Musings
Dec 7, 2018 12:28:04 #
"Just Once..."
"But because truly being here is so much; because everything here apparently needs us, this fleeting world, which in some strange way keeps calling to us. Us, the most fleeting of all. Once for each thing. Just once; no more. And we too, just once. And never again. But to have been this once, completely, even if only once: to have been at one with the earth, seems beyond undoing."
- Rainer Maria Rilke
"If You Caught A Glimpse..."
"If you caught a glimpse of your own death,
would that knowledge change the way you live the rest of your life?"
- Paco Ahlgren, "Discipline"
"How It Really Will Be"
"Concierge Doc Shows Way To Lower Health-Care Costs"
"The T***h..."
"Reality..."
"Reality is what we take to be true. What we take to be true is what we believe. What we believe is based upon our perceptions. What we perceive depends upon what we look for. What we look for depends upon what we think. What we think depends upon what we perceive. What we perceive determines what we believe. What we believe determines what we take to be true. What we take to be true is our reality."
- Gary Zukav
"The T***h Of The Matter..."
“So, how do you beat the odds when it’s one against a billion? You’re just outnumbered. You stand strong, keep pushing yourself against all rational limits, and never give up. But the t***h of the matter is despite how hard you try and fight to stay in control, when it’s all said and done, sometimes you’re just outnumbered.”
- "Meredith", "Gray's Anatomy"
"On Your Own Terms..."
"If the sun is shining, stand in it- yes, yes, yes. Happy times are great, but happy times pass - they have to - because time passes. The pursuit of happiness is more elusive; it is life-long, and it is not goal-centered. What you are pursuing is meaning - a meaningful life... There are times when it will go so wrong that you will be barely alive, and times when you realize that being barely alive, on your own terms, is better than living a bloated half-life on someone else's terms."
- Jeanette Winterson
"It Is Our Fate..."; "When The Fall Is All That's Left..."
"Well, it is our fate to live in a time of crisis. To live in a time when all forms and values are being challenged. In other and more easy times, it was not, perhaps, necessary for the individual to confront himself with a clear question: What is it that you really believe? What is it that you really cherish? What is it for which you might, actually, in a showdown, be willing to die? I say, with all the reticence which such large, pathetic words evoke, that one cannot exist today as a person - one cannot exist in full consciousness - without having to have a showdown with one’s self, without having to define what it is that one lives by, without being clear in one’s mind what matters and what does not matter.”
- Dorothy Thompson
In the movie “The Lion in Winter”, when the sons, in the dungeon, think they hear Henry coming down the stairs to k**l them:
Richard: "He's here. He'll get no satisfaction out of us. Don't let him see you beg...Take it like a man!
Geoffrey: "You fool! As if the way one falls down matters!"
Richard: "Well, when the fall is all that's left, it matters a great deal."
The Universe
"Don't be afraid. You needn't slay the beast or scale the entire mountain. That's not how it's done. You only need to move through today. Think of the distance you've already covered. Focus on your strengths. Let each new step remind you of your freedom. Let your every breath remind you of your power. Seek out friends and guides; they're anxious to help.
You're not alone. You're understood. This road has been walked before. Dance life's dance, just a few steps at a time, and in the wink of an eye you will wonder to yourself, "What beast, what mountain? Was I having a dream?"
"Love you,"
The Universe
"Thoughts become things... choose the good ones!"
- www.tut.com
"The World Is Too Much With Us..."
"The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!"
- William Wordsworth, 1770- 1850
"How It Really Is"
"Where Does One Go..."
"Where does one go from a world of insanity?
Somewhere on the other side of despair."
- T.S. Eliot
"We Like To Think..."
"We like to think that we are rational beings; humane, conscientious, civilized, thoughtful. But when things fall apart, even just a little, it becomes clear we are not better than animals. We have opposable thumbs, we think, we walk erect, we speak, we dream, but deep down we are still routing around in the primordial ooze; biting, clawing, scratching out an existence in the cold, dark world like the rest of the tree-toads and sloths."
- "Grey's Anatomy"
"We Have To..."
“We can win. We can lose. We can fall down. We can get up and do it over again, better. We can go for it as if we have nothing to lose, knowing we have everything to lose. We can tear up a dance floor and put it all back together again. We can talk loud in public. We can be fierce. We can be small. We can be mighty. We can be too much. We can be just enough, just in time. We can. We have to."
- Bill T. Jones
"Have Hope..."
"To anyone reading this who has ever felt disheartened and confused, hurt or lost...you are not alone. You are surrounded by countless multitudes of people everywhere who are just like you. Just like us. But you don't have to stay confused or lost or in pain. We might forget this sometimes- or may not know it at all. But there is nothing in your life, no matter how difficult or painful, that cannot be turned into something very beautiful. So please, have hope."
- Chad Eastham
"No Rehab..."
"I don't get high, but sometimes I wish I did. That way, when I messed up
in life I would have an excuse. But right now there's no rehab for stupidity."
- Chris Rock
"Life Is Eternal..."
"When you walk through a forest that has not been tamed and interfered with by man, you will see not only abundant life all around you, but you will also encounter fallen trees and decaying trunks, rotting leaves and decomposing matter at every step. Wherever you look, you will find death as well as life.
p
Upon closer scrutiny, however, you will discover that the decomposing tree trunk and rotting leaves not only give birth to new life, but are full of life themselves. Microorganisms are at work. Molecules are rearranging themselves. So death isn't to be found anywhere. There is only the metamorphosis of life forms. What can you learn from this?
Death is not the opposite of life. Life has no opposite.
The opposite of death is birth. Life is eternal."
- Eckhart Tolle, "Stillness Speaks"
"The Wisdom Of Satchel Paige"
“Age is a case of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it don't matter.”
“Don't look back. Something might be gaining on you.”
“Ain't no man can avoid being born average, but there ain't no man got to be common.”
“How old would you be if you didn't know how old you are?”
"Work like you don't need the money.
Love like you've never been hurt.
Dance like nobody's watching."
- Satchel Paige
"The Moral Imperative..."
"You're alive. Do something.
The directive in life, the moral imperative was so uncomplicated.
It could be expressed in single words, not complete sentences.
It sounded like this: Look. Listen. Choose. Act."
- Barbara Hall
“The Nature of Courage”
by ClassicLit
“Tolkien had experienced war and violence first hand in World War I. Like many of the writers from his era, his world could never be the same, after seeing his best friends die, and his land in ruin. Shippey writes, “The life experiences of many men and women in the twentieth century have left them with an unshakable conviction of something wrong, something irreducibly evil in the nature of humanity, but without any very satisfactory explanation for it.”
Defeat seems inevitable. The forces of evil are strong. And, the quest isn’t really a quest at all. Rather, it’s an anti-quest, the attempt to destroy the representation of evil. The road is long and difficult; there are many obstacles; and many die along the way… Then, why do they even attempt the journey?
The truly courageous answer- Tolkien calling it a “potent but terrible solution” is to say that victory or defeat has nothing to do with right and wrong, and that even if the universe is controlled beyond redemption by hostile and evil forces, that is not enough to make a hero change sides.”
- http://classiclit.about.com/
"How It Really Is"
"Life Is Inconvenient..."
"One of life's best coping mechanisms is to know the difference between an inconvenience and a problem. If you break your neck, if you have nothing to eat, if your house is on fire – then you’ve got a problem. Everything else is an inconvenience. Life is inconvenient. Life is lumpy. A lump in the oatmeal, a lump in the throat and a lump in the breast are not the same kind of lump. One needs to learn the difference."
- Robert Fulghum
"In This Life..."
"Many people don't fear a hell after this life and that's because hell is on this earth, in this life. In this life there are many forms of hell that people walk through, sometimes for a day, sometimes for years, sometimes it doesn't end. The kind of hell that doesn't burn your skin; but burns your soul. The kind of hell that people can't see; but the flames lap at your spirit. Heaven is a place on earth, too! It's where you feel freedom, where you're not afraid. No more chains. And you hear your soul laughing."
- C. JoyBell C.
"I Hope I End Up..."
"I don't want to pass through life like a smooth plane ride. All you do is get to breathe and copulate and finally die. I don't want to go with the smooth skin and the calm brow. I hope I end up a blithering i***t cursing the sun- hallucinating, screaming, giving obscene and inane lectures on street corners and public parks. People will walk by and say, "Look at that drooling i***t. What a basket case." I will turn and say to them, "It is you who are the basket case! For every moment you h**ed your job, cursed your wife and sold yourself to a dream that you didn't even conceive. For the times your soul screamed yes and you said no. For all of that. For your self-torture, I see the glowing eyes of the sun! The air talks to me! I am at all times!" And maybe, the passers by will drop a coin into my cup."
- Henry Rollins
"The Whole Problem With The World..."
"But because truly being here is so much; because everything here apparently needs us, this fleeting world, which in some strange way keeps calling to us. Us, the most fleeting of all. Once for each thing. Just once; no more. And we too, just once. And never again. But to have been this once, completely, even if only once: to have been at one with the earth, seems beyond undoing."
- Rainer Maria Rilke
"If You Caught A Glimpse..."
"If you caught a glimpse of your own death,
would that knowledge change the way you live the rest of your life?"
- Paco Ahlgren, "Discipline"
"How It Really Will Be"
"Concierge Doc Shows Way To Lower Health-Care Costs"
"The T***h..."
"Reality..."
"Reality is what we take to be true. What we take to be true is what we believe. What we believe is based upon our perceptions. What we perceive depends upon what we look for. What we look for depends upon what we think. What we think depends upon what we perceive. What we perceive determines what we believe. What we believe determines what we take to be true. What we take to be true is our reality."
- Gary Zukav
"The T***h Of The Matter..."
“So, how do you beat the odds when it’s one against a billion? You’re just outnumbered. You stand strong, keep pushing yourself against all rational limits, and never give up. But the t***h of the matter is despite how hard you try and fight to stay in control, when it’s all said and done, sometimes you’re just outnumbered.”
- "Meredith", "Gray's Anatomy"
"On Your Own Terms..."
"If the sun is shining, stand in it- yes, yes, yes. Happy times are great, but happy times pass - they have to - because time passes. The pursuit of happiness is more elusive; it is life-long, and it is not goal-centered. What you are pursuing is meaning - a meaningful life... There are times when it will go so wrong that you will be barely alive, and times when you realize that being barely alive, on your own terms, is better than living a bloated half-life on someone else's terms."
- Jeanette Winterson
"It Is Our Fate..."; "When The Fall Is All That's Left..."
"Well, it is our fate to live in a time of crisis. To live in a time when all forms and values are being challenged. In other and more easy times, it was not, perhaps, necessary for the individual to confront himself with a clear question: What is it that you really believe? What is it that you really cherish? What is it for which you might, actually, in a showdown, be willing to die? I say, with all the reticence which such large, pathetic words evoke, that one cannot exist today as a person - one cannot exist in full consciousness - without having to have a showdown with one’s self, without having to define what it is that one lives by, without being clear in one’s mind what matters and what does not matter.”
- Dorothy Thompson
In the movie “The Lion in Winter”, when the sons, in the dungeon, think they hear Henry coming down the stairs to k**l them:
Richard: "He's here. He'll get no satisfaction out of us. Don't let him see you beg...Take it like a man!
Geoffrey: "You fool! As if the way one falls down matters!"
Richard: "Well, when the fall is all that's left, it matters a great deal."
The Universe
"Don't be afraid. You needn't slay the beast or scale the entire mountain. That's not how it's done. You only need to move through today. Think of the distance you've already covered. Focus on your strengths. Let each new step remind you of your freedom. Let your every breath remind you of your power. Seek out friends and guides; they're anxious to help.
You're not alone. You're understood. This road has been walked before. Dance life's dance, just a few steps at a time, and in the wink of an eye you will wonder to yourself, "What beast, what mountain? Was I having a dream?"
"Love you,"
The Universe
"Thoughts become things... choose the good ones!"
- www.tut.com
"The World Is Too Much With Us..."
"The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!"
- William Wordsworth, 1770- 1850
"How It Really Is"
"Where Does One Go..."
"Where does one go from a world of insanity?
Somewhere on the other side of despair."
- T.S. Eliot
"We Like To Think..."
"We like to think that we are rational beings; humane, conscientious, civilized, thoughtful. But when things fall apart, even just a little, it becomes clear we are not better than animals. We have opposable thumbs, we think, we walk erect, we speak, we dream, but deep down we are still routing around in the primordial ooze; biting, clawing, scratching out an existence in the cold, dark world like the rest of the tree-toads and sloths."
- "Grey's Anatomy"
"We Have To..."
“We can win. We can lose. We can fall down. We can get up and do it over again, better. We can go for it as if we have nothing to lose, knowing we have everything to lose. We can tear up a dance floor and put it all back together again. We can talk loud in public. We can be fierce. We can be small. We can be mighty. We can be too much. We can be just enough, just in time. We can. We have to."
- Bill T. Jones
"Have Hope..."
"To anyone reading this who has ever felt disheartened and confused, hurt or lost...you are not alone. You are surrounded by countless multitudes of people everywhere who are just like you. Just like us. But you don't have to stay confused or lost or in pain. We might forget this sometimes- or may not know it at all. But there is nothing in your life, no matter how difficult or painful, that cannot be turned into something very beautiful. So please, have hope."
- Chad Eastham
"No Rehab..."
"I don't get high, but sometimes I wish I did. That way, when I messed up
in life I would have an excuse. But right now there's no rehab for stupidity."
- Chris Rock
"Life Is Eternal..."
"When you walk through a forest that has not been tamed and interfered with by man, you will see not only abundant life all around you, but you will also encounter fallen trees and decaying trunks, rotting leaves and decomposing matter at every step. Wherever you look, you will find death as well as life.
p
Upon closer scrutiny, however, you will discover that the decomposing tree trunk and rotting leaves not only give birth to new life, but are full of life themselves. Microorganisms are at work. Molecules are rearranging themselves. So death isn't to be found anywhere. There is only the metamorphosis of life forms. What can you learn from this?
Death is not the opposite of life. Life has no opposite.
The opposite of death is birth. Life is eternal."
- Eckhart Tolle, "Stillness Speaks"
"The Wisdom Of Satchel Paige"
“Age is a case of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it don't matter.”
“Don't look back. Something might be gaining on you.”
“Ain't no man can avoid being born average, but there ain't no man got to be common.”
“How old would you be if you didn't know how old you are?”
"Work like you don't need the money.
Love like you've never been hurt.
Dance like nobody's watching."
- Satchel Paige
"The Moral Imperative..."
"You're alive. Do something.
The directive in life, the moral imperative was so uncomplicated.
It could be expressed in single words, not complete sentences.
It sounded like this: Look. Listen. Choose. Act."
- Barbara Hall
“The Nature of Courage”
by ClassicLit
“Tolkien had experienced war and violence first hand in World War I. Like many of the writers from his era, his world could never be the same, after seeing his best friends die, and his land in ruin. Shippey writes, “The life experiences of many men and women in the twentieth century have left them with an unshakable conviction of something wrong, something irreducibly evil in the nature of humanity, but without any very satisfactory explanation for it.”
Defeat seems inevitable. The forces of evil are strong. And, the quest isn’t really a quest at all. Rather, it’s an anti-quest, the attempt to destroy the representation of evil. The road is long and difficult; there are many obstacles; and many die along the way… Then, why do they even attempt the journey?
The truly courageous answer- Tolkien calling it a “potent but terrible solution” is to say that victory or defeat has nothing to do with right and wrong, and that even if the universe is controlled beyond redemption by hostile and evil forces, that is not enough to make a hero change sides.”
- http://classiclit.about.com/
"How It Really Is"
"Life Is Inconvenient..."
"One of life's best coping mechanisms is to know the difference between an inconvenience and a problem. If you break your neck, if you have nothing to eat, if your house is on fire – then you’ve got a problem. Everything else is an inconvenience. Life is inconvenient. Life is lumpy. A lump in the oatmeal, a lump in the throat and a lump in the breast are not the same kind of lump. One needs to learn the difference."
- Robert Fulghum
"In This Life..."
"Many people don't fear a hell after this life and that's because hell is on this earth, in this life. In this life there are many forms of hell that people walk through, sometimes for a day, sometimes for years, sometimes it doesn't end. The kind of hell that doesn't burn your skin; but burns your soul. The kind of hell that people can't see; but the flames lap at your spirit. Heaven is a place on earth, too! It's where you feel freedom, where you're not afraid. No more chains. And you hear your soul laughing."
- C. JoyBell C.
"I Hope I End Up..."
"I don't want to pass through life like a smooth plane ride. All you do is get to breathe and copulate and finally die. I don't want to go with the smooth skin and the calm brow. I hope I end up a blithering i***t cursing the sun- hallucinating, screaming, giving obscene and inane lectures on street corners and public parks. People will walk by and say, "Look at that drooling i***t. What a basket case." I will turn and say to them, "It is you who are the basket case! For every moment you h**ed your job, cursed your wife and sold yourself to a dream that you didn't even conceive. For the times your soul screamed yes and you said no. For all of that. For your self-torture, I see the glowing eyes of the sun! The air talks to me! I am at all times!" And maybe, the passers by will drop a coin into my cup."
- Henry Rollins
"The Whole Problem With The World..."
Dec 8, 2018 14:33:04 #
Dang pafret! I hope you're happy. I'm just sitting here now with about half a dozen streams of thought whirling around in my noggin, and until I resolve at least a few of them, I doubt I'll get much else done today... 
Dec 8, 2018 14:33:06 #
Dec 8, 2018 14:55:18 #
badbobby wrote:
Paf
I'm in over my head here
I'm in over my head here
Heck no, Bobby. This is the kind of stuff you write. One day I'm going to start quoting you.
Dec 8, 2018 15:04:54 #
pafret wrote:
Heck no, Bobby. This is the kind of stuff you write. One day I'm going to start quoting you.
you're way ahead a me Paf
Dec 8, 2018 16:21:25 #
Wow! So much to ponder and so much wisdom here. This is a keeper so I can read it again from time to time. Thank you😊
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