Imagination / Click On Title To Donate

TODAY'S QUOTE:
Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.
Albert Einstein

Imagination is where fantasy, reality, and dreams meet and intertwine without bothersome negatives, like self-doubt, building obstacles to keep the boundaries small and stunted. What could be is easily envisioned, and what will be often grows there with gentle tending.
Imagination is best when set free to wander wherever it chooses. Reality has its own lines, but they are ever changing. Fantasy is magical. And dreams embrace soul notions that are often fated realities, not yet of age. The combination, softly stirred changes attitudes, moods, and lives in ways nothing else can.
Exercise your imagination if you still have one. Search for it if misplaced, because nothing inspires hopelessness, in a human, more completely than the inability to imagine.

THINK ABOUT IT

LET IT GROW

THEN DECIDE

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Backwards And Forwards

TODAY'S QUOTE:
Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.
Soren Kierkegaard

Backwards gazing should only be done if it benefits the now or furthers the future. Looking for clarity, or closure, or understanding in past deeds or painful situations is a valuable tool. Wallowing there is a trap as certain as quicksand, freezing you solid in place then suffocating out all thoughts of escape.
Reflection of moments long past have no more relation to present moments than you give them. Looking in a mirror at sixty and remembering how you looked at twenty gives no comfort and over-shadows any beauty still visible. The past has its place, but putting it in the way of tomorrow is not a sane option if you want a future worth living.

THINK ABOUT IT

LET IT GROW

THEN DECIDE

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RED CROSS

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NEWS ON KATRINA

http://www.deadlykatrina.com/

Your Own Way / Click Here To Donate

TODAY'S QUOTE:
There is only one success--to be able to spend your life in your own way.
Christopher Morley

This is not a call to champion the cause of selfishness, but an invitation to become as self-aware as possible. Happiness bought at the price of someone else's unhappiness is always too costly. And paying for someone else's passage is just as tragic an undertaking. A balance between your comfort and others is reachable with practice and cooperation. But first you have to capture your own space. Doing that takes knowledge. And really knowing yourself takes some deep digging sometimes.
Spending your life doing what comes natural is a blessing. Doing what brings you joy and satisfaction is a gift that keeps on giving. My three feet of personal space was there all the time, even though it took me forty years to find it. Defending it is an honor. Pushing its limits is mandatory. And a life spent there will be a success, no matter where I locate it in the outside world. Wherever I travel or if life holds me to this spot where I am now, my space will continue expanding, and to someone who barely existed inside the boundaries of the past that is success beyond my wildest dreams.

THINK ABOUT IT
LET IT GROW
THEN DECIDE
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The Power Of Truth / Click Here To Donate

TODAY'S QUOTE:
Truth is the most powerful thing in the world, since even fiction itself must be governed by it, and can only please by its resemblance.
Anthony Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713)

Truth in fiction has to be believable, but truth in reality is often too strange for easy belief. The power in truth is undeniable, yet it can be threatening and damaging if not gently handled by the teller. A bully can manipulate the truth to their own ends. A busybody can add falsehoods to a truth to make the retelling more dramatic. A person can alter the truths they tell themselves.
The chances for misuse are countless, depending on who is telling it and why. Real truth is a layered thing, what is seen on the face often differs from what underlies its appearance. Point of view is rarely the same between the viewer of any truth and the one living through it.
I look underneath what is visible. I let others tell their own truths. I judge not, least I judge unwisely. I am respectful enough of the power of truth to use it gently with others and with myself also. Changing truths to suit my own agenda is not my way. It makes more sense to let truth be all it can be by not dressing it in a costume that will alter its meaning to fit my needs. Much better to see it naked and unadorned, warts and all.
Altering the truth does not change hard facts. But personal growth often changes personal truths and that makes truth a very valuable tool. Building a life on anything less than the truth means accepting a lie as good enough. And although fiction is great, in novel form, it is no place to live full time.

THINK ABOUT IT

LET IT GROW

THEN DECIDE

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RED CROSS

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Raise The Sail/ Click To Donate

TODAY'S QUOTE:
The winds of grace are always blowing, but you have to raise the sail.
Ramakrishna

Raising the sail takes energy then steering takes even more. If the strength cannot be mustered we are often set adrift and float whatever direction the winds of change carry us. The strength is within each of us to tug and pull then grip the wheel, but it often takes a jump start to get past the apathy we feel when overwhelmed by things out of our control.
Situations seek to be lord and master, yet without our assistance they have little or no power. Facing the fact that shit happens is essential to peace of mind when the bullshit starts piling up. Do what you can in a damage control mode then raise the sail and go on. The journey does not end at troubles door; often the best part of the trip begins after you walk away from what cannot be changed and begin tackling what can.

http://www.deadlykatrina.com/

I will be gone till Monday afternoon. I wish you all a wonderful and safe Labor Day Weekend. In your time of celebration, remember the ones still suffering. They are in need of all the grace that our combined prayers can inspire. Give till it hurts, from wallet and cupboard then join voices for their deliverance.
There will be plenty of time for blame later and plenty of blame to go around. Gas hikes hurt us all and will be addressed in the coming days. But dwelling on the anger, at this moment, only fragments the energy placed upon the most important issue. And that is to empty New Orleans of Katrina's victims and assist all the humanity that this hurricane left homeless. The walking wounded need help raising their sails, give a hand somehow, you will lighten their load and strengthen yourself in the process.

THINK ABOUT IT
LET IT GROW
THEN DECIDE
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Changing Direction/ Red Cross Link Still Under Title

TODAY'S QUOTE:
If we don't change the direction we're going, we're likely to end up where we're headed.
Chinese Proverb

Direction changes are often vital to success. Detours leading away from danger are worthy of travel when keeping on the same path will surely guarantee a dead end journey. Just because a road is familiar does not mean it will always lead in the direction you wish to travel, or end at a destination you really want to reach.
What we want and what we should have are at constant war with one another. To travel toward our wants often leads to situations that demand we take stock of where we are really headed. Reflection can change your direction, but even if it does not alter that, at least you are fully aware of the price of the trip.

Please visit the link below, there are facts and much much more that everyone should read. If you are missing someone, there is a message board to leave word. I will keep an eye out for more sites and if you stumble upon any worthy ones just post them in comment form here or email me and I will add them.
http://www.deadlykatrina.com/

THINK ABOUT IT

LET IT GROW

THEN DECIDE

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TODAY'S QUOTE:
The man who removed the mountain began by carrying away small stones.
Chinese Proverb

The mountain we are facing right now is Katrina. We all have the power to carry stones, some with hands on rescue work and others with funds or goods, collectively we can ease the suffering. To see the tragic footage and say, "What a shame." before turning the channel then turning your back is criminal.
The body count is climbing moment-to-moment. Katrina is long gone and still people are dying, not from her wrath, but from lack of an instant response large enough to get the job done. I think that is the real shame in this.

THINK ABOUT IT

LET IT GROW

THEN DECIDE

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THEN GIVE TILL IT HURTS

DON'T BE PART OF THEIR PAIN

Give Till It Hurts---CLICK THIS TO DONATE

TODAY'S QUOTE:
When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on. And swing!
Leo Buscaglia

The tragedy of Katrina is only beginning, damage done to home and hearth is the least of this brutal catastrophe. I have watched coverage hour after hour, as if by seeing them they can somehow feel my concern. My strongest emotion, besides horror and grief is a mighty frustration that is clearly evident in every voice I hear.
I look around and feel guilty for being comfortable when so many of my country men are suffering in ways I can only imagine. I eat while they starve. I have a roof over-head and a dry bed, and they have water where ground and pavement should be in a world where destruction is evident no matter what direction they turn.
I am poor too. If I had been in their location, I would be one of the ones still there. Once again the poor and infirm are charged the highest price for survival. Empathy ignited a flame, and every news update fans its height. Once the fuse was lit action of some kind was mandatory.
I did the only thing I am capable of doing. I donated $100.00 to the Red Cross, giving till it hurt, because to do less would be criminal. The aching I feel is just as sharp and jagged as before I left the Red Cross website, but I take some comfort from knowing that I did not sit idle in my safe home and let prayers be the only thing I gave.
I hope you can hear the echoes of their cries, as I do. I hope you give till it hurts. I hope you reach out a helping hand before you bow your head and add your prayers to mine. I hope!!!

THINK ABOUT IT

LET IT GROW

THEN DECIDE

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Pigs Can't Sing

TODAY'S QUOTE:
Never teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time and annoys the pig.
Mark Twain

This is one of my favorite quotes of all time. Mark Twain had a twisted handle on life and I love the timeless humor his words impart. I gave up trying to teach pigs anything long ago; either they want to learn or not, pushing them to do what they have little interest in cannot erase the pigishness out of anyone. If it could there would be a huge number of singing swine, touring the world, and we would come in droves to hear their divine squeals.

THINK ABOUT IT

LET IT GROW

THEN DECIDE

Daring

TODAY'S QUOTE:
It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.
Seneca

Daring the unlikely is quite a struggle. When I finally stood up for myself, not pleading for mercy or love, but demanding my space I did not even consider the possibility of failure. But it took twenty years to work up the nerve to dare the battle. If I had known that all it would take was determination, born of desperation, I expect I would have done it much sooner.
Things were worse than difficult, for my oldest children as well as myself, yet I did nothing besides attempt, in every way possible, to please someone who only cared about his own feelings. I stood frozen for much too long and we all paid a price for my brain lag.
My sorry's are genuine, yet they are of little comfort to any of us. Things were difficult in the extreme, because I thought myself trapped. But daring to demand my birthright, of three square feet of personal space, saved all of us years of added torment and taught a tormenter a gentleness he had never known. Dare much for the sake of difficulties not resolved, it may not be a cake walk, but you may be surprised by just how much simpler it is than what you dreaded. I certainly did

THINK ABOUT IT

LET IT GROW

THEN DECIDE

The Moment

TODAY'S QUOTE:
The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself.
Henry Miller

I know this is true. I have a vivid memory or a beautiful day, last summer, when I sat in my yard swing and gazed at a blade of grass long enough to imagine the world that lives under our feet. We tread over the ground, but rarely consider its reality. On that afternoon I considered little else.
I rocked and wrote and let my mind free-fall into the underbrush, soaking up sun and sound in a healing way that was rare enough to be quiet surreal. The echo of that day lingered with me through winter, it lingers with me still, and I expect it always will.
Moments come in all sizes, each short in time, but capable of absorbing a wondrous amount of sensory stimulation that can be recalled with amazing vividness at a later date. Fill your moments with attention to detail, from time-to-time, and they will fill you with joy over and over again.

This came in email from my good friend, Crystal. I place it here in honor of the joy reading it gave me, sharing the joy makes it even sweeter.

A well-known speaker started off his seminar by holding up a $20.00 bill. In the room of 200, he asked, "Who would like this $20 bill?"
Hands started going up. He said, "I am going to give this $20 to one of you but first, let me do this.
He proceeded to crumple up the $20 dollar bill. He then asked, "Who still wants it?"
Still the hands were up in the air. Well, he replied, "What if I do this?"
And he dropped it on the groun and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe. He picked it up, now crumpled and dirty. "Now, who still wants it?"
Still the hands went into the air.
"My friends, we have all learned a very valuable lesson. No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value. It was still worth $20.
Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt by the decisions we make and the circumstances that come our way.
We feel as though we are worthless. But no matter what has happened or what will happen, you will never lose your value. Dirty or clean, crumpled or finely creased, you are still priceless to those who DO LOVE you.
The worth of our lives comes not in what we do or who we know, but by WHO WE ARE and WHOSE WE ARE. You are special- Don't EVER forget it."
Count your blessings, not your problems.
And remember: amateurs built the ark, professionals built the Titanic.
If God brings you to it - He will bring you through it.

THINK ABOUT IT

LET IT GROW

THEN DECIDE

Advice Is

TODAY'S QUOTE:
Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn't.
Erica Jong

This is true enough to be kinda sad. It shows how humans often know better yet pay little attention to their knowledge when it suits their fancy. I am guilty enough of that to admit it, although I rarely seek advice. I overdosed on unasked for censure, years ago, so asking for more is something I avoid whenever possible.
But when I do ask that quote almost always proves true. Words said by another most times echo ones I have already said to myself. I could be tempted by that to believe what I know already to be fact, yet in a way that quote reminds me to listen better to my own voice. The things known soul deep need no outside validation. And too many voices just give more to ignore when necessary, and double the I told you so's afterward.

THINK ABOUT IT

LET IT GROW

THEN DECIDE

The Next Step

TODAY'S QUOTE:
He who stops completely before taking the next step will spend a lifetime standing on one leg.
Chinese Proverb

The urge to stop moving forward is often overpowering in its intensity. We come to a comfort zone and settle for that as plenty good enough, or we get too hopeless to attempt an escape from a sticky situation and just quit trying all together. Both are products of human nature, reactions to life to be expected and overcome if a full life is something you crave.
Stopping dead in my tracks, or balancing on one foot are not poses I plan on adopting. Standing still is no stranger to me. Twenty years frozen is plenty of time donated to a lost cause. I spent time and energy clearing my path, resting in place simply is not a possibility, Once the road is open the only sane thing to do is to move forward before something or someone clutters your landscape.
I have often taken detours, just to avoid pausing in my movement. Any onward motion matters, even the sidesteps taken to keep momentum. One essential demand of freedom is willingness to fight for its blessing, by defending its borders. Limiting your borders to the zone of most comfort steals some of the delight from freedom, cheapening it in the process. You are free to stand on one foot, but I am dedicated to both feet stepping down this chosen path.

THINK ABOUT IT

LET IT GROW

THEN DECIDE

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(COMFORT ZONE)

Outlived Enthusiasm

TODAY'S QUOTE:
None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.
Henry David Thoreau

Age on paper means little, simply a number that tells how many years you have been on earth, but not a true indications of how alive you are. I have been here for fifty-one years. I have been alert for almost twelve. During the last dozen years, I have been alive in several different degrees; sometimes almost electric in my enthusiasm at others less so, but always aware of the fact that life is a miracle, wondrous in its dimensions. And we each define those ourselves.
Age is a fact, yet when considered closely means not all that much, unless it describes you in a profound way. It simply says nothing about me worth note, except that I survived fifty-one years. Actually, I only survived for forty years. The last eleven I have been busy thriving in all the ways that matter most to me. I refuse to limit myself to a place so small as the age trap.
And you should not willingly give age any more space than it naturally demands either. Be as ageless, and enthusiastic as possible, for as long as possible and your possibilities will be limitless.

THINK ABOUT IT

LET IT GROW

THEN DECIDE