the ruby slippers
are always within our reach
on the silent path
~ Winder
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“Love is to The Divine as negativity is to evil.” ~ Winder
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“Honesty is the best policy.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“No man ever went broke overestimating the ignorance of the American public.” ~ P. T. Barnum
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“People may hear your words, but they feel your attitude.” ~ John C. Maxwell
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“Life opens up opportunities to you, and you either take them or you stay afraid of taking them.” ~ Jim Carrey
Two Wolves
One evening an old man told his grandson about a battle that goes on the inside all people. He said: My son, the battle is between two ‘wolves’:
One wolf is Evil. It is the many faces of negativity: anger, envy, jealousy, lust, hate, regret, prejudice, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, pride, untruth, false witness, lying, pride, superiority, attachment, etc. Any and all negativity.
One wolf is Good. It is Love and all of it’s tributaries: joy, peace, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, tenderness, compassion, faith, etc. All attributes of Love.
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: “Which wolf wins?”
The old man simply replied, “The one I feed.”
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
My every moment goal is that Spirit act as my operating system, run my show, and express as me.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“We’re here for such a short period of time. Live like you’re already dead, man. Have a good time. Do your best. Let it all come ripping right through you.” ~ Jeff Bridges
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“In everyone’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.” ~ Albert Schweitzer
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“We are not here to curse the darkness, but to light the candle that can guide us thru that darkness to a safe and sane future.” ~ John F. Kennedy
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“Our lives are not determined by what happens to us but how we react to what happens, not by what life brings us but the attitude we bring to life.” ~ Wade Boggs
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“Imagine all the people living life in peace. You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us, and the world will be as one.” ~ John Lennon
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“First keep peace with yourself, then you can also bring peace to others.” ~ Thomas A. Kempis
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive.” ~ Dalai Lama
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“The two most destructive words in language: yes, but….” ~ WL
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don’t try to forget the mistakes, but you don’t dwell on it. You don’t let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space.” ~ Johnny Cash
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way.” ~ Napoleon Hill
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men.” ~ Roald Dahl
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“It’s your outlook on life that counts. If you take yourself lightly and don’t take yourself too seriously, pretty soon you can find the humor in our everyday lives. And sometimes it can be a lifesaver.” ~ Betty White
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“It is through gratitude for the present moment that the spiritual dimension of life opens up.” ~ Eckhart Tolle
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain’t goin’ away.” ~ Elvis Presley
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.” ~ John F. Kennedy
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in your life you will have been all of these.” ~ George Washington Carver
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“Love yourself first and everything else falls into line. You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world.” ~ Lucille Ball
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“It doesn’t take a lot of strength to hang on. It takes a lot of strength to let go.” ~ J.C. Watts
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.” ~ J.K. Rowling
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“Become a possibilitarian. No matter how dark things seem to be, or actually are, raise your sights and see possibilities.
Always see them, for they’re always there.” ~ Norman Vincent Peale
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“A dream doesn’t become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work.” ~ Colin Powell
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you’ll start having positive results.” ~ Willie Nelson
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“There’s no bad consequence to loving fully, with all your heart. You always gain by giving love.” ~ Reese Witherspoon
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.” ~ Albert Schweitzer
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“The more often we see the things around us – even the beautiful and wonderful things – the more they become invisible to us. That is why we often take for granted the beauty of this world: the flowers, the trees, the birds, the clouds – even those we love. Because we see things so often, we see them less and less.” ~ Joseph B. Wirthlin
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“We cannot change our past. We cannot change the fact that people act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play in the one string we have, and that is our attitude.” ~ Charles R. Swindoll
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“Life is the dancer and you are the dance.” ~ Eckhart Tolle
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.” ~ Dolly Parton
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“Until you are happy with who you are, you will never be happy because of what you have.” ~ Zig Ziglar
How do we get to love and stay there: practice – notice, go there, repeat. There is only one choice. — Winder
“Knowledge will give you power, but character respect.” ~ Bruce Lee
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“Mistakes are the portals of discovery.” ~ James Joyce
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“You have to accept whatever comes and the only important thing is that you meet it with courage and with the best that you have to give.” ~ Eleanor Roosevelt
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“The purpose of our lives is to be happy.” ~ Dalai Lama
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
IQ is the intelligence of the brain. Intuition is the intelligence of the soul. ~ Ryan Whelton, physical therapist
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.” ~ Aristotle
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.” ~ Greek Proverb
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Quotes By Marianne Williamson
Forgiveness is not always easy. At times, it feels more painful than the wound we suffered, to forgive the one that inflicted it. And yet, there is no peace without forgiveness.
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our Light, not our Darkness, that most frightens us.
As we let our light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence actually liberates others.
Relationships are eternal. The ‘separation’ is another chapter in the relationship. Often, letting go of the old form of the relationship becomes a lesson in pure love much deeper than any would have learned had the couple stayed together.
Personal transformation can and does have global effects. As we go, so goes the world, for the world is us. The revolution that will save the world is ultimately a personal one.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Uncontrolled, the hunger and thirst after God may become an obstacle, cutting off the soul from what it desires. If a man would travel far along the mystic road, he must learn to desire God intensely but in stillness, passively and yet with all his heart and mind and strength. – Aldous Huxley
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
People intoxicate themselves with work so they won’t see how they really are. – Aldous Huxley
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Connectivity is a human right. – Mark Zuckerberg
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style. – Maya Angelou
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible. – Maya Angelou
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Every beauty which is seen here by persons of perception resembles more than anything else that celestial source from which we all are come. – Michelangelo
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it. – Michelangelo
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
The promises of this world are, for the most part, vain phantoms; and to confide in one’s self, and become something of worth and value is the best and safest course. – Michelangelo
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Truth is so hard to tell, it sometimes needs fiction to make it plausible. – Francis Bacon
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
The tragedy of life is in what dies inside a man while he lives – the death of genuine feeling, the death of inspired response, the awareness that makes it possible to feel the pain or the glory of other men in yourself. – Norman Cousins
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Our ambition should be to rule ourselves, the true kingdom for each one of us; and true progress is to know more, and be more, and to do more. – Oscar Wilde
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
The old believe everything, the middle-aged suspect everything, the young know everything. – Oscar Wilde
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
We’re running the most dangerous experiment in history right now, which is to see how much carbon dioxide the atmosphere… can handle before there is an environmental catastrophe. – Elon Musk
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
I always say, decisions I make, I live with them. There’s always ways you can correct them or ways you can do them better. At the end of the day, I live with them. – LeBron James
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
A happy life must be to a great extent a quiet life, for it is only in an atmosphere of quiet that true joy dare live. – Bertrand Russell
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
When I was 10 years old, I loved – I loved books, and I used to haunt the secondhand bookshop. And I found a little book I could just afford, and I bought it, and I took it home. And I climbed up my favorite tree, and I read that book from cover to cover. And that was Tarzan of the Apes. I immediately fell in love with Tarzan. – Jane Goodall
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
I’m a mirror. If you’re cool with me, I’m cool with you, and the exchange starts. What you see is what you reflect. If you don’t like what you see, then you’ve done something. If I’m standoffish, that’s because you are. – Jay-Z
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Belief in oneself and knowing who you are, I mean, that’s the foundation for everything great. – Jay-Z
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Faith is the bird that feels the light when the dawn is still dark. – Rabindranath Tagore
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Love is not a mere impulse, it must contain truth, which is law. – Rabindranath Tagore
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy. – Rabindranath Tagore
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light. – Plato
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“How people treat you is their karma; how you react is yours.” ~ Wayne Dyer
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Be the change that you want to see in the world. ~ Mahatma Gandhi
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
If you’re always yearning for another time, another place, another relationship, or whatever, you’re not living in the Now. You’re giving your power away to something that does not exist—the past or the future. Or maybe both.
All your power is in your Now, in this present moment. Neither the past nor the future can shackle you to a life you do not choose to live.
As you know, dwelling in the past often brings guilt and sadness. Focusing on the future often brings worry and fear.
Neither past nor future are real. Only Now is real. Do not hand your power and your life over to something that does not even exist!
Anonymous
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“Procrastination is one of the most common and deadliest of diseases and its toll on success and happiness is heavy.” ~ Wayne Gretzky
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“In our very understanding we are free.” – Osho
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“If you want others to be happy practice compassion. If you want to be happy practice compassion.” ~ Quote by Dalai Lama
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Are Words Just Illusion?
Osho said something really important: we cannot understand more than we experience. Words are just illusions. In other words, we can turn ourselves into great scholars and get a lot of information, but it is still an illusion. People really believe that information is knowledge, but it is not. Information is a memory while knowledge is an experience. A computer is intelligent, but it is not wise.
It is worth saying that the brain always asks, but the heart always listens.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races, one after the other.” ~ Walter Elliot
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“I do not want to foresee the future. I am concerned with taking care of the present. God has given me no control over the moment following.” ~ Quote by Mahatma Gandhi
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.” ~ Christopher Reeve
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“To laugh often and much, to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children, to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends, to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition, to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived, THIS is to have succeeded.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals. ~ Henry David Thoreau
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“Weak people revenge.
Strong people forgive.
Intelligent people ignore.
~ Albert Einstein
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Compassion is language the deaf can hear and the blind can see. ~ Mark Twain
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Kindness is in our power even when fondness is not. ~ Henry James
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Today I bent the truth to be kind, and I have no regret, for I am far surer of what is kind than I am of what is true. ~ Robert Brault
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
I always prefer to believe the best of everybody, it saves so much trouble. ~ Rudyard Kipling
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
There is one word which may serve as a rule for all one’s life — reciprocity. ~ Confucius
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Don’t wait for people to be friendly, show them how. ~ Henry James
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
The most important trip you may take in life is meeting people halfway. ~ Henry Boyle
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
When I was young, I admired clever people.
Now that I am old, I admire kind people.
~ Abraham Heschel
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
If we should deal out justice only in this world, who would escape?
No, it is better to be generous for it gains us gratitude.
~ Mark Twain
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
You can’t live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you. ~ John Wooden
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
If those who owe us nothing gave us nothing, how poor we would be. ~ Antonio Porchia
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
You cannot do a kindness too soon for you never know how soon it will be too late. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
By swallowing evil words unsaid, no one has ever harmed his stomach. ~ Winston Churchill
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Real generosity is doing something nice for someone who will never find out. ~ Frank A. Clark
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak. ~ Epictetus
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Don’t let those who take advantage of your generosity stop you from being generous. ~ Author Unknown
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Be a rainbow in someone else’s cloud. ~ Maya Angelou
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
In a world full of people who couldn’t care less, be someone who cares more. ~ Author Unknown
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Love thy neighbor and if it requires that you bend the truth, the truth will understand. ~ Robert Brault
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
The Wicker Basket
The story is told of an old man who lived on a farm in the mountains of eastern Kentucky with his young grandson.
Each morning, Grandpa was up early sitting at the kitchen table reading from his old worn-out Bible.
His grandson who wanted to be just like him tried to imitate him in any way he could.
One day the grandson asked, ‘Papa, I try to read the Bible just like you but I don’t understand it, and what I do understand I forget as soon as I close the book. What good does reading the Bible do?
The Grandfather quietly turned from putting coal in the stove and said, ‘Take this old wicker coal basket down to the river and bring back a basket of water.’
The boy did as he was told, even though all the water leaked out before he could get back to the house.
The grandfather laughed and said, ‘You will have to move a little faster next time,’ and sent him back to the river with the basket to try again. This time the boy ran faster, but again the old wicker basket was empty before he returned home. out of breath, he told his grandfather that it was ‘impossible to carry water in a basket,’ and he went to get a bucket instead.
The old man said, ‘I don’t want a bucket of water;
I want a basket of water. You can do this. You’re just not trying hard enough,’ and he went out the door to watch the boy try again. At this point, the boy knew it was impossible, but he wanted to show his grandfather that even if he ran as fast as he could, the water would leak out before he got far at all. The boy scooped the water and ran hard, but when he reached his grandfather the basket was again empty.
Out of breath, he said, See Papa, it’s useless!’
‘So you think it is useless?’ The old man said, ‘Look at the basket.’
The boy looked at the basket and for the first time he realized that the basket looked different.
Instead of a dirty old wicker coal basket, it was clean.
‘Son, that’s what happens when you read the Bible. You might not understand or remember everything, but when you read it, it will change you from the inside out.’
Moral of the wicker basket story: Take time to read a portion of God’s word each day; it will affect you for good even if you don’t retain a word.
Thought for Today: Gods Love is like the ocean, you can see its beginnings……..but not its end.
I really like this story because I don’t retain things too well anymore…age may have something to do with it but I figure my brain just gets overloaded! God isn’t concerned about your brain anyway, He’s more concerned about your heart.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“A winner knows how much he still has to learn, even when he is considered an expert by others; a loser wants to be considered an expert by others before he has learned enough to know how little he knows.” — Sydney J. Harris
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“Meditation is the straight flight of the mind to the Kingdom of Heaven present in the heart of everybody.” – Spiritual teachings of a modern rishi
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“And this, our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything. I would not change it ” . William Shakespeare in As You Like It.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now!” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders.” – Lao Tzu
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“Great men are they who see that the spiritual is stronger than any material force; that thoughts rule the world.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“When I meet people, to me there are no differences whether it’s the president, a queen or a beggar. I always see the same human being mentally, emotionally and physically. They want a happy life. I want a happy life. On that level, I always feel oneness or the sameness. When I communicate with others, because of that feeling, there is no barrier.” – the 14th Dalai Lama
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“One Instant is eternity;
eternity is the now.
When you see through this one instant,
you see through the one who sees.”
– Wu Men
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“Although we have been made to believe that if we let go we will end up with nothing, life reveals just the opposite: that letting go is the real path to freedom.” – Sogyal Rinpoche
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“Be the witness of your thoughts.
You are what observes,
not what you observe.”
– Buddha
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“I have lived on the lip of insanity, wanting to know reasons, knocking at
the door. The door opens. I’ve been knocking from the inside.” – Rumi
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“Great men are they who see that the spirit is stronger than any other material force.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“Men go abroad and wonder at the height of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the oceans, at the circular motion of the stars; and they pass by themselves without wondering.” – St Augustine
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“God’s vastness I glimpsed in the skies of quietness. His joy I tasted in the fountains of my existence. His voice I heard in my unsleeping conscience.” ~ Paramahansa Yogananda
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“You get treated in life the way you teach people to treat you.” ~ Wayne Dyer
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar. ~ Helen Keller
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we don’t see. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“You cannot be both unhappy and fully present in the Now” – Eckhart Tolle
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“Optimism is going after Moby Dick in a rowboat and taking the tartar sauce with you!” ~ Unknown
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.” – Mark Twain
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“Our bodies are like gardens – our wills are our gardeners.” ~ William Shakespeare
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“The difference between genius and stupidity is; genius has its limits.” ~ Albert Einstein
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“The diamond cannot be polished without friction, nor the man perfected without trials.” ~ Chinese Proverb
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Treat people as you would like to be treated. Karma’s only a bitch if you are. ~ thank to Randy Davis for sharing
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Always do the most important thing first. ~ Author Unknown
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
We don’t have to attend every argument we’re invited to. ~ Winder
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
The people in our lives are no more the source of Love than our ATMs are the source of our money. ~ Layne and Paul Cutright
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
There are two kinds of people:
Those who brighten a room when they enter
And those who brighten a room when they leave
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
We form masks of thought
Come to believe they are real
Forget they are on. ~ Winder
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
I weave the tapestry of my life on a loom of consciousness & will;
The thread is love, it’s color truth;
Weaving stillness & silence I Am Fulfilled. ~ Winder
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Free will determines the creation of our life.
And that boils down to 4 words and one choice:
Love or Not Now. ~ Winder
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
There is nothing you can add to yourself that can or will make you
Any more perfect than you already are – right now.
The enlightenment process is like Michangelo chipping away anything that is not David. ~ W
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
It requires less character to discover faults of others than it does to tolerate them. ~ Mahatma Gandhi
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
The period of greatest gain in knowledge and experience is the most difficult period in one’s life. ~ Dalai Lama
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Don’t argue with an idiot; people watching may not be able to tell the difference. ~ Anonymous
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. ~ Henry David Thoreau
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with Talent. Genius will not; un-rewarded genius is almost a proverb. ~ Calvin Coolidge
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Why ask for what you don’t want?
Why own a challenge or a problem, ever?
Rather, put it away from yourself by saying: I’ve had a problem, or I had a challenge.
Your words have real power, use them to affirm what you want, rather than owning what you don’t want. ~ Winder
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Free will is choosing Love or not now.
You are creating it either way. You are choosing how it is now and that choice also determines your returns. ~ Winder
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Our ego focuses on how we are different from the rest of the world. Our soul lives when we experience how we are the same. ~ Eckhart Tolle
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Unease, anxiety, tension, stress, worry, all forms of fear, are caused by too much future – and not enough presence.
Guilt, regret, resentment, grievances, sadness, bitterness, and all forms of non–forgiveness,
Are caused by too much past – and not enough presence. ~ Eckhart Tolle
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
By simply allowing, you become the bringer of space, and in that space wonderful transformation and healing take place.
Being aware of your breath forces you into the present moment, the key to all inner transformation.
Whenever you are conscious of the breath, you are absolutely present. ~ Eckhart Tolle
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Love is a state of Being.
Yours is not outside; it is deep within you.
It is not dependent on some other body, some external form.
In the stillness of your Presence, you can feel your own formless and timeless reality
As the un-manifested life that animates your physical form.
You can then feel the same life deep within every other human and every other creature.
You look beyond the veil of form and separation.
This is the realization of oneness.
This is LOVE. ~ Eckhart Tolle
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
To put the world in order, we must first put the nation in order;
to put the nation in order, we must put the family in order;
to put the family in order, we must cultivate our personal life;
and to cultivate our personal life, we must first set our hearts right. ~ Confucius
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Dance like nobody’s watching;
love like you’ve never been hurt.
sing like nobody’s listening;
live like it’s heaven on earth. ~ Mark Twain
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Limited perspectives
“And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.” ~ Friedrich Nietzsche
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“You cannot complain and be grateful at the same time.” ~ GKK Khalsa
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“No is not a four letter word” ~ Winder
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience.” ~ Mark Twain
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Don’t wish it were easier; wish you were better. Don’t wish for less problems; wish for more skills. Don’t wish for less challenges; wish for more wisdom. ~ Jim Rohn
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Sincerity is not a test of truth. We must not make this mistake: He must be right; he’s so sincere. Because, it is possible to be sincerely wrong. We can only judge truth by truth and sincerity by sincerity. ~ Jim Rohn
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant. ~ Robert Louis Stevenson
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
To experience anything fully and see it clearly there must be a moment of presence where conceptual thinking is not interfering with your experience of that moment. ~ Eckhart Tolle
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude. ~ Denis Waitley
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Buddha was asked: “What have you gained from Meditation?” He replied: “Nothing.” However, let me tell you what I lost: Anger, Anxiety, Depression, Insecurity, Fear of Old Age and Death.
“Spending time with children is more important than spending money on children” ~ Anthony Douglas Williams
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“Care about what other people think and you will always be their prisoner.” ~ Lao Tzu
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“By studying this knowledge of the wholeness of life, one’s appreciation and perception of the changing surface values improves. Instead of feeling confused and bewildered, connections start to materialize and an interconnectedness begins to be seen throughout all of activity. This connection is uncovered during meditation. As one repeats this exposure to deep meditation, the ocean of knowledge within anchors our internal dialogue to something of greater value, deeper and richer, a sense of completeness or wholeness, purposeful and evolutionary.” ~ Meditation Teacher Training Course, Seelisberg, Switzerland
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Don’t judge me because I sin differently than you.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“I think we have one foot in heaven and the other on the banana peel of self interest” ~ Lawrence W Bash
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Your beliefs don’t make you a better person, your behavior does.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Forgiveness is unlocking the door to set someone free and realizing that you were the prisoner! ~ Max Lucado
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“Meditation is not a way of making your mind quiet. It’s a way of entering into… the quiet that’s already there buried under the 50,000 thoughts the average person thinks every day.” ~ Deepak Chopra
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Holding onto anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die. ~ Buddha
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.” ~ Dale Carnegie
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“Find a place inside where there’s joy, and the joy will burn out the pain.” ~ Joseph Campbell
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“Every religion is true one way or another. It is true when understood metaphorically. But when it gets stuck in its own metaphors, interpreting them as facts, then you are in trouble.” ~ Joseph Campbell
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Any action rooted in negativity is an “energy game” — no matter what thoughts are attached, or how good the “reasons” are, or how “right” it all my seem.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Only actions rooted in Love are authentic, congruent, and karma free! ~ Winder
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
”You are the universe, expressing itself as a human for a little while.” ~ Eckhart Tolle
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
The love you withhold is the pain that you feel. ~ Anonymous
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
The sage says
a being who has achieved Self-mastery
sees the world as entertainment,
like watching a movie.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“Don’t play what’s there, play what’s not there.” ~ Miles Davis, musician
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“If you are too busy to meditate every day you must have plenty of time to suffer” ~ Vedic saying
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“Successful people make money. It’s not that people who make money become successful, but that successful people attract money. They bring success to what they do.” ~ Wayne Dyer
“Fear grows out of the things we think; it lives in our minds. Compassion grows out of the things we are, and lives in our hearts.” ~ Barbara Garrison
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“Birth and death are not different states, but they are different aspects of the same state.” ~ Gandhi
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“Next time you’re about to judge someone, attempt to understand them instead.” ~ Marianne Williamson
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“Your mistake does not define who you are…you are your possibilities” ~ Oprah Winfrey
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn. They teach you there’s a boundary line to music. But man, there’s no boundary line to art.” – Charlie Parker
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“The self experienced in its unmanifest form as beingness or awareness and in its manifest form as the appearance of the universe” ~ Ramana Maharishi
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“Self-realization is, in fact, the only religion. For it is the true purpose of religion, no matter how people define their beliefs.” ~ Paramahansa Yogananda
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“Don’t walk in front of me, I may not follow
Don’t walk behind me, I may not lead
Just walk beside me and be my friend.” ~ Albert Camus
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“Simplicity, patience, compassion.
These three are your greatest treasures.
Simple in actions and thoughts, you return to the source of being.
Patient with both friends and enemies,
you accord with the way things are.
Compassionate toward yourself,
you reconcile all beings in the world.”
~Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
The best lack all conviction while the worst are full of passionate intensity! ~ William Butler Yeats
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“It is always your next move.” ~ Napoleon Hill
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.” ~ Carl Jung
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“All true artists, whether they know it or not, create from a place of no-mind, from inner stillness” ~ Eckhart Tolle, Author The Power of Now
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“Only in quiet waters things mirror themselves undistorted. Only in a quiet mind is adequate perception of the world.” ~ Hans Margolius
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not. ~ Dr. Seuss
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
There is a huge amount of freedom that comes to you when you take nothing personally. ~ Don Miguel Ruiz
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“There is force in the universe, which, if we permit it, will flow through us and produce miraculous results.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
The quieter you become, the more you can hear. ~ Baba Ram Dass
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
The moment you change your perception is the moment you rewrite the chemistry of your body. ” ~ Dr Bruce H. Lipton
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“Do not stand at my grave and weep
I am not there, I do not sleep
I am a thousand winds that blow
I am the diamond glint in the snow
I am the sunlight on the ripened grain
I am the gentle Autumn’s rain
When you awaken in the morning hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
of quiet birds in circled flight
I am the soft stars that shine at night
Do not stand at my grave and cry
I am not there, i did not die”
~ Hopi prayer
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it. ~ Roald Dahl
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
You’ll never see the great things ahead of you if you keep looking at the bead things behind you. ~unknown
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Judging a person does not define who they are, it defines who you are. ~ unknown
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Spiritual progress ensues automatically from choosing good-will, forgiveness, and lovingness as a way of being in the world at large rather than viewing it as a gain-seeking transaction. ~ Excerpt from Along the Path to Enlightenment by Dr. David Hawkins
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Ultimately there are no bad people, only lost ones. ~ Winder
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Do or do not; there is no try. ~ Yoda (The Empire Strikes Back)
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
True & lasting success begins, continues, and completes with loving intention. ~ Winder
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
To contribute to the welfare and happiness of others is gratifying and leads to the discovery that generosity is its own reward.” ~ Excerpt from Along the Path to Enlightenment by Dr. David Hawkins
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“In and of itself, anger is merely a subjective emotion that does not actually accomplish anything in the world, as the use of reason and restraint would. Anger is used by the ego as as substitute for courage, which really only requires being resolute, determined, or committed.” ~ Excerpt from Along the Path to Enlightenment by Dr. David Hawkins
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Looking for consciousness in the brain is like looking for the announcer in the radio. ~ Hassim Haramein
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“There are two types of pain you will go through in life, pain of discipline and the pain of regret. Discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tonnes.” ~ Jim Rohn
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“The difficulty with a closed mind is that it is innately prideful.”
~ Excerpt from Along the Path to Enlightenment by Dr. David Hawkins
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“Subjectively, all that is needed to progress are patience ,
prayer, faith in the process, and the surrendering of
resistance. Confusion, like a change in the weather, is a
transitional condition that clears with patience and also with
emergence into the next stage, whereby the confusing
condition is transcended.”
~ Excerpt from Along the Path to Enlightenment by Dr. David Hawkins
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“Courage implies the willingness to try new things and to deal
with the vicissitudes of life. At this level of empowerment, one
is able to cope with and effectively handle the opportunities of
life….There is the capacity to face fears or character defects
and to grow despite them, and anxiety does not cripple
endeavor as it does the lower stages of evolution.”
~ Along the Path to Enlightenment by Dr. David Hawkins
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“The linear domain entails suffering; thus, the best Teachers
throughout history taught the ways of salvation or
enlightenment as the only answer to escape from the
suffering.”
~ Excerpt from Along the Path to Enlightenment by Dr. David Hawkins
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“Simply stated, integrity is strong, “works”, and is
constructive and successful, whereas its opposite fails.
Integrity is therefore practical; its absence leads to
weakness and collapse.”
~ Excerpt from Along the Path to Enlightenment by Dr. David Hawkins
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things
that you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines.
Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails.
Explore. Dream. Discover.
– attributed to Mark Twain
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“Partial and limited positionalities create the illusion called
“problems”. In reality, no such thing as a problem is possible;
there is merely what we want and what we don’t want.
Suffering is due to resistance.”
~ Excerpt from Along the Path to Enlightenment by Dr. David Hawkins
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“Change is not a threat, it’s an opportunity. Survival is not the goal,
transformative success is.”
~ Seth Godin
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
From Deepak Chopra’s “The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success.”
The Law of Karma: Every action generates a force of energy that returns to us in like
kind. What we sow is what we reap. And when we choose actions that bring
happiness and success to others, the fruit of our karma is happiness and success.
I will put the Law of Karma into effect by making a commitment to take the following
steps:
1. Today I will witness the choices I make in each moment. And in the mere
witnessing of these choices, I will bring them to my conscious awareness. I will know that the best way to prepare for any moment in the future is to be fully conscious in the present.
2. Whenever I make a choice, I will ask myself two questions: “What are the consequences of this choice that I’m making?” and “Will this choice bring fulfillment and happiness to me and also to those who are affected by this choice?”
3. I will then ask my heart for guidance and be guided by its message of comfort
or discomfort. If the choice feels comfortable, I will plunge ahead with abandon. If the
choice feels uncomfortable, I will pause and see the consequences of my action with
my inner vision. This guidance will enable me to make spontaneously correct choices
for myself and for all those around me.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“By internal observation, one can differentiate that the
personality is a system of learned responses and the persona
is not the real “I”; the real “I” lies behind and beyond it. One is
the witness of that personality, and there is no reason one has
to identify with it at all.”
~ Excerpt from Along the Path to Enlightenment by Dr. David Hawkins
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“The world is actually entertainment. Like amusement, it is
meant to be worn lightly. Heaven is within and is revealed by
awareness. The world is merely an appearance. Its
melodrama is an artifice of the distorted sense of perception.
It leads one to think that the world is large, powerful, and
permanent and that the Self is small, weak, and transitory;
exactly the opposite is true.”
~ Excerpt from Along the Path to Enlightenment by Dr. David Hawkins
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“No person can be confronted with a difficulty which he has
not the strength to meet and subdue…Every difficulty can be
overcome if rightly dealt with; anxiety is, therefore,
unnecessary. The task which cannot be overcome ceases to be
a difficulty and becomes an impossibility…and there is only
one way of dealing with an impossibility – namely to submit to
it.”
~Excerpt from Byways of Blessedness
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“This moment is the only reality that is being experienced; all
else is an abstraction and mental construct. Therefore, one
cannot actually live 70 years at all; only this exact, fleeting
moment is possible.”
~ Excerpt from Along the Path to Enlightenment by Dr. David Hawkins
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“I saw that.” ~ Karma
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“The decision to ‘be kind to all of life’ or to respect the sacredness of all
that exists are powerful attitudes in spiritual evolution, along with the
virtues of compassion, the willingness to forgive, and seeking to
understand rather than to judge. By constantly surrendering, perceptions
dissolve into the discernment of essence.”
~ Excerpt from Along the Path to Enlightenment by Dr. David Hawkins
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
The Happiness Bank
The 92-year-old, petite, well-poised and proud lady, who is fully dressed each morning by eight o’clock, with her hair fashionably coifed and makeup perfectly applied, even though she is legally blind, moved to a nursing home today.
Her husband of 70 years recently passed away, making the move necessary.
After many hours of waiting patiently in the lobby of the nursing home, she smiled sweetly when told her room was ready.
As she maneuvered her walker to the elevator, I provided a description of her tiny room, including the eyelet sheets that had been hung on her window.
“I love it,” she stated with the enthusiasm of an eight-year-old having just been presented with a new puppy.
“Mrs. Jones, you haven’t seen the room just wait.”
“That doesn’t have anything to do with it,” she replied. “Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time. Whether I like my room or not doesn’t depend on how the furniture is arranged. It’s how I arrange my mind.
I already decided to love it. It’s a decision I make every morning when I wake up. I have a choice; I can spend the day in bed recounting the difficulty I have with the parts of my body that no longer work, or get out of bed and be thankful for the ones that do.
Each day is a gift, and as long as my eyes open I’ll focus on the new day and all the happy memories I’ve stored away just for this time in my life.
Old age is like a bank account: you withdraw from what you’ve put in.
So, my advice to you would be to deposit a lot of happiness in the bank account of memories.
Thank you for your part in filling my Memory bank. I am still depositing.”
Remember the five simple rules to be happy:
1. Free your heart from hatred.
2. Free your mind from worries.
3. Live simply.
4. Give More.
5. Expect Less.