Hello,
and thanks for being here! We're well into
spring, and we hope
that you've been able to enjoy your season so
far. And we sincerely hope
that you're able to make the most of this new day
and this new week.
"No coward soul is mine/No trembler in the
world's stormtroubled sphere," Emily Brontë
wrote just before her death in 1848. She was
only thirty. At her end, which is really only
the beginning for many of us, came the
inner-awareness that she had lived
courageously. She had lived authentically.
Of course, she had known dark moments, but in the
darkness she'd come to trust that a Power greater
than her own would never leave nor forsake
her. This Love was so transformative she wrote
to her sister, Charlotte, that It "Changes,
sustains, dissolves, creates, and rears" as It
leads. This steadfast Love endowed her with
courage and confidence as her great novel Wuthering
Heights was rejected by one publisher after
another.
Make no mistake, when you start on the path to
authenticity, Love will change you, transforming
your life in countless ways. Your family and
friends might not notice the changes in the
beginning because they're so small. But you
will, and you'll know that miracles are taking
place. Love will sustain you when passion's
path takes unexpected twists and turns. Love
will dissolve your fears by creating opportunities
you couldn't have imagined before you began the
search to discover and recover your authentic
self. And when doubt, despair, and denial
threaten to dismantle your dreams, Love will rear up
in your defense.
The next time you feel frightened and fragile, stand very
still. If you do, you might feel the tip of an angel's
wing brush against your shoulder.
No coward's soul is yours. I know this, even if today you
don't. . . . Reluctantly (actually kicking and screaming), I
have come to the realization that feeling afraid is Spirit's
signal to ask for grace and Power. So take a deep breath,
seek your quiet center, and push on. One of the hardest
lessons we ever have to master is accepting that all fear comes
from within, however major are the real life's circumstances
assaulting us. The closer we get to giving our dream to
the world, the fiercer the struggle becomes to bring it
forth. Why should this be so? Because we will be
inexorably changed, and life can never return to the way it once
was. Of course we're scared; we wouldn't be sane if we
weren't. But how many exquisite, glorious dreams sent to
heal the world has Heaven mourned because the dreamer, weary and
discouraged, relied only on her or his own strength and could do
no more?
Today if you feel afraid, take comfort in remembering that
courage is fear that has said her prayers. "I've
dreamt in my life dreams that have stayed with me ever after,
and changed my ideas," Emily Brontë confessed. They've
gone through and through me, like wine through water, and
altered the color of my mind." Dreams are gifts of
Spirit meant to alter us. Trust that the same Power that
gifted you with your dream knows how to help you make it come
true.
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I must
have been about 14 then, and I dismissed the incident
with the easy carelessness of youth. But the words
Carl Walter spoke that day came back to me years later,
and ever since have been of inestimable value to me.
Carl
Walter was my piano teacher. During one of my
lessons he asked how much practicing I was doing.
I said three or four hours a day.
"Do
you practice in long stretches, an hour at a time?"
"I
try to."
"Well,
don't!" he exclaimed. "When you grow up,
time won't come in long stretches. Practice in
minutes, whenever you can find them--five or ten before
school, after lunch, between chores. Spread the
practice through the day, and piano-playing will become
a part of your life."
When I
was teaching at Columbia, I wanted to write, but
recitations, theme-reading and committee meetings filled
my days and evenings. For two years I got
practically nothing down on paper, and my excuse was
that I had no time. Then I recalled what Carl
Walter had said.
During
the next week I conducted an experiment. Whenever
I had five unoccupied minutes, I sat down and wrote a
hundred words or so. To my astonishment, at the
end of the week I had a sizable manuscript ready for
revision.
Later
on I wrote novels by the same piecemeal method.
Though my teaching schedule had become heavier than
ever, in every day there were idle moments which could
be caught and put to use. I even took up
piano-playing again, finding that the small intervals of
the day provided sufficient time for both writing and
piano practice.
There
is an important trick in thins time-using formula:
you must get into your work quickly. If you have
but five minutes for writing, you can't afford to waste
four chewing your pencil. You must make your
mental preparations beforehand, and concentrate on your
task almost instantly when the time comes.
Fortunately, rapid concentration is easier than most of
us realize.
I
confess I have never learned how to let go easily at the
end of the five or ten minutes. But life can be
counted on to supply interruptions. Carl Walter
has had a tremendous influence on my life. To him
I owe the discovery that even very short periods of time
add up to all the useful hours I need, if I plunge in
without delay.
-1941
Living
Life Fully, the e-zine
exists to try to provide for visitors of the world wide web a
place
of growth, peace, inspiration, and encouragement. Our
articles
are presented as thoughts of the authors--by no means do
we
mean to present them as ways that anyone has to live
life. Take
from them what you will, and disagree with
whatever you disagree
with--just know that they'll be here for you
each week.
I heard a story about a
woman who grew up in Texas.When she was
having trouble in her life, she would visit her grandmother,
who lived
nearby
and always had a kind word and some wisdom to pass on.One
day
she was complaining to her grandmother about some situation
and
her grandmother just turned to her, smiled sadly, and said,
“Sometimes,
darlin’, you’ve just got to rise above
yourself in this life.” I’ve
remembered that wise advice many times as I’ve faced
trouble in my life.
Bill O’Hanlon
My Car or My
Compassion?
I saw someone showing off their new vehicle yesterday. It's
a very expensive truck, one of those that's so big that there's no
real use for it, especially in a city. These people weren't
farmers, who often need big pick-up trucks, and they don't have
their own business and they don't go camping often, so they really
don't have any use for this truck. But they do feel like
better people now that they have such an expensive and pretentious
possession--you could tell by the way they were showing it off
that it made them feel better about themselves.
And I started to think about the things that we choose to show
off. Usually, we show off things that we really don't have
much to do with--we don't design them, we don't make them, and we
don't put them on the market. We simply exchange some of our
money for them. We buy them. And then the question
becomes, "What are we proud of?" Because the
simple truth is that anyone with enough money could have bought
exactly the same thing, so are we really proud of the thing
itself, or do we just feel better showing other people what we've
chosen to buy?
And I also started to think, what if I were able to feel just as
proud of my compassion (and I use pride not in the sense of the
"
sin," but in the sense of a feeling of accomplishment)? What
if the people of this world were to look at someone else's
kindness rather than their clothing? Would you rather be
known for your goodness or your jewelry? Your love, or your
hairstyle?
Remember, what
you possess in the world will be found
at the day of your death to belong
to someone else,
but what you are will be yours forever.
And that got me
to thinking about what it might take for there to be
a shift in the world, a shift that would allow
people to compliment each other for their love and
compassion rather than their vehicles. "That
was a wonderfully compassionate thing that you
did!" rather than "Wow--nice
tattoo!" "That was such a kind
act!" rather than "I just love your
hair!"
And the answer, I think, is simpler than I would
imagine--a shift like this would just take a few
people starting it and being very consistent at
it. A few people constantly complimenting
other people for their kindness and their love and
their mercy could allow other people to see that
it's okay to compliment such things and to begin to
emulate their behavior.
Could you imagine what a workplace would be like if
everyone there were to notice the kind things that
others did and actually compliment each other on
their love and compassion? What would our
schools be like if we were to teach children to
recognize the value of their peers' goodness rather
than their peers' possessions?
This is not to say that there is no value in
possessions, of course. But unfortunately,
we've turned our possessions into a huge part of our
identity, and we have come to expect compliments and
comments on things that are truly not a part of
who we are, but simply something that we have.
When we seek a possession, we should ask ourselves if it will make us
better people, more able to share, more willing to give, more capable
of doing good in our daily lives. Possessions that increase our own
sense of self-importance are empty in comparison to those that help us
contribute something of value to the world.
On my death
bed, is it going to be more important to me that
people remember the encouragement that I gave, or
the clothes that I wore? Will I be more
concerned that people remember the brands I used
during my life or the love I shared? I think
that these are rhetorical questions, of course, but
many people haven't considered them yet--and are
still attached to the idea of trying to impress
other people through their possessions and the brand
names they use and the places they eat than through
any traits that speak to who they are as human
beings, versus who they are as consumers.
What do your messages to the world tell about you?
Do you show the world what kind of consumer you are,
or the kind of human being you are? Do you
find that your conversations are about new phones or
computers or cars, or do you talk with friends about
things that truly matter in life--your and their
hopes and dreams and desires and goals? Do you
find that you share encouragement and compliments,
or comments about things that matter somewhat less,
such as sports or movies or other entertainment?
When we put people
before possessions in our hearts,
we are sowing seeds of enduring satisfaction.
Beverly LaHaye
Who you are is
up to you. What you're known for by other
people is a result of the things that you say and
the decisions you make. My decisions have
often been very bad ones, and other people have
gotten a specific idea of who I am based on what
I've chosen to show to the world. That said,
in the future I sincerely hope that what I show to
the world is my love and compassion and all the good
things that come with them, such as kindness and
consideration and sharing and hope and peace.
Do I want to be known for my car or my
compassion? I know what I want, and I'll
definitely have to act in certain ways if my wants
are to become reality.
We don’t always know whose lives
we touched and
made
better
for
having cared, because actions can
sometimes
have unseen
ramifications. What’s
important is that
you
do care and you do act.
Charlotte Lunsford
Words are mere bubbles of water,
but deeds are
drops of gold.
Chinese proverb
Promise
Yourself
(The
Optimist Creed)
Promise
yourself to be so strong that
nothing can disturb your peace of mind.
To
talk health, happiness, and prosperity to every person you meet.
To
make all your friends feel like there is something in them.
To
look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true.
To
think only of the best, to work only for the best, and expect only the best.
To
be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.
To
forget the mistakes of the past and press on the greater achievements of the future.
To
wear a cheerful countenance at all times and give every living person you meet a smile.
To
give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others.
To
be too large for worry, too noble for anger, and too strong for fear, and to happy
to permit the presence of trouble.
Happiness
is not in the mere possession of money; it lies in
the joy of
achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Yes, life
can be mysterious and confusing--but there's much of life that's
actually rather dependable and reliable. Some principles apply
to life in so many different contexts that they can truly be called
universal--and learning what they are and how to approach them and use
them can teach us some of the most important lessons that we've ever
learned.
My doctorate is in Teaching and Learning. I use it a lot when I
teach at school, but I also do my best to apply what I've learned to
the life I'm living, and to observe how others live their lives.
What makes them happy or unhappy, stressed or peaceful, selfish or
generous, compassionate or arrogant? In this book, I've done my
best to pass on to you what I've learned from people in my life,
writers whose works I've read, and stories that I've heard.
Perhaps these principles can be a positive part of your life, too! Universal Principles of Living Life Fully. Awareness of
these principles can explain a lot and take much of the frustration
out of the lives we lead.
Explore all of our
quotations pages--these links will take you to the first page of each
topic, and those pages will contain links to any additional pages on
the same topic (there are five pages on adversity, for example).
™
