heart of gold

When we honestly ask ourselves

which person in our lives means the most to us,

we often find that it is those who,

instead of giving much advice, solutions, or cures,

have chosen rather

to share our pain and touch our wounds

with a gentle and tender hand.

-----

The friend

who can be silent with us

in a moment of despair or confusion,

who can stay with us

in an hour of grief and bereavement,

who can tolerate

not knowing,

not curing,

not healing

and face with us

the reality of our powerlessness,

that is a friend who cares.

Henri Nouwen

to be a woman

If you can live each day with the assurance
That a ‘girl’ is something wonderful to be
If you can find a way to meet your problems
With courage and with true maturity

If you can be attractive and in fashion
You are never swayed by vulgar style
If you can choose the finer things life offers
Rejecting what is worthless with a smile…

If you can guard the principles you live by –
Hold fast to truth and honor all through life
And stand for right in every situation
No matter what the world may say or do…

If you can try to offer hope or comfort
To those who seem to need a helping hand
If you can offer little acts of kindness
Or say a word that shows you understand

If you can meet a trying situation
Without complaint and with spirit high
If you can face occasional disappointment
Not yielding to a grumble or a sigh

If you can learn to make a firm decision
And say ‘I will’ – never ‘I may’ or ‘might’
If you can follow in your true vocation
Unswerving, for you know your course is right…

If you can take delight in little children
And be a friend to older folks you know
If you can give your warmth and understanding
To fill the lives of those who love you so…

If you can practice all the arts of living
With gracious kindness and with real integrity
You’re bound to be a happy person, always
And the lovely woman you were meant to be.

-- author unknown --

the power of 'I'

I have come to the frightening conclusion

that I am the decisive element.

It is my personal approach that creates the climate.

It is my daily mood that makes the weather.

.....

I possess tremendous power

to make life miserable or joyous.

I can be a tool of torture or

an instrument of inspiration;

I can humiliate or humor,

hurt or heal.

.....

In all situations, it is my response that decides

whether a crisis is escalated or de-escalated,

and

a person is humanized or de-humanized.

......

If we treat people as they are,

we make them worse.

If we treat people as they ought to be,

we help them become

what they are capable of becoming.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

anyway

This 'creed of Mother Teresa' was left in my comments box from Glimpses Intangible. I like this so much that I post this for keepsake. Thank you Pauline.

People are often

unreasonable, illogical and self-centered.

Forgive them anyway.

....

If you are kind,

people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.

Be kind anyway.

....

If you are successful,

you will win some false friends and some true enemies.

Succeed anyway.

....

If you are honest and frank,

people may cheat you.

Be honest and frank anyway.

....

What you spend years building,

someone could destroy overnight.

Build anyway.

....

If you find serenity and happiness,

they may be jealous.

Be happy anyway.

....

The good you do today,

people will often forget tomorrow.

Do good anyway.

....

Give the world the best you have,

and it may never be enough.

Give the world the best you've got anyway.

....

You see in the final analysis,

it is between you and God.

It is never between you and them anyway.

...

Mother Teresa (1910-1997)

prayer of peace

Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,
Grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console;
To be understood as to understand;
To be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

St Francis of Assisi (1181-1226)

victory

When you are forgotten or neglected,

or purposely set at naught,

and you smile inwardly,

glorying in the insult or the oversight,

That is victory.

----

When your good is evil spoken of,

when your wishes are crossed,

your tastes offended,

your advice disregarded,

your opinions ridiculed,

and you take it all in loving patient silence,

That is victory.

----

When you are content

with any food,

any raiment,

any climate,

any society,

any position in life,

any solitude,

any interruption,

That is victory.

----

When you can bear with any discord,

any annoyance,

any irregularity (of which you are not the cause),

That is victory.

----

When you can stand face to face with folly,

extravagance, spiritual insensibility,

contradiction of sinners, persecution

-- and endure it all as Jesus endured --

That is victory.

----

When you never care to refer to yourself

in conversation,

nor to record your works,

nor to seek after commendation,

when you truly love to be unknown,

That is victory.

Anonymous

horizon

"The wideness of the horizon has to be inside us,
cannot be anywhere but inside us,
otherwise what we speak about is geographic distances."
Ella Maillart, Swiss author

when you are old

When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, and take down this book,
And slowly dream, and think of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of the shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false and true,
But one man loved the pilgrim Soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;

And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

by William Butler Yeats

a man of pure...

A man of pure, simple and steadfast spirit

is not distracted

by the multitude of things he has to do

for he does all

for the honor of God,

and strive to keep himself inwardly

free from all self-seeking.

Thomas Kempis (c.1380-1471)