STORY

My son is an awesome baseball player. Yet it’s his most frustrating sport.

Maybe because in baseball it’s more obvious to the crowd when you make a mistake, than in football. I’m not sure. But it messes with him (it always has).

Last night he missed two fly balls. Just doesn’t happen to him. He was dejected. Mortified. I didn’t know what to say. He certainly didn’t want to hear my advice, that’s for sure.

When we finally talked I told him, “You are a straight A student. You go to one of the toughest schools in the state and even nation. You got a 99.9% score on your high school placement test. You are tired. Overwhelmed. And stressed. You did your best.”

His answer surprised me.  

He was adamant he did NOT do his best. Yet even when I asked, “So you were distracted? Tired? Not playing full out?”

He answered, “Of course not, Mom! But if I had done my best I wouldn’t have dropped those balls.”

And he MEANT it.

That’s when it hit me – do you really believe your best is determined either by outcomes or external accolades? WTF? Are you kidding me? That’s insane!!!

I then carefully, but adamantly told him words I hope YOU hear too.

“You’re NOT taking in the wild card piece of it – the universe and your soul. Now you might only be 14, so your life lessons might come in the form of a baseball game so maybe what I’m getting ready to explain will sound crazy because baseball doesn’t seem like it’s that important. But at 14, could it be possible sports are how YOU are teaching YOU to prepare for harder things to come? If everything is super easy for you now, what will happen to you when you’re married and your wife has a miscarriage? Or you get fired? Or God forbid something else awful happens? Do you want to wait to test your emotional fitness when the people you love need you most? How will you handle that level of life disappointment if you’ve never even faced things as simple as giving it everything you have on the field and still dropping balls? It’s time to hunker down, get real and if it’s important to you then you need to try that much harder. But you have to believe you’ll get through this. Have faith in YOU. Accept your anger, embrace it; but don’t let it mean anything more than you are angry and learning how to move through anger to get to the other side of YOU.”

I don’t believe you should sweat anything – much less the little things, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t uber-important to your growth. You just don’t need to make them into mountains!

(All you need to do is pay attention to them so you can move through them more effortlessly.)

Learning to accept your best isn’t good enough at times, for whatever reason, will build your emotional fitness.

Knowing you might not win the prize every time, but knowing you got SOMETHING out of the experience is where joy comes in and will bring you outrageous fulfillment.

If you KNEW the experience wasn’t about winning or losing, but about just feeling and growing, how could you ever resist or avoid any emotion again? You should be shouting to the world, “Bring it on – I GOT this!”

Open your heart to get out of your head so you can see what is being revealed – like a movie scene playing out a bigger plot.

What you experience is exactly what you’re supposed to – it’s the meaning you put on it, like, “I have to try harder next time” is where you miss the boat.

It’s not always about trying harder. It’s about feeling whatever you’re feeling in that moment.

While it’s fine to build your skills on failures, it’s also important to enhance your soul through accepting your emotions as you have them. Avoid letting the ego take over to make them any more than they were supposed to be. Experiences breed growth. We crave them at a soul level.

But I also know you can’t know the reason part FOR SURE. It’s the wild card part of the equation. So use your joy detector (hint it’s not your mind!) to get closer to the truth – it’s there – and it will feel outrageous.

When you are on the field of life and you get knocked down pay attention to your next move because for the most part you have three basic choices.

1. Grab your bat and glove and go home.
2. Lay on the field in the fetal position.
3. Pick yourself up and get back up to bat.
   

No matter what you choose, the only outcome I can GUARANTEE is that you’ll never hit that home run if you choose to go home or freeze. I can also promise you that life will hunt you down like a dog and find new and better ways to “teach” you what you are avoiding.

But facing the situation, picking yourself up off the ground and getting back up to bat is your only real chance to swing for the fences and knock that ball out of the park!

Watch this inspiring video and tell me, where would we be today if these people had chosen to quit?

Image via Wikipedia

If you’re curious about the best way to disagree with
someone without harming the relationship, here are six
tips that you can start applying immediately…

1. Never Argue With a Fool

One of the most important ways to disagree with
someone without causing an argument, is to simply avoid
interactions with people who argue just to argue. In
other words, if you can tell that someone is wasting a
contrary opinion simply for the sake of engaging you in a
debate, don’t waste your time. Simply acknowledge your
own disagreement in the silence of your heart and  move
on.

People are seldom if ever persuaded by debating, and
engaging someone who “just likes to debate” sets you on
the same juvenile level as them. There’s an old saying
that goes “Never argue with a fool because people
watching from a distance may not be able to tell the
difference.” Remember this the next time someone
disagrees with you, and choose your battles accordingly

2. Focus On Understanding First

Most of the time, when someone seems to be arguing
with you all they’re trying to do is get you to understand
their point of view. The problem is that many of us get
confused and think that if we affirm to someone that we
understand them that we are somehow agreeing with them.
But the moment you begin to focus on understanding
someone, and demonstrating to them that you understand
them, they’ll be much more likely to respect you…even
if you disagree.

3. Value the Truth Above All

Sometimes, disagreeing with a person is not the best
course of action. After all, there will be times when you
are wrong and the other person is right…but your pride
simply keeps you from admitting that you’re wrong. The
next time you find yourself in a discussion where he
seemed to be disagreeing with the person, switch your
focus and concentrate on making the point of the
discussion a search for what’s true.

You never know what you might learn if you just learn
to listen and focus on truth instead of on your opinion
or the other person’s opinion.

4. Offer Your Opinion as “Food for Thought”

Instead of offering your opinion as being counter to
the other person’s, offer it as “something to think
about” instead. This can be a very effective way of
presenting your opinion without offending someone. For
instance, if someone tells you that their interpretation
of something is _____, offer your view by saying something
like: “That’s an interesting point, but here’s something
else to think about…”

This way, you’re affirming their viewpoints before
suggesting yours, and you’re suggesting it as a question
instead of the statement of truth.

5. Watch Your Tone

Everyone knows that the tone in which you say
something speaks volumes and that it’s sometimes more than
the statement itself. Since it can be very difficult to
read whether or not there is judgment, agitation, anger or
arrogance in your voice, practice recording yourself
while you’re talking about something that you strongly
disagree with.

Really take the time to describe why you disagree with
it, and listen to the recording after you’re done. You
might be surprised at what kinds of hidden messages there
are in the tone of your voice. You’ll also be much
quicker to correct your tone and to speak with respect to
people, even when you’re disagreeing with them.

6. Know Your Motives

This is probably the most important thing you can do
when it comes to relating with people that you disagree
with: know your motives. Really stop and ask yourself
whether you are disagreeing with the person or if you’re
simply trying to be heard and understood. Most of the
time, people will continue to voice opposing opinions if
they don’t feel that they are being heard.

If they continue to feel that they’re not being heard
or understood, they sometimes start belittling the other
person’s viewpoints just to “get back at them.” So really
search yourself and find out whether or not you are
voicing your opinion for the sake of contributing to the
interaction, or if you’re just wanting someone to hear
you and understand you.

TIP: If you have strong opinions which are getting you
into arguments with other people, it might be a good idea
to find out why you feel so strongly about them. Most
often defensiveness towards others is due to inner
conflict. Working these kinds of things out can make your
interactions with other people much better.

You alone are in a position to decide what balance you want to strike between your work and your home. Whatever decision you make, you then actualize and maintain this choice with a boundary.

Once you know what kind of balance you want to strike, then you also have decisions to make about the kind of boundary you will have. Is it non-negotiable? Is it something that you can be flexible about? Will it apply all the time and to everyone, or are there exceptions?

And then the final thing you’ll need to consider is making sure that your boundary is in sync with your core values, and that you are communicating it clearly to everyone who needs to know about it.

So, imagine that you want to have a strong boundary between work and home. How do things like your personal needs and style, your communication skills, and the quality of your support system factor in? Here’s a sampling of 3 pros and 3 cons to consider, as you think about setting your boundary:

Pros:
1. Your schedule is a lot less likely to be disrupted by other’s urgency if you discourage “emergency” calls from home or work. When boundaries are porous and you are constantly reacting to urgency, that can lead to distraction, overwhelm, and rash decisions that undermine your effectiveness and erode others’ trust.

2. Remember that when you encourage those who are qualified to handle emergencies on their own, you are promoting their confidence and competence. This is a real win-win situation!

3. Strong boundaries reduce outside distraction. This can give a huge boost to your focus, flow, and personal productivity, whether you’re at work or at home.

Cons:
1. If you can’t successfully delegate the management of a situation or demand, then maintaining a strict boundary may mean that those problems escalate and ultimately consume even more time.

2. If the transition from work to home activities is an easy one for you, then maintaining rigid distinctions may actually discourage creative solutions that could enrich both areas of your life.

3. Regimenting roles too rigidly can sometimes discourage cooperative enterprises. More flexible partnerships in which responsibilities are shared and differing strengths are pooled, may help you discover time-saving opportunities that are to everyone’s benefit.

What’s best for you? That’s what really counts, in the end. There’s no right or wrong here — just what works for you. So, do you find yourself nodding strongly at one position or another?
Ready to try a time boundary on for size? Here are additional questions and ideas to consider as you move ahead:

• What do I want to have time for?
• What can wait?
• What can be delegated?
• Who does what, and when?

Discuss your evolving ideas about your new time boundaries with everyone involved, so that people aren’t surprised.

Answering questions like these helps you prioritize, clarify lines of responsibility, and learn more about your preferred work style and possible time challenges.

Take all the time you need to sort out the specifics. You and those close to you benefit by clarifying your roles right now — it short-circuits potential conflicts down the road. And, with what you learn, you can develop contingency plans that will lessen the possibility of straining relations in the heat of the moment (i.e. when you least need conflict).

Your reward, as you clarify, establish, and maintain your time boundaries, is heightened productivity, improved communication and effective backup plans. In a very real sense, the boundaries you establish will direct your energies and shape your life.

When you put these time skills to work, you automatically gain more positive control over your time. Just watch how it affects your energy and attitude!

So, what’s your next step to create more effective boundaries and find more time?

• I am a human being.
• I deserve to eat
• God created me
• I am a Ghanaian
• I love God
• I have a sense of humour
• I am smart
• I am intelligent…. by my own standards

I told you I can convince you. What….you are not convinced? what more should I say? isn’t it what most people do? they sit down everyday like envelope without address, waiting for manna to fall. what do you expect me also to do? should I climb up there for it or join them in their pensive moods waiting patiently for manna to fall?

that is what they’ve been telling me everyday, “life is how you make it,”  “you’ll never get out of it alive so enjoy.” how on earth can I enjoy when I can’t even afford a penny?

i think i have to carry begging bowl in my hand and move from door to door and see if i can get some cedis; or better still, i can jump from one politician to the other and sing honorifics to them. i think i can get enough money to enjoy myself by doing this.

i don’t think a person of my calibre has to do this. NO! it does not befit me! i have to find a nice way of getting money without sweating. YES! I have to do that! Nothing can stop me! not even myself.

have you any idea about how i can get money without sweating?…………………………..oh please tell me! i know you know it so dont just sit down and watch me suffer!

i just heard from a grapevine that manna will not fall this year. I do not the truth of the matter… and i don’t want to know. all i want is quick money.

An Opportunity To Change
The Lord began speaking to me about this many years ago while I was dusting our bedroom dresser. I noticed a brochure lying amongst the other items and glanced through it to see if I should throw it away or file it. As I did, a phrase caught my attention:

“Learn how to live the abundant Christian life.”

The brochure was advertising a conference by an organization I had never heard of before – Campus Crusade for Christ. I assumed it was for college students, seeing as we had four children by then, and decided to hang onto it, thinking my husband, Marvin, might be interested in taking our family to the event.

What is the Abundant Christian Life?
But even though I had set the brochure aside, the phrase, “Learn how to live the abundant Christian life,” kept coming to my mind throughout the rest of the day. I had been a Christian since age 12, but in the last few years I sensed I was missing something. Outwardly, I had everything I had ever dreamed of: A wonderful husband, four healthy children, several businesses, and to top it all off, we had just moved into our dream home.

One thing that was missing, however, was my mother. She had died that May and I missed her very much. But God used this time of mourning to help me think seriously about eternity. I knew I wanted to see my mother again, but I wasn’t sure I would go to heaven when I died, and that?s where I assumed she was.

A few days after I read the brochure, my brother-in-law Ed Goerzen dropped in and asked if Marvin had mentioned the conference to me. I told him he hadn’t, but I was very interested. When he encouraged us to go, I listened, because Ed had changed a lot in the past few months. Even though he had always had a pleasing personality, he now radiated the joy of Christ. I really wanted that joy too. In fact, when my brother-in-law left, I prayed,

“God, how can I have this kind of joy?”

The thought, “total commitment” crossed my mind, but I quickly pushed it aside. After all, I was already involved in many leadership roles in my church and community and I certainly didn’t want more things to do. But a quiet voice inside of me said,

“I want you, not your work.”

I chose to ignore this voice, but I didn’t forget it.

Off to the Conference
Several respected friends had also encouraged us to attend this conference, so we eventually decided to go and as an added incentive, it was raining in BC where we lived and very sunny in California where the conference was being held! A few weeks later we were on our way to California for the conference that would change our lives.

During one of the messages, the speaker asked us to write a list of our acts and attitudes we knew were displeasing to God. I have to admit my list was much longer than I thought it would be. Then I claimed the promise in 1 John 1:9,

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

I felt so clean inside when I was done.The next morning we heard a message on how to be filled with the Holy Spirit. This was the moment of decision. To experience the abundant life I wanted, I needed to give control of my life completely to God. This was the total commitment He had told me about and I had rejected weeks earlier. However, this time I had no hesitation in giving it to Him. My prayer went something like this:

Dear God, I need You. I know that I have sinned against You by directing my own life. I thank You that You have forgiven my sins through Christ’s death on the cross for me. I invite Christ to again take His place on the throne of my life. Fill me with Your Holy Spirit as You commanded me to be filled, and as You promised in Your word that You would do if I asked in faith. I pray this in the name of Jesus. As an expression of my faith, I thank You for directing my life and for filling me with the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Immediately, I was filled with such joy and love, I couldn’t contain myself. I read recently that in the deep south, people call this breakthrough to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ as, “I was seized by the power of great affection.” For a reserved person like me, this was definitely a supernatural experience.I realized I also had to make the Bible my authority from that day onward. Anything that did not agree with God’s Word would be disregarded.

The Great Commission
That weekend, Marvin and I both committed our lives to help fulfill our Lord’s Great Commission. Thus, our priorities – and our lives – began to undergo a radical change. As hard as we had worked in our businesses and our home, now we began to pour all of our efforts into reaching our neighbourhood, our country and the world with the good news of God’s love and forgiveness.

“Did I Hear You Correctly, Lord?”
Even though I have been filled with the Holy Spirit, who promises to act as my teacher and guide, there have been times when I have doubted if I have heard God correctly. Several years ago, I was certain God wanted me to put my energies into creating an evangelistic magazine on the Internet. I had ideas and content but kept running into roadblocks (namely, a lack of qualified people) to get the content online. It seemed that every time I tried a new avenue, it turned into another dead end. Desperate, I consulted the Lord again. Had I really heard Him or was it just my imagination?

Soon after that, I received an e-mail from a young man named Brent. He said, “I saw your web sites and could do a lot better than what you are doing.” So I asked him what he would do differently and he listed 20 things. To make a long story short, a month later, he became our web designer – and a very good one at that. A month later, a talented young woman applied to be our writer and editor. As time went by, God continued to answer my cry for help by adding talent to our team.

Another obstacle we faced was that evangelistic web sites don’t generate funds, so raising money became part of my job description. Once again, the Lord provided two couples who saw the possibilities of reaching into countries, offices and hearts through the Internet. Since then, together with a committed team and donors, God has enabled to build eight successful websites.

“Yes, Katherine, I am in Control”
Through experiences like these, God has shown me so many times that He is in control and He will provide. All I need to do is listen, trust and obey. And if I do, He will bless me beyond my wildest imagination. Who would have thought that a woman who wanted nothing more than ?the American dream? would one day play a key role in reaching hundreds of thousands of people all over the world through over eight websites? Not me, that?s for sure. But as I said, my dreams were too small. It was only when I let go of those dreams and totally committed my life to God that He truly began to pour out His blessings on my life.

Do you sometimes feel as if your dreams are too small? Are you looking for a more satisfying relationship with God, an opportunity to make a truly significant impact on the world? If so, I encourage you to commit your life totally to God, to ask the Holy Spirit to fill you completely. If you already believe in Jesus Christ, God has given you His Holy Spirit to help you live life according to His perfect plan. Why not pray this simple prayer and by faith invite Him to fill you with His Spirit?

Dear Father, I need You. I acknowledge that I have sinned against You by directing my own life. I thank You that You have forgiven my sins through Christ’s death on the cross for me. I now invite Christ to again take His place on the throne of my life. Fill me with the Holy Spirit as You commanded me to be filled and as You promised in Your Word that You would do if I asked in faith. I pray this in the name of Jesus. As an expression of my faith, I thank You for directing my life and for filling me with the HolySpirit. Amen.

by Katherine Kehler

Here’s the solution: Focus instead on creating a new habit that will lead to achieving your goal.

Want to run a marathon? First create the habit of running every day. Want to get out of debt and start saving? Create the habit of brown bagging it to work, or watching DVDs instead of going to the movies, or whatever change will lead to saving money for you.

By focusing not on what you have to achieve over the course of the next year, but instead on what you are doing each day, you are focusing on something achievable. That little daily change will add up to a huge change, over time … and you’ll be surprised at how far you’ve come in no time. Little grains of sand can add up to a mountain over time.

I used this philosophy of habit changes to run a marathon, to change my diet and lose weight, to write a novel, to quit smoking, to become organized and productive, to double my income, reduce my debt and start saving, and to begin training for an Olympic triathlon this year. It works, if you focus on changing habits.

Now, changing your habits isn’t easy — I won’t lie to you — but it’s achievable, especially if you start small. Don’t try to change the world with your first habit change … take baby steps at first. I started by just trying to run a mile — and by the end of the year, I could run more than 20 miles.

How do you change your habits? Focus on one habit at a time, and follow these steps:

1. Positive changes. If you’re trying to change a negative habit (quit smoking), replace it with a positive habit (running for stress relief, for example).
2. Take on a 30-day challenge. Tell yourself that you’re going to do this habit every day, at the same time every day, for 30 straight days without fail. Once you’re past that 30-day mark, the habit will become much easier. If you fail, do not beat yourself up. Start again on a new 30-day challenge. Practice until you succeed.
3. Commit yourself completely. Don’t just tell yourself that you might or should do this. Tell the world that DEFINITELY will do this. Put yourself into this 100 percent. Tell everyone you know. Email them. Put it on your blog. Post it up at your home and work place. This positive public pressure will help motivate you.
4. Set up rewards. It’s best to reward yourself often the first week, and then reward yourself every week for that first month. Make sure these are good rewards, that will help motivate you to stay on track.
5. Plan to beat your urges. It’s best to start out by monitoring your urges, so you become more aware of them. Track them for a couple days, putting a tally mark in a small notebook every time you get an urge. Write out a plan, before you get the urges, with strategies to beat them. We all have urges to quit — how will you overcome it? What helps me most are deep breathing and drinking water. You can get through an urge — it will pass.
6. Track and report your progress. Keep a log or journal or chart so that you can see your progress over time. I used a running log for my marathon training, and a quit meter when I quit smoking. It’s very motivating to see how far you’ve come. Also, if you can join an online group and report your progress each day, or email family and friends on your progress, that will help motivate you.

Most important of all: Always stay positive. I learned the habit of monitoring my thoughts, and if I saw any negative thoughts (“I want to stop!”) I would squash it like a little bug, and replace it with a positive thought (“I can do this!”). It works amazingly. This is the best tip ever. If you think negative thoughts, you will definitely fail. But if you always think positive, you will definitely succeed.

“My partner spends too much time with her friends and family. What’s the point of being together if she’s always gone a couple of nights a week?”

“My wife wants to go back to school now that the children are older. She doesn’t need to work, so why does she want to do this? It’s going to take up way too much of her time.”

“My husband has to go out of town for work a lot. I feel so angry about this. What about me?”

“I love to dance and my husband doesn’t, so why does he get so upset when I dance with someone else – even with another woman?”

What’s going on here? What is behind this possessiveness?

Possessiveness is the result of self-abandonment. Self-abandonment often creates deep feelings of insecurity. When a person is possessive, it is because they want their partner to fill up the emptiness and take away the feelings of insecurity that come from self-abandonment.

If You Are Possessive…
If you are possessive, do you believe it is your partner’s responsibility to make you feel loved and secure? This is a huge false belief, and here’s why:

Even if your partner spends all his or her time with you, never looks at another person and is very loving to you, you will still feel insecure and empty inside if you:

• Ignore your feelings
• Judge yourself
• Turn to addictions to self-medicate
• Make others responsible for your feelings

Imagine that you have a child who you ignore, judge, medicate and try to give away to others. Will this child feel secure? When you abandon yourself, you are abandoning your inner child, which always creates insecurity, no matter how loving your partner is to you. While your partner’s love makes you feel better for the moment – just as any addiction works to make you feel better for the moment – it cannot heal the insecurity that is being caused by your own self-abandonment.

If You Are at the Other End of Possessiveness…

• Do you feel responsible for your partner’s insecurity, and believe it is your job to make your partner feel secure?
• Do you give yourself up and not do what you want to do, out of fear of your partner’s reaction?
• Do you do what you want, but lie about it?

If you do any of these things, you are contributing to your partner’s insecurity rather than helping him or her learn to become inwardly secure. Care-taking your partner serves to reinforce your partner’s false belief that you are responsible for making him or her feel secure. Enabling your partner in this way perpetuates the problem.

Your responsibility is to tune in to how lonely and heartbreaking it feels to you when your partner doesn’t support you in doing what brings you joy, or in just being who you are. Your responsibility is to focus on taking loving care of your own inner child, who feels anxious and unloved when you abandon yourself to care-take your partner. By learning to take loving care of yourself in the face of your partner’s controlling behavior, you not only heal your own anxiety; you become a role model of personal responsibility, which may help your partner learn to take loving care of himself or herself.

It is important to accept that no matter how loving you are to your partner or how much you give yourself up, your partner will become secure only when he/she learns to be loving to himself/herself.

By Dr. Margaret Paul

And upsidedown in the earth a dead man walks upon my soles when I walk. ~Bill Knott, “(End) of Summer (1966)” (Thanks, Laurie)

Night and morning are making promises to each other which neither will be able to keep. ~Richard Shelton

I imagine that yes is the only living thing. ~e.e. cummings

Ink smears, as thoughts sometimes do. ~Terri Guillemets

Never mind. The self is the least of it. Let our scars fall in love. ~Galway Kinnell

Her hearing was keener than his, and she heard silences he was unaware of. ~D.M. Thomas

Silence moves faster when it’s going backward. ~Jean Cocteau

We are asleep with compasses in our hands. ~W.S. Merwin

If only I could leave everything as it is, without moving a single star or a single cloud. Oh, if only I could! ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin

Sharp nostalgia, infinite and terrible, for what I already possess. ~Juan Ramon Jimenez

[T]he departing world leaves behind… not an heir, but a pregnant widow. ~Alexander Ivanovich Herzen, Other Shore

Two and two the mathematician continues to make four, in spite of the whine of the amateur for three, or the cry of the critic for five. ~James McNeill Whistler, Whistler Versus Ruskin, 1878

We are never prepared for what we expect. ~James A. Michener, Caravans

The universe is simmering down, like a giant stew left to cook for four billion years. Sooner or later we won’t be able to tell the carrots from the onions. ~Arthur Bloch

As I was walking up the stair,
I met a man who wasn’t there.
He wasn’t there again today.
I wish, I wish he’d go away.
~Hugh Mearns

It has been said repeatedly that one can never, try as he will, get around to the front of the universe. Man is destined to see only its far side, to realize nature only in retreat. ~Loren Eiseley, “The Innocent Fox,” The Star Thrower, 1978

We have met the enemy and they are us! ~Walt Kelly, Pogo, 1971

Our dream dashes itself against the great mystery like a wasp against a window pane. Less merciful than man, God never opens the window. ~Jules Renard, Journal, 1906

Fear is a cloak which old men huddle about their love, as if to keep it warm. ~William Wordsworth

You can owe nothing, if you give back its light to the sun. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin

the high cost of
living isnt so bad if you
dont have to pay for it
~Don Marquis, Archy and Mehitabel, 1927

Take the so-called standard of living. What do most people mean by “living”? They don’t mean living. They mean the latest and closest plural approximation to singular prenatal passivity which science, in its finite but unbounded wisdom, has succeeded in selling their wives. ~e.e. cummings, Introduction, Poems, 1954

You’re only as sick as your secrets. ~Author Unknown

Those who gave away their wings are sad not to see them fly. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin

Clouds, birds, tree tops
The freedom of being on high
Closer to the sun
Further from the slum,
But farther to fall when they die.
~Carrie Latet

All that we know is nothing, we are merely crammed waste-paper baskets, unless we are in touch with that which laughs at all our knowing. ~D.H. Lawrence, “Peace and War,” Pansies, 1929

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
~T.S. Eliot, 1943

The beginning of all wisdom is to look fixedly on clothes, or even with armed eyesight, till they become transparent. ~Thomas Carlyle

I believe if I should die, and you were to walk near my grave, from the very depths of the earth I would hear your footsteps. ~Benito Perez Galdos

You are sad because they abandon you and you have not fallen. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin

Another way of approaching the thing is to consider it unnamed, unnameable. ~Francis Ponge

Invent a past for the present. ~Daniel Stern

My great day came and went, I do not know how. Because it did not pass through dawn when it came, nor through dusk when it went. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin

Nothing is not only nothing. It is also our prison. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin

A hunter of shadows, himself a shade. ~Homer

The only interesting answers are those which destroy the questions. ~Susan Sontag

Within your lifetime will, perhaps,
As souvenirs from distant suns
Be carried back to earth some maps
Of planets and you’ll find that one’s
So hard to color that you’ve got
To use five crayons. Maybe, not.
~Marlow Sholander, “Maybe”

Let your working ideas go for a picnic – sometimes the fresh air and ant bites are just what they need. Many great ideas were bitten a little at the beginning. ~Carrie Latet

No matter how fast light travels it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it. ~Terry Pratchett

I wish I could have known earlier that you have all the time you’ll need right up to the day you die. ~William Wiley

I am the vessel. The draft is God’s. And God is the thirsty one. ~Dag Hammarskjold, Markings, 1964

The first step… shall be to lose the way. ~Galway Kinnell

Psychoanalysis and Zen, in my private psychic geometry, are equal to nicotine. They are anti-existential. Nicotine quarantines one out of existence. ~Norman Mailer

The Great Way has no gate.
Clear water has no taste.
The tongue has no bone.
In complete stillness, a stone girl is dancing.
~Seung Sahn

He who does not fill his world with phantoms remains alone. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin

I would go to heaven, but I would take my hell; I would not go alone. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin

Love, she said, should be said more slowly, and ran from the house. Words could not catch her as such. Honesty is so slow, that is the trouble. ~Author Unknown

They have stopped deceiving you, not loving you. And it seems to you that they have stopped loving you. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin

It is known that there is an infinite number of worlds, but that not every one is inhabited. Therefore, there must be a finite number of inhabited worlds. Any finite number divided by infinity is as near to nothing as makes no odds, so if every planet in the Universe has a population of zero then the entire population of the Universe must also be zero, and any people you may actually meet from time to time are merely the products of a deranged imagination. ~Douglas Adams, The Original Hitchhiker Radio Script

Learning is not easy, but hard; culture is severe. The steps to Parnassus are steep and terribly arduous. ~John Jay Chapman

He who holds me by a thread is not strong; the thread is strong. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin

Alas! must it ever be so?
Do we stand in our own light, wherever we go,
And fight our own shadows forever?
~Edward Robert Bulwer Lytton

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
~Robert Frost, “The Road Not Taken,” 1916

You think you are killing me. I think you are committing suicide. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin

We cross our bridges when we come to them and burn them behind us, with nothing to show for our progress except a memory of the smell of smoke, and a presumption that once our eyes watered. ~Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

You purchase pain with all that joy can give, and die of nothing but a rage to live. ~Alexander Pope

My heaviness comes from the heights. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin

We dance round in a ring and suppose,
But the Secret sits in the middle and knows.
~Robert Frost, In the Clearing, 1962

I have figured for you the distance between the horns of a dilemma, night and day, and A and Z. I have computed how far is Up, how long it takes to get Away, and what becomes of Gone. I have discovered the length of the sea serpent, the price of priceless, and the square of the hippopotamus. I know where you are when you are at Sixes and Sevens, how much Is you have to have to make an Are, and how many birds you can catch with the salt in the ocean – 187,796,132, if it would interest you. ~James Thurber, Many Moons

If you come to a fork in the road, take it. ~Yogi Berra

My whole life is waiting for the questions to which I have prepared answers. ~Tom Stoppard