To climb steep hills requires slow pace at first.
-- William Shakespeare

Adopt the pace of nature; her secret is patience.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

In the confrontation between the stream & the rock, the stream always wins--not through strength but by perseverance.
-- H.Jackson Brown

"Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it."
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

You never lose by loving. You always lose by holding back.
-- Barbara De Angelis

The past is lost to you forever, and the future isn't yet yours. Now is the only time you own. Use it well.
-- Unknown

You are today where your thoughts have brought you; you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and you’ll help them to become what they are capable of becoming.
-- Goethe

Croatian storks shows true love overcomes any distance

ZAGREB (AFP) - A male stork proved once again that distance is no bar to true love as it flew thousands of kilometres back to its handicapped mate in a Croatian village, local media said Thursday.

This is the fifth year in a row that the stork, named Rodan, has made the epic journey of some 13,000 kilometers (8,060 miles) from South Africa to the village of Brodski Varos, in eastern Croatia, the Jutarnji List daily reported.

"This year he came a bit earlier," Stjepan Vokic, who cares for the female stork, named Malena, unable to fly since hunters shot through its wing, told the paper.

Rodan looked rather exhausted, Vokic added.

Every year the couple has raised a brood of chicks which Rodan has taught to fly since Malena cannot, Vokic said. This year is expected to be no different.

In August, Rodan and the young will start to prepare for their long journey to winter in South Africa while Malena remains in Brodski Varos until the return of its mate in the spring.

Though no one can go back and make a brand-new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand-new ending.
-- Carl Bard

When we seek to discover the best in others, we somehow bring out the best in ourselves.
-- William Arthur Ward

If you want to leave footprints in the sands of time, don't drag your feet.
-- Arnot L. Sheppard

The role of a writer is not to say what we all can say, but what we are unable to say.
Anais Nin

What I cannot love, I overlook. Is that real friendship?
Anais Nin

When you make a world tolerable for yourself, you make a world tolerable for others.
Anais Nin

I, with a deeper instinct, choose a man who compels my strength, who makes enormous demands on me, who does not doubt my courage or my toughness, who does not believe me naive or innocent, who has the courage to treat me like a woman.
Anais Nin

Life is not meant to be easy, my child; but take courage- it can be delightful.

-- George Bernard Shaw

Achievement seems to be connected with action.
Successful men & women keep moving.
They make mistakes, but they don’t quit.
-- Conrad Hilton


Let your light shine.
Be a source of strength and courage.
Share your wisdom.
Radiate love.
-- Wilferd Peterson

The "1000 Marbles" Story - Author Unknown

The older I get, the more I enjoy Saturday mornings. Perhaps it's the quiet solitude that comes with being the first to rise, or maybe it's the unbounded joy of not having to be at work. Either way, the first few hours of a Saturday morning are most enjoyable.

A few weeks ago, I was shuffling toward the backyard patio with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and the morning paper in the other. What began as a typical Saturday morning, turned into one of those lessons that life seems to hand you from time to time. Let me tell you about it.

I turned the dial up to listen to a Saturday morning talk show I heard an older sounding gentleman, with a golden voice. You know the kind, he sounded like he should be in the broadcasting business. He was telling whoever he was talking with something about "a thousand marbles".

I was intrigued and stopped to listen to what he had to say...

"Well, Tom, it sure sounds like you're busy with your job. I'm sure they pay you well but it's a shame you have to be away from home and your family so much. Hard to believe a young fellow should have to work sixty or seventy hours a week to make ends meet. Too bad you missed your daughter's dance recital."

He continued, “Let me tell you something Tom, something that has helped me keep a good perspective on my own priorities."

And that's when he began to explain his theory of a "thousand marbles." "You see, I sat down one day and did a little arithmetic. The average person lives about seventy-five years. I know, some live more and some live less, but on average, folks live about seventy-five years."

"Now then, I multiplied 75 times 52 and I came up with 3900 which is the number of Saturdays that the average person has in their entire lifetime.

Now stick with me Tom, I'm getting to the important part."

"It took me until I was fifty-five years old to think about all this in any detail", he went on, "and by that time I had lived through over twenty-eight hundred Saturdays. I got to thinking that if I lived to be seventy-five, I only had about a thousand of them left to enjoy."

"So I went to a toy store and bought every single marble they had. I ended up having to visit three toy stores to round-up 1000 marbles. I took them home and put them inside of a large, clear plastic container right here in the shack next to my gear. Every Saturday since then, I have taken one marble out and thrown it away."

"I found that by watching the marbles diminish, I focused more on the really important things in life. There is nothing like watching your time here on this earth run out to help get your priorities straight."

"Now let me tell you one last thing before I sign-off with you and take my lovely wife out for breakfast. This morning, I took the very last marble out of the container. I figure if I make it until next Saturday then I have been given a little extra time. And the one thing we can all use is a little more time."

"It was nice to meet you Tom, I hope you spend more time with your family, and I hope to meet you again.

You could have heard a pin drop on the radio when this fellow signed off. I guess he gave us all a lot to think about. I had planned to work that morning. Instead, I went upstairs and woke my wife up with a kiss. "C'mon honey, I'm taking you and the kids to breakfast."

"What brought this on?" she asked with a smile. "Oh, nothing special, it's just been a while since we spent a Saturday together with the kids. Hey, can we stop at a toy store while we're out? I need to buy some marbles."

A Scorpion Moment

There was a man who saw a scorpion floundering around in the water. He decided to save it by stretching out his finger, but the scorpion stung him. The man still tried to get the scorpion out of the water, but the scorpion stung him again.

Someone nearby told the man to stop saving the scorpion that kept stinging him.

But the man said: "It is the nature of the scorpion to sting. It is my nature to love. Why should I give up my nature to love just because it is the nature of the scorpion to sting?"

Don't give up loving.

Don't give up your goodness.

Even if people around you sting.

Use Empowering Words When You Talk to Yourself - whether speaking out loud or silently

How do you talk to yourself?

Do you use the words "can't", "won't", "don't need to", "why try"? Many people do.

Do you find that what you say to yourself turns out to be true?

Why is this?

You see your brain is like a computer that you feed each day. It doesn't know always know what's real or not unless you tell it.

Example: If someone you love has hurt you, you may tell yourself that all people who love you will probably hurt you too.

Your brain just files this information for reference, it's data, little zeroes and ones and no column that asks "true or not true?" Now your brain thinks, based on what you told it, that everyone you'll ever love will hurt you.

How do you think you will respond the next time you get hurt?

Right!!

Now, what if we instead told our brain:

"Okay this person ripped my heart out - but that's only one person. I'm lovable and have many loving people in my life who are not out to hurt me. I know that the right people are coming into my life all the time. If someone hurts me, I will forgive them and bless them on their way."

Words can be empowering.

I am
I love to
I want to
I will
I must
I am

We can reach a new level of living, if we feed ourselves empowering words and practice saying them until they become a habit.

I know first hand that it takes time.

And I also know that it's worth it.

Try it for a week.

Catch yourself saying, "I can't", when you don't really mean it and instead try, "I can", and see how you think and feel about yourself.

Remember, the words you use to empower yourself will have a lasting effect, only if you practice them and they become a habit (an acquired behavior pattern regularly followed until it has become almost involuntary).

They say it takes at least 28 days to develop a habit. After a week, you will see that it becomes easier. It's a mindset and you can control your thoughts. Be proactive and not reactive - give yourself some good words.

Dream big and empower yourself! Believe you can and you will.

by: Marlene Blaszczyk, Source Unknown

When the grass looks greener on the other side of the fence, it may be that they take better care of it there.
-- Cecil Selig

The greatest thing in the world is not so much where we are, but in what direction we are moving.

-- Oliver Wendell Holmes

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.

-- Marianne Williamson, from her book A Return To Love

“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.”
- Marianne Williamson

There is no passion to be found playing small- in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.

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

A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination.


-- Nelson Mandela

Surround yourself with high-energy people

Choose to be in close proximity to people who are empowering, who appeal to your sense of connection to intention, who see the greatness in you, who feel connected to God, and who live a life that gives evidence that Spirit has found celebration through them.

-- Wayne Dyer

http://www.drwaynedyer.com/daily-inspiration

The thing always happens that you really believe in; and the belief in a thing makes it happen.
-- Frank Lloyd Wright

Keep on sowing your seed, for you never know which will grow... Perhaps it all will.
-- Albert Einstein

Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.
-- Helen Keller

Do or do not. There is no try.
-- Yoda

"I allow balance to flow through me and to act as me."

As balance flows through you, you become familiar with its vibration. In order for something to "act as" you, you must become it. You must be what you desire. Balance is not something outside yourself, but inside. Other people’s perceptions of your sense of balance may be interesting information (worthy of an appropriate amount of your attention as a piece of data), yet your own perceptions about balance are the ones that are essential for your health and satisfaction.

http://dailyaffirm.com/

"MY ENDLESS GOOD NOW COMES TO ME IN ENDLESS WAYS." - Florence Scovel Shinn

"I release memories that allowed belief in instability and revenge."

Impurities dissolve without pollution as I manifest new experiences that become tomorrow’s pleasant memories.

Memories of experiences can be recorded on any layer/level of the energy field. You may be conscious of the memories or not. They may sit there quietly for many years, either polluting or enhancing your relationships. As you release old resistance, you may feel the feelings or think the thoughts that relate to those memories. The thoughts and feelings may come as a flash or a thud or laughter or fear. Analyzing this stuff is like analyzing the trash in your trash masher — messy and not very productive. The shortened version of this affirmation is, "I release."

Remember "to release" means "to let go." As you let go of what you do not need, you become happier and clearer and friendlier. In this way, you benefit first and others around you benefit also. While you are not responsible for anyone else’s personal development, you are connected ("we is all one") and can not separate yourself from the whole. The stuff that is releasing from you and others during this purification process has the potential of being toxic waste or rich fertilizer. Intention can dissolve the impurities in an instant. If you prefer that the release takes a long time, that choice is also available to you.

Make this a purifying day!

"I open to allow balance and magical synchronicity to operate in my life."

The world is so filled with images and messages about making things happen that it can sometimes be a shock to even consider letting them happen. When you are in the midst of synchronicity, you know that your higher wisdom is in charge, transcending the human manipulation that you might construct. It is such a joy to get out of the way and let the natural balance of life answer your desires in its way. The flow and processes of the Universe are truly magical if you only let go of the reins of control and allow.

http://dailyaffirm.com/

And the Oscar goes to...

Taken from last night:

Thank you, guys. When I was... I was nine and I asked my dad, "Can I have your movie camera? That old, wind-up 8 millimeter camera that was in your drawer?" And he goes, "Sure, take it." And I took it and I started making movies with it and I started being as creative as I could, and never once in my life did my parents ever say, "What you're doing is a waste of time." Never. And I grew up, I had teachers, I had colleagues, I had people that I worked with all through my life who always told me what you're doing is not a waste of time. So that was normal to me that it was OK to do that. I know there are kids out there that don't have that support system so if you're out there and you're listening, listen to me: If you want to be creative, get out there and do it. It's not a waste of time. Do it. OK? Thank you. Thank you.

-Michael Giacchino, Composer. Winner of the Academy Award for Best Original Score- UP.

I want to be the best that I can be.

I want to do and have and live in a way that is in harmony with my idea of the greatest goodness.

I want to harmonize physically here in this body with that which I believe to be the best way of life.

"There are no failures--just experiences and your reactions to them." ~Tom Krause

"Everything you can imagine is real." - Pablo Picasso

"Every day in every way I'm getting better and better." - Emile Coue

"The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one." - Elbert Hubbard

"Whatever you are by nature, keep to it; never desert your line of talent. Be what nature intended you for and you will succeed." - Sydney Smith

"I let go of everything that gets in the way of equanimity."

I give up the belief that retaliation creates balance so that I can create a more empowering belief about balance.

While intellectually you are likely able to accept that retaliation does not create balance, you may experience that some of your actions indicate that you believe this is so. The popular belief in karma, for example, includes the concept of retaliation. Revenge, "what goes around, comes around", "I’ll get you for that," and "Gotcha!" are common examples of retaliation — a distortion of true balance. Equanimity elicits feelings of calmness and evenness. Deeper than these feelings is the knowingness that you are connected with all others. Or as a friend of mine likes to say, "we is all one."

http://dailyaffirm.com/

"I rescind obsolete vows of struggle and limitation. Angels are with me as half-truths, lies, and distortions drop from my attention."

Vows of all sorts have been made (and, uh, broken) generation after generation. Religious vows, vows of revenge, marriage vows, vows of silence, vows of poverty, vows in anger, vows of forever, vows of never all have their unique dynamics. When vows are made forever, it is helpful to remember that forever is a long time. Broken vows tend to generate guilt or retaliation or fear. Today you can give a gift to your ancestors, your children, and yourself by consciously rescinding outdated vows, without even knowing precisely what they are.

http://dailyaffirm.com/

"Trusting God is like trusting gravity." - Louise Hay

"Infinite Spirit, I give thanks that the _____________ which is mine by divine right is now released and reaches me under grace in a perfect way." - Florence Scovel Shinn

Taken from Wayne Dyer's new book THE SHIFT

"The direction we take in life is far more significant than the place ego parks us in, in the present moment. For example, inquiring about what direction we're headed is more valuable than focusing on how much we weigh or when we had our last cigarette. Making a commitment to change a self-sabotaging way of life is making a commitment to change direction, and then we head toward weight loss or addiction control. Heading toward something more purposeful and meaningful is even more significant.

If we persistently listen to the demands of the ego, we move away from our Source of being. The ego insists on pursuing more: more stuff, accomplishments, status, triumphs, and money. More is the mantra of the ego, fueling endless striving with a false promise of eventually arriving. However, every assured arrival point is seductively transformed to a desire to strive for even more, unless we choose to make a shift in the direction our life is taking. The shift begins in the process of halting the momentum and self-importance of the ego, but then we must proceed with the work of derailing and rerouting it in the opposite direction. This doesn't mean that we lose our drive; rather, it signifies that our drive is realigned with a life based on experiencing Meaning and feeling purposeful.

Once we truly acknowledge our readiness to live a life on purpose and filled with meaning, there's very little to do. We begin living in a different world than we experience in our ego-directed persona. As I've written and said many times: When we change the way we look at things, the things we look at change."

"Anything you do, let it come from you. Then it will be new. Give us more to see."
Dot, Sunday in the Park with George

"I give myself permission to release disharmony easily and effortlessly from every level of my being."

Giving yourself permission to do something can be a key for getting started in the direction you desire to go. "Disharmony" is only one way to express a barrier to balance. Here are a few other suggestions: anger, jealousy, disease, dis-ease, confusion, hurt, distortion, imbalance, indecision, misalignment, dizziness, and, of course, the list can go on. This affirmation can activate such a deeply powerful release that I include the concepts of ease and effortlessness to keep discomfort at a minimum.

As a companion to your over-arching intention and definition of balance, you may also want to identify a specific issue or condition in your life for achieving balance. This will help you to stay focused and measure your success. For example, the balance of work and play, or personal and professional life. Or the way you eat. Or calmness/evenness in your life generally. Or perhaps you have told a lie and decide that this month is the time to set that straight and tell the truth. Or perhaps there is disequilibrium in one of your relationships and you establish a goal to invite harmony there.

http://dailyaffirm.com/

"I act with purposeful awareness of love."

The purpose of awareness is to know. In today’s statement, affirm that you know love through your actions and, further, that you act with love. Awareness is a gift you can have before an action (future), during it (present), and after it (past). Start where you are — where it is most familiar — and expand your awareness in the present as you act. The past and the future are available to you as a context for the present. However, love is an energy that exists only in the present. It is the Presence.

http://dailyaffirm.com/

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." ~ Anais Nin