Inspirations + Exercises

I feel as though I am slipping into a dark
night of the soul. So much is happening
and I am not sure where to go. My heart has been
captured and is silently held hostage. The asking price
is to surrender and let go, I am struggling to find the ransom.

My soul’s vocation will no longer wait patiently.
It is now demanding its just price. All I can do is watch in shocked
surprise as the momentum takes foot, it drags me along.

There are moments I try reaching out to the known something
familiar attempting to slow or stop this change. However I know
the more I fight this force of soul it will only result in further pain.
Nature has a way of breaking what does not bend.

I am now left with this lonely truth, all I have is my true self to turn too. The one I was the day I was born. The one whose vision was clear, he did not know any lies of self doubt. The one who knew no fear or limitations.

To be this I must let go of all I know and trust that when I turn to claim my true self…..I will still be there.

Chris Sarris

Death is nothing at all. It does not count. I have only slipped away into the next room. Nothing has happened.

Everything remains exactly as it was. I am I, and you are you, and the old life that we lived so fondly together is untouched, unchanged. Whatever we were to each other that we are still. Call me by the old familiar name. Speak of me in the easy way which you always used too. Put no difference into your tone. Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.
Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes that we enjoyed together. Play, smile, think of me, pray for me. Let my name be ever the household word that it always was.
Let it be spoken without an effort, without the ghost of a shadow upon it. Life means all that it ever meant. It is the same as it ever was. There is absolute and unbroken continuity. What is this death but a negligible accident?

Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight? I am but just waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near, just around the corner. All is well.

You ask if I believe in God and I answer you not;
Instead I ask of you what is that you believe.
For to expose myself in many ways frightens me.

I believe in Fairy Tales and Tinker-Bell
In Santa Claus and Angel wings
I believe in things that make no sense to me

I believe that the Sun that shines
Warms more than our skin
& that the moon full at night
Tells mythical tales in a language
I think I might understand

I believe in the summer rain,
And winters snow
In autumns colors
And spring times glow.
In the stars at night that wink at me
In so many things I cannot see

I believe that the growing child in the womb of a mother
Knows of a love
That I hope I will remember.

I believe that in birth do Angels Sing
And that with our deaths
There is remembering

I believe that what I see deep within your eyes
And in mine
And in the dancing eyes of children
Is so sweet
That we do not long enough hold that gaze.

I believe in things I cannot see
And no longer try to explain.
I believe in these things
Not out of the pain experienced in life
But instead,
As a gift of experiences
In joy and in love

I believe that every encounter
Brings something new.

So as I answer what it is you’ve asked
-I answer – I believe-
Not in names that have lost their meanings
But in feelings so sweet
So full of love
That when I sit quietly tears run sweetly along my cheeks
And I know
I BELIEVE IN GOD!!

Joe Maiorano

 wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright.

I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun more.

I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive.

I wish you enough pain so that the smallest joys in life appear much bigger.

I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.

I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.

I wish you enough hellos to get you through the final good-bye.

I love you,
Not only for what you are,
But for what I am
When I am with you.

I love you,
Not only for what
You have made of yourself,
But for what
You are making of me.

I love you
For the part of me
That you bring out;
I love you
For putting your hand
Into my heaped-up heart
And passing over
All the foolish, weak things
That you can’t help
Dimly seeing there,
And for drawing out
Into the light
All the beautiful belongings
That no one else had looked
Quite far enough to find.

I love you because you
Are helping me to make
Of the lumber of my life
Not a tavern
But a temple;
Out of the works
Of my every day
Not a reproach
But a song.

I love you
Because you have done
More than any creed
Could have done
To make me good,
And more than any fate
Could have done
To make me happy.
You have done it
Without a touch,
Without a word,
Without a sign.
You have done it
By being yourself.
Perhaps that is what
Being a friend means,
After all.

Roy Croft (1907-1973)

Endless your power to support me
Through my denying-self times

I remember the times we touched,
Yet knowing you made it better
I turned away

Again you held on, after one introduction
Didn’t it grow tiresome?

Somewhere in me I tried to erase you again
And again – perhaps I felt I outgrew you

Ah, but you stayed, challenging my denial
You went to the wall with me
And stayed on quietly

You grew bigger each crisis, each moment
You won, you revealed yourself to me
I saw that we were one

Thank you for teaching me surrender
It gave me the freedom to live

Diana Healy

How simple the thought of surrender
How hard a thing to do

The effort of letting me out
To let in the Wonder of You

Diana Healy

It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring you moon. I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life’s betrayals or have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain. I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life’s betrayals or have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain. I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it or fade it or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy, you or mine own. If you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, to be realistic, to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself; if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul; if you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see beauty, even when it’s not pretty, every day, and if you can source you own life from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand on the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, “Yes!”

It doesn’t interest me who you know or how you came to be here. I want to know if you will stand in center of the fire with me and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you, from the inside, when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.

From The Invitation by Oriah Mountain Dreamer

Lord, in the quiet of this morning hour I come to Thee for peace, for wisdom,
power to view the world today through love-filled eyes.

Be patient, understanding, gentle, wise; to see beyond what seems to be, and know Thy children as Thou knowest them; and so Naught but the good in anyone behold;
Make deaf my ears to slander that is told; Silence my tongue to aught that is unkind;
Let only thoughts that bless dwell in my mind.

Let me so kindly be, so full of cheer, That all I meet may feel Thy presence near.
O clothe me in Thy beauty, this I pray, Let me reveal Thee, Lord, through all the day.

Ella Syfers Schenck

“Lord make me an instrument of Your Peace; where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness light; where there is sadness, joy.”

“O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; To be loved, as to love; For it is in giving that we receive; It is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.”

Pray regularly for the ability to pray in the right way:

I am Divine Spirit. In God I live, and move, and have my being. I am part of the self-expression of God, and I therefore express perfect harmony. I individualize Omniscience. I have direct knowledge of Truth. I have perfect intuition. I have spiritual perception. I know. God is my Wisdom; so I cannot err. God is my Intelligence; so I am always thinking rightly. There is no waste of time, for God is the only Doer. God works through me; so I am always working rightly, and there is no danger of my praying wrongly. I think the right thing, in the right way, at the right time. My work is always well done, for my work is God’s work. The Holy Spirit is continually inspiring me. My thoughts are fresh, and new, and clear, and powerful with the might of Omnipotence. My prayers are the handiwork of the Holy Ghost – powerful as the eagle and gentle as the dove. They go forth in the name of God himself, and they cannot return unto me void. They shall accomplish that which I please, and prosper in the thing whereto I send them. I thank God for this.

Emmet Fox

Oh, Great Spirit, whose voice I hear in the wind,

Whose breath gives life to all the world.

Hear me; I need your strength and wisdom.

Let me walk in beauty, and make my eyes ever behold the red and purple sunset.

Make my hands respect the things you have made and my ears sharp to hear your voice

Make me wise so that I may understand the things you have taught my people.

Help me to remain calm and strong in the face of all that comes towards me.

Let me learn the lessons you have hidden in every leaf and rock.

Help me seek pure thoughts and act with the intention of helping others.

Help me find compassion without empathy overwhelming me.

I seek strength, not to be greater than my brother, but to fight my greatest enemy
Myself.

Make me always ready to come to you with clean hands and straight eyes.

So when life fades, as the fading sunset, my spirit may come to you without shame.

Choose a subject or circumstance you are struggling with in your life.

• Write it down on the top of your paper. It might begin; I am struggling with ______ in my life.
• Below the statement list all of your thoughts and feelings around the subject. This list can be one word adjectives like stuck, mad, angry, etc or full sentences. Be as exhaustive as you wish with writing out all your feelings, thoughts and attitudes about this issue. You might even feel lighter about the subject after this part.
• Review your list and label each statement or adjective with (L) for Love and (F) for Fear. You can reference the list of the qualities of love and fear below to help you.

I have found that just being aware and clear with my feeling is 75% of the work when wanting to change something in my life. I suspect that most your list had more fear based thoughts and feelings on this issue then love based beliefs and attitudes. A good thing to know at this point is a quote by Albert Einstein:

“You can not solve a problem with the same mind that created it”

When doing this exercise I try to be aware of two things. One, how many things on the list of issues or problems are really mine that I am projecting on the other person or circumstance. (This can be a very challenging question to ask, I encourage you to be very honest and gentle with yourself when considering this. Try to own as much of the list for yourself as possible. Most importantly don’t make yourself wrong or beat yourself up in the process.)
The second thing I try to do is to look at this situation with a fresh set of eyes and a different mind set that the quote speaks of. I might even try to place myself in the other persons position and imagine what their list about this issue might look like?
Now review your list. Everything that has an (F) for fear next to it try shifting to its opposite on the love column. Take your time with this and know that it is a process and might take sometime. Once you have done this exercise at the very least you will have expanded your view of the situation and allowed for new possibilities to occur. Trust that healing has begun.
I wish you Peace and Grace on your journey. Namaste, Chris

Qualities of Love and Fear

Goals are the milestones, landmarks, or signposts along the way to achieving your agenda. A goal is a specific, measurable result (for example, increase income 30% by August 31, 2001).

Goals let you measure your progress and evaluate the effectiveness of your actions. If you do not reach your goal by the date you set, or your choice seems elusive, it is an opportunity to decide:

1. If you are truly committed to that goal (and it’s fine if you are not, since it was you who set it in the first place).
2. If the actions you took were appropriate or need amending.Set goals for yourself the are compelling, exciting, challenging, and a stretch. Your goals need to be more than a glorified “to do list.” Be read to welcome the occasional, usually temporary shortcomings that sometimes accompanies this kind of courageous striving.

Goals may come to you quickly, or you may need some inspiration. You can use the Wheel of Life, your answers to the fulfillment questions, and your list of commitments to give yourself information about areas of focus that might be of benefit.

In this section of the setup packet, I ask you to set 5 to 10 initial goals toward which you will work during and between your coaching. After you list your them, rank them from 1 to 10 in order of importance, with 1 being most important. Set a target completion date or time frame for each of them.

Goal Importance Date/Time Frame

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

Take a bird’s eye view of yourself. Imagine you are a Divine Spiritual Being who is looking down upon you from above with unconditional love. From this perspective, record 10 qualities, things you love about yourself right now, in this moment. Be honest and spontaneous. Do not hold back. Look at yourself through the eyes of love – Divine Love.

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

Heart Center Exercise: now face to face with your partner (that you do not know). Hip to hip, place your hand on one another’s hearts. One person speaks at a time. Connect with receiving love when listening and giving love when speaking. Connect with the circle of love. Notice where you or other feels congruent and where they may feel less so.

a. First person: “I love ______ about myself”. Breathe in deeply and feel this in your heart.
b. Partner response: “I hear that you love _____ about yourself. I see and honor this in you.”
c. Switch Roles. Practice giving and receiving love.

Heart Center Exercise – continued

Write your response to & awareness resulting from this exercise.

• Where are you comfortable loving yourself?
• Where are you needing more love?
• What would it take to bridge the gap from needing more love to accepting love.
• What is one step you can take this week toward giving yourself more love or more self-acceptance?Self- Acceptance Statement.

You may use the example below, the form on the next page or simply create your own statement of acceptance. Have fun. Decorate it or color it, as you desire. Allow it to be yours.

Then use this statement – make copies of it and place it everywhere you are apt to see it and be reminded of your beautiful self-acceptance in this moment in time.

Example:

I Chris, Love and acceptance myself, my divinity and perfection. I forgive and release all judgments and limitations I have received and accept from others or myself. I will live today and all the rest of my days from a place of self love and acceptance. I will share this love and light I am with the world.

The power of visualization, meditation and prayer comes from a place of believing; believing that you are a powerful partner in your body’s ability to heal and rejuvenate itself. This meditation will work whether you have a spiritual, emotional or physical dis-ease. Even if you are not sure you believe this you can still receive the benefits of this by setting aside your skeptism and engaging in the exercise with faith. You need to do this exercise at least twice a day and more if you so desire. I prefer to do my meditations and visualizations first thing in the morning and before I go to bed.

Get into a comfortable position.
Begin this by claiming to the universe or God that you intend, believe and trust that your disease or condition is not stronger or greater then your will. Claim this and trust it to be true.

Now close your eyes and begin to take deep slow breaths filling your lungs and belly as full as you can and then slowly release the air and feel yourself becoming more relaxed and still on the inside. Do this deep breathing 6-10 times or as many as you need to feel grounded and centered within your self. Picture yourself surrounded in white light, see yourself sitting with a ball of white light all around you, this light has special healing qualities that will soften and help break up the disease, physical or emotional that you are experiencing . Keep breathing.

When you breathe in, imagine that you are breathing in the healing energy of Love, joy, happiness, and laughter. On your out breath, imagine that you are blowing out of you feelings of anger, fear, pain, judgment, disharmony and dis-ease. Feel yourself expel this out of your body and all its complex systems. See yourself breathing in good health and blowing out poor health. Keep telling yourself and your body that this is what you’re doing and claim at the end of each out breathe that you are whole, healthy and free of all disease. Now that you are relaxed and centered we will begin the second part of the visualization.

With your eyes closed see in the pictures of you’re mind you becoming a professional disease remover and the way you are going to remove this is by grinding or chipping it away . See yourself as having the ability to go into your blood stream through a door in your heart. Follow your arterys to the location of the disease or condition. As you enter the heart and the bloodstream still picture yourself surrounded in white healing light. As you reach the location of the condition surrounded it in the golden white healing light, this light will soften the affected area and help it be removed as you grind or chip away at the condition. See in your minds eye the progress you are making, see it getting smaller, see little pieces of it break away as you work. Keep at this for at least five minutes or however long you desire. Feel into the progress you are making by removing this condition from you physical body. Once you feel finished Know and trust that your body and any drugs you may be taking are helping you in the process of healing this condition.

The third phase of this visualization is you coming back up to your heart through the highways of your arteries. As you enter the heart, rest, you have done great work on your new health. Feel grateful for your ability to heal yourself. Take in this moment and all that you have accomplished. Now for the next few minutes think only of all the fun things you will be doing with your new healthy body. Playing golf, boating, walking, working outside, traveling, all of the things you love to do. Really feel all into this part of the meditation. Know and trust that this is your destiny and you will be doing it very soon!

Affirmations of healing

I lovingly release any anger or disappointment I have of the past or my current health. I choose to fill my world with joy, laughter and happiness.

Joyous new ideas are circulating freely within me.

I awaken new life within me. I flow

My blood is healthy and nourishes my body with flow and circulation.

My body, mind and spirit are healthy and free from any and all disease

Unconditional Love
I leave you free to be yourself, to think your thoughts, indulge your taste,
Follow your inclinations and behave in ways you decide are to your liking.
You have that freedom and you have my love in the process.

Acceptance
In life one plays the hand one is dealt to the best of one’s ability. Those who insist on playing, not the hand they were given, but the one they insist they should have been dealt- these are life’s failures. We are not asked if we will play. That is not an option. Play we must. The option is how.

Therefore you must always keep in mind that a path is only a path; if you feel you should not follow it, you must not stay with it under any conditions….

Does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good; if it doesn’t, it is of no use. Both paths lead nowhere; but one has a heart, the other doesn’t. One makes for a joyful journey; as long as you follow it, you are one with it. The other will make you curse your life. One makes you strong; the other weakens you.

No revolution in outer things is possible without prior revolution in one’s inner way of being. Whatever change you aspire to in your affairs must be preceded by a change in heart, an active deepening and strengthening of your resolve to meet every event with equanimity, detachment, and innocent goodwill. When this spiritual poise is achieved within, magnificent things are possible without.

This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.

I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community, and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can.

I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no “brief candle” for me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.

Life moves on, whether we act as cowards or heroes. Life has no other discipline to impose, if we would but realize it, than to accept life unquestioningly. Everything we shut our eyes to, everything we run away from, everything we deny, denigrate or despise, serves to defeat us in the end. What seems nasty, painful, evil, can become a source of beauty, joy and strength, if faced with an open mind. Every moment is a golden one for him who has the vision to recognize it as such.

We can not tell what may happen to us in the strange medley of life. But we can decide what happens in us and how we experience it, what we do with it and that is what really counts in the end.

Inaugural Speech, 1994
Our deepest fear is no 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, and fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world.
There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.
We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It’s not just in some of us, its in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
We are liberated from our own fears, our presence automatically liberates others.

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream–and not make dreams your master,
If you can think–and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings–nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And–which is more–you’ll be a Man, my son!

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing
and right doing there is a field.
I’ll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass
the world is too full to talk about.

It is not the critic who counts, nor the man who points how the strong man stumbled or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly…who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at best, knows the triumph of high achievement; and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.

Teach Only Love
By L. Jampolsky 

1. The essence of our being is love. Love cannot be hindered by what is merely physical. We believe the mind has no limits, nothing is impossible, all disease is potentially reversible. And because love is eternal, death need not be viewed fearfully.
2. Health is inner peace. Healing is letting go of fear. To make changing the body our goal is to fail to recognize that our single goal is peace of mind.
3. Giving and receiving are the same. When our attention is on giving and joining with others, fear is removed and we accept healing in our selves.
4. We can let go of the past and the future We experience inner peace when we let go our attachment to the painful past and the fearful future and learn to live in the present.
5. Now is the only time there is. Pain, grief, depression, guilt and other forms of fear disappear when the mind is focused in loving peace on this instant.
6. We learn to love ourselves and others by forgiving rather then judging. Forgiveness is the way to true health and happiness. When we choose to see everyone as a teacher of forgiveness, each moment gives us an opportunity for happiness, peace and love.
7. We can become love finders rather than faultfinders. Regardless of what another persons behavior might be, we can always choose to see only the light of love in that person.
8. We can be peaceful inside regardless of what is happening outside. Despite the chaos in our lives, we can choose to be peaceful, know that we are connected and sustained by our loving, peaceful source.
9. We are students and teachers to each other. Peace comes to us when we recognize and demonstrate that all our relationships are equal.
10. We can focus on the whole of our life rather than the fragments. It is an illusion to believe that our lives are separate from each other. Healing is focusing on our interconnectedness with each other and all living things.
11. Because love is eternal, death need not be viewed as fearful. We begin to let go of our fear of death when we truly believe that what is real never changes and that love is always present.
12. We can always see ourselves and others as extending love or call for it. Rather than seeing anger and attack, it is always possible for us to recognize a call for help an answer with love.

I am your constant companion.

I am your greatest helper or heaviest burden.

I will push you onward or drag you down to failure.

I am completely at your command.

Half the things you do might just as well be turned over to me and I will be able to do them quickly and correctly.

I am easily managed – you must merely be firm with me. Show me exactly how you want something done and after a few lessons I will do it automatically.

I am the servant of all great people and, alas, of all great failures, as well.

Those who are great, I have made great.

Those who are failures, I have made failures.

I am not a machine, though I work with all the precision of a machine plus the intelligence of a person. You may run me for profit or run me for ruin – it makes no difference to me.

Take me, train me, be firm with me, and I will place the world at your feet. Be easy with me and I will destroy you.

Who am I?

I am habit!

By Audrey Hepburn

For attractive lips, speak words of kindness.
Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you’ll find one at the end of your arm.
For lovely eyes, Seek out the good in people.
As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself, and one for helping others.
For beautiful hair, let a child run his fingers through it once a day.
The beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears, the figure that she carries, or the way she combs her hair. The beauty of a woman must be seen from in her eyes, because that is the doorway to her heart, the place where love resides.
For Poise, walk with the knowledge you’ll never walk alone.
People, more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed and redeemed; never throw out anybody.

A man found a cocoon of a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared.
He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force
its body through that little hole.

Then it seemed to stop making any progress.

It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could, and it could go no further.
So, the man decided to help the butterfly.

He took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily. But, it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time.
Neither happened!!

In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It never was able to fly.

What the man, in his kindness and haste, did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle, required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were God’s way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.

Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our lives. If God allowed us to go through our lives without any obstacles, it would cripple us.
We would not be as strong as what we could have been.

We could never fly!

By Miller Williams

Have compassion for everyone you meet
even if they don’t want it. What seems conceit,
bad manners, or cynicism is always a sign
of something no ears have heard, no eyes have seen.
You do not know what wars are going on
down there where the spirit meets the bone.

By Og Mandino and Buddy Kaye

Turn away from the crowd and its fruitless pursuit of fame and gold. Never look back as you close your door to the sorry tumult of greed and ambition. Wipe away your tears of failure and misfortune. Lay aside your heavy load and rest until your heart is still. Be at peace; already it is later than you think, for your earthly life, at best, is only the blink of an eye between two eternities. Be unafraid; nothing here can harm you except yourself. Do that which you dread and cherish those victories with pride. Concentrate your energy. To be everywhere is to be nowhere. Be jealous of your time, since it is your greatest treasure. Reconsider your goals. Before your set your heart too much on anything, examine how happy they are who already possess what you desire. Love your family and count your blessings. Reflect how eagerly they would be sought if you did not have them. Put aside your impossible dreams and complete the task at hand no matter how distasteful. All great achievement comes from working and waiting. Be patient. God’s delays are never God’s denials. Hold on. Hold fast. Know that your paymaster is always near. What you sow, good or evil that you will reap. Never blame your condition on others. You are what you are through your choice alone. Learn to live with honest poverty, if you must, and turn to more important matters than transporting gold to your grave. Never meet trouble half way. Anxiety is the rust of life; when you add tomorrow’s burden to today’s, their weight becomes unbearable. Avoid the mourner’s bench and give thanks instead for your defeats; you would not have them if you did not need them. Always learn from others. He who teaches himself has a fool for a master. Be careful. Do not overload your conscience. Conduct your life as if it were spent in an arena filled with tattlers. Avoid boasting, If you see anything in you that buffs you with pride, look closer and you will find more than enough to make you humble. Be wise. Realize that all men are not created equal, for there is no equality in nature, yet no man was ever born whose work was not born with him. Work everyday as if it were your first, yet tenderly treat the lives you touch as if they will end at midnight. Love everyone, even those who deny you, for hate is a luxury you cannot afford. Seek out those in need. Learn that he who delivers with one hand will gather with two. Be of good cheer. Above all, remember that very little is needed to make a happy life. Look up. Reach out. Cling simply to God and journey quietly on your pathway to forever with charity and a smile. When you depart it will be said that your legacy was a better world than the one that you found.

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you’re trudging seems all up hill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest, if you must – but don’t you quit.

Life is queer with it’s twists and turns,
As everyone of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about
When he might have won had he stuck it out;
Don’t give up, though the pace seems slow –
You might succeed with another blow.

Often the goal is nearer than
It seems to a faint and faltering man,
Often the struggler has given up
When he might have captured the victor’s cup.
And he learned too late, when the
Night slipped down,
How close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out –
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt –
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems afar;
So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit –
It’s when things seem worst that you mustn’t quit.

We’re a rugged breed, us quads. If we weren’t, we wouldn’t be around today.
Yes, we’re a rugged breed; in many ways, we’ve been blessed with a savvy and spirit that isn’t given to everybody.

And let me say that this refusal of total or full acceptance of one’s disability all hooks up with one thing – faith, an almost divine faith.

Down in the reception room of the Institute of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, over on the East River at 400 East 34th Street in New York, there is a bronze plaque that’s riveted to the wall. During the months of coming back to the Institute for treatment – two and three times a week – I rolled through that reception room many times, coming and going. But I never quite made the time to pull over to one side and read the words on that plaque that were written, it’s said, by an unknown Confederate Soldier. Then one afternoon, I did. I read it, and then I read it again. When I finished it the second time I was near bursting — not in despair, but with an inner glow that had me straining to grip the arms of my wheelchair. I’d like to share it with you.

A smile costs nothing, but gives much. It reaches those who receive without making poorer those who give. It takes but a moment, but the memory sometimes last a lifetime.

None is so rich or mighty that he can get along without it, and no one is so poor but that can be made richer by it. A smile creates happiness in the home, fosters goodwill in business, and is the countersign of friendship. It brings rest to the weary, cheer to the discouraged, A smile is sunshine to the sad, and is nature’s best antidote for trouble.

Yet, it cannot be bought, begged, or borrowed or stolen for it is of no value to anyone until it is given away. Some people are too tired to give you a smile. Give them one of yours, as none needs a smile so much as he who has no more to give.

When I ask you to listen to me
and you start giving advice
you have not done what I asked.

When I ask you to listen to me
and you begin to tell me why I shouldn’t feel that way,
you are trampling on my feelings

When I ask you to listen to me
and you feel you have to do something to solve my problems,
you have failed me, strange as that may seem.

Listen! All I ask is that you listen.
Not talk or do – just hear me

Advice is cheap; 50 cents will get you both Dear Abby and
Billy Graham in the same newspaper

And I can DO for myself; I’m not helpless.
Maybe discouraged and faltering, but not helpless.

When you do something for me that I can and need to do
f or myself, you contribute to my fear and weakness.

But when you accept as a simple fact that I do feel what I feel,
no matter how irrational, then I quit trying to convince
you and can get about the business of understanding what’s
behind all this irrational feeling.
And when that is clear, the answers are obvious and I don’t need advice.

So, please listen and just hear me, and if you want to talk,
wait a minute for you turn; and I’ll listen to you.

By Dawna Markova

I will not die an unlived life.
I will not live in fear,
of falling or catching fire.
I choose to inhabit my days,
to allow my living to open me.
To make me less afraid,
More accessible,
To loosen my heart,
until it becomes a wing,
a torch, a promise.
I choose to risk my significance
To live so that which came to as a seed, goes
To the next as a blossom, and that which came to
me as a blossom goes on as fruit.

“Mana” is a term originally used in Polynesian and Melanesian cultures to describe an extraordinary power or force residing in a person or an object, a sort of spiritual electricity that charges anyone who touches it. Carl Jung later defined the term as “the unconscious influence of one being on another.” What Jung speaks to is the fact that the energy of being real has more power than outright persuasion, debate, or force of will. He suggests that being who we are always releases an extraordinary power that, without intent or design, affects the people who come in contact with such realness.

The beautiful and simple truth of this can be seen in looking at the sun. The sun, without intent or will or plan or sense of principle, just shines, thoroughly and constantly. By being itself, the sun warms with its light, never withholding or warming only certain things of the Earth. Rather, the sun emanates in all directions all the time, and things grow. In the same way, when we are authentic, expressing our warmth and light in all directions, we cause things around us to grow. When our souls, like little suns express the light of who we are, we emanate what Jesus called love and what Buddha called compassion, and the roots of community lengthen.

In this way, without any intent to shape others, we simply have to be authentic, and a sense of mana, of spiritual light and warmth, will emanate from our very souls, causing others to grow – not toward us, but toward the light that moves through us. In this way, by being who we are, we not only experience life in all its vitality, but, quite innocently and without design, we help others be more thoroughly themselves. In being real, in staying devoted to this energy of realness, we help each other grow toward the one vital light.

By Rainer Maria Rilke

I beg you…to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without ever noticing it, live your way into the answer…

People come into your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime.
When you figure out which it is, you know exactly what to do. When someone is in your life for a REASON, it is usually to meet a need you have expressed outwardly or inwardly. They have come to assist you through a difficultly, to provide you with a guidance and support, to aid you physically, emotionally, or spiritually. They may seem like a godsend, and they are.

They are there for the reason you need them to be. Then, without any wrongdoing on your part or at an inconvenient time, this person will say or do something to bring the relationship to an end. Sometimes they die. Sometimes they walk away. Sometimes they act up or out and force you to take a stand. What we must realize is that our need has been met, out desire fulfilled; their work is done. The prayer you sent up has been answered and it is now time to move on.

When people come into your life for a SEASON, it is because your turn has come to share, grow, or learn. They may bring you an experience of peace or make you laugh. They may teach you something you have never done. They usually give you an unbelievable amount of joy. Believe it! It is real! But, only for a season.

LIFETIME lesson; those things you must build upon in order to have a solid emotional foundation. Your job is to accept the lesson, love the person/people (anyway); and put what you have learned to use in all other relationships and area of your life. It is said that love is blind but friendship is clairvoyant.

An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. “A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy.

“It is a difficult fight and it is between two wolves. One wolf is anger, envy, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority and ego.

The other wolf is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, integrity and faith. This same fight is going on inside you – and inside every other person, too.”

The grandson thought about it for a minute, and then asked his grandfather,
“Which wolf will win?”

The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed…”

By Johann Wolfgang Goethe

Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth – the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans – the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too.

All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no one could have dreamt would have come their way.

I have learned a deep respect for one of Goethe’s couplets:

Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.

By Debbie Ford

If you are going to reach your goals and create the life you desire, you will have to make new choices that will lead you to new actions. This book is your road map. The ten simple questions you will find within these pages – what I have chosen to call the “Right Questions” – will give you the power and inspiration to consciously create a life you feel good about, one choice at a time. They will help you to become aware of the important choices and their consequences. They will guide you and support you in making the right choices. And there you will find the most direct route to your dreams.

The Right Questions consist of ten powerful inquires designed to reveal what is motivating your actions. The answers to these questions will immediately clarify your thinking and support you in making the choices that are in your highest and best interest. They are deceptively simple but incredibly powerful and can be used in any situation or at any crossroads. Here, then, are the Right Questions:

• Will this choice propel me toward an inspiring future or will it keep me stuck I the past?
• Will this choice bring me long-term fulfillment or will it bring me short-term gratification?
• Am I standing in my power or am I trying to please another
• Am I looking for what’s right or am I looking for what’s wrong?
• Will this choice add to my life force or will it rob me of my energy?
• Will I use this situation as a catalyst to grow and evolve or will I use it to beat myself up?
• Does this choice empower me or does it disempower me?
  Is this an act of self-love or is it an act of self-sabotage?
• Is this an act of faith or is it an act of fear?
• Am I choosing from my divinity or am I choosing from my humanity?

Why these particular questions? I once heard the motivational speaker Tony Robbins say, “Quality questions create a quality life.” The quality of our lives is made up of the sum of all our decisions. To make quality decisions, we need to see clearly. Asking either-or questions heightens our awareness and clarifies the results that we can expect from our actions. When you ask these questions in the decision-making process, you immediately see whether the choice you are about to make is an expression of your light or your darkness, whether the choice comes from your vision and dreams or from your fears and doubts. These questions supply you with the wisdom you need to make what was previously unconscious, conscious, so that you can choose with all the power that comes from being fully aware.

Understanding the impact of our choices
Our choices affect our mood and the way we feel about ourselves. They influence the quality of our relationships with ourselves, others, and the world. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction; this is the law of cause and effect. No action goes unnoticed. We may fool ourselves into believing that our actions do not matter, particularly if we think no one will now or that no one is watching. But all of our choices impact our futures. If we look at the people who have made a great difference in the world, we see that they all made courageous choices.

We see that they came to their decisions with clarity, certainty, and focus. They discipline themselves to make the choices that were not always comfortable or easy. They took the actions that fed their life force, their purpose and their dreams. Every time we make a choice that is inconsistent with our heart’s desires, we are not only moving away from what we say we want in life but actually dampening our life force – that unique inner power that keeps us alive spiritually and physically.

By Robert J. Hastings

Tucked away in our subconscious minds is a vision —and idyllic vision—in which we see ourselves on a long journey that spans an entire continent. We’re traveling by train and, from the windows, we drink in the passing scenes of cars on nearby highways, of children waving at crossings, of cattle grazing in distant pastures, of smoke pouring from power plants, of row upon row upon row of cotton and corn and wheat, of flatlands and valleys, of city skylines and village halls.

But uppermost in our conscious minds is our final destination – for at a certain hour and on a given day, our train will pull into the station with bells ringing, flags waving and bands playing. And once that day comes, so many wonderful dreams will come true, and all the jagged pieces of our lives will fit together like a completed jigsaw puzzle. So, restlessly, we pace the aisles and count the miles, peeing ahead, cursing the minutes for the loitering, waiting, waiting, waiting for the station…”Yes, when we reach the station, that will be it,” we cry. “When we’re eighteen! When we buy that new Mercedes-Benz! When we put the last kid through college! When we win that promotion! When we pay off the mortgage! When we retire!” Yes, from that day on, like the heroes and heroines of a child’s fairy tale, we will all live happily ever after.
Sooner or later, however, we must realize there is no station, no one place to arrive at once and for all. The journey is the joy! The station is an illusion – it constantly outdistances us. Yesterday’s a memory; tomorrow’s a dream. Yesterday belongs to history; tomorrow belongs to God. Yesterday’s a fading sunset; tomorrow’s a faint sunrise. So, shut the door on yesterday and throw away the key, for only today is there light enough to live and love. It isn’t the burdens of today that drive men and women mad. Rather, it’s regret over yesterday and fear of tomorrow. Regret and fear are this tiny strip of light between two nights. “Relish the moment” is a good motto, especially when couples with Psalm 118:24, “This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.”

So stop pacing the aisles and counting the miles. Instead, swim more rivers, climb more mountains, kiss more babies, count more stars. Laugh more and cry less. Go barefoot more often. Life must be lived as we go along. The station will come soon enough!

Many folks want to serve God,
but only as advisers

It is easier to preach ten
sermons than it is to live one.

When you get to your wit’s
end, you’ll find God lives there.

God Himself does not propose
to judge a man until he is dead.
So why should you?

Peace starts with a smile.

Coincidence is when God
chooses to remain anonymous.

Don’t put a question mark
where God put a period.

God doesn’t call the qualified,
He qualifies the called.

God loves everyone, but
probably prefers “fruits of the spirit”
over “religious nuts!”

God promises a safe landing,
not a calm passage.

If God is your Co- pilot
swap seats!

The task ahead of us is never
as great as the Power behind us.

The Will of God will never
take you to where the Grace
of God will not protect you.

We don’t change the message,
the message changes us.

Don’t let your worries get the
best of you. Remember, Moses
started out as a basket case

By Douglas Bloch

Truth is what the spiritual quest is all about. Telling the truth to ourselves frees us from our self-imposed limitations. When you face the truth of a problem in your life, you can do something about it. Truth liberates, heals and transforms. Resolve, therefore, to take that which is hidden in darkness and shine upon it the light of truth.

There are two days in every week about which we should not worry, two days which should be kept from fear and apprehension.

One of these days is Yesterday with its mistakes and cares, its faults and blunders, its aches and pains. Yesterday has passed forever beyond our control. All the money in the world cannot bring back yesterday. We cannot undo a single act we performed. We cannot erase a single word we said. Yesterday is gone beyond recall.

The other day we should not worry about is tomorrow, with its possible adversities , its burdens, its large promise and perhaps it's poor performance. Tomorrow is also beyond or immediate control. Tomorrow’s sun will rise, either in splendor or behind a mask of clouds, but it will rise. Until it does we have no stake in tomorrow, for it is as yet unborn.

This leaves only one day—Today. Anyone can fight the battles of just one day. It is only when you and I add those two awful eternities yesterday and tomorrow that we break down. It is not the experience of today that drives us mad. It is the remorse or bitterness for something that happened yesterday or the dread of what tomorrow may bring.
Let us therefore do our best to live but one day at a time!