"What we call the beginning is often the end.  And to make an end is to make a beginning.  The end is

 where we start from." - T.S. Eliot

"Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant."  - Robert Louis Stevenson

"You can tell more about a person by what he says about others than you can by what others say about him."  
-Leo Aikman

"We build too many walls and not enough bridges." - Isaac Newton

"The more you dance, the more you become aware that you are the dance.  To touch this presence that you are, is the priority in your life. Nothing is more important, nothing easier, nothing more rewarding, safer or comforting."  - Michaela

“In chaos, there is fertility.” -Anais Nin

Joy is not in things, it is in us. - Benjamin Franklin

What is Love?

Love is the forgetfulness of self.

“When we recall Christmases past, we usually find that the simplest things – not the great occasions – give off the greatest glow of happiness.” —Bob Hope

- becommingminimalist.com

Stay The Course

"Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love." 

- Hamilton Wright Mabie

"Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year 
for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmas-time." - Laura Ingalls Wilder

"If you want a truly happy holiday season, you’ll have to find ways to cultivate happiness from the inside." - Allison Vesterfelt

These 2 dogs were playing in the mud; they had slightly different experiences : ) 

“The secret of happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less.” 
- Socrates

Home Is Where The Heart Is...

He is happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home. - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart."  
-Helen Keller

Humans are like snowflakes, no two are alike…

"The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people." - Theodore Roosevelt

'Tis The Season

I wish we could put up some of the Christmas spirit in jars and open a jar of it every month.
-- Harlan Miller

Photo by Heather Clawson

"The course of true love never did run smooth." - William Shakespeare

"If the only prayer you say in your entire life is 'Thank you," that would suffice."

-Meister Eckhart (1260-c.1320)

"Yes.... everything is temporary, make sure to take time to enjoy the moment, you will never get it back."

Space and light and order. Those are the things that people need just as much as they need bread or a place to sleep.

— Le Corbusier

“Comparison is the thief of joy.” —Theodore Roosevelt

"Life is a ride of happy trails and bucking horses. All of us have a singularly exclusive, unique trip. Like snowflakes, no two are alike."

"A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination." 
- Nelson Mandela, 1918-2013

Have Less, Do More

 "...Possessions are nice, but they rust, rot, get stolen and burn in fires.  Experiences can’t be taken from us.  

They have eternal value."

- Excerpts from Becoming Minimalist

“Without great solitude no serious work is possible.” - Picasso

“Everything important in life is like this—here one moment and gone the next. All we have are these moments, and what we choose to do with them is what we choose to do with our lives. We can miss or relish every one." 
-Jeff Goins, The In Between

"Suffering raises up those souls that are truly great; it is only small souls that are made mean-spirited by it."  - Alexandra David-Neel

What, you ask, is the beginning of it all?

And it is this …

Existence that multiplied itself for sheer delight of being and plunged into 

numberless trillions of forms so that it might find itself innumerably. - sri aurobindo

Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul.  - Henry Ward Beecher

"Disappointment and hope always come as a pair. When one appears, the other is lurking not far away."

FANTASTIC, Illuminating Interview with Dutch Cardiologist, Dr. Pim Van Lommel, on Consciousness And The Science of a Near-Death Experience

Different Perspectives On The Holidays

"The holidays have become all about excess, rather than gratitude, simplicity, and love."

"I try to stay far removed from the commercial aspects of the holiday, and focus on the real meaning."

"It isn't about the little details...it's always about love."

"Consider the fact that you don't even have to do the holidays.  Who says they are right for you and your family?  
There is no law dictating this!  Do what works for you."

"You, your work, your home, your kids – these things will never be perfect"...

By letting go – just a little – you will gain: 

1. TIME
2. CONTENTMENT
3. SPACE FOR OTHER THINGS
4. PRODUCTIVITY
5. ENERGY

Do Nothing

http://www.donothingfor2minutes.com

“‎Just for a moment, let yourself be here. Let yourself STOP becoming more, better, or different. You are not a walking mistake. You are not a problem to be solved.”  -Adyashanti

To heal yourself, is to heal your family.
To heal your family, is to heal your village.
To heal your village, is to heal your land.
If you heal your land, you heal the Earth.

"To study the abnormal is the best way of understanding the normal." - William James

“The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers.” -M. Scott Peck

Meditation is a universal 'Yes' to everything - Frances Lucille

Let It Go

When you set peace of mind as your goal and plan everything you do in terms of whether it helps or hinders your attainment of that goal, you'll probably never make another mistake. -Brain Tracy

"In order to be open to creativity, one must have the capacity for constructive use of solitude.  One must overcome the fear of being alone." - Rollo May

"… pure intelligence of consciousness -- the stillness that lies beneath the masks and identities we wear." - Michael Damian

"Silence in this world brings us to a profound inner world where things are understood without words, where there is knowing beyond our intellectual ability. The outer silence touches a place inside of us of endless space, an emptiness that is vastly full, a presence of great heart essence." -

Bruce Davis, Ph.D.

“Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.” - Ambrose Redmoon

“Compassion is a verb.” -Thich Nhat Hanh

You are not just a drop in the ocean, you are the mightly ocean in the drop. - Rumi

Sleeping Stranger On Q SubwayTrain Defines Empathy And Is A Lesson In Being Good

“Maybe the photo wouldn’t have become so popular if people weren’t seeing a Jewish man with a yarmulke and a black man in a hood, and because they might not necessarily correlate the two. But there is only one reason that I didn’t move, and let him continue sleeping, and that has nothing to do with race. He was simply a human being who was exhausted, and I knew it and happened to be there and have a big shoulder to offer him.”

Rabbi Bradley Hirschfield, was moved by Theil's recollection of his own fatigue as an explanation for his kindness, and said it was a perfect demonstration of human empathy…."To be able to draw on past hardship to soften our hearts towards others…" 

AWESOME

Astronaut Chris Hadfield Performing David Bowie's SPACE ODDITY, in Space! 

"I think what everyone would find if they could be [up in space] -- if they could see the whole world every 90 minutes and look down on the places where we do things right, and look down where we're doing stupid, brutal things to each other and the inevitable patience of the world that houses us -- I think everybody would be reinforced in their faith, and maybe readdress the real true tenets of what's good and what gives them strength." -  Canadian Astronaut, Cmdr. Chris Hadfield

Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart ~ Kahlil Gibran

The Intuitive Mind Is a Sacred Gift and the Rational Mind Is a Faithful Servant - Einstein

There is no formula for generating the authentic warmth of love. It cannot be copied. - Alan Watts

It's not where you take things from - it's where you take them to. - Jean-Luc Godard

“Waking up to who you are requires letting go of who you imagine yourself to be.” -Alan Watts

Comparison is the thief of joy. - Theodore Roosevelt

The power of music...

"The first Velvet Underground record may have only sold 1,000 copies, but every person who bought it started a band." 
- Brian Eno

take the long way home ...

"The day science begins to study non-physical phenomena, it will make more progress in one decade than in all previous centuries of its existence."  ---Nikola Tesla

The JOURNEY is what matters...

"I wanted a perfect ending. Now I've learned, the hard way, that some poems don't rhyme, and some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next. "
 - Gilda Radner

"Both my happiness and my unhappiness I owe to the love of pleasure." -Cyril Connolly

"It really boils down to this: that all life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. We are made to live together because of the interrelated structure of reality." - Martin Luther King

An error in perception...

"Hating those who are different is like hating your pinky finger because it is short."  - James Fadiman, Ph.D. 

Whether or not we believe in survival of consciousness after death, reincarnation, and karma, it has very serious implications for our behavior. - Stanislav Grof

Love does not claim possession, but gives freedom. - Tagore

The man who needs to be accepted by others still lives under several wrong impressions.  He thinks he can escape the agony of his own emptiness by filling it with the neurotic noise of society.  The awakened man has no attachment to the opposite terms of acceptance and rejection.  Living above mere words, he comes and goes among people in a quiet contentment which is unknown by those who still seek acceptance.  - Vernon Howard

“The lives of most human beings are worthless except in so far as they contribute to the enrichment and emancipation of the human spirit.” ~ Cyril Connolly

The overall number of minds is just one....[I]n truth there is only one mind. 
- Erwin Schrodinger, Nobel Prize in Physics, 1933

People say I have created things.  I have never created anything.  I get impressions from the Universe at large and work them out, but I am only a plate on a record or a receiving apparatus -- what you will.  Thoughts are really impressions that we get from outside. - Thomas Alva Edison

"Nature always wears the colors of the spirit." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

"If you have positive thoughts, they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely."

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” - Winston Churchill

“It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.” ― E.E. Cummings

Need A Good Laugh?

LESS IS MORE

"Sleep is the best meditation" - Dalai Lama

"When we are open and giving of our light, we create an endless reflection that outlives our human existence."  - Gary Friedman

"As a physicist, I have spent fifty years -- my entire life as a researcher -- to ask, what it is that hides behind the material.  And the result is simple:  there is no matter!  Basically, there is only spirit!" - Hans-Peter Durr

The greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions, and not upon our circumstances.  - Martha Washington

Appreciation is a wonderful thing:  It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well. 
- Voltaire

"I saw an angel in the marble and I chiseled until I set it free." - Michelangelo

“A happy life must be to a great extent the quiet silent life, for it is only in a silent atmosphere of quiet that true joy can live.”  -Bertrand Russell 

What is Your Favorite Accessory?

"A smile, the best accessory for any girl" - Whitney Wolfe

The obstacle is the path. - Zen saying

"Autumn, the year's last, loveliest smile." - William Cullen Bryant

• To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders. - LAO-TZU

"Anger is a very stupid way to use your energy." - Dr. Francoise Tibika, research chemist, author of Molecular Consciousness, Why The Universe Is Aware Of Our Presence

The soul always knows what to do to heal itself. The challenge is to silence the mind.

Take A Step Backward

"You need to take the backward step, not the forward step. The forward step is always moving ahead, always trying to attain what you want, whether it’s a material possession or inner peace. The forward step is very familiar:  seeking and more seeking, striving and more striving, always looking for peace, always looking for happiness, looking for love. To take the backward step means to just turn around, reverse the whole process of looking for satisfaction on the outside, and look at precisely the place where you are standing. See if what you are looking for isn’t already present in your experience ... notice that the peace, this end of struggling, is actually already present." - Adyashanti

As long as the ego runs your life, most of your thoughts, emotions, and actions arise from desire and fear. ~ Eckhart Tolle

Stop trying to have someone else’s experience.

"... compare is despair, 100%. Don’t get all psycho about what other people are doing." - Alice Lane

Our real home is within each of us and follows us wherever we go.
— Anita Moorjani

• Truth is what remains when falseness falls away
• Reality is what remains when imagination falls away
• Love is what remains when fear falls away
• Peace is what remains when struggle falls away

- James Waite

But let there be spaces in your togetherness and let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another but make not a bond of love:  let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls. - Khalil Gibran

“We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are.”- Anais Nin

"It's so easy to hate. It takes strength to be gentle and kind."

"The enlightened is one whose nervous system can no longer be swept away by the chemical storm inside." - Igor Kufayev

Before you speak, think:  Is it necessary?  Is it true?  Is it kind?  Will it hurt anyone?  Will it improve on the silence?   - Sai Baba

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade!

What will you miss when you move?

"Our neighbors. We have the world’s slowest elevator, so we chat a lot with them!  There’s a woman on the third floor who pinches Alex's cheek, and the woman who lives above us teaches voice lessons, so we can always hear people singing."   

- Abbey Nova, NYC apartment dweller

Don't let the behavior of others destroy your inner peace.  - Dalai Lama

“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” - Confucius

I do not want to foresee the future. I am concerned with taking care of the present. God has given me no control over the moment following. - Mahatma Gandhi

Opinions

We cling to our own point of view, as though everything depended on it. Yet our opinions have no permanence; like autumn and winter, they gradually pass away. - Zhuangzi

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony. - Gandhi

Organized Religion

I think organized religion is obsolete; they are divisive, quarrelsome, idiotic. - Deepak Chopra

The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle.  The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well. ~ Pierre de Coubertin

If a man doesn’t know what it means to be under psychic hypnosis it is because he is under it.

When told that man lives in delusion everyone thinks of himself as the exception, hence his delusion. - Vernon Howard

As incredible as it sounds, an unhappy man does not realize that happiness is better than unhappiness. Knowing only his own concealed anguish, he worships it, which is the same as self-worship. - Vernon Howard

Success...

 “Life is not meant to be a series of to-do lists punctuated by eating and sleeping.” 
- Anne Sermons Gillis

Just Happy To Be Here!

"It is possible to live happily in the here and now. So many conditions of happiness are available—more than enough for you to be happy right now. You don't have to run into the future in order to get more." ~Thich Nhat Hanh

 

Five causes of suffering:

- not knowing true identity

- attachment to that which is impermanent

- being afraid of that which is impermanent

- identifying with ego

- fear of death