Anything

[Sela]

Hi Hops.  Hi Penny.  Hi Beth.  Hi all:

Welcome Luvanyway.  Hope you are still around.  Take your time.  No worries.

Hey Moon!  Hi.  Hope that cold is better!  Sending you chicken soup and a cozy cyber quilt! 

Found this other one with no author listed:

There I Grow Again

Don't Worry

If you have problems

Which is easy to say until you are in the midst of a really big one, I know.

But the only people I am aware of who don't have troubles are gathered in little neighborhoods.

Most communities have at least one. We call them cemeteries.

If you're breathing, you have difficulties.

It's the way of life. And believe it or not, most of your problems may actually be good for you.

Let me explain.

Maybe you have seen the Great Barrier Reef, stretching some 1,800 miles from New Guinea to Australia.

Tour guides regularly take visitors to view the reef.

On one tour, the guide was asked an interesting question.

"I notice that the lagoon side of the reef looks pale and lifeless, while the ocean side is vibrant and colorful," a traveler observed. "Why is this?"

The guide gave an interesting answer: "The coral around the lagoon side is in still water, with no challenge for its survival. It dies early.

The coral on the ocean side is constantly being tested by wind, waves, storms - surges of power.

It has to fight for survival every day of it's life. As it is challenged and tested it changes and adapts.

It grows healthy. It grows strong. And it reproduces."

Then he added this telling note: "That's the way it is with every living organism."

That is how it is with people.

Challenged and tested, we come alive. Like coral pounded by the sea, we grow.

Physical demands can cause us to grow stronger.

Mental and emotional stress can produce tough-mindedness and resiliency.

Spiritual testing can produce strength of character and faithfulness.

So, you have problems - no problem. Just tell yourself, "There I grow again."

Author unknown





"Like coral, pounded by the sea, we grow".     I love that line.

Have a great day all!

  Sela

[gratitude28]

Lovely, lovely. lovely.
I will take breathing and problems.
I will take the rough sea and the storms!!!

Thank you sela!!!

[gratitude28]

Beautiful, moon.
Thank you.
Love, Beth

[Hopalong]

Hi back, Sela!
Thanks for the lovely poem.
And you too , Moon, and Mr. Eliot...

getting sleepy but smiling as I type since it feels so sweet to say G'night to y'all...

love
Hops

[Sela]

Hi Ya'll:

That was a lovely poem Moon.  Thanks for posting.

Here's a short piece I found and felt inspired to share.  It's another one with no author listed:

Trust in God

I asked for Strength.........
And God gave me Difficulties to make me strong.

I asked for Wisdom.........
And God gave me Problems to solve.

I asked for Prosperity.........
And God gave me Brain and Brawn to work.

I asked for Courage.........
And God gave me Danger to overcome.

I asked for Love.........
And God gave me Troubled people to help.

I asked for Favors.........
And God gave me Opportunities.

I received nothing I wanted ........
I received everything I needed!

Trust in God. Always !

[Sela]

Hi everyone:

Althought I won't be alone this Christmas, I have been there and keep thinking of those who will be this year.  Here's a short piece with some wise advice that might help if you're in this position. 

http://womentodaymagazine.com/relationships/homealone.html

Even though it's a women's magazine, this stuff applies to men too.

I hope everyone here has the best possible Christmas and that good things will happen for you in 2007.

(((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((all)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

Sela

[Sela]

Hi everyone!

Does anyone else sometimes have trouble accepting new ideas?  I think it's so important to be able to do that because not doing it......keeps me doing the same thing over and over again (and that's ok....if it's working....but if it's not working.......new ideas are necessary in order to make changes for the better).

Lot's of interesting articles at this link.  I like this one as it seems simple and sensible:

http://ezinearticles.com/?Accepting-New-Ideas&id=21508

Enjoy today all!

  Sela

[Sela]

Been reading quotes:

It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.

Seneca

When I really think about it.......it's true for me.  So much I've agonized over trying or doing or working through has seemed so very hard until I actually did the trying or doing or working through.  Once started.....it was doable or worth trying/working on and not nearly as tough as I thought it would be, and if all failed, it was usually still worth the effort because there was stuff to learn from it all.....sort of hidden gifts.

Dare to try!  I need to remind myself more often.

  Sela

[isittoolate]

Do all the good that you can.
By all the means that you can.
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever you can.
               --John Wesley

[Sela]

That's so nice isittoolate!

Good advice too.  "...all the good that you can".  Not all good always but what you can.
                        "By all the means that you can".  Not by all means but buy all the means you can.
                        "In all the places you can".  Not in all places but in all the places you possibly can.
                       "To all the people you can".  I'm on  a roll here...not to all people...but to the ones you can.
                        "As long as ever you can".  Not forever but for as long as you can.

Thanks for posting that one.  It's inspiring!

  Sela

[spyralle]

The Hopi Pueblo Indians of Arizona offer this advice:

"Hold on to what is good
even if it is a hand full of earth.

Hold on to your belief
even if it is a tree that stands alone.

Hold on to what you must do
even if it is a long way from here.

Hold on to your life
even if it's easier to let go

Hold on to my hand
even when I am gone from you."

Spyralle x

[Sela]

Hi Spy:  I love that Pueblo Indian advice!  It might even been here....on this thread.....aways back!  I don't think it can be posted too many times, so thanks for posting it!!

Here's a quote that hit me between the eyeballs:

“ A man who wants something will find a way; a man who doesn’t will find an excuse. ”

 by Stephan Dolley Jr.
 
 

I think I've done this my whole life.  Until I've really wanted something, I've managed to find any/every excuse to avoid it.  I need to tatoo this one on me somewhere where I'll see it often and think about it.

Here's hoping we will all will find a way to what we want and stop with the excuses (as I suspect there are others here like me).

(((((hugs)))))

  Sela

[seastorm]

Hello to All,

I would be very interested to hear about anyone who really dared to do something and what happened.

Once I bought a tugboat and went to Alaska. It changed my life. It was so reckless and out of the norm. Even trying to get funding was interesting. I think there is magic in choosing a goal and going on the ride with gusto.
It turned out to be a LOT of work and the adventure of walking creeks was WAY too adventurous ( Grizzly Country).  I decided I would go back to school.
The people I met in out of the way places and the close encounters with death were good for the soul.
I don't tell many people about it because they don't seem to comprehend that a woman could do this. They get a blank look.

Sea storm

[Hopalong]

How incredibly wonderful, Sea!
What memories you must have.
I am awed, and envious.

I've had a few adventures...falling in love with a merchant seaman in a park in London, hitching to Inverness with him...sailing on a yacht from St. Cast to Jersey Island (a cushy adventure...I was just a passenger)...Wild and Crazy times in my 20s...having a job for a summer being a counselor with a sort of European wilderness adventure travel thing for American teens...it wasn't really risk at all, but it wa amazing (considering what a nebbishy adventurer I am, not an athletic bone in my body). We went: hiking in the Stubai Alps, canoeing on the Ardeche, sailing in Plymouth, kayaking the Wye, horseback riding on the Black Hills, etc, etc.

Jeez. Hasn't been much adventure for a couple decades, and none that took the kind of bravery you have. I wasted a great deal of my adventurousness in reckless romances. I remember reading a book once that talked about how young women have the very same drive for fulfillment through adventure and challenge as men do, but because we're (still) socialized to believe all our fulfillment has to come in very restricted roles, we channel it into our relationships, which is why our domestic dramas get Wagnerian.

I have NO trouble knowing a woman can explore and do brave things!

Thanks for sharing that extraordinary chapter, and I'm glad the grizzlies didn't get you.

Hops

[seastorm]

That is so true about putting all the passion into relationships. I think this is a real linchpin in my psyche. Now I would like to put my passion and resources into something really meaningful like going to Africa and helping the grandmothers there.
I wish that I could get healthy and take all my creativity and intuition and have anther adventure. Really commit to something.

I was committed to working wtih chidlren and families but I find the bureaucracy I worked for was really aweful. There was not room to do anything more than write short reports about how much progress I was making. Even if there was no progress.Finding depended on increments of progress.


I feel tired and discouraged today.

Sea storm