"People only see what they are prepared to see."
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be."
-Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)

"The essence of knowledge is, having it, to apply it; not having it, to confess your ignorance"
Confucius

"Despair is sometimes the great energizer of the mind, though sometimes its flowering may be sterile. "
Taylor Caldwell

"Music should strike fire from the heart of man, and bring tears form the eyes of woman."
Ludwig Van Beethoven
Note: Sent from Phil Keefe

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

How to Remember a Name
Rehearse it using the SALT method
Say the Name out Loud
Ask the person a question using their name
At Least once use the name in a conversation
Terminate the conversation using the person's name
Source Best Life Magazine- October 2004

"There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the
proportion." Sir Francis Bacon
Sent by NJC

"I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free."
Michelangelo

"Life is like a game of cards. The hand that is dealt you is determinism; the way you play it is free will."
Jawaharlal Nehru

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 you ever can.
Make all you can, save all you can, give all you can.
- John Wesley
Note: Sent from Carol Clay in North Carolina

When ancient opinions and rules of life are taken away, the loss cannot possibly be estimated. From that moment we have no compass to govern us, nor can we know distinctly to what port to steer. - Edmund Burke

The secret of happiness is to admire without desiring
Carl Sandburg

Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination nor both together go to the making of genius.  Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

"Valueing The Moment"

"... the only time you ever have in which to learn anything or see anything or feel anything, or express any feeling or emotion, or respond to an event, or grow, or heal, is this moment, because this is the only moment any of us ever gets. You’re only here now; you’re only alive in this moment."

-- Jon Kabat-Zinn

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 shrivelled 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 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
be realistic
remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me
is true.
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 full moon,
“Yes.”

It doesn’t interest me
to know where you live or 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
or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand
in the centre of the fire
with me
and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom
you have studied.
I want to know what sustains you
from the inside
when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone
with yourself
and if you truly like the company you keep
in the empty moments© Oriah Mountain Dreamer,from the book The Invitation

Happiness is neither virtue nor pleasure nor this thing nor that but simply growth, We are happy when we are growing.
William Butler Yeats

Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength
Arnold Schwarzenegger

"I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeeed."
Michael Jordan

"How far that little candle throws its beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world." - William Shakespeare

"I think in terms of the day's resolutions, not the year's." Henry Moore

"When I had youth I had no money; now I have the money I have no time; and when I get the time, if I ever do, I shall have no health to enjoy life. I suppose it’s the discipline I need; but it’s rather hard to love the things I do, and see them go by because duty chains me to my galley. If I ever come into port with all sails set, that will be my reward perhaps."
Louisa May Alcott