Quote of the Day - Goethe

"Do not hurry; do not rest." - Goethe

"A gun gives you the body, not the bird." - Thoreau

Oprah's Lifeclass: Deepak asks, "What Are Your Unique Skills?"

The fifth question Deepak Chopra encourages us to ask ourselves in order to create a soul profile is "what are my unique skills."

I was recently told, "you are the most hopeful person I know." I had not realized it was hope that I had been feeling, but now I see it and appreciate it as a gift. I manage to find hope through any situation. I always return to it, especially regarding matters of love and faith.

"If you can find hope, you might find faith."
              - Sister Delores Hart

I want meaning, I seek meaning, I find meaning. I inspire others to find meaning in their own experiences. I am good at crying, and I enjoy making other people cry - as horrible as that sounds. When people cry it makes me believe they are in a deeper place in their minds or hearts that they do not normally visit. I take pride in being able to cry over one well-written line, one note in a song, a commercial, an idea.

I am good at listening without judgement. People often come to me if not for advice, then to just have their story heard. In return, I am open and honest as often as possible. I see the good in people and choose to trust them. I am not afraid to tell people how much I care and how I feel about them. I can find good compliments to give. I am compassionate and empathetic and some say I can write well. Sometimes, I think I can (or have), too.

I am not skilled at improv, at giving speeches on the fly. I can't think of come-backs, witty one-liners, and I am not great at answering questions under pressure and without careful thought. I am not good at small talk. I am not patient. I am not good at simple math.

I am skilled at sending letters by mail or e-mail and brightening people's day in that way. I can inspire. I am good at reflecting and overthinking. I recognize good dancing, good movies, and good writing. I am good at finding quotations.

Sometimes it is easier to have someone else tell you what your unique skills are. This was one of the more difficult questions to answer.

What are your unique skills? What makes you different than everyone else? What can you do better than anyone else?

Blog Advice: I Need Your Help

Simply put, I want to make my blog better.

What would you like to see? More quotations? More writing? Better writing? Longer posts? Is my blog visually pleasing?

What keeps you from following it? Or what keeps you following it if you do? The topics discussed? The quotes?

I am willing to do the work, and I am working to be more consistent.

My Quotation Journal

Here is what an average page in my quotation journal looks like...

I am almost finished with the journal and am working on transferring all the quotes to a Word Document, in case there is ever a fire and all the words get burned to ashes. I hope to give this journal to someone special some day. From my eyes, it is one of the best gifts I could ever give, not only because of what the journal means to me, how precious it is, but also because of all the ideas and bits of life advice it contains.

Forgiveness

"Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future." - Paul Boese

"The decision to forgive touches you to your very core, to who you are as a human being." - Robert Enright

"Forgiving what we cannot forget creates a new way to remember." - Lewis Smedes

Oprah's Lifeclass/ Deepak Chopra: "What Sort of Contribution Do You Want to Make?"

The fourth question Deepak Chopra asks is "what sort of contribution do you want to make?" 



I would like to make financial contributions, whether I am giving money to a homeless person or donating to a political or humanitarian organization. Already, I give a small monthly donation to the American Red Cross, I send money to UNICEF every once in awhile, and I have given money to the Obama compaign. Eventually, I would like to give more. I would like to give back to Loyola University Chicago. If ever I win the lottery (yeah right!), I would give most to charity. I understand I can give to individuals, institutions, and organizations in ways unrelated to money by giving my time and using my skills to serve. I do hope to do this, too, but I would also like to make a greater financial contribution.

I would like to contribute by inspiring people to care, be better, give more. I think the whole world is bleeding, and I want to help individuals heal themselves so the world can be better. I wish I knew how to cure closed-mindedness and intolerance. People can change, so maybe some day I will figure out how I can contribute in this way.

I want to make a contribution that lasts. A contribution that spreads. I hope as people become better versions of themselves (something of which we are all capable) others are encouraged to do the same until the whole world is changed.

Love Books? Watch Video.

This video, sent to me by someone close, moved me to tears and laughter. It is stunning. With no words, it says so much about books, reading, writing, and life. Writing brings color into your life. It can save your life (a lesson first taught to me by Stephen King in his book, On Writing). If you have written, then you can live on through your words and continue to influence lives even after you are gone. Books are our friends, and we love them!

"Not everyone needs books, but those who do are not alive without them."

Oprah's Lifeclass: Deepak Asks "What Is Your Purpose In This Life?"

Tonight was Oprah's last Lifeclass episode of the season. All four teachers were brought together in Canada to teach their best lesson on gratitude. But before getting into what I discovered tonight, it is time to brainstorm an answer to the third of Deepak Chopra's seven questions towards creating a "soul profile" which was discussed on a previous episode.

"What is your purpose in this life?"

My purpose in this life is to love, to learn, to give, and to be better.

It is my shortest and simplest answer. Maybe I just have yet to discover my purpose and this is all I can come up with, or maybe this it is the truth and the reasons we are all here. People seem to realize and fulfill their purpose to different degrees, reaching different numbers of people or getting recognized in different ways. People might take longer to realize their purpose. Some live longer, do it all quicker. Regardless, it all can be narrowed down to a handful of good things. I need to love, learn, give, and be better to the best of my ability. It is up to me to determine how much to love, how much to pull and absorb from personal and global experiences and events, how much to give back and give of myself and share, and it is up to me to decide to turn inward to examine my being and make my self better, more tolerant, less judgemental, more grateful and kind, healthy, and happy. That is my purpose in this life, for now - let us see where it takes me...

"School is the only place you can read all day...except prison." - From The Great Debaters

Prayer

The fewer words, the better prayer. - MLK

My favorite prayer is saying "thank you" over and over and over.

Quindlen... Love Her Words

"It is so easy to exist instead of live." - Anna Quindlen

Quotations to Support Creating a Soul Profile

Here are a few quotations related to my last few blog posts. They reiterate the idea that what you do, the role you play, and even what you think does not add up to who you are. I dare you to sit alone, in silence, and just be. Explore the unfamiliar territory of your mind. Discover your strongest desires and the nature of your true self

"Please don't make your career your life. Let it be your passion, let it bring pleasure, but don't let it become your identity. You are so much more valuable than that." - Celine Dion

Celine Dion

"You must have a room, or a certain hour or so a day, where you don't know what was in the newspapers that morning...a place where you can simply experience and bring forth what you are and what you might be." - Joseph Campbell

"Your thoughts are not who you are. They're not reality. You can have all sorts of concepts of water, but they can't quench your thirst." - Tara Brach

"Every day the path to your own spirituality starts with clarifying who you are and what you want." - Oprah

Oprah's Lifeclass: "What Do You Want?"

The second of seven questions that Oprah and Deepak Chopra encourage us to ask ourselves in developing a "soul profile" is "what do you want?" In order to pull out and discover what I yearn and ache for, I close my eyes to focus on the specific question and let the words and ideas surface and become my answer.

I want health. I want to find the right person, to find true love. I want to connect with someone, the person with whom I choose to spend my life, on the deepest possible level. I want that connection to be intimate, intelligent, emotional, and a connection of great friendship, empathy, understanding, and trust. I want to be changed. I want to see myself reflected in another. I want to live simply. I want to continue to travel. I want to let education be forever a significant part of my life.  I want to complete good works of writing, not necessarily to publish. I want to change people's lives by changing their days with my words. I want to help people live in greater self-awareness, happiness, and depth. I want more. I want to read more. I want to be more spiritual. I want to live to the point of tears quite literally and on a daily basis. I want to always see meaning in the small and seemingly insignificant as well as the big. I want to develop closer relationships to people I already consider close. I want to push myself to become an expert in something I love.

I do not want silence.

In order to answer these questions, I am finding it easiest to make a list, think simply, think deeply. I am afraid to lose my answer and get lost in fancy language, trying to make it sound in writing more than what it is.

Oprah's Lifeclass asks, "Who are you?"

After watching Oprah's Lifeclass on Monday, I tried to answer the question "who am I?" Deepak Chopra said that your answer should have nothing to do with what you do or the role you play, like mother, teacher, or writer. So, who am I? Who are you?

I am not a friend. I am not a daughter or a sister. I am not a waitress or a college graduate. I am not a child. I am not counselor, advisor, or teacher. I am not a girlfriend. But I am here, and I am alive. I am a spiritual being in a human body facing human experiences. I just am. I AM. And that means something. I am hopeful. I am compassionate. I am not my past. I am not my thoughts, but I am thoughtful. I am not my mother or my father. I am soul. I am energy. I am connected to the universe. I am proud. I am brave. I am my own savior. I am not the one who listens. I am not the life of the party. I am not quiet, even if you think I am. I am not too serious, no matter who tells me I am. I am free. I am free from what I am not. I am not what other people think of me. I am not lost. I am not scared. I am creative, but I am not your inspiration. I am not yours at all. I am not the day dreamer or your secret keeper. I am not a writer. I am what I believe. I am goodness. I am love. I am a gift. I am light. I am movement. I am change. I am growth. I am strong. I am forever. I am now. I am words, and I am action. Those are not the roles I play. It is not what I do. It is what I believe, and I am what I believe.

Thanks, Oprah and Deepak!

Oprah and Deepak Chopra in NYC

"There are years that ask questions and years that answer." - Zora Neale Hurston

"Dreamers of the Day"

"A true prophet sees others, not himself. He helps them define their own half-formed dreams, and puts himself at their service. He is not diminished as they become more." - Mary Doria Russell, Dreamers of the Day

Also from Dreamers of the Day...
"Usually the next war is being planned before the ink on the treaty is dry."

"All men dream...but not equally. Those who dream by night wake in the day to fnd that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible."

"It was not scandalous or sinful or dangerous to understand a different point of view...it was simply good manners and a more interesting way to live."

"Foreigners nearly always wish to simplify the Middle East, Agnes. They cannot tolerate to feel ignorant long enough to understand it."

Zen

"Zen does not confuse spirituality with thinking aobut God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen is just to peel the potatoes." - Alan Watts

"These are the times that try men's souls." - Thomas Paine

Recognizing the good, being thankful

"and when each day is the same as the next, it's because people fail to recognize the good things that happen in their lives every day that the sun rises." - The Alchemist, Paul Coehlo

Sounds of the Night

"There are nights when the wolves are silent and only the moon howls." - George Carlin

"Do not be afraid to take a chance on peace, to teach peace, to live peace...Peace will be the last word of history." - John Paul II

Live in such a way...

"We can make our minds so like still water that beings gather around us, that they may see their own images, and so live for a moment with a clearer perhaps even a fiercer life because of our quiet."-William Butler Yeats

Wow. I want to live in this way.

This quote gives me goosebumps. It is profound. It is wonderful to read aloud and see which phrases slow you down...."beings gather around us," and "because of our quiet."

I include an image of Caravaggio's Narcissus because it demonstrates how still water can draw a being to its surface and see his own image reflected. If we live in such a way, calm and quiet like still water, can people see themselves when they look upon us?

Narcissus, however, is not moved to live a "clearer" or "fiercer" life. Instead, he is decieved by the reflection and falls in-love with his image.

"The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any." - Alice Walker

I listened to a webinar called "Calling in the One," and it forced me to take part responsibility for my unsuccessful relationships. By replaying moments from my past and listening to my fears and the excuses I give for not having found the One, I discovered a pattern.

Where and how did I give up power in these relationships? I constantly make myself too available. I am too often the friend, putting my concerns and feelings second in order to "help" the guy I am dating. I always ask, "am I too much?" "What did I do wrong?" "Why are all the guys I fall for unavailable or not ready?"

Someone once asked me,"What role do you play in the movie of your life?" I answered, "the good friend." Even as the words came out I realized the absurdity of my answer. "Shouldn't you play the leading role in your own life?" he said.