Jan 30, 2013

Helen

Helen Keller is pretty much amazing!

Look at some the things she has said..

"Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it. My optimism, then, does not rest on the absence of evil, but on a glad belief in the preponderance of good and a willing effort always to cooperate with the good, that it may prevail."

"It is wonderful how much time good people spend fighting the devil. If they would only expend the same amount of energy loving their fellow men, the devil would die in his own tracks of ennui."

            (I especially liked this cuz I learned the word ennui.
                 Pronounced ahn-wee..sounds like a french way of saying ornery.
            It means "a feeling of utter weariness and discontent resulting
                from satiety or lack of interest; boredom; displeasure; annoyance")


"I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble."
          (...this makes me want to go to Romania.........)


"I seldom think about my limitations, and they never make me sad. Perhaps there is just a touch of yearning at times; but it is vague, like a breeze among flowers."

"The world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of tiny pushes of each honest worker."

"All the world if full of suffering. 
It is also full of overcoming."

:)

Jan 28, 2013

Path

"The future is not some place we are going to, but one we are creating. The paths are not to be found, but made, and the activity of making them 
changes both the maker and the destination." 

~John Schaar

You've probably heard quotes like this before. Do you ever feel like life's course is inevitable? I think there are things we can't change. Especially in the past--face forward. The future is as bright as your faith. 

What about when your faith doesn't feel bright enough to get you to where you want to be? You can get there :) Pray :) It works. 

:)


ha! :)

Jan 22, 2013

Living With Questions

Today on campus there was a forum by a man named Dr. Michael Wesch--twas super good!!!

I'll post it when that is available.

He had a lot of really good things to say--one of my favorite takeaways is that we should live with questions. In other words, learning is usually facilitated when you really want to understand something better.

Better learning=better actions.

When you live with questions you want to experience the world;
 living itself feels like a celebration. 

Keep wonder in your world!

We are interested in different things, but our wonder and desire to learn helps us connect to each other and see the value in everything and everyone.

Life is an action, something you can get better at.

:)

I'm reminded of Dr. Palmer--my Social Recreation teacher last semester. He was great at reminding us that as we grow up, we don't have to be boring. We can enjoy life just as much--or more than kids! Keep having fun! Keep your sense of wonder! :)

:)

Jan 21, 2013

Birthdays

I just have to get this off my chest:

I am awful at remembering birthdays. This leads me to waaaay over-think facebook haha :)

Let me show you why:

         Good ol' FB is fantastic because I can see when people's birthdays are!
                  The problem?
         Since I am not on FB everyday I get paranoid that I missed somebody's birthday

(You can tell how depressing and serious of a problem this post is going to address)

I used to have the philosophy that if I knew someone well enough to be FB friends, then I was good enough friends to at least leave a generic "Happy birthday!" on their wall. 
          Now I tend to work the opposite way ha...I rarely tell anybody happy birthday.

Over-thinking: what if I tell some distant friend happy birthday then forget to wish somebody significant to me happy birthday??

(Of course if they are truly significant, I will probably offer more than a generic "happy birthday." )

But what about those in-between people who you want to keep up with, but don't know well enough to have their phone number?

Sigh. 

There you go. A glimpse into my oh-so-conflicted self ;) And an apology, to everybody I ought to have wished happy birthday. Happy birthday. 

Hopefully when your birthday comes around I will release my mind from over-analyzing such a simple thing and wish you a more personal happy birthday :)

:)