What Is The Color of Life?

From Denny: This is such a wonderful quote from a new StumbleUpon friend hailing from Ireland that you will enjoy. It's a statement from his SU blog bio. The Irish have always had a way with words! :)

His is such an interesting perspective that really goes a long way to helping you refocus and get your balance back when you have been experiencing hardships in your life. With this chaotic economy there sure is a lot of that going on as you only have to turn on the news channels.

Thank you, ClovisM from StumbleUpon, for such wonderful inspiring thoughts! You might want to visit his page for more inspiration as he has a lot of interesting choices to enjoy.

Quote

In our life there is a single colour, as on an artist's palette,which provides the meaning of life and art. It is the colour of love. - ClovisM (Ireland) @ StumbleUpon

Beautiful Quotes

From Denny: Since I just found out that Blogger only backs up posts and not the links in the sidebar or anything else on the blog... figured it was a great idea to put all my quotes lists into category posts. The blog should load faster too as it will reduce the number of links on the sidebar.

I'll keep adding to this category as these are just a few that are so thought-provoking. If you have some wonderful quotes you enjoy, feel free to email me, Denny Lyon: warriorspearl@gmail.com for quotes you think deserve Hall of Fame status! :)

Quotes

* A compliment is like a kiss through a veil. - Victor Hugo

* A major part of the meaning of life is contained in the very process of discovering it. - Ira Progoff

* All that we are is a result of all that we thought. - Buddha

* Courage is knowing what not to fear. - Socrates, Greek philosopher

* Eventually you will come to understand that love heals everything, and love is all there is. - Gary Zukav

* Happiness is an attitude. We either make ourselves miserable, or happy and strong. The amount of work is the same. - Francesca Reigler

* If you smile when you are alone, then you really mean it. - Andy Rooney

* It is better to have loved and lost Than never to have loved at all. - Alfred Lord Tennyson, poet

* It's kind of fun to do the impossible. - Walt Disney

* Kindness in words creates confidence, Kindness in thinking creates profoundness, Kindness in giving creates love. - Lao-tzu, Chinese philiospher

* Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forward. - Soren Kierkegaard

* More gold has been mined from the thoughts of men than has been taken from the earth. - Napolean Hill

* 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

* No one is ready for a thing until he believes he can acquire it. - Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich

* The love we give away is the only love we keep. - Elbert Hubbard

* The subtle difference in our attitude can make a major difference in our future. It can be as simple as the language we use. - Jim Rohn

* Things turn out best for the people who make the best out of the way things turn out. - Art Linkletter

* Those who wish to sing, always find a song. - Swedish Proverb

* To love abundantly is to live abundantly. - Henry Drummond

* To love someone deeply gives you strength. - Lao Tzu

* We tend to judge others by their behaviour and ourselves by our intentions. - Albert F. Schlieder

* Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine. - Anthony J. D'Angelo

* Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something. - Plato (429-347 BC), Greek Philosopher

* You can complain because roses have thorns, or you can rejoice because thorns have roses. - Zig Ziglar

* You know you are in love when you see the world in her eyes, and her eyes everywhere in the world. - David Levesque

*** Thanks for visiting and have a great day!

A Prayer of Wisdom From An Unknown Confederate Soldier

Photo by muha... @ flickr

From Denny: Just found this lovely prayer poem reportedly from an unknown Confederate soldier. Whether this truly came from a Confederate soldier or not it surely is a beautiful piece, full of the wisdom of a life well learned.

It is amusing to note as well that how often it is, as we are developing in Life, that we ask for all the wrong things or ask for the right things with the wrong intentions. In the end, in spite of ourselves, so often it all works out right anyway! :)

The Wisdom Prayer

I asked God for strength that I might achieve.
I was made weak, that I might learn humbly to obey.

I asked for health, that I might do greater things.
I was given infirmity that I might do better things.

I asked for riches, that I might be happy.
I was given poverty, that I might be wise.

I asked for power, that I might have the praise of men.
I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God.

I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life.
I was given life, that I might enjoy all things.

I got nothing that I asked for - but everything I had hoped for.
Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.
I am, among all men, most richly blessed.

- Anonymous

*** Check out A Man in Love poem story over at The Social Poets today, go here.

*** Hope you had a great Thanksgiving! Thanks for visiting!

5 Funny Thanksgiving Quotes, Photos

Trash-talking turkeys just passing the time until someone took them seriously... Photo by stevevoght @ flickr from another of my funny posts: 21 Funny Thanksgiving Fighting Turkey Photos

From Denny: I found some hilarious Thanksgiving Day quotes along with a few smart jokes and LOL holiday poems for this week's Cheeky Quote Day over at The Social Poets blog. Click on the links below for the full post of funnies and the Obama Turkey Pardon Preparation Video. Here's a sampling taste to get you started on your holiday grinning, enjoy!

Quotes

* If you count all your assets, you always show a profit. ~ Robert Quillen

* Here I am 5 o'clock in the morning stuffing bread crumbs up a dead bird's butt. - Roseanne Barr

* It was dramatic to watch my grandmother decapitate a turkey with an ax the day before Thanksgiving. Nowadays the expense of hiring grandmothers for the ax work would probably qualify all turkeys so honored with 'gourmet' status. - Russell Baker

* Thanksgiving is America's national chow-down feast, the one occasion each year when gluttony becomes a patriotic duty. ~ Michael Dresser

* I love Thanksgiving turkey. It's the only time in Los Angeles that you see natural breasts. ~ Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger

*** For more funny holiday quotes, holiday jokes and hilarious poems, the Obama funny video about his first act of turkey pardoning (wonder if it's name is Cheney???) and great holiday recipe links, check out The Social Poets and Cheeky Quote Day, go here.

*** Thanks for visiting and come back often for a grin! :)

Why Is Gratitude Important to Practice in Our Lives?

Photo of Scott Falls (Michigan, USA) by light2shine @ flickr

From Denny: While this quote was spoken and recorded over a century ago its meaning still resonates. There is so much violence in the world today, from senseless domestic violence in the home to senseless global terrorism. Humanity is restless and far too angry, fighting over stupid things like bruised egos.

That's what war really is - the end result of battling egos. Rarely, is it over something important. A few years ago an art school in Vienna, Austria, finally made the admission: "We should have admitted Hitler into art school and then WWII might never have happened." Basically, an admission of "our bad."

It's pivotal points like this in history too few people recognize at the moment it is happening. Had Hitler been fulfilled as an artist he might never have become an effective tool in the hands of greedy big business. And 20 million Russians would have lived out their lives and 6 million Jews and other ethic minorities would have flourished as well.

What has this historical reference got to do with today's quote? Easy. Because of an arrogant choice in judgment by an art school admissions committee - from arrogant unthankful hearts who were emotionally stingy and merciless - they set Hitler off on another life track without fully realizing the exent of their influence upon him. His heart closed in anger and became bitter and vengeful as a result of that rejection.

How many people do you know in Life who are not thankful for anything? They just arrogantly assume they earned it. We all know that many times the reason something good comes our way is because Life - and God - is choosing to be generous with us in the hopes we will use Wisdom in our abundance.

There is also this Law of Attraction in operation. What you focus upon does come your way. If you focus upon fear then what you fear becomes your reality, often in some twisted bizarre occurence like the Holocaust. What you love, fulfills you. When you are thankful about what you do have - and also what you instinctively know is coming your way - then you attract it into your Life.

What true gratitude is really all about is developing a strong house to hold all the blessings Life wants to bestow upon us. Think about it; would you use an open mesh sieve to hold water? Of course not. So it is with spiritual blessings that translate into physical reality if we are able to provide the correct container for them.

So, the question of the season is: Do we truly have thankful hearts?

Quote

* The unthankful heart... discovers no mercies; but let the thankful heart sweep through the day and, as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings! ~ Henry Ward Beecher

*** Thanks for visiting!

How Can We Live Lifes Highest Appreciation?

From Denny: November 22nd was the anniversary of President Kennedy's assassination in 1963. Now new information is coming out - or being leaked - about who may have done the bad deed.

It does seem that when someone's life is cut short - and their promise denied - their words often take on poignant meaning. John F. Kennedy's short tenure as President may have been brief but it was long on impact with America and the world, the generation of his time. In this quote, he combines gratitude with walking the walk in Life.

Quote

* As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. ~ John Fitzgerald Kennedy

How Does Gratitude Unlock the Fullness of Life?

From Denny: As we ease into the winter season where we begin to turn inward and inspect who we were, who we are and where we think we are progressing, our thoughts do turn also to gratitude. Thanksgiving Day in America is our official national time to reflect upon the best in our lives and recount those good blessings as helpful reminders for keeping our balance when disappointment knocks at our door.

Quotations are always a great launching off point for writing. Today I went looking for both serious and funny Thanksgiving quotes to write posts for several of my blogs. Along the way I found this beautiful quote not usually listed in Thanksgiving or gratitude quotes.

Quote

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow. - Melody Beattie

*** Thanksgiving Day recipes for inspiration:

6 Easy Turkey Thanksgiving Recipes and Gravy, Roasting Tips and Advice

Video: Unusual Exotic Thanksgiving Menu, Poll on Turkey Vs. Sides Debate

Video: Chicago Chef Jimmy Bannos Cajun Thanksgiving Menu of 12 Recipes

Video: 8 Cajun Thanksgiving Turkey Recipes, BBQ Turkey, Deep Fry Turkey, Roasting Tips

For a typical Louisiana sweet: Louisiana Culture: Heavenly Hash Cake

*** Check out New York Times and their ideas for Thanksgiving Day where Mark Bittman has all kinds of creative ideas for side dishes for you: 101 Head Starts on the Day

The Knot Prayer

Photo by Phil Romans

From Denny: This is a wonderful prayer, so true too. To truly develop in Life it sure helps to untie all those unnecessary inner knots! :) Self-improvement or spiritual development first starts with going after those inner knots often created thru bad experiences or social conditioning, even family culture. This wonderful prayer can be used as a thought meditation to help create your own positive affirmations. I found this on a buddha blog which found it on a Christian site from South Africa - which lets you know how universal this prayer can be.

The Knot Prayer

Dear God

Please untie the knots that are in my mind,
my heart and my life.
Remove the have nots,
the can nots and the do nots
that I have in my mind.
Erase the will nots,
may nots,
might nots that may find a home in my heart.
Release me from the could nots,
would nots
and should nots that obstruct my life.
And most of all,
Dear God,
I ask that you remove from my mind,
my heart and my life all of the "am nots"
that I have allowed to hold me back,
especially the thought that I am not good enough.

Amen

*** Thanks for visiting!

50 Lessons Life Taught Me Quotes

From Denny: Seems like I read this a few years ago and then found it again online. This sure has made its way around the world. This column was written on 28 May 2006.

*** Written By Regina Brett, 53 years old in 2009 (not 90 years old as other sites have reported), of The Plain Dealer newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio. She survived breast cancer.

The reason for the confusion about her age is attributed to the following quotes:

* June 6, 2009,"Life's lessons speed up on Internet; 90 years of living in 50: Regina Brett."

* July 7, 2009, "The thing about being 90 is you savor every day: Regina Brett."



"To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 50 lessons life taught me. It is the most-requested column I've ever written.

1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.
2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.
3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
4. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
5. Pay off your credit cards every month.
6. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.
8. It's OK to get angry with God -- He can take it.
9. Save for retirement starting with your first pay check.
10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.



11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.
12. It's OK to let your children see you cry.
13. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their
journey is all about.
14. If a relationship has to be secret, you shouldn't be in it.
15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don't worry - God never blinks.
16. Life is too short for pity parties. Get busy living -- or get busy dying.
17. You can get through anything if you stay put in today.
18. A writer writes. If you want to be a writer, write.
19. It's never too late to have a happy childhood -- but the second one is up to you and no one else.
20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take "no" for an answer.



21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie -- don't save it for a special occasion. TODAY is special!
22. Over-prepare -- then "go with the flow."
23. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.
24. The most important sex organ is the brain.
25. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: "In five years, will this matter?"
27. Always choose life.
28. Forgive everyone everything.
29. What other people think of you is none of your business.
30. Time heals almost everything -- give time -- time.



31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
32. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.
33. Believe in miracles.
34. God loves you because of who God is -- not because of anything you did or didn't do.
35. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.
36. Growing old beats the alternative -- dying young.
37. Your children get only one childhood -- make it memorable.
38. Read the Psalms. They cover every human emotion.
39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.
40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back.



41. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.
42. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful, or joyful.
43. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.
44. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
45. The best is yet to come.
46. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up, and show up.
47. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.
48. If you don't ask, you don't get.
49. Yield.
50. Life isn't tied with a bow -- but it's still a gift."

*** Thanks for visiting and come back often! :)

How Can Friends Help When You Need A Boost?

Photo by Gwennypics @ flickr

From Denny: How true is this quote! There are those times when the disappointments or tragedies in Life can overwhelm us. Sometimes, we lose our Joy temporarily and that's when good friends can help tremendously. They can remind us again of who we are, how we truly feel, how we live our lives and most of all, that we are loved.

Quote

* A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart, and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words. - Anonymous

How Do Our Thoughts Determine Our Way In Life?

From feebee62 @ StumbleUpon, thanks!

From Denny: This quote is one powerful statement to ponder! It certainly will send you into an internal review, sifting through your thought forms to double check everything is a good idea and no rotten apples in the barrel. :)

I do like to friend and subscribe to a wide spectrum of friends on StumbleUpon. These are some great people who collect some of the most amazing pages, photos and wonderful quotes on the internet!

Visit feebee62 at her StumbleUpon page to see her bio and how a significant violent act changed her life and perspective.

(My page is warriorkitty @ StumbleUpon. Just go to the friends section or subscribers to check out their pages too.)

Quote

All that we are is a result of all that we thought. - Buddha

Video: Halle Berry Making a Difference for Battered Women

From Denny: If you missed this segment you will definitely want to watch it. Halle Berry grew up with an abusive father who battered her mother. Today, the actress is helping other women get strong, help heal them and their children and build new - and confident - lives.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Life is a Gift!

Photo by madmoiselle lavender @ flickr

From Denny: This long quote from Mother Teresa reads like a little poem. Good advice too on this journey called Life!


Life Is A Gift

Life is an opportunity, …. benefit from it.
Life is beauty, …. admire it.
Life is bliss, …. taste it.
Life is a dream, …. realize it.
Life is a challenge, …. meet it.
Life is a duty, …. complete it.
Life is a game, …. play it.
Life is a promise, …. fulfill it
Life is sorrow, …. overcome it.
Life is a song, …. sing it.
Life is a struggle, …. accept it.
Life is a tragedy…. confront it.
Life is an adventure, …. dare it.
Life is luck, …. make it.
Life is too precious, …. do not destroy it.
Life is life, …. fight for it.

by Mother Theresa

Whats Your Attitude Toward Life?

From Denny: Sometimes, the hardest thing in Life is, well, to meet Life on its own terms, adapt, be flexible and learn to cooperate with Life. After all that effort comes the understanding of Life. As the understanding begins to unfold before us we often wonder what took us so long to arrive at this wonderful place: Heaven on Earth!

Quote

* I have found that if you love Life, Life will love you back. -Arthur Rubinstein

Veterans Day Quote, Links to Memorial Poems, Peace Quotes

From Denny: Today is Veterans Day, a time of remembrance for so many things. There are few families that have not been touched by war through the generations.



Today's quote is actually one of my own as the quest for establishing Peace in the world takes time and the convincing of each individual - and continues for generations. While humanity is still in the throes of spiritual immaturity, it is difficult to deny anger, resentment, greed - the most violent of emotions that tend to lead to trouble.



Many honorable soldiers have died through the centuries for dishonorable politicians or monarchs whose egos would not learn self-discipline nor be curtailed.



I've included a couple of links to articles written this year on the subjects of War, Remembrance and Peace.







Quote



“Mankind must not only seek Peace. We must pursue it with all the deeply felt sincerity of our hearts. We must pursue Peace with the diligent work of our hands every day in every relationship we know. Peace comes a little at a time, rippling outward until one day it touches and convinces all.”



– Denny Lyon, 3 March 2009







***** Today is Veterans Day in America. Please take a quiet pause today, remembering those who have fallen and those who have served this country and your country as well. People who give their lives in battle or service are a testament to the quality of a country’s character. Thank you…



*** Since it's Veterans Day here are two articles written on the related subjects of War, Remembrance and Peace:



Great Peace Quotes with Great Photos



Quest for Peace



“Mankind must not only seek Peace. We must pursue it with all the deeply felt sincerity of our hearts. We must pursue Peace with the diligent work of our hands every day in every relationship we know. Peace comes a little at a time, rippling outward until one day it touches and convinces all.”



– Denny Lyon, 3 March 2009





Memorial Day Poems



War Affects Us All



Let the old men who send the young men to war stop and think long, and work harder for Peace, before affecting generations yet to come. Poems written about the reality of war from family, children, citizens, soldiers and medical personnel.



At my photo blog: 14 Veterans Day Remembrance Photos



*** Thanks for visiting and come back often!

3 Wonderful Quotes About Joy

Let your spirit soar!

From Denny: Rather than simplistic sayings for a poster which are meant to make you feel positive for the day, these quotes are interesting in how the authors view the living of joy in their lives. Most special is Shakespeare's blessing to those of us generations later!

Quotes

* When the power of imparting joy is equal to the will, the human soul requires no other heaven. - Percy Bysshe Shelley

* There are souls in this world which have their gift of finding joy everywhere and of leaving it behind them when they go. - Frederick William Faber

* I wish you all the joy that you can wish. - William Shakespeare


*** Thanks for visiting and come back often! :)

5 Powerful Soul Affirmations, Soul Journey Poem

Photo by h.koppdelaney @ flickr, a practicing Buddhist from Germany

5 Powerful Soul Affirmations, Soul Journey Poem

"Soul affirmations are a way to look at nourishing your patient ancient soul and convincing your ego to play nice, cooperate and learn to share with others while letting your soul out to play. It’s a way to blend the wise with the younger part of self still in the learning stage.

Our egos are trained and shaped and often defeated by the family and national culture into which we are born. Once we become adults it is up to us to parent those parts of ourselves that have been undernourished, neglected. Often we have been denied acceptance, understanding and love."

By Denny Lyon @ HubPages

From Denny: As we go into the holiday season and the cooling weather to prepare for winter when Nature sleeps and rests, our thoughts turn inward to reexamine our lives and meditate upon inner healing.

Though I choose to be a mystical Christian, this article can really apply to any religion or life philosophy based upon self-improvement so we can better understand the Life around us. There are wonderful art photos for the poem too, enjoy!

5 Powerful Soul Affirmations, Soul Journey Poem

How Do You Know If You Have a Weak Mind?

From Denny: How true this quote is when it comes to politics and religion! Too often people obsess on a detail, like the Middle Ages' fascination with how many angels could dance on the head of a pin - completly missing the main concept of where their thoughts should be focused.

In politics, during the Bush years, we saw weak minds easily manipulated through their emotions to focus upon one or two issues that do not affect our lives directly as do the larger ones. The Bush-Cheney team manipulated their loyalists with fear of just about everything and everyone, a hysteria that continues today. They are still willing to believe the most twisted of thinking as their minds are that perverted and have drifted off into the imprisoned world of dementia.

The loyalists came to believe there was evil lurking around every corner: in anything called liberal even to the point they are now scouring the Bible to remove all references from Jesus about being generous or liberal with others for a conservative version of the Bible, in essence, re-writing the Bible.

Other boogeymen supposedly exist in any doctor who performed abortions even when a bad pregnancy threatened a woman's life, forgetting that the body and Nature does spontaneous abortions on a regular basis. Instead, the conservatives waste everyone's time with screaming at and vilifying the desperate mothers and anyone who supports their right to make their own moral choice about abortion.

Just because you support someone's rights to make their own life choices does not also mean you agree with said choices. Everyone in this country is supposed to have the right to free will determination. The conservatives would rather run America like a police state. These folks don't really know what they want in life as they constantly contradict themselves on a regular basis.

If the pro-life people were truly serious about their so-called beliefs they would have figured out by now that killing abortion doctors and vilifying the Democrats and desperate women (most of whom are actually married and can't afford to feed another child are the majority that get abortions) isn't the answer to the dilemma any more than wasting time debating how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.

Every time the Democrats try to pass programs to help children they are met with resistance from the Republicans, those same pro-lifers who claim to care so much about life. Well, it isn't enough to care about the start of life when you are unwilling to do anything about the quality of said life once it has begun.

Poor nutrition creates more of society's criminals and is more expensive than social programs in the long run. Children brought up in the stress of poverty have stress chemicals bathing their brains constantly to the result of poor learning ability, further setting them behind their more fortunate peers for the work force. Unfortunately, weak minds can't reason that out and see it clearly.

If the pro-life lobby wants to truly solve the problem then they would get serious about coming up with a 30 year plan for said children about to be aborted and offer it to each mother. In such a plan they would offer free day care, free college education, free school supplies, free clothing, free baby-sitting services, free food, immediate jobs upon college or trade schoool graduation and free career mentoring and jobs networking for those children until age 30.




Optical illusion of 2 possibilities


It's interesting to note the group has yet to offer any more than screaming and vilifying so a person would conclude from their attitude and behavior is they were never that serious about solving the problem in the first place. What they really want is someone to hate, dumping their toxic poisons onto others because they are unhappy in their lives.

That statement is the crux of the matter with weak minds: they are unhappy with their own lives and seek to poison the lives of others. They operate on the principle: If I can't find or create happiness, then I'll make sure no one else around me is happy.

Quote

* A weak mind is like a microscope, which magnifies trifling things but cannot receive great ones. - Lord Chesterfield


*** Thanks for visiting!

When Something Inside You Dies, Do You Know How to Renew Your Life?

From Denny: How often do we witness a broken spirit? How often do we do anything about it? While we cannot always fix what's broken in an instant, we can pray for them while they go through the process of healing themselves.

What is rarely talked about in spiritual groups is that often a belief system must be shattered before new information can be received to help the person enlarge their vision to develop a new belief system. People who are not growing or highly resistant to growth often experience extreme catastrophes in their lives because their inner world is far too small to process real spiritual development.

While they lament difficult things happening to them, what they will one day realize is that those same awful situations made it possible for them to break out of their confining egg shells like a baby chicken into the new world. Change is not always a negative. Sometimes, we do have to experience ugly negatives to get to the peaceful positives.

Quote

The tragedy of life is what dies inside a man while he lives. -
Albert Schweitzer

Do You Sell Your Soul For Others Admiration?

From Denny: This particular quote really speaks to me. I've spent a lifetime of getting blowback for not following the crowd off the cliff. Either it's relatives angry I don't go along with turning a blind eye to abuse or surrounded by neighbors angry I refused to vote for or support Bush think.

Can you really spend your life worrying about what other people really think about you? Sure, we all want to be liked and loved, but at what price? Is it worth it to be liked by mean-spirited people who will turn on you in a flash second if the wind blows in suddenly? What's the point of cultivating shallow relationships that won't hold up under the slightest pressure? Better to have a smaller group of real friends who are not pretend supporters than a huge gaggle of fawning admirers who are insincere.

After observing how our lives have played out over time, my choices were validated and vindicated - eventually. :) And I've ended up the happiest one because I chose to be true to my inner self, at all costs.

Quote

Cautious, careful people always casting about to preserve their reputation or social standards never can bring about reform. Those who are really in earnest are willing to be anything or nothing in the world's estimation, and publicly and privately, in season and out, avow their sympathies with despised ideas and their advocates, and bear the consequences. - Susan B. Anthony

Buddha Quote Concerning Life Development

From Denny: So often when people embark upon spiritual development they take with them their same expectations of elevating to self-importance. It's this ego stroking that prevents real spiritual advancement.

The whole point of setting aside the ego as the leader in your life is that it tends to operate out of undisciplined irrational desires that only get us into trouble. Choosing to teach the ego more humility is the way for it to find its place in the greater scheme of things, mainly to follow behind the person's spirit that is the wiser leader. Once the spirit is finally free to lead even the ego is happy because true balance has been achieved.

Quote

One of his students asked Buddha, "Are you the messiah?"

" No," answered Buddha.

"Then are you a healer?"

"No," Buddha replied.

"Then are you a teacher?" the student persisted.

"No, I am not a teacher."

"Then what are you?" asked the student, exasperated.

"I am awake," Buddha calmly stated.

Your Life Story is Not Finished Because Its All Good!

From Denny: This short story and the author's comments are a great reminder of how to live life to the fullest and also gain the fullest understanding of the twists and turns of how it all plays out.

Story of Two Sailors

TWO SAILORS RAN INTO each other in a pub. Over a few beers, one of the men told the other about his last voyage: “After a month at sea,” he said, “we discovered our masts had been eaten through by termites! Almost nothing left of them.”

“That’s terrible,” said the second sailor.

“That’s what I thought at first too,” the first sailor said, “but it turned out to be good luck. As soon as we took the sails down to fix the masts, we were hit by a squall so suddenly and so hard, it would surely have blown us over if our sails were up at the time.”

“How lucky!”

“That’s exactly what I thought at the time too. But because our sails were down, we couldn’t steer ourselves, and because of the wind, we were blown onto a reef. The hole in the hull was too big to fix. We were stranded.”

“That is bad luck indeed.”

“That’s what I thought, too, when it first happened. But we all made it to the beach alive and had plenty to eat. But now here’s the real kicker: While we were on the island whining about our terrible fate, we discovered a buried treasure!”

Comment from Adam Khan:

As this story illustrates, you don’t know if an event is “good” or “bad” except maybe in retrospect, and even then you don’t really know because life keeps going. The story’s not over yet. Just because something hasn’t turned out to be an advantage yet doesn’t mean it is not ever going to. Therefore, you can simply assume whatever happens is “good.”

I know that sounds awfully airy-fairy, but it’s very practical. If you think an event is good, it’s easy to maintain a positive attitude. And your attitude affects your health, it affects the way people treat you and how you treat others, and it affects your energy level. And those can help pave the way for things to turn out well. A good attitude is a good thing. And a bad attitude does you no good at all.

So get in the habit of saying “That’s good!” Since you don’t know for sure whether something will eventually work to your advantage or not, you might as well assume it will. It is counterproductive to assume otherwise. Think about it.

If someone ahead of you in line at a store is slowing everything down, say to yourself, “That’s good!” They may have saved you from getting into an accident when you get back in your car. Or maybe because you slowed down, you might meet a friend you would have missed. You never know.

The truth is, life is uncertain. And even that can work to your advantage.

When something “bad” happens, say to yourself, “That’s good!”

By Adam Khan, Self-Help Stuff That Works

Where is More Gold Located Than You Thought?

Here's a gold fairy sighting...

From Denny: Napolean Hill is always good for an unusual turn of thought! And, on Monday mornings, we sometimes need all the inspiration we can get. What I enjoy about this quote is how it directs us to value ourselves more than what we value outside of ourselves. It is stunning in its implications of unlimited treasures!

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* More gold has been mined from the thoughts of men than has been taken from the earth. - Napolean Hill

How Kindness Develops Your Strength - and Power to Attract Love

From Denny: Kindness is often a hard sell in an aggressive Western society like America and parts of Europe. Kindness has been derided as a weakness, especially by the Republicans and other conservative fundamentalist cultures worldwide who consider kindness undesirable.

The conservatives in America claim to hold to Christian principles and "What Would Jesus Do?" T-shirts, forgetting the whole point of Jesus was about kindness. Jesus was also humanity's strongest person ever to walk this Earth! He is known for his profound teachings that span the centuries.

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Kindness in words creates confidence
Kindness in thinking creates profoundness
Kindness in giving creates love.

Lao-tzu, Chinese philiospher

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