Good Will, Light Hearts and Strong Values
“Almost anything can be dealt with if people are of good will and light hearts and strong values.”
–Robert Fulghum (American Author and Unitarian Clergyman, 1937-)
The First Characteristic of a Saint
“The first characteristic of a Saint is that he is calm and tranquil, and bears like a diamond the buffets of misfortune.”
–Sant Tukaram (a.k.a. Shri Tukaram, a.k.a. Tuka, Indian Teacher and Poet, c.1598-1650)
Prayer, Harmony and Resilience
We hear an awful lot about the importance of integrating ourselves. One of the key questions, is how? Is it something that can simply arise on its own or do we need to find some kind of “ring master”? What, then, could be the unifying or integrating principle? Here is just one answer:
“Only in prayer do we achieve that complete and harmonious assembly of body, mind, and spirit which gives the frail human reed its unshakable strength.”
–Alexis Carrel (French-born American Surgeon, Experimental Biologist and, in 1912, Winner of the Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology, 1873-1944)
Facing Danger
“If a bird is flying for pleasure it flies with the wind, but if it meets danger it turns and faces the wind, in order that it may rise higher.”
–Corrie ten Boom (Dutch Watchmaker, Evangelist, Protector of Jewish Refugees and Holocaust Survivor, 1892-1983)
Problems Are Gifts
“There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in its hands.”
–Sir John Marks Templeton (American-born British Investor, Philanthropist and Active Proponent of Reintroducing Spirituality into Day-to-Day life, 1912-2008)
“Worldwide Laws Of Life: 200 Eternal Spiritual Principles” (John Marks Templeton)
If
This is one of those poems that a lot of us had to learn when I was a schoolboy. It was only years later that I realized that it is really very profound, and why Kipling had quite a reputation for his philosophy.
“IF”
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
but make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t dive way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream and not make dreams your master,
If you can think and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same,
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
twisted by knaves to make a trap for fool,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools,
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss,
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after the are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”
If you can talk crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it.”
–Rudyard Kipling (Indian-born English Writer and, in 1907, Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, 1865-1936)
Building Resilience
“It is not in the still calm of life, or the repose of a pacific station, that great characters are formed…. Great necessities call out great virtues.”
–Abigail Adams (American First Lady, 1744-1818)
Gaining Strength, Courage and Confidence
“You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, “I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.” . . . You must do the thing you think you cannot do.”
–Eleanor Roosevelt (American Diplomat, First Lady and Humanitarian, 1884-1962)
You Learn by Living
Getting Up When You Fall
“Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fall.”
–Confucius (Chinese Philosopher, 551-479 B.C.)
Environment Modified But Doesn’t Govern Your Life
“It is a common habit to blame life upon the environment. Environment modifies life but does not govern life. The soul is stronger than its surroundings.”
–William James (American Psychologist and Philosopher, 1842-1910)
