“If we are strict with our mind, we can be at ease with ourselves.”
“It doesn’t matter”
“Life is Right In Any case.”
“All of life’s great lessons present themselves again and again until mastered”
“You make a living by what you get, you make a life by what you give.”
“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”
“You cannot perfect your life by perfecting your excuses.”
“To die for a religion is easier than to live it absolutely.”
“Endurance is one of the most difficult disciplines, but it is to the one who endures that the final victory comes.”
“Everything changes, nothing remains without change.”
“You will not be punished for your anger, you will be punished by your anger.”
“The way is not in the sky. The way is in the heart.”
“I do not wish for a lighter burden, but for broader shoulders.”
“Fate leads him who follows it and drags him who resist.”
“The journey is the reward.”
“I hear and I forget, I see and I remember. I do and I understand.”
“Teachers open the door, but you must walk through it yourself.”
“If we do not change our direction, we are likely to end up where we are headed.”
“The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their right names.”
“An elderly Chinese woman completed a daily trek to the stream past her home and back to supply her family with fresh water. In order to do this, she fashioned a heavy pot on each end of a long pole, which she carried across her shoulders.
One of the pots was in perfect condition and always delivered a full portion of water. The other had a deep crack in it, causing water to leak out. At the end of the long walk, the cracked pot arrived only half full.
This situation occurred daily for two years, with the woman bringing home only one and a half pots of water. Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments. But the cracked pot was ashamed of its imperfection and miserable that it could only do half of what it had been made to do.
After two years of what it had perceived to be bitter failure, the cracked pot spoke to the woman by the stream. “I am ashamed,” it said. “This crack in my side causes water to leak out. You work so hard and yet have little water once you return home.”
The old woman smiled and replied, “Did you notice that there are flowers on your side of the path? I have always known about your flaw, so I planted flower seeds on your side of the path. Every day, while we walked back home, you watered those seeds and helped them to grow. For two years, I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate the table and give to neighbors. Without you being just the way you are, there would not have been this special beauty to grace our homes and lives.””Chinese Proverb
“No, try not, do or do not, there is no try.”
“The dictionary is the only place where success comes before work.”
A Word
A Careless word may Kindle strife
A Cruel word may Wreck a life
A Bitter word may Hate instill
A Brutal word may Smite and Kill
A Gracious word may Smooth the Way
A Joyous word may Light the Day
A Timely word may Lessen stress
A Loving word may Heal and Bless
Just For Today
Just for Today,
Let go of Anger;
Just for Today,
Let go of Worry;
Just for Today,
Count your Blessings and Honor
your Parents, Teachers and Neighbors;
Just for Today,
Live Honestly;
Just for Today,
Be Kind to ALL Living Things.
“Imagine life is a game in which you are juggling 5 balls. The balls are called family, work, health, friends and integrity and you are keeping all of them in the air. But one day you finally come to understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will always bounce back. The other 4 balls; family, health, friends and integrity are made of glass. If you drop one of these, it will be irrevocably scuffed, nicked or perhaps even shattered. Once you truly understand the lesson of the “5 balls” you will have the beginnings of balance in your life.”
“Every Journey has a Secret destination of which the traveler is Unaware.”
“Don’t confuse me with the facts. My mind is already made up.”
“The great tragedy of life is not that people set their sights too high and fail to achieve their goals, but that they set their sights too low and do.”
“Nails in the Fence
There once was a young girl with a bad temper and a sharp tongue. After getting in trouble at school several times for verbally abusing her classmates, her mother gave her a bag of nails and told her that every time she said something hurtful, she must hammer a nail into the back of the fence. The first day the girl drove several nails into the fence. Over the next few weeks, she learned to control her anger, and the number of nails hammered daily gradually dwindled down because she could now see how many people she had hurt, and she felt terrible about it.Finally, the day came when the girl didn’t lose her temper at all. She told her mother about it and her mother told her to pull out one nail for each day that she didn’t say anything hurtful. The days passed, and the young girl finally told her mother there were no more nails in the fence.
Her mother took her by the hand and led her to the fence. She said, “You have done well, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say hurtful things, they make a hole in the person’s heart, just like the nails did to the fence. It doesn’t matter how many times you say I’m sorry. The hole is still there. It takes more than just not being hurtful to heal a wound.
It takes love to repair a hole in a heart.”
An elder sitting with his grandchildren told them: “In every life, there is a terrible fight between two powerful wolves. One is evil: he is fear, anger, envy, greed, arrogance, self-pity, resentment, and deceit. The other is good: joy, serenity, humility, confidence, truth, gentleness and compassion.”
One child asked: “Grandfather, which one will win?”
The elder looked him straight in the eye and said: “The one you feed.”
“If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there.”
“War doesn’t determine who is Right. War determines who is Left!”
“We are not Defined by the Cards Life Deals Us. Rather, we are Defined by How We Play Those Cards.”
“You were Born to Live. You are not Living because You were Born!”
“In theory, Theory and Practice are the same. In Practice, they are not.”
“Technique is what you fall back on when you run out of Inspiration”
“Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.”
“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.”
“The road to success is always under construction.”
“The goal of education is understanding; the goal of training is performance.”
“A clever person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it.”
“After Ecstasy, the Laundry”
Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi
Lord, make me an instrument of Your Peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow Love;
Where there is injury, Pardon;
Where there is doubt, Faith;
Where there is despair, Hope;
Where there is darkness, Light;
Where there is sadness, Joy.Oh Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
It is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
The Way of Things
He who wants to have Right without Wrong, Order without Disorder;
does not understand the Principles of Heaven and Earth.
He does not understand how Things hang Together.