Illinois ladies facing bc

IllinoisLady

To be nobody-but-yourself-in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else - means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.

E.E. Cummings

IllinoisLady

The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful,
to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make
some difference that you have lived and lived well.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

IllinoisLady

There is no path to truth. Truth must be discovered, but there is no
formula for its discovery. What is formulated is not true. You must
set out on the uncharted sea, and the uncharted sea is yourself.

J. Krishnamurti

IllinoisLady

Couldn't decide:

We share with all life the capacity for feeling, the experience of having a body, mind, and heart in continual interface with countless other bodies, minds, and hearts. Our capacity to feel deeply means we share with all life the possibility of experiencing delight, joy, trust, and intimacy, just as we share in the capacity to experience pain, sorrow, grief, and fear. Living within a physical body, we all share the experience of aging, frailty, illness, and death, just as we share the precious times of strength, health, safety, and vitality. Through our minds we share the capacity to experience confusion, agitation, and complexity, just as we share the possibilities of serenity, clarity, and balance. An understanding of this profound interconnectedness of all life is at the root of the compassionate heart dedicated to alleviating suffering without reservation or exception. -Christina Feldman

More on oneness and unity.

If we could but recognize our common humanity, that we do belong together, that our destinies are bound up in one another's, that we can be free only together, that we can be human only together, then a glorious world would come into being where all of us lived harmoniously together as members of one family, the human family. -Desmond Tutu

IllinoisLady

We can stop waiting for life to become perfect and start working with what we've got to make it as satisfying as we can. We can accept, bless, give thanks, and get going. Today, we can begin to call forth the riches from our everyday life.Procrastination has robbed us of too many precious opportunities. Call a friend for lunch, begin to read or even write that novel, organize your papers. Try a new recipe for dinner, smile at everyone you meet, sit and dream before a blazing fire, pick up your needlepoint again, act as if you're grateful to be alive, scatter joy. Think of one thing that would give you a genuine moment of pleasure today and do it. -Sarah Ban Breathnach

IllinoisLady

Nice out today and it will stay warm. In fact, the thermostat shows inside house temp is up. It had been cool enough to turn off a couple of the fans, but they are back on. Lots to do and hopefully time to do it. Looking forward later this week ( Sat ) to going to a short reception for my Aunt's 100dreth birthday. She is able to live alone in an assisted living duplex. Been there about five yrs. now. The little house she use to rent was put up for sale and she was fearful that it would sell that winter which would have made a move difficult for her. So -- she just found the assisted living apt./duplex and moved there that Fall. No one had lived in it before so she was happy about that as well. She does have two daughters who keep a close eye on her ( one is a nurse ) so she has a very good situation.

Fall is starting to feel fallish. I see some leaves turning to brown which is as big reminder along with a few already on the ground. We will soon be able to see the houses on the street in front of us which are all hidden from view when the trees are full. We will soon be able to visibly see that we are not actually alone in our little woodsy hide-a-way here on our lane. Well, maybe the winter will be nice this yr. Enough snow to feel like winter but not enough to make life too dicey.

Hope you all have a wonderful Monday.

ChiSandy

How wonderful to be able to "age-in-place" and celebrate one's100th birthday in an assisted living apt.!

Our maple out front is about 25% brown. Going to bring in some more of my dwindling crop of cherry tomatoes--and the regular ones that are no longer completely green. Made it up to 70 today, with massive storms expected tonight (my R hand ring is getting tight and my L wrist is twingeing--I'm a human barometer). We are supposed to get up to 80 on Wed., but with more rain and high winds. My tomatoes will survive overnight lows, but maybe not high winds. (My herb planters are on stands, bungee-corded to the deck).

Back acted up again today. MO says my alk. phos. and calcium levels are w/in normal limits and X-rays show I clearly have "age-related degenerative changes" in my spine (heck, every joint that hasn't yet been replaced), but I want to make sure. Was going to make an appt. at the walk-in ortho clinic (where my hand therapy takes place) for the 3-hr hiatus between Wed.'s hand therapy and surgeon followup appts., to be evaluated and maybe get an MRI or bone scan referral; but after hand therapy the line at the clinic's front desk was out the door, into the hall, and to the elevators (it's prime soccer-and-football-injury season at the local high & jr. high schools). So I'll try to call tomorrow or do it online.

IllinoisLady

There are but two roads that lead to an important goal and to the doing of great things: strength and perseverance. Strength is the lot of but a few privileged people; but austere perseverance, harsh and continuous, may be employed by the smallest of us and rarely fails of its purpose, for its silent power grows irresistibly greater with time. -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

ChiSandy

Saw the weather map today, and the contrast is pretty stark: 50s-(very)low 60s up here, but 80s south of Champaign-Urbana. Nice and toasty down there in Mt. Vernon? Powerful (though relatively short) storm last night--not enough rain to short out the garage GFCI box. (Gotta cover it with a plastic bag & duct tape). 85 (!) here tomorrow, 60 Thurs., low 70s again through Sun. (have an outdoor festival gig in Glenview Sun., with no indoor pavilion big enough to set up a stage if it rains--so pray for sunshine--or at least no showers until the music's over).

IllinoisLady

The thankful receiver bears a plentiful harvest.
- William Blake

IllinoisLady

Life offers its wisdom generously. Everything teaches. Not everyone learns. Life asks of us the same thing we have been asked in every class: "Stay awake." "Pay attention." But paying attention is no simple matter. It requires us not to be distracted by expectations, past experiences, labels, and masks. It asks that we not jump to early conclusions and that we remain open to surprise.

Rachel Naomi Remen

IllinoisLady

We restore the holiness of the world through our
loving-kindness and compassion. Everyone
participates. It is a collective task. Every act
of loving-kindness, no matter how great or small,
repairs the world. All those ever born have shared
this collective work since the beginning of time.

Rachel Naomi Remen

IllinoisLady

We in the West don't think much in terms of balance, and obviously we should. Even the very thought of an exquisite union and balance of all our forces, both physical and mental, has a gentle, hopeful ring to it. . . . All of us must find a bridge between our physical and spiritual parts. When that balance is achieved, what a happy comfort for ourselves!

Edward J. Lavi

IllinoisLady

There's nothing like a walk in the forest to clear my mind and get my spirit to calm down and slow down. Any time I get away from the mass of people and find a quiet, solitary spot in nature, be it in the middle of the desert, in the forest, on a beach, or even along a lonely country road, I feel myself being refreshed, revived, renewed. It's a wonderful feeling that I don't search out nearly enough. tom walsh

IllinoisLady

The worst thing in your life may contain seeds of the best.
When you can see crisis as an opportunity,
your life becomes not easier, but more satisfying.

Joe Kogel

IllinoisLady

There is a quiet courage that comes from an inward spring of confidence in the meaning and significance of life. Such courage is an underground river, flowing far beneath the shifting events of one's experience, keeping alive a thousand little springs of action. -Howard Thurman

IllinoisLady

Among the humble and great alike, those who achieve success do so not because fate and circumstance are especially kind to them. Often the reverse is true. They succeed because they do not whine over their fate but take whatever has been given to them and go on to make the most of their best. -Sidney Greenberg

IllinoisLady

Be of good cheer.Do not think of today's failures, but of the success that may come tomorrow.You have set yourselves a difficult task, but you will succeed if you persevere; and you will find joy in overcoming obstacles. Remember, no effort that we make to attain something beautiful is ever lost. -Helen Keller

IllinoisLady

Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts. I was better after I had cried, than before--more sorry, more aware of my own ingratitude, more gentle.

Charles Dickens

IllinoisLady

A man is ethical only when life, as such, is sacred to him,
that of plants and animals as that of his fellow men,
and when he devotes himself helpfully to all life that is in need of help.
- Albert Schweitzer

IllinoisLady

When all the words have been written, and all the phrases have been spoken, the great mystery of life will still remain. We may map the terrains of our lives, measure the farthest reaches of the universe, but no amount of searching will ever reveal for certain whether we are all children of chance or part of a great design. And who among us would have it otherwise? Who would wish to take the mystery out of the experience of looking into a newborn infant's eyes?

Kent Nerburn

IllinoisLady

Befriending the life in others is sometimes a complex matter. There are times when we offer our strength and protection, but these are usually only temporary measures. The greatest blessing we offer others may be the belief we have in their struggle for freedom, the courage to support and accompany them as they determine for themselves the strength that will become their refuge and the foundation for their lives. I think it is especially important to believe in someone at a time when they cannot yet believe in themselves. Then your belief will become their lifeline. -Rachel Naomi Remen

IllinoisLady

Love is the ultimate meaning of everything around us.
Love is not a mere sentiment.
Love is the ultimate truth at the heart of creation.
- Rabindranath Tagore

IllinoisLady

In your occupations, try to possess your soul in peace. It is not a good plan to be in haste to perform any action that it may be sooner over. On the contrary, you should accustom yourself to do whatever you have to do with tranquility, in order that you may retain the possession of yourself and of settled peace. -Jeanne Guyon

IllinoisLady

The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am,
then I can change.
- Carl Rogers

IllinoisLady

Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow,
it only saps today of its joy.
- Leo Buscaglia

IllinoisLady

Listening is the oldest and perhaps the most powerful tool of healing.
It is often through the quality of our listening and not the wisdom of
our words that we are able to effect the most profound changes in
the people around us. When we listen, we offer with our attention
an opportunity for wholeness. Our listening creates sanctuary for
the homeless parts within the other person. That which has been denied,
unloved, devalued by themselves and others. That which is hidden.
In this culture the soul and the heart too often go homeless.
Listening creates a holy silence. When you listen generously to people,
they can hear the truth in themselves, often for the first time. And in
the silence of listening, you can know yourself in everyone. Eventually
you may be able to hear, in everyone and beyond everyone,
the unseen singing softly to itself and to you.

Rachel Naomi Remen

IllinoisLady

The problem, often not discovered until late in life, is that when you look for things in life like love, meaning, motivation, it implies they are sitting behind a tree or under a rock. The most successful people in life recognize, that in life they create their own love, they manufacture their own meaning, they generate their own motivation. For me, I am driven by two main philosophies: know more today about the world than I knew yesterday, and lessen the suffering of others. You'd be surprised how far that gets you.

Neil deGrasse Tyson

IllinoisLady

There cannot be a sense of abundance or the experience of prosperity without appreciation. You cannot find beauty unless you appreciate beauty. You cannot find friendship unless you appreciate others. You cannot find love unless you appreciate loving and being loved. If you wish abundance, appreciate life. -William R. Miller

IllinoisLady

Wisdom is knowing I am nothing, Love is knowing I am everything, And between the two my life moves. - Nisargadatta Maharaj -