Life

[citychick]

There must be a place where hopes and dreams are nurtured, and that place is only within ourselves. A place to clean the grime of life, a place that waits for us to stay and look inside that we might see the truth.

Cliff Robertson

So many of life's secrets are contained within ourselves that it's a great shame that we aren't helped to look more deeply into ourselves at an early age. If we allow ourselves to know ourselves better than we know other things, then we will have those places inside to which we can retreat when we need peace and silence, those places inside that help us to feel a sense of balance and belonging, that sense that helps us to see the world as it really is rather than as we imagine it to be.

Our hopes and dreams do not lie outside of ourselves, no matter how many objects that we desire are there. They do not lie in other people and their "power" to make our lives better or worse. Inside of ourselves are many wonderful places that can help us to make sense of this world and our places in it, but to access these places, we must be willing to step back from the world and spend some time alone, in silence, in thought that is positive and constructive. We must be willing to learn from ourselves about ourselves, and we must do our best to hear what we have to teach ourselves above all the noise that the world around us contributes.

The truth is here, inside each of us. It is there, inside of you. Do you see it? Do you feel it? Are you willing to give yourself the opportunity to learn something that no one else on this planet can teach you? If you are, you'll find that the benefits of doing so will be tremendous, for you'll find an entirely new perspective on life, one that allows you to live with a new sense of purpose and a new understanding of just where you fit in on this planet of ours.

Nurture your hopes and dreams--they are yours, and they are very valuable. The more you nurture your own hopes and dreams, the more you'll be able to contribute to the nurturing of the hopes and dreams of the people whose lives you touch.

~~~

How might you go about looking for those nurturing places
inside of yourself?

[indigo]

Thank you cc.

[Ann]

There must be a place where hopes and dreams are nurtured, and that place is only within ourselves.

CC, those words were just what this codie needed to read this morning. Love you for peeking in my window.

[citychick]

Ann n indie

[citychick]

I have never been bored an hour in my life. I get up every
morning wondering what new strange glamorous thing is going
to happen and it happens at fairly regular intervals. Lady Luck
has been good to me and I fancy she has been good to
everyone. Only some people are dour, and when she gives them
the come hither with her eyes, they look down or turn away
and lift an eyebrow. But me, I give her the wink and away we go.

William Allen White

I like this guy's attitude. If I can wake up in the morning looking forward to what the day has to bring me, I'll be in great shape every day of my life. His attitude doesn't depend on what the day gives him--it takes what the day gives and loves it and lives it. This kind of attitude sure could make for a lot of wonderful days, all in a row, and a lot of wonderful days in a row could make for a great year, and eventually a great life.

When life says "come here and live me," I hope that I'm up to the challenge of accepting the invitation, no matter how threatening or out-of-the-ordinary it may seem to me. When life says "do something new and different and enjoy what I have to give," I hope that I'm willing to take the risk and see what happens, even if things don't turn out the way I hope they might.

The most important thing to me about all this is that William truly TRUSTS life. There are no if's, no and's, no but's. He trusts life and he takes it on its terms, not on his own. He knows that life has many truly great things to offer, and he's on a treasure hunt, looking for them all. He truly is living a full life by living each day in its own special way, taking what it has to offer and making the most of it.

~~~

A further thought:

If I had my life to live over, I would try to make more mistakes.
I would relax. I would be sillier than I have been this trip.
I know of very few things that I would take seriously. I would
be less hygienic. I would go more places. I would climb more mountains and swim more rivers. I would eat more
ice cream and less bran.

Don Herold

[citychick]

If your eyes follow the movement of the rotating pink dot, you will only see one color, pink. If you stare at the black + in the center, the moving dot turns to green. Now, concentrate on the black + in the center of the picture. After a short period of time, all the pink dots will slowly disappear, and you will only see a green dot rotating if you're lucky! It's amazing how our brain works. There really is no green dot, and the pink ones really don't disappear.

This should be proof enough, we don't always see what we think we see.

[citychick]

Whether one is twenty, forty, or sixty; whether
one has succeeded, failed, or just muddled along; whether yesterday was full of sun or storm,
or one of those dull days with no weather at all,
life begins each morning!

Leigh Mitchell Hodges


My life did begin anew this morning, after I finished my sleep. Today is a completely new day, and it's mine to do with as I please. What happens to me today will be completely new and different, and I have the choice all day long to react to similar things in different ways if the way that I've been reacting doesn't serve me.

Yesterday is gone, and while some things that happened yesterday may affect today, that doesn't mean that those things have to control today's actions or reactions. If yesterday I got angry at a certain something, I have the choice today to react differently to something similar, or even to make up for the anger if it was hurtful to someone.

Years ago, there was a very popular saying: "Today is the first day of the rest of your life." How true that is, yet how little we seem to take it to heart. We can start all over today, and we can start to make changes today, if we wish to. Too often we hold on to the baggage that we packed yesterday, and we allow it to keep us firmly planted in the same old way of doing things, of seeing the world.

Today's a new day! It's calling for a new you, as every day does. It's offering you a wide variety of things to do, people to see, experiences to learn from, and wonders to appreciate and be thankful for. The only question is simple: Is this how you choose to see this new today that you've been given?

~~~

A further thought:

I have always been delighted at the prospect of a new day,
a fresh try, one more start, with perhaps a bit of magic
waiting somewhere behind the morning.

J.B. Priestley

[citychick]

Resentment is the number one offender. It destroys more alcoholics than anything else. From it stem all forms of spiritual disease, for we have been not only mentally and physically ill, we have been spiritually sick.

Alcoholics Anonymous

If we're overweight and we want to do something about it, we watch what we eat, what we put into our bodies. If we have an upset stomach, we watch what we put into our bodies so that our stomach can get better. If we get a splinter, we take it out so that the harmful foreign object can't continue to hurt us.

There are so many things that hurt our spirit, though, that we just leave as they are, and we make little effort to get them out of our lives. Something like resentment can eat us up inside like a cancer, turning our days and nights into miserable experiences, yet there's no such thing as a pair of tweezers that will pull out resentment or anger like there is to pull out splinters. Besides, these things that hurt our spirits are invisible, and we really can't see them to pull them out.

But we have to take care of our spirits just as we take care of our bodies--in fact, if we do take good care of our spirits, we'll find that our bodies are much healthier as a result. As will be our relationships with others, our work performance, our state of mind, and so much more. Our stress levels will be lower and our outlook on life will be more positive, leading to even greater improvements in all aspects of our lives.

If you resent someone or something, you are doing no harm at all to the object of your resentment. You are, however, harming your own body and spirit in a significant way, holding yourself back from improving yourself and your life. Spiritual illness shows itself in physical ways, so if you can imagine a pair of resentment or anger or jealousy tweezers, use them to pull that negative part of yourself right out. Your spirit--and your body--will appreciate the effort.

~~~~

Eugene Carman

Rhodes' slave! Selling shoes and gingham,
Flour and bacon, overalls, clothing, all day long
For fourteen hours a day for three hundred and thirteen days
For more than twenty years.
Saying "Yes'm" and "Yes, sir" and "Thank you"
A thousand times a day, and all for fifty dollars a month.
Living in this stinking room in the rattle-trap "Commercial."
And compelled to go to Sunday School, and to listen
To the Rev. Abner Peet one hundred and four times a year
For more than an hour at a time,
Because Thomas Rhodes ran the church
As well as the store and the bank.
So while I was tying my neck-tie that morning
I suddenly saw myself in the glass:
My hair all gray, my face like a sodden pie.
So I cursed and cursed: You damned old thing!
You cowardly dog! You rotten pauper!
You Rhodes' slave! Till Roger Baughman
Thought I was having a fight with some one,
And looked through the transom just in time
To see me fall on the floor in a heap
From a broken vein in my head.

Edgar lee Masters
from Spoon River Anthology

[citychick]

You may not have saved a lot of money in your life,
but if you have saved a lot of heartaches for other folks,
you are a pretty rich person.

Seth Parker

Sometimes I wish that money weren't an issue in my life, and that means that I wish I had enough to take care of all of our needs without worrying about whether there will be enough money left when the bills come due. Sometimes I think that if I had just saved more money systematically as I went through life, I would be in a position in which money weren't an issue.

But then I think about the nature of money--most religious leaders warn against stockpiling possessions, and money is a possession. Spending a lot of energy trying to save cash takes away from other pursuits, such as helping other people and showing kindness to our neighbors. These are the things of lasting value, the things that make a life truly successful.

On the day I die, would I be prouder to stand there and say "I have a lot of money in the bank," or would I be prouder to say "I've contributed to making other people's lives easier or more fulfilling"? I know the answer to that one. Every single day that we live, we have the opportunity to help someone else. We can encourage, we can compliment, we can lend a hand carrying something or taking care of some chore for that someone. We can teach someone how to do something, or we can give them moral support as they learn elsewhere. The number of ways that we can give to others truly is unlimited, and we can make ourselves very rich if we can focus our energies on these things.

Yes, it's nerve-wracking. We have creditors. We can't stop earning and paying money just to perform altruistic deeds. But we can keep a sense of perspective. One of the most important lessons I ever learned in my life came in three short words. A friend who was the father of six children took them all once to an amusement park, and they invited me along--and they even paid my way. That evening when we were talking about the day, I mentioned how expensive it must have been. With a wry half-smile, he said simply, "It's only money."

[Ann]

CC, I thought of your signature last week when the weather was poor up on an island north of here. I had a wonderful time with SR member, Mooselips, and her family, and knowing how to dance in the rain came in handy

" Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass...it's about learning to dance in the rain."

[CriseAbsolute]

I love these type of quotes!
This is my favourite: "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans"

It all comes to the same, the fact that life is about enjoying the moment...

[citychick]

I can just imagine your island Ann. All green and wonderful.

Now I'm seeing you and Mooselips dancing in the rain. Ahh, the power of imagination.


CriseAbsolute Hi.

"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans"

I like that quote too. I don't make too many plans these days, but, things seem to work out beautifully anyway. Maybe that's going with the flow?

[CriseAbsolute]

Originally Posted by citychick

I can just imagine your island Ann. All green and wonderful.

Now I'm seeing you and Mooselips dancing in the rain. Ahh, the power of imagination.


CriseAbsolute Hi.



I like that quote too. I don't make too many plans these days, but, things seem to work out beautifully anyway. Maybe that's going with the flow?

My definition of going with the flow is: Listening to the silence and hearing more than listening to the noise...

Have a nice day!

[citychick]

Contentment. . . comes as the infallible result
of great acceptances, great humilities—of
not trying to make ourselves this or that
(to conform to some dramatized version
of ourselves), but of surrendering ourselves
to the fullness of life—of letting life flow
through us.

David Grayson

It seems to go against the grain of all I've learned in life to "surrender myself." After all, surrendering implies losing and giving up, doesn't it? It sounds like a very negative term in this day and age in which we live. But as I grow older, I learn that the definition that I've learned and accepted for "surrender" isn't necessarily the right one, and that the one that makes the most sense has more to do with acceptance than it has to do with losing anything.

I now try to surrender myself to the flow of life, trying to accept what other people are doing as their contributions to life, and trying not to impose my will on what they're doing or trying to do. I try to allow myself to be myself and not conform to what I think I should be. I know that if I can truly accept myself and others exactly as I am and give up my efforts to fit some sort of mold that really isn't me, I can be much more content with the life that I'm living.

I can get much more out of life by going with the flow. This doesn't mean that I become a passive person who never expresses an opinion or tries to change something that needs changing. Rather, it means that I become someone who doesn't base my thoughts of self-worth on what I think I should be and whether I'm living up to that artificial standard. It means that I recognize that I am an important part of the world with a great contribution to make, but so are others. And I can be more content with my own place in the world when I accept the contributions of others without thinking that I have to fix them or make them better.

Life flows, with or without me. Do I flow with it and enjoy the ride, or do I fight the current and guarantee my own discontent?

[Rusty Zipper]

I'm still sailing along with the HMS Flowzilla

[geekorunique]

CC - have only had time to read through your first couple of posts today but what an inspiration. To see someone who is clearly spiritually well and happy with it is such a blessing.

I have always had a higher power in my life, it's only through going to AA that I feel accepted by that higher power and by other people. I have always felt different, apart from instead of a part of. Lately though I've struggled and I know it's because I didn't do what was suggested. I got into a relationship and I got hurt, I acted appallingly and I should have listened to my sponsor. Deep down in my heart I knew it wasn't right but I'm so pig headed that I wouldn't admit it.

I am trying to build more of a conscious contact with God - I am going to get up just that bit earlier in the mornings to have my quiet time and meditation. There isn't a single day that I have done that when it hasn't made me feel better. I believe that he will only come into my life and take my will if I hand it over.

Thanks for making me stop and think today - what a blessing that is.

Love to you all xxx

[Ann]

Just what I needed to read today, CC. Feeling restless, trying to decide whether I want to go back to work part time or just volunteer, and still keep lots of "me" time to enjoy semi-retirement and this reminder to just go with the flow helps me remember that some days I can just show up and let life happen.

Hugs

[Boleo]

Originally Posted by citychick

[CENTER]
...Keep your attention to the present moment, and in the place where your body is now....

Sounds a bit like;

"Power of Now" of Eckhart Tolle
"The Gap" of Deepak Chopra
"Zen" of Buddhism
"Wu-wei" of Taoism

[citychick]

Hi geekorunique, thank you for your honesty and openness. I relate to much of what you say and I'd love to take credit for writing these posts but I don't. I choose them at random..whatever speaks to my heart on the day is what I post here.

~~~~~
Hey, Ann, what did you decide about going back to work?

Yesterday I agreed to volunteer in a program that's aimed at special needs teenagers and I'll be starting next Tuesday afternoon. It's a God job as I was inquiring about something unrelated when the volunteer position was offered.

~~~~

Pattee, if that's the dingy I can't wait to see what it's attached to.

~~~~

Boleo, yes, you're right, it does.

The more spirituality I read the more I see common threads running through.

[citychick]

The world has a way of giving what is demanded of it. If you are frightened and look for failure and poverty, you will get them, no matter how hard you may try to succeed. Lack of faith in yourself, in what life will do for you, cuts you off from the good things of the world.
Expect victory and you make victory.

Preston Bradley

I've read many, many books in the last few years that talk about the power that we have to create our own lives, to make things happen in our lives rather than waiting passively for them to occur. It's kind of a scary thought, because it implies our responsibility for the way things are in our lives. If things are going wrong, then we have contributed to the negative occurrences through our own thoughts and actions.

The more I read and try to put into practice the principles that I read, the more I'm convinced that Preston is right--if we expect negative things in our lives, that's exactly what we'll get. If, on the other hand, we expect prosperity and peace and positive things, guess what we'll get?

Unfortunately, most of us aren't able to make a shift like this for the long run. In our age of immediate gratification, if we try to be positive for a month and we don't see great changes in our lives, we're likely to give up and say "See? Even when I try this, it doesn't work!"

The world is a mirror. It gives back to us what we give to it. If we give it a frightened, tentative attitude, it responds on that level. It has to, because it responds to what we give it. We're not talking about what other people give us as individuals, but what the world as a whole gives to us.

A consistently positive attitude creates a consistently positive return. You do have it within your power to prove this in your own life, and of turning your life into a reflection of an attitude that focuses on beauty and empowerment and love.

[NewBeginning010]

"It need not discourage us if we are full of doubts.
Healthy questions keep faith dynamic.
In fact, unless we start with doubts we cannot have
a deep-rooted faith.
One who believes lightly and unthinkingly has not much
of a belief. One who has a faith which is not to be shaken has won it through
blood and tears--has worked his or her way from doubt to truth as one
who reaches a clearing through a thicket of brambles and thorns.

Helen Keller"

I needed to read this today, thank you

Namaste

[Dee74]

so this is where you've been hangin' out CC
good to see you - will be back LOL

D

[Ann]

A consistently positive attitude creates a consistently positive return. You do have it within your power to prove this in your own life, and of turning your life into a reflection of an attitude that focuses on beauty and empowerment and love.

Wow, how true this has shown itself to be in my life. The more I maintain a positive attitude, the more positive my life becomes.

Small problems lead me to pray "If this is the worst thing that happens to me today, thank You God. "

Big problems lead me to believe that God has other plans and whatever they are will lead me to someplace even better than where I am.

Those aren't just words, they are deep thoughts that keep me sane and help me maintain an attitude of gratitude....and thoughts that produce a positive response as I live life on life's terms.

Thanks, CC, you inspire me more than you can ever know.

Hugs

[Rusty Zipper]

CC

Pattee, if that's the dingy I can't wait to see what it's attached to.

why CC,

it's attached to the Universe!

[citychick]

Thanks Ann, you've inspired me for a long time.

The art of living does not consist in preserving and clinging
to a particular mood of happiness, but in allowing happiness
to change its form. . . happiness, like a child,
must be allowed to grow up.

Charles L. Morgan

Boy do we get frustrated when we try to keep things the same. We may feel good today and hope to keep that feeling for a while, but you know, days change, situations change, people change, and moods change. What made us happy years ago does no longer, and what will make us happy tomorrow can't be the same things that make us happy today.

I used to love watching Winnie the Pooh cartoons. Now, they're enjoyable, but not nearly as much as they used to be. I used to love hot chocolate, but now I prefer a nice hot cup of tea. There was a day long ago when playing baseball was one of my favorite things in the world; I haven't played in years now, and to be honest, I don't really miss it at all.

I've grown, and I've changed. My tastes are different, as are my desires. My happiness now is dependent on what I give to the world, not what I take from it. I'm most happy when I see other people feeling happy, not when I buy things or receive gifts or even accomplish a difficult task. The accomplishments are fine, for I love taking on challenges and rising to the occasion, but that still doesn't compare to the feeling I get when I see someone else happy, especially when I had something to do with them being happy. Perhaps it was something I said or did, something very slight and seemingly unimportant, but it sure did something for someone else.

Too many people not only try to hold on to happiness, but they try to recapture happiness from times before. "You can't go home again" is a very true saying, for truly going home would be an attempt to recapture the past. The past is gone, and today is here. We're older and wiser and more capable of taking all we can from the present moment, so here the present moment is--what are you waiting for?