Tag Archives: wellness

Gaia, the Earth Goddess

Building Our Lives

There are two essential things, I believe, which bring happiness to people. One is to love and be loved. The other is to feel productive, to have a sense of purpose in life.

If we are lucky, we do work that we love. If we do not love our work (I have been
there, done that, and likely most of us have at some point in our lives), nonetheless, there is satisfaction in the expending of energy to build a life.

Building a life. Within the current scenario of over-regulated society, let’s not lose sight of our desire, and our right, to build lives that we love. Much of our sense of fulfillment is rooted in our deep human drives.

Inspirational Quotes:

“One, remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Two, never give up work. Work gives you meaning and purpose and life is empty without it. Three, if you are lucky enough to find love, remember it is there and don’t throw it away.” ~ Stephen Hawking

“All happiness depends on courage and work.” ~ Honoré de Balzac

“The secret to getting ahead is getting started.” ~ Mark Twain

“It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up.” ~ George Herman Ruth

“Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Puzzle

The Giraffe Shows Us

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As Oscar Wilde so humorously put it, “Be yourself, everyone else is taken.”

Society has this need to shape and mold us, to make us “acceptable”. Perhaps this has never been more strongly evident than it is in these times.

Becoming our most authentic selves, being fully true to ourselves, is sometimes a lifetime journey. But it does not have to be! We are not born with the masks that society encourages or demands that we wear. We learn to acquire them to get along and fit in.

This may make life feel easier in the short term, but in the long run is it really?

When you do not show who you really are to the world, there is an undercurrent of self-betrayal that you hold inside. Over a lifetime, this can become an unbearable burden.

Being true to yourself is one of the most important ways to fulfill your soul.

Look to nature as an example. There are no false face games being played there. Nature is authentic. No giraffe is wasting his life bemoaning his “too long neck”…

… or his “ugly freckles”, wishing he was a zebra with those marvelous stripes.

No, he’s just living his life, being the best giraffe he can be!

Time of Our Lives

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“Time is the school in which we learn, Time is the fire in which we burn.” are the profound last lines of the poem, Calmly We Walk through This April’s Day, by Delmore Schwartz. It’s a beautiful philosophical contemplation of the passage of time, with a particularly great wrap-up last stanza.

The seconds, minutes, hours tick away relentlessly. Our lives are busy, and inundated with many distractions and responsibilities. Lately I’m looking at my age and thinking, “Wow! It’s going faster than I ever imagined at age 18.”

Realistically, we don’t have time to sit around and endlessly ponder about the value of time and our lives. But, it’s useful to carve out a little time (from time to time) for such introspection. Because your life IS precious, and the clock IS ticking. Ask yourself in this moment, are you spending your life the way you really desire to?

It is crucially important to have vision and intention for our lives. Otherwise, we will just end up with someone else’s idea of how life should be.

Inspirational Time Quotes:

“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” ~ J.R.R. Tolkien

“The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.” ~ Mark Twain

“Each day means a new twenty-four hours. Each day means everything’s possible again. You live in the moment, you die in the moment, you take it all one day at a time.” ~ Marie Lu

“Don’t waste your time in anger, regrets, worries, and grudges. Life is too short to be unhappy.” ~ Roy T. Bennett

“All endings are also beginnings. We just don’t know it at the time.” ~ Mitch Albom