Daily Mood Quote - December 17, 2011

Daily Mood Quote

Day 225 - December 17, 2011

Because a thing seems difficult for you, do not think it impossible for anyone to accomplish.

~Marcus Aurelius

Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heat.

~Marcus Aurelius

Today, was different, that which I didn't think I could handle, I accomplished. Now it is time for the holiday break. Unfortunately, my father's health is rapidly deteriorating and it looks as if it won't be long. I wish I had more to say. Maybe tomorrow. 

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daily Mood Quotes - October 18, 2011

 

Daily Mood Quotes

Day 168 – October 18, 2011

Life is but thought.

~Sara Teasdale

Marcus Aurelius said, “the universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it.” Well, right now my thoughts are confused. Recently, there has been a death in the family, and although we did not attend the funeral, we have heard the stories of hoarding and anger. Let me start at the beginning, I met my husband's family 30 years ago and they lived in a very nice house, filled with a lot of nice stuff . This was a good family, that gave me the gift of seeing what a family should be, instead of the battlefield I grew up on. I saw something better in life and decided that something better is what I wanted. I was 17 at the time, desperately counting down the days to 18, so I could leave home and begin the journey to a better life. I now knew a better life existed and that was good enough for me.

Unfortunately, time can change people and 30 years have past. The normal family I had dinner with is now sporting new attitudes; anger, hatred and selfishness. This is what I am struggling with. How does a family go from being a loving, kind and supportive family to spouting hatred loudly, with “everything belongs to me attitudes.” I saw this in my own family when the woman who raised me, past away. My siblings went in and "cleaned out" my dad's home. It was all about the stuff. My dad is still alive; did anyone bother to ask him before pillaging her stuff. The same thing happened in my husband's family, just with a little bit of a twist. The beautiful home my husband grew up in, the stuff that filled that house, the love that once was felt when you past through the doors is no longer. The house was sold and the parents were moved to a nursing home. The stuff; I have no idea where that went, and the love has been replaced with greed, selfishness and anger by the same children who grew up in that loving home. 

My father-in-law worked hard and tirelessly his entire life and provided a good life for his children and wife. All to just end up in a one room, four walls, nursing home. Is that the end goal? Do you work all your life to provide for your family; so your kids can fight and squabble over stuff, that has little to no meaning to anyone but the people who earned it? In the end is it just about the money, grab up as much as you can and sell it for what it is worth? Doesn't anyone have any sense of compassion anymore? And what about the surviving spouse? I know these are a lot of questions to ask, and I wish I had the answers. But, for the time being, all these questions only lead to more questions. Hence, the confusion.

I don't know about the readers of the blog; but I know for me, it is my most sincere hope that the next generation (the children I have raised) has better sense than the one(s) before them. Because, if they don't, then what does that say about us and the future of us all?

I have been shocked and very surprised by the greed demonstrated in the act of snatching up everything when someone passes away. It's the second time I've seen it and it makes me kind of sick in the stomach to see evil playing its hand at such a solemn time. My husband says he's "truly disappointed, they were raised better." I guess Carl Fox (played by Martin Sheen) in the movie Wall Street, with Michael Douglas, said a mouthful when he said, “Money's only something you need in case you don't die tomorrow...”

What do you think? Is it about getting stuff when Mom and Dad die? Or, is it about learning something positive from our parents to share forward?

How will you remember your parents today?

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Daily Mood Quote - August 25, 2011

 

Daily Mood Quote

Day 114 – August 25, 2011

“And the only thing that matters, Is climbing up that social ladder, Still care about your hair and the car you drive. Doesn't matter if you’re 16 or 35”

~Bowling for Soup,- High School Never Ends

Today I chose a song lyric from High School Never Ends as the quote of the day. Recently, I attended a back to school night at a local high school. Back to school night is a meet and greet between parents and teachers, along with a brief introduction to the administration staff. I was astounded by how many parents took it literally and dropped back into their high school roles. And in some cases acted as juvenile as their kids. I would guess the average age of the parents to be somewhere between late thirties and early forties, with a few stragglers on either side of that age range. The first thing I noticed were short skirts and muscles shirts. Okay I'm guilty of laughing. Maybe, it's me but when you see a woman in her fifties wearing a skirt so short that when she bent over, the world was greeted by both cheeks, “H-E-L-L-O” (thank you Sister Mary Patrick (Kathy Najimy) from Sister Act 2), you've got to wonder what she was thinking. It made me wonder, if I'm aging too fast, or maybe I'm just too conservative, something to think about. Maybe...

What really got to me was the little clique clusters that formed instantaneously, as they stood around and reminisced about their high school days. I heard conversations ranging from where someone got their first kiss (on the second floor, near the woman's bathroom) to where someone lost their innocence...(Eewwwww!, TMI!!!,). I quickly found another place to be. Then their was the high school jocks that stood and stared at their pictures in the trophy case. I kind of felt sorry for those guys because the looks on their faces, where one of disappointment and longing for, “a life unfulfilled” I suppose. Then we had the braggers, those who talked loud enough for everyone to hear about all of their accomplishments and recent vacations, recent purchases and even a recent conquest (since the divorce was final). And there were even the solemn wall flowers winding their way through the halls, literally blending into and sticking as close to the wall as possible, just so nobody noticed. They call that “positive thigmotaxis” I think, at least that's how I remember it from high school biology.

I found myself asking the question, “Where are the grown-ups?” To be fair, there were some and you could tell, there was a big difference between the people who “grew up,” grew up “here” and those who are transplants. The transplants acted and dressed like grown-ups and where completely ignored. The “grown ups” looked as stunned, as I'm certain I did. We even witnessed a hip-check into the hallway wall. Really???

So, “high school never ends”... and I wonder why this behavior is so evident in our culture. Is it because they ascribe deep emotional attachment, or is it that we only remember the good stuff? I think that's a question for a psychiatrist to answer, not me. In the movie The Breakfast Club, Claire Standish (played by Molly Ringwald) said, “Do you know how popular I am? I am so popular. Everybody loves me so much at this school.” there was a lot of that, even decades after they got the diploma and walked out the door. However, in the movie 17 Again, Mike O'Donnell (played by Zac Efron) said, “I had the craziest dream. I was 17. I was back in high school. It was terrible. Mmmm. Scar.” That quote feels a little more on target. Marcus Aurelius said “Our life is what our thoughts make of it.” Apparently. there are many here who think the past is better that the present. It seems as if they are stuck there. Memories are one of the greatest gifts we have, we remember them, we share them with great fondness, however we cannot and should not expect to “relive” them. Choose to look forward not back.

How will you look forward today?

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Daily Mood Quotes - August 20, 2011

 

Daily Mood Quote

Day 109 – August 20, 2011

One's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.

~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

Every once in a while I run into a situation (Note: “a” situation not “The Situation”.... my thoughts on that particular program are not positive at all), or an idea that is new to me. Usually, I do the standard scan, discard, select, move on, for new information, because there is just so much to filter through during the day. I suppose I'm like everyone else in that respect. But every once in while a comment or an idea snags in the fabric of my mind and begins to take root. Sometimes, they lie quietly dormant, like little seeds in the folds of the subconscious, until by fate they are given the opportunity to spring up and get some new attention. Last night one of those little seeds finally grew into my consciousness and got my attention. A long time ago, I took a communications class and one of the books I had to read was Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, a Roman Emperor and philosopher of sorts. He wrote: “The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it”. Even if you disagree with his other meditations, this one is painfully true. So the big question is; who guides those “thoughts” that make our life? In our modern world we are so constantly bombarded on line, on the air and by the pressures of our community to sculpt our thoughts to match somebody else's agenda, that we can barely hear ourselves think. No wonder people get confused and sometimes resentful. We can get so caught up in what we don't have and what others expect, that we simply don't ask ourselves: What's really important to me and who exactly do I want to be? Maybe, we all need scheduled time outs?

Yesterday, I mentioned a sign that I saw in a local school and it's profound impact on me. Well another thing caught my eye, but I didn't process it until very late last night. It started out “100 years from now it wont' matter what car you drive....” I'm sure you all have seen this quote at least once, or twice, but I'll look for it later and attach a link. The thing is it's true; our thoughts make our life, and what we pass along in the form of thoughts makes our legacy. Stuff can come and go and it will all eventually pass, but how we live and what thoughts we “pass” to others, either purposefully or by accident, are the tale of our time here. They are the real substance of our life. I must confess lately given our tough circumstance, not all my thoughts have been something I would be proud of 100 years from now, so its time to make a few adjustments.

In the movie Mr. Holland's Opus the Governor, Gertrude Lang (Joanna Gleason), a former student of Glenn Holland (Richard Dreyfuss) relays this concept so very eloquently, that it bears repeating; “Mr. Holland had a profound influence on my life and on a lot of lives I know. But I have a feeling that he considers a great part of his own life misspent. Rumor had it he was always working on this symphony of his. And this was going to make him famous, rich, probably both. But Mr. Holland isn't rich and he isn't famous, at least not outside of our little town. So it might be easy for him to think himself a failure. But he would be wrong, because I think that he's achieved a success far beyond riches and fame. Look around you. There is not a life in this room that you have not touched, and each of us is a better person because of you. We are your symphony Mr. Holland. We are the melodies and the notes of your opus. We are the music of your life.” 

I guess what I'm saying is, we all have that same opportunity everyday in our lives, to affect the lives of those we contact each day. All our lives are colored by “thoughts” we let in and “thoughts” we give out. That is the true legacy and treasure of our lives.

What “thoughts” will you be proud to have remembered 100 years from now?

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Daily Mood Quote - June 11, 2011

Daily Mood Quote

Day 38 – June 11, 2011

A #2 pencil and a dream can take you anywhere.

~Joyce A. Myers

Except these days, the #2 pencil has been replaced by a keyboard. I am a dreamer, a realist and all around practical person. But, the hope of my dreams coming true keeps me from giving up. You see I love to write, I have been writing since I was nine years old and dreaming about becoming a writer for many decades. However, in the pursuit of that dream, life must be lived and sometimes those dreams can be and occasionally are, replaced by better dreams, or at least more attainable ones. I'm not completely certain about that. But, what I do know is that I have spent a lifetime changing a negative perspective into a positive one. Julia Roberts (who played Vivian) in the movie Pretty Woman with Richard Gere (Edward) said it best, “The bad stuff is easier to believe. You ever notice that?” 
 

Marcus Aurelius and Napoleon Hill agree, what you think about your life is what your life becomes. Unfortunately, that thinking, if a product of a negative upbringing, can be difficult, but not impossible to overcome. It takes work, a lot of hard work. Much of that work is internal and it is on attitude. I understand, because my entire life has been about dumping a negative attitude and replacing it with the positive, by developing understanding, education and love. Nothing is impossible if we set our minds to it and sharpen our mental #2 pencils.

As I look back on my life, I realized I could have been writing all along. Instead I allowed people within my sphere of awareness to influence and alter my true trajectory of life. Everyone has “the dreams of their heart”, what they truly were meant to be in life. Regrettably, we all to often let others attitudes over ride our hearts. I am no different, others have changed the course of my life with their opinions and it has taken many years, actually decades to get back on track. As the narrator in Pretty Woman says at the end of the movie, “What's your dream?”

What “dream” of yours will you rediscover today?

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Daily Mood Quote - June 4, 2011

Daily Mood Quote

Day 31 – June 4, 2011

When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.

~Marcus Aurelius

What a difference a day makes, To awake listening to the birds singing outside, the soft summer sunlight filtering through the blinds and the gentle fragrance of the locust blossoms filling the air. Ahhh, the quiet of the morning... What a wonderful way to start a Saturday. Just kidding, does any day really start like this? Well for “a brief shining moment...and then that mouth” Victor Melling (played by Michael Caine) said this of Gracie Hart (Sandra Bullock) in the very funny Miss Congeniality. In our case, gentle little Hope began by singing her “Get up! Get up!... Hellooooo? Get up” song in her not so subtle feline vibrato and as loudly as possible. Who needs an alarm clock, we have the alarm cat!? It was time to get up I suppose. Then the dog chimed in, singing his “I've got to go outside to tinkle song”, with typical canine enthusiasm. What a musical start to the day. Just between you and me, I'd rather listen to the birds. But, on the bright side, better the cat and dog than the neighbor's lawn mower, or gas powered edger at the crack of dawn. Oh, that was last Saturday. 

 

Seriously, how rude have we become as to fill the air with that noise, so early in the day. “Hey buddy, you might be wearing headphones, but the rest of us aren't.” Anyway the sun is up. It probably heard the cat's chorus too. And the day has begun. Sooo... what precious privileges lie before us today?

Marcus Aurelius was right. It is a privilege to be alive, to rise each morning and have the chance to appreciate the subtle beauties in everyday life. You just have to carve your way through the noise and distractions to see them. Funny thing is, that very often, the noise and distraction makers are the very things we love the most. Huh, just thought of that? Even the noisy neighbor's lawn mowing, leaves the smell of fresh cut grass in the air. And what would a day be without Hope.. and Chester of course. So, bring on the noise that fills our everyday life, except this time don't listen to them as the noise makers of the world, think of them as the songs we love to listen to in life.

What “shining moment” will you find in your day today?

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