"I am only one, but still I am one; I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; I will not refuse to do the something I can do."
— Helen Keller, author

"Every individual has a place to fill in the world and is important…whether he chooses to be so or not."
— Nathaniel Hawthorne, novelist

"I cannot believe that the purpose of life is to be 'Happy'. I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be responsible, to be compassionate. It is above all, to matter, to count, to stand for something, to have made some difference that you have lived at all."
— Leo C. Rosten, author

"When you fully recognize your challenges, your gifts, and your individual reality, and you accept the life path they represent, the world provides whatever you need to succeed. You, in turn, will discover how you can make your greatest contribution to the world.
— Cherie Carter-Scott, author

"Dance like nobody's watching;
Love like you've never been hurt.
Sing like nobody's listening
Live like it's heaven on earth."
--- Bono, singer

"The best things in life are free!"
--- Unknown author

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Dance Like Nobody Watching (author unknown)

Jeff was the kind of guy you love to hate. He was always in a good mood and always had something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, "If I were any better, I would be twins!"

He was a unique manager because he had several waiters who had followed him around from restaurant to restaurant. The reason the waiters followed Jeff was because of his attitude. He was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, Jeff was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation. Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up to Jeff and asked him, "I don't get it! You can't be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?"

Jeff replied, "Each morning I wake up and say to myself, Jeff, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or you can choose to be in a bad mood.' I choose to be in a good mood. Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life."

"Yeah, right, it's not that easy," I protested.

"Yes, it is," Jeff, said. "Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to
situations. You choose how people will affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line: It's your choice how you live life."

I reflected on what Jeff said.

Soon thereafter, I left the restaurant industry to start my own business. We lost touch, but I often thought about him when I made a choice about
life instead of reacting to it.

Several years later, I heard that Jeff did something you are never supposed to do in a restaurant business: he left the back door open one morning and was held up at gunpoint by three armed robbers.

While trying to open the safe, his hand, shaking from nervousness, slipped off the combination. The robbers panicked and shot him. Luckily, Jeff was found relatively quickly and rushed to the local trauma center.

After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Jeff was released from the hospital with fragments of the bullets still in his body.

I saw Jeff about six months after the accident. When I asked him how he was, he said, "If I were any better, I'd be twins. Want to see my scars?"

I declined to see his wounds, but did ask him what had gone through his mind as the robbery took place. "The first thing that went through my mind was that I should have locked the back door," Jeff replied. "Then, as I lay on the floor, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live, or I could choose to die. I chose to live."

"Weren't you scared? Did you lose consciousness?" I asked.

Jeff continued, "The paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the emergency room and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read, 'He's a dead man.' I knew I needed to take action."

"What did you do?" I asked.

"Well, there was a big, burly nurse shouting questions at me," said Jeff. "She asked if I was allergic to anything. 'Yes,' I replied. The doctors
and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled, 'Bullets!' Over their laughter, I told them, 'I am choosing
to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead.'"

Jeff lived thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude. I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live
fully. Attitude, after all, is everything.

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Reminders for Advanced Soul (Richard Bach, "Illusions")

Perspective - Use it or Lose it. If you turned to this page, you're forgetting that what is going on around you is not reality. Think about that. Remember where you came from, where you're going, and why you created the mess you got yourself into in the first place. You're going to die a horrible death, remember. It's all good training, and you'll enjoy it more if you keep the facts in mind. Take your dying with some seriousness, however. Laughing on your way to your execution is not generally understood by less-advanced life forms, and they'll call you crazy.

Learning is finding out what you already know. Doing is demonstrating that you know it. Teaching is reminding others that they know just as well as you.

Your only obligation in any lifetime is to be true to yourself. Being true to anyone else or anything else is not only impossible, but the mark of a fake messiah.

The simplest questions are the most profound. Where were you born? Where is your home? Where are you going? What are you doing? Think about these once in a while, and watch your answers change.

You teach best what you most need to learn.

Live never to be ashamed if anything you do or say is published around the world -- even if what is published is not true.

Your friends will know you better in the first minute you meet than your acquaintances will know you in a thousand years.

The best way to avoid responsibility is to say "I've got responsibilities."

You are led through your lifetime by the inner learning creature, the playful spiritual being that is your real self. Don't turn away from possible futures before you're certain you don't have anything to learn from them. You're always free to change your mind and choose a different future, or a different past.

There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in its hands. You seek problems because you need their gifts.

The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life. Rarely do members of one family grow up under the same roof.

Argue for your limitations and sure enough, they're yours. Imagine the universe beautiful and just and perfect. Then be sure of one thing : The Is has imagined it quite a bit better than you have.

A cloud does not know why it moves in just such a direction and at just such a speed. It feels an impulsion...this is the place to go now. But the sky knows the reasons and patterns behind all clouds, and you will know, too, when you lift yourself high enough to see beyond horizons.

You are never given a wish without also being given the power to make it true. You may have to work for it, however.

The world is your exercise-book, the pages on which you do your sums. It is not reality, although you can express reality there if you wish. You are also free to write nonsense, or lies, or to tear the pages.

The original sin is to limit the Is. Don't.

If you will practice being fictional for a while, you will understand that fictional characters are sometimes more real than people with bodies and heartbeats.

Your conscience is the measure of the honesty of your selfishness. Listen to it carefully.

Every person, all the events of your life are there because you have drawn them there. What you choose to do with them is up to you.

The truth you speak has no past and no future. It is, and that's all it needs to be.

Here is a test to find whether your mission on earth is finished : If you're alive, it isn't.

In order to live freely and happily, you must sacrifice boredom. It is not always an easy sacrifice.

Don't be dismayed at good-byes. A farewell is necessary before you can meet again. And meeting again, after moments or lifetimes, is certain for those who are friends.

The mark of your ignorance is the depth of your belief in injustice and tragedy. What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly.

Everything on this list may be wrong.

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"I've learned" (author unknown)

I've learned that you cannot make someone love you. All you can do is be someone who CAN be loved. The rest is up to them.

I've learned that it takes years to build up trust, and only seconds to destroy it.

I've learned that it's not what you have in your life, but WHO you have in your life that counts.

I've learned that you can get by on charm for about fifteen minutes. After that, you'd better know something.

I've learned that you can do something in an instant that will give you heartache for a lifetime.

I've learned that no matter how thin you slice it, there are always two sides.

I've learned that it's a lot easier to react than it is to think.

I've learned that you should always leave loved ones with loving words. It may be the last time you see them.

I've learned that you can keep going long after you think you can't.

I've learned that we are responsible for what we do, no matter how we feel.

I've learned that either you control your attitude or it controls you.

I've learned that regardless of how hot and steamy a relationship is at first, the passion fades and there had better be something else to take its place.

I've learned that learning to forgive takes practice.

I've learned that there are people who love you dearly, but just don't know how to show it.

I've learned that money is a lousy way of keeping score.

I've learned that sometimes the people you expect to kick you when you're down will be the ones to help you get back up.

I've learned that sometimes when I'm angry I have the right to be angry, but that doesn't give me the right to be cruel.

I've learned that true friendship continues to grow, even over the longest distance. Same goes for true love.

I've learned that just because someone doesn't love you the way you want them to doesn't mean they don't love you with all they have.

I've learned that maturity has more to do with what types of experiences you've had and what you've learned from them and less to do with how many birthdays you've celebrated.

I've learned that you should never tell a child their dreams are unlikely or outlandish. Few things are more humiliating, and what a tragedy it would be if they believed it.

I've learned that no matter how good a friend is, they're going to hurt you every once in a while and you must forgive them for that.

I've learned that it isn't always enough to be forgiven by others. Sometimes you have to learn to forgive yourself.

I've learned that no matter how bad your heart is broken the world doesn't stop for your grief.

I've learned that our background and circumstances may have influenced who we are, but we are responsible for who we become.

I've learned that sometimes you have to put the individual ahead of their actions.

I've learned that we don't have to change friends if we understand that friends change.

I've learned that you shouldn't be so eager to find out a secret. It could change your life forever.

I've learned that two people can look at the exact same thing and see something totally different.

I've learned that no matter how you try to protect your children, they will eventually get hurt and you will hurt in the process.

I've learned that no matter the consequences, those who are honest with themselves get farther in life.

I've learned that even when you think you have no more to give, when a friend cries out to you, you will find the strength to help.

I've learned that it's not the credentials on the wall that make you a decent human being.

I've learned that the people you care most about in life are taken from you too soon.

I've learned that it's hard to determine where to draw the line between being nice and not hurting people's feelings and standing up for what you believe.

I've learned that you can't love some one until you love yourself

I've learned it takes a fool to learn that love don't love nobody

I've learned people will do whatever they think will make them happy for the moment not thinking of the long term implications

I've learned That I care about everyone that I have shared these words with and that I am grateful for each of you being in my life.

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"May it be" (Enya)

May it be an evening star
Shines down upon you
May it be when darkness falls
Your hart will be true
You walk a lonely road
Oh! How are you are from home

Mornie utulie (darkness has come)
Believe and you will find your way
Mornie alantie (darkness has fallen)
A promise lies within you now

May it be shadows call
Will fly away
May it be your journey on
To light the day
When the night is overcome
You may rise to find the sun

Mornie utulie (darkness has come)
Believe and you will find your way
Mornie alantie (darkness has fallen)
A promise lies within you now

A promise lies within you now

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"Beautiful Day" (U2)

The heart is a bloom
Shoots up through the stony ground
There's no room
No space to rent in this town

You're out of luck
And the reason that you had to care
The traffic is stuck
And you're not moving anywhere

You thought you'd found a friend
To take you out of this place
Someone you could lend a hand
In return for grace

It's a beautiful day
Sky falls, you feel like
It's a beautiful day
Don't let it get away

You're on the road
But you've got no destination
You're in the mud
In the maze of her imagination

You love this town
Even if that doesn't ring true
You've been all over
And it's been all over you

It's a beautiful day
Don't let it get away
It's a beautiful day

Touch me
Take me to that other place
Teach me
I know I'm not a hopeless case

See the world in green and blue
See China right in front of you
See the canyons broken by cloud
See the tuna fleets clearing the sea out
See the Bedouin fires at night
See the oil fields at first light
And see the bird with a leaf in her mouth
After the flood all the colors came out

It was a beautiful day
Don't let it get away
Beautiful day

Touch me
Take me to that other place
Reach me
I know I'm not a hopeless case

What you don't have you don't need it now
What you don't know you can feel it somehow
What you don't have you don't need it now
Don't need it now
Was a beautiful day

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13 phrases for life (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)

1. I love not for whom you are, but who I am when I'm by your side.

2. No person deserves your tears, and who deserves them don't make you cry.

3. Just because someone doesn't love you as you wish, it doesn't mean you're not loved with all his/her being

4. A true friend is the one who hold you hand and touches your heart

5. The worst way to miss someone is to be seated by his/her side and know you will never have him/her

6. Never stop smiling, not even when you're sad, someone might fall in love with your smile.

7. You may be a person in this world, but for someone, you're the world

8. Don't spend time with someone who doesn't care spend time with you...

9. Maybe God wants you to meet many wrong people before you meet the right one, so when this happens, you'll be thankful

10. Don't cry because it came to an end. Smile because it happened

11. There will always be a people who'll hurt you, so you need to continue trusting, just be careful

12. Become a better person and be sure to know who you are before meeting someone new and hoping that person knows who you are

13. Don't struggle so much, best things happen when note expected

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