I thought I’d just give this a try. I don’t care where your quote comes from. It can be your favorite philosopher or even religious, I don’t care. I just thought it wouldn’t hurt to instill some wisdom or raise a bit of hope. We certainly can’t have too much of either. I’ll kick it off with some quotes I found around the topic of happiness.
Happiness doesn’t exist on the far side of distant mountains. It is within you, yourself. Not you, however, sitting in idle passivity. It is to be found in the vibrant dynamism of your own life as you struggle to challenge and overcome one obstacle after another, as you clamber up a perilous ridge in pursuit of that which lies beyond.
Happiness is not a life without worries or struggles. Happiness is the robust sense of fulfillment one feels when bravely confronting hardship. It is that elevation of the spirit, like an airplane gaining lift from the air resistance against its wings.
Happiness does not exist as an isolated quality, nor does it conform to a single fixed pattern. Happiness is something that breathes and lives in the relationships between people.
Death is always on the way, but the fact that you don’t know when it will arrive seems to take away from the finiteness of life. It’s that terrible precision that we hate so much. But because we don’t know, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens a certain number of times, and a very small number, really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, some afternoon that’s so deeply a part of your being that you can’t even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four or five times more. Perhaps not even. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless.
You can choose a ready guide in some celestial voice. If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice. You can choose from phantom fears and kindness that can kill. I will choose a path thats clear. I will choose Freewill.
The measure of a life is a measure of love and respect, So hard to earn so easily burned In the fullness of time, A garden to nurture and protect It’s a measure of a life The treasure of a life is a measure of love and respect, The way you live, the gifts that you give In the fullness of time, It’s the only return that you expect
How can anybody be enlightened?
Truth is after all so poorly lit …
No, his mind is not for rent
To any God or government
Always hopeful yet discontent
He knows changes aren’t permanent
But change is.
Your quote made me think of when I could count how many more times I would see my mother before she left…and I thought for sure I would be with her at my final calculation. Nothin belies speculation more than the human spirit.
No matter how complex global challenges may seem, we must remember that it is we ourselves who have given rise to them. It is therefore impossible that they are beyond our power as human beings to resolve. Returning to our humanity, cultivating and reforming the inner capacities of our lives, can enable reform and empowerment on a global scale.
