Mother Teresa: “Do It Anyway”

February 19, 2011 By

The verses below were written on the wall of Mother Teresa’s home for children in Calcutta, India and are attributed to her:

People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered.  Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.  Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies.  Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you.  Be honest and sincere anyway.

What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight.  Create anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous.  Be happy anyway.

Give the best you have, and it will never be enough.  Give your best anyway.

In the final analysis, it is between you and the Divine.  It was never between you and them anyway.

And the day came

January 24, 2009 By

And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom. 
—Anaïs Nin

Campbell Quote: Rapture of Being Alive

January 22, 2009 By

People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life. I think that what we’re really seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonance within our innermost being and reality, so that we can actually feel the rapture of being alive.
—Joseph Campbell

May you find the path

January 18, 2009 By
May you find the path that will lead you 
to the highest and truest of yourself.
—Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
     When I took my first yoga class more than a decade ago, I was a stressed out first year school teacher in the inner city of L.A.  I came to yoga to calm my mind.  Over the years, my mind has become more calm and peaceful.  I also gained a stronger, more flexible body, a clearer, more focused mind, and a connection to a deeper part of myself — the very heart of my being.  
     Yoga has helped me to open the closed parts of myself both on a physical and emotional level.  I am much more able to be more authentically myself now — more vulnerable on an outer level because I feel a deep connection on the inside to place of abiding strength within.  Life has become more of a courageous adventure — one that continues to lead me to the “highest and truest” of myself.

To see a world

January 18, 2009 By
To see a world in a grain of sand
and heaven in a wild flower,
hold infinity in the palm of your hand
and eternity in an hour
—William Blake

What you see

January 18, 2009 By
It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.
—Henry David Thoreau