#719 A day spent

A day spent without the sight or sound of beauty, the contemplation of mystery, or the search for truth or perfection is a poverty-stricken day; and a succession of such days is fatal to human life. ~ Lewis Mumford
 
- Where have you recently experienced beauty?
- Mystery?
- Truth and perfection?
- How were you enriched?

#718 Life like a river

I would love to live like a river flows, carried by the surprise of its own unfolding.   ~John O'Donohue

- How is your life unfolding... like a ruler, curtain, fireworks, shower, sunshine, anvil and hammer....other?
- What is desirable about a life unfolding like a river?
- What positive results may be achieved? 

#717 Innovating, creating

Innovation opportunities do not come with the tempest but with the rustling of the breeze.   ~Peter Drucker

The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect, but by the play instinct arising from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the object it loves.   ~Carl Jung


- How do you nurture your creative side?
- To what extent do you agree that creativity is initiated in subtle, playful ways?
- How do these quotes inspire you in your relationships with children? with your associations at work and with those in the community?

#716 Making a difference

I will act as if what I do will make a difference.  ~William James

- To what extent are your actions based upon a consideration of quality and contribution?
- How might this quote become part of a mantra for living?

#715 Love light

Love must be as much a light, as it is a flame. ~ Henry David Thoreau

- Who has brought light into your life?
- Besides passion, how can you bring hope and inspiration to several people whom you love?

#714 Success brings virtue

The common idea that success spoils people by making them vain, egotistic and self-complacent is erroneous; on the contrary it makes them, for the most part, humble, tolerant and kind.    ~ W. Somerset Maugham

- What is inspiring about Maugham's quote?
- When did you personally feel empowered in a positive way with a success?
- How can you try to help someone else to feel successful?

#713 A healthy community

A healthy social life is found only, when in the mirror of each soul the whole community finds its reflection, and when in the whole community the virtue of each one is living. ~ Rudolph Steiner

- How healthy is your social life?
- How healthy is the whole community in fostering the virtues of each?
- What steps can you take to improve the community life for yourself and for others?

#712 A candle or a mirror?

Life is for each person a solitary cell whose walls are mirrors. ~ Eugene O'Neill

There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it. ~ Edith Wharton

- How solitary do you feel?
- What do you emanate to the world?
- Are you more a candle or a mirror?

#711 The big questions

Philosophers wrestling with the big questions of life are no longer alone. Now scientists are struggling to define life as they manipulate it, look for it on other planets, and even create it in test tubes.  ~Seth Borenstein

- What are several of the big questions?
- What answers (partial...?) have you arrived at for them?
- To what extent has science helped you to arrive at an understanding and appreciation?

#710 Nurture your self-image

Your self-image controls your performance; see yourself as confident and in complete control.  ~Brian Tracy

- How do you see yourself?
- What steps can you take to develop confidence and poise?
- What new possibilities may result?

#709 Success

Can success change the human mechanism so completely between one dawn and another? Can it make one feel taller, more alive, handsomer, uncommonly gifted and indomitably secure with the certainty that this is the way life will always be? It can and it does. ~ Moss Hart

- When have you experienced a personal success?
- How did it make you feel?
- How can you try to contribute to the success of others so that they may feel rejuvenated?

#708 To come alive

Don’t ask yourself what the world needs, ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that.  Because what the world needs is people who are alive.   ~Howard Thurman

- What does the world need?
- What makes you come alive?
- How can your skills and enthusiasm help to achieve a small measure of good to those around you?

#707 I have had my hour

Happy the man, and happy he alone,
He who can call today his own:
He who, secure within, can say,
Tomorrow do thy worst, for I have lived today.
Be fair or foul or rain or shine
The joys I have possessed, in spite of fate, are mine.
Not Heaven itself upon the past has power,
But what has been, has been, and I have had my hour. ~ Horace

- How secure are you within?
- To what extent have you lived your life to the fullest with each passing day?
- What can you say about your hour?

#706 Short is good

Good things, when short, are twice as good.  ~Baltasar Gracian,

All pleasantry should be short; and it might even be as well were the serious short also.  ~Voltaire

- When have you been in a tedious situation?
- How can you incorporate these thoughts in your daily activities?
- How valuable are these thoughts for leaders?

#705 Acceptance of life

I like trees because they seem more resigned to the way they have to live than other things do.
Willa Cather

- What tree amidst difficult circumstances comes to your mind after reading this quote?
- How resigned/ accepting are you to the conditions of your life?
- How might you, like the tree, gain strength and beauty amidst the challenges?

#704 My simple religion

This is my simple religion.  There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy.  Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.   ~Dalai Lama


- To what extent do you agree with the Dalai Lama's simple religion?
- How can a philosophy of kindness enrich your life?
- How can you enrich and vitalize your heart?

#703 Who are you?

Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation. ~ Oscar Wilde
 
Always be a first rate version of yourself and not a second rate version of someone else. ~ Judy Garland
 
Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one's definition of your life, but define yourself. ~ Harvey Fierstein

You are you; now isn't that pleasant?  ~ Dr. Seuss 

- To what extent is your identity tied to societal values and mores?
- Why is it often difficult to express one's authentic self? 
- How can you resolve to pleasantly be more of yourself?

#702 Changing yourself

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself. ~Leo Tolstoy
 
- What changes would you like to make to the world?
- To what extent do you think yourself an exemplary person?
- Heeding Tolstoy's advice, what could you begin changing about yourself?

#701 Press Pause

What is this life if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare?  ~ William Henry Davies

Sometimes you need to press pause to let everything sink in. ~ Sebastion Vettel

It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.  ~ Confucius 

- How often do you provide yourself with the opportunity to stop and wonder?
- Why is pressing the pause button often difficult?
- Think of ways to enjoy the change of pace several times a day.

#700 Tell about it

Instructions for living a life.
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.  ~ Mary Oliver

- What instructions would you have for living a life?
- How well do you measure up with Oliver's instructions?
- What recent experience would you like to share with someone?

#699 Zen lies within

The only Zen you find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there.  ~Robert M. Pirsig

- Where do you look for meaning?
- To what extent can you find meaning within yourself?
- To what extent can you find personal peace and contentment within yourself?


'Zen: A Japanese school of Mahayana Buddhism emphasizing the value of meditation and intuition rather than ritual worship or study of scriptures.'

#698 To feel that we exist

Oh, for a life of sensations rather than of thoughts. ~ John Keats

Acting is a total physical, emotional sensation. ~ Armand Assante

The great art of life is sensation, to feel that we exist, even in pain. ~ Lord Byron


- What sensations have you experienced recently?
- Do you prefer living more with sensations or thoughts?
- How do you cultivate the former?

#697 Resignation

I like trees because they seem more resigned to the way they have to live than other things do.
Willa Cather

- What tree comes to your mind after reading this quote?
- How resigned/ accepting are you to the conditions of your life?
- How might you, like the tree, gain strength and beauty amidst the challenges?

#696 Write what you love

Write only what you love, and love what you write. The key word is love. You have to get up in the morning and write something you love, something to live for.    ~Ray Bradbury

- What writing or other activity do you love to do?
- What energizes your actions and thoughts?
- How can you focus your life a little more to pursue occasionally what you love?

#695 Lightning does the work

Thunder is good, thunder is impressive, but it is lightning that does the work.  ~ Mark Twain

- How much thunder do you emanate?
- How much lightning?
- Think of some lightning which you may initiate next?

#695 What we give

From what we get, we can make a living; what we give, however, makes a life. ~ Arthur Ashe

- In what areas lie your giving?  (family, friends, work, community, ..)
- Think of an example of recent giving and how it made you feel.
- Where lies your next opportunity for giving?