Grow Through Life

One of my favourite principles is: "Some people go through life and others grow through life."  Recognize one way you are growing – or want to grow – in your life right now.

Bloom Where You're Planted

"And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom."

~Anais Nin

Do What You Love

Shift Happens!

Daily Inspiration 25 July 2012

To embrace the purpose of your life you have to
"let yourself be silently drawn by the
stronger pull of what you really love",
said Rumi.
What does that mean to you today?

To Jerry

 Living in the Moment

Living in the “not now” is a chief cause of unhappiness.
The strain of not being present in your own life
is simply too great. When you miss out on the
present, you miss out on so much.
No now; no life.

Happiness Is. . .

Embracing JOY!

Just for today, don’t go to the “school of hard knocks” again.
Instead, enroll in a class on dance, joy, play,
forgiveness, letting go, or new beginnings.

Have a great day in every way!

Thinking of you. . . with sunshine and smiles! 

Happiness Is. . .

What is your definition of a happy life? Are you living it?
Think carefully on this because your definition of
happiness will influence every other significant
decision in your life.

 Happiness Is. . . The key to happiness is not to make yourself into a different person; it is to let yourself be even more
of who you really are.

 

Happiness Is. . .

What is your definition of a happy life? Are you living it?
Think carefully on this because your definition of
happiness will influence every other significant
decision in your life.

Interesting Trivia About Famous Folks

Today is the day, in 1845, that Henry David Thoreau moved to a cabin on Walden Pond (books by this author). Ralph Waldo Emerson owned some land near Concord, Massachusetts, and let Thoreau build a cabin there. He stayed for two years, two months, and two days, all the while keeping a journal. He published it as a book, which he called Walden; or Life in the Woods, in 1854. In it, he wrote, "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived." But he wasn't exactly living apart from civilization, nor practicing pure self-reliance. Concord was only a mile and a half away, and he often walked into town. He worked part time as a surveyor, and his mother usually sent him back to the cabin with some home cooking.

Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass was first published on this date in 1855 (books by this author). The first edition consisted of 12 poems and was published anonymously. Whitman helped set the type himself. He kept adding to the collection and, eight editions and 36 years later, the final "death-bed edition" contained almost 400 poems. The first edition received several glowing — and anonymous — reviews in New York newspapers. Most of them were written by Whitman himself. One such review read, "An American bard at last!" But there were legitimate reviews too; one by popular columnist Fanny Fern called the collection daring and fresh. Emerson felt it was "the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom America has yet contributed." But not everyone loved it; many called it filthy, disgusting, or repulsive, and John Greenleaf Whittier threw his copy into the fire.

It was on this date in 1931, at the Kensington Registry Office in London, that James Joyce and Nora Barnacle were wed, after living together for 26 years (books by this author). They had had their first date in 1904, and had only been dating a few months when Joyce decided that he wanted to leave Ireland to live in Europe. He couldn't face going without her, so even though he had only tenuous prospects, he plucked up the courage to ask her to come along. To his amazement, she agreed. The next night, he wrote to her, "The fact that you can choose to stand beside me in this way in my hazardous life fills me with great pride and joy." They lived all over Europe, had two children, and were usually broke — until Joyce published Ulysses in 1922. It was a financial success, and Joyce wanted to make sure that Nora and their children could inherit the royalties, so they finally tied the knot.