It Could Happen

You never know when someone might catch a dream from you.
Or something you say may open up the windows of a mind that seeks light;
The way you live may not matter at all,
But you never know, it might …
And just in case it could be that another’s life, through you,
might possibly change for the better with a better and brighter view,
It seems it might be worth a try at pointing the way to the right;
Of course, it may not matter at all, but then again, it might …

You never know … - author unknown

via http://deaglan.wordpress.com/2005/12/20/you-never-know/

may your life be filled with joy and beauty; may you rejoice every day in your whole, perfect self; and may peace reign on earth in the hearts of all mankind.

http://emsky.typepad.com/winwinweb/2005/12/blogging_sabbat.html

Kiss the back of your hand and remember a moment in childhood when you felt the perfect joy of being at home in the world. Give a gift to a river, lake, or ocean. Treasure the unique shape and contours of your beautiful face. For just 48 hours, be inflamed with the hypothesis that your soul will live forever. Imagine that your place of power is where the tree joins the earth. Playfully lower your expectations all the way down to the bottom, and tune in to the shattering sweetness of life exactly as it is. Put yourself under the protection of the raw elements. Write an epic three-page autobiography while sitting in the pitch dark. Seize the power to create magic that has always seemed impossible before.

week of December 15, 2005
via http://www.freewillastrology.com/horoscopes/leo.html

Stripped

The Optimist's Creed

Promise Yourself

To be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.

To talk health, happiness, and prosperity to every person you meet.

To make all your friends feel that there is something worthwhile in them.

To look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true.

To think only of the best, to work only for the best and to expect only the best.

To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.

To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.

To wear a cheerful expression at all times and give a smile to every living creature you meet.

To give so much time to improving yourself that you have no time to criticize others.

To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.

To think well of yourself and to proclaim this fact to the world, not in loud word, but in great deeds.

To live in the faith that the whole world is on your side, so long as you are true to the best that is in you.

via http://websyte.com/alan/opticrd.htm
via http://www.lipsticking.com/2005/09/jane_shares_ins.html
via http://www.sayleadershipcoaching.com/talkingstory/2005/12/hikeike_managin.html

“The most solid advice for a writer is this, I think: Try to learn to breathe deeply, really to taste food when you eat, and when you sleep really to sleep. Try as much as possible to be wholly alive with all your might, and when you laugh, laugh like hell. And when you get angry, get good and angry. Try to be alive. You will be dead soon enough” — William Saroyan

via http://www.woodka.com/2005/12/17/breath/

The defining function of the artist is to cherish consciousness.

--Max Eastman

via http://www.kathrynpetro.com/mindfullife/archives/001300.html

"The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something. It's as simple as that. A lot of people have ideas, but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today. The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer." - Nolan Bushnell
"He who wants, but doesn't act, is a pest." - William Blake

via http://makeitgreat.blogspot.com/2005/12/quotes-of-day.html

1. The current problems cannot be fixed by the behaviors, processes, and relationships that caused them.
2. Not completely fixed is better than completely broken.

via http://workingpathways.com/workbetter/archive/two-quick-reminders-about-work/

If you were a brain, and you'd been evolving for a very, very long time... what would you find interesting?

* Surprise, novelty, the unexpected

* Beauty

* Stories

* Conversation

* Emotionally touching (the whole kids and puppies thing)

* Counterintuitive failures or mistakes

* Fun, playfulness, humor

* Varying visuals

* Faces of people, especially with strong expressions

* Sounds, music

* Shock, creepy things

and of course...

* Sexiness

One fairly straightforward way to make documentation/training/articles interesting is to crank up four sliders Conversation, Variety, Visuals, and Story.

via http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2005/12/but_is_it_inter.html

Please Bring Strange Things

Please bring strange things.
Please come bringing new things.
Let very old things come into your hands.
Let what you do not know come into your eyes.
Let desert sand harden your feet.
Let the arch of your feet be the mountains.
Let the paths of your fingertips be your maps
And the ways you go be the lines of your palms.
Let there be deep snow in your inbreathing
And your outbreath be the shining of ice.
May your mouth contain the shapes of strange words.
May you smell food cooking you have not eaten.
May the spring of a foreign river be your navel.
May your soul be at home where there are no houses.
Walk carefully, well-loved one,
Walk mindfully, well-loved one,
Walk fearlessly, well-loved one.
Return with us, return to us,
Be always coming home.
- Ursula K. Le Guin

“Enlightenment–that magnificent escape from anguish and ignorance–never happens by accident. It results from the brave and sometimes lonely battle of one person against his own weaknesses.”
-Bhikkhu Nyanasobhano

via http://www.woodka.com/2005/12/11/ask-for-what-you-need-and-offer-what-you-can/

“We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love… and then we return home.”
— Australian Aboriginal Proverb

“The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls.”
— Pablo Picasso

“We’re so engaged in doing things to achieve purposes of outer value that we forget the inner value, the rapture that is associated with being alive, is what it is all about.”
— Joseph Campbell

via http://www.woodka.com/2005/12/12/purpose/

where to?
for kirsten

By Maya Stein

ignore the weathered pathway,
the chiseled directions
the far-off, fragrant promise.

ignore the wind
the ardor
your impeccable standards for safety.

ignore speed.
ignore
the expectation of a handrail.

ignore the outlook,
the voluptuous fantasy,
the glossy, glimmered possibilities.

ignore your shoes
the rip in your striped socks
the small fissures of doubt or disappointment.

this is where you are.
this is the only place you can possibly be.

even if
no one else is visible for miles
and you want, more than anything,
to stop the pending disaster of your legs,
to surrender that piece of yourself that still hopes.

do not swivel from your purpose.
do not dash yourself against the sand, striking innocent driftwood.
do not turn around, back to the parking lot
where your old car idles, leaking its silly, extravagant oil.

even when the sidewalk ends,
there is a sea somewhere just beyond,
waiting for you.

via http://papayamaya.blogspot.com/2005/12/where-tofor-kirsten.html

Word
by Pablo Neruda


I'm going to crumple this word,
to twist it,
yes,
it's too slick
like a big dog or a river
had been lapping it down with its tongue, or water
had worn it away with the years.

I want gravel
to show in the word,
the ferruginous salt,
the gap-toothed power
of the soil.
There must be a blood-letting
for talker and non-talker alike.

I want to see thirst
in the syllables,
touch fire
in the sound;
feel through the dark
for the scream. Let
my words be acrid
as virginal stone.


From Where Books Fall Open: A Reader's Anthology of Wit and Passion

via http://storms.typepad.com/booklust/2005/12/word.html

"I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use." -- Galileo Galilei

“Every time you don’t follow your inner guidance, you feel a loss of energy, loss of power, a sense of spiritual deadness.”
— Shakti Gawain

~~Never argue with idiots, they'll bring you down to their level and beat you with experience. ~~ Unknown

via http://ladolcedivas.blogspot.com/2005/11/office-holiday-party.html

Where there is cake, there is hope.
And there’s always cake.

~ Dean Koontz, Life Expectancy

via http://www.jenniferinc.com/blog/?p=148