STONE SOUP: Proverbs

Shipwrecked by laughter

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 03:49:29 GMT

"Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge in the field of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods."
Albert Einstein, contribution to a publication commemorating the eightieth birthday of German rabbi and theologian Leo Baeck, 1953.

Heart knowledge

Fri, 02 May 2008 16:33:13 GMT

No real and deep change occurs outside relationship and trust, for this is the place where the heart lives. People often say, "I know that in my head, not in my heart." For the heart to know it, the heart must return to the vulnerable place where the rules were first written on it.

-- Dr. Henry Cloud, Changes that Heal

St. Ursa Theresa

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 15:15:27 GMT

The following is attributed to Mother Teresa, but I'm not so sure. It sounds too much like what a saint should say.

LOVE THEM ANYWAY
People are unreasonable, illogical, self-centred.
Love 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 false triends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Be good anyway.

Honesty and frankness will make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.

People need help, but may attack you if you try to help them.
Help them anyway.

In the final analysis, it is between you and God.
It was never between you and them anyway.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
My personal, non-saintly version goes something like this:
People are unreasonable, illogical, self-centred.
That's why so many of us prefer to play video games.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
And they may be right.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and true enemies.
That goes with the territory.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
But the results will still be there.

Honesty and frankness will make you vulnerable.
Dishonesty and deviousness will make you worry about getting caught.
So which is worse?

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Or it may last for a hundred years.
There's no way of knowing.

People need help, but may attack you if you try to help them.
Stand back far enough to keep them from pulling you into the quicksand. Two deaths are not better than one.

In the final analysis, you have to decide what's best for you.
People who claim to know all the answers for your life are just avoiding the challenge of dealing with their own issues.
If you go to God for advice, make sure you are hearing clearly before jumping off the temple tower.
You cannot hold anyone accountable for your decisions but yourself.

Maxims to live by

Thu, 27 Dec 2007 17:09:07 GMT

EMANATIONS OF A FEVERISH BRAIN ON AN OVERCAST AFTERNOON...

Hell hath no fury like a mother scorned.

Don't pee on my parade.

Man proposes; Mom disposes.

Don't like cheap thrills? Then you pay the bills!

Just say YES.

Love your neighbour--but don't get caught!

Don't trust anyone under thirty.

God must be male--no woman would put up with such a mess.

Dermatology is only skin deep.

I’m allergic to flowers--just send money.

The way to a man's heart is through his ego.

This reality may be terminated without notice.

Living in the past causes time paradoxes.

Golfers always look fore-ward.

My mission in life is to make the top 99% look good.

Learning from Crayons

Thu, 13 Dec 2007 14:57:28 GMT

Making the rounds on the Internet:

A lecturer, when explaining stress management to an audience, raised a glass of water and asked, "how heavy is this glass of water? "

Answers called out ranged from 20g to 500g.

The lecturer replied, "The absolute weight doesn't matter.

It depends on how long you try to hold it.

"If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem.

If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my right arm.

If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance.

"In each case, it's the same weight,

but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes. "

He continued, "And that's the way it is with stress management.

If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the burden becomes increasingly heavy, we won't be able to carry on. "

"As with the glass of water, you have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again.

When we're refreshed, we can carry on with the burden. "

* Accept that some days you're the pigeon, and some days you're the statue.

* Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them.

* Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.

* Drive carefully. It's not only cars that can be recalled by their Maker.

* If you can't be kind, at least have the decency to be vague.

* If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.

* It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others.

* Never buy a car you can't push.

* Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time, because then you won't have a leg to stand on.

* Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance.

* Since it's the early worm that gets eaten by the bird, sleep late.

* The second mouse gets the cheese.

* When everything's coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.

* Birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.

* You may be only one person in the world, but you may also be the world to one person.

* Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once

* We could learn a lot from crayons. Some are sharp, some are pretty and some are dull, Some have weird names , and all are different colors, but they all have to live in the same box.

" A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour.

We are in this together

Wed, 12 Dec 2007 22:00:28 GMT

Random Acts of Kindness -- paying it forward -- positive power to make an impact on the universe. How could I refuse to spend $1.50 in a thrift shop for the More Random Acts of Kindness book?

The stories are touching. Interestingly enough, the compilers found that people were strangely reluctant to speak of the good they had done, and preferred to dwell on what they had received. No doubt about it -- RAOK transform at both the giving and receiving end.

Various quotations are used as fillers. The one that I hooked me is from Sweden:

WHEN A BLIND MAN CARRIES A CRIPPLED MAN, BOTH MOVE FORWARD.

There is no need to wait to become perfect before we can help someone else. What we do need is a realistic understanding of our gifts and limitations. The crippled man who tries to carry a blind man gets nowhere. The blind leading the blind may tumble into disaster. But if we put the pieces together constructively, any number of wonderful things can happen.