Love. Memories.

Love is stronger than death even though it can't stop death from happening, but no matter how hard death tries it can't separate people from love. It can't take away our memories either. In the end, life is stronger than death. – Anonymous

You are who you are. And you are wonderful.

To dream of the person you wish to be is to waste the person you are. - Anonymous

When My Mind Is Still

When My Mind is Still

When my mind is still and alone with the beating of my heart,
I remember things too easily forgotten:
The purity of early love,
The maturity of unselfish love that asks --
desires -- nothing but another's good,
The idealism that has persisted through all the tempest of life.

When my mind is still and alone with the beating of my heart,
I can find a quiet assurance, an inner peace, in the core of my being.
It can face the doubt, the loneliness, the anxiety,
Can accept these harsh realities and can even grow
Because of these challenges to my essential being.

When my mind is still and alone with the beating of my heart,
I can sense my basic humanity,
And then I know that all men and women are my brothers and sisters.
Nothing but my own fear and distrust can separate me from the love of friends.
If I can trust others, accept them, enjoy them,
Then my life shall surely be richer and more full.
If I can accept others, this will help them to be more truly themselves,
And they will be more able to accept me.

When my mind is still and alone with the beating of my heart,
I know how much life has given me:
The history of the race, friends and family,
The opportunity to work, the chance to build myself.
Then wells within me the urge to live more abundantly,
With greater trust and joy,
With more profound seriousness and earnest service,
And yet more calmly at the heart of life.

- Paul Beattie was a Unitarian Universalist minister, serving in congregations including in Kansas City, Missouri, and last at the First Unitarian Church of Pittsburgh, PA. He was also president of the Fellowship of Religious Humanists, among his many involvements.

Tough part of walking down the street

And what most people don't see... is just how hard it is to do the right thing. People think if I make a judgment call... that's a judgment on them, but that is not what I do. And that's not what should be done. I have to take everything... and play it as it lays. Sometimes people need a little help. Sometimes people need to be forgiven. And sometimes they need to go to jail. And that is a very tricky thing on my part... making that call. I mean, the law is the law. And heck if I'm gonna break it. You can forgive someone. Well, that's the tough part. What can we forgive? Tough part of the job. Tough part of walking down the street. – Jim Kurring, Magnolia

Jim and Quiz Kid Donnie Smith - Magnolia

Sweet and Sour; Hard and Soft; Sad and Beautiful

How is one to live a moral and compassionate existence when one is fully aware of the blood, the horror inherent in life, when one finds darkness not only in one's culture but within oneself? If there is a stage at which an individual life becomes truly adult, it must be when one grasps the irony in its unfolding and accepts responsibility for a life lived in the midst of such paradox. One must live in the middle of contradiction, because if all contradiction were eliminated at once life would collapse. There are simply no answers to some of the great pressing questions. You continue to live them out, making your life a worthy expression of leaning into the light. – Barry Lopez, Arctic Dreams

Our thoughts are stronger, too

You are today where your thoughts have brought you; you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you. - James Allen

In our lives we hunger for those we cannot touch.
All the thoughts unuttered and all the feelings unexpressed
Play upon our hearts like the mist upon our breath.
But, awoken by grief, our spirits speak
How could you believe that the life within the seed
That grew arms that reached
And a heart that beat.
And lips that smiled
And eyes that cried.
Could ever die?

Here come the blue skies here comes springtime.
When the rivers run high & the tears run dry.
When everything that dies.
Shall rise.

99.9% Pure Nonself, Ivory Pure Nonself.

Why are you unhappy? Because 99.9% of everything you think, and of everything you do, is for yourself, And there isn't one. - Wei Wu Wei

Exception to the rule

To be loved for what one is, is the greatest exception. The great majority love in others only what they lend him, their own selves, their version of him. – Goethe

It's not the perfume that you wear
It's not the ribbons in your hair
I don't mind you coming here
and wasting all my time

I guess you're just what I needed
(just what I needed)
I needed someone to feed
I guess you're just what I needed
(just what I needed)
I needed someone to please

and another and another and another and....

Everybody should believe in something.  I believe I'll have another coffee.  - Author Unknown

 

We're all going to fry like Twinkies unless we repent

The split between the Christian left and the Christian right could be, in part, that some people see tolerance and acceptance as part of their nobler selves; others feel that they can best honor God by working to change society and its laws to conform to the ethic of divinity, even if that means imposing religious laws on people of other faiths – Jonathan Haidt

At break of day...

At daybreak, gazing at the moon,

So alone in the sky,

I finally knew myself all the way.

Nothing now left out. - Izumi Shikibu (10^th century)

It's just a change in me...

The art of living does not consist in preserving and clinging to a particular mood of happiness, but in allowing happiness to change its form... happiness, like a child, must be allowed to grow up. - Charles L. Morgan

 

No regrets. Life goes on.

I love my past. I love my present. I'm not ashamed of what I've had, and I'm not sad because I have it no longer. – Colette

New Order-Regret

an alias | MySpace Video

Maybe I've forgotten the name and the address
Of everyone I've ever known
It's nothing I regret
Save it for another day
It's the school exam and the kids have run away

I would like a place I could call my own
Have a conversation on the telephone
Wake up every day that would be a start
I would not complain of my wounded heart

I was upset you see
Almost all the time
You used to be a stranger
Now you are mine

I wouldn't even trust you
I've not got much to give
We're dealing in the limits
And we don't know who with
You may think that I'm out of hand
That I'm naive, I'll understand
On this occasion, it's not true
Look at me, I'm not you

I would like a place I could call my own
Have a conversation on the telephone
Wake up every day that would be a start
I would not complain of my wounded heart

I was a short fuse
Burning all the time
You were a complete stranger
Now you are mine

I would like a place I could call my own
Have a conversation on the telephone
Wake up every day that would be a start
I would not complain about my wounded heart

Just wait till tomorrow
I guess that's what they all say
Just before they fall apart 

Emotions just are... don't run from them

Rather than letting our negativity get the better of us, we could acknowledge that right now we feel like a piece of shit and not be squeamish about taking a good look. - Pema Chodron

Remember Yourself Honestly

When true self-remembering comes, one does not want to alter oneself, or others; one somehow rises above their weaknesses and one's own. There can be no blame anywhere. One swallows what is, and becomes free. - Rodney Collin

I have no teacher. An open heart is my teacher.
I have no voice. The bird's song is my voice.
I have no path. Fearlessness is my path.
I have no achievements. Equanimity is my achievement.
I have no profession. Presence is my profession.
I have no children. All beings are my children.
I have no ambition. Kindness is my ambition.
I have no script. Authenticity is my script.
I have no partner. Life is my partner.
I have no benefactor. Gratitude is my benefactor.
I have no strength. Flowing and unfolding is my strength.
I have no goal. Freedom, and the blessings of freedom
for all beings
is my goal.

and then nothing turned itself inside out...

Try and be a sheet of paper with nothing on it. Be a spot of ground where nothing is growing, where something might be planted, a seed, possibly from the Absolute. - Rumi

 Clouds from Eloi Collective on Vimeo.

Yes

For all that has been: Thanks

For all that shall be: Yes. 

– Dag Hammarskjöld

Enough nonsense

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

My Idea of Fun

You can choose what you do; you can’t choose what you like to do. – Gretchen Rubin

And on and on and on and on and....

In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on. – Robert Frost