#750 Yes, you can

If you can conceive it and believe it, you can achieve it.  ~ Jesse Jackson

- What do you believe in quite strongly?
- What action may be initiated out of this belief?
- What steps can you take to achieve it?

#749 Blissful melancholy

Melancholy is the pleasure of being sad.   ~Victor Hugo

- When have you experienced melancholy recently?
- What positive elements may arise from melancholy?
 

#748 Upside of failure

Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.   ~Winston Churchill

I've failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.   ~Michael Jordan 

- When have you failed?
- How persistent are you in moving on from failure?
- What successes have you enjoyed as a result of your tenacity?

#747 Change the world

However much concerned I was at the problem of misery in the world, I never let myself get lost in broodings over it. I always held firmly to the thought that each one of us can do a little to bring some portion of it to an end.  ~Dr. Albert Schweitzer

My hope still is to leave the world a bit better than when I got here.  ~ Jim Henson

My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world.  ~ Jack Layton

- What little portion have you done to relieve misery?
- What have you done to make the world a bit better?
- How loving, hopeful, and optimistic are you?

#746 Letting go

Knowledge is learning something new every day. Wisdom is letting go of something every day.  ~ Zen proverb

- What have you learned recently?
- What have you let go?
- Why is letting go an important element for personal peace?

#745 Experience of the butterfly

I embrace emerging experience.  I participate in discovery.  I am a butterfly.  I am not a butterfly collector.  I want the experience of the butterfly.  ~ William Stafford

- When have you felt excited by a new experience, a new discovery?
- Why is a butterfly collector of life not desirable?
- Toward what new experiences could you move?

#744 Only with the heart

It is strange how often a heart must be broken before the years can make it wise.  ~ Sara Teasdale

Hearts Live By Being Wounded.  ~ Oscar Wilde

- What wisdom does one learn from a wounded heart?
- Why is there a certain vitality about brokenness? 
- What specific conclusions have you reached about being wounded emotionally?

#743 Keep Moving

Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up.
It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed.
Every morning a lion wakes up.
It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death.
It doesn't matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle.
When the sun comes up, you better start running. ~ Thomas L. Friedman

Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don't quit.  ~ Conrad Hilton

- It's survival of the fittest in nature.  To what extent does the principle apply in our lives?
- How would you describe success and effective action?
- What activities are you involved in which keep you moving?

#742 Economize or agonize

Beware of little expenses.  A small leak will sink a great ship.  ~ Benjamin Franklin

Cannot people realize how large an income is thrift?  ~ Cicero

Thrift is not an affair of the pocket, but an affair of character.  ~ S. W. Straus

Industry, thrift, and self-control are not sought because they create wealth, but because they create character.  ~ Calvin Coolidge

Be thrifty, but no covetous.  ~ George Herbert

He who does not economize will have to agonize.  ~ Confucius

- How vulnerable are you to little expenses?
- In what ways do thrift promote freedom?
- Where can you take steps to economize?

#741 The wise choice of many alternatives

The wise man (person) will always reflect concerning the quality, not the quantity of life.  ~ Seneca

Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives.” ~William A. Foster

 Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected. ~Steve Jobs

Quality means doing it right when no one is listening.  ~ Henry Ford

The world has changed from quality to quantity, and so have we.  ~ Santosh Kalwar

Quality, relevant content can't be spotted by an algorithm. You can't subscribe to it. You need people - actual human beings - to create or curate it.  ~ Kristina Halverston

- How much do you crave quantity?
- How much do you cultivate quality? 
- Where can you bring more quality into your life?

#740 The Best Remedy

If a small thing has the power to make you angry, does that not indicate something about your size?  ~ Sydney J. Harris

He who angers you conquers you.  ~ Elizabeth Kenny

Don't carry a grudge.  While you're carrying the grudge, the other guy's out dancing.  ~ Buddy Hackett

Malice drinks one-half of its own poison.  ~ Seneca 

People who fly into a rage always make a bad landing.  ~ Will Rogers

The best remedy for a short temper is a long walk.  ~ Jacqueline Schiff

- How often do you get angry or carry a grudge?
- To what extent are such feelings unproductive?
- How can you minimize these feelings?

#739 Flower footnotes and asterisks

A morning-glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books.  ~ Walt Whitman

I'd rather have roses on my table than diamonds on my neck. - Emma Goldman

Bloom where you are planted. - Mary Engelbreit

I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers.  ~ Claude Monet  (Monet's painting above)
   
Flowers are restful to look at. They have neither emotions nor conflicts. ~ Sigmund Freud

The temple bell stops but I still hear the sound coming out of the flowers.  ~ Basho

Perfumes are the feelings of flowers.  ~ Heinrich Heine

With daffodils mad footnotes for the spring, and asters purple asterisks for autumn.  ~ Conrad Aiken

- What are your favorite flowers and places to enjoy them?
- How often do you stop to 'smell the roses'?
- How can flowers and trees and natural places help to rejuvenate you?

#738 Giving all to the present

Life lived for tomorrow will always be just a day away from being realized.  ~ Leo Buscaglia

The past is a ghost, the future a dream and all we ever have is now.  ~ Bill Cosby

Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present.  ~ Albert Camus

- How much do anticipated events and dreams occupy your thoughts?
- To what extent is your present day compromised as a result?
- What can you do to add focus to your daily life?

#737 A gift of your life

Make a gift of your life and lift all...by being kind, considerate, forgiving, and compassionate at all times, in all places, and under all conditions, with everyone as well as yourself. This is the greatest gift anyone can give.   ~ David R. Hawkins

Never look down on anyone unless you're helping him up.  ~ Jesse Jackson 

- To what extent do you try to be kind, considerate, forgiving, and compassionate at all times?
- Why is this goal often very challenging?
- How can you resolve to be a little kinder to the challenged people around you?

#736 The choice is up to us

A lot of energy is wasted in adversarial relationships.  Unless you are in a life or death situation, it's often better to disengage from someone who is set against you rather than try to defeat or outdo them.  Your time and effort is better spent finding and working with those who are aligned to your purpose.  ~ Isabel Parlett

Every conflict we face in life is rich with positive and negative potential. It can be a source of inspiration, enlightenment, learning, transformation, and growth–or rage, fear, shame, entrapment, and resistance. The choice is not up to our opponents, but to us, and our willingness to face and work through them.   ~ Kenneth Cloke and Joan Goldsmith

- How much time do you waste in adversarial relationships?
- To what extent are you successful in finding and working with people aligned to your purpose?
- What steps can you take to face conflicts with a positive mindset and with positive results?

#735 The Pearl chain of all virtues

Moderation is the silken string running through the pearl chain of all virtues. - Joseph Hall
 
Moderation is the last refuge for the unimaginative.  ~ Oscar Wilde

Moderation in all things, especially moderation.  ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Moderation. Small helpings. Sample a little bit of everything. These are the secrets of happiness and good health. ~ Julia Child

Moderation is the center wherein all philosophies, both human and divine, meet. - Benjamin Disraeli
 
A reasonable man needs only to practice moderation to find happiness. - Johann von Goethe
 
All the world is a birthday cake; so take a piece but not too much. ~ George Harrison

- To what extent do you uphold moderation as a guiding principle?
- What several aspects of your lifestyle illustrate this value?
- How can moderation help to achieve happiness?

#734 Looking for something

All my life I have lived and behaved very much like the sandpiper — just running down the edges of different countries and continents, looking for something. ~ Elizabeth Bishop

- What places have you visited and what did you find?
- This quote may also suggest metaphorical places.  What 'places' have you visited and what did you find?
-  To what extent is your life still filled with longing?
- How productive is yearning for something?

#733 Learning and change

Change is the end result of all true learning.  ~ Leo Buscaglia

- Think of several changes brought into your life with some enlightening learning.
- What new frontier of learning interests you?
- How might this pursuit result in positive change?

#732 The awakening

I'm not a teacher but an awakener. ~ Robert Frost

- What teacher awakened the learning within you?
- What does this metaphor suggest about the ideal in education?
- How can you be an awakener to someone in your life?

#731 On learning and adapting

The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn. ~ Alvin Toffler

- What possible previous learning in your life should be unlearned?
- What possible lesson would benefit from relearning?
- How active are you in your learning growth?

#730 Eternal landscape

All my life I have lived and behaved very much like the sandpiper — just running down the edges of different countries and continents, looking for something. ~ Elizabeth Bishop

There is an eternal landscape, a geography of the soul; we search for the outlines all our lives. ~ Josephine Hart

- For what are you searching?
- What outlines have appeared?
- To what extent is your quest empowering and fulfilling?

#729 Wish for what you are

Do not wish to be anything but what you are, and try to be that perfectly. ~ St. Francis De Sales

- To what extent do you wish to be like someone else?
- Think about five of your unique qualities and talents.
- How can you try to perfect several of these characteristics within you?

#728 Deep springs of life

Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind; it is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees; it is a matter of the will, quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions; it is the freshness of the deep springs of life.  ~Samuel Ullman

- How youthful are you?
- How much will and desire, imagination, emotional vigor do you have?
- How enthusiastic are you to enjoy the daily flowing springs?

#727 Thorn of experience

One thorn of experience is worth a whole wilderness of warning.  ~ James Russell Lowell

And if my heart be scarred and burned,
The safer, I, for all I learned.  ~ Dorothy Parker


- As caregivers to young people how do you provide warnings?
- Do adults handle warnings in the same way as teenagers?
- What several valuable lessons have you learned through experience?

#726 Love over fear

I believe that every single event in life happens in an opportunity to choose love over fear. ~ Oprah Winfrey

- What are some of your fears?
- What are some of your loves?
- To what extent do you overcome your fears with your passions?

#725 Very easy to miss it

When a great moment knocks on the door of your life, it is often no louder than the beating of your heart, and it is very easy to miss it.  ~ Boris Pasternak


- How sensitive are you to the appearance of opportunities and great moments?
- What, in you mind, are the criteria for a great moment?
- To what extent do you seek a balance between considerations of the heart and intellect?

#724 Untie the ribbons

Each day comes bearing its own gifts. Untie the ribbons.  ~ Ruth Ann Schabacker

- A recurring theme...what value can you attach to this day?
- List in your mind several very special gifts which arrive daily in your life?
- To what extent can you be a gift to someone in your life?

#723 The Ego is not You

Make your ego porous. Will is of little importance, complaining is nothing, fame is nothing. Openness, patience, receptivity, solitude is everything.  ~ Ranier Maria Rilke


The most common ego identifications have to do with possessions, the work you do, social status and recognition, knowledge and education, physical appearance, special abilities, relationships, person and family history, belief systems, and often nationalistic, racial, religious, and other collective identifications. None of these is you.  ~ Eckhart Tolle

- What qualities do the two authors regard as potentially harmful to your inner essence?
- What identifications do you find somewhat pervasive in your life?
- How can you devalue them to enrich your life?

#722 Listen Generously

-The most basic and powerful way to connect to another person is to listen. Just listen. Perhaps the most important thing we ever give each other is our attention…. A loving silence often has far more power to heal and to connect than the most well-intentioned words. ~Rachel Naomi Remen

-Listen first. Give your opponents a chance to talk. Let them finish. Do not resist, defend or debate. This only raises barriers. Try to build bridges of understanding. ~ Dale Carnegie
 
-The most precious gift we can offer anyone is our attention. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

- When were you enriched by a quality listener?
- How did it make you feel?
- How can you enrich the lives of several acquaintances?

#721 Seeking Goodness

Seek goodness everywhere, and when it is found, bring it out of its hiding place and let it be free and unashamed. William Saroyan

People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.
If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway.
If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway.
The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway.
For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.  ~ Kent M. Keith

- What are the qualities which you consider 'good' in life?
- How can you continue to exemplify them and nurture them in others?
 

#720 Bold Beginnings

Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. ~ Goethe

Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy.  ~ Norman Vincent Peale
 
A beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care that the balances are correct. ~ Frank Herbert

- What do you dream about beginning?
- How much do you have confidence in yourself?
- How wise is your new beginning considering all the factors in your life?