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Thanks for posting Mike, enjoyed reading the articles!
This was taken from "Still Life With Woodpecker" by Tom Robbins.
"CHOICE"
The word that allows yes, the word that makes no possible.
The word that puts the free in freedom and takes the obligation out of love.
The word that throws a window open after the final door is closed.
The word upon which all adventure, all exhilaration, all meaning, all honor depends.
The word that fires evolution's motor of mud.
The word that the cocoon whispers to the caterpillar.
The word that molecules recite before bonding.
The word that separates that which is dead from that which is living.
The word no mirror can turn around.
In the beginning was the word and the word was CHOICE.
CHOICE. A person's looking for a simple truth to live by, there it is, CHOICE. To refuse to passively accept what we've been handed by nature or society, but to choose for ourselves. CHOICE. That's the difference between emptiness and substance, between a life actually lived and a wimpy shadow cast on an office wall.
These are my two favorites I never get them out of my mind -
This is the beginning of a new day. You have been given this day to use as you will.
You can waste it or use it for good. What you do today is important because you
are exchanging a day of your life for it. When tomorrow comes, this day will be gone
forever, in its place will be what you have left behind- let it be something good.
An Old Lady's Poem
-Anonymous
When an old lady died in the geriatric ward of a small hospital near Dundee, Scotland, it was felt that she had nothing left of any value. Later, when the nurses were going through her meager possessions, they found this poem. Its quality and content so impressed the staff that copies were made and distributed to every nurse in the hospital. One nurse took her copy to Ireland. The old lady's sole bequest to posterity has since appeared in the Christmas edition of the News Magazine of the North Ireland Association for Mental Health.
... And now this little old Scottish lady, with nothing left to give to the world, is now the author of this simple, yet eloquent, poem traveling the world by Internet. Goes to show that we all leave "SOME footprints in time".....
An Old Lady's Poem
What do you see, nurses, what do you see?
What are you thinking when you're looking at me?
A crabby old woman, not very wise,
Uncertain of habit, with faraway eyes?
Who dribbles her food and makes no reply
When you say in a loud voice, "I do wish you'd try!"
Who seems not to notice the things that you do,
And forever is losing a stocking or shoe.....
Who, resisting or not, lets you do as you will,
With bathing and feeding, the long day to fill....
Is that what you're thinking? Is that what you see?
Then open your eyes, nurse; you're not looking at me.
I'll tell you who I am as I sit here so still,
As I do at your bidding, as I eat at your will.
I'm a small child of ten ...with a father and mother,
Brothers and sisters, who love one another.
A young girl of sixteen, with wings on her feet,
Dreaming that soon now a lover she'll meet.
A bride soon at twenty -- my heart gives a leap,
Remembering the vows that I promised to keep.
At twenty-five now, I have young of my own,
Who need me to guide and a secure happy home.
A woman of thirty, my young now grown fast,
Bound to each other with ties that should last.
At forty, my young sons have grown and are gone,
But my man's beside me to see I don't mourn.
At fifty once more, babies play round my knee,
Again we know children, my loved one and me.
Dark days are upon me, my husband is dead;
I look at the future, I shudder with dread.
For my young are all rearing young of their own,
And I think of the years and the love that I've known.
I'm now an old woman ...and nature is cruel;
'Tis jest to make old age look like a fool.
The body, it crumbles, grace and vigor depart,
There is now a stone where I once had a heart.
But inside this old carcass a young girl still dwells,
And now and again my battered heart swells.
I remember the joys, I remember the pain,
And I'm loving and living life over again.
I think of the years ....all too few, gone too fast,
And accept the stark fact that nothing can last.
So open your eyes, nurses, open and see,
...Not a crabby old woman; look closer ...see ME!!
*********************
http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2016/12...tionships.html
to add a few thoughts to this article, when you are in a bad relationship, job or other unhappy situation perhaps it would be better to think of "lost opportunity costs" rather than "sunk costs" meaning that by staying in the unhappy situation you are missing out on the opportunity to have a relationship, job etc that would make you happier
I've had this quote in a frame in my computer room for thirty years and it's gives me a boost when I'm not sure if I'm making a difference:
“No ray of sunshine is ever lost but the green which it awakens needs time to sprout, and it is not always given to the sower to see the harvest. All work that is worth anything is done on faith.” – Albert Schweitzer
This is also a favorite quote of mine. It expresses a teacher's viewpoint, in my opinion. We teachers sometimes go out of our way to make a difference for individual students, then they pass out of our life and we may never see them again. We can only hope and trust that in many of the cases, the harvest which is not given to us to see will be a fruitful one. We proceed on the faith that what we do will be worthwhile. Life has no guarantees.
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