Who would have thought it....

.....It seems that experts have been debating the precise age of this universe.  Is it 13.75 or is it 15 billion years old? Do people actually get paid to do this sort of thing!! Why are they counting? Why do they care? Surely, the only thing that matters is that it exists right here, right now. And that you and I exist within it.

If we want to broaden our understanding, we might do better to look more closely at where we actually are and to deepen our appreciation.

The walls we build around us to keep sadness out also keeps out the joy.  (Jim Rohn)

From an early age....

......we are taught to label and categorise the world around us. What colour is this? Then later come more sophisticated inquiries. How big is that? How much does this cost? What is that truly worth? And as adults it seems as if, when we are not judging others, we are judging ourselves.

Really, that's bad. Indeed, arguably, the only one thing we are ever within our rights to judge ourselves for, is judging ourselves!

Crying is alright in its way, while it lasts.  But you have to stop sooner or later and then

you have to decide what to do.    (C S Lewis)

If you take a silver coin....

....and bury it in the garden, it won't grow into a money tree. And if you go to the nearest bank and give a horse chestnut to the cashier, you can't expect it to earn you any interest. (I think you can work out what to expect, though; if you do something like that.)

For an investment to pay off, there has to be a degree of discrimination. You've got to know a little bit about what you are doing, why you are doing it and where might be the best place for it to be done.

The greatest achievement is selflessness. The greatest worth is self-mastery.

The greatest quality is seeking to serve others.     (Atisha)

If you didn't have....

....feelings you could live an easier life. You could think more clearly, plan more precisely, proceed more directly and operate more efficiently. Would you miss anything? A good question. Just ask any robot whether they feel bad about having no feelings! They have no feelings to feel bad with! 

The ability to feel bad is merely the other side of the most valuable coin in the human currency. You have the ability to feel good. Very good indeed.

Faith is a passionate intuition.    (William Wordsworth)

'Fool me once....

....shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.' So goes the old saying. The implication here is that, while we may be able to blame someone else the first time they let us down, if we put ourselves in the position where they can do the same thing again, we have only ourselves to blame. This is a good, wise, rule but to every rule there is an exception. There are times when, if we are too draconian, we cut ourselves off from precious opportunities.

There's nothing wrong with being wary, at times, of what's being offered; but we should always be careful not to slam a door shut immediately.

They who defend their cages are the ones most trapped of all.  Learn to see your bars for 

what they are and learn to step through them.

One of the most deceptive....

.....things in our lives is change............... It is happening all the time, right under our noses. (Unless you're one of those who use all that you have to battle against it.)  Usually, though, it is taking place at a rate that is just a little bit too slow for us to perceive. Think of how flowers open. With time-lapse photography you can easily see the process. If, though, you sit and stare at a vase, you simply won't spot it.

One of the greatest mistakes you could make would involve assuming that, because there is no evidence of an imminent improvement, no improvement is imminent!

If we don't change, we don't grow. If we don't grow, we aren't really living.     (Gail Sheehy)

Oh how we get enticed....

....by short cuts and special deals. Intense emotional needs and desires blind us to the light of logic. We think, 'there ought to be an instant way to get what I want'. Then we seize on the first notion that looks likely to offer us such a solution.

  

To do the right thing requires wisdom, restraint, patience, faith, effort, sincerity and humility.

The friendship that can cease has never been real  (St Jerome)

We are all....

....creatures of habit. But are those habits are good or bad? If we just keep on doing what's not very wise, we will sooner or later pay a price. Yet sometimes we fall into what we consider to be 'good habits' but they aren't actually as good for us as we would like to imagine.

If, for example, those habits involve being so wary of trouble that we start looking out for it at every turn, we may end up protecting everything but our blood pressure.

When all your desires are distilled, you will cast just two votes - to love more and be happy.

(Hafiz of Persia)

Why wouldn't you want to?.....

There will always be....

....someone who is worse off than you or I - and always someone who is better off. Even when we hit rock bottom, if we stop and listen carefully, we will hear the cries of someone who has fallen even further down a deeper well. Even when all our ships seem to have come in at once, a quick glimpse towards a nearby port will reveal the sight of an admiral who appears to be greeting an entire armada.

There's nothing wrong with making valid comparisons.  There's a lot wrong with making unhelpful ones.

A single rose can be my garden.......a single friend, my world.    (Leo Buscaglia)

And here, we have it....

Please take a moment....

....to think about the Wright Brothers and those other early aviation pioneers. One moment they were putting their idea to the final (and most crucial) test. Then suddenly, amazingly, they were airborne. Now the question 'will it work?' had been replaced by two even more pressing questions... 'How long will this last?' And, 'how will I ever get back down again?'

In life, too often, we solve one problem only to discover that we have created another, but that's no reason not to take a leap of faith.

Flowers don't argue about who is the best and most beautiful, they simply bloom!

How profound....

....and how very true!