“The pessimist complains about the wind.
The optimist expects the wind to change.
The leader adjusts the sails.”
- John Maxwell

For The Love Of A Cat

It seems that most people need to experience a great deal of suffering before they will relinquish resistance and accept — before they will forgive. ~ Eckhart Tolle

Speaking of Courage

"To my mind right now, the most courageous among us are those who endure great suffering with little complaint and knowingly face certain death with dignity.  It takes the power of our true nature as Source to overcome human self-preservation instincts and self-pity."

~ Nancy Danison, a near-death experiencer, currently fighting a battle with cancer, who recently lost her brother and mother a week apart.

The “Gratitude Principles” that kept me afloat during that difficult year were as follows:

1. Gratitude is awareness that, as things come to you, they are exactly what you need - be it people, circumstance, or challenges.

2. Worry is the opposite of gratitude; it is the failure to understand that you have been and will continue to be provided for each day.

3. Whenever fear over your future encroaches, stop to observe a tree. Consider how the tree continues to stand tall and grow throughout the various cycles and seasons of its life span.

4. Worry is an action. Gratitude is an action. Both are optional. By choosing gratitude you drive out the space and time for worry.

5. It isn’t hard to do; gratitude is simply noticing the good stuff in your life.

6. What you pay attention to, or notice, tends to expand and grow.

7. Each day brings a multitude of opportunities to feel gratitude and appreciation.

8. When you neglect the action of appreciating, you limit your potential for joy and contentment in the present moment.

9. Worry does not prevent bad things from happening; it only prevents you from accessing joy in this moment.

10. The present moment is the only place where joy and contentment can exist.

 Heidi M. Parton

“Solitude is the furnace of transformation. Without solitude we remain victims of our society and continue to be entangled in the illusions of the false self.” 

~ Henri J. M. Nouwen, Out of Solitude

I cannot believe that the purpose of life is to be just happy. It is to be useful, to be responsible, to be compassionate and above all, to stand for something, to have made some difference that you lived at all. ~ Dr. Antony, Internist Physician