Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth,
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.

~ Naomi Shihab Nye, from the poem “Kindness”

Our anger and annoyance are more detrimental to us than the thing themselves which anger or annoy us.

~ Marcus Aurelius (A.D. 121-180)

Art attracts us only by what it reveals of our most secret self. ~ Jean-Luc Godard 

Become better listeners. Practice the art of listening in everything you do. Not just listening to yourself and your body, but listening to the people around you, listening to the plant world, the animal world. Really open your ears to what's coming at you. From there, see if you can have the ability to respond instead of react. And that usually comes with listening. If the observation and the listening are deep, then your action will be deep also. ~ Rodney Yee, yoga teacher 

A great marriage is not when the perfect couple comes together. It is when an imperfect couple learns to enjoy their differences. ~ Dave Meurere

Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.

~ James Baldwin

What we have learned from others becomes our own by reflection. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

...the majority of people cannot endure the bareness and futility of their lives unless
they have some ardent dedication, or some passionate pursuit in which they 
can lose themselves. ~ Eric Hoffer

I should love to satisfy all, if I possibly can; but in trying to satisfy all, I may be able to satisfy none. I have, therefore, arrived at the conclusion that the best course is to satisfy one's own conscience and leave the world to form its own judgment, favorable or otherwise. ~ Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948)

You don't go through a deep personal transformation without some kind of dark night of the soul.

~ Sam Keen (1931-)

We learn well and fast when we experience the consequences of what we do—and don't do.

~ Anonymous

People who achieve a sense of meaning in their lives are happier than those who live from one pleasure to another. ~ Richard Layard

The art of living is always to make a good thing out of a bad thing. ~ E. F. Schumacher (1911-1977)

Do all you can...

Do all the good you can,

In all the ways you can,

To all the people you can,

In every place you can,

At all the times you can,

As long as ever you can.

Optimist: One who believes things are so bad they're bound to get better. ~ Jerry Tucker (1941-)

I'm at the age where food has taken the place of sex in my life. In fact, I've just had a mirror put over my kitchen table. ~ Rodney Dangerfield

Man was born free and everywhere he is in chains. ~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau 

The world is a looking glass, and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face. Frown at it, and it will in turn look sourly upon you; laugh at it and with it, and it is a jolly kind companion.

~ William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863)

Never underestimate your power to change yourself; never over-estimate  your power to change others.

~ Jackson Brown, Jr.

A friend is one who walks in when others walk out. 

~ Walter Winchell (1897-1972)

There is no love sincerer than the love of food. ~ George Bernard Shaw

When one offers gratitude, one is healed of many things. ~ Mitchell May

Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless. ~ Mother Teresa (1910-1997)  Founder, Missionaries of Charity 

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Whatever your mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve. ~ Barbara A. Robinson

In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: It goes on. ~ Robert Frost

Let us not look back in anger or forward in fear but around in awareness. ~ James Thurber

"I'd like to add some beauty to life," said Anne dreamily. "I don't exactly want to make people know more...though I know that is the noblest ambition...but I'd love to make them have a pleasanter time because of me...to have some little joy or happy thought that would never have existed if I hadn't been born."
~ Anne of Avonlea

Flatter me, and I may not believe you
Criticize me, and I may not like you
Ignore me, and I may not forgive you
Encourage me, and I may not forget you.
~ William Arthur Ward

In the long run the pessimist may be proved to be right, but the optimist has a better time on the trip. ~ Daniel L. Reardon

Sorrow comes in great waves...but it rolls over us, and though it may almost smother us, it leaves us. And we know that if it is strong, we are stronger, inasmuch as it passes and we remain. ~ Henry James 

There is no passion to be found playing small - in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living. ~ Nelson Mandela

Happiness is the by-product of an effort to make someone else happy. 

~ Gretta Palmer (b. 1905)  American Writer

I have noticed that when chickens quit quarreling over their food they often find that there is enough for all of them 

I wonder if it might not be the same with the human race. ~ Donald Robert Perry Marquis, American Journalist 

One of the sweetest things in life: a letter from a friend.

~ Andy Rooney, American television commentator

The Quotable Cook

I envy people who drink—at least they know what to blame everything on. ~ Oscar Levant

My Influence

My life shall touch a dozen lives

Before this day is done,

Leave countless marks for good or ill,

Ere sets the evening sun;

This is the wish I always wish,

The prayer I always pray:

Lord, may my life help other lives

It touches by the way.

~ Alice E. Clark

The greatest good we can do for others is not to share our riches but to reveal theirs.  ~ Author Unknown

Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies within us while we live.  ~ Norman Cousins

If you want to make enemies, try to change something. ~ Woodrow Wilson

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Successful people have cultivated the habit of never denying to themselves their true feelings and attitudes...They have no need for pretenses.
~ David Harold Fink

If there be righteousness in the heart,

   there will be beauty in character.

If there be beauty in character,

   there will be harmony in the home.

If there be harmony in the home,

   there will be order in the nation.

If there be order in the nation,

   there will be peace in the world.

 ~ Confucius, Book of Rites

Take Time

Take time to work

It is the price of success

Take time to think

It is the source of power

Take time to play

It is the secret of perpetual youth

Take time to read

It is the fountain of wisdom

Take time to be friendly

It is the road to happiness

Take time to love and be loved

It is nourishment for the soul

Take time to share

It is too short a life to be selfish

Take time to laugh

It is the music of the heart

Take time to dream

It is hitching your wagon to a star.           

~ Anonymous

Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness, concerning all acts of initiative (and creation). There is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now.

  ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The heaven's blue expanse
stretched like a curtain
With tiny stars, uncounted
gleaming pearls;
Winds moving dreamlike in the
tranquil darkness
And brooding in them still the
peace of God,
with hints and whispers faint, like
secret kisses,
With revelation frought, stirring
the grass;
And sleep that heals and sleep
that soothes and comforts....

~ Chiam Nachman Bialik

I believe in the sun even when it is not shining.

I believe in love even when not feeling it.

I believe in God even when He is silent.

~ Anonymous Jewish wall inscription

A person who refuses to give up will always succeed eventually. ~ Joyce Meyer

Music is the divine way to tell beautiful, poetic things to the heart. ~ Pablo Casals

Art by Beth Avary 

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