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It
is only with the heart that one can see rightly;
what is essential is invisible to the eye.
Antoine
de Saint-Exupery |
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perspective
- perspective
2 - perspective 4
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One
evening at Sagamore Hill, President Theodore Roosevelt's home
in New York, naturalist William Beebe walked outside with his
host.
Roosevelt searched the star-filled night sky and, finding a small
glow
below the corner of the constellation Pegasus, he said, "This
is the spiral
galaxy Andromeda. It is as large as our Milky Way. It
consists of
one hundred billion suns. It is one of a hundred billion
galaxies."
Then Roosevelt looked at Beebe and said, "Now, I think
we are small enough! Let's go to bed."
unattributed |
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Despite
all the doom and gloom that constantly assaults our senses, there
is a way for us
to ransom our lives and reclaim our futures: it consists in
turning away from the world
to recognize what in life makes us truly happy. For each of
us, what that is will be different.
But once we obtain this inner knowledge, we will possess the
ability to transform our outer world.
"You can live a lifetime and, at the end of it, know more
about other people than you know
about yourself," the pilot and writer Beryl Markham reminds
us.
We cannot let this continue to occur.
Sarah Ban
Breathnach
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Merely
looking at the world around us
is immensely different from seeing it.
Frederick
Frank |
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What
people most need now is to apply their
conversion skills to those things that are
essential for their survival.
They need
to convert facts into logic, free will
into purpose, conscience into decision.
They need to convert historical experience
into a design for a sane world.
Norman
Cousins |
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Today's
world needs change, alteration, renewal, and corrections
of errors. It
needs new ideas, new approaches, methods, plans,
procedures, and new ways of doing things.
Maybe you should think of going -- literally or
symbolically -- to a circus today, where you'll see stunts
you never dreamed possible.
The novelty and originality there may stimulate
what you need more of in this life.
Have the daring to take a flight for the idea you
believe in!
Wilferd
A. Peterson |
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Nothing
is too great or too good to be true.
Do not believe that we can
imagine things better than they are.
In the long run, in the
ultimate outlook, in the eye of the Creator,
the possibilities of existence,
the possibilities open to us,
are beyond our imagination.
Joseph
Wood Krutch |
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There
is no enlightenment outside of daily life.
Thich
Nhat Hanh |
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In
this world there is nothing
softer or thinner than water.
But to compel the hard and
unyielding, it has no equal.
That the weak overcomes
the strong, that the hard gives
way to the gentle – This everyone
knows, yet no one acts accordingly.
Lao-Tzu |
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When
we look for the good in others,
we discover the best in ourselves.
Martin
Walsh |
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When
you fall in a river, you’re no longer
a fisherman; you’re a swimmer.
Gene Hill |
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People
go abroad to wonder at the heights of the mountains,
at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers,
at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the
stars;
and they pass by themselves without wondering.
St. Augustine |
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Invest in the “process” rather than the
product. Process
living neutralizes
the depleting and impoverishing effects of chronically living in
anticipation. Even
when
impossible goals occasionally are reached, satisfactions derived
from them are
invariably disappointing unless the process has given ample
satisfaction along the way.
Theodore Rubin |
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Recently
my fingers have developed a prejudice against comparatives.
They all follow this pattern:
a squirrel is smaller than a tree; a bird is
more musical than a tree.
Each of us is the strongest one in his or her
own skin.
Characteristics should take off their hats to one another,
instead of spitting in each other’s faces.
Bertolt Brecht |
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We’re
all doing time. As soon as we get born, we find
ourselves assigned to one little body, one set of desires
and fears, one family, city, state, country, and planet.
Who can ever understand exactly why or how it comes down
as it does? The
bottom line is, here we are.
Whatever,
wherever we are, this is what we’ve got.
It’s up
to us whether we do it as easy time or hard time.
Bo Lozoff |
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You
cannot stay on the summit forever; you have to come down again. .
. .
So why bother in the first place?
Just this:
what is above knows what is below,
but what is below does not know what is above.
One climbs, one sees.
One descends, one sees no longer but one has seen.
There is an art
to conducting oneself in the lower regions by the memory of what
one
saw higher up.
When one can no longer see, one can at least still know.
Rene Daumal |
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We do not see things as they are.
We see them as we are.
The Talmud |
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We are not rich by what we possess but rather by
what we can do without.
Immanuel Kant |
Things don’t change, but by and by
our wishes
change.
Marcel Proust |
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When the stomach is full, it is easy to talk of
fasting.
St. Jerome |
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When
things are bad, we take comfort in the thought
that they could always be worse.
And when they are, we find hope
in the thought that things are so bad they have to get better.
Malcolm S. Forbes |
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There
is no greater mistake in the world than the looking
upon every sort of nonsense as want of sense.
Leigh Hunt |
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The way out is through
the door you came in.
R.D. Laing |
A moment’s insight is sometimes
worth a life’s experience.
Oliver Wendell Holmes |
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So
much has been given to me; I have no time
to ponder over that which has been denied.
Helen Keller |
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Live
every day to fulfill your personal mission.
God has a reason for
whatever season you are living through right now.
A season of loss
or blessing?
A season of activity or hibernation?
A season of growth
or incubation?
You may think you’re on a detour, but God knows the
best way for you to reach your destination.
Barbara Johnson |
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I
know what’s happening in this world—there are liars and
cheats,
there’s prejudice, violence, greed, sickness—I know
what’s happening.
I’m not going to let it deter me from
living my life, though.
Look, I live in this world, and dammit,
I’m going to be cheerful and positive about living in this
world.
Joseph Raymond |
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The
world is a looking-glass, and gives back to everyone
the reflection of our own faces. Frown at it, and it
in turn will look sourly on you; laugh at it and with
it, and it is a jolly, kind companion.
William
Makepeace Thackeray |
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If we would only give, just once, the same amount
of reflection
to what we want to get out of life that we give to the question
of what to do with a two weeks’ vacation, we would be startled
at
our false standards and the aimless procession of our busy days.
Dorothy Canfield Fisher |
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There
are no little events in life, those we think of no consequence
may be full of fate, and it is at our own risk if we neglect
the acquaintances and opportunities that seem to be casually
offered, and of small importance.
Amelia Barr |
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Everywhere I go, I find a poet has been there
before me.
Sigmund Freud |
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Since
we tend to see ourselves primarily in the light of our intentions,
which are invisible to others, while we see others mainly in the
light
of their actions, which are all that’s visible to us, we have a
situation
in which misunderstanding and injustice are the order of the day.
J.G. Bennett |
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We
have moments of such clarity, of such appreciation of the
incredible web
of interconnected events that carry us from breath to breath, day
to day,
as long as we live--and the next moment we fret about how much we
weigh.
Or who we didn't send a Valentine. Or who forgot to
compliment the dinner. Or whatever.
Sylvia Boorstein |
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People are buffeted by circumstances so long as
they believe themselves
to be creatures of outside conditions.
But when they realize that they are
creative powers, and
that they may command the hidden soil and seeds
of their being out
of which circumstances grow, they then become the
rightful masters
of themselves. . . . Circumstances do not make the person;
they
reveal the person to him or herself.
James Allen |
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Whenever
I hear a statement that seems to be complete
nonsense, I try to pay closer attention to the meaning behind
that statement, for I know that somewhere in there is a grain
of truth that may fly in the face of what we "know" to
be right
and true, but that can provide me with a truly new and unique
way of seeing things. And it's the new that keeps my life
vital
and dynamic, not the old, "sensible" way of looking at
the world.
Besides, most of the "sensible" beliefs about life and
living are
disproved, leaving us to wonder why we believed in them anyway.
tom walsh |
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The
great lesson from the true mystics is that the sacred
is in the ordinary, that it is to be found in one's daily life,
in one's neighbors, friends, and family, in one's backyard.
Abraham
H. Maslow |
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A
carpenter and his apprentice were walking together through a large
forest.
And when they came across a tall, huge, gnarled, old, beautiful
oak tree,
the carpenter asked his apprentice: "Do you know why
this tree
is so tall, so huge, so gnarled, so old and beautiful?"
The apprentice
looked at his master and said: "No. . .
why?" "Well," the carpenter said,
"because it is useless. If it had been useful it would
have been cut
long ago and made into tables and chairs, but because it is
useless it
could grow so tall and so beautiful that you can sit in its shade
and relax."
Tao
Story |
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was driving north on Highway 101, just ten minutes past
the Golden Gate Bridge, on my way to the Richmond Bridge
in San Rafael. I planned to cross the bay and drive
on north from there to Antioch, where I had an important
business meeting. Even though it was midday, I found
myself suddenly in gridlock traffic. I thought I
might miss my appointment in Antioch. I began to
feel anxious. I became irritated at the drivers I
saw joining the freeway traffic from entrance ramps
without leaving any space for the cars already on the
highway to move forward. It was looking less and
less likely that I'd be at my appointment on time. I
noticed that my body had become tense and I was gripping
the wheel. Then I looked out the driver's side
window and saw Mount Tamalpais. I looked out to my
right and saw Richardson Bay. I thought, "I am
sitting between two major tourist attractions.
People come from all over the world to sit exactly where I
am sitting right now in order to have this
view." I sat back and appreciated the
view. My hands unclenched. My body
relaxed. My mind relaxed. Then I had this big
revelation.
This was
my revelation: "I'll get to Antioch when I get
to Antioch. Maybe today. Maybe not
today. Maybe I'll be there for the meeting.
Maybe I won't be there for the meeting. Whatever
will be will be. My getting aggravated is not
changing the situation. It is making it worse."
When the
traffic did start up again, I didn't drive too fast, so I
didn't become a menace to myself and everyone else on the
highway. That's the important part. . . . You need
to keep looking for whatever perspective you can find that
will transform the moment.
Art
George
as related to Sylvia
Boorstein |
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