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“A path is only a path, and there is no affront, to oneself or to others, in dropping it if that is what your heart tells you. Look at every path closely and deliberately. Try it as many times as you think necessary. Then ask yourself alone, one question. Does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good; if it doesn't it is of no use.”
Carlos Castaneda
“We're adults. When did that happen? And how do we make it stop?”
May your weekends let the inner child come out and play! We can always be adults on Monday, again...
-grassrootsmsw
“There are things known, and there are things unknown, and in between are the Doors.”
Jim Morrison
When we are confronted with uncontrolled CHANGE,
we still have CHOICE.
Our basic human instincts,
will initially leave us kicking and screaming...
"Get me out of this foreign territory...
Keep things the way they were!"
The ground underneath us shifts.
We want immediate solutions
to bring safety and assurance.
Our best and worst
coping mechanisms,
present themselves...
Front and Center.
The DOORS
offer a right of entry...
Admission to something that can be
altered,
modified,
variated,
transformed,
and maybe,
just maybe,
Revolutionized.
We have the choice
to believe and trust...
or just,
Walk away.
It is,
all about CHOICE.
-grassrootsmsw-
“I do not at all understand the mystery of grace…only that it meets us where we are, but does not leave us where it found us.”
Anne Lamott
“Here something blooms;
from out of a silent crevice
an unknowing weed emerges,
singing into existence.”
Rainer Maria Rilke
“At the end of all the roads,
there is only a sound-life
that does everything;
and a silent-life,
that becomes everything.”
Sri Chinmoy
“We must not, in trying to think about how we can make a big difference, ignore the small daily differences we can make which, over time, add up to big differences that we often cannot foresee.”
"We've removed the ceiling above our dreams. There are no more impossible dreams."
Jesse Jackson
“I remembered the rose bush that had reached a thorny branch out through the ragged fence, and caught my dress, detaining me when I would have passed on. And again the symbolism of it all came over me. These memories and visions of the poor—they were the clutch of the thorns. Social workers have all felt it. It holds them to their work, because the thorns curve backward, and one cannot pull away.”
“Abundance is not something we acquire.
It is something we tune into.”
“To be authentic literally means
to be your own author.”
Dan Millman
“When the Japanese mend broken objects they aggrandize the damage by filling the cracks with gold, because they believe that when something has suffered damage, and has a history, it becomes more beautiful.”
Barbara Bloom
“At the end of the day, faith is a funny thing. It turns up when you don't really expect it. It's like one day you realize that the fairy tale may be slightly different than you dreamed. The castle, well, it may not be a castle. And happy ever after isn’t so important… just that it's happy right now. See, once in a while, once in a blue moon, people will surprise you , and once in a while people may even take your breath away.”
Meredith Grey, “Grey’s Anatomy”
"My chief want in life is someone who shall make me do what I can."
Ralph Waldo Emerson
“A couple of hundred years ago, Benjamin Franklin shared with the world the secret of his success. “Never leave that till tomorrow,” he said, “which you can do today.” This is the man who discovered electricity. You think more people would listen to what he had to say. I don't know why we put things off, but if I had to guess, I'd have to say it has a lot to do with fear. Fear of failure, fear of rejection, sometimes the fear is just of making a decision, because what if you're wrong? What if you're making a mistake you can't undo? The early bird catches the worm. A stitch in time saves nine. He who hesitates is lost. We can't pretend we hadn't been told. We've all heard the proverbs, heard the philosophers, heard our grandparents warning us about wasted time, heard the damn poets urging us to seize the day. Still sometimes we have to see for ourselves. We have to make our own mistakes. We have to learn our own lessons. We have to sweep today's possibility under tomorrow's rug until we can't anymore. Until we finally understand for ourselves what Benjamin Franklin really meant. That knowing is better than wondering, that waking is better than sleeping, and even the biggest failure, even the worst, beat the hell out of never trying.”
Meredith Grey, "Grey’s Anatomy"
“Every truth passes through three stages before it is recognized. In the first, it is ridiculed, in the second it is opposed, in the third it is regarded as self-evident.”
Arthur Schopenhauer
“When you begin your transcendental training, focusing your best efforts, without attachment to outcomes, you will understand the peaceful warrior's way.”
Dan Millman
"I look at the Augusteum, and I think that perhaps my life has not actually been so chaotic, after all. It is merely this world that is chaotic, bringing changes to us all that nobody could have anticipated. The Augusteum warns me not to get attached to any obsolete ideas about who I am, what I represent, whom I belong to, or what function I may once have intended to serve. Yesterday I might have been a glorious monument to somebody, true enough - but tomorrow I could be a fireworks depository. Even in the
Elizabeth Gilbert
“Nothing is so strong as gentleness. Nothing is so gentle as real strength.”
“If I die, it is true that there will be no more ongoing dialogue within
myself-within that inimitable pattern that arises from the combination
of all my past, all my awareness and experiences, all my relationships,
all my genetic material, all my bodily idiosyncrasies. In the language of
quantum physics, I will have no more "particle aspect." But the part of
myself which I have brought into relationship with you, my "wave aspect," the I-and-you, will continue as part of your dialogue with yourself and others.”
Can we be the hero/heroine of our own
story?
Do we step in or
stand at the edges?
intuitive and sensitive
KNOW:
They respond to what is held inside…
what is secreted;
what is locked up;
what deserves to be free.
Long enough to feel?
Feel and breathe in,
our fears,
our sadness,
our loss,
our guilt,
our shame.
the skeletons we fight to hide,
even from our own hearts?
The internal whispers,
which are actually shouting,
yet,
seem easier to push away.
Being our own hero/heroine in the story:
This requires stillness…
pausing…
not avoiding…
not waiting at the edges.
we fear are dark and daunting.
our eyes,
our hearts,
our spirits,
and our life.
how the story started…
and the only way the story can continue,
and BEGIN.
"Your most precious, valued possessions and your greatest powers are invisible and intangible. No one can take them. You, and you alone, can give them. You will receive abundance for your giving."
W. Clement Stone
"If you could get rid of yourself just once, the secret of secrets would open to you. The face of the unknown, hidden beyond the universe would appear on the mirror of your perception."
Rumi
“There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.”
Nelson Mandela
“Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.”
M.R. Rilke
“Ultimately we know deeply that the other side of every fear is a freedom.”
Marilyn Ferguson
There is meaning, beauty, and significance
in why, when and how
barriers of fear are created.
Dig, crawl, search;
behind, beneath, below, and between,
the crevices.
Once understood, seen, and acknowledged,
healing can begin...
creating an open vista,
beyond what was ever imagined.
Welcome to the other side...
-grassrootsmsw
“Behold, I show you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye...”
Corinthians
“A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.”
Lao Tzu
Starting tomorrow, I will retreat to the place where the unknown seedlings of my social work, rooted, sprouted and began.
It is strange to be returning to what you imagine to be familiar and known, while at the same time knowing that time will have changed so much.
I remember running from this place, after 6 years of living there, and hoping to never look back...it had lost it's adventure and novelty to me. Now, 16 years later, I yearn to return as a new explorer.
My curiosity and sense of adventure is ready...a getaway to the unknown and known. A chance to be a gypsy, again.
“The most precious gift we can offer others is our presence. When mindfulness embraces those we love, they will bloom like flowers.”
Thich Nhat Hanh
Thank you my chosen and dear brother, D. The beach walk reshifted all the chakras and colors. May we both continue to have appreciation for the rainbow of chakra colors that keep us awake, and continue to teach new lessons.
The other D.
“We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.”
“Every Warrior of the Light has felt afraid of going into battle.
Every Warrior of the Light has, at some time in the past, lied or betrayed someone.
Every Warrior of the Light has trodden a path that was not his.
Every Warrior of the Light has suffered for the most trivial of reasons. Every Warrior of the Light has, at least once, believed he was not a Warrior of the Light.
Every Warrior of the Light has failed in his spiritual duties.
Every Warrior of the Light has said 'yes' when he wanted to say 'no.'
Every Warrior of the Light has hurt someone he loved.
That is why he is a Warrior of the Light, because he has been through all this and yet has never lost hope of being better than he is.”
Paulo Coelho
"Warriors of the Light."
Battles within and without...
testing integrity
and internal moral codes.
Trying to bend the "rules" and
change the mold of the system;
believing in the need
to bring humanity and compassion,
where it has been lost and forgotten.
Making positive and creative changes
for the needy and vulnerable;
Easing suffering...
Attempting to slowly erode
the sterile and rigid system.
The consequences of which,
threaten the long standing personnel
of the system.
"The Warrior of Light,"
in their pioneering efforts
has accentuated
the gaps and voids of the system.
The Warrior's honorable skills
shakes, rattles, and challenges
the long termers of the system.
Instead of aiming for the same heights of truth as the Warrior,
the long termers' worn down capacity
kicks against the unfamiliar...
finding any means possible
to make the need for change and progress
invisible.
The Warrior wears and carries
the scars of controversy and resistance...
still owning their mission and purpose.
Regardless of the final outcome,
the Warrior has effected CHANGE...
If only,
for waking up,
and bringing light
to that which was asleep and anesthetized.
-grassrootsmsw
“There came a time when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.”
Anais Nin
“Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something, and that this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained.”
Marie Curie
"In the gloom and darkness of the night, when there is a sudden flash of light, a person will recognize objects; in the same way, the one with a flash of insight sees according to reality--"This is how sorrow works; this is how it arises; this is how it can come to an end; this is the path leading to that end."
Anguttara Nikaya
“When you begin to touch your heart or let your heart be touched, you begin to discover that it's bottomless, that it doesn't have any resolution, that this heart is huge, vast, and limitless. You begin to discover how much warmth and gentleness is there, as well as how much space.”
Pema Chodron
“And remember, no matter where you go, there you are.
Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.
To be wronged is nothing, unless you continue to remember it.
To know, is to know that you know nothing.
That is the meaning of true knowledge.”
Author Unknown
“Self-respect cannot be hunted. It cannot be purchased. It is never for sale. It cannot be fabricated out of public relations. It comes to us when we are alone, in quiet moments, in quiet places, when we suddenly realize that, knowing the good, we have done it; knowing the beautiful, we have served it; knowing the truth we have spoken it.”
Whitney Griswold
Captain Hook: She was leaving you. Your Wendy was leaving you. Why should she stay? What have you to offer? You are incomplete. Let's take a look into the future, shall we? You fly to Wendy's nursery and... what's this? The window's closed.
Peter: I'll open it.
Captain Hook: I'm afraid the windows barred.
Peter: I'll call out her name.
Captain Hook: She can't hear you.
Peter: No.
Captain Hook: She can't see you.
Peter: Wendy...
Captain Hook: She's forgotten all about you.
Peter: Stop it. Please. Stop it.
" A friend is one to whom one may pour out all the contents of one's heart, chaff and grain together, knowing that the gentlest of hands will take and sift it, keep what is worth keeping and with a breath of kindness blow the rest away."
Arabian Proverb
“I remembered the rose bush that had reached a thorny branch out through the ragged fence, and caught my dress, detaining me when I would have passed on. And again the symbolism of it all came over me. These memories and visions of the poor—they were the clutch of the thorns. Social workers have all felt it. It holds them to their work, because the thorns curve backward, and one cannot pull away.”
Pema Chodron
“The future is not a result of choices among alternative paths offered by the present, but a place that is created--created first in the mind and will, created next in activity. The future is not some place we are going to, but one we are creating. The paths are not to be found, but made, and the activity of making them, changes both the maker and the destination.”
John Schaar
“A portrait is not a likeness. The moment an emotion or fact is transformed into a photograph it is no longer a fact but an opinion. There is no such thing as inaccuracy in a photograph. All photographs are accurate. None of them is the truth.”
Richard Avedon
"Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead…
I'm not afraid of storms, for I'm learning how to sail my ship."
Louisa May Alcott
"The real questions are the ones that obtrude upon your consciousness whether you like it or not, the ones that make your mind start vibrating like a jackhammer, the ones that you 'come to terms with' only to discover that they are still there. The real questions refuse to be placated. They barge into your life at the times when it seems most important for them to stay away. They are the questions asked most frequently and answered most inadequately, the ones that reveal their true natures slowly, reluctantly, most often against your will."
Ingrid Bengis
“If you're photographing in color you show the color of their clothes - if you use black and white, you will show the color of their soul.”
Author Unknown
“I was never one to patiently pick up broken fragments and glue them together again and tell myself that the mended whole was as good as new. What is broken is broken -- and I'd rather remember it as it was at its best, than mend it and see the broken places as long as I lived.”
Margaret Mitchell
“It is impossible to imagine a more complete fusion with nature than that of the Gypsy.”
Franz Liszt
