Friday, September 30, 2005

Friday Thought: Let Your Soul Shine

Soulshine
By Warren Haynes

When you can't find the light,
That got you through the cloudy days,
When the stars ain't shinin' bright,
You feel like you've lost you're way,
When those candle lights of home,
Burn so very far away,
Well you got to let your soul shine,
Just like my daddy used to say.

[Chorus]
He used to say soulshine,
It's better than sunshine,
It's better than moonshine,
Damn sure better than rain.
Hey now people don't mind,
We all get this way sometime,
Got to let your soul shine, shine till the break of day.

I grew up thinkin' that I had it made,
Gonna make it on my own.
Life can take the strongest man,
Make him feel so alone.
Now and then I feel a cold wind,
Blowin' through my achin' bones,
I think back to what my daddy said,
He said "Boy, in the darkness before the dawn:"

[Chorus]
Let your soul shine,
It's better than sunshine,
It's better than moonshine,
Damn sure better than rain.
Yeah now people don't mind,
We all get this way sometimes,
Gotta let your soul shine, shine till the break of day.

Sometimes a man can feel this emptiness,
Like a woman has robbed him of his very soul.
A woman too, God knows, she can feel like this.
And when your world seems cold, you got to let your spirit take control.

[Chorus]
Let your soul shine,
It's better than sunshine,
It's better than moonshine,
Damn sure better than rain.
Lord now people don't mind,
We all get this way sometimes,
Gotta let your soul shine, shine till the break of day.

Oh, it's better than sunshine,
It's better than moonshine,
Damn sure better than rain.
Yeah now people don't mind,
We all get this way sometimes,
Gotta let your soul shine, shine till the break of day.




















Allman Brothers Band, Late 1960s

Such great memories!

Thursday, September 29, 2005

Thursday Thought: Autumn

"Autumn is a second spring when every leaf's a flower."


--Albert Camus
When I was a child
Laura Markham

When I was a child
I looked at things with such amazement

My perspective was not in dimensions
But rather instead flat and simple
When I was a Child
I would see the colors in the rainbow
My eyes would find a million colors
I would smile and wonder
how come the grass was only green
and unlike the rainbow...
You know those questions that as a
child that always leave you wondering
Like is there a god?
Is there a pot of gold at the end of that
rainbow?
Why is the sky blue?
How come it rains?
So many questions...
And yet as I grew older...
Something came to me...
I realized... that those answers
were never to be told.
I realized that some things Just are.
Like the ocean..
How deep and vast and blue
where it goes on for miles...
and like the sun
hot and colorful, shining so bright...
Like the love a mother gives to her young
Unconditional.. free... and always..
Circumstances allow us to accept that
sometimes things are just that way.
No explanations needed.
when I was a child tho...
you could have never
made me understand
One for the road...

"The man who is a pessimist before 48 knows too much; if he is an optimist after it, he knows too little."

--Mark Twain

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Wednesday Thought: What We Must Do

"All we have to decide is what to do with the time we are given."

--Gandalf to Frodo, The Fellowship of the Ring
One for the road...

"The best ideas are common property."

--Seneca
One to ponder...

"Soul development should take precedence over all things."

--Edgar Cayce

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

One for the road...

"Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with the important matters."

- Albert Einstein
Tuesday Thought: Rules and Fun

"If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun."

- Katharine Hepburn

Monday, September 26, 2005

One to ponder...

"If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities."

--Maya Angelou
Monday Thought: Leadership

"A leader is a dealer in hope."

~ Napoleon Bonaparte

Sunday, September 25, 2005

Sunday Thought: Your Sacred Place

"Your sacred space is where you can find yourself again and again."
--Joseph Campbell




















Click on image to enlarge.

Saturday, September 24, 2005

Another one to ponder...

We do not grow absolutely, chronologically. We grow sometimes in one dimension, and not in another; unevenly. We grow partially. We are relative. We are mature in one realm, childish in another. The past, present, and future mingle and pull us backward, forward, or fix us in the present. We are made up of layers, cells, constellations.

--Anais Nin
Saturday Thought: Do We Know Life?

"I've looked at life from both sides nowFrom win and lose and still somehowIt's life's illusions I recallI really don't know life at all."

--Joni Mitchell

Friday, September 23, 2005

One for the road...

"It doesn't matter who my father was; it matters who I remember he was."

--Anne Sexton
Friday Thought: What are we?

"Instead of saying that man is the creature of circumstance, it would be nearer the mark to say that man is the architect of circumstance."

--Thomas Carlyle

Thursday, September 22, 2005

Thursday Thought: Our Relationship with Mother Nature

We are not above Nature. We must live within Mother Nature's rules if we are to survive. We must do what we can to maintain harmony and balance in our world. Nature's way is the only way.

--Don

Wednesday, September 21, 2005
















Coming soon to a yard near you...
Source: IanGClark
Wednesday Thought: How Can We Really Help?

"In my early professionals years I was asking the question: How can I treat, or cure, or change this person? Now I would phrase the question in this way: How can I provide a relationship which this person may use for his own personal growth?"

--Carl Rogers

PS: I believe this is also true for consultants! Being one, I know firsthand.
One for the road...

"Live in such a way that you would not be ashamed to sell your parrot to the town gossip."

--Will Rogers

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

Tuesday Thought: Angels While We Sleep

"While we are sleeping, angels have conversations with our souls."

Source: Angel Wisdom
One for the road...

Among the blind, the squint rules.

--Hindu proverb















Wildflowers
Source: PBase Photo

Monday, September 19, 2005

One for the road...

"The mind, the Buddha, living creatures - these are not three different things."

—Avatamasaka Sutra
Monday Thought: Makes Me Laugh

"Since everything is but an apparition, having nothing to do with good or bad, acceptance or rejection, one may well burst out in laughter."

—Longchenpa(14th century Tibet)
















Source: Harrison County, Ohio

Sunday, September 18, 2005
















Look Up!
One for the road...

"Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding."

--Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet
Sunday Thought: Our Relationships

"What is our relationship to a flower, to a bird that passes by? And what is our relationship with each other - not with the speaker but with each other - with your wife, with your husband, with your children, with the environment, with your neighbor, your community, the government, and so on? What is our relationship to all this? Or are we just isolated, self-concerned, intensely interested in our own way of life?"

--Jiddu Krishnamurti

Saturday, September 17, 2005














This Could Be You!
Buffalo National River, Arkansas
Source: National Park Service
A friendly reminder...

Although Albert Einstein was certainly not a Buddhist, these statements sound much like it:

"A human being is part of a whole, called by us the 'universe', a part limited in time and space."

"Man experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separate from the rest--a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness."

"This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affectation for a few people near us."

"Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion
to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."

"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one."
Saturday Thought: How Can You Lose?

"You only lose what you cling to."

--Buddha

Friday, September 16, 2005

One for the road...

Dreams have only one owner at a time. That's why dreamers are lonely.

--Erma Bombeck
Friday Thought: Don't Whine, Share

"A bottle of wine begs to be shared; I have never met a miserly wine lover."

--Clifton Paul Fadiman




















Wow!
Source: PeonyGarden

Thursday, September 15, 2005















Step Into This World
Source: http://pantransit.reptiles.org/
Thursday Thought: Garden

"Just as a prism of glass miters light and casts a colored braid, a garden sings sweet incantations the human heart strains to hear. Hiding in every flower, in every leaf, in every twig and bough, are reflections of the God who once walked with us in Eden."

-- Tonia Triebwasser, The Color of Grace

Wednesday, September 14, 2005















God
Source: OSL, Norway
Wednesday Thought: Go Outside

"The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature."

--Anne Frank

Tuesday, September 13, 2005




















Perspective
Source: Sequoia National Park, National Park Service
Discovering who we are...

"Anything that is created must sooner or later die. Enlightenment is permanent because we have not produced it; we have merely discovered it."

--Chogyam Trungpa
Tuesday Thought: Beware the Unsound Mind

"By amending our mistakes, we get wisdom. By defending our faults, we betray an unsound mind."

--The Sutra of Hui Neng

Monday, September 12, 2005















Source: Jonathan Hunt
How true...

"If you live the sacred and despise the ordinary, you are still bobbing in the ocean of delusion."
--Zen Master Lin-Chi
Monday Thought: Of Riches

"Although gold dust is precious, when it gets in your eyes, it obstructs your vision."
--Hsi-Tang

Sunday, September 11, 2005





















Mt. Everest in Tibet
Source: Golden Bridge International
From His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama...

May I become at all times, both now and forever
A protector for those without protection
A guide for those have lost their way
A ship for those with oceans to cross
A bridge for those with rivers to cross
A sanctuary for those in danger
A lamp for those without light
A place of refuge for those who lack shelter
And a servant to all in need."

Dated: November 6, 2000
Sunday Thought: What to Rely Upon

- Rely on the message, not on the personality of the teacher.
- Rely on the meaning, not just the words.
- Rely on the real meaning, not just the provisional meaning.
- Rely on your wisdom and insight, not just on your ordinary, judgmental mind.

Source: Buddha

Saturday, September 10, 2005





















Get Above the Clouds in Your Life
Why is there a Conscious Living Journal?

"Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared."
--Source: Unknown
Saturday Thought: Wake Up!

A brahmin once asked The Blessed One:"Are you a God?"
"No, brahmin" said The Blessed One."
Are you a saint?""No, brahmin" said The Blessed One.
"Are you a magician?""No, brahmin" said The Blessed One.
"What are you then?"
"I am awake."

Friday, September 09, 2005















Full Moon Mystery
Source: Carto Net
Friday Thought: Test What You Believe

"O monks, just as a goldsmith tests his gold by melting, cutting and rubbing, sages accept my teachings after full examination, and not just out of devotion."
--Shakyamuni Buddha, Ihe Tattvasamgraha
Buddhist Take on Fear...

"Fear plays a very important part in our daily life, and in human society as a whole. Fear comes in many shapes and forms, but it could be described as: an unpleasant feeling of perceived risk or danger, real or not. It functions to make us alert and ready for action while expecting specific problems.

As is often said, fear lies at the basis of all religions. At the time humans were gatherers and hunters, little was understood of the world around them, so without understanding the causes for many everyday experiences there is logically existential fear. In search for understanding the world around them, shamans and mystics tried to explain the world with invisible and incomprehensible aspects aspects like spirits, gods, nature itself, the sun and moon etc. which also gave the possibility to do something about 'the unexpected' by pleasing the gods and spirits with rtual offerings etc. Later on, more advanced ideas and philosophies developed, and of course, organized religions.

Also Buddhism is largely based on fear; the fear of suffering. The historical Buddha went out on his spiritual quest when he realized that everybody is subject to discomfort, problems and pain, and with the goal to find a way to end it alltogether he discovered a 'way out'.

In fact, this is not too different from the main motivation to develop human civilization: we fear discomfort so we store food for more difficult times, we prepare ourselves for dangers like wild animals, but also to defend ourselves from other humans. This fear of discomfort and attachement to comfort has driven humans in their development from a type of smart monkey to a creature that has gained control over nearly all other living beings on this planet. Fear and paranoia, together with attachment, craving and hatred are responsible for wars.

Our most basic fear is the fear of death, which functions to make us alert in dangerous situations, and can thus be a very healthy emotion. But much less dramatic reasons of fear are found everywhere in our daily lives: 'Did I lock the house?', 'Isn't this food unhealthy?', 'Is my health insurance high enough?', 'Shouldn't my daughter be home yet?'. These worries can be based or quite baseless. Problematic types of fear can be when we are afraid of things that do not pose any real threat, like fear of spiders or large spaces.

In all cases, we could say that fear is a reaction to something that may happen in the future, be it realistic or not, it is always uncomfortable. And here we find one of the contradictions of fear itself: it should work to keep us from discomfort, yet it is uncomfortable itself."


Source: Tharpa.com

Thursday, September 08, 2005















North Cascades National Park, Washington State
Source: National Park Service
Thursday: How We Are

Agent Smith: "I'd like to share a revelation that I've had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species. I realized that you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment, but you humans do not. You move to an area, and you multiply, and multiply, until every natural resource is consumed. The only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet, you are a plague, and we are the cure."

Source: The Matrix
Selling Faith
By Emma L. Combes

They're selling God on TV
and diamonds in the streets,
you buy salvation
and a complimentary
microwave.
Semantics surround
and play at your natural human weakness.
Because apparantly,
God is in my kitchen,
and deep within my wallet.
It's only fair, though
'cause healing's not free,
and money is cheap.
You're pawning gold off on 3rd street
to a man in a coat
who says 'you need some helpin'.
He smiles, all teeth and redemption
and trades you God for
six dollars and thirty-seven fucking cents.
Plus a complimentary microwave.

Wednesday, September 07, 2005





















New Orleans: Let's Hope Someday Soon Again
Source: Ed Weingart
More on balance...

"The best and safest thing is to keep a balance in your life, acknowledge the great powers around us and in us. If you can do that, and live that way, you are really a wise man."
--Euripides
Wednesday Thought: Balance

"Be aware of wonder. Live a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some."
--Robert Fulghum

Tuesday, September 06, 2005




In the Aftermath of Katrina

Source: Associated Press.

The art of dreaming...

"Don Juan contended that our world, which we believe to be unique and absolute, is only one in a cluster of consecutive worlds, arranged like the layers of an onion. He asserted that even though we have been energetically conditioned to perceive solely our world, we still have the capability of entering into those other realms, which are as real, unique, absolute and engulfing as our own world is. . . . Believing that our energetic conditioning is correctable, don Juan stated that sorcerers of ancient times developed a set of practices designed to recondition our energetic capabilities to perceive. They called this set of practices the art of dreaming."

--Carlos Castañeda, The Art of Dreaming
Tuesday Thought: Suffering

"The First Truth is the fact of suffering. All desire happiness. . . . Yet all find that life brings . . . frustration, dissatisfaction, incompleteness. . . . Life is change, and change can never satisfy desire. Therefore everything that changes brings suffering."

"The Second Truth is the cause of suffering. It is not life that brings sorrow, but the demands we make on life. . . . Thinking life can make them happy by bringing what they want, people run after satisfaction of their desires . . . [demanding] what experience cannot give: permanent pleasure unmixed with anything unpleasant. But there is no end to such desire; that is the nature of the mind. Suffering because life cannot satisfy selfish desire is like suffering because a banana tree will not bear mangoes."

--Easwaran, The Dhammapada

Monday, September 05, 2005
















Wheeling Pitt Steel
Source: Industrial Arts Blog
One for ther road...

"Nothing is work unless you'd rather be doing something else."

--George Halas
Monday Thought: Who You Are

Your life work is a statement of Who You Are. If it is not, then why are you doing it? Do you imagine that you have to? You don't have to do anything.

If "man who supports his family, at all costs, even his own happiness" is Who You Are, then love your work, because it is facilitating your creation of a living statement of Self.

If "woman who works at job she hates to meet responsibilities as she sees them" is Who You Are, then love, love, love your job, for it totally supports your Self image, your Self concept.

Everyone can love everything the moment they understand what they are doing, and why. No one does anything he or she doesn't want to do.


God "Conversations with God (Book 1)" through Neale Donald Walsch (adapted)

Sunday, September 04, 2005

Sunday Thought: Remember

"Memory is what is left when something happens and does not completely unhappen."
~Edward de Bono

"Every man's memory is his private literature."
~Aldous Huxley

"God gave us memories that we might have roses in December."
~J.M. Barrie














Bridgeport, Ohio: A Long Time Ago
Source: Wheeling-Weirton, WV Library

Saturday, September 03, 2005















More memories...
Source: Marsh Wheeling Stogie











Another memory from the past...
Source: Imperial Glass Collectors Society












From the past...
Source:
Reed Organ Society
One to ponder...

"The more we exploit nature, The more our options are reduced, until we have only one: to fight for survival."

--Morris K. Udall
Saturday Thought: Forgive

"Nothing worth doing is completed in our lifetime,Therefore, we are saved by hope.Nothing true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history;Therefore, we are saved by faith.Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone.Therefore, we are saved by love.No virtuous act is quite a virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as from our own;Therefore, we are saved by the final form of love which is forgiveness."

--Reinhold Niebuhr

Friday, September 02, 2005
















Wow!
Source: BugInfo




















Is this a friend of yours?
One to ponder...

"The highest reward for man's toil is not what he gets for it, but what he becomes by it."

--John Ruskin
Friday Thought: Just Be!

"You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life."

--Albert Camus

Thursday, September 01, 2005





















Source: StarrySkies.com
Thursday Thought: The Road to Success

"The road to success is always under construction"

--Lily Tomlin
Astrology...

"A physician without a knowledge of Astrology has no right to call himself a physician."

--Hippocrates
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