Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
By the Way. . .
For those of you who do not keep regular contact with me, in the flurry of creating my blog, The New Millennium Optimist, I lleft out one of the n's in creating the blog name. (I know, "Shame shame!" especially for someone who has an English degree. Oh, well. What can I say? The Oxford Dictionary says it better than I: "The correct spelling is millennium not millenium. The latter is a common error, formed by analogy with other similar words correctly spelled with only one n, such as millenarian and millenary. The differences in spelling are explained by different origins. Millennium was formed by analogy with words like biennium, while millenary and millenarian were formed from the Latin milleni." http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/millennium
Nevertheless, I started the blog with the correct spelling of "Millennium" last year, and thought I should put some kind of notice on the old, misspelled blog to let any readers know, that the blog does go on under a slightly different URL.
www.NewMillenniumOptimist.blogspot.com
Nevertheless, I started the blog with the correct spelling of "Millennium" last year, and thought I should put some kind of notice on the old, misspelled blog to let any readers know, that the blog does go on under a slightly different URL.
www.NewMillenniumOptimist.blogspot.com
A Cock-Eyed Optimist
“A Cock-Eyed Optimist”
------by: Rodgers and Hammerstein
(From South Pacific)
When the skies are a bright canary yellow
I forget ev'ry cloud I've ever seen,
So they called me a cockeyed optimist
Immature and incurably green.
I have heard people rant and rave and bellow
That we're done and we might as well be dead,
But I'm only a cockeyed optimist
And I can't get it into my head.
I hear the human race
Is fallin' on its face
And hasn't very far to go,
But ev'ry whippoorwill
Is sellin' me a bill,
And tellin' me it just ain't so.
I could say life is just a bowl of Jello
And appear more intelligent and smart,
But I'm stuck like a dope
With a thing called hope,
And I can't get it out of my heart!
Not this heart...
------by: Rodgers and Hammerstein
(From South Pacific)
When the skies are a bright canary yellow
I forget ev'ry cloud I've ever seen,
So they called me a cockeyed optimist
Immature and incurably green.
I have heard people rant and rave and bellow
That we're done and we might as well be dead,
But I'm only a cockeyed optimist
And I can't get it into my head.
I hear the human race
Is fallin' on its face
And hasn't very far to go,
But ev'ry whippoorwill
Is sellin' me a bill,
And tellin' me it just ain't so.
I could say life is just a bowl of Jello
And appear more intelligent and smart,
But I'm stuck like a dope
With a thing called hope,
And I can't get it out of my heart!
Not this heart...
Perception of Reality
From the movie, Sneakers (1992!)
Cosmo: [I] learned that everything in this world--including money--operates not on reality . . .
Martin Bishop: But the perception of reality.
Cosmo:Posit -- people think a bank might be financially shaky.
Martin Bishop: Consequence -- people start to withdraw their money.
Cosmo: Result -- pretty soon it is financially shaky.
Martin Bishop: Conclusion -- you can make banks fail.
Cosmo: [I] learned that everything in this world--including money--operates not on reality . . .
Martin Bishop: But the perception of reality.
Cosmo:Posit -- people think a bank might be financially shaky.
Martin Bishop: Consequence -- people start to withdraw their money.
Cosmo: Result -- pretty soon it is financially shaky.
Martin Bishop: Conclusion -- you can make banks fail.
The Optimist 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 words, 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.
--by Christian D. Larson
**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 words, 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.
--by Christian D. Larson
Hope for a great sea-change
On the far side of revenge.
Believe that a further shore
Is reachable from here.
Believe in miracles
And cures and healing wells.
-- Seamus Heaney
On the far side of revenge.
Believe that a further shore
Is reachable from here.
Believe in miracles
And cures and healing wells.
-- Seamus Heaney
Followers
"You Were Made For This," by Clarissa Pinkola Estes
My friends, do not lose heart. We were made for these times. I have heard from so many recently who are deeply and properly bewildered. They are concerned about the state of affairs in our world now. Ours is a time of almost daily astonishment and often righteous rage over the latest degradations of what matters most to civilized, visionary people.You are right in your assessments. The lustre and hubris some have aspired to while endorsing acts so heinous against children, elders, everyday people, the poor, the unguarded, the helpless, is breathtaking. Yet, I urge you, ask you, gentle you, to please not spend your spirit dry by bewailing these difficult times. Especially do not lose hope. Most particularly because, the fact is that we were made for these times. Yes. For years, we have been learning, practicing, been in training for and just waiting to meet on this exact plain of engagement.I grew up on the Great Lakes and recognize a seaworthy vessel when I see one. Regarding awakened souls, there have never been more able vessels in the waters than there are right now across the world. And they are fully provisioned and able to signal one another as never before in the history of humankind. Look out over the prow; there are millions of boats of righteous souls on the waters with you. Even though your veneers may shiver from every wave in this stormy roil, I assure you that the long timbers composing your prow and rudder come from a greater forest. That long-grained lumber is known to withstand storms, to hold together, to hold its own, and to advance, regardless.In any dark time, there is a tendency to veer toward fainting over how much is wrong or unmended in the world. Do not focus on that. There is a tendency, too, to fall into being weakened by dwelling on what is outside your reach, by what cannot yet be. Do not focus there. That is spending the wind without raising the sails. We are needed, that is all we can know. And though we meet resistance, we more so will meet great souls who will hail us, love us and guide us, and we will know them when they appear. Didn't you say you were a believer? Didn't you say you pledged to listen to a voice greater? Didn't you ask for grace? Don't you remember that to be in grace means to submit to the voice greater?Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world all at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach. Any small, calm thing that one soul can do to help another soul, to assist some portion of this poor suffering world, will help immensely. It is not given to us to know which acts or by whom, will cause the critical mass to tip toward an enduring good. What is needed for dramatic change is an accumulation of acts, adding, adding to, adding more, continuing. We know that it does not take everyone on Earth to bring justice and peace, but only a small, determined group who will not give up during the first, second, or hundredth gale.One of the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene in a stormy world is to stand up and show your soul. Soul on deck shines like gold in dark times. The light of the soul throws sparks, can send up flares, builds signal fires, causes proper matters to catch fire. To display the lantern of soul in shadowy times like these—to be fierce and to show mercy toward others; both are acts of immense bravery and greatest necessity. Struggling souls catch light from other souls who are fully lit and willing to show it. If you would help to calm the tumult, this is one of the strongest things you can do.There will always be times when you feel discouraged. I too have felt despair many times in my life, but I do not keep a chair for it. I will not entertain it. It is not allowed to eat from my plate. The reason is this: In my uttermost bones I know something, as do you. It is that there can be no despair when you remember why you came to Earth, who you serve, and who sent you here. The good words we say and the good deeds we do are not ours. They are the words and deeds of the One who brought us here. In that spirit, I hope you will write this on your wall: When a great ship is in harbor and moored, it is safe, there can be no doubt. But that is not what great ships are built for.
-- Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Ph.D, Author of the best seller Women Who Run with the Wolves
-- Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Ph.D, Author of the best seller Women Who Run with the Wolves
No comments:
Post a Comment