Wisdom, Choices and Journeys

"Does that mean," asked Mack, "that all roads will lead to you?"
"Not at all,", smiled Jesus as he reached for the door handle to the shop. "Most roads don't lead anywhere. What it does mean is that I will travel any road to find you." (WM. Paul Young, The Shack)


"We don't receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us." ― Marcel Proust
 

"We travel the world in search of what we need and return home to find it. " ― George Moore

Everybody talks about wanting to change things and help and fix, but ultimately all you can do is fix yourself. And that's a lot. Because if you can fix yourself, it has a ripple effect. ― Rob Reiner

Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, "I will try again tomorrow."  ― Mary Ann Radmacher

“The future is not a result of choices among alternative paths offered by the present, but a place that is created--created first in the mind and will, created next in activity. The future is not some place we are going to, but one we are creating.” - unknown

“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” ― Aristotle, Metaphysics  

“Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power. If you realize that you have enough, you are truly rich.” ― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

“Learn from the mistakes of others. You can never live long enough to make them all yourself.”― Groucho Marx 

“Not all those who wander are lost.”

― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring 

“Love is what we are born with. Fear is what we learn. The spiritual journey is the unlearning of fear and prejudices and the acceptance of love back in our hearts. Love is the essential reality and our purpose on earth. To be consciously aware of it, to experience love in ourselves and others, is the meaning of life. Meaning does not lie in things. Meaning lies in us.” ― Marianne Williamson 

“From this point forth, we shall be leaving the firm foundation of fact and journeying together through the murky marshes of memory into thickets of wildest guesswork.”― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince 

"We are like sculptors, constantly carving out of others the image we long for, need, love or desire, often against reality, against their benefit, and always, in the end, a disappointment, because it does not fit them.”
― Anaïs Nin

“Waiting is a dry desert between where we are and where we want to be. (Finding My Way Home)” ― Henri J.M. Nouwen

Sometimes someone says something really small, and it just fits right into this empty place in your heart.  ~From the television show My So-Called Life

Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.  (Anaïs Nin)

  

As long as I keep running about asking: "Do you love me? Do you really love me?" I give all power to the voices of the world and put myself in bondage because the world is filled with "ifs." The world says: "Yes, I love you if you are good-looking, intelligent, and wealthy. I love you if you have a good education, a good job, and good connections. I love you if you produce much, sell much, and buy much." There are endless "ifs" hidden in the world's love. These "ifs" enslave me, since it is impossible to respond adequately to all of them. The world's love is and always will be conditional. As long as I keep looking for my true self in the world of conditional love, I will remain "hooked" to the world-trying, failing,and trying again. It is a world that fosters addictions because what it offers cannot satisfy the deepest craving of my heart.” ― Henri J.M. Nouwen



    

Miscellaneous Favourites

"Does that mean," asked Mack, "that all roads will lead to you?"
"Not at all,", smiled Jesus as he reached for the door handle to the shop. "Most roads don't lead anywhere. What it does mean is that I will travel any road to find you." (WM. Paul Young, The Shack)

You can clutch the past so tightly to your chest that it leaves you too full to embrace the present.-Jan Glidewell

 "You don't think your way into a new kind of living. You live your way into a new kind of thinking." (Henri Nouwen)

When you don't like a thing, change it. If you can't change it, change the way you think about it.  (Maya Angelou)

 (I used to hate doing dishes until I read this on a plaque on my aunt's kitchen wall)

Thank God For Dirty Dishes
Author Unknown

Thank God for dirty dishes;
They have a tale to tell.
While others may go hungry,
We're eating very well
With home, health, and happiness,
I shouldn't want to fuss;
For by the stack of evidence,
God's been very good to us.

 "We live in a world of disposable things but you are not one of them. You are irreplaceable, one of a kind and there will never be another you. You are not disposable. Do not let anyone tell you differently" (unknown)

 

"just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly" (anonymous)

"the secret to having it all is knowing that you already do" (unknown)

"Don't ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive." (Howard Thurman)

“If there is to be peace in the world,
There must be peace in the nations.
If there is to be peace in the nations,
There must be peace in the cities.
If there is to be peace in the cities,
There must be peace between neighbors.
If there is to be peace between neighbors,
There must be peace in the home.
If there is to be peace in the home,
There must be peace in the heart.”
― Lao Tzu

“When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.”

― Henri J.M. Nouwen, The Road to Daybreak: A Spiritual Journey  

Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.”
― Anaïs Nin, The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 1: 1931-1934 

Today You are You,

that is truer than true

there is no one alive

who is Youer than You

(Dr Seus)