Reflections

~ Some thoughts that I love, and that reflect how I strive to view and live my life ~

Being Human

It takes so much to be a full human being that there are very few
who have the enlightenment or the courage to pay the price.
One has to abandon altogether the search for security and
reach out to the risk of living with both arms.
One has to embrace the world like a lover.
One has to accept pain as a condition of existence.
One has to court doubt and darkness as the cost of knowing.
One needs a will stubborn in conflict, but apt always to total
acceptance of every consequence of living and dying.
~ Morris West ~
(From the play, Courting Darkness, by Mitch Longley)

Don't be dismayed at goodbyes.
A farewell is necessary before you can meet again.
And meeting again, after moments or lifetimes,
is certain for those who are friends.
~ unknown ~

Heroism is the brilliant triumph of the soul over the flesh -
that is to say, over fear: fear of poverty, of suffering,
of calumny, of sickness, of isolation, and of death.
There is no serious piety without heroism.
Heroism is the dazzling and glorious concentration of courage.
~ Henri Frederic Amiel, Amiel's Journal, 1849-1872 ~



It is only with the heart that one can see rightly,
what is essential is invisible to the eye.
~ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry ~

The man that hath no music in himself,
Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils;
The motions of his spirit are dull as night,
And his affections dark as Erebus:
Let no such man be trusted.
~ William Shakespeare
The Merchant of Venice ~
 
There are two lasting bequests we can give our children:
One is roots. The other is wings.
~ Hodding Carter, Jr. ~



People are like stained-glass windows.
They sparkle and shine when the sun is out,
but when the darkness sets in,
their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.
~ Elizabeth Kübler-Ross ~

God writes the gospel not in the Bible alone,
but on trees, and flowers, and clouds, and stars.
~ Martin Luther ~

Humankind has not woven the web of life.
We are but one thread within it.
Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.
All things are bound together. All things connect.
~ Chief Seattle ~

Your talent is God's gift to you.
What you do with it is your gift back to God.
~ Leo Buscaglia ~



"To laugh often and much,
to win the respect of intelligent people
and the affection of children,
to earn the appreciation of honest critics
and endure the betrayal of false friends,
to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others,
to leave the world a bit better,
whether by a healthy child,
a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition;
to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded!"
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~

This above all:
to thine own self be true.
And it must follow as the night the day,
thou canst not then be false to any man.
~ William Shakespeare ~
(Hamlet)

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



You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe,
deserve your love and affection.
~ The Buddha ~

When it is dark enough, you can see the stars.
~ Charles A. Beard ~

And when the night is cloudy,
There is still a light that shines on me,
Shine on until tomorrow, let it be.
~ John Lennon/Paul McCartney ~

I am the woman who holds up the sky.
The rainbow runs through my eyes.
The sun makes a path to my womb.
My thoughts are in the shape of clouds.
But my words are yet to come.
~ Poem of the Ute Indians ~



He who knows others is wise,
He who knows himself is enlightened.
~ Tao Te Ching ~

And the wind said:
"May you be as strong as the oak,
yet flexible as the birch;
may you stand tall as the Redwood,
live gracefully as the willow;
and may you always bear fruit
all your days on this earth."
~ Native American prayer ~

Little things affect little minds.
~ Benjamin Disraeli ~



Appreciation is a wonderful thing;
it makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.
~ Voltaire ~

A Creed For Those Who Have Suffered
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 great 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 I asked for -- but everything I hoped for.
Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.
I am, among men, most richly blessed!
~ Roy Campanella ~

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 ~



Man walks the moon but his soul remains riveted to earth.
Once upon a time it was the opposite.
~ Elie Wiesel ~

Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
~ Langston Hughes ~



Life isn’t a matter of milestones,
but of moments.
~ Rose Kennedy ~

There are two ways of spreading light --
to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.
~ Edith Wharton ~

Sticks and stones are hard on bones
Aimed with angry art,
Words can sting like anything
But silence breaks the heart.
~ Suzanne Nichols ~



The soul can split the sky in two,
and let the face of God shine through.
~ Edna St Vincent Millay ~

Silence
We need to find God, and He cannot be found in
noise and restlessness. God is the friend of
silence. See how nature - trees, flowers, grass
-- grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and
the sun, how they move in silence...
We need silence to be able to touch souls.
~ Mother Teresa ~

"Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters
of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
and though they are with you,
and yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love,
but not your thoughts.
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies
but not their souls,
for their souls dwell
in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit,
not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward,
not tarries with yesterday."
~ Kahlil Gibran ~
"The Prophet"



"To the query, "What is a friend?" his reply was
"A single soul dwelling in two bodies."
~ Aristotle ~
384-322 BC
Greek philosopher

The day will come when,
after harnessing space,
the winds, the tides and gravitation,
we shall harness for God the energies
of love. And on that day, for the second
time in the history of the world,
we shall have discovered fire.
~ Tielhard de Chardin ~

But now I have learned to listen to silence.
To hear its choirs singing the song of ages,
chanting the hymns of space, and disclosing
the secrets of eternity.
~ Kahlil Gibran ~



Spread love everywhere you go: first of all in your own house.
Give love to your children, to your wife or husband, to a next door neighbor…
Let no one ever come to you without leaving better or happier. Be the living
expression of God’s kindness; kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes,
kindness in your smile; kindness in your warm greeting.
~ Mother Teresa ~

If there is light in the soul,
There will be beauty in the person.
If there is beauty in the person,
There will be harmony in the house.
If there is harmony in the house,
There will be order in the nation.
If there is order in the nation,
There will be peace in the world.
~ Chinese Proverb ~

For Whom The Bell Tolls
No man is an Island, entire of it self;
every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main;
if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less,
as well as if a promontory were,
as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were;
any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind;
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
~ John Donne ~



Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so you shall become.
Your vision is the promise of what you shall one day be;
your ideal is the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil.
~ James Allen ~

Be aware of wonder. Live a balanced life--
learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing
and dance and play and work every day some.
~ Robert Fulghum ~

People travel to wonder at the height of the mountains,
at the huge waves of the seas, at the long course of the rivers,
at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars,
and yet they pass by themselves without wondering.
~ St. Augustine ~



The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.
It is the source of all true art and all science.
He to whom this emotion is a stranger,
who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe,
is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.
~ Albert Einstein ~

Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, Or what's a heaven for?
~ Robert Browning ~




"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying
side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room.
"Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"

"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse.
"It's a thing that happens to you.
When a child loves you for a long, long time,
not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."

"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.

"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful.
"When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."

"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"

"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse.
"You become. It takes a long time.
That's why is doesn't often happen to people who break easily,
or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept.
Generally, by the time you are Real,
most of your hair has been loved off,
and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby.
But these things don't matter at all,
because once you are Real you can't be ugly,
except to people who don't understand."

"Once you are Real you can't become unreal again. It lasts for always."
~ Margery Williams - The Velveteen Rabbit ~





So live your life that the fear of death
Can never enter your heart.
Trouble no one about their religion;
Respect others in their view,
And demand that they respect yours.
Love your life, perfect your life,
Beautify all things in your life.
Seek to make your life long and its
Purpose in the service of your people.
Prepare a noble death song for the day
When you go over the great divide.
Always give a word or a sign of salute
When meeting or passing a friend,
Even a stranger, when in a lonely place.
Show respect to all people and grovel to none.
When you arise in the morning give thanks
For the food and for the joy of living.
If you see no reason for giving thanks,
The fault lies only in yourself.
Abuse no one and nothing,
For abuse turns the wise ones
To fools and robs the spirit of its vision.
When it comes your time to die, be not like those
Whose hearts are filled with the fear of death,
So that when their time comes
They weep and pray for a little more time
To live their lives over again in a different way.
Sing your death song and die like a hero going home.
~ Tecumseh -1808 - Sault Ste. Marie ~

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Background music, Andrea Corelli Missa Brevis