Your Destiny

Playing with Scrabble Letters

and a 

Camera

... your destiny is not determined by your critics. God has the final say. Quit listening to what the naysayers are telling you and stop living to please people. Shake that off and keep pressing forward in life.
(Joel Osteen, Become A Better You, p. 238)
28 February 2016

Questions of Life

In the most important questions of your life, you are always alone. No one other than you can understand your true history, your life story, as it develops. The essence of true life is your attitude, during the different stages of your life, toward your spiritual self, and your ability to follow that voice living inside you.

(Leo Tolstoy, Wise Thoughts for Every Day, 2 June)

27 February 2016

Books

"A whole world will envelop you, the happiness, the abundance, the inconceivable vastness of a world. Live for a while in these books, learn from them what you feel is worth learning, but most of all love them. This love will be returned to you a thousand upon thousand times, whatever your life may become."
(Rainer Maria Rilke - German poet, in The Art of the Possible by Alexandra Stoddard, p. 218)
26 February 2016

Don't Wait

Don't wait for things to happen; make them happen yourself.
Don't wait for a friend to invite you to spend an afternoon together; invite her first.
Don't wait for your husband to buy you a gift; buy him that sweater you know he'd love.
Don't wait for your community to ask you to help; volunteer.
Don't wait for someone to tell you you'd be a good writer; start a journal. ...

What we feel, think, and do this moment influences both our present and our future in ways we never know.
Begin.
Start right where you are.
Consider your possibilities and find inspiration within yourself to add more meaning and zest to your life.
Perhaps your loving actions will be passed on to a child, grandchild, or young friend.
(Alexandra Stoddard, The Art of the Possible, p. 240-41)
24 February 2016

Signs

Everything that exists and everything that happens bears witness to the will of God. It is one thing to see a sign and another thing to interpret that sign correctly. However, our first duty is to recognize signs for what they are. If we do not even regard them as indications of anything beyond themselves, we will not try to interpret them.

(Thomas Merton, No Man Is An Island, p. 62)

23 February 2016

Finding Fault

We are always wanting to change others, but often forget to look at our own need for inner change. Jesus had a lot to say about the self-righteous hypocrite who condemned others without seeing the “board” in his own eye. We should examine ourselves for a long time before we even consider judging another. The way we act toward others will be determined by our faithfulness to Jesus Christ and our relationship to him. A hurtful act towards another represents the utter poverty we feel in ourselves. When we discover an offensive personality trait in someone else which causes us to over-react, the chances are we have become blinded to it in ourselves. The more arrogance or deceitfulness or cruelty we exhibit, the more we dislike it in others. We will try to hide our weaknesses because in admitting them we fear exposing ourselves to ridicule. So we point to others’ mistakes, inconsistencies and wrongdoings. This, we hope, will make our own inadequacies look better. Of course, this does not work. Instead of finding fault, let us look to find the good in others.

(Esther Carls Dodgen, Flowers Along The Path, p. 322-4)

22 February 2016

Conscience

Nevertheless, most of us work and live in environments that don't nurture the development of the conscience. To hear conscience clearly often requires us to be “still” or “reflective” or “meditative” ─ a condition we rarely choose or find. We’re inundated by activity, noise, social and cultural conditioning, media messages, and flawed paradigms that dull our sensitivity to that quiet inner voice that would teach us of true north principles and our own degree of congruency with them.

But if we stop and search deeply with an honest heart, we can tap into that inner wellspring of wisdom.

(Stephen R. Covey, First Things First, P. 65)

21 February 2016

Choices

You should not take responsibility for someone else's poor choices. If you do, before long, that person will be controlling you and manipulating you.
(Joel Osteen, Become a Better You, p. 241)
20 February 2016

Connecting with People

Choosing not to connect with people before we know anything about them is like deciding against a book before reading even one page. In life, as with literature, then, let the adventure begin!
(The Christophers, Three Minutes A Day, Vol. 43)
19 February 2016

Idiosyncrasy

Quit allowing somebody else's quirk or idiosyncrasy to get the best of you.

(Joel Osteen, Become A Better You, p. 217)

18 February 2016

Doubletalk

We have lost a certain depth in the way we understand our experiences, using language that is often doubletalk and shallow … in order to describe complex and profound aspects of life.
(Thomas Moore, Care of the Soul, p. 220)
17 February 2016

Clutter

Breakthroughs occur when you suddenly see something on the other side of the clutter that you desperately, vividly want. So let me give you an assignment. Ask yourself what is on the other side of your clutter? Are you ready to embrace it? Because the skills it takes to get organized are simple. Beyond that clutter, I promise you'll find the space and the time to fulfill your dreams.

(Julie Morgenstern, organization expert, Words That Matter, by The Editors of The Oprah Magazine, p. 97)

16 February 2016

President's Day

It is foolish when one person thinks himself superior to another person. 

It is even more foolish when one nation thinks itself superior to another nation.

(Leo Tolstoy, 1Wise Thoughts for Every Day, 2 February)

15 February 2016

At the End of the Day

At the end of the day, the world will turn out to have been made up of two kinds of people: people whose ultimate goal is to hear and do the Word of God, and people whose ultimate goal is anything else.

(John Ortberg, Now What?, p. 96)

14 February 2016

A Disciple of Jesus

To be a disciple of Jesus is quite a simple thing, and you really can do it! You just go through life saying, “What is the one thing needed in this moment, right here?” And if you're not exactly sure at any moment what that one needed thing is, then just pray and make the best choice you can.

(John Ortberg, Now What?, p. 96)

13 February 2016

Negative Feelings

Today I am aware that all my negative feelings

have been taped [recorded] in my memory from people and events from the past.

They no longer serve a purpose in my today.

I am willing to let them go. 
I am willing to be free today to live in today.

I am willing to experience what today has to offer without being colored by yesterday's feeling.

(Ruth Fishel, Time for Joy,11 February)

12 February 2016

Relationship

When you have learned all you can learn in a relationship, its season will end.
When you have healed what you came into the relationship to heal, its purpose has been fulfilled.
When a relationship is over, it is over!
Hanging on will only make the days ahead darker!
(Iyanla Vanzant, Until Today!, 11 February)
11 February 2016

The Great Secret

The great secret that all old people share is that you really haven't changed in seventy or eighty years. Your body changes, but you don't change at all.
(Doris Lessing, novelist, in Words That Matter by the Editors of The Oprah Magazine, p, 145)
10 February 2016

Decay

Detroit, MI Church

Let us always remember that any society of men and women that cannot freely correct its own faults must surely fall into decay if not into collapse. Such is the universal penalty for the failure to go on growing. ... [Just as each individual] must continue to take his moral inventory and act upon it, so must our whole Society if we are to survive and if we are to serve usefully and well.
(As Bill Sees It, p. 65)
9 February 2016

Time

It is possible to make time for anything I want to do 

if I want it badly enough.

(Daily Reflections, 9 November)

Actually, we don't make time. Rather, we exist and time passes. 

We choose whether to use our time well or to just let it pass.

(Mr. Dickie, 5 May 2015)

8 February 2016

Spirituality

Spirituality for me is recognizing that I am connected to the energy of all creation, that I am part of it -- and it is always part of me ... Allowing the truth of who you are -- your spiritual self -- to rule your life means you stop the struggle and learn to move with the flow of your life.
(Oprah Winfrey, Words That Matter, by The Editors of The Oprah Magazine, p. 133)
7 February 2016

Ambitions

Here’s a suggestion from one of our great common sense ancestors, Mark Twain: 

“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.” 

Your ambitions are of God, so as you communicate with Him, ask for the strength to ignore those around you who’d malign or otherwise disparage what you and your Source have placed in your heart.

(Dr. Wayne W. Dyer, Inspiration, p. 212)

6 February 2016

Fear

Death is not the biggest fear we have; our biggest fear is taking the risk to be alive and to express what we really are. We have learned to live our lives trying to satisfy other people's demands. We have learned to live by other people's points of view because of our fear of not being accepted.
(Don Miguel Ruiz, author, in Words That Matter by the Editors of The Oprah Magazine, p. 128)
5 February 2016

Meditation

It is best, therefore, to let the psychological conscience alone when we are at prayer. The less we tinker with it the better. The reason why so many religious people believe they cannot meditate is that they think meditation consists in having religious emotions, thoughts, or affections of which one is, oneself, acutely aware. As soon as they start to meditate, they begin to look into the psychological conscience to find out if they are experiencing anything worthwhile. They find little or nothing. They either strain themselves to produce some interior experience, or else they give up in disgust.

(Thomas Merton, No Man Is An Island, p. 32)

4 February 2016

Reading Psychology Books

Another interesting form of this defense is reading about psychology. Let the reader of this book beware! For some people, soul-work takes the form of reading a chain of psychology books, each one giving a different picture of how life works and what is wrong with the reader. Someone should write a book about the psychology of psychology books; excessive reading of these books is a modern psychological disorder. Frequently I suggest to people in therapy that they take a year off from reading. Reading can serve as a strong distraction from attending to the soul, because someone else's ideas take the place of personal reflection. It might be better if each person had his or her own psychological lexicon, which would be much more effective than borrowing key phrases from an endless supply of self-help manuals.

(Thomas Moore, Soul Mates, p. 40)

3 February 2016

A Wise Old Owl

Attributed to Edward Hersey Richards

2 Feb 2016

Unassembled

We can't control what will happen today, but we are free to choose what we do with it. Life comes "unassembled." We can make a mess of the day, or we can make something new and useful with what happens. The choice is ours.
(Daily Inspiration For Women, 1 February)
1 February 2016