Illinois ladies facing bc

Options
1…10831084108610881089…1148

Comments

  • IllinoisLady
    IllinoisLady Member Posts: 29,082
    edited January 2018

    Life rushes us along and few people are strong enough to stop on their own. Most often, something unforeseen stops us and it is only then we have the time to take a seat at life's kitchen table. To know our own story and tell it. To listen to other people's stories. To remember that the real world is made up of just such stories. Until we stop ourselves or, more often, have been stopped, we hope to put certain of life's events "behind us" and get on with our living. After we stop we see that certain of life's issues will be with us for as long as we live. We will pass through them again and again, each time with a new story, each time with a greater understanding, until they become indistinguishable from our blessings and our wisdom. It's the way life teaches us how to live.
    image
    Rachel Naomi Remen
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • IllinoisLady
    IllinoisLady Member Posts: 29,082
    edited January 2018

    There is an Indian proverb or axiom that says that everyone is a house with four rooms, a physical, a mental, an emotional, and a spiritual. Most of us tend to live in one room most of the time, but unless we go into every room every day, even if only to keep it aired, we are not a complete person. -Rumer Godden

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • IllinoisLady
    IllinoisLady Member Posts: 29,082
    edited January 2018

    Compassion is the basis of all truthful relationship: it means being present with love—for ourselves and for all life, including animals, fish, birds, and trees. Compassion is bringing our deepest truth into our actions, no matter how much the world seems to resist, because that is ultimately what we have to give this world and one another. -Ram Dass

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • IllinoisLady
    IllinoisLady Member Posts: 29,082
    edited January 2018

    You are not your mind. You, a Spiritual Being,
    are neither your mind nor your body.
    Mind and body are your tools - to use as you choose.
    Sometimes your body appears to have a will of its own,
    as when it twitches or pains.
    Likewise, your mind often appears to have its own will.
    That incessant chattering of regret, disappointment, guilt,
    shame, foreboding, worry, and fear
    is your Rattlesnake Mind striking off on its own.
    Know that your mind can be a vicious rattlesnake, and be cautious.
    The mind can be tamed, but only with conscious effort and patience.
    - Jonathan Lockwood Huie


    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • IllinoisLady
    IllinoisLady Member Posts: 29,082
    edited January 2018

    You must not lose faith in humanity.
    Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty,
    the ocean does not become dirty.
    - Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • IllinoisLady
    IllinoisLady Member Posts: 29,082
    edited January 2018

    The great affair, the love affair with life, is to live as variously as possible, to groom one's curiosity like a high-spirited thoroughbred, climb aboard, and gallop over the thick, sunstruck hills every day.It began as mystery, and it will end in mystery, but what a savage and beautiful country lies in between. -Diane Ackerman

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • IllinoisLady
    IllinoisLady Member Posts: 29,082
    edited January 2018

    You have not lived a perfect
    day, even though you have
    earned your money, unless
    you have done something
    for someone who will never
    be able to repay you.
    image
    Ruth Smeltzer

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • IllinoisLady
    IllinoisLady Member Posts: 29,082
    edited January 2018

    image
    The value of all service lies in the spirit in which you serve and not in the importance or magnitude of the service. Even the lowliest task or deed is made holy, joyous, and prosperous when it is filled with love.
    image
    Charles Fillmore

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • IllinoisLady
    IllinoisLady Member Posts: 29,082
    edited January 2018

    I have learned to recognize and celebrate my gifts, to enjoy my calling, to revel in my unique place in God's plan.There is genuine satisfaction in who I am, what I have, where I'm going, and what I can give to others.It is enough. -Roger C. Palms

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • IllinoisLady
    IllinoisLady Member Posts: 29,082
    edited January 2018

    The roots of love sink down and deep and strike out far, and they are arteries that feed our lives, so we must see that they get the water and sun they need so they can nourish us. And when you put something good into the world, something good comes back to you. -Merle Shain

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • IllinoisLady
    IllinoisLady Member Posts: 29,082
    edited January 2018

    Magic is a sudden opening of the mind to the wonder of existence. It is a sense that there is much more to life than we usually recognize; that we do not have to be confined by the limited views that our family, our society, or our own habitual thoughts impose on us; that life contains many dimensions, depths, textures, and meanings extending far beyond our familiar beliefs and concepts. -John Welwood

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • IllinoisLady
    IllinoisLady Member Posts: 29,082
    edited January 2018

    Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded.
    It's a relationship between equals.
    Only when we know our own darkness well
    can we be present with the darkness of others.
    Compassion becomes real when we recognize our shared humanity.
     - Pema Chodron

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • IllinoisLady
    IllinoisLady Member Posts: 29,082
    edited January 2018

    As we learn to accept our character flaws and broken moments, and as we learn to accept ourselves for the times we fail and fall short in life, we grow in our capacity to accept and forgive others. And as we learn to have compassion for, and maybe even to gently and nonjudgmentally cradle what we don't like in ourselves, we, in turn, may very well end up serving as an incarnate source of compassion for others who are struggling with self-acceptance and self-forgiveness. -Gary Egeberg

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • IllinoisLady
    IllinoisLady Member Posts: 29,082
    edited January 2018

    Two today because they are perfect:


    Grace is goodness and respect given freely and unconditionally.
    A sense of divine love and protection bestowed on us when
    we need strength and renewal. Grace helps us know we are
    not alone and believe we are cared for and cherished.
    Grace is a drink of clear, clean water in the desert.
    image
    Sue Patton Thoele

    More about grace.

    The moment of grace comes to us in the dynamics of any situation we walk into. It is an opportunity that God sews into the fabric of a routine situation. It is a chance to do something creative, something helpful, something healing, something that makes one unmarked spot in the world better off for our having been there. We catch it if we are people of discernment.
    image
    Lewis B. Smedes
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • IllinoisLady
    IllinoisLady Member Posts: 29,082
    edited January 2018

    To live a life of gratitude is to open our eyes to the countless ways in which we are supported by the world around us. Such a life provides less space for our suffering because our attention is more balanced. We are more often occupied with noticing what we are given, thanking those who have helped us, and repaying the world in some concrete way for what we are receiving.
    image
    Gregg Krech

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • IllinoisLady
    IllinoisLady Member Posts: 29,082
    edited January 2018

    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

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • IllinoisLady
    IllinoisLady Member Posts: 29,082
    edited January 2018

    Couldn't decide which quote so enjoy all three:


    As I experience it, appreciation of beauty is access to the soul. With beauty in our lives, we walk and carry ourselves more lightly and with a different look in our eyes. To look into the eyes of someone beholding beauty is to look through the windows of the soul. Anytime we catch a glimpse of soul, beauty is there; anytime we catch our breath and feel "How beautiful!," the soul is present.

    Jean Shinoda Bolen

    How much beauty goes unnoticed as we hurry from place to place during the course of our busy days? How many flowers and trees do we go by without noticing their colors or their marvelous complexity or their scents? How many rainbows go unseen by how many people because we close ourselves up indoors when it rains to "protect" ourselves from the elements? How many snowfalls go unenjoyed because it's too cold outside or we don't want to bother to put on our gloves and coats and boots and hats to keep us warm and dry?

    tom walsh

    Beauty is the only thing that time cannot harm. Philosophies fall away like sand, and creeds follow one another like the withered leaves of Autumn; but what is beautiful is a joy for all seasons and a possession for all eternity.

    Oscar Wilde

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • IllinoisLady
    IllinoisLady Member Posts: 29,082
    edited January 2018

    Love is the doorway through which the human soul passes from selfishness to service, and from solitude to kinship with all humankind.

    unattributed

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • IllinoisLady
    IllinoisLady Member Posts: 29,082
    edited January 2018

    There are simple antidotes to complacency. Gratitude is one of them. Every morning we can take a few moments to appreciate all the goodness in our lives. Another powerful antidote is taking the time to consciously contact our Higher Power. God is always available to help us; we simply have to open the door. Sharing hope with others is perhaps the most powerful of the antidotes because it helps at least two people—ourselves and the listener who hears our story. -unattributed

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • IllinoisLady
    IllinoisLady Member Posts: 29,082
    edited January 2018

    Self respect cannot be hunted. It cannot be purchased. It is never for sale. It cannot be fabricated out of public relations It comes to us when we are alone, in quiet moments, in quiet places, when we suddenly realize that, knowing the good we have done it; knowing the beautiful, we have served it; and knowing the truth, we have spoken it.

    Witney Gruiswold

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • IllinoisLady
    IllinoisLady Member Posts: 29,082
    edited January 2018

    "Colors are the smiles of nature."

    -- Leigh Hunt

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • IllinoisLady
    IllinoisLady Member Posts: 29,082
    edited January 2018

    "Life always offers you a second chance.
    It's called tomorrow."

    — Author Unknown

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • IllinoisLady
    IllinoisLady Member Posts: 29,082
    edited January 2018

    Life is a refining processor response to it determines whether we'll be ground down or polished up. On a piano, one person sits down and plays sonatas, while another merely bangs away at "Chopsticks. "The piano is not responsible. It's how you touch the keys that makes the difference. It's how you play what life gives you that determines your joy and shine. -Barbara Johnson

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • IllinoisLady
    IllinoisLady Member Posts: 29,082
    edited January 2018

    image
    If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant:
    if we did not sometimes taste of adversity,
    prosperity would not be so welcome.
    image
    Anne Bradstreet

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • IllinoisLady
    IllinoisLady Member Posts: 29,082
    edited January 2018

    image
    If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant:
    if we did not sometimes taste of adversity,
    prosperity would not be so welcome.
    image
    Anne Bradstreet

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • IllinoisLady
    IllinoisLady Member Posts: 29,082
    edited January 2018

    Passion doesn't come from business or books or even a connection with another person. It is a connection with your own life force, the world around you and the spirit that connects us all. YOU are the source. Books, work, music, people, sunsets all provide sparks, but only you can light the fire.

    Jennifer Jones

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • IllinoisLady
    IllinoisLady Member Posts: 29,082
    edited February 2018

    "The journey begins where you are, not where you want to be! So be here now and embrace the present moment, and all it offers."

    - Charlene Proctor

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • IllinoisLady
    IllinoisLady Member Posts: 29,082
    edited February 2018

    If you can accept the flow of life and give in to it,
    you will be accepting what is real. Only when you accept
    what is real can you live with it in peace and happiness.
    The alternative is a struggle that will never end because
    it is a struggle with the unreal, with a mirage of life
    instead of life itself.
    image
    Deepak Chopra

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • IllinoisLady
    IllinoisLady Member Posts: 29,082
    edited February 2018

    Only when life is difficult, are we challenged to become our greatest selves.
    - Jonathan Lockwood Huie

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • IllinoisLady
    IllinoisLady Member Posts: 29,082
    edited February 2018

    "To dare is to lose one's footing momentarily. To not dare is to lose oneself."

    -- Soren Kierkegaard

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Categories