Aphorisms Galore- what's been on my mind lately

In times of grief our happiest memories can be the source of our greatest pain.

Uncertainty over past actions inhibits our ability to grow.

I would rather be hurt by someone I love than ever have to feel the remorse caused by hurting another.

Anyone who cannot trust another probably should not be trusted.

Sometimes the right choice brings more heartache and tears than the wrong. We cannot base moral decisions on our own comfort.

The masks we wear never stay intact through the crucible of personal trial.

Time dulls the varnish of compromise.

Those who routinely detour around hills never build the strength needed to climb mountains.

Old memories rarely come in color; the past is seen in black and white.

Getting to know someone new is like seeing a city from far down the road, those tiny warning signs you can barely make out from a distance tend to be the biggest billboards.

There will always be more willing to be diners than cooks.

It always surprises me how much people yearn to conform… up until the moment they are told to.

Life is an engine that can’t be shut off, and time is the precious gas. Will you waste your time in idle, or climb the highest peaks? In the end it won’t matter how long you lasted. You’ll only really care how far you went.

Those who compartmentalize their moral character in the end prove nothing but their lack of it.

We only notice the movement of the sun when it begins to darken.

If you live to avoid pain you're living in avoidance of knowledge.

Loving before a friendship has evolved is like eating meat before cooking it.

Never be ashamed of the ignorance in your past, the redwood feels no shame over the size of the seed it grew from.

Commanders of armies seem full of bravery because they seldom have as much to lose as the common foot soldiers.

We are all blessed with wisdom, but only a wise few choose to use it.

In the end, the way you went won’t matter nearly as much as what you did along the way.

We are all of us damaged, some deeper, and some more severely than others. What really sets us apart is how much we try to hide it.

How ironic it is that those who are the most truthful are also the most mysterious. It is so much easier to see through to the baseness of a liar than to stare into the depths of the honest.

Nothing is really moral if it is done solely because it is expected of us.

We are not here to follow blindly, but to forge our own paths.

We often long for the exact things we are unwilling to give to others.

My mistakes are just as valuable as my accomplishments in regards to what I have learned as a result. Because of this, guilt is easily seen as a pointless obstacle of growth.

Suppressing our desires does nothing to accomplish mastery over them. The only way to truly conquer is to fully accept and understand our weaknesses.

Devotion to a life of honesty takes true courage. Only the spineless dabble in deception.

Life is only as meaningful as we choose to make it.

Excuses are rare delicacies we save for ourselves, but there always more than enough criticisms to go around.

Do questions need answers?

If you go the same way everyone else seems to be going, you’ll probably end up the same way they all seem to be ending up.

Blind rebellion is just as enslaving as blind conformity.

Never be so afraid of life that you forget to live it.

Our actions are affected by the kinds of thoughts we have just as our thoughts are affected by the kinds of actions we take.

Wisdom is action, foolishness reaction. Wisdom would shape the struggles that shape the fool.

Fear of failure is fear of growth. We are not here to display our strengths but to explore and struggle with our inadequacies.

Happiness cannot be the goal. Happiness is a by-product of living a life of meaning.

The man who lives only in action is just as dead as the man who lives solely in thought.

Maturity has almost no correlation with age. We can easily move forward through time while still holding to childish views of our past.

The second that I think myself superior I remove all possibility that I am.

It is usually the weak that try to persuade you of their strength.

My biggest regrets are not the mistakes I’ve made but the lessons I failed to learn.

Just because the wise man built his house upon the rock doesn’t mean an earthquake will hesitate in ripping it down.

When you believe yourself to be the exception you become the rule.

How strange it is that we are at our strongest when we realize how weak we are.

Our strength is composed of our scars.

Truth in its purest form is simplicity. Never make the mistake of thinking less of a truth because of how easily it is understood.

The best thing you could do to encourage the progression of another is to believe in their ability to progress.

More is learned in the process than in the completion.

True strength is a test of endurance.

My biggest fear is not that I won’t live up to the expectations of other’s but that I won’t live up to my own.

Of all emotions, shame helps progression the least.

We struggle to reach our potentials because we are more afraid of change than we are of failure. We are too often content with the relative comfort of the status quo.

Wounds heal when forgotten and scar when picked at. If you want to heal, forgive. Otherwise go ahead and fester.

The best way to avoid growth is to pretend we don’t need it.

Beauty can only be seen without us when it can be felt within us.

Our weaknesses often cower directly behind our strengths.

It’s the sign of true wisdom to understand that there and endless things you will never comprehend in this life.

Our hidden wants and desires are the clearest indications of our true nature.

Never let the expectations you have for others overcrowd the ones you hold for yourself.

We cannot rely on our own earthly perception to find transcending knowledge. Truths of the spirit are seen by eyes of the spirit, heard by ears of the spirit and can only be shared through the voice of the spirit. Enquire of men to understand things of man, but to understand things of a higher nature we must enquire of a higher source.

When do you live?

Sitting in church today I had a strange thought- through the course of a ' life they are constantly changing their consciousness' focus.

As a child all we comprehend is the here and now, maybe stretching it to find next week or month to look forward to Christmas.
As an early teen I remained concerned with today, next hour, and the next school day.
As I've matured into a young man I now find myself caring more and more about my distant (and not so distant) future. I think and wonder about the direction life will take me, what consequence my actions will have, and if I'm moving in the right direction.
I imagine that after I return from my mission I will have a stronger perception of the here and now.
Then as a mid-aged man I can see myself looking to the future again, the future of a family and worrying about providing for them while simultaneously fulfilling my own ambitions.
As an older perhaps retired man I believe everything will change, my focus will turn more towards the past, looking over my mistakes and successes and wondering if i did enough good to be remembered.

Where is the best place to be, is the the past, present, or future?
It has to be a balance of all three.
If you live only in the past the present would be waisted, your future would go unnoticed and eventually unused.
Living strictly in the present would mean ignoring the consequences of your actions until they were right in front of you making you miserable, and your past would be a worthless collage of self-fullfilling moments.
Those that live only in the future are the dreamers that never wake to work for their fantasies. A life used in this way will be full of worry and empty of substance.
It has to be a balance.
A learning remembrance of the past, an active use of the present, and a trusting acknowledgment of the future.

~M.R.

Sorry

Maya Angelou: Well, I don't know if I continue, even today, always liking myself. But what I learned to do many years ago was to forgive myself. It is very important for every human being to forgive herself or himself because if you live you will make mistakes. It is inevitable. Only the angels, the cherubim, and about three rocks don't make mistakes. You're going to do that.

But once you do and you see the mistake, then you forgive yourself and say, "I'm sorry," to the people who you think you may have injured, and then you say to yourself, "I'm sorry," and then you can like yourself again.

Quite often if we hold onto the mistake we can't see our own glory in the mirror because we have the mistake between our faces and the mirror, so we can't see what we're capable of being. It is equally important to see the mistake and to forgive oneself for it. You can ask forgiveness of others, but in the end the real forgiveness is in one's own self.

I think that young men and women are so caught by the way they see themselves. Now when a larger society sees you as unattractive, as a threat, as too black or too white, or too poor, or too fat, or too sexual, or too asexual, that's rough. But you can overcome that. The real difficulty is to overcome how you think about yourself.

So, I think my blessing has been that I have been able to see a lot of my mistakes, and I've been able to forgive a lot of them and try to become better the next time."

Rewind

Wounded deeply; blue and lost. Can’t see inside the box—locked by me.

I hurt you.

Is it beyond repair? Is there hope? Can I get you back?

Are you still there?

Entrusted to me—I dropped you. You shattered and then I told you where to put the broken pieces (as if I knew).

Emotional Frankenstein of my making;

You love me, you hate me.

You want to please me and punish me.

You rage, you cry.

Little boy lost, betrayed and forced into hiding…can’t remember how to be you anymore.

Angry, guilty;

sad and confused.

How can I help without forcing again?

I love you, I love you, I love you.

Forgive me or not.

I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.

Look at me with those blue injured eyes…I had a perfect gift, I didn’t mean to tarnish.

God help us both--finding what was lost; finding the original, unbroken, healed and happy.

New again.

Start again.

Rewind.

You were always perfect just as you really are—

I played God;

And created a monster sadness.

--J.S.

I felt this was somehow appropriate to follow your last post, MR...

Know Thyself

He awakens to the familiar din of relentless repetition,

no solace found in his dreams of arrant inadequacy.

his sorrow's weight crushing the memory of its origins.

Yet, I watch unnerved as his mind thrashes in the drowning dissonance,

struggling, straining upward to breathe simplicity, calm, truth. 

His logic is nothing but an insulting pessimism, 

history its bitter accomplice.

Hope, his arrogant romantic, 

an armored avian flailing against its vain burden.

Sighing, he rubs his crestfallen mahogany eyes, 

likely coveting my clarity- my deceiving serenity. 

He pushes a hand through dark, deeply-disheveled hair.

Without words I know the constant chaos in his kaleidoscopic mind.

Now in solemn solitude we inspect each-other in unvarnished bigotry. 

Reluctantly we wipe the condensation from the cloudy glass between us. 

- Getting to know yourself is one of the most difficult things for guarded people to do, those walls we put up as protection against others often distort our clarity of self perception. People can live their lives without ever realizing they are only playing a role and that their real self is buried somewhere beneath it. Excavating a frail, neglected self is a difficult process that requires a lot of trust in oneself. Yet, once we realize our own real value, the actions of others won't have the ability to make lasting injuries to our self image. 

~M.R.

It is wisdom to know others;

It is enlightenment to know one's self.

Lao-Tzu

 

Faith is Peace

Depending on God...

I have seen the Christian man in the depths of poverty,
when he lived from hand to mouth, and scarcely knew
where he should find the next meal- still with his mind
unruffled, calm, and quiet.

If he had been as rich as an prince, he could not have had less
care; if he had been told that his bread should always be
delivered to his door, and the stream which ran fast by should
never run dry-- if he had been quite sure that ravens would
bring him bread and meat in the morning, and again in the
evening, he would not have been one bit more calm.

-Spurgeon

He who has faith has... an inward reservoir of courage, hope, confidence, calmness, and assuring trust that all will come out well - even though to the world it may appear to come out most badly. ~B.C. Forbes



As your faith is strengthened you will find that there is no longer the need to have a sense of control, that things will flow as they will, and that you will flow with them, to your great delight and benefit. ~Emmanuel


Feed your faith and your fears will starve to death. ~Author Unknown

I am brave because I have the ultimate body guard and teacher. My confidence is born of a surety that a super hero and genius has my back. There have been countless times when things went wrong and I waited patiently, without panicking and He arrived with what I needed.
When the storm rages and everything seems lost, remember there is another passenger on your ship who can calm the water and get you safely to shore; it won't sink with Him aboard.
Dare to trust Him. He delivers. He is the Deliverer.
-J.S.

On Disappointments

We are like sculptors, constantly carving out of others the image we long for, need, love or desire, often against reality, against their benefit, and always, in the end, a disappointment, because it does not fit them.

Anais Nin

 

The greatness comes not when things go always good for you. But the greatness comes when you're really tested, when you take some knocks, some disappointments, when sadness comes. Because only if you've been in the deepest valley can you ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain.

Richard M. Nixon

 

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

-Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

Death affords those who are left an opportunity to reevaluate everything. And though we would give all we have to defer that opportunity, it exists anyway. It allows us to see the flimsiness of our expectations, to realize there is not expectation without disappointment; it allows us the possibility to being more sensitive, more vulnerable, to let others support us, and to notice the integrity and love often left unobserved in life's fast pace. Mainly, it gives us the chance to live life in the present.

-Joan Bordow

 

The sudden disappointment of a hope leaves a scar which the ultimate fulfillment of that hope never entirely removes.

-Thomas Hardy

 

Hope is itself a species of happiness, and, perhaps, the chief happiness which this world affords: but, like all other pleasures immoderately enjoyed, the excesses of hope must be expiated by pain; and expectations improperly indulged, must end in disappointment. If it be asked, what is the improper expectation which it is dangerous to indulge, experience will quickly answer, that it is such expectation as is dictated not by reason, but by desire; expectation raised, not by the common occurrences of life, but by the wants of the expectant; an expectation that requires the common course of things to be changed, and the general rules of action to be broken.

-Samuel Johnson

 

Where faith is there is courage, there is fortitude, there is steadfastness and strength... Faith bestows that sublime courage that rises superior to the troubles and disappointments of life, that acknowledges no defeat except as a step to victory; that is strong to endure, patient to wait, and energetic to struggle... Light up, then, the lamp of faith in your heart... It will lead you safely through the mists of doubt and the black darkness of despair; along the narrow, thorny ways of sickness and sorrow, and over the treacherous places of temptation and uncertainty.

-James Allen

Disappointment is life's way of wiping the unrealistic expectations from our eyes and forcing us to remember some vital facts about life: First, that it does not revolve around us or our self-centered wants and desires. Second, that as much as we would like to, we cannot control everything or anyone. Third, that if we choose to waste and take for granted what we have and quarrel with each-other over what we don't, no amount of possession can serve to make us happy. Disappointment brings to the surface those facts that often get buried in the wake of our impulsive and reckless drive for self-satisfaction. 

            Disappointment can become a tool for change, a change in behavior as well as in thought. Too little and a man will grow proud, too much and he will be dry of passion. Men become great when they use discontent to their advantage, channeling disappointment’s dreary and weighty rains to drive forward the mill wheels of progression.

~M.R.

On Beauty

Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy.

Anne Frank

 

Develop interest in life as you see it; in people, things, literature, music - the world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures, beautiful souls and interesting people. Forget yourself.

Henry Miller

 

I never saw an ugly thing in my life: for let the form of an object be what it may - light, shade, and perspective will always make it beautiful.

John Constable

 

Whatever is in any way beautiful hath its source of beauty in itself, and is complete in itself; praise forms no part of it. So it is none the worse nor the better for being praised.

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

 

The ability to see beauty is the beginning of our moral sensibility. What we believe is beautiful we will not wantonly destroy.

Reverend Sean Parker Dennison

 

People often say that 'beauty is in the eye of the beholder,' and I say that the most liberating thing about beauty is realizing that you are the beholder. This empowers us to find beauty in places where others have not dared to look, including inside ourselves.

Salma Hayek

 

Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

I don't like standard beauty - there is no beauty without strangeness. 

Karl Lagerfeld

 

Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart. 

Kahlil Gibran

 

Beauty has its origins within the character of the one seeking it. Those masses that are vain, ephemeral, and shallow can do no more than recognize cheap beauty. Yet, there are a fortunate few whose sincere understanding of a divine eternal worth will not only allows them to discover, but appreciate authentic beauty everywhere they venture.

~M.R.