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WORDS OF
WISDOM
Live
A Life That Matters
Ready or not, someday it will all come to an end.
There will be no more sunrises, no minutes, hours or days.
All the things you collected, whether treasured or forgotten, will pass
to someone else.
Your wealth, fame and temporal power will shrivel to
irrelevance.
It will not matter what you owned or what you were owed.
Your grudges, resentments, frustrations, and jealousies will finally
disappear.
So, too, your hopes, ambitions, plans, and to-do lists will expire.
The wins and losses that once seemed so important will fade away.
It won't matter where you came from, or on what side of the tracks you
lived, at the end.
It won't matter whether you were beautiful or brilliant.
Even your gender and skin color will be irrelevant.
So what will matter?
How will the value of your days be measured?
What will matter is not what you bought, but what
you built; not what you got, but what you gave.
What will matter is not your success,
but your significance.
What will matter is not what you learned,
but what you taught.
What will matter
Is every act of integrity,
compassion, courage or sacrifice that enriched empowered or encouraged others to emulate
your example.
What will matter is not your competence,
but your character.
What will matter is not how many people you knew, but how many will feel a lasting loss when you're gone.
What will matter is not your memories,
but the memories that live in those who loved you.
What will matter is how long you will be remembered,
by whom and for what.
Living a life that matters doesn't happen by accident.
It's not a matter of circumstance but of choice.
Choose to live a life that matters.
Author
Unknown
THE INVITATION
It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living.
I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your
hearts longing.
It doesn’t interest me how old you are.
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dreams,
for the adventure of being alive.
It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon.
I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow if your have
been opened by life’s betrayals of have become shriveled and closed from fear
of further pain! I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own,
without moving to hide it or fade it or fix it. I want to know if you can be
with joy, mine or your own; if you can dance with wildness and let ecstasy fill
you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, be
realistic, or to remember the limitations of being a human.
It doesn’t interest me if the story you’re telling me is true.
I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself, if you can
bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul. I want to know if
you can be faithful and therefore be trustworthy. I want to know if you can see
beauty even if it’s not pretty every day, and if you can source you life from
Gods presence. I want to know if you can live with failure, your and mine, and
still stand on the edge of a lake and shout to the silver of the full moon,
“Yes!”
It doesn’t interest me to know where you live or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up after the night of grief and despair, weary and
bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done for the children.
It doesn’t interest me who you are, how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me and not
shrink back.
It doesn’t interest me where or what of with whom you have studied.
I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away.
I want to know if you can be alone with yourself, and if you truly like the
company you keep in the empty moments.
Oriah Mountain Dreamer, Indian Elder
MESSAGE FROM
THE HOPI ELDERS
There is a river following now very fast. It is so great and swift, that there
are those who will be afraid.
They will try to hold on to the shore, they are
being torn apart and will suffer greatly.
Know that the river has its
destination.
The elders say we must let go of the shore, push off into the
middle of the river, keep your heads above the water.
And I say, see who is
there with you and celebrate.
At this time in history, we are to take nothing
personally, least of all ourselves,
for the moment that we do, our spiritual
growth and journey come to a halt.
The time of the lone wolf is over. Gather
yourselves.
Banish the word “struggle” from you attitude and vocabulary.
All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.
We are the ones we have been waiting for.
Hopi Elders
THE
FINAL ANALYSIS
People
are often unreasonable and self-centered.
Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people might accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Be
kind anyway.
If you are successful you will win false friends and some true enemies.
Be
successful anyway.
If
you are honest and frank, people may cheat you.
Be
honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building someone may destroy overnight.
Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous.
Be
happy anyway.
The
good that you do today, people will often forget tomorrow.
Do
good anyway.
Give
the world the best you have and it may never be enough.
Give the world your best anyway.
You see in the final analysis it is between you and God.
It was never between you and them anyway.
~Mother Teresa~
OUR
DEEPEST FEAR
Our deepest fear is not that we are
inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness
that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am I
to be brilliant, gorgeous,
talented and fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small doesn’t serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking
so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.
We were born to make manifest
the glory of God within us.
It is not just in some of us; it’s in everyone.
And, as we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other people
permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear,
our presence automatically liberates others.
Marianne Williamson
TEACHING
No
man can reveal to you aught but which already lies half asleep in the dawning of
your knowledge.
The
teacher who walks in the shadow of the temple, among his followers,
gives not of
his wisdom but rather of his faith and his lovingness.
If
he is indeed wise he does not bid you enter the house of his wisdom, but rather
leads you to the threshold of your own mind.
The
astronomer may speak to you of his understanding of space, but he cannot give
you his understanding.
The
musician may sing to you of rhythm which is in all space,
but he cannot give you
the ear which arrests the rhythm, nor the voice that echoes it.
And he who is versed in the science of numbers can tell of the regions of
weight and measure, but he cannot conduct you thither.
For the vision of one man lends not its wings to another man.
And even as each one of you stands alone in God’s knowledge,
so must
each of you be alone in his knowledge of God and in his understanding of the
earth.
KAHIL
GIBRAN
YOUR
CHILDREN ARE NOT YOUR CHILDREN
They
are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you.
And
though they are with you they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts.
For
they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls.
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit,
not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
KAHIL
GIBRAN
THE
BEGINNING OF A NEW DAY
This
is the beginning of a New Day
You
have been given the day to use as you will
You
can waste it or use it for good.
What
you do today is important because you are exchanging a day of your life for it.
When
tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever;
In
its place is something you left behind;
Let
it be something good.
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