posted by Jim on Jan 7
A writer’s brain is like a magician’s hat. If you’re going to get anything out of it, you have to put something in it first.
Louis L’Amour
All human beings have an innate need to hear and tell stories and to have a story to live by … religion, whatever else it has done, has provided one of the main ways of meeting this abiding need.
Harvey Cox, The Seduction of the Spirit
Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today.
Robert McKee
The universe is made of stories, not atoms.
Muriel Rukeyser
The picture is from an Alaskan Cruise when we stopped in Sitka for shore leave and tours. I went on a kayaking excursion to a remote bay and found tiny floating houses and this tiny outpost to start our kayaking from. After going through a “training” program, we got the opportunity to paddle around the bay which had 3 floating tiny homes. – Jim
posted by Jim on Nov 18
Losing touch with spirit does nothing to the field of creativity, which is beyond harm; but it can do much to damage a person’s chance in life.
Deepak Chopra
The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.
Winston Churchill
Great opportunity is usually disguised as unsolvable problems.
Gretchen G. Clement
An empowered organization is one in which individuals have the knowledge, skill, desire, and opportunity to personally succeed in a way that leads to collective organizational success.
Stephen R. Covey
To awaken each morning with a smile brightening my face; to greet the day with reverence for the opportunities it contains; to approach my work with a clean mind; to hold ever before me, even in the doing of little things, the ultimate purpose toward which I am working; to meet men and women with laughter on my lips and love in my heart; to be gentle, kind, and courteous through all the hours; to approach the night with weariness that ever woos sleep and the joy that comes from work well done – this is how I desire to waste wisely my days.
Thomas Dekker
When nothing is sure, everything is possible.
Margaret Drabble
How could any entrepreneur, confronted by such amazing opportunities to help transform the world and to do so with such extraordinary colleagues, be tempted to lose focus? Especially since the work involves such breadth that the boredom of routine or specialization does not exist.
Bill Drayton
posted by Jim on Nov 13
Friends…they cherish one another’s hopes. They are kind to one another’s dreams.
Henry David Thoreau
The essence of love is kindness.
Robert Louis Stevenson
Kindness is more than deeds. It is an attitude, an expression, a look, a touch. It is anything that lifts another person.
C. Neil Strait
The reasons for being kind are innumerable.
Here are just a few:
1. Being kind feels good.
2. God smiles on kindness.
3. Kindness broadens our perspective
4. Kindness softens our heart.
5. Kindness brightens our world.
6. Kindness helps people feel respected and less alone.
7. Kindness makes people want to be around us.
8. Kindness bears wonderful fruit.
9. Kindness begets kindness.
10. Your kids will learn from your example.
posted by Jim on Oct 11
“And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.”
Kahlil Gibran
“Be glad of life because it gives you the chance to love and to work and to play and to look up at the stars.”
Henry Van Dyke
“If you aren’t playing well, the game isn’t as much fun. When that happens I tell myself just to go out and play as I did when I was a kid.”
Thomas J. Watson
posted by Jim on Oct 3
Fall Colors
Change only favours minds that are diligently looking and preparing for discovery.
Louis Pasteur
It is by logic we prove. It is by intuition we discover.
Henri Poincare
Every door is another passage, another boundary we have to go beyond.
Rumi
Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.
Carl Sagan
posted by Jim on Sep 24
A view of the Oregon Coast
“Do more than exist, live. Do more than touch, feel. Do more than look, observe.
Do more than read, absorb. Do more than hear, listen. Do more than think, ponder.
Do more than talk, say something.”
John H. Rhoades
“May you live all the days of your life.”
Jonathan Swift
“In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: It goes on.”
Robert Frost
posted by Jim on Aug 19
Grand Canyon Trail
As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.
Henry David Thoreau
posted by Jim on Jul 11
“You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.”
Plato
“Necessity may be the mother of invention, but play is certainly the father.”
Roger von Oech
“A good laugh and a long sleep are the best cures in the doctor’s book.”
Irish Proverb
In Praise Of Fun
Often when we talk about fun, or doing things just for fun, we talk about it in a dismissive way as if fun isn’t important. We tend to value hard work and seriousness, as that ws the predominate trait from our Puritan settlers, and we forget to pay our respects to the equally important, light side of silliness and laughter. This is ironic because we all know the feeling of euphoria that follows a good burst of laughter, and how it leaves us less stressed, more openhearted, and more ready to reach out to people. We are far more likely to walk down the street smiling and open after we’ve had a good laugh, and this tends to catch on, inspiring smiles from the people we pass who then positively influence everyone they encounter. Witnessing this kind of chain reaction makes you think that having fun might be one of our most powerful tools for changing the world.
Laughter is good medicine, and we all have this medicine available to us whenever we recall a funny story or act in a silly way. We magnify the effects of this medicine when we share it with the people in our lives. If we are lucky, they will have something funny to share with us as well, and the life-loving sound of laughter will continue to roll out of our mouths and into the world.
posted by Jim on Jul 10
“Adventure and a safe haven, that’s a good mix.”
James A. Michener
The permanent temptation of life is to confuse dreams with reality. The permanent defeat of life comes when dreams are surrendered to reality.
James A. Michener
For this is the journey that men and women make, to find themselves. If they fail in this, it doesn’t matter much else what they find.
James A. Michener
If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay at home.
James A. Michener
Just as a fallen tree in the forest provides food for Gods creatures, so do quotes provide food for thought and contemplation while giving us a glimpse into the authors mind of a past time and era. They also show us at times, that as much as things seem to change, how some things do not to change. Michener’s 1st quote remind me that while it is good to have and go on adventures, it is also wise to have a “safe” haven. For me and many others that is their home, cabin, boat, or tiny house.
The 1st quote that started my collection is “To him whose elastic and vigorous thought keeps pace with the sun, the day is a perpetual morning” by Henry David Thoreau. It stuck with me through the years. I liked it so much, I always greeted folks with “Good Morning” And I still do many times. When informed that it was indeed afternoon or evening, it always gave me pleasure to answer with “To him whose elastic and vigorous thought keeps pace with the sun, the day is a perpetual morning.” To me it is always morning as each moment is a new learning opportunity as new ideas come forth from the one mind – our Source. After all, Gods currency is ideas! And I have been and will always be blessed.
