I cannot pray the Lord's Prayer

I cannot pray OUR, if my faith has no room for others and their needs.

I cannot pray FATHER, if I do not demonstrate this relationship to God in my daily living.

I cannot pray WHO ART IN HEAVEN, if all my interests and pursuits are in earthly things.

I cannot pray HALLOWED BE THY NAME, if I am not striving, with God’s help to be holy.

I cannot pray THY KINGDOM COME, if I am unwilling or resentful of having it in my life.

I cannot pray ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN, unless I am truly ready to give myself to God’s service here and now.

I cannot pray GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD, without expending honest effort for it; or if I would withhold from my neighbour the bread that I receive.

I cannot pray LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION, if I deliberately choose to remain in a situation where I am likely to be tempted.

I cannot pray DELIVER US FROM EVIL, if I am not prepared to fight evil with my life and my prayer.

I cannot pray THINE IS THE KINGDOM, if I am unwilling to obey the king.

I cannot pray THINE IS THE POWER AND THE GLORY, if I am seeking power for myself and my own glory first.

I cannot pray FOR EVER AND EVER, if I am too anxious about each day’s affairs.

I cannot pray AMEN, unless I can honestly say “cost what it may, this is my prayer”.

We should always try....

.... to learn from the past. But the past isn't necessarily geared up to provide any of us with an education. It contains no classrooms or desks. It may appear to offer lecturers but these are often self-appointed, with axes to grind and biased points to make. 

We may discover, if we listen too carefully to those tutors, that we have studied the wrong curriculum and have gained no useful admission to any further course. Be wary about the conclusions you draw from yesterday.

Your big opportunity may be right where you are now.   (Napoleon Hill)

If you think that....

.....satellite navigation systems haven't been around all that long, you'd not be alone and neither would you be right.  Salmon have had it for millions of years. In fact, that's how we all used to get about in the old days. Trap a salmon. Put it in a bowl of water. Then sit it on the dashboard and follow its tail. You don't remember that?

Alright, I admit, I was being a tad impudent, but there are many things that we do seem to have forgotten. We take the modern world for granted and sometimes, in the process, older, wiser, values get ignored.

We each get the same 168 hours each week. What we do with it is the difference between 

a life well-lived and merely staying alive.

We can all contemplate....

....the things we would do, if only we had enough money or opportunity and time. Normally, these grand visions involve a great deal of activity. Yet sometimes, we can achieve far more by sitting still, than we can by running a hundred miles. We can learn much more from listening than we can from talking.

We can achieve far more from doing the right kind of nothing, than we can through doing the wrong kind of something.

Reflection and action must never be undertaken independently.  (Paulo Friere)

How did the world's....

....first bridges ever get built? Imagine two communities, separated by a wide river. First, they must decide that they trust each other enough to consider a permanent connection. What if residents on each side disapprove of some who live on the other bank and might prefer to restrict their movements? Plus, who pays for the construction? How do they share the cost of labour and resources? Such problems are tricky but they are clearly not insurmountable.

 

I think that should be an inspiration to all of us.

Life is either a great adventure or it is nothing    (Helen Keller)

Do you remember....

......your school biology lessons? Under a microscope all kinds of grim and grisly sights were seen. But once we looked away, though, we realised that these existed in a separate little world of their own.
  

We have to keep a sense of proportion if we are to avoid being drawn too deeply into dramas that seem enormous and overwhelming, yet are ultimately irrelevant.

You will not be punished for your anger, you will be punished by your anger.     (Buddha)

There's nothing sensible....

....about life on Planet Earth. We are not here because someone had a committee meeting and developed a careful plan.

We exist in bodies that have not been approved by Health and Safety, and we make our most important decisions on the basis of irrational needs and fears.

The probability that we may fail in struggle ought not to deter us from the support

of a cause we believe to be just.  (A. Lincoln)

I used to think that....

.....disestablishmentarianism was the longest word in the English dictionary.  Then I read that it was in fact floccinaucinihilipilification.  Ah, but what about  antidisestablishmentarianism? Dictionaries are full of words, and really big dictionaries contain really big words? Many of which nobody ever uses. 

Anyway, even the most erudite and articulate amongst us would be hard pressed to use all of those terms and descriptions in the course of a lifelong literary career. So what are all those other words for? That's easy. They exist to prevent us from properly understanding one another.

   

People get along a lot better when there's an element of ambiguity in their conversation.

Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud  (Maya Angelou)

No prisons are as harsh....

....nor punishments as severe as the ones we create for ourselves. We set standards that we cannot live up to and then chastise ourselves for our failure. We build unnecessary barriers and police them vigilantly. You may be conscious of some way in which your progress is being impeded or authority is being imposed on you. Think less about this and more about the way you can escape your problem by altering an attitude or defying a self-imposed restriction.

There may be many things that lie beyond our control, but that's not the same as saying that we are powerless. Allow yourself freedom, and the world will allow it to you too.

To make one good action succeed another, is the perfection of goodness.    

(Ali ibn Abi Talib)

Life is full....

....of questions we cannot answer. Where did we come from? Where are we going? We may have our deep beliefs, but we do not know. This is unnerving. To compensate for the insecurity of being so ignorant, we either become passionate about our assumptions or we get fascinated by life's smaller facts. We focus on what we can know, not on what we can't.

The downside of this is that we repel magic from our lives by being too closed-minded.

To be great is to be misunderstood.     (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

Did you realise....

....that it's been more than 48 hours since we had a 'they say...' moment.  That will never do........
They say that we should not look at life through rose-tinted spectacles. Yet, this is precisely what we all do. It must be! What else explains the odd judgements that so many of us make and the peculiar preferences we exhibit? We all, inwardly, wear custom-built, self-created glasses. That's why what looks rosy to one person looks pale to another.

If you are looking at something you find unacceptable, consider fitting an extra pink filter into your frame before you reject it.

Care is a state in which something does matter; it is the source of human tenderness.    (Rollo May)

If one good deed....

....deserves another, what does a bad deed deserve? We live in a world that is somewhat obsessed by crime and punishment. We appoint authorities to pass judgement on individuals and to issue sentences that must be served. If they are seen to be too lenient, we criticise them. 

But in our dealings with one another, we would always hope to give and receive some sympathy and understanding.  If you have the option to be harsh or to be forgiving, why would you not choose to do as you would be done by?    

One today is worth two tomorrows.   (Benjamin Franklin)

Have you been following....

....the stock market lately?  No?  Just wondered because we are not placed on this earth in order to trade in stocks and shares. Or to work in jobs that don't fulfil us. Or to struggle with situations that continually frustrate us.

We are here to make wonderful discoveries. To share meaningful experiences. To find and follow inspiration. To be creative, loving, kind... and happy. It's just that sometimes, we forget this.

"You were born with wings, why prefer to crawl through life?"

Strap yourself in for....

....another 'they say...' moment - They say 'It's not what you do, it's the way that you do it.'  Well, guess what.  They are wrong.  All too often, it absolutely IS what you do. The way that you do it has nothing to do with it. In many situations style is irrelevant, substance is everything.

 

Only once you have satisfied yourself that you are doing the right thing - and that isn't the same as the easiest thing -  only then can you then set out to do it in the best possible way.

Leave the past where it belongs.

With sheer force....

....of our will, we can achieve a lot. We can focus our energy and determination and psychically strive to make the world do our bidding. The technique doesn't always work - but sometimes, it seems to. Is it, though, the only way to reach our goal? Can we not be just as successful by being relaxed, trusting, open-minded and open-hearted?

This technique too, only seems to work sometimes, but it works as least as well as the other method and it does not leave us frustrated and depleted.

A minute of your time can make someone's day.

I'm in great need of someone....

....to explain to me why 'they' say 'Wake up, and smell the coffee'? After all, I can't see how that's going to bring anyone to their senses. Surely, we need to wake up and drink the coffee.

Then 'they' say, 'It's time to face reality'. Ha, what a load of .....!!!  Have any of us actually ever seen reality? We see what we choose to perceive as real. Ultimately, all of existence is illusory. Nothing lasts forever and everything boils down to a matter of perspective.

Any way you look at it, you will see it differently.

If you never take risks, you’ll never accomplish great things.   

Everybody dies, but not everyone has lived.      (C.S. Lewis)

Well, it maybe.....

.....a combination of the two -

Two wolves....

One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said, “My son, the battle is between two 'wolves' inside us all.   

One is Evil: It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.  

The other is Good: It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.”

The young grandson thought about this for a minute or two and then asked his grandfather “Which wolf wins?”

The old Cherokee replied simply ..... “The one you feed!”

Let's be different....

......Let's have a quiz. The answers could prove very helpful. Q1: When is the darkest hour? Q2: What do you have to recognise that you've got, before you can find a solution? Q3: What never lets you down if you never let it go? 
(I suppose I should write the answers upside down, but even I'm not that clever! So, instead, just stand on your head please!)

A1. Just before the dawn. A2. A problem.

Did you get those right? How did you do with Q3?         

A3 is 'faith'.

Often, that's all any of us need to remember.

Faith is an oasis in the heart which will never be reached by the caravan of thinking.  (Khalil Gibran)

A few years ago....

.....I was introduced to some of the works of a poet who went by the name of Khalil Gibran.  One of the things he said was - 'Wisdom ceases to be wisdom when it becomes too proud to weep, too grave to laugh, and too selfish to seek other than itself.'

And people who do seek wisdom soon discover that wisdom cannot be sought. Unlike information - which you can most definitely go out hunting or fishing for - wisdom is nobody's prey and nobody's quarry. If you wish to encounter wisdom - you must stand still and allow wisdom to catch you!

It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.      (Henry David Thoreau)

What's the first rule....

....in the book? "Rule one: None of the rules in this book are set in stone." You don't remember seeing that when you last read the rule book? You probably skipped the introduction. Most people do. 

Far too many of us set ourselves rules which we follow for years without further question. And then we find, from time to time, that some are no longer as appropriate as they once were. Forget what you think 'ought' to be happening. Appreciate things as they are.

Beauty without expression is boring.      (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

We don't always have to....

....solve a problem to be free from it. It can be sufficient to simply acknowledge that it exists and then allow for it. Acceptance is not always advisable; it can be the last resort of the meek and the indecisive. But sometimes it does make sense to live with what you cannot change. 

You may be walking down the road to happiness. If so, it's likely to lead straight down Disenchanted Drive along through Acquiescent Avenue, until it eventually emerges on Blissful Boulevard.

Life is given to us, we earn it by giving it.   (Rabindranath Tagore)

How do you know....

....what someone else is thinking? How do they know what you are thinking? You may think you know. They may think they know. But sometimes, there can be a world of difference between what we know and what we think we know. And, for as long as we think that what we know is what we really know, we cannot really know what needs to be known because we cannot see past what we think.

 

There should always be clear communication.  Confusion arises from assumptions, and sentences starting with 'What I meant was.....' help nobody.

It is better to give more than you take.

When you were at school.....

....if a teacher told you to do some homework, it never occurred to you to come in the next day and say, 'Actually, I was going to carry out this task but I suddenly had a strong feeling that this was not a good idea. Instinctively, I understood that it would be wiser for me to leave the work undone.'   (Certainly in my school days you wouldn't have dared to make that statement.)

We have all been brought up to believe that action is meritorious, whilst inaction implies laziness. There are, though, many times in life when it is infinitely more sensible to do nothing than to do something.

The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, 
but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.

Once upon a time....

.....a very long time ago there was a man who went by the name of Khalil Gibran.  A poet, apparently.  One of the remarks he's said to have made is - Wisdom ceases to be wisdom when it becomes too proud to weep, too grave to laugh, and too selfish to seek other than itself.

And people who do seek wisdom soon discover that wisdom cannot be sought. Unlike information - which you can most definitely go out hunting or fishing for - wisdom is nobody's prey and nobody's quarry. If you wish to encounter wisdom - you must stand still and allow wisdom to catch you.

Ultimately the happiest unions have less to do with perfect partners

and more to do with our inner self-worth.

Rewards and incentives.....

....don't have to be dramatic to be effective. Would you rather see one slight smile flit across the face of someone you feel fond of or watch an entire crowd adopting an expression of false amazement and feigned rapture? Would you rather be given the one thing you most need to complete a collection or just accept a whole stack of relatively random but expensive prizes? 

A small but significant development can be worth more than its weight in any precious commodity you care to think of. 

Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it with the handle of anxiety 

or the handle of faith.      (Henry Ward Beecher)

Due to popular demand

....and with no expense spared, I bring you a 'they say....' moment -

They say, 'You always hurt the one you love.' If that's true, how should we protect the people we care most about? Do we just stop loving them? Love is a mark of the highest respect, yet it can become the reason why two people fail to respect each other's most basic needs.

It is the ultimate expression of empathy, yet it can sometimes give rise to the most intense experience of isolation.

The more we sweat in peace, the less we bleed in war     (Viaya Lakshmi Pandit)

Are people who wear....

....suits more important than those who dress in casual clothes? (I know some who mistakenly think they are.) Mind you, if you had to manifest an air of authority to help control a volatile social situation, wouldn't you prefer to be clad in a uniform that conferred a look of power upon you. Even the most free-thinking and unconventional among us find it hard not to be taken in by appearances.

Yet you may miss out on something valuable if you judge anyone by their superficial features and evaluate a situation entirely by the first impression it gives.

A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all other virtues   (Cicero)

If you take small steps....

....in the right direction, they will count for far more than giant strides around the side of the circle. A few well-chosen words whispered in the right ear at the right moment, can prove more influential than a thousand diatribes delivered through a megaphone.

There are many times when it is not energy that we need; it is discrimination. Create some space. Find a little shelter, take a little rest, seek a little peace, gain a little perspective. Once you are sure of what's going on, you will know where those small steps should go.

Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding  (Khalil Gibran)

Doubt kills....

When people think....

....they have an easy answer, they immediately stop looking for anything else. Never mind how temporary, unsuitable or even counter-productive. An easy answer represents a quick fix and a cheap thrill. These days, there are few philosophers left. There are also very few happy people. Dramas oblige us to think deeply and to seek answers that are not so easy.

In the process, though, they help us to find a greater, more lasting source of happiness.

Some things you miss and some things you lose by keeping your arm outstretched.

Life is full of ideas....

....which really don't make much sense, arrangements that don't work quite as well as they ought to and explanations that sound good until you really start to think. We all know this, but we generally prefer not to dwell on the defects and drawbacks. We find it easier just to pretend that all is more or less fine.

Sometimes, though, we are obliged to confront the inadequacy of a belief, a situation or an assumption. Annoying, maybe -  but definitely not the end of the world.

Blossoms are not fruits.    (Dutch proverb)

When people find themselves.....

.... forced to do a lot of things that they don't want to do, they sometimes use the phrase 'soul destroying' to describe the experience. But whatever a soul is, if indeed anybody knows, surely it is indestructible! Faith, hope, optimism and trust, are probably similarly resilient. 

Even if these qualities are severely suppressed for a great length of time, they spring right back to life the moment they are given the slightest encouragement.

Great hopes make great men.    (Thomas Fuller)

It's your call....

Practice, they say....

.....makes perfect. (Here 'they' are, again!!)  Surely, though, that rather depends on what it is that you're practising. If you are attempting to refine the art of mistake-making, then the more you do it the more imperfect you will become. Now why, you may wonder, would anyone want to do that? Consciously, I'm sure they would not. But hidden agendas are funny things. Sometimes, we inwardly set out to scupper our opportunities.

If you want something to change, don't do what you've always done.

Nothing is to small to know, and nothing too big to attempt.    (William Van Horne)

Forgive me, but....

....I need to be more than a tad flippant to start this one - You know of the Pearly Gates? You know the bit where St Peter stands looking up names on his latest piece of hardware? Does he have a sign next to him saying, 'American Express cards welcome'? You can't buy your way into heaven. Nor, can you attain entry via your social network. Peter isn't going to look you up on Facebook to see how many friends you have. 

Heaven is a place in the heart. Entry is strictly according to trust, love, faith and open-mindedness. 

If a thing loves, it is infinite.   (William Blake)

They say....

.....(Well, it is the start of a new week.  Any excuse.)  They say love means, never having to say you're sorry. I have never understood what this is supposed to mean. People who love each other don't ever need to apologise to each other? Why? They never make mistakes? They consider themselves entitled to full forgiveness, regardless of what they do? 

Whoever invented that cute little phrase, is probably responsible for a thousand divorces. If an apology is appropriate somewhere in your world, allow it to be made.

If indeed you must be candid, be candid beautifully.   (Kahlil Gibran)