DO YOU TRULY LIKE THE COMPANY YOU KEEP IN THE EMPTY MOMENTS?

“It doesn't interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing.

It doesn't interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive. 

It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life's betrayals or have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain!I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it or fade it, or fix it. 

I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own, if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, to be realistic, to remember the limitations of being human. 

It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself; if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul; if you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy. 

I want to know if you can see beauty even when it's not pretty, every day,and if you can source your own life from its presence. 

I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand on the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, “Yes!”

It doesn't interest me to know where you live or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up, after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done to feed the children. 

It doesn't interest me who you know or how you came to be here. I want to know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me and not shrink back. 

It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you, from the inside, when all else falls away. 

I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.” 

― Oriah Mountain Dreamer

YOU RECONCILE ALL BEINGS IN THE WORLD

“Simplicity, patience, compassion.

These three are your greatest treasures.

Simple in actions and thoughts, you return to the source of being.

Patient with both friends and enemies,

you accord with the way things are.

Compassionate toward yourself,

you reconcile all beings in the world.”

― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

JUST TO BE ALIVE IS A GRAND THING

“I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow; but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.”

― Agatha Christie

THINK MORE OF YOURSELF

THE POWER TO CHOOSE WHO YOU ARE

In every moment of life, you have the power to choose who you are and who you are becoming. This happens primarily in small ways...the conversations you hold; the way you honor your commitments; the practice of telling the truth, and being present with yourself; and the mindfulness and caring that you bring into your daily actions and activities. It is not too late to choose to become the person you always wanted to look up to and admire.

Look at the people who are in your life. Do they cause you to examine yourself, your life, and your vision for yourself? Are you being stretched to go beyond what is safe, familiar, and comfortable...and do something BOLD with your life? Or are they pulling you back to the self that you left a long time ago? You build a GREAT life by the choices you make and the chances you are willing to take! Commit to the GREATNESS within you!


LES BROWN

DANCE WITH THE FLOW