We cannot live only for ourselves.
A thousand fibers connect us
with our fellow men;
and among those fibers,
ss sympathetic threads,
our actions run as causes,
and they come back to us as effects.
My religion is very simple.
My religion is kindness.

~The Dalai Lama


Act upon your present blessings...
Of which every man has many...
Not on your past misfortunes...
Of which all men have some."

~Charles Dickens


Living with integrity means: 

Not settling for less than what you know you deserve in your relationships. Asking for what you want and need from others. Speaking your truth, even though it might create conflict or tension. Behaving in ways that are in harmony with your personal values. Making choices based on what you believe, and not what others believe.

~ Barbara De Angelis


Our real self, the soul, is immortal. We may sleep for a little while in that change called death, but we can never be destroyed. We exist, and that existence is eternal. This body has come, and it will vanish; but the soul essence within it will never cease to exist. Nothing can terminate that eternal consciousness.

~ From "Autobiography of a Yogi," by Yogananda


Consider the difference between fact and truth. Facts are just circumstances in our lives, events happening around us.       
The truth is much greater than that which we experience with our senses. The truth is that God is moving to us and through us in every moment and when we open to that Presence and that Power, our experience of our circumstances begins to expand.       
~Mary Manin Morrissey          

The truth indeed has never been preached by the Buddha, seeing that one has to realize it within oneself.       
-Lamkara Sutra       
From "Buddha Speaks," edited by Anne Bancroft, 2000. Reprinted by arrangement with Shambhala Publications, Boston, www.shambhala.com.          

What could you want       
that forgiveness cannot give?       
Do you want peace? Forgiveness offers it.       
Do you want happiness, a quiet mind,       
a certainty of purpose,       
and a sense of worth and beauty       
that transcends the world?       
Do you want care and safety,       
and the warmth of sure protection always?       
Do you want a quietness that cannot be disturbed,       
a gentleness that never can be hurt,       
a deep, abiding comfort,       
and a rest so perfect it can never be upset?       
All this forgiveness offers you.       
~~~A Course in Miracles          

Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if       
they were going to be dead by midnight. Extend to       
them all the care, kindness, and understanding you       
can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward.       
Your life will never be the same again.          

~Og Mandino          

Plant a kernel of wheat and you reap a pint...   
Plant a pint and you reap a bushel...   
Always the law works to give you back...   
More than you give."          

Anthony Norvell          

Prayer enlarges the heart until it is capable of   
containing God's gift of Himself.       
~Mother Teresa          

Good habits are as easy to form as bad ones.       
-Tim McCarver          

Build the dream with all your heart and before   
you know it you find that the dream is in fact   
building you.       
~ Josh S. Hinds          

"Be brave...   
Even if you are not...   
Pretend to be...   
No one can tell the difference."       
~ Unknown          

A friend is one that knows you as you are...       
Understands where you have been...       
Accepts what you have become...       
And still, gently allows you to grow.          

~William Shakespeare          

Treat peopole as if they were what they ought to be       
and you help them become what they are capable       
of being.          

~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe          

Life does not have to be perfect to be wonderful.       
~Annette Funicello          

You are my friend when you can guard my failure,   
challenge my thought, and celebrate my success.       
~Unknown          

Darkness cannot drive out darkness;   
only light can do that.   
Hate cannot drive out hate;   
only love can do that.       
-Martin Luther King, Jr.          

What is, is.   
It is never different.   
Its forms differ but its being remains the same.   
To live in the forms is to live in illusions.   
To see the being is to transcend the world.   
Only seeing is needed.   
What you are going to see is already there -   
has been there since eternity... waiting and   
waiting and waiting....       
~Osho       
For hundreds of years---perhaps since the beginning of Creation---a piece of the world has been waiting for your soul to purify and repair it.   
And your soul, from the time it was first emanated and conceived, waited above to descend to this world and carry out that mission.   
And your footsteps were guided to reach that place.       
And you are there now.       
-Rebbe Menachem Schneerson          

If we are peaceful, if we are happy, we can smile and blossom like a flower, and everyone in our family, our entire society, will benefit from our peace.       
-Thich Nhat Hanh, "Being Peace"          

Life's like a dance. Put on your dancing shoes.       
~Steve Winwood

All kids are gifted;   
Some just open their packages earlier than others.       
~Michael Carr

Perhaps all the dragons of our lives   
are princesses who are only waiting   
to see us once beautiful and brave.       
- Rainer Maria Rilke

We are what we repeatedly do.   
Excellence, then, is not an act,   
but a habit.       
~ Aristotle

To speak gratitude is courteous and pleasant,   
to enact gratitude is generous and noble,   
but to live gratitude is to touch Heaven.   
~ Johannes A. Gaertner

The future belongs to those who believe   
in the beauty of their dreams.   
~ Eleanor Roosevelt

To see a world in a grain of sand   
And a heaven in a wild flower,   
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand   
And eternity in an hour.       
~William Blake

Develop the mind of equilibrium. You will always be getting praise and blame, but do not let either affect the poise of the mind: follow the calmness, the absence of pride.       
-Sutta Nipata

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.       
~Ralph Waldo Emerson          

It takes a certain amount of detachment to be able to   
involve yourself and yet not personalize what you're   
involved in. Some people project an expectation and look at the result. They look at what shows up and decide that  something hasn't worked or been served, instead of realizing that it has been served.

So be patient and take God's course.       
~John Morton          

LIFE'S MIRROR       
There are loyal hearts, there are spirits brave,   
There are souls that are pure and true;   
Then give to the world the best you have,   
And the best will come back to you.       
Give love, and love to your life will flow,   
A strength in your utmost need;   
Have faith, and a score of hearts will show   
Their faith in your word and deed.       
Give truth, and your gift will be paid in kind,   
And honor will honor meet;   
And a smile that is sweet will surely find   
A smile that is just as sweet.       
For life is the mirror of king and slave,   
Tis just what we are and do;   
Then give to the world the best you have,   
And the best will come back to you.       
~ Madeline S. Bridges   


Do all the good you can,   
By all the means you can,   
In all the ways you can,   
In all the places you can,   
At all the times you can,   
To all the people you can,   
As long as ever you can.       
~John Wesley          

"That's what happens when you are angry with people.....   
You make them a part of your lives."       
Garrison Keillor       
"Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content."       
~Helen Keller          

If you were busy being kind,   
Before you knew it, you would find   
You'd soon forget to think 'twas true   
That someone was unkind to you.   
If you were busy being glad,   
And cheering people who are sad,   
Although your heart might ache a bit,   
You'd soon forget to notice it.       
~R. Foreman          

"The most important thing now is to reveal the   
inner temple of the soul with right thinking and right activity."       
~Willaru Huayta, Quechua Nation, Peru          

Be an opener of doors for such as come after thee, and do not try to make the universe a blind alley.       
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson              

Let everything you do be your expression of Spirit,   
and everything you say be your Prayer.   
~Anon.              

"Our prime purpose in this life is to help others.   
And if you can t help them, at least don t hurt them."       
~The Dalai Lama          

Obstacles are those frightful things you see   
when you take your eyes off the goal.       
~Henry Ford          

"Do not say, "I follow the one true path of the Spirit," but rather, "I have found the Spirit walking on my path", for the Spirit walks on all paths."   
~Kahlil Gibran

Each of us comes for a short visit; Not knowing why, yet sometimes, Seeming to a divine purpose.   
~Albert Einstein

To a disciple who was forever complaining about others the Master said, "If it is peace you want, seek to change yourself, not other people. It is easier to protect your feet with slippers than to carpet the whole of the earth."   
~ Anthony de Mello, SJ          

MORSEL: The paradox of control is simple. The more we try to control life, the less control we have.

--Joan Borysenko, Ph.D.          

"Do not ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."   
~ Harold Whitman          

To a shy disciple who wanted to become self-confident the Master said, "You look for certainty in the eyes of others and you think that is self-confidence."       
"Shall I give no weight to the opinion of others, then?"       
"On the contrary. Weigh everything they say, but do not be controlled by it."       
"How does one break the control?"       
"How does one break a delusion?"       
Anthony de Mello, SJ          

MORSEL: The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend. -- Henri L. Bergson          

The Master's expansive mood emboldened his disciples to say, "Tell us what you got from Enlightenment. Did you become divine?"       
"No."       
"Did you become a saint?"       
"No."       
"Then what did you become?"       
"Awake."       
Anthony de Mello, SJ          

MORSEL: Wisdom is perishable. Unlike information or knowledge, it cannot be stored in a computer or recorded in a book. It expires with each passing generation. --Sid Taylor       
Out of clutter, find Simplicity.   
From discord, find Harmony.   
In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity   
~Albert Einstein          

"You can have anything you want -- if you want   
it badly enough. You can be anything you want to be,   
do anything you set out to accomplish, if you hold   
to that desire with singleness of purpose."   
~Abraham Lincoln          

"Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless."   
~Mother Theresa          

"There is one way of breathing that is shameful and constricted. Then there is another way; a breath of Love that takes you all the way to infinity."   
~Rumi          

Hope is the thing with feathers   
That perches in the soul,   
And sings the tune without the words,   
And never stops at all,       
And sweetest in the gale is heard;   
And sore must be the storm   
That could abash the little bird   
That kept so many warm.       
I've heard it in the chillest land,   
And on the strangest sea;   
Yet, never, in extremity,   
It asked a crumb of me.       
~ Emily Dickinson          

The fruit of prayer is the deepening of love, deepening of faith.   
If we believe, we will be able to pray, and the fruit of love is service.   
Therefore works of love are always works of peace,   
and to be able to put our hearts and hands into loving service we must know God,   
we must know God is love,   
that He loves us and that He has created us - each one of us - for greater things.   
~Mother Teresa          

“People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone.”   
~Audrey Hepburn          

When you love you should not say, "God is in my heart," but rather, "I am in the heart of God."   
~Kahlil Gibran   
"The Prophet"          

As the Master grew old and infirm, the disciples begged him not to die. Said the Master, "If I did not go, how would you ever see?"       
"What is it we fail to see when you are with us?" they asked.       
But the Master would not say.       
When the moment of his death was near, they said, "What is it we will see when you are gone?"       
With a twinkle in his eye, the Master said, "All I did was sit on the riverbank handing out river water. After I'm gone, I trust you will notice the river."       
Anthony de Mello, SJ          

"This moment I shall start a divine life; this moment and not later.   
This moment is in my hands. My soul will show me the way."   
~ Lorenzo          

All animals except man know the ultimate point of life is to enjoy it.       
-- Samuel Butler          

"Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children."       
~ Kahlil Gibran       
"Be who you are and say what you feel...   
Because those who mind don't matter...   
And those who matter don't mind."       
Dr. Seuss       
Hold fast to dreams, for   
If dreams die,   
Life is a broken-winged bird   
That cannot fly.       
~Langston Hughes          

“Struggle to get, struggle to keep” means that the universe does not require you to stress for good things.   
~Alan Cohen          

A Letter   
By Clarissa Pinkola Estes       
Do not lose heart. We were made for these times. I have heard from so many recently who are deeply and properly bewildered. They are concerned about the state of affairs in our world right now… Ours is a time of almost daily astonishment and oftten-righteous rage over the latest degradations of what matters most to civilized, visionary people.   
You are right in your assessments. The luster and hubris some have aspired to while endorsing acts so heinous against children, elders, everyday people, the poor, the unguarded, the helpless is breathtaking. Yet, I urge you, ask you, gentle you, to please not spend your spirit dry by bewailing these difficult times. Especially do not lose hope. Most particularly because the fact is - we were made for these times. Yes. For years, we have been learning, practicing, been in training for and just waiting to meet on this exact plane of engagement…   
I grew up on the Great Lakess and recognize a seaworthy vessel when I see one. Regarding awakened souls, there have never been more able crafts in the waters than there are right now across the world. And they are fully provisioned and able to signal one another as never before in the history of humankind. Look out over the prow; there are millions of boats of righteous souls on the waters with you. Even though your veneers may shiver from every wave in this stormy roil, I assure you that the long timbers composing your prow and rudder come from a greater forest. That long-grained lumber is known to withstand storms, to hold together, to hold its own, and to advance, regardless.   
We have been in training for a dark time such as this, since the day we assented to come to Earth. For many decades, worldwide, souls just like us have been felled and left for dead in so many ways over and over brought down by naiveté, by lack of love, by being ambushed and assaulted by various cultural and personal shocks in the extreme. We have a history of being gutted, and yet remember this especially - we have also, of necessity, perfected the knack of resurrection. Over and over again we have been the living proof that which has been exiled, lost, or foundered can be restored to life again.   
In any dark time, there is a tendency to veer toward fainting over how much is wrong or unmended in the world. Do not focus on that. There is a tendency too to fall into being weakened by perseverating on what is outside your reach, by what cannot yet be. Do not focus there. That is spending the wind without raising the sails. We are needed, that is all we can know.   
And though we meet resistance, we more so will meet great souls who will hail us, love us and guide us, and we will know them when they appear. Didn't you say you were a believer? Didn't you say you pledged to listen to a voice greater? Didn't you ask for grace. Don't you remember that to be in grace means to submit to the voice greater?..   
Understand the paradox: If you study the physics of a waterspout, you will see that the outer vortex whirls far more quickly than the inner one. To calm the storm means to quiet the outer layer, to cause it to swirl much less, to more evenly match the velocity of the inner core - till whatever has been lifted into such a vicious funnel falls back to Earth, lays down, is peaceable again. One of the most important steps you can take to help calm the storm of desperation out there is by not accidentally contributing to the swale and the swirl.   
Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world all at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach. Any small, calm thing that one soul can do to help another soul, to assist some portion of this poor suffering, world, will help immensely. It is not given to us to know which acts or by whom, will cause the critical mass to tip toward an enduring good. What is needed for dramatic change is an accumulation of acts adding, adding to, adding more, and continuing. We know that it does not take "everyone on Earth" to bring justice and peace, but only a small determined group who will not give up during the first, second, or hundredth gale.   
One of the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene in a stormy world is to stand up and show your soul. A Soul on deck shines like gold in dark times. The light of the soul throws sparks can send up flares, builds signal fires, and causes proper matters to catch fire. To display the lantern of soul in shadowy times like these-to be fierce and to show mercy toward others, both, are acts of immense bravery and greatest necessity. Struggling souls catch light from other souls who are fully lit and willing to show it.   
If you would help to calm the tumult, this is one of the strongest things you can do. There will always be times when you feel discouraged. I too have felt despair many times in my life, but I do not keep a chair for it; I will not entertain it. It is not allowed to eat from my plate. The reason is this: In my uttermost bones I know something, as you do. It is that there can be no despair when you remember why you came to Earth, who you serve, and who sent you here.   
The good words we say and the good deeds we do are not ours; they are the words and deeds of the One who brought us here. In the spirit, I hope you will write this on your wall: When a great ship is in harbor and moored, it is safe, there can be no doubt. But that is not what great ships are built for.   
This comes with much love and prayer that you can remember who you came from, and why you came to this beautiful, needful Earth.          

You are capable of whatever you wish.       
No matter how far down you may be, no matter what has happened in your past, you are capable of molding the future in the direction of your dreams.       
The world will bombard you with distractions. Quick and easy, empty pleasures will be waiting to ensnare you. Others will scoff at you. Barriers will drop into your pathway. Yet these are ultimately of no consequence when you truly make up your mind to achieve.       
The mere fact that you can imagine a better life for yourself is evidence of your ability to achieve that life. You already have your most treasured dreams and desires. They are real and they exist within you. Nurture them, give them the power of your thought, your effort and your commitment. Make them real not only inside of you, but also in the world around you. That is achievement, that is your destiny, and no matter who you are, you can do it.       
Ralph Marston          

Why should we all use our creative power? Because there is nothing that makes people so generous, joyful, lively, bold and compassionate, so indifferent to fighting and the accumulation of objects and money.   
~Brenda Ueland       
Each player must accept the cards life deals him or her. But once they are in hand, he or she alone must decide how to play the cards in order to win the game.   
~ Voltaire     


"Conscious manifestation is a science and an art, a completely natural process, a skill, which can be easily developed under natural circumstances."

~Ash'a-yana Deane
www.AzuritePress.com


Risk

and then the day came
when the risk to remain
tight in a bud was
more painful than the
risk to bloom

~Anais Nin

www.susanspiritusgallery.com/artists/images/speck/cc7.htm


You must be the change you wish to see in the world.

~Gandhi


I live by this credo: Have a little laugh at life
and look around you for happiness instead of sadness.
Laughter has always brought me out of unhappy situations.
Even in your darkest moment, you usually can find something to laugh about if you try hard enough.

~ Red Skelton