"Be glad of life, because it gives you the chance to love and to work and to play and to look up at the stars."

Henry Van Dyke
American Educator

"Since changes are going on anyway, the great thing is to learn enough about them so that we will be able to lay hold of them and turn them in the direction of our desires. Conditions and events are neither to be fled from nor passively acquiesced in; they are to be utilized and directed."

— John Dewey

"We avoid the things that we're afraid of because we think there will be dire consequences if we confront them. But the truly dire consequences in our lives come from avoiding things that we need to learn about or discover."

~Shakti Gawain
Inspirational Author and Teacher

"At the center of your being
you have the answer;
you know who you are
and you know what you want.

Lao Tzu
Ancient Chinese Philosopher

"Judgmentalism assumes that you have the right to change someone else. Well, you don"t. You only have the right to choose how you will change and behave. Trust others to make their own choices. Put the accountability for another"s actions where it belongs, on the other person"s shoulders."

— Vince Poscente

You cannot stay on the summit forever, you have to come down again... so why bother in the first place? Just this; what is above knows what is below, but what is below does not know what is above.

Rene Daumal, 1908-1944
French Author, Philosopher and Poet

You may believe that you are responsible for what you do, but not for what you think. The truth is that you are responsible for what you think, because it is only at this level that you can exercise choice. What you do comes from what you think.

~anon~

"There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered."

— Nelson Mandela

"Why is it that, as we grow older, we are so reluctant to change? It is not so much that new ideas are painful, for they are not. It is that old ideas are seldom entirely false, but have truth, great truth in them. The justification for conservatism is the desire to preserve the truths and standards of the past; its dangers, of which we are seldom aware, is that in preserving those values, we may miss the infinitely greater riches that lie in the future"

— Dale Turner

"Anything you do from the soulful self will help lighten the burdens of
the world. Anything. You have no idea what the smallest word, the
tiniest generosity can cause to be set in motion. Be outrageous in
forgiving. Be dramatic in reconciling. Mistakes? Back up and make them
as right as you can, then move on. Be off the charts in kindness. In
whatever you are called to, strive to be devoted to it in all aspects
large and small. Fall short? Try again. Mastery is made in increments,
not in leaps. Be brave, be fierce, be visionary. Mend the parts of the
world that are within your reach. To strive to live this way is the
most dramatic gift you can ever give to the world."

Clarissa Pinkola Estes
American Author, Poet and Psychologist

"The art of living does not consist of preserving and clinging to a particular mood of happiness, but in allowing happiness to change its form without being disappointed by the change; for happiness, like a child, must be allowed to grow up."

Charles Langbridge Morgan

CHOICES

We can't always change things, such as when someone close dies or when the economy tanks. But we can change how we treat each other. We can choose to be less frustrated with each other (yes, that is something we can choose). We
can choose to be more patient, more understanding, more forgiving.
~anon

"I wanted a perfect ending. Now I've learned, the hard way, that some poems don't rhyme, and some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next. Delicious Ambiguity."

— Gilda Radner

"Change is inevitable, growth is intentional."

— Glenda Cloud

"The most powerful thing you can do to change the world is to change your own beliefs about the nature of life, people, and reality to something more positive … and begin to act accordingly."

— Shakti Gawain

The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate."

—Oprah Winfrey

"An affirmation is a strong, positive statement that something is already so."

— Shakti Gawain

"For yesterday I hold no apologies, For tomorrow I hold no answers, today is a gift and I will honor it by fully living in it."

— Maryanne Radmacher-Hershey