The Purpose Of Life

The purpose of life is not to be happy - but to matter, to be productive, to be useful, to have it make some difference that you have lived at all.

~© Leo Rosten~

Always A Sunrise

Look out, look in. Every day has a sunrise. Wherever you are, like a magic circle, the world is all around you. Everything has a purpose. Every action a reaction. All around you there are happenings.

People, places and ideas, all offering you opportunities. Some to be touched and changed by the very nature of your uniqueness. Others to be left alone for they are not worthy of you. Life is a love affair. Love the people around you, love what you do.

Every day dawns with a sunrise. Always, high days and low days. Blue skies of pleasure, there to enjoy. Celebrate. Dark clouds of storming hurt, however black, they always pass. Today was yesterday’s tomorrow; yesterday is gone. History. And the wonder of yesterday is whatever we didn’t like is behind us. Make a change. Unlimited you. Greatness from within.

There is no such thing as failure, only learning experiences. Some things are easy to learn, others hard. What is easy for one may be hard for another. Lessons to be learned, not burdens to be carried. Everyone is different. Everyone is special. We are all creative. We are all tool makers.

Greatness and humility. Both are you. Leader and follower. Warrior and water carrier. Teacher and student. Champion and cheerleader. Who is to say? One day you are one, the next day you are the other. Pace setters tread the untrodden path. Never given away your sunrise day of action to an excuse.

'When the time is right.' 'When I feel like it.' 'When I've enough money.' Sometimes it’s too easy to justify not taking action. Sometimes you have to say 'no' to your inner voice ...when it tries to keep you too comfortably where you're at. Always a new light. Always a new day. Each day a gift of opportunity. There is always a sunrise even when it is far from our view.

There is always a door. We simply have to seek. There is always a key. We simply have to persist. And, sometimes, we just have to wait a while. Patience does have virtue. There is always a future. The future is hope and the magic is faith.

It begins with you today. Today is a new day. Always. Today our decision to be the person we really want to be. Today our choice of courage to accept what we cannot change. Today our choice to rise to the challenge of changing what we must. These are the choices of happiness.

Always an answer. You simply have to believe. The dawn. The magic of a new day given to us.A love affair. A love affair with today. Today, a gift of opportunity; to laugh; to learn; to achieve; to make someone happy, to be happy. Always a sunrise.

~© Rex Barker~

Pleasantly...

Pleasantly, between the pelting showers, the sunshine gushes down.

~© William Cullen Bryant~

Love Has No Other Desire...

Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself
But if your love and must needs have desires,
Let these be your desires:

To melt and be like a running brook
That sings its melody to the night.
To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
To wake at dawn with a winged heart
And give thanks for another day of loving;
To rest at the noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy;
To return home at eventide with gratitude;
And then to sleep with a prayer
For the beloved in your heart
And a song of praise upon your lips.

~© Kahlil Gibran~

Hehe...I Couldn't Resist

Everybody has a 'gripping stranger' in their lives... a stranger who unwittingly possesses a bizarre hold over you. Maybe it's the kid in cutoffs who mows your lawn or the woman wearing White Shoulders who stamps your book at the library - a stranger who, if you were to come home and find a message from them on your answering machine saying 'Drop everything. I love you. Come away with me now to Florida.' You'd follow them.

~© Douglas Coupland~

To Be Understood

Inside the heart of each and every one of us there is a longing to be understood by someone who really cares. When a person is understood, he or she can put up with almost anything in the world.

~© Rev Ed Hird~

Tears

There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are the messengers of overwhelming grief, of deep contrition, and of unspeakable love.

~© Washington Irving~

Beginning

The moon drops one or two feathers into the fields.
The dark wheat listens.
Be still.
Now.
There they are, the moon's young, trying
Their wings.
Between trees, a slender woman lifts up the lovely shadow
Of her face, and now she steps into the air, now she is gone
Wholly, into the air.
I stand alone by an elder tree, I do not dare breathe
Or move.
I listen.
The wheat leans back toward its own darkness,
And I lean toward mine.

~© James Wright~

Silly

If it's too silly to be said, it can always be sung.

~© Author Unknown~

A Good Heart

A good heart is the sun and the moon; or, rather, the sun and not the moon, for it shines bright and never changes.

~© William Shakespeare~

Sun, Sun

Sun, sun,
divine Ra-Helios,
you delight
the hearts of kings and heroes,
sacred horses neigh to you,
in Heliopolis they sing hymns to you;
when you shine,
lizards crawl out onto rocks
and boys go laughing
to swim in the Nile.
Sun, sun,
I am a pale scribbler,
a library recluse,
but I love you, sun, no less
than a tanned sailor
smelling of fish and salt water,
and no less
than his accustomed heart
rejoices
at your royal rising
from the ocean,
my heart trembles,
when your dusty, but flaming ray
slips
through the narrow window by the ceiling
onto my filled page
and my thin, yellowish hand,
writing out in vermilion
the first letter of a hymn to you,
O Ra-Helios sun!

~© Mikhail Alekseevich Kuzmin~

Love Song

There is a strong wall about me to protect me:
It is built of the words you have said to me.

There are swords about me to keep me safe:
They are the kisses of your lips.

Before me goes a shield to guard me from harm:
It is the shadow of your arms between me and danger.
All the wishes of my mind know your name,
And the white desires of my heart
They are acquainted with you.
The cry of my body for completeness,
That is a cry to you.
My blood beats out your name to me, unceasing, pitiless
Your name, your name.

~© Mary Carolyn Davies~

Had I Not Seen The Sun

Had I not seen the Sun,
I could have borne the shade,

But Light a newer Wilderness,
My Wilderness has made.

~© Emily Dickinson~

Dreaming

I think we dream so we don't have to be apart so long. If we're in each other's dreams, we can play together all night.

~© Bill Watterson, Calvin & Hobbes~

In Honor Of Mothers

This is for the mothers who have sat up all night with sick toddlers in their arms, wiping up barf laced with Oscar Mayer wieners and cherry Kool-Aid saying, "It's okay honey, Mommy's here."

Who have sat in rocking chairs for hours on end soothing crying babies who can't be comforted.

This is for all the mothers who show up at work with spit-up in their hair and milk stains on their blouses and diapers in their purse.

For all the mothers who run carpools and make cookies and sew Halloween costumes. And all the mothers who DON'T.

This is for the mothers who gave birth to babies they'll never see. And the mothers who took those babies and gave them homes.

This is for the mothers whose priceless art collections are hanging on their refrigerator doors.

And for all the mothers who froze their buns on metal bleachers at football or soccer games instead of watching from the warmth of their cars.

And that when their kids asked, "Did you see me, Mom?" they could say, "Of course, I wouldn't have missed it for the world," and mean it.

This is for all the mothers who yell at their kids in the grocery store and swat them in despair when they stomp their feet and scream for ice cream before dinner. And for all the mothers who count to ten instead, but realize how child abuse happens.

This is for all the mothers who sat down with their children and explained all about making babies. And for all the (grand)mothers who wanted to, but just couldn't find the words.

This is for all the mothers who go hungry, so their children can eat.

For all the mothers who read "Goodnight, Moon" twice a night for a year. And then read it again. "Just one more time."

This is for all the mothers who taught their children to tie their shoelaces before they started school. And for all the mothers who opted for Velcro instead.

This is for all the mothers who teach their sons to cook and their daughters to sink a jump shot.

This is for every mother whose head turns automatically when a little voice calls "Mom?" in a crowd, even though they know their own offspring are at home -- or even away at college.

This is for all the mothers who sent their kids to school with stomach aches, assuring them they'd be just FINE once they got there, only to get calls from the school nurse an hour later asking them to please pick them up. Right away.

This is for mothers whose children have gone astray, who can't find the words to reach them.

For all the mothers who bite their lips until they bleed when their 14 year olds dye their hair green.

For all the mothers of the victims of recent school shootings, and the mothers of those who did the shooting.

For the mothers of the survivors, and the mothers who sat in front of their TVs in horror, hugging their child who just came home from school, safely.

This is for all the mothers who taught their children to be peaceful, and now pray they come home safely from a war.

What makes a good Mother anyway? Is it patience? Compassion? Broad hips?

The ability to nurse a baby, cook dinner, and sew a button on a shirt, all at the same time?

Or is it in her heart?

Is it the ache you feel when you watch your son or daughter disappear down the street, walking to school alone for the very first time?

The jolt that takes you from sleep to dread, from bed to crib at 2 A.M. to put your hand on the back of a sleeping baby?

The panic, years later, that comes again at 2 A.M. when you just want to hear their key in the door and know they are safe again in your home?

Or the need to flee from wherever you are and hug your child when you hear news of a fire, a car accident, a child dying?

The emotions of motherhood are universal and so our thoughts are for young mothers stumbling through diaper changes and sleep deprivation... And mature mothers learning to let go.

For working mothers and stay-at-home mothers.

Single mothers and married mothers.

Mothers with money, mothers without.

This is for you all. For all of us...

Hang in there. In the end we can only do the best we can. Tell them every day that we love them. And pray.

One Of The Strongest Motives...

...one of the strongest motives that lead men to art and science is escape from everyday life with its painful crudity and hopeless dreariness, from the fetters of one's own ever-shifting desires. A finely tempered nature longs to escape from the personal life into the world of objective perception and thought.

~© Albert Einstein~

Within You...

Within you I lose myself...
Without you I find myself
Wanting to be lost again.

~© Author Unknown~

Let Us Be Grateful

Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.

~© Marcel Proust~

Far Away There In The Sun...

Far away there in the sun are my highest aspirations I will look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and follow where they lead.

~© Louisa May Alcott~

'Tis The Truth

Sometimes, when one person is missing, the whole world seems depopulated.

~© Lamartine~

Friends

I don't have a lot of friends. They are acquaintances mostly. People that pass through my life, making a minimum of difference to me. But, I'm lucky. Luckier then most really. You see I have a few people in my life who mean the world to me. People who make everything seem so much better. A few people who I wouldn't be who I am today without. These people have changed me and for the better. I'd die for them in an instant, but more importantly, I'd live for them.

~© Jacqueline Kelly McBride~

Forever I Will

As I sit here
I search my heart
For the words to express my inner most thoughts
My hand glides across the paper
In short strokes
It all seems so trivial and ordinary
Compared to what I feel for you
I crumple the paper and start over
Seeking for "that" word
That will say it all
That word that when you read it
You will instantly know how I feel
Its so close
I can almost touch it
Its on the tip of my tongue
But I cannot find it
No matter how hard I search
It escapes me
I will have to be a thief
Stealing age old words
Shared by millions
They are not original
But as I think of them
It feels as if I created them
I treasure you as a person
And I cherish you as a soul
I long and desire to hold you near
For as many days as God allows me to breathe
I immediately realize that my last thought as I write this
Was the same as my very first
I started this letter because I love you
I sought for words to express that
But decided to choose
The three very words
That have been chosen for centuries
They are simply
"I love you"
And I do
And
Forever I will!

~© OTB June 20, 2003~

I Wish So To Live...

I wish so to live as to derive my satisfactions & inspirations from the commonest events, so that what my senses hourly perceive, my daily walk, the conversation of my neighbors may inspire me, & I may dream of no heaven but that which lies about me.

~© Henry David Thoreau~

Just Because

I'd sell my soul for you, babe-
For money to burn with you.
I'd give you all and have none, babe-
Just-a, just-a, just-a, just-a
To have you here by me...

~Lyrics from "Rebel Yell"-Billy Idol~

Finally...

Finally we shall place the Sun himself at the center of the Universe. All this is suggested by the systematic procession of events and the harmony of the whole Universe, if only we face the facts, as they say, 'with both eyes open'.

~© Nicolaus Copernicus~