78/365 - Happy Family (George Burns)

“Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family 

in another city.” 

- George Burns

77/365 - The Life we planned (Joseph Campbell)

“We must be willing to let go of the life we planned 

so as to have the life that is waiting for us.” 

- Joseph Campbell

76/365 - Because you have lived (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

“To laugh often and much; 

to win the respect of intelligent people 

and the affection of children; 

to earn the appreciation of honest critics 

and to endure the betrayal of false friends. 

 

To appreciate beauty; 

to find the best in others; 

to leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child, 

a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; 

to know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. 

 

This is to have succeeded.” 

 

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

75/365 - And When They Fly Away (Stephen King)

“I have to remind myself that some birds aren't meant to be caged. 

Their feathers are just too bright. 

And when they fly away, 

the part of you that knows it was a sin to lock them up DOES rejoice. 

Still, 

the place you live in is that much more drab and empty now that they're gone."

- Stephen King

(Different Seasons)

74/365 - Women and Cats (Robert A. Heinlein)

“Women and cats will do as they please, 

and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea.” 

- Robert A. Heinlein

73/365 - The Side of the Majority (Mark Twain)

“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, 

it is time to pause and reflect.” 

- Mark Twain

72/365 - Wasted Time (John Lennon)

“Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted."

- John Lennon

71/365 - Eye of the Beholder (Jim Henson)

“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder 

and it may be necessary from time to time 

to give a stupid or misinformed beholder a black eye.” 

- Jim Henson

(The Muppets)

70/365 - Go to Them (A.A. Milne)

“You can't stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. 

You have to go to them sometimes.”

 

- A.A. Milne 

(Winnie-The-Pooh)

69/365 - Checkout Complex (Wendy Shanker)

“For a long time I was incredibly nervous 

about going through the checkout line at the supermarket. 

I'd assume that the checkout lady would be silently evaluating my groceries: 

"She could use more vegetables.

Is the girl going to eat all of this tonight?

She should put the frozen yogurt back 

and pick the bagels OR the oatmeal." 

Maybe she is. 

More likely she's wondering when the hell her shift is over 

and should she grab some of that cereal to take home to her family. 

Either way, 

what I buy is not her concern. 

She can think whatever she wants.” 

- Wendy Shanker 

(The Fat Girl's Guide to Life)

68/365 - I am So Clever (Oscar Wilde)

“I am so clever that sometimes 

I don't understand a single word of what I am saying.” 

- Oscar Wilde

67/365 - On Reality (Bill Watterson)

“Reality continues to ruin my life.” 

- Bill Watterson

66/375 - Obsolete Children (Dr. Seuss)

“Adults are just obsolete children and the hell with them.” 

- Dr. Seuss

65/365 - Two Things are Infinite (Albert Einstein)

“Two things are infinite:

the universe and human stupidity; 

and I'm not sure about the universe.” 

- Albert Einstein

64/365 - Cause and Effect (Alan Lightman)

“Consider a world in which cause and effect are erratic. 

Sometimes the first precedes the second, 

and sometimes the second the first. 

Or perhaps cause lies forever in the past effect in the future, 

but future and past are intertwined.” 

 

- Alan Lightman (Einstein's Dreams)

63/365 - Hold on Lightly (Corrie ten Boom)

“Hold everything in your hands lightly, 

otherwise it hurts when God pries your fingers open.” 

- Corrie ten Boom

62/365 - The Majority (Mark Twain)

“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, 

it is time to pause and reflect.” 

- Mark Twain

61/365 - I Believe in Everything

“I believe in everything until it's disproved. 

So I believe in fairies, the myths, dragons. 

It all exists, even if it's in your mind. 

Who's to say that dreams and nightmares aren't as real as the here and now?” 

 

- John Lennon

60/365 - Diplomacy

“Tact is the ability to tell someone to go to hell in such a way that they look forward to the trip.” 

- Winston S. Churchill

59/365 - Infinity

“Two things are infinite: 

the universe and human stupidity; 

and I'm not sure about the universe."

- Albert Einstein

58/365 - Le Temps Perdu

""N'oublie pas", dit le renard, 

"c'est le temps que tu as perdu pour ta rose 

qui fait ta rose si importante."

"C'est le temps que j'ai perdu pour ma rose..."

fit le petit prince, afin de souvenir...” 

- Antoine de St-Exupery

(Le Petit Prince)

57/365 - Fear of Success

“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 

(A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of a Course in Miracles)

56/365 - No-Thingness

"Being 'in the gap'

can be disorienting and even scary.

Nothing to hold on to, 

no sense of direction,

not even a hint of what choices and possibilities 

might lie ahead.

But it was just this state of pure potential

that existed before the universe was created.

All you can do now

is to relax into this nothingness...

fall into this silence between the words...

watch this gap between the outgoing and incoming breath.

And treasure each empty moment of the experience.

Something Sacred is about to be born."

- Osho (Zen Tarot)

55/365 - The Artist in You

“Every child is an artist. 

The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.” 

- Pablo Picasso

54/365 - Reflection & Attraction

"Your life right now

is a reflection of your past thoughts.

That includes all the great things, and all the things you consider not so great.  Since you attract to you what you think about most, it is easy to see what your dominant thoughts have been on every subject of your life, because that is what you have experienced.  Until now!

If you can think about what you want in your mind, and make that your dominant thought, you will bring it into your life."  Rhonda Byrne (The Secret)

53/365 - The Pearly Gates

 

“I don't want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, 

wearing beautifully, tailored clothes, my hair expertly coiffed, 

and with long, perfectly manicured fingernails.

I want to drive up in a station wagon 

that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp.

I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt 

from making sandwiches for a sick neighbors children.

I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails 

from helping to weed someone's garden.

I want to be there with children's sticky kisses on my cheeks 

and the tears of a friend on my shoulder.

I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived.” 

 

- Marjorie Pay Hinckley

52/365 - Choice Vs. Decision

"Choice is the exploration of desire 

and then the selection of action.

In every moment, you are choosing either to align yourself with your own true path or to veer away from it.  There are no neutral actions.  Even the smallest gesture has a direction to it, leading you closer to your path or father away from it, whether you realize it or not.

Pure actions - like spending time with a beloved friend - bring you into alignment, whereas false ones - such as spending time with someone you really don't like but to whom you feel obligated - alienate you from your truth.  Every choice carries weight.

Though used synonymously, choice and decision are not the same thing.  Decisions are made in your mind, whereas choices are made in your gut.  Decisions come from the rational, reasonable weighing of the circumstances; choices come from your essence and an attunement with your higher self.

[...] Think back to an authentic choice you made at some point in your life.  Perhaps it was a strong pull to visit a foreign country, or a feeling that a certain romantic relationship needed to end, or the sense that you needed to leave your corporate job and start your own business.  How did it feel to act on your choices?

Remember that feeling.  It is the essence of living aligned with your path."

- Cherie Carter-Scott. Ph.D.  (If Life is a Game, These are the Rules)

51/365 - The Road not Taken

"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.” 

- Robert Frost

50/365 - The Rarity of True Love

“True love is rare, and it's the only thing that gives life real meaning.”

- Nicholas Spark (Message in a Bottle)

49/365 - The Need of Halloween

“The farther we've gotten from the magic and mystery of our past, 

the more we've come to need Halloween"

 

- Paula Curan 

(October Dreams: a Celebration of Halloween)