Sunday

"Were I to be the founder of a new sect,

I would call them Apiarians, and, after the example of the bee,

advise them to extract the honey of every sect."  

- Thomas Jefferson

Walk away quietly in any direction and taste the freedom

of the mountaineer. Camp out among the grass and gentians

of glacier meadows, in craggy garden nooks full of Nature's darlings.

Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.

Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.

The winds will blow their own freshness into you,

and the storms their energy,

while cares will drop away from you like autumn leaves.

As age comes on, one source of enjoyment after another is closed,

but Nature's sources never fail.

~John Muir

"Not only is it the case that happy people are more willing to help others,

but as I generally point out, helping others is the best way

to help yourself, the best way to promote your own happiness.

It is you, yourself, who will receive the benefit."

~the Dalai Lama

"You have choice.  

You can select joy over despair.  

You can select happiness over tears.  

You can select action over apathy.  

You can select growth over stagnation.  

You can select you.  

And you can select life.  

And it's time that people tell you

you're not at the mercy of forces greater than yourself.  

You are, indeed, the greatest force for you."

~Leo Buscaglia

~*~

“I should be suspicious of what I want.”

— Rumi

"We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope."

~Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968)

Keep close to Nature's heart... and break clear away, once in awhile,

and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods.

Wash your spirit clean.

~ John Muir

"The greatest test of courage on earth is to bear defeat

without losing heart."

~Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899)

Mankind are not held together by lies.

Trust is the foundation of society.

Where there is no truth, there can be no trust,

and where there is no trust, there can be no society.

Where there is society, there is trust, and where there is trust,

there is something upon which it is supported.

~ Frederick Douglass

I want to be remembered as a poet, a peacemaker,

and a philosopher who played.

Mattie Stepanek