Not Too Concerned

To be happy, we must not be too concerned with others.
― Albert Camus

Second Spring

Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.
― Albert Camus

The Watcher and the Watched

An intellectual? Yes. And never deny it. An intellectual is someone whose mind watches itself. I like this, because I am happy to be both halves, the watcher and the watched. "Can they be brought together?" This is a practical question. We must get down to it. "I despise intelligence" really means: "I cannot bear my doubts.”
― Albert Camus

Albert Camus: An Act of Rebellion

Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal.
― Albert Camus

Should I kill myself, or have a cup of coffee?
― Albert Camus

But in the end one needs more courage to live than to kill himself.
― Albert Camus

The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.
― Albert Camus

Argentinian Radio: Con Alma de Blues

Listen here.

Ordinary

People who speak or act in an ordinary fashion are most likely to be those who have been the recipients of higher experiences. But because they do not rage around, wild-eyed, people think that they are very ordinary folk and therefore not aware of anything unknown to the general run of man.
― Idries Shah, Reflections

Silence

The proverb says that 'The answer to a fool is silence'. Observation, however, indicates that almost any other answer will have the same effect in the long run.
― Idries Shah, Reflections

Veils

Knowledge is not gained, it is there all the time. It is the "veils" which have to be dissolved in the mind.
― Idries Shah

May We All Remain Strangers a Little Bit

What is it about the strangers I meet when out walking my dog? I can offer them complete attention for a few minutes. My dog taught me this! This is a ritual I enjoy and have been able to practice daily for many years. I find that the people closer to me do not get the same treatment. In fact, my expectations soar. This is disastrous and I am trying to understand it. As I said to my husband may we all remain strangers a little bit to allow that space for acceptance.

We Love to Love

Love is always bestowed as a gift - freely, willingly and without expectation. We don't love to be loved; we love to love.
― Leo Buscaglia

Paint a New Backdrop

If you don't like the scene you're in, if you're unhappy, if you're lonely, if you don't feel that things are happening, change your scene. Paint a new backdrop.
― Leo Buscaglia

Leo Buscaglia

The majority of us lead quiet, unheralded lives as we pass through this world. There will most likely be no ticker-tape parades for us, no monuments created in our honor. But that does not lessen our possible impact, for there are scores of people waiting for someone just like us to come along; people who will appreciate our compassion, our unique talents. Someone who will live a happier life merely because we took the time to share what we had to give. Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have a potential to turn a life around. It’s overwhelming to consider the continuous opportunities there are to make our love felt.
― Leo Buscaglia

A Lover for Life

Find the person who will love you because of your differences and not in spite of them and you have found a lover for life.
― Leo Buscaglia

Learn, Feel, Change, Grow

The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing, and becomes nothing. He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he simply cannot learn, feel, change, grow or love. Chained by his certitude, he is a slave; he has forfeited his freedom. Only the person who risks is truly free.
― Leo Buscaglia

My World

A single rose can be my garden; a single friend, my world.
― Leo Buscaglia

Love is Risk

To love is to risk not being loved in return. To hope is to risk pain. To try is to risk failure. But risk must be taken because the greatest hazard in my life is to risk nothing.
― Leo Buscaglia

Leo Buscaglia

Most of us remain strangers to ourselves, hiding who we are, and ask other strangers, hiding who they are, to love us.
― Leo Buscaglia

Geneen Roth: Piece of the Universe

Your body is the piece of the universe you’ve been given, the place where love and joy and grief happen, where happiness unfolds. Do you really want to keep believing that it’s a horrible, ugly, lumpy thing? Do you really want to keep punching yourself like that?
― Geneen Roth

Awareness is learning to keep yourself company.
― Geneen Roth

You are not a mistake. You are not a problem to be solved. It's possible to treat yourself with outrageous kindness beginning today.
― Geneen Roth

When you don't want to be where you are, you create suffering for yourself. Change happens through acceptance, kindness and relaxation--not resistance, not warfare, not fights.
― Geneen Roth

Baker Man Blues

On this rainy Sunday morning I'm listening to the Argentinian blues station. They just played BAKER MAN BLUES by Rick Estrin & The Nightcats. Fabulous!

Fog at the Pool

I couldn't decide when to swim so I just grabbed my bag and went. When I arrived the air at the pool was so foggy I couldn't see the other swimmers in the room. A London fog swim!