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Illinois ladies facing bc

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  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 38,886

    When we recognize that nothing has to go right for us to be happy, that people do not have to behave for us to love them, our walk home can be surprisingly simple.  We have enormous power not to manipulate the world, but to be happy and to know peace.

    Hugh Prather

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 38,886

    As I experience it, appreciation of beauty is access to the soul.  With beauty in our lives, we walk and carry ourselves more lightly and with a different look in our eyes.  To look into the eyes of someone beholding beauty is to look through the windows of the soul.  Anytime we catch a glimpse of soul, beauty is there; anytime we catch our breath and feel "How beautiful!," the soul is present.       -Jean Shinoda Bolen

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 38,886

    Groundedness is one of the most important components of a satisfied life. Being grounded means having a guiding philosophy — a foundation of personal integrity that outside influences cannot disturb.  Our philosophy contains our values, spiritual faith, personal boundaries, and the causes we support. It reflects our core beliefs about who we are and how we conduct our lives.

    Victoria

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 38,886

    We are all capable of living lives characterized by great joy.  Within each of us
    is an amazing human spirit that is strong enough to overcome pain and disappointment.
    And no matter what our current situation happens to be, or what beliefs we may
    currently harbor about ourselves, we can tap into that inner strength and wisdom
    and move forward to create more joy.

    Salle Merrill Redfield

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 38,886

    It is my calling to treat every human being with grace and dignity, to treat every person, whether encountered in a palace or a gas station, as a life made in the image of God.     -Sheila Walsh

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 38,886

    The important thing is not to stop questioning.  Curiosity has its
    own reason for existing.  One cannot help but be in awe when
    one contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous
    structure of reality.  It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend
    a little of this mystery every day.  Never lose a holy curiosity.

    Albert Einstein

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 38,886

    Life, like any other exciting

    story, is bound to have

    painful and scary parts,

    boring and depressing

    parts, but it's a brilliant

    story, and it's up to us

    how it will turn out in the end.

    Bo Lozoff

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 38,886

    The more authentic you become, the more genuine in your expression, particularly regarding personal experiences and even self-doubts, the more people can relate to your expression and the safer it makes them feel to express themselves.  That expression in turn feeds back on the other person's spirit, and genuine creative empathy takes place, producing new insights and learnings.      -Stephen Covey

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 38,886

    Two things awe me most, the starry sky above me and the moral law within me.

    Immanuel Kant

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 38,886

    The trick of living is to slip on and off the planet with the least fuss you can muster. I’m not a professional philanthropist, and I’m not running for sainthood. I just happen to think that in life we need to be a little like the farmer who puts back into the soil what he takes out.

    Paul Newman

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 38,886

    The hallmark of courage in our age of conformity is the capacity to stand on one’s convictions—not obstinately or defiantly (these are gestures of defensiveness, not courage) nor as a gesture of retaliation, but simply because these are what one believes.     -Rollo May

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 38,886
    edited July 24

    The highest and best thing that people can conceive is a human life nobly and beautifully lived—therefore their loyalties and energies should be devoted to the arrangement of conditions which make this possible. The sole issue is how to make this world a place conducive to the living of a noble human life, and then to help people in every possible way to live such lives.

    John H. Dietrich

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 38,886

    We have so confused the norms of success in this society that we no longer know failure when we see it. People who could have earned more money had they chosen to spend more time at the office and less time with the family; people who could have been more socially prominent had they just been willing to forego old friends from old neighborhoods; people who could have lived in more sophisticated cities had they been willing to give up fishing and walking in the woods: these people we consider some kind of social failures. But maybe what they really succeeded at becoming was real people, instead of hollow copies of advertising models for Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. Joan Chittister Seeing with Our Souls

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 38,886

    There are nine requisites for contented living:  health enough to make work
    a pleasure; wealth enough to support your needs; strength to battle with
    difficulties and overcome them; grace enough to confess your sins and
    forsake them; patience enough to toil until some good is accomplished;
    charity enough to see some good in your neighbor; love enough to move
    you to be useful and helpful to others; faith enough to make real the
    things of God; hope enough to remove all anxious fears concerning the future.

    Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

       

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 38,886

    It's all a matter of paying attention, being awake in the present moment, and not expecting a huge payoff.  The magic in this world seems to work in whispers and small kindnesses.

    Charles de Lint

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 38,886


    If we make our goal to live a life of compassion
    and unconditional love, then the world
    will indeed become a garden where all
    kinds of flowers can bloom and grow.

    Elisabeth Kuebler-Ross

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 38,886

    Living our life means that we take our life day to day and moment to moment, always trying to deepen our understanding of what it means to be human.  Life will never be perfect, and we will always be in a state of moving towards completeness.  Don, 84, put it this way:  "You have lived the life you have lived.  When we accept the life we have lived, then we can begin to be whole."  He echoed an often-heard theme:  When we judge our life we diminish ourselves.  The more we can eliminate all need to compare, compete, grade, and judge our lives, the closer we get to wisdom.

    John Izzo

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 38,886

    I move through my day-to-day life with a sense of appreciation and gratitude that comes from knowing how fortunate I truly am and how unearned all that I am thankful for really is.  To have this perspective in my everyday consciousness is in itself a gift, for it leads to feeling “graced,” or blessed each time. . . . Every time I see beauty around me, I appreciate what I am seeing, and simultaneously I have this sense of appreciation—for being alive to have this particular moment.

    Jean Shinoda Bolen

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 38,886

    Never forget that the purpose for which we live is the improvement of ourselves, so that we may go out of this world having, in our great sphere or our small one, done some little good for our fellow creatures and labored a little to diminish the sin and sorrow that are in the world.

    William E. Gladstone

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 38,886

    Pessimists see only the dark side of the clouds, and mope; philosophers see both sides, and shrug; optimists don't see the clouds at all--they're walking on them. Leonard Louis Levinson

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 38,886

    There are as many nights as days, and the one is just as long as the other in the year’s course. Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word “happiness” would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. It is far better to take things as they come along with patience and equanimity.     -Carl Gustav Jung

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 38,886

    There can be no success without enthusiasm. The secret of a full life is lots of enthusiasm, the kind that keeps you fighting and winning over all obstacles--and enjoying every minute of it.

    Alfred Krebs

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 38,886

    Since the human body tends to move in the direction of its expectations--plus or minus--it is important to know that attitudes of confidence and determination are no less a part of the treatment program than medical science and technology.      -Norman Cousins

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 38,886

    Be patient with everyone, but above all with yourself. I mean, do not be disturbed because of your imperfections, and always rise up bravely from a fall. I am glad that you make a daily new beginning; there is no better means of progress in the spiritual life than to be continually beginning afresh, and never to think that we have done enough.     -St. Francis de Sales

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 38,886

    Kindness may be achieved by all, rich and poor, learned and illiterate. Brilliance of mind and capacity for deep thinking have rendered great service to humanity, but by themselves they are impotent to dry a tear or mend a broken heart. -unattributed

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 38,886

    Today we are faced with the preeminent fact that, if civilization is to survive, we must cultivate the science of human relationships. . . the ability of all peoples, of all kinds, to live together, in the same world, at peace.

    Franklin D. Roosevelt

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 38,886

    A little friendship, a little sympathy, a little sociability, a little human toil. . . is needed in every nook and corner.  Therefore, search and see if there is not some place where you may invest your humanity.

    Albert Schweitzer

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 38,886

    Studies of volunteers have shown there is a benefit to performing acts of love for other people.  The irony is that it is actually in your best interest to be selfless.  The things you do for the benefit of others not only make you feel fulfilled, they increase your chances of living a long and happy life.   Remember that an act of love always benefits at least two people.

    Bernie S. Siegel

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 38,886

    When I was a girl, my temper often got out of bounds.  But one day when I became angry at a friend over some trivial matter, my mother said to me, "Elizabeth, anyone who angers you conquers you."       -Sister Elizabeth Kenny

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 38,886

    Once we discover how to appreciate the timeless values in our daily experiences, we can enjoy the best things in life.

    Harry Hepner