Words of Wisdom

Here are some words of wisdom and meaning to bring richness and warmth to your experience at this time of year. I like to collect these wise words throughout the year, and review them periodically. They never fail to give me some insight, some meaning, and some sense of wisdom that speaks to my soul. All for the taking of a simple moment of pause, and letting myself be present to the sentiments. Sometimes the deepest or most inspirational or most inclusive of ideas can be said in the simplest of ways.

May you have some moments of Mindfulness yourself, as you read the following quotes, and may your Holidays be lovely and peaceful…

• It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop – Confucius
• Don’t let the past steal your present – Cherralea Morgen
• Try to be like the turtle – at ease in your own shell – Bill Copeland
• Always keep an open mind and a compassionate heart – Phil Jackson
• All things are difficult before they are easy – Thomas Fuller
• Each day provides its own gifts. Look forward to each day’s gifts – Marcus Aurelius
• Be grateful for the good moments, and graceful during the difficult ones
• Don’t cry because it’s over without also smiling because it happened – Dr. Seuss
• The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched – they must be felt with the heart – Helen Keller
• Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light – Helen Keller
• Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content – Helen Keller
• What we once enjoyed, we can never lose; all that we love deeply becomes a part of us – Helen Keller
• All the world is full of suffering. It is also full of overcoming – Helen Keller.
• Love what you have.  Need what you want.  Accept what you receive. Give what you can. Always remember, what goes around, comes around.
• As I look back on my life, I realize that every time I thought I was being rejected from something good, I was actually being re-directed to something better.
• Speak in such a way that others love to listen to you…Listen in such a way that others love to speak to you.
• You are good (enough).
• Smile, open your eyes, love and go on. – Unknown
• Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal. – From a headstone in Ireland
• Gratitude is noticing the extraordinary in the ordinary.And then taking the nanosecond to feel it. – Karen Krakower Kaplan
• You must let go of who you think you are in order to become who you might be.  – Janine Olympian snow boarder, body broken but not spirit
• The human spirit is and always will be greater than the human condition
• This is what I have learned: Within the sorrow, there is grace. When we come close to those things that break us down, we touch those things that also break us open. ~ Wayne Muller
• The worst tragedy about poverty is not the lack of roof or food, but the sense of being nobody / no one – Mother Teresa
• What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Amidst the worldly comings and goings, observe how endings become beginnings. – Tao Te Ching
• There’s only one corner of the Universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self. – Aldous Huxley
• If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion. – Dalai Lama
• May the sun bring you new energy by day,
  May the moon softly restore you by night,
  May the rain wash away your worries,
  May the breeze blow new strength into your being.
  May you walk through the world and know it’s beauty all the days of your life. – Apache Blessing
• The least you can do is figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope. – Barbara  Kingsolver
• To thine own self be true – Shakespeare: hamlet, act 1, sc iii
• You can only go halfway into the darkest forest; then you are coming out the other side. – Chinese proverb
• May my heart be kind, my mind fierce, and my spirit brave.

There are these five facts that one should reflect on often, whether one is a woman or a man, lay or ordained:

1. I or someone I love am sure to become old; I cannot avoid aging.
2. I or someone I love am sure to become ill; I cannot avoid illness.
3. I or someone I love am sure to die; I cannot avoid death.
4. I must be separated and parted from all that is dear and beloved to me, whether through death or choice
5. I am the owner of my actions, heir of my actions, actions are the womb (from which I have sprung), actions are my relations, actions are my protection. Whatever actions I do, good or bad, of these I shall become the heir.

• When your heart speaks take good notes.  Joseph Campbell
• I didn’t come this far, to only come this far. – Unknown
• I’m thankful for my struggle, because without it I wouldn’t have come across my strength – Alexandra Elle
• Yesterday I was clever so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise so I am changing myself – Rumi
• Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet. ― Thich Nhat Hanh
• Practice makes perfect so be careful what you practice
• The world would be a better place if we all practiced more self disarmament. – Dalai Lama
• If you can walk, you can dance… If you can talk, you can sing. – African saying
• Wherever you go, go with all your heart. – Confucius
• Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive- Dalai Lama
• To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people just exist. – Oscar Wilde
• Do you know what the most common regret people express on their deathbed is? It’s “I wish I had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.”
• The wound is the place where the Light enters you. – Rumi
• I’m an old man now. I’ve lived a long and difficult life filled with so many misfortunes, most of which never happened. – Mark Twain
• Worrying does not take away tomorrow’s troubles. It takes away today’s peace. Interrupt anxiety with gratitude.
• The key to happiness is letting each situation be what it is instead of what you think it should be.
• Be someone you want to be around.
• And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom. – Anais Nin
• The blues is the truth
• Zen saying reminds us, “If you understand—things are just as they are. If you do not understand—things are just as they are.”
• What if this hindrance were your furtherance? – a daily question on gratefulness.org
• It is a wholesome and necessary thing for us to turn again to the Earth and in the contemplation of her beauties to know of wonder and humility. – Rachel Carson

Listening with Heart
Cindi Rivera, MFT
Marriage, Family Therapist
www.cindiriveratherapy.com
[email protected]
(510) 482-4445