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How Sweet It is To Love Someone...

How right it is to care...

John Denver sings "Poems, Prayers and Promises."
How we miss you so, John.

Lyrics: Poems, Prayers and Promises

Your Wild and Precious Lfe

I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?
—Mary Oliver from her poem, The Summer Day

Source: Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac for Monday, June 30, 2008.

Why Do You Do Good?

If people are good only because they fear punishment and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed.
—Albert Einstein

Source: The Best Liberal Quotes Ever: Why the Left is Right by Wlliam Martin. Sourcebooks, Inc. 2004 ISBN: 1-4022-0309-8

Focus on the World's Hope

Focus not on the world's tragedies, but on the world's hope.
Many sad things happen in our world, but rather than focusing on them, have hope for the future. Think of the world's potential. Perhaps the future holds the curing of diseases, the end of violence, the amelioration of poverty and hunger.
—David Niven, Ph.D. in Focus not on the world's tragedies, but on the world's hope: Number 84 of The 100 Simple Secrets of Happy People

Over nine in ten Americans are uncomfortable or worried about aspects of the world and society. The difference between more and less happy people is what they do with that discomfort. Less happy people wallow in the problems they see, while happier people focus on potential improvements in the future.
—Garrett R. 1996. "Wisdom as the Key to a Better World." In Contemporary Issues in Behavior Therapy New York: Plenum.

Source: The 100 Simple Secrets of Happy People: What Scientists Have Learned and How You Can Use It. by David Niven, Ph.D. 2000 HarperCollins ISBN: 0-06-251650-7
See also: Country Inns & Suites by Carlson Read & Return It program.

WashingtonPost.com's Faces of the Fallen: By age: 34-year-olds
U.S. Service members who died in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom

Do You Keep the Channel Open?

There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open.
—Martha Graham

Source: Garr Reynold's blog: Presentation Zen, April 12, 2008 entry Ichi-nichi issho: Each day is a lifetime
See also:
> The incredibly inspiring The Last Lecture | Randy Pausch and the lecture itself :
(about 76 minutes you can't miss!)

Update: July 25, 2008
Randy Pausch, 47, Dies; His ‘Last Lecture’ Inspired Many to Live With Wonder
By DOUGLAS MARTIN
Published: July 26, 2008 (NY Times Online)
Dr. Pausch was the Carnegie Mellon University professor whose “last lecture” made him a Lou-Gehrig-like symbol of the beauty and briefness of life.

Happy Birthday William Shakespeare

The quality of mercy is not strain'd;
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest:
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown;
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptred sway,
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God's
When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew,
Though justice be thy plea, consider this,
That in the course of justice none of us
Should see salvation; we do pray for mercy,
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy. I have spoke thus much
To mitigate the justice of thy plea,
Which if thou follow, this strict court of Venice
Must needs give sentence 'gainst the merchant there.
—Portia in Shakespeare's The Merchant Of Venice Act 4, scene 1, 180–187

Source: Shakespeare Quotes at enotes.com The quality of mercy is not strained.
> Also: The Merchant Of Venice Act 4, scene 1, 180–187
> It is the believed to be birthday of William Shakespeare, born in Stratford-on-Avon, England in 1564. He died on April 23, 1616.
> See: Garrison Keillor's Writer's Almanac for Wednesday, April 23, 2008

A Friendship Blessing

May you be blessed with good friends.
May you learn to be a good friend to yourself.
May you be able to journey to that place in your soul
   where there is great love, warmth, feeling, and forgiveness.
May this change you.
May it transfigure that which is negative, distant, or cold in you.
May you be brought in to the real passion, kinship, and affinity of belonging.
May you treasure your friends.
May you be good to them and may you be there for them;
   may they bring you all the blessings, challenges, truth,
   and light that you need for your journey.
May you never be isolated.
May you always be in the gentle nest of belonging with your anam cara.
—John O'Donohue

Source: Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom by John O'Donohue Harper Perennial 1998 & 2004 ISBN-13: 978-0-06-092943-5

Light Within You

The more light you allow within you, the brighter the world you live in will be.
—Shakti Gawain

Source: Spirit window card series, by Compendium, Inc.
See also: Shakti Gawain's Web site

Love: Not Perfect Caring

Love isn't a state of perfect caring. It is an active noun like struggle. To love someone is to strive to accept that person exactly the way he or she is, right here and now.
—Fred Rogers

Source: The World According to Mister Rogers: Important Things to Remember by Fred Rogers 2003 ISBN 1-4013-0106-1
Today is the birthday of Fred Rogers, producer, writer, puppeteer, composer, lyricist, ordained minister and devoted student of child development. Mister Rogers was born in Latrobe, Pennsylvania in 1928. He died on February 27, 2003 at his home in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
See also:
> Garrison Keillor's Writer's Almanac for Thursday, Mar. 20, 2008
> Mister Rogers' Neighborhood
> About Fred Rogers

They Shall Not Grow Old

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
— Laurence Binyon, from his poem For the fallen

Source: Australian War Memorial page: Commemoration
See also:
> Laurence Binyon's For the Fallen.
> ANZAC Day (25 April) is the most important national day of commemoration for Australians. This poem is one poem traditionally read on ANZAC Day commemorations. See the Australian War Memorial's ANZAC Day.

WashingtonPost.com's Faces of the Fallen: By age: 59-year-olds
U.S. Service members who died in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom

Who, if not I?

I am the wind on the sea.
I am the ocean wave.
I am the sound of the billows.
I am the seven-horned stag.
I am the hawk on the cliff.
I am the dewdrop in sunlight.
I am the fairest of flowers.
I am the raging boar.
I am the salmon in the deep pool.
I am the lake on the plain.
I am the meaning of the poem.
I am the point of the spear.
I am the god that makes fire in the head.
Who levels the mountain?
Who speaks the age of the moon?
Who has been where the sun sleeps?
Who, if not I?
—The Song of Amergin

Source: Speaking of Faith Public Radio show of Feb. 28, 2008 (and repeated on Sunday, Mar. 2, 2008) The Inner Landscape of Beauty | Program Particulars, a program interviewing the late Celtic poet John O'Donohue.
See also:
> Amergin, Amirgin, Amairgen by Dedanaan: Myth Is What We Call Other People's Religion.
> Short biographical sketch of John O'Donohue.

The Future - Tomorrow

The future will be better tomorrow.
—Dan Quayle

Source: Teachers: Jokes, Quotes, and Anecdotes Daily calendar Wednesday, February 6, 2008 Andrews McMeel Publishing ISBN-13: 9780-7407-6680-0

To Be Not Afraid

I will not serve that in which I no longer believe whether it call itself my home, my fatherland or my church: and I will try to express myself in some mode of life or art as freely as I can and as wholly as I can, using for my defence the only arms I allow myself to use - silence, exile, and cunning. ... I do not fear to be alone or to be spurned for another or to leave whatever I have to leave. And I am not afraid to make a mistake, even a great mistake, a lifelong mistake and perhaps as long as eternity too.
—james Joyce

Source: Garrison Keillor's The Wrtier's Almanac for Saturday, February 2, 2008
> Today is the birthday of James Joyce, born in Rathgar, a suburb of Dublin (1882). Joyce died on January 13, 1941 in Zürich.

Who is What and What is Who

On Wednesday, when the sky is blue,
And I have nothing else to do,
I sometimes wonder if it's true
That who is what and what is who.
—Pooh (from Winnie-the-Pooh)

Source: books and writers bio of A(lan) A(lexander) Milne (1882-1956
It is the birthday of A.A. Milne born London, England on this day in 1882. He died in Hartfield, Sussex, on January 31, 1956.
See also:
> Garrison Keillor's The Wrtier's Almanac for Friday, January 18, 2008

Hate Corrodes - Hate Destroys

Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man's sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true.
—Martin Luther King, Jr.

Source: The Quotations Page – Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes
Today, Jan. 15^th is the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He was born in Atlanta, Georgia, USA in 1929. He died in Memphis, Tennessee having been assassinated on April 4 , 1968.
See also:
> Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac for Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2008.
> New York Times Obituary Martin Luther King Jr.: Leader of Millions in Nonviolent Drive for Racial Justice by Murray Schumach published April 5, 1968

Falling from High Places

A fall from the third floor hurts as much as a fall from the hundredth. If I have to fall, may it be from a high place.
—Paulo Coelho

Source: Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail Again. Fail Better. Herter Studio. Running Press. 2006 ISBN 13: 978-0-7624-2514-3
See also:
> Official site of Paulo Coelho

Living Our Own Life

We must all live our own lives, in our own time, and learn what is true for us, because very few truths prove valid for all people all the time.
—extract from DailyOm for Thursday, January 3, 2008

Source: For the entire contemplation visit: DailyOM Suffer And Sacrifice: False Beliefs published Thursday, January 3, 2008.

Not Made Any of Us Safer

Out of panic and ideology, President Bush squandered America’s position of moral and political leadership, swept aside international institutions and treaties, sullied America’s global image, and trampled on the constitutional pillars that have supported our democracy through the most terrifying and challenging times. These policies have fed the world’s anger and alienation and have not made any of us safer.
—New York Times Editorial Staff

Source: The New York Times editorial Looking at America [free subscription required] published Monday, Dec. 31, 2007.

Experience is the Bitterest

By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.
Confucius

Source: Confucius Quote on Wisdom on BrainyQuote.com.

Purpose: What?

Your purpose is always about giving, loving and serving in some capacity.
—Dr. Wayne W. Dyer

Source: Everyday Wisdom by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer published by Hay House 1993 ISBN 1-56170-076-2
See also:
> Dr. Dyer's Official Web site

Scrooge on the Eve of Christmas

Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it: and Scrooge's name was good upon 'Change, for anything he chose to put his hand to.' Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail.
—Charles Dickens, the beginning of A Christmas Carol

Source: Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac for Monday, December 24, 2007
See also:
> Biographical sketch of Charles Dickens
> Wikipedia's A Christmas Carol

Don't Dwell on Unwinnable Conflicts

Move on. The problems you spend your time and energy on should both be important and improvable. Otherwise, you are better off moving on to things you can change.
—David Niven, Ph.D. in Don't Dwell on Unwinnable Conflicts: Number 82 of The 100 Simple Secrets of Happy People

Many people experience conflict in balancing their time between work and home. Studies find that people who want to spend more time in both settings wind up feeling decreased satisfaction at home and at work. Those who recognize that their limited time is a conflict without a readily available solution are one–more likely to feel comfortable with themselves than those who do not.
—Caproni p. 1997. "Work/Life Balance: You Can't Get There From Here." Journal of Applied Behavioral Science 33: 46.

Source: The 100 Simple Secrets of Happy People: What Scientists Have Learned and How You Can Use It. by David Niven, Ph.D. 2000 HarperCollins ISBN: 0-06-251650-7
See also: Country Inns & Suites by Carlson Read & Return It program.

WashingtonPost.com's Faces of the Fallen: By age: 43-year-olds
U.S. Service members who died in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom

Thousands of Small, Routine Tasks

And tragically, since the onset of the scientific and technological revolution, it has seemingly become all too easy for ultrarational minds to create an elaborate edifice of clockwork efficiency capable of nightmarish cruelty on an industrial scale. The atrocities of Hitler and Stalin, and the mechanical sins of all who helped them, might have been inconceivable except for the separation of facts from values and knowledge from morality. In her study of Adolf Eichmann, who organized the death camp bureaucracy, Hannah Arendt coined the memorable phrase "the banality of evil" to describe the bizarre contrast between the humdrum and ordinary quality of the acts themselves—the thousands of small, routine tasks committed by workaday bureaucrats—and the horrific and satanic quality of their proximate consequences. It was precisely the machinelike efficiency of the system that carried out the genocide which seemed to make it possible for its functionaries to separate the thinking required in their daily work from the moral sensibility for which, because they were human beings, they must have had some capacity. This mysterious, vacant space in their souls, between thinking and feeling, is the suspected site of the inner crime. This barren of the spirit, rendered fallow by the blood of unkept brothers, is the precinct of the disembodied intellect, which knows the way things work but not the way they are.

It is my view that the underlying moral schism that contributed to these extreme manifestations of evil has also conditioned our civilization to insulate its conscience from any responsibility for the collective endeavors that invisibly link millions of small, silent, banal acts and omissions together in a pattern of terrible cause and effect. Today, we enthusiastically participate in what is in essence a massive and unprecedented experiment with the natural systems of the global environment, with little regard for the moral consequences. But for the separation of science and religion, we might not be pumping so much gaseous chemical waste into the atmosphere and threatening the destruction of the earth's climate balance. But for the separation of useful technological know-how and the moral judgments to guide its use, we might not be slashing and burning one football field's worth of rain forest every second. But for the assumed separation of humankind from nature, we might not be destroying half the living species on earth in the space of a single lifetime. But for the separation of thinking and feeling, we might not tolerate the deaths everyday of 37,000 children under the age of five from starvation and preventable diseases made worse by failures of crops and politics.
—Al Gore, Earth in the Balance, 1992

Source: Quotations Collected by David Conner, Part 2

More Nothing Than Something

An atom (and thus all matter) is mostly empty space.
—Encyclopedia Britannica

Contrary to our perception and belief, there is more nothing than something, even in things that appear to have more something than nothing.
—Peter McWilliams

Everything is always in motion, even things that don't appear to have moved in millions of years.
—Peter McWilliams

The perception that things are solid and stationary is an illusion.
—Peter McWilliams

Source: The Portable Life 101: 179 essential lessons from the New York Times bestseller Life 101: Everything We Wish We Had Learned in Life In School—But Didn't by Peter McWilliams 1995 ISBN: 0-931580-41-2

THE Something I Can Do

I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something I will not refuse to do the something I can do.
—Helen Keller

Source: Because of You series window card by Compendium, Inc.

Service

What do we live for, if not to make life less difficult for each other?
—George Eliot

Source: The Best Liberal Quotes Ever: Why the Left is Right by Wlliam Martin. Sourcebooks, Inc. 2004 ISBN: 1-4022-0309-8

No Mistakes; No Discoveries

We learn wisdom from failure much more than from success.
We often discover what will do by finding out what will not do;
and probably he who never made a mistake, never made a discovery.
—Samuel Smiles

Source: Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail Again. Fail Better. Herter Studio. Running Press. 2006 ISBN 13: 978-0-7624-2514-3

Human Doing?

You are not a human doing but rather a human being.
—Dr. Wayne W. Dyer

Source: Everyday Wisdom by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer published by Hay House 1993 ISBN 1-56170-076-2
See also Dr. Dyer's Official Web site

Point of Philosophy

The point of philosophy is to start with something so simple as not to seem worth stating, and to end with something so paradoxical that no one will believe it.
—Bertrand Russell

Sourrce: 50 philosophy ideas you really need to know by Ben Dupré. Quercus 2007 ISBN-13: 978-1-84724-149-8

Our Own Behavior

We create our fate every day . . . most of the ills we suffer from are directly traceable to our own behavior.
—Henry Miller

Source: The Best Liberal Quotes Ever: Why the Left is Right by Wlliam Martin. Sourcebooks, Inc. 2004 ISBN: 1-4022-0309-8

Change My Mind?

Faced with the choice between changing one's mind and proving there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof.
—John Kenneth Galbraith

Source: The Portable Life 101: 179 essential lessons from the New York Times bestseller Life 101: Everything We Wish We Had Learned in Life In School—But Didn't by Peter McWilliams 1995 ISBN: 0-931580-41-2

Wasting Our Brains

That image of a $6 million high-tech U.S. helicopter with a highly trained pilot blowing an insurgent off his bicycle captures the absurdity of our situation in Iraq. The great Lebanese historian Kamal Salibi said it best: “Great powers should never get involved in the politics of small tribes.”

That is where we are in Iraq. We’re wasting our brains. We’re wasting our people. We’re wasting our future.
—Thomas L. Friedman

Source: Iraq Through China’s Lens by Thomas L. Friedman. Published Sep. 12, 2007 in the New York Times. [Requires subscription]

WashingtonPost.com's Faces of the Fallen: By Age | 36-year-olds
U.S. Service members who died in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom

Horse Leaps

Half the failures of life arise from pulling one's horse as he is leaping.
—August Hare

Source: Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail Again. Fail Better. Herter Studio. Running Press. 2006 ISBN 13: 978-0-7624-2514-3

Heaven Longs To Be Here On Earth?

Perhaps heaven really does long to be here on earth, and perhaps that is why we are here–as conduits between the divine and the earthbound. As we drink the morning dew in with our eyes, our skin, our breath, it is easy to imagine that it really is a magical potion, a gift from heaven, a reminder of our true purpose, and a daily opportunity to be transformed.
—extract from the DailyOM for Monday, August 27, 2007

Source: For the entire contemplation visit: DailyOM A Magical Potion: Morning Dew published Monday, August 27, 2007.

Gather Rosebuds While You May

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying,
And this same flower that smiles to-day
To-morrow will be dying.
—Robert Herrick

Source: Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac for Friday, August 24, 2007
⇒ Today is the birthday of Robert Herrick, born in London in 1591. He was buried at Devon on October 15, 1674.

Okay to Make Mistakes?

A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.
—George Bernard Shaw

Source: Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail Again. Fail Better. Herter Studio. Running Press. 2006 ISBN 13: 978-0-7624-2514-3
⇒ See also: George Bernard Shaw

Is There Good Judment in Politics?

Good judgment in politics, it turns out, depends on being a critical judge of yourself. It was not merely that the president did not take the care to understand Iraq. He also did not take the care to understand himself. The sense of reality that might have saved him from catastrophe would have taken the form of some warning bell sounding inside, alerting him that he did not know what he was doing. But then, it is doubtful that warning bells had ever sounded in him before. He had led a charmed life, and in charmed lives warning bells do not sound.

People with good judgment listen to warning bells within. Prudent leaders force themselves to listen equally to advocates and opponents of the course of action they are thinking of pursuing. They do not suppose that their own good intentions will guarantee good results. They do not suppose they know all they need to know. If power corrupts, it corrupts this sixth sense of personal limitation on which prudence relies.

A prudent leader will save democracies from the worst, but prudent leaders will not inspire a democracy to give its best. Democratic peoples should always be looking for something more than prudence in a leader: daring, vision and — what goes with both — a willingness to risk failure. Daring leaders can be trusted as long as they give some inkling of knowing what it is to fail. They must be men of sorrow acquainted with grief, as the prophet Isaiah says, men and women who have not led charmed lives, who understand us as we really are, who have never given up hope and who know they are in politics to make their country better. These are the leaders whose judgment, even if sometimes wrong, will still prove worthy of trust.
—Michael Ignatieff

Source: Getting Iraq Wrong [requires paid subscription] by Michael Ignatieff published August 5, 2007 in the New York Times Magazine.

Serve and Thou Shall Be Served

It is one of the most beautiful compensations of life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself ... Serve and thou shall be served.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson

Source: The Power of Intention: Learning to Co–create Your World Your Way by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer. Hay House 2004 ISBN 13: 978-1-4019-0216-2 (tradepaper)

WashingtonPost.com's Faces of the Fallen: By age: 37-year-olds
U.S. Service members who died in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.

Children Never Listen

children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they never fail to imitate them.
—James Baldwin

Source: A Hand to Guide Me: Legends and Leaders Celebrate the People Who Shaped Their Lives by Denzel Washington, Meredith Books 2006 ISBN 13: 978-0-696-23049-3

Sleep, Perchance to Dream

All our dreams are going to come true,
so we better have some good dreams.
—Joe Davis, biotech artist associated with MIT

Source: Java House counter on July 3, 2007.
Java House
210 W Evergreen Blvd # 400
Vancouver, WA 98660
(360) 737-2925
See also:
⇒ Viweing Space's Joe Davis: Genetics and Culture

WashingtonPost.com's Faces of the Fallen: By age: 36-year-olds
U.S. Service members who died in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.

My Chief Duty

I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.
—Helen Keller

Love Will Never Put You Down

Love ..........

Love will never put you down,
won't cheat or mess around.

Love won't criticize or scorn,
won't leave you forlorn.

Love won't knock you to the ground,
or make you fear certain sounds.

Love won't verbally berate you
or accuse you of not being true.

Love will not make you powerless
or increase your stress.

When you're in love, love will accept you for you,
for it respects you and allows you to stay true
to yourself and doesn't make you change.
—Unknown

Source: Weekly email "humorous" subscription, Humor -- 26 June 2007; Subject: Love.... by Robert E. Karas.

WashingtonPost.com's Faces of the Fallen: By age: 36-year-olds
U.S. Service members who died in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.

Give & Take in Life

The idea that life is take, take, take (learn, learn, learn) needs to be balanced with the idea that life is also giving (teaching). Receiving and giving (learning and teaching) are two parts of a single flow, like breathing in (receiving) and breathing out (giving). One cannot take place without the other.
—Peter McWilliams

Life is something like a trumpet.
If you don't put anything in,
you won't get anything out.
—W. C. Handy

Source: The Portable Life 101: 179 essential lessons from the New York Times bestseller Life 101: Everything We Wish We Had Learned in Life In School—But Didn't by Peter McWilliams 1995 ISBN: 0-931580-41-2
See also:
⇒ University of North Alabama Library's W. C. Handy Biography
⇒ Memorial for Peter McWilliams, 1950—2000

WashingtonPost.com's Faces of the Fallen: By age: 34-year-olds
U.S. Service members who died in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.

As I Grow Older

The older I grow, the more I listen to people who don't talk much.
—Germain G. Glien

Source: Java House counter on June 8, 2007.
Java House
210 W Evergreen Blvd # 400
Vancouver, WA 98660
(360) 737-2925

Is This the Best Part of Your Life?

We hear that youth is wasted on the young. People who say this are accepting the myth that only the young can enjoy life to the fullest. The truth is that older people do not consider their young days to be their best days; most enjoy their senior years more than any other part of their life.
—David Niven, Ph.D. in You have not finished the best part of your life.: Number 98 of The 100 Simple Secrets of Happy People

Researchers conducted a long-term study of Northern Californians, interviewing subjects multiple times over three decades. When asked when they had been the happiest in their lives, each time eight out of ten answered "right now."
—Field D. 1997. "Looking Back, What Period of Your Life Brought You the Most Satisfaction?." International Journal of Aging and Human Development 45: 169.

Source: The 100 Simple Secrets of Happy People: What Scientists Have Learned and How You Can Use It. by David Niven, Ph.D. 2000 HarperCollins ISBN: 0-06-251650-7
See also: Country Inns & Suites by Carlson Read & Return It program.

WashingtonPost.com's Faces of the Fallen: By age: 33-year-olds
U.S. Service members who died in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom

My daughter, Jennifer, celebrates her thirty-third birthday this month.

Looking for Love in All the Right Places

Real love is identifiable by the way it makes us feel. Love should feel good. There is a peaceful quality to an authentic experience of love that penetrates to our core, touching a part of ourselves that has always been there. True love activates this inner being, filling us with warmth and light. An authentic experience of love does not ask us to look a certain way, drive a certain car, or have a certain job. It takes us as we are, no changes required. When people truly love us, their love for us awakens our love for ourselves. They remind us that what we seek outside of ourselves is a mirror image of the lover within. In this way, true love never makes us feel needy or lacking or anxious. Instead, true love empowers us with its implicit message that we are, always have been, and always will be, made of love.
—extract from the DailyOM for Monday, June 4, 2007

Source: For the entire contemplation visit: DailyOM The Real Thing: Love Should Feel Good published Monday, June 4, 2007.

We the People

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
—Preamble to the United States Constitution

Source: The National Archives US Constitution Transcript.
⇒ It was on this day in 1781 that the Constitutional Convention convened in Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At the time, Independence Hall was the Pennsylvania State House.
See also:
⇒ The National Archives Constitution of the United States: A History.

WashingtonPost.com's Faces of the Fallen: By Age / 24-year-olds
U.S. Service members who died in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom

Fear Thought?

Mount St. Helens VolcanoCam

Mount St. Helens in early morning sunlight

Today is the 27th anniversary of the Sunday morning eruption of this Cascade Mountain range volcanoe in Southwest Washington. Photo grabbed 0748 May 18, 2007.

Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth—more than ruin—more even than death. ... Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man.
—Bertrand Russell

Source: Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac for Friday, May 18, 2007.

WashingtonPost.com's Faces of the Fallen: By Age / 22-year-olds
U.S. Service members who died in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom

Accept Our Family

Some families are better than others at preparing us for the world. What we learn from our families, even if they are simply blank spots on our family trees, becomes the basis of our identities as individuals. Rather than denying our connections, we can choose to accept their presence in our lives. Acceptance does not mean we have to like them; we simply acknowledge that we are connected to them and honor that connection for like it or not, there is a reason. When we can embrace all that they bring into our experience, we may be grateful for all we have learned from them and have to learn, while we experience everything that comes with family fully and completely.
—extract from the DailyOM for Thursday, May 17, 2007

Source: For the entire contemplation visit: DailyOM Gifts From The Universe: Accepting Your Family published Thursday, May 17, 2007.

You Count

When you become part of something, in some way you count. It could be a march; it could be a rally, even a brief one. You're part of something, and you suddenly realize you count. To count is very important.
—Studs Terkel

Source: BrainyQuote.com's Studs Terkel Quotes.
It is the birthday of StudsTerkel, born Louis Terkel in the Bronx, New York City in 1912.
See also:
⇒ Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac for Wednesday, May 16, 2007.
⇒ Wikipedia.org's Studs Terkel

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Tears and Sweat

All I have to offer is blood, toil, tears, and sweat.
—Winston Churchill, Acceptance Speech, 1940

Source: Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac for Thursday, May 10, 2007
⇒ It was on this day in 1940 that Winston Churchill took power as the prime minister of Great Britain, a position he would hold for the rest of World War II. He came to power at a very dark moment for Europe. In less than two years, almost all of Western Europe's mainland was either controlled by or allied with Nazi Germany. And then, on this day in 1940, Churchill became the prime minister.
⇒ See also: NobelPrize.org's Winston Churchill – Biography, Churchill was awarded The Nobel Prize in Literature for 1953

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The Universe: Infinite?

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.
—Albert Einstein

Source: I've Got The Secret: What happened when I followed the best-selling book's advice for two months. by Emily Yoffe, Posted Monday, May 7, 2007, at 5:17 PM ET
⇒ Her column is "human guinea pig: Humiliating myself for fun and profit" on Slate.com

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Pleasure of Reading

The pleasure we derive from the written word is unique in that we must labor for it. Other forms of art provide us with stimulus and ask nothing more than our emotional response. Reading is an active pastime that requires an investment of emotion as well as our concentration and imagination.
—extract from the DailyOM for Thursday, May 3, 2007

Source: For the entire contemplation visit: DailyOM A Whole New World: Reading For Pleasure published Thursday, May 3, 2007.

Religion: Man-Made

The mildest criticism of religion is also the most radical and the most devastating one. Religion is man-made. Even the men who made it cannot agree on what their prophets or redeemers or gurus actually said or did. Still less can they hope to tell us the "meaning" of later discoveries and developments which were, when they began, either obstructed by their religions or denounced by them. And yet—the believers still claim to know!
—Christopher Hitchens

Source: Slate.com's blog Fighting Words: from: Christopher Hitchens Religion Poisons Everything; excerpt from Christopher Hitchens' book, God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.

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Man Separated From Another Man

A branch cut off from the adjacent branch must of necessity be cut off from the whole tree also. So too a man when he is separated from another man has fallen off from the whole social community. Now as to a branch, another cuts it off, but a man by his own act separates himself from his neighbour when he hates him and turns away from him, and he does not know that he has at the same time cut himself off from the whole social system. Yet he has this privilege certainly from Zeus who framed society, for it is in our power to grow again to that which is near to us, and be to come a part which helps to make up the whole. However, if it often happens, this kind of separation, it makes it difficult for that which detaches itself to be brought to unity and to be restored to its former condition. Finally, the branch, which from the first grew together with the tree, and has continued to have one life with it, is not like that which after being cut off is then ingrafted, for this is something like what the gardeners mean when they say that it grows with the rest of the tree, but that it has not the same mind with it.
—Marcus Aurelius

Source: MIT's The Internet Classics Archive Book Eleven &ndash The Meditations By Marcus Aurelius
⇒ It is the birthday of Marcus Aurelius born in Rome in A.D. 121. He died in A.D. 180.
⇒ See: Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac for Thursday, April 26, 2007
⇒ Read a short sketch biography of Marcus Aurelius

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ANZAC Day, 2007

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place: and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
—John McCrae

Source: Australian War Memorial's Commemoration customs of ANZAC Day, April 25^th.
⇒ ANZAC Day - 25 April - is probably Australia's most important national occasion. It marks the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War. ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. The soldiers in those forces quickly became known as ANZACs, and the pride they soon took in that name endures to this day.

When war broke out in 1914 Australia had been a federal commonwealth for only fourteen years. The new national government was eager to establish its reputation among the nations of the world. In 1915 Australian and New Zealand soldiers formed part of the allied expedition that set out to capture the Gallipoli peninsula to open the way to the Black Sea for the allied navies. The plan was to capture Constantinople (now Istanbul), capital of the Ottoman Empire and an ally of Germany. They landed at Gallipoli on 25 April, meeting fierce resistance from the Turkish defenders.
See: Australian War Memorial The Anzac Day Tradition [Australian War Memorial]

⇒ On this Anzac Day, April 25, 2007, I honor the memory of my Uncle Fred, my Mom's brother, who served in the RAAF during World War II and his service to Australia. Years later on a visit to the states, Uncle Fred and my Dad (who served in the US Army in the Pacific Theater) comparing notes discovered that they had been in the same place in New Guinea at the same time during the War. A small world indeed!
⇒ I also honor the service of all the men and women who served in the defence of Australia, particularly the RAN naval officers and RAN public servants I had the privilege of serving with in the late 1980's at Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, DC.

Truth: Truth?

Say not, 'This is the truth' but 'So it seems to me to be as I now see things I think I see.'
—Unknown – Above a doorway at the German Naval Officers School, in Kiel

Source: John McPhee Annals of the Former World, Farrar, Straus and Giroux (FSG), New York, 2000, p.356 ISBN-13: 978-0-374-51873-8
⇒ www.johmmcphee.com
⇒ John McPhee's page for Annals of the Former World.

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Women and the Glass Ceiling

Mr. President, I don't know why it took us 200 years for one of us to get the job [of ambassador].
—Shirley Temple Black

Source: Creative Quotations from Shirley Temple Black
⇒ Shirley Temple Black was born on this day in 1928 in Santa Monica, California.
⇒ See WikiPedia's Shirley Temple.

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On Being Old

The other day a young person asked me how I felt about being old. I was taken aback, for I do not think of myself as old. Upon seeing my reaction, he was immediately embarrassed, but I explained that it was an interesting question, and I would ponder it, and let him know.

Growing Older, I decided, is a gift. I am now, probably for the first time in my life, the person I have always wanted to be. Oh, not my body! I sometime despair over my body ... the wrinkles, the baggy eyes, and the cellulite. And often I am taken aback by that old person that lives in my mirror, but I don't agonize over those things for long.

I would never trade my amazing friends, my wonderful life, my loving family for less gray hair or a flatter belly. As I've aged, I've become more kind to myself, and less critical of myself. I've become my own friend. I don't chide myself for eating that extra cookie, or for not making my bed, or for buying that silly cement gecko that I didn't need, but looks so avaunt garde on my patio. I am entitled to be messy, to be extravagant, to smell the flowers. I have seen too many dear friends leave this world too soon; before they understood the great freedom that comes with aging.

Whose business is it if I choose to read or play on the computer until 4 a.m. and then sleep until -- ?

I will dance with myself to those wonderful tunes of the 50's & 60's, (and for some of us the 70's & 80's) and if I, at the same time, wish to weep over a lost love, I will.

I will walk the beach in a swim suit that is stretched over a bulging body, and will dive into the waves with abandon if I choose to, despite the pitying glances from the bikini set.

They, too, will get old (if they're lucky). I know I am sometimes forgetful. But then again, some of life is just as well forgotten and I eventually remember the important things.

Sure, over the years my heart has been broken. How can your heart not break when you lose a loved one, or when a child suffers, or even when a beloved pet gets hit by a car? But broken hearts are what give us strength and understanding and compassion. A heart never broken is pristine and sterile and will never know the joy of being imperfect.

I am so blessed to have lived long enough to have my hair turn gray, and to have my youthful laughs be forever etched into deep grooves on my face. So many have never laughed, and so many have died before their hair could turn silver. I can say "no," and mean it. I can say "yes" and mean it.

As you get older, it is easier to be positive. You care less about what other people think. I don't question myself anymore. I've even earned the right to be wrong.

So , to answer your question, I like being older. It has set me free. I like the person I have become. I am not going to live forever, but while I am still here, I will not waste time lamenting what could have been, or worrying about what will be. And I shall eat dessert every single day...(if I want).

Today, I wish you a day of ordinary miracles.
Love simply.
Love generously.
Care deeply.
Speak kindly.

LIVE WELL - LAUGH OFTEN - LOVE MUCH
—Unknown

Source: Daily email "humorous" subscription, Wednesday's Humor -- 18 Apr 2007; Subject: Old Age.... by Robert E. Karas.

Oh, Such Sorrows

All sorrows can be borne, if you put them into a story.
—Isak Dinesen

It's all I have to bring today (26)

It's all I have to bring today—
This, and my heart beside—
This, and my heart, and all the fields—
And all the meadows wide—
Be sure you count—should I forget—
Some one the sum could tell—
This, and my heart, and all the Bees
Which in the Clover dwell.
—Emily Dickinson

Source: Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac for Tuesday, April 17, 2007.
See also:
⇒ Online biography of Isak Dinesen/Karen Blixen.
⇒ Poets.org's Emily Dickinson.

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Friday, the 13th?

Houston, we've had a problem.
—James A. Lovell, CAPT, USN RET, Monday, April 13, 1970

Source: Wikpedia's Apollo 13.
See also:
⇒ NASA's page devoted to Apollo 13.

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Lee Surrenders to Grant

On April 9, 1865 after four years of Civil War, approximately 630,000 deaths and over 1 million casualties, General Robert E. Lee surrendered the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia to Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant, at the home of Wilmer and Virginia McLean in the rural town of Appomattox Court House, Virginia.
—Appomattox Court House National Historical Park

There is nothing left for me to do but to see Grant, and I would rather die a thousand deaths.
—General Robert E. Lee, CSA

Source: Appomattox Court House National Historical Park.
See also:
⇒ Fordham University's Modern History Sourcebook: Terms of Lee's Surrender At Appomattox, 1865

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