This is my living faith, an active faith, a faith of verbs: to question, explore, experiment, experience, walk, run, dance, play, eat, love, learn, dare, taste, touch, smell, listen, argue, speak, write, read, draw, provoke, emote, scream, sin, repent, cry, kneel, pray, bow, rise, stand, look, laugh, cajole, create, confront, confound, walk back, walk forward, circle, hide, and seek. To seek: to embrace the questions, be wary of answers. -Terry Tempest Williams, naturalist and author (b. 1955)

“The road of life twists and turns and no two directions are ever the same. Yet our lessons come from the journey, not the destination.”
~ Don Williams

I just got this from a friend today, and it's at least my favorite quote from today: "Don't try to make life a mathematical problem with yourself in the center and everything coming out equal."

My friend explicates the quote:

"Recently, I re-read a favorite book, Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. The book takes place in the Congo in the early 1960's. Each chapter is narrated by a member of a Southern Baptist missionary family. The family is completely isolated from "civilization" living in a village where starvation and fatal diseases are a common occurrence. The missionary's teenage daughter does not adapt well to her new surroundings. She is resentful, aloof, and unable to find any peace or happiness. The wise village teacher gently tells her, 'Don't try to make life a mathematical problem with yourself in the center and everything coming out equal.' This is what that quotes says to me.

'Don't try to make life a mathematical problem. . . ' In math every single problem has one correct answer. In life, there is not ONE correct answer, but there are several adequate answers, and each answer has its own ramifications. In other words, each answer leads me on a slightly different path. The sum of all answers/actions/decisions that I have made got me to where I am today, to my reality. If I take responsibility for my reality and accept my "fate," then I can live without resentment and more easily continue to grow spiritually.

'With yourself in the center. . . ' As long as I view the world from the perspective of myself at the center, the multidimensional beauty and mystery of life are reduced to what's in it for me or how does this affect my welfare. Giving oneself for the good of the cause or selflessly helping another are not part of the equation--unless I am doing these acts to glorify myself. With myself at the center, means that what happens to me is infinitely more important than what happens to you or to a thousand you's. So I must let go of my overwhelming self importance; thus I can be humble...

'. . . and everything coming out equal.' Our speaker from the book is saying that we must not think that there is a rule in life that those who do good get good, measure for measure. Life is much bigger and less precise than that. For example, sometimes when we try to do good, we unknowingly do harm. And sometimes when we are receive good, we don't recognize it as such. What we all do receive equally is the opportunity to grow and learn from our life experiences."

As novices we think we're entirely responsible for the way people treat us. I have long since learned that we are responsible only for the way we treat people. -Rose Lane

I am not a lover of lawns. Rather would I see daisies in their thousands, ground ivy, hawkweed, and even the hated plantain with tall stems, and dandelions with splendid flowers and fairy down, than the too-well-tended lawn. -William Henry Hudson, author and naturalist (1841-1922)

I love this one!

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep. -Scott Adams, cartoonist (b. 1957)

"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."
~ Aristotle

Is this me?!

Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal. -Albert Camus (1913-1960)

LOL! i feel that!!

Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity. -Hanlon's Razor

That's a "keeper", roseanne! ~

Sooz

"The more I live, the more I learn, the more I learn, the more I realize the less I know."
~ Michel Legrand

There will be no Homeland Security until we realize that the entire planet is our homeland. Every sentient being in the world must feel secure. -John Perkins, economist and author (b.1945)

All are lunatics, but he who can analyze his delusion is called a philosopher. -Ambrose Bierce, writer (1842-1914)

Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something. -Plato

This quote is so true and if I think too much about it, it makes me very sad. We've lost untold treasures over the centuries because of wars.

Dalton's records, carefully preserved for a century, were destroyed during the World War II bombing of Manchester. It is not only the living who are killed in war. -Isaac Asimov, scientist and writer (1920-1992)

In science it often happens that scientists say, "You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken," and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion. -Carl Sagan, astronomer and writer (1934-1996)

What a strange machine man is! You fill him with bread, wine, fish, and radishes, and out comes sighs, laughter, and dreams. -Nikos Kazantzakis, poet and novelist (1883-1957)

Not sure I would add "radishes" to that list [ ], but I really like the message ~

Sooz

Yeah, me too sooz. It makes you remember what remarkable creatures we humans are.

I love this one!

The optimist proclaims we live in the best of all possible worlds, and the pessimist fears this is true. -James Branch Cabell, novelist, essayist, critic (1879-1958)

"There is no school in the world that is better than its teachers."
~ Unknown

One has to be a lowbrow, a bit of a murderer, to be a politician, ready and willing to see people sacrificed, slaughtered, for the sake of an idea, whether a good one or a bad one. -Henry Miller, writer (1891-1980)

When money speaks, the truth keeps silent. -Russian proverb

"The best teachers are those who show you where to look, but not what to see."
~ Alexandra Trenfor

I love that quote!! It can be applied throughout life. The best bosses do the same thing, as do the best parents. A hard thing to do sometimes, but in the end it results in a deeper understanding.