was beyond man's rational ability to understand, that suddenly there was a nonrational way of understanding that had been beyond my previous experience. 

There seems to be more to the universe than random, chaotic, purposeless movement of a collection of molecular particles. On the return trip home, gazing through 240,000 miles of space toward the stars and the planet from which I had come, I suddenly experienced the universe as intelligent, loving, harmonious.” 

― Edgar Mitchell

http://www.politicsofwellbeing.com/2011/01/edgar-mitchell-on-space-travel-and-big.html

Dr. Edgar Mitchell is a graduate of MIT with a doctorate in aeronautics and astronautics. His career as a scientist, test pilot, naval officer, astronaut, author, lecturer, and founder of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, an organization which sponsors research into the nature of consciousness.

Sometimes the most urgent and vital thing you can do is take a complete rest. St. Francis of Assisi

No tree has branches foolish enough to fight among themselves.

Wordless

Cowee Mountain Overlook, Blue Ridge Mountains

“The closest to being in control we will ever be is in that moment that we realize we're not.” ~ Brian Kessler

Desiderata

"... Nurture strength of spirit

to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.

And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
Therefore, be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be.
And whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life,
keep peace in your soul.
With all its sham,
drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy."

~ Max Ehrmann

"In this world, it is not what we take up but what we give up that makes us rich.” — Henry Ward Beecher

Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed.  You cannot un-educate the person who has learned to read.  You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride.  You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore.  ~ Cesar Chavez

Teach this triple truth to all:

A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things which renew humanity.  ~ The Buddha

Everything we do matters, has an impact on our world because ...

... we are all connected.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Cox_(physicist)