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Any writer, I suppose, feels that the world into which he was born is nothing less than a conspiracy against the cultivation of his talent—which attitude certainly has a great deal to support it. On the other hand, it is only because the world looks on his talent with such a frightening indifference that the artist is compelled to make his talent important. So that any writer, looking back over even so short a span of time as I am here forced to assess, finds that the things which hurt him and the things which helped him cannot be divorced from each other; he could be helped in a certain way only because he was hurt in a certain way; and his help is simply to be enabled to move from one conundrum to the next—one is tempted to say that he moves from one disaster to the next.
JAMES BALDWIN
Sunday, May 01, 2022
Milk the Cow
Milking the cow is what I call writing in my journal because she needs her milk expressed every day.
“Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears.”
― Meditations“The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are.”
― Meditations“When another blames you or hates you, or people voice similar criticisms, go to their souls, penetrate inside and see what sort of people they are. You will realize that there is no need to be racked with anxiety that they should hold any particular opinion about you.”“When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: the people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous and surly. They are like this because they can't tell good from evil. But I have seen the beauty of good, and the ugliness of evil, and have recognized that the wrongdoer has a nature related to my own - not of the same blood and birth, but the same mind, and possessing a share of the divine. And so none of them can hurt me. No one can implicate me in ugliness. Nor can I feel angry at my relative, or hate him. We were born to work together like feet, hands and eyes, like the two rows of teeth, upper and lower. To obstruct each other is unnatural. To feel anger at someone, to turn your back on him: these are unnatural.”
― Meditations
― Meditations
“When you arise in the morning think of what a privilege it is to be alive, to think, to enjoy, to love ...”
― Meditations“You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”
― Meditations“Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.”
― Meditations“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.”
― Meditations“Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.”
― Meditations“If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.”
― Meditations“The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury.”
― Meditations“Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart.”
― Meditations“The soul becomes dyed with the colour of its thoughts.”
― Meditations“It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.”
― Meditations“Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.”
― Meditations
Chaos Theory
Mark S. scooped up the leaf piles that had begun sprouting. He had six leaf bags full when I went out to thank him. Then he trimmed the evergreen bush poking through the chain link. "It's a beautiful day, and I'm not working and we've been neighbors for decades," he said.
I vacuumed my whole house in a day after procrastinating for months. I think it's chaos theory.
There's always more to do but the point is to start one small achievable piece and see where it goes.
“This I know: the mind, left to itself, repeats the same stories, the same loops. Mostly ones that don't serve us. So what's practical, what's transformative, is to consciously choose a thought. Then practice it again and again. With emotion, with feeling, with acceptance. Lay down the synaptic pathways until the mind starts playing it automatically. Do this with enough intensity over time and the mind will have no choice. That's how it operates. Where do you think your original loops came from?”
― Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends On It
What you need is simple. All below are metaphorical, not physical.
1) Cojones – Extra large
2) A Bulldog’s jaws – Once you grab on to something, you don’t quit.
3) Bulletproof vest – There’ll always be detractors, hanger-oners, I-told-you-so’ers. Let it all bounce off.
4) A Dog neck cone – For focus. You only look back for lessons.
I’d add more, but with those 4, you can accomplish pretty much anything.
“One thing I've learned: we don't stumble accidentally into an amazing life. It takes decision, a commitment to consistently work on ourselves.”
― Live Your Truth“When your sense of self and happiness comes from within and isn't a roller coaster ride dependent on others or circumstances, you approach life differently. You make better choices. You draw to you the people and situations that matter. The others, they fall away.”
― Live Your Truth“Confidence comes from crossing thresholds.”
― Live Your Truth“It is not giving up, it is accepting. And the light will enter. Always does.”
― Live Your Truth
“Be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind. Talk health, happiness, and prosperity to every person you meet. Make all your friends feel there is something special in them. Look at the sunny side of everything. Think only the best, be as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.
Forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future. Give everyone a smile. Spend so much time improving yourself that you have no time left to criticize others. Be too big for worry and too noble for anger.”
―“The way to happiness: Keep your heart free from hate, your mind from worry. Live simply, expect little, give much. Scatter sunshine, forget self, think of others. Try this for a week and you will be surprised.”
― The Power of Positive Thinking“Formulate and stamp indelibly on your mind a mental picture of yourself as succeeding. Hold this picture tenaciously. Never permit it to fade. Your mind will seek to develop the picture... Do not build up obstacles in your imagination.”
― The Power of Positive Thinking