Snips – Thoughts from Jim

“You are what you think about all day long.” – Dr. Robert Schuller

“If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”– Dr. Wayne Dyer

“Your attitude, not your aptitude, determines your altitude.”– Zig Ziglar

“You must be the change you want to see in the world.”– Mahatma Gandhi

“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life’s about creating yourself.”– George Bernard Shaw

“Don’t be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Sit quietly, doing nothing, spring comes, and the grass grows by itself.”– A Zen Saying

“Empty pockets never held anyone back. Only empty heads and empty hearts can do that.”– Norman Vincent Peale

“No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new heaven to the human spirit.” – Helen Keller

Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.

John Lubbock

Every moment and every event of every man’s life on earth plants something in his soul.

Thomas Merton

“Around here, however, we don’t look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things, because we’re curious…and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”

Walt Disney Company

‘Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo Da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson and Albert Einstein.’

H. Jackson Brown

We are each gifted in a unique and important way. It is our privilege and our adventure to discover our own special light.
Mary Dunbar

Truly, it is in the darkness that one finds the light, so when we are in sorrow, then this light is nearest of all to us.
Meister Eckhart

“The best friend of earth of man is the tree. When we use the tree respectfully and economically, we have one of the greatest resources on the earth.”
Frank Lloyd Wright

“We still have to learn how to live peacefully, not only with our fellow men but also with nature and, above all, with those Higher Powers which have made nature and have made us. ”
E.F. Schumacher

“Whatever befalls the earth befalls the people of the earth.  Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it.”
Chief Seattle

We are each as much a part of the environment as a tree is. The ecosphere is an interconnected web(like the interent)
Matt Howes

Thoughts from Jim;

All the quotes talk of sustainable living, and the most interesting quotes to me is the 3^rd quote by Chief Seattle and the 4^th quote by Matt Howes.

How many of you have seen Avatar? There is a scene in the movie that spoke of the interconnectiveness of everything on the planet, Pandora. The outsiders came to take the resources, and the good doctor found out that the biggest resource was quite possibly how the whole planet communicated and the interconnectivity of everything on it, and that the Avatars could tap into that connectivity at will. That scene speaks me, as we are all connected, we are all one.  How you treat/love or see your friends is exactly how they will treat you.  That is also exactly how you treat yourself also. Scary……that is how you treat yourself…when you act lovingly towards your brother – you love yourself; when you judge your brother – you are judging yourself; when you are angry at your brother, you are angry at yourself. There is something abut you that you do not love. Show it the love/light and it will disappear. Kind of like dealing with your shadow…shine the light on it, and it disappears.

Treat each other with the greatest respect, for you are looking in the mirror. Nurture one another as you would nurture your own. Be kind, be nice, play nice. Treat everyone with politeness, even those who are rude to you – not because they are nice, but because you are.

If you have not yet seen Avatar, go rent or buy and enjoy it…ride the dragons. I have seen it 3 times, and will see it again, and again. There are a lot of messages in it, or at least for me there are.

What do you think the dragons represent?

“Man is made or unmade by himself.   In the armory of thoughts he forges the weapons by which he destroys himself.   He also fashions the tools with which he builds for himself heavenly mansions of joy, strength, and peace.   By the right choice and true application of thought, man ascends to the Divine Perfection.   By the abuse and wrong application of thought, he descends below the level of the beast.   Between these two extremes are all of the grades of character and man is their maker and master.”
Baird Spalding

“This world is a product of our minds.
We have often heard,”You get what you expect,” “As you think, so you are,” “Attitude is everything.”   Hearing this message one more time is reassuring.
But what if the world we see is scary and threatening harm?   It’s not easy taking responsibility for these results.   There is a way to change what we see, however, regardless of the dreadful details.   We can seek the help of our minds.   We know that the mind is both ego and Holy Spirit, not necessarily in equal portions.   If our outlook is brooding and bleak, the ego is inflated.   If our outlook is hopeful and loving, we sense the Holy Spirit’s presence in our lives.   We also need to remember if we feel physically threatened the most loving thing we can do for ourselves is to protect ourselves by moving away from a dangerous situation.
We can move from one side of the mind to the other at will.   This makes our world our choice.”
Karen Casey

Lift Off

“I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”
- Albert Einstein

“Everything you can imagine is real.”
- Pablo Picasso

“Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were, but without it we go nowhere.”
- Carl Sagan

All that I am is a result of what I have thought or been taught to think. I now choose to think, “I Can,” I Am,” and “I Will.”

And the results are astonishing…

No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man
Heraclitus

Those who truly live, wade in the water of their dreams even as the sun sets
Diane Varner

Realize that now, in this moment of time, you are creating. You are creating your next moment based on what you are feeling and thinking. That is what’s real.
Doc Childre

So, what are you thinking right now, in this moment? Or better yet, what are you feeling? For the feeling will tell you what you are thinking and that will tell you what you are creating for your future moments. That one thought, will be what I will create.

Life is very simple,
but it is we two-leggeds,
we, who are thought to be smart, that make it complicated.

Larry P. Aitkin, CHIPPEWA

Sometimes it may take years for us to find out what we are really after — it is to be happy. We are advised to lead a simple life. This doesn’t necessarily mean poor; it means simple. There are things that complicate life, like needing control, seeking power, or being resentful, angry, or vindictive. These things make complications happen. We need to walk in balance in all areas of our lives.