our fourth page of quotations on perspective

We can see in the puddle either
the mud or the reflection of
the blue sky, just as we choose.

Lucy Fitch Perkins

perspective - perspective 2 - perspective 3

There is an old story about a man who wrote to the department
of agriculture in his state to find out how to cope with the crabgrass
that was spoiling his lawn. The department responded with a number
of suggestions. The man tried them all, but he could not completely
eliminate the crabgrass. Exasperated, he wrote the department again,
noting that every method they had suggested had failed. His yard
was still riddled with crabgrass. He got back a short reply:
"We suggest you learn to love it."
This is the art of reframing, redefining something so that it is
no longer as problematic. It isn't the situation that is changed,
of course; it is your perspective on the situation.

Robert H. and Jeanette C. Lauer

An archer competing for a clay
vessel shoots effortlessly, his
or her skill and concentration
unimpeded.   If the prize is
changed to a brass ornament,
the hands begin to shake.   If
it is changed to gold, he or she
squints as if going blind.   The
abilities do not deteriorate, but
belief in them does, as he or she
allows the supposed value of an
external reward to cloud the vision.

Chuang-tse

Learn to see what is in front of you,
rather than what you learned is there.

Stephen C. Paul

Argue for your limitations, and sure enough, they’re yours.

Richard Bach

When life's problems seem overwhelming,
look around and see
what other people are coping with.
You may consider yourself fortunate.

Ann Landers

To view your life as blessed does not require you to deny your pain.
It simply demands a more complicated vision, one in which a condition
or event is not either good or bad but is, rather,
both good and bad, not sequentially, but simultaneously.

Nancy Mairs

There is no danger of eyestrain from
looking on the bright side of things.

anon

Rabbi Harold Kushner reminds us that everything that God has created is potentially holy.
Our task as humans is to find that holiness in what appear to be unholy situations.
He suggests that when we can learn to do this, we will have learned to nurture our souls.
It's easy to see God's beauty in a beautiful sunrise, a snow-capped mountain, the smile
of a healthy child, or in ocean waves crashing on a sandy beach. But can we learn
to find the holiness in seemingly ugly circumstances--difficult life lessons,
a family tragedy, or a struggle for life?

Richard Carlson

It is not the eye that sees the beauty of the heaven, nor the ear that hears
the sweetness of music or the glad tidings of a prosperous occurrence,
but the soul, that perceives all the relishes of sensual and
intellectual perfections; and the more noble and excellent the soul is,
the greater and more savory are its perceptions.

Jeremy Taylor

Hey mister, where you goin' in such a hurry?
Don't you think it's time you realize
There's a whole lot more to life than work and worry
All the sweetest things in life are free
And they're right before your eyes?
You've got to stop and smell the roses
You've got to count your many blessings every day
You're gonna find your way to heaven is a rough and rocky road
If you don't stop and smell the roses along the way

Mac Davis

If only the people who worry about their liabilities would think
about the riches they do possess, they would stop worrying.
Would you sell both your eyes for a million dollars. . . or your
two legs. . . or your hands. . . or your hearing? Add up what
you do have, and you’ll find that you won’t sell them for all
the gold in the world. The best things in life are yours,
if you can appreciate yourself.

Dale Carnegie

When we plant a rose seed in the earth, we notice it is small, but we do not criticize it
as "rootless and stemless." We treat it as a seed, giving it the water and nourishment required
of a seed. When it first shoots up out of the earth, we don't condemn it as immature
and underdeveloped, nor do we criticize the buds for not being open when they appear.
We stand in wonder at the process taking place, and give the plant the care it needs
at each stage of its development. The rose is a rose from the time it is a seed to the time it dies.
Within it, at all times, it contains its whole potential. It seems to be constantly in the process
of change: Yet at each state, at each moment, it is perfectly all right as it is. A flower is not better
when it blooms than when it is merely a bud; at each stage it is the same thing --
a flower in the process of expressing its potential.

Timothy Gallwey

We do a lot of vacillating between old ideas and new ways of thinking.
Be patient with yourself through this process. Beating yourself up only
keeps you stuck. It's better to build yourself up instead. Anything you say
or think is an affirmation. Really be aware of your thoughts and your words;
you might discover that a lot of them are very negative. Many people tend
to approach life through negative eyes. They take an ordinary situation like
a rainy day and say something like, "Oh what a terrible day." It isn't
a terrible day. It's a wet day. To create a wonderful day sometimes takes
just a slight change in the way you look at it. Be willing to let go of an old,
negative way that you look at something, and look at it in a new, positive way.

Louise L. Hay

Have you ever seen an inchworm crawl up a leaf or a twig,
and then, clinging to the very end, revolve in the air,
feeling for something, to reach something?
That's like me. I am trying to find something
out there beyond the place on which I have footing.

Albert P. Ryder

When the outlook is steeped in pessimism,
I remind myself, "Two and two still make four,
and you can't keep humankind down for long."

Bernard M. Baruch

When you are annoyed at someone's mistake, immediately look at
yourself and reflect how you also fail; for example, in thinking that
good equals money, or pleasure, or a bit of fame. By being mindful
of this you'll quickly forget your anger, especially if you realize that
the person was under stress, and could do little else.
And, if you can, find a way to alleviate that stress.

Marcus Aurelius

When we have a compost bin filled with organic material which is
decomposing and smelly, we know that we can transform the waste into
beautiful flowers. At first, we may see the compost and the flowers
as opposite, but when we look deeply, we see that the flowers
already exist in the compost, and the compost already exists in the
flowers. It only takes a couple of weeks for a flower to decompose.
When good organic gardeners look into their compost, they can see
that, and they do not feel sad or disgusted. Instead, they value
the rotting material and do not discriminate against it. It takes
only a few months for compost to give birth to flowers.

Thich Nhat Hanh

You need only examine your present situation to discover unlimited
resources and opportunities.

Ari Kiev

It is curious that the leaf should so love the light
and the root so hate it.

Celia Thaxter

What is a weed? A plant whose
virtues have not yet been discovered.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Things looked at patiently from one side after another
generally end by showing a side that is beautiful.

Robert Louis Stevenson

Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces up,
snow is exhilarating; there is no such thing as bad weather,
only different kinds of good weather.

John Ruskin

All people have stars. . . but they are not the same things for different people.
For some, who are travelers, the stars are guides. For others,
they are no more than little lights in the sky. For others, who are
scholars, they are problems. . . . But all these stars are silent.
You--you alone--will have the stars as no one else has them.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean.
But if that drop was not in the ocean, I think the ocean would be less
because of that missing drop.

Mother Teresa

They deem me mad because
I will not sell my days for gold;
and I deem them mad because
they think my days have a price.

Khalil Gibran

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What we see depends mainly on what we look for.

John Lubbock

Envy not success, nor pity failure, for you know not
what is success or failure in the soul's reckoning.

Neale Donald Walsch

The possibility of stepping into a higher plane is quite real
for everyone. It requires no force or effort or sacrifice.
It involves little more than changing our ideas about what is normal.

Deepak Chopra

It is a form of violence, to not
see a being for who he or she
really is. You think, "Oh, that's
my son." But the lens, "my son,"
completely obliterates the multi-
dimensions of that being. Maybe
you only see your disappointments
in that child, or you aspirations
for that child, but that's not the child.

Jon Kabat-Zinn