A Collection of Wisdom.

"LIFE IS NOT A JOURNEY TO THE GRAVE, WITH THE INTENTION OF ARRIVING SAFELY IN A PRETTY AND WELL PRESERVED BODY, BUT RATHER TO SKID IN BROADSIDE, THOROUGHLY USED UP, TOTALLY WORN OUT, AND LOUDLY PROCLAIMING: WOW.... WHAT A RIDE  !!!"

By Joni (Putz) Tovani, THS '50

   

Thoughts for the Week

HOW DO I GET THERE FROM HERE?

"The only disability one has is a bad attitude." Scott Hamilton
 

"Old age is like everything else - to make a success of it you have to start early." Fred Astaire

"Cherish all your happy moments; they make a fine cushion for old age." Christopher Morley

"One day, in retrospect, the years of struggle will strike you as the most beautiful." Sigmund Freud

"Conceal a flaw and the world will imagine the worst." Marcus Valerius

"People who fight fire with fire usually end up with ashes."  Abigail Van Buren

"Winners are people who didn't quit while they were failing."  Dr. Phil

"The past is over and I'm not going to roll in that mud again. I'm living in the here and now." Dr. Phil

"Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you have preferred to talk."  Doug Larson

"Dwell not on the past; use it to illustrate a point, then leave it behind." Eileen Caddy

"First keep the peace within yourself, then you can also bring peace to others." Thomas à Kempis

"A handful of patience is worth more than a bushel of brains." Dutch Proverb

"Wisdom is knowing when to speak your mind and when to mind your speak."  Unknown

"If you like a man's laugh before you know anything of him you may say with confidence that he is a good man."  T. Dostoevsky

"People with nothing to hide, hide nothing."  Dr. Phil

"I'd rather be healthy alone, than sick with someone else."  Dr. Phil

"If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow."  Chinese proverb

"When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us."  Helen Keller

"You pile up a lot of tomorrows and you'll find you've collected a lot of empty yesterdays."  Harold Hill

"Good judgment comes from experience, experience comes from bad judgment." Mark Twain

"First keep the peace within yourself, then you can also bring peace to others." Thomas A. Kempis

"A handful of patience is worth more than a bushel of brains." Dutch Proverb

"Dwell not on the past; use it to illustrate a point, then leave it behind." - Eileen Caddy

"If the world is cold, make it your business to build fires." Horace Traubel

SEEING THE WHOLE PICTURE

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us. Ralph Waldo Emerson

When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, Then, you knew my path. Psalm 142.3
 
You have to trust your inner knowing. If you have a clear mind and an open heart, you won't have to search for direction. Direction will come to you. Phil Jackson

Behind all seen things lies something vaster; everything is but a path, a portal, or a window opening on something other than itself. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

You will recognize your own path when you come upon it, because you will  suddenly have all the energy and imagination you will ever need. Jerry Gillies

The inner journey begins the moment we realize that there's more to reality than meets the eye, and that we are capable of knowing and doing everything needed to reach our destination.

Voyages are accomplished inwardly, and the most hazardous ones, needless to say, are made without moving from the spot. Henry Miller

We are made for larger ends than Earth can encompass. Oh, let us be true to our exalted destiny. Catherine Booth

I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving: to reach the port of heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it, but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor. Oliver Wendell Holmes

You have made known to me the path of life. You will fill me with joy in your presence. Psalm 16:11

Thy word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path.  Psalm 119:105

In the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in a clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness. Our life is a long and arduous quest after Truth. Mahatma Gandhi

We cannot hold a torch to light another's path without brightening our own. Ben Sweetland

Do we sincerely want this Lenten season to be a time of change for us?

Change is risky particularly when we may not be sure just where we are and who we are right now. Some people evaluate their lives by adding up the positives and negatives and hoping that the good outweighs the bad. Is life really that mechanical, that impersonal?  But what are some alternatives?

A possible answer comes in trying to see our life picture as a whole.  Perhaps the best model is a mosaic, each part of life a tile in its own place.  The tiles reveal both how we have acted and the kind of person we have been at various times.  A full, beautiful life includes dark colors along with brighter ones.  Life needs color and balance.  Dark times come to all of us. The challenge is to take our dark times and fill in brightness around them so that the total picture becomes one of light and beauty.

As we look back over our years, most of us can recall times when we have soared and been successful.  We have achieved our objectives and “hit our stride.”  No one, though, has this experience all the time.  We learn through failed experiments, mistakes and false starts.  The path to success includes small, slow steps as well as fast striding.

All of life is a treasure.  God, the master Artist, loves us and is with us in very step we take.  God watches us with tender concern as we make our way along.  Perhaps, it is the light of this love that finally makes our life mosaic shine with beauty.  Our task now is to take each step, shape and color each tile carefully, consistent with what God has made known to us.


About Life

"It doesn't interest me what you do for a living, I want to know what you ache for and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing.

It doesn't interest me how old you are, I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream for the adventure of being alive!!

It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon, I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow; if you have been opened by life's betrayals, or have become shriveled, and closed from fear of further pain.  I want to know if you can sit with pain - mine or your own - without moving to hide it, or fade from it, or fix it. I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own, if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, to be realistic and remember the limitations of being human.

I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself.  If you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul.  If you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy.  I want to know if you can see beauty even when it is not pretty every day.  And if you can source your own life from its presence. I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine - and still stand at the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the moon, "YES."

It doesn't interest me how much money you have.  I want to know if you can get up after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done to feed the children.

It doesn't interest me who you know, I want to know if you will stand in the centre of the fire with me and not shrink back."

Author only known by "Ollie."

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