All the art of living lies in a fine mingling of letting go

All the art of living lies in a fine mingling of letting go


and holding on.

restless mind is an impure mind; an impure mind is a restless mind. If we could keep the mind clean, it will find its calmness. ?Cleanliness is next to Godliness.? Why? Because only a clean mind can be calm, and only a calm mind can reveal true happiness.

restless mind is an impure mind; an impure mind is a restless mind. If we could keep the mind clean, it will find its calmness. ?Cleanliness is next to Godliness.? Why? Because only a clean mind can be calm, and only a calm mind can reveal true happiness.

The world we see that seems so insane is the result of a belief system that is not working.
To perceive the world differently, we must be willing to change our belief system, let the past slip away,
expand our sense of now, and dissolve the fear in our minds.

"Everything you need you already have. You are complete right now, you are a whole, total person, not an apprentice person on the way to someplace else."

"Everything you need you already have. You are complete right now, you are a whole, total person, not an apprentice person on the way to someplace else."

"Who you really are is enough."

"Who you really are is enough."

"Out of clutter, find Simplicity. From discord, find Harmony. In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity."

"Out of clutter, find Simplicity. From discord, find Harmony. In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity."

The world we see that seems so insane is the result of a belief system that is not working.

The world we see that seems so insane is the result of a belief system that is not working.
To perceive the world differently, we must be willing to change our belief system, let the past slip away,
expand our sense of now, and dissolve the fear in our minds.

"Wherever you are is always the right place. There is never a need to fix anything, to hitch up the bootstraps of the soul and start at some higher place. Start right where you are."

"Wherever you are is always the right place. There is never a need to fix anything, to hitch up the bootstraps of the soul and start at some higher place. Start right where you are."

The endless tears and fear of separation

As I lay in bed,


Tossing and turning about,

You slept soundly next to me.



Listening to your rhythmic breathing,

I turned over and hugged you close to me,

And my tears began to fall.



Afraid that you would be awakened,

I quickly turned my back to you,

Trying my very best to quiet my sobs.



An aching feeling griped my heart,

And the ache continued to squeeze my heart,

Making me wanting to cry out loud.



Days without you seem unbearable,

And even now I struggle to chase away these sad thoughts,

That torment my mind and grieve my heart.



I try not to recall memories of our first departure,

The endless tears and fear of separation,

And I wonder if I can withstand another heart-wrenching episode.



I worry if you will be alright on your own,

During the days when I am not by your side,

After we have created so many memories together.



When I imagined you with that lost boy look,

That conveyed your loneliness and longing for me,

I pray that our love will make you strong in the days ahead.



I am hardly confident that I can hold myself together,

When I have to leave you for the second time,

And return to where I came from with a weeping heart.



How I wish I could say out loud to you,

I don't want to leave and please make me stay,

So that we can build a new life together.



But reality came down hard on me,

We don't have the means to start a new life now,

Till you can make it on your own to come get me.



Your faraway presence will keep me company,

As I hold dear to the magical moments we have shared,

And strive to keep our our love burning in my heart.



Things happened for a reason,

And I had gone through much to be with you,

If we are meant to be together we will be.



Our separation will be a test of our love,

Whether it will withstand the challenge of distance and time,

And grow into something stronger and more enduring.



Farewell my love,

May you smile whenever you think of me,

And may we be embraced in each other's arms once again.

Confidence

If you wish to travel far and fast, travel light. Take off all your envies, jealousies, unforgiveness, selfishness, and fears.

If you wish to travel far and fast, travel light. Take off all your envies, jealousies, unforgiveness, selfishness, and fears.

All misfortune is but a stepping stone to fortune.

All misfortune is but a stepping stone to fortune.

A man's character may be learned from the adjectives which he habitually uses in conversation.

A man's character may be learned from the adjectives which he habitually uses in conversation.

life was about to begin - real life

"For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin - real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be gotten through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, or a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life."

man punished his 3-year-old daughter for wasting a roll of gold wrapping paper.

The story goes that some time ago, a man punished his 3-year-old daughter for wasting a roll of gold wrapping paper. Money was tight and he became infuriated when the child tried to decorate a box to put under the Christmas tree.Nevertheless, the little girl brought the gift to her father the next morning and said, "This is for you, Daddy." He was embarrassed by his earlier overreaction, but his anger flared again when he found the box was empty.He yelled at her, "Don't you know that when you give someone a present, there's supposed to be something inside it?"The little girl looked up at him with tears in her eyes and said,"Oh, Daddy, it is not empty. I blew kisses into the box. All for you, Daddy."The father was crushed. He put his arms around his little girl, and he begged for her forgiveness.

It is told that the man kept that gold box by his bed for years and whenever he was discouraged, he would take out an imaginary kiss and remember the love of the child who had put it there.

In a very real sense, each of us as humans have been given a gold container filled with unconditional love and kisses from our children, friends, family and God. There is no more precious possession anyone could hold.

We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.

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.

We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God.

Your playing small does not serve the world.

There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.

We are all meant to shine, as children do.

We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.

It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

credit belongs to those who are actually in the arena, who strive valiantly

The credit belongs to those who are actually in the arena, who strive valiantly; who know the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spend themselves in a worthy cause; who at the best, know the triumph of high achievement; and who, at the worst, if they fail, fail while daring greatly, so that their place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.


-- Theodore Roosevelt

“I felt that I had to overachieve,” he told me, “as a way to show that I was OK.”

They have the serene look of people who know that, even though the battle was lost, the war will be won.

The knowledge is more than consolation, it is confirmation. It is a confirmation of all they have been through, of the changes they have seen, of the distance traveled. On a long journey, what is one more step?

The State Senate last week rejected a bill to legalize gay marriage. Larry Van Heusen and Bob Scharf see it as just another road marker. Each was once, in a sense, ashamed to be gay. Scharf as a young man prayed that his attraction for men was a phase; that one day he would see a sexy girl and feel an attraction.

“There still are people who think this is not an orientation, it is a preference,” he said. “Believe me, there was a time when I wished I could have chosen to be something else.”

Van Heusen remembers the days before the gay pride movement, when he internalized society’s condemnation with a misplaced self-loathing.

“I felt that I had to overachieve,” he told me, “as a way to show that I was OK.”

Discrimination bears different variations of bitter fruit. The men talk now about the emotional cost of their sexuality from the comfortable perspective of maturity and self-acceptance. Self-awareness is the happy product of the evolution through adulthood.

Society, too, has evolved. Openly gay couples these days do not usually prompt a second look. Gay pride parades march down the middle of Main Streets. Relatively few gay folks keep the closet door closed. Van Heusen said it was only a few years ago that he thought gay marriage might be seen in his lifetime.

I sat Thursday in the living room of the couple’s tidy house in Kenmore. A decorative straw scarecrow hangs on the front door of the brick ranch house. Van Heusen is 63 and stick-thin, a retired psychiatric social worker who speaks softly but carries a big IQ.

Scharf, a retired HSBC executive, peers through thick eyeglasses and chats easily. The presence of the couple, together for 34 years, has not cracked the bedrock upon which the conventional village stands. The thought that it might is amusing.

Years from now, too, I think most folks will look back in amusement and disbelief over the fuss about legalizing gay marriage. Although many people place a religious connotation on the word “marriage,” Van Heusen and Scharf see it as the law does—as a state-sanctioned confirmation of a commitment.

I am not sure of what threat gays present to an institution battered by the massive number of heterosexuals who do not—mostly for understandable reasons— fulfill the lifetime vow. All that Van Heusen, Scharf and thousands like them want is for society to acknowledge their full humanity and the practical benefits—from inheritence laws to hospital visitations—that come with it. They are, I think, in a similar place to where women were a century ago, and blacks more recently. But their time, too, is coming.

“The reason we are not letting go of [gay marriage] is the other side is so adamant that ‘We don’t want you to be at our level,’ ” Van Heusen said. “That is what really hurts. That is the moral connotation of this—to keep gays a little bit beneath everyone else.”

In the long run, in a healthy society, discrimination does not stand. This week’s vote failed. But I think that each battering at the door weakens the lock.

“Every time it is raised further desensitizes people to the idea,” said Van Heusen. “It makes it easier for the next time.”

Whether that next time is a year or two away does not much matter. Larry Van Heusen and Bob Scharf can wait. They have time and again seen what time can do.

Meeting

To Lady of the Rainbow and Gerhard Way

The world we see that seems so insane is the result of a belief system that is not working. To perceive the world differently, we must be willing to change our belief system, let the past slip away, expand our sense of now, and dissolve the fear in our minds.

Self-Awareness: recognizing your current state–physical, emotional, and mental

It was just one of those bad days. Work was stressful and busy and I had no time to take a lunch break. By the time I got home, I was in a bad mood and defenses were on high. Immediately when my fianc� said something to me, I interpreted it as a personal attack and snapped at him. With no appetite for dinner or desire to be around people, I went to lie in bed. As I lay there, a bit of self-awareness poked through into my consciousness. I realized that I needed to take action to cut through this foul mood. I knew dwelling on my thoughts would make things worse, so with all my willpower, I dragged myself up out of bed and to the gym for a good run on the treadmill. Not 1 minute into my run, my iPod died, but I pushed myself and kept going. It took a good 10 minutes, but eventually the blood was flowing, good chemicals were pumping through my body, and the distraction of exercise changed my mood.
I wasn’t always able to take action to combat my moods, but by developing greater self-awareness and knowledge that ACTION was what I needed rather than rumination, I have much more ability to control and change my moods.
Self-Awareness: recognizing your current state–physical, emotional, and mental.
How can you increase your self-awareness?
1. Meditation
2. ABC’s–understanding how Adversity, Beliefs, and Consequences (behaviors and emotions) are interrelated
3. Cues like saying STOP to interrupt negative�thoughts
4. Learn from experience and practice over time
Action
1. physical exercise affects moods and thoughts
2. JUST DO IT and don’t over-think things
3. Let your gut decide
4. Make a decision and move forward–leave the past behind
5. Learn what actions help boost your mood and worsen your mood

Leaders spend so much time studying the dynamics of their organizations and their business worlds that they often forget to study themselves. But when

i wrote this for my husband when he reached his first year of sobority in alcoholics annonyomous and narcotics annonyomous

I knew you could do it i knew you would not stray;

I waited and i prayed that you would reach this day.

You've changed your life completely you've become a different man;

You never said i can't do that you only said i can.

You made us all so proud the kids now have their DAD;

Look only to the future and forgive all the bad.

You are so honest, so loyal and so true;

You always put your heart in everything you do.

Your kids now look up to you and admire who you are;

The road you had to travel must have seemed so far.

You never looked back you were determined to succeed;

You are no more a follower you now are in the lead.

You are now the DAD your kids want you to be;

You set a great example for everyone to see.

You are my inspiration and when i look into your eyes;

I know I'll always love you until the day i dye.

Compassionate Alcoholics

Compassion

is never lacking an an alcoholic.

It is his sensitivity to pain,

his willingness to take on the burdens

of others, consciously or unconsciously,

which causes some to choose booze

to tune out their pain.



But in the long run, alcohol causes more

pain.

The Alcoholics Curse

Drinking all day of the week of the year

Is an alky's terrible curse you should fear

Then there's the week when they're not feeling well

They can't properly eat and their ankles will swell.



They can't remember a time they were free

From their yearning for Vodka or sweet G n'T

When they'd baulk at the mess that's under the bridge

Or the dread when there's no beer left in the fridge.



If you live with one then the curse is yours too

You might wish that you'd left the warm nest and just flew

Some will put up with it, Loyalty is strong

Or just leave them to it say goodbye and be gone.



Alcoholism is a terrible fate

It's an illness we know so before it's too late

Please be careful with the dirty booze

Because you have everything you love and own to lose.

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim

Because it was grassy and wanted wear,

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I marked the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way

I doubted if I should ever come back.



I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,

I took the one less traveled by,


And that has made all the difference.