"The waste of life lies in the love we have not given, the powers we have not used, the selfish prudence that will risk nothing, and which, shirking pain, misses happiness as well.— Mary Cholmondeley"

Letting Go
Author Unknown
But Greatly Appreciated!

To let go doesn't mean to stop caring;
It means I can't do it for someone else.
To let go is not to cut myself off...
It's the realization that I can't control another...
To let go is not to enable,
but to allow learning from natural consequences.
To let go is to admit powerlessness,
which means the outcome is not in my hands.
To let go is not to try and change or blame another,
I can only change myself.
To let go is not to care for, but to care about.
To let go is not to fix, but to be supportive.
To let go is not to judge,
but to allow another to be a human being.
To let go is not to be in the middle arranging all the outcomes,
but to allow others to affect their own outcomes.
To let go is not to be protective,
It is to permit another to face reality.
To let go is not to deny, but to accept.
To let go is not to nag, scold, or argue,
but to search out my own shortcomings and correct them.
To let go is not to adjust everything to my desires,
but to take each day as it comes and cherish the moment.
To let go is not to criticize and regulate anyone,
but to try to become what I dream I can be.
To let go is not to regret the past,
but to grow and live for the future.
To let go is to fear less and love more.

"In the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, for in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.— James Allen"

"Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person; having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but to pour them all out, just as they are, chaff and grain together, knowing that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then, with a breath of kindness, blow the rest away.— George Eliot"

CREATIVITY

A blind man was sitting with a hat by his feet and a sign that read:
"I am blind, please help."

A passing lady stopped to observe. She saw that the blind man had only a few coins in his hat. She dropped in more coins and, without asking
for permission, took the sign and rewrote it.

She returned the sign to the blind man and left. That afternoon the lady returned to the blind man and noticed that his hat was full of bills and coins.

The blind man recognized her footsteps and asked if it was she who had rewritten his sign and wanted to know what she had written on it.

The new sign read: "Today is Spring and I cannot see it."

Don't get frustrated when things don't work; try a new approach instead.

"The last of the human freedoms: to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way."
- Viktor Frankel

"In prosperity, our friends know us; in adversity, we know our friends.— John Churton Collins"

FLEXIBILITY

OK, I know you'll probably hate me for this, but how recently have you tried to reach one hand behind your back, the other over your shoulder and have the two hands grab each other. There is no reason why most
adults should be unable to do this, yet I suspect that most people reading this cannot do it.

In the shower, most people rely on wash cloths or scrubbers to wash their backs, rather than reaching. And in busy lives we don't take the time to keep fit. And those who do keep fit, mostly work on cardiovascular and strength fitness. Over time, we lose flexibility.

Is flexibility important. Well, if you want to stay mobile in your later years, don't let your body get too rigid.

Can't grab one hand with the other behind your back? Keep trying. With practice, it will come back.

May you live all the days of your life,
~David Leonhardt~

"The secret of happiness is not in doing what one likes, but in liking what one has to do. "
- Sir James M. Barrie-

"Relationships — of all kinds — are like sand held in your hand. Held loosely, with an open hand the sand remains where it is. The minute you close your hand and squeeze tightly to hold on, the sand trickles through your fingers. You may hold onto some of it, but mostly it will be spilled. A relationships is like that. Held loosely, with respect and freedom for the other person, it is likely to remain intact. But hold too tightly, too possessively, and the relationship slips away and is lost.— Kahlil Jamison"

"The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them.— Thomas Merton"

"Love is the difficult realization that something other than oneself is real.— Iris Murdoch"

"The most wonderful of all things in life, I believe, is the discovery of another human being with whom ones relationship has a glowing depth, beauty, and joy as the years increase. This inner progressiveness of love between two human beings is a most marvelous thing. It cannot be found by looking for it or by passionately wishing for it. It is a sort of Divine accident.— Sir Hugh Walpoe"

~1John 4:8~

"Become a possibilitarian. No matter how dark things seem to be or actually are, raise your sights and see the possibilities — always see them, for they're always there."
— Norman Vincent Peale

He surrounds me with
lovingkindness and tender mercies.
he fills my life with good things.
Psalm103:4-5 TLB