“I want freedom for the full expression of my personality”.
-Gandhi
Hello My Lovely,
I was thinking about you and how you used to enjoy the quotes I once posted and I figured that if you appreciated them, you might also like some of my favourite snippets of inspirational literature too. As you’ve probably noticed, I like the older stuff mostly. Reading these little gems can make the difference between having a so-so day and a great day, so here’s to many more great days for all of us, this blog is for you…
“An unexamined life is not worth living”
-Socrates
“Who am I, and why am I here?” – this is something I’ve been asking myself for many years. If you do this as well, then maybe we could explore a little together? Perhaps you’ve read a great book at just the right time when you needed the information in it, or maybe you saw a good quote that spoke volumes to you and want to share it with everyone else? Let’s face it there’s doom and gloom, here-say and gossip in abundance, it’s got ample coverage elsewhere, so I’d like to make a little space here where we can take a moment from our day to think bigger and better thoughts – to encourage each other and leave behind all the negativity for a while. We’re all teachers and learners in life and even if there are no gold stars, there’s certainly no need for anyone to feel either stupid or clever, so let’s just walk side by side and see where the journey takes us?
“Friends have all things in common”.
-Plato
…At age 16 I found a typed piece of paper in a drawer at work, left behind by the person who held the post before me. The first time I read it, it made so much sense to me that I kept it in my purse for many years after, taking it out to read when I felt sad or dejected or lacking inspiration. Around ten years later I found it in a book I read and since then I’ve bought more copies of that one book than any other, to give to friends old and new. It’s one of my all time favourite books to this day and this beautiful work is called ‘The Prophet’ by Khalil Gibran. The section I carried around with me was called ‘Friendship’.
Friendship
“And a youth said, “Speak to us of Friendship.”
Your friend is your needs answered.
He is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving.
And he is your board and your fireside.
For you come to him with your hunger, and you seek him for peace.
When your friend speaks his mind you fear not the “nay” in your own mind, nor do you withhold the “ay.”
And when he is silent your heart ceases not to listen to his heart;
For without words, in friendship, all thoughts, all desires, all expectations are born and shared, with joy that is unacclaimed.
When you part from your friend, you grieve not;
For that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence, as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain.
And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.
For love that seeks aught but the disclosure of its own mystery is not love but a net cast forth: and only the unprofitable is caught.
And let your best be for your friend.
If he must know the ebb of your tide, let him know its flood also.
For what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill?
Seek him always with hours to live.
For it is his to fill your need, but not your emptiness.
And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures.
For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.”
-Khalil Gibran
‘The Prophet’
… And then years later when my kids were small I discovered Louise Hay and a book she wrote called ‘You Can Heal Your Life’. Louise apparently was cured of cancer by changing her diet, lifestyle and most importantly – her thinking. One of my close friends had died of lung cancer just prior to my reading this book and I only wished I could have read it sooner and made a gift of it to her. Louise has done some wonderful work with people suffering from all kinds of serious illness, (for which she coined the term ‘dis-ease’). She’s done some great work with people affected by aids (she never uses capital letters for the illness and refuses to give it that much power).
“Every thought we think is creating our future”.
-Louise L. Hay
When I discovered this book I’d been very troubled, without knowing the reason why and had decided to go and see a healer. She turned out to be a lively 92 year old woman, who was full of positivity and Love, and she gave me the cassette of a relaxation/meditation that was companion to the above mentioned book. I listened to it at every opportunity because I knew it helped, even though I didn’t understand some of what Louise was saying. What I did know was that it felt good to hear it and that was enough for me. From listening to the cassette I wanted to read the book and soon began working with the ideas in it… it wasn’t long before my life was upside down. It seems that if we want Peace, that sometimes there’s a storm before the Calm, but it was a price that I still consider worth paying. In the book Louise quoted a line from ‘A Course In Miracles’ and that one line made me think deeply enough to go on to read the Course, it was:
“Would you rather be right, or happy?”.
-A Course In Miracles
I know what I’d choose, although I do have to keep reminding myself though 
. Here is a light-hearted video a friend told us about (Thanks Doug!), ‘A Crash Course In Miracles’, which I enjoyed watching. It’s a fun way to be introduced to the Principles outlining the Course:
What Khalil Gibran, Louise Hay and The Course (A Course In Miracles – also known as ACIM for short) suggest is that we ALL need more Love in our lives.
“One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life:
That word is Love”.
-Sophocles
In talking about The Course, I can’t not mention the beautiful passage written by Marianne Williamson, that I first heard quoted a long, long time ago (only it was mistakenly attributed to Nelson Mandela at the time). This is an excerpt from Marianne’s book ‘A Return to Love’:
“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 does not serve the world.
There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other
people won’t feel insecure around you.
We were born to make manifest the glory of
God that is within us.
It’s 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”.
So if you like what you’ve just read, please comment away, let’s discuss – and you don’t even have to give your real name if you don’t want to, it’s all up to you. Either way I look forward to hearing from you about this subject….
“All our progress is an unfolding, like a vegetable bud. You have first an instinct, then an opinion, then a knowledge as the plant has root, bud, and fruit. Trust the instinct to the end, though you can render no reason”.
-Emerson
Love and Respect to each and every one of you,
Soo x:)
PS: Each of the authors mentioned in this blog has their name as a clickable link, should you wish to check them out further.
I read this poem today for the first time and wanted to add it to this post:
Thoughts Are Things
I hold it true that thoughts are things;
They’re endowed with bodies and breath and wings;
And that we send them forth to fill
The world with good results, or ill.
That we call our secret thought
Speeds forth to earth’s remotest spot,
Leaving its blessings or its woes
Like tracks behind it as it goes.
We build our future, thought by thought,
For good or ill, yet know it not.
Yet, so the universe was wrought.
Thought is another name for fate;
Choose, then thy destiny and wait,
For love brings love and hate brings hate.
Henry Van Dyke
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