A wise woman who was traveling in the mountains found a precious stone in a stream.
The next day she met another traveler who was hungry, and the wise woman opened her bag to share her food.
The hungry traveler saw the precious stone and asked the woman to give it to him.
She did so without hesitation.
The traveler left rejoicing in his good fortune.
He knew the stone was worth enough to give him security for a lifetime.
But, a few days later, he came back to return the stone to the wise woman.
“I've been thinking,” he said.
“I know how valuable this stone is, but I give it back in the hope that you can give me something even more precious.
Give me what you have within you that enabled you to give me this stone.”
---Unknown
THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS
Truth, if it becomes a weapon against persons.
Beauty, if it becomes vanity.
Love, if it becomes possessive.
Loyalty, if it becomes blind, careless trust.
Tolerance, if it becomes indifference.
Self-confidence, if it becomes arrogance.
Faith, if it becomes self-righteous.
---Ashley Cooper
Commitment is...
Commitment is trust. We must trust and be trusted, or there is no true commitment.
Commitment is action. It goes far beyond words or good intentions. We must act to fulfill our commitments. Commitment is more than a promise. It is a promise fulfilled. Commitment is attention. We must continually attend to our commitments, or they soon lose their value.
Commitment is persistent. It does not wither at the first sign of trouble. In fact, it grows stronger with every challenge. Commitment is faith, and commitment is faithful. Commitment is truth. Commitment is caring. Commitment is responsible. Commitment is intentional. Commitment is capable.
Commitment is power. When you are committed, things get done. Relationships blossom. Magnificent achievements happen. Commitment turns intentions into reality.
Commitment is worth it. At times it is painful. It demands effort
and sacrifice. It is inconvenient and uncomfortable. Yet it will
bring out the best in you, and will take you to places where otherwise
you would never go. Consider carefully before committing yourself.
Then once you've made the commitment, give it everything you have.
There is incredible joy to be found in your well placed and tended
commitments.
---Ralph Marston
How much more grievous are the consequences of anger
than the causes of it.
---Marcus Aurelius
" A person who goes in search of God is wasting his time. He can walk a thousand roads and join many religions and sects - but he'll never find God that way.
God is here, right now, at our side. We cam see Him in this mist... even in my shoes....
In order to find God, you have only to look around. "
---Paulo Coelho, "The River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept"
Work like you don't need money
Love like you have never been hurt
And dance like no one is watching.
My dear children,
I come to bring you solace. A word of cheer, comfort, and love as you go through the trials and tribulations of the great change. To the human heart change is frightening and upsetting. When you rely on the Divine Creator, you are guided to the right place, people, and situations which will help you in the moment. Begin today, if you haven't already, to live in the moment. Let your thoughts for the future be of good cheer and hope. Plan for the future in your own way, take whatever action you are guided to, and then live in the moment. This moment is yours...it is Divine. Let your plans and actions fill you with solace.
Let solace comfort your soul, bring cheer to your heart and relief to your anxieties. The soul is comforted through prayer and meditation. Keep to your daily prayers. Bring to God all the things in your life that cause you concern. Pray for your life, omitting no area of your existence. Do not think that you can hide from God. Speak to Him about everything. Are there situations which fail you? Are there areas in your world that concern you? Are you troubled about loved ones? Do you fret over a particular situation? God sees everything and knows everything, yet you cannot benefit until you open yourself up to His help and loving solutions. Keep nothing hidden in your heart or mind. Release your concerns, worries, and problems to God.
Let Him bring solace by giving you insights into solutions and answers. Allow God to move circumstances and situations to answer your prayers and petitions.
My children, set aside a time to listen through your meditations. During your meditations commune with God. Commune with Him in silence. Be still and let the silence soothe your soul. Simply allow your meditations to become a vigil in silence. In the beginning you may find it difficult to maintain silence, but with practice you will become more proficient. You may only be able to maintain silence for a few seconds or mintues, that is good. Continue to be in the silence no matter how long you can maintain it. Do not judge what happens in the silence. The silence, which is your interaction with all that is Divine, cannot be judged or measured on earth.In time you will become more comfortable in the silence. Your heart will begin to rejoice and you will experience relief which is felt to the core of your being. When you are weary or troubled, seek solace in the silence of your soul. When you are sad and grieving, seek the solace of silence.
When you are confused and questioning, seek the solace of silence. When you are joyous and grateful, seek the communion with God in silence.
Allow yourself to find solace in the joys of your life. The Psalmist said, "Make a joyful noise unto the Lord." This is the way to worship God. He loves you unconditionally and this brings comfort and joy to the soul. Daily find the joy in living. Look for ways to be cheerful and have goodwill. When you concentrate on the joys of your life, you become more grateful, more compassionate, and much more understanding. While you are on earth, there will be troubles, but leave your troubles in the silence and allow God to work miracles. Concentrate on the joys of life and not on the troubles of life.
We can say over and over, "Do not judge, for how you judge others is how you are judged." But until you find the solace of God, you will continue to fall into old patterns of judgment. God's solace brings relief through forgiveness. Until you can fully accept that you are loved unconditionally, forgiven completely for all things, you will continue to fall into judgment. And until you can forgive yourself for all things, both imagined and real, you will not find the comfort that comes from a soul at peace.
Forgive yourself for all your mistakes, sins, errors in judgment, and for anything that distresses you. Some people have great things to forgive, such as crimes and abuses of all kinds. Others must forgive themselves for being unkind, dispassionate, and uninvolved in their own life and in the lives of their loved ones. Forgive yourself for the large issues and for the small annoyances. Then you receive God's great solace. Through His solace, He brings relief from these issues and annoyances, and gives comfort in the awareness of inner peace. His forgiveness is soothing to the spirit. Your own forgiveness frees you from living in inner terror.
Now you are ready to forgive others. To free yourself and the people you have issues with from all entanglements of the soul. This brings you more solace than you can imagine. You then are free to be cheerful, to live a life of peaceful joy. This is your goal, this is your possibility. As you forgive all people and all things, you are helping to bring peace into your life and into the world.
Seek to experience joyful peace, the peace that passes all understanding. My children, you were created to live in peace, believe this with your whole heart. Let this thought and the knowledge that you are loved unconditionally, lead you to truly experience joyful peace.
First find peace within yourself. Commit to live your life in peace; this is how to help bring peace into the world. There is solace in making this commitment. It gives you comfort and it will also bring up all the issues that keep you from peace. But do not let this deter you from your goal of inner peace. Recognize that these issues are to be forgiven, released and resolved, in order for you to live in peace. Each of you have all that you need within you to accomplish this task.
Then live your life joyfully. Find the joy in everyday life, in doing your work well. Find the joy in relating to your family and friends. Seek to know yourself. Find the joy and humor that is a part of your spirit. Daily seek to be of good cheer. Not ignoring problems, but resolving them with grace. There is joy in every sunset and sunrise, in nature and in your children. Find the joy in your pursuits and your hobbies. Find the joy of being a good example for others to follow. Find the joy in prayer and meditation. This is my request. I do not request the impossible of you. Each of you has the capacity to find solace, to live in peace, and to live joyfully. Let your daily life be loving, cheerful, and soothing to humanity. Your daily life then becomes the joyful noise you make to God.
Let your life reflect God's love.
---Mary, Mother of Jesus.
May the pain you have known and
the conflict you have experienced
give you the strength to walk through life
facing each new situation with
courage and optimism.
Always know that there are those
whose love and understanding
will always be there,
even when you feel most alone.
May you discover enough goodness in others
to believe in a world of peace.
May a kind word, a reassuring touch,
a warm smile be yours
every day of your life,
and may you give these gifts
as well as receive them.
Remember the sunshine
when the storm seems unending.
Teach love to those who know hate,
and let that love embrace you
as you go into the world.
May the teaching of those you admire
become part of you,
Remember, those whose lives you have touched and
who have touched yours
are always a part of you,
even if the encounters were less
than you would have wished.
It is the content of the encounter
that is more important than it's form.
May you not become too concerned with material matters,
but instead place immeasurable value
on the goodness in your heart.
Find time in each day to see the beauty and
love in the world around you.
Realize that each person has limitless abilities,
but each of us is different in our own way.
What you may feel you lack in one regard
may be more than compensated for in another.
What you feel you lack in the present may
become one of your strengths in the future.
May you see your future as one filled with
promise and possibility.
Learn to view everything
as a worthwhile experience.
May you find enough inner strength to
determine your own worth by yourself, and
not be dependent on another's judgments
of your accomplishments.
May you always feel loved.
--- Author Unknown
At this juncture, an old woman who had approached the group, the better to hear Issa (Jesus), was pushed aside by one of the spies, who placed himself before her. Then Issa held forth:
"It is not meet that a son should set aside his mother, taking her place. Whosoever respecteth not his mother, the most sacred being after his God, is unworthy of the name of son.
"Listen, then, to what I say unto you: Respect woman, for she is the mother of the universe, and all the truth of divine creation lies in her. She is the basis of all that is good and beautiful, as she is also the germ of life and death. On her depends the whole existence of man, for she is his natural and moral support.
"She gives birth to you in the midst of suffering. By the sweat of her brow she rears you, and until her death you cause her the gravest anxieties. Bless her and worship her, for she is your one friend, your one support on earth.
"Respect her, uphold her. In acting thus you will win her love and her heart. You will find favor in the sight of God and many sins shall be forgiven you. In the same way, love your wives and respect them; for they will be mothers tomorrow, and each later on the ancestress of a race.
"Be lenient towards woman. Her love ennobles man, softens his hardened heart, tames the brute in him, and makes of him a lamb. The wife and the mother are the inappreciable treasures given unto you by God. They are the fairest ornaments of existence, and of them shall be born all the inhabitants of the world.
"Even as the God of armies separated of old the light from the darkness and the land from the waters, woman possesses the divine faculty of separating in a man good intentions from evil thoughts.
"Wherefore I say unto you, after God your best thoughts should belong to the women and the wives, woman being for you the temple wherein you will obtain the most easily perfect happiness. Imbue yourselves in this temple with moral strength. Here you will forget your sorrows and your failures, and you will recover the lost energy necessary to enable you to help your neighbor.
"Do not expose her to humiliation. In acting thus you would humiliate yourselves and lose the sentiment of love, without which nothing exists here below.
Protect your wife, in order that she may protect you and all your family. All that you do for your wife, your mother, for a widow or another woman in distress, you will have done unto your God."
The Tao Te Ching says, "When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be. When I let go of what I have, I receive what I need." Have you ever struggled to find work or love, only to find them after you have given up? This is the paradox of letting go. Let go, in order to achieve. Letting go is God's law.
It doesn't interest me to know what you do for a living.
I want to know what you ache for,
and if you dare to dream your hearts longing.
It doesn't interest me how old you are.
I want to know if you will risk being a fool for love,
for your dreams,
for the adventure of being alive.
It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon.
I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow,
if you have been opened by life's betrayals
or if you have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain!
I want to know if you can sit with pain,
mine or your own;
without moving to hide it or jade it or fix it.
I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own;
if you dance with wildness and let ecstasy
fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes
without cautioning us to be careful be realistic,
or to remember the limitation of being human.
It doesn't interest me to know if the story you're telling me is true.
I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself,
if you can bear the accusation of betrayal
and not betray your own soul.
I want to know if you can be faithful and therefore trustworthy.
I want to know if you can see beauty
even when it's not pretty every day,
and if you can source your life from Gods presence.
I want to know if you can live with failure,
yours and mine,
and still stand on the edge of a lake
and shout to the silver moon, "YES!"
It doesn't interest me to know where you live
or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up after a night of grief and despair,
weary to the bone,
and do what needs to be done for the children.
It doesn't interest me to know who you are,
how you came here.
I want to know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me
and not shrink back.
It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom you have studied.
I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away.
I want to know if you can be alone with yourself,
and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.
--- By Oriah Mountain Dreamer, Indian Elder
We associate spirit with positive and creative energy. This energy gives us the power to live, work, and create. Spiritual
people are positive and creative human beings. They know, deep inside themselves, that they have the power to create
the difference in their lives. They have looked within and found what can be called their yes to life, and this yes shines
forth in their attitudes and actions.
--- When God Becomes A Drug, Father Leo Booth
"Be Happy Where You Are"
Sadly, many of us continually postpone our happiness - indefinitely. It's not that we consciously set out to do so, but that we keep convincing ourselves, "Someday I'll be happy." We tell ourselves we'll be happy when our bills are paid, when we get out of school, get our first job, a promotion. We convince ourselves that life will be better after we get married, have a baby, then another. Then we are frustrated that the kids aren't old enough we'll be more content when they are. After that, we're frustrated that we have teenagers to deal with. We will certainly be happy when they are out of that stage. We tell ourselves that our life will be complete when our spouse gets his or her act together, when we get a nicer car, are able to go on a nice vacation, when we retire.
The truth is, there's no better time to be happy than right now. If not now, when? Your life will always be filled with challenges. It's best to admit this to yourself and decide to be happy anyway. One of my favorite quotes comes from Alfred D'Souza. He said, "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, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life." This perspective has helped me to see that there is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way.
So, treasure every moment that you have! And treasure it more because you shared it with someone special, special
enough to spend your time..... and remember that time waits for no one...
Stop waiting until you finish school, until you go back to school, until you lose ten pounds, until you gain ten pounds, until
you have kids, until your kids leave the house, until you start work, until you retire, until you get married, until you get
divorced, until Friday night, until Sunday morning, until you get a new car or home, until your car or home is paid off, until
spring, until summer, until fall, until winter, until you are off welfare, until the first or fifteenth, until 'your song' comes on,
until you've had a drink, until you've sobered up, until you die, until you are born again to decide that there is no better
time than right now to be happy...happiness is a journey not a destination.
Ann Landers said; "If I were asked to give what I consider to be the single most useful bit of advice for all humanity, it
would be this: Trouble is an inevitable part of life. When it comes, hold your head high, look it squarely in the eye, and
say, 'I will be bigger than you. You cannot defeat me.' Don't deny your problem. Just recognize that the Divine Spark
that gives you life can overcome any financial or relationship difficulty. You cannot be defeated.
It is easy enough to be friendly to one's friends. But to befriend the one who regards himself as your enemy is the
quintessence of true religion. The other is mere business.
You are the mother I received
Forgiveness is not the misguided act of condoning irresponsible, hurtful behavior. Nor is it a superficial turning of the
other cheek that leaves us feeling victimized and martyred. Rather it is the finishing of old business that allows us to
experience the present, free of contamination from the past.
--- Joan Borysenko, Ph.D., Fire In The Soul
"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life. It goes on."
"Never ruin an apology with an excuse."
"Forgiveness is a gift of high value. Yet its cost is nothing."
"Love is perhaps the only glimpse we are permitted of eternity."
"When do the dead die? When they are forgotten."
ADVICE TO MY CHILDREN
Look people in the eye.
"The price one pays for pursuing any profession, or calling, is an intimate knowledge of its ugly side."
"There's a hard law ... that when a deep injury is done to us we never recover until we forgive."
"Silence is the great teacher, and to learn its lessons you must pay
attention to it. There is no substitute for the creative inspiration,
knowledge, and stability that come from knowing how to contact your
core of inner silence. The great Sufi poet Rumi wrote, 'Only let the
moving waters calm down, and the sun and moon will be reflected on the surface of your being'."
Jesus tells us that we are forgiven as we forgive others.
When one is strong enough to FORGIVE another
You are releasing anger, hurt, pain and confusion
And what a burden, a dark cloud, a weight it has been.
To forgive another, is to grow in understanding yourself.
To release it allows one to live in today and not yesterday.
To release the event, however terrifying, tragic, sad, or humiliating it was,
Think on this,
To forgive another, their actions and transgressions,
Visualize a circle of twelve or more Angels,
Have you the strength to reach out
Feel and see.
The Divine circle is there
Has the confusion evaporated into a Divine understanding
To FORGIVE, ---AngelScribe
"It's not the perfect that needs our love - it's the imperfect!"
Tomorrow a mystery
Today is a gift
That's why it's called the present!
--- Mohandas K. Gandhi, Non-violence in Peace and War, V.2,ch.248
the day I wed your son.
And I just want to thank you, Mom,
for the things that you have done.
You've given me a gracious man
with whom I share my life.
You are his lovely mother,
and I his lucky wife.
You used to pat his little head and
now I hold his hand,
You raised in love a little boy then gave to me a man.
---Unable to identify original source
--- Robert Frost
--- K. Johnson
--- Betty Smith, A Tree Grows In Brooklyn
--- Helen Hayes
--- Laura Esquivel, The Law of Love
Live beneath your means.
Admit your mistakes.
Never deprive someone of hope; it might be all he or she has.
Pray not for things, but for wisdom and courage.
Never take action when you're angry.
Have good posture.
Enter a room with purpose and confidence.
Don't expect life to be fair.
Never underestimate the power of forgiveness.
Be bold and courageous.
When you look back on your life,
you'll regret the things you didn't do more than the ones you did.
Don't procrastinate. Do what needs to be done when it needs to be done.
Get your priorities straight.
No one ever said on his deathbed,
"Gee, if I'd only spent more time at the office."
Don't be afraid to say "I don't know."
Call your mother.
And, your grandmother.
--- James Baldwin
-- Alan Paton (from "Too Late the Phalarope")
--- Author Unknown
or an incident in their lives
they truly are forgiving themselves
not the other party.
from your cellular memory.
You have come to the understanding
that forgiving is truly for you
and not the other
for
in reality, it was you that held onto that moment of pain
and continued to replay it
over in your heart
and mind.
To release it is to lighten your every day step
and make your future brighter and LIGHTER.
To understand that you are greater than the incident,
that only by rethinking and re-feeling it now,
keeps it alive and in the now.
is to allow happy thoughts and experiences into your life and mind.
if for the last five times you replayed your hurtful past,
what if you had replayed something loving or funny in place of it?
How healing that would be!
is to really forgive your reaction
to their actions.
Love linking their energy together.
You are in this circle and see if you can
see the one(s) to forgive in there with you also.
and hold their hands
and feel the release
of your pain and confusion melt, evaporate, dissipate
in the strength of this circle?
It is you that is changing and benefitting the most.
for added strength, protection, and Love
for your wounded spirit.
But, see how you feel in your physical heart now!
Has the pain been replaced with gentleness?
of the importance of your spiritual strength?
is to understand how important it is to your spiritual healing,
we bless you in your choice. Amen.
--- John Robbins (author of Diet for a Small Planet)
