Tag: quotes

Positive Vibes

Hi guys! Sorry I haven’t posted in a while. I’ve been working on developing two writing projects and they are taking up a lot of my inner daydreams. Thinking about plots and characters and such.

I wonder how many of us have been taking a break from the heavy stuff. The news just makes me sad sometimes and I have to step away for a while, especially the back and forth comments on social media. I feel for the family of George Floyd. I couldn’t even watch that video all the way. It was horrible.

I’m hoping and praying for y’all that life gets better for everyone and things become more inclusive and kind. For all its drudgery and despair, this world is still a beautiful place. I’m sending positive vibes your way tonight.

Unity, peace, love, understanding….these are things I admire and wish for you all.

As the coronavirus ravages and the peaceful protests hit the streets…I’ll be here in my little corner of the world while working my garden, hanging out with my family and pets, and pouring my energies into creative writing.

It’s not much but maybe if we all collectively work on these little things in our lives, it will have a ripple effect of positivity. Focus on building and maybe it will counter the things separating us from our common human connection.

“When it is raining, look for rainbows. When it is night time, look for stars.” Find the silver lining. Keep your face to the sun like a sunflower. Nurture. Grow.

It reminds me of a Tibetan Buddhist ceremony I went to once. The monks spent an entire week building a beautiful, intricate sand design. At the end of the week, the sand was all blown away. Thus is life. But even knowing this reality did not stop the monks from building. And neither should it stop you or me.

Life goes on. We get older. Things fall apart. All is just dust in the wind. What we do now may matter very little in the long run as things we were, things we did, things we tried to accomplish fade away to memories and then become forgotten.

But build we must for what is the purpose of existence if not this. Hope lives through our building efforts and continues through our children. And civilization continues through them and their descendants.

Unity, peace, love, understanding…strive to build these and the world of tomorrow can prosper.

Advertisement

Helen Keller was Born in June, 1880

Helen Keller was born a normal, healthy baby on June 27, 1880, but, due to sudden illness, she lost both her sight and hearing at only 18 months of age. Her parents enlisted the help of Anne Sullivan, a recent graduate of Perkins Institute for the Blind, to teach Helen. Anne and Helen built a lifelong relationship. With Anne’s assistance, Helen was able to go on to gain a formal education at the Horace Mann School for the Deaf in Boston, where she learned not only to write, but also to speak.

After graduating from college at the top of her class, Helen became involved in social and political activism. Over the course of her life she received numerous honors and medals for her work and accomplishments as well as several honorary degrees.

Below are ten inspirational quotes from this extraordinary woman.

1. The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched but must be felt with the heart.

2. Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.

3. Your success and happiness lies in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties.

4. Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.

5. I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.

6. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.

7. Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.

8. Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood.

9. It is a terrible thing to see and have no vision.

10. Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow.

Live the Present Moment & Make it Beautiful

My best friend at work learned this weekend that she has blood cancer. She told me this in a matter-of-fact tone while we were in the parking lot outside work during lunch. She said she got the phone call this weekend from the doctor. He said the cancer may be in the bone marrow and affecting production of red blood cells. When her husband was told the news, he punched a hole in the living room wall.

She’s my age. I’m 41.

Life is strange. One moment you are going along doing your daily routine: work, caring for family, cleaning house, etc. etc. and the next moment, you discover you may only have a few more months left.

I didn’t really know what to say. We hugged. She’s my closest companion at work. She said when the chemo starts, she’ll probably need to quit. She didn’t cry and neither did I. It was just……what it was.

It reminds me of these quotes I saw recently on Facebook:

Authenticity

I have found in life that the people who try hardest to please others usually have the smallest circles of friends or admirers. It is sad but true. It is not that they are fake. Often times, life experience has taught them to overly focus on the needs of others around them. This is something which must be unlearned later so they may blossom into maturity.

As I grow older in life, I release my uncertainties about the expectations and demands of others and I am more comfortable now just doing my own thing. Part of what I greatly enjoy is time spent in nature. We can learn a great deal from the natural world around us, including the sentiments found below:

The harder we try to please others and to be what we assume they want us to be, the more unattainable those goals seem to become. It is counter intuitive but it is accurate truth. It is better to have a more cavalier stance on life. As Rhett Butler would say, “Frankly, I don’t give a damn.”

So today if you are writing, try not to please others with your words….please your authentic self. Write like you’re telling a story to yourself. Besides, no writing gets perfect marks from critics. For example, the book Wuthering Heights, a fantastic work of art, was initially panned as “work of someone focused on suicidal idealization.” Today it is a classic.

Take a cue from Ricky Nelson’s song called “Garden Party.” This is a golden oldie song which some of you may have never heard. It is a good song with a good message. You can’t please everyone. Sometimes you gotta please yourself.

Garden Party

And remember there is no hall of fame for negative criticism. Here are some important quotes and such on the importance of living life with authenticity.