1. A Cowboy's Guide to Life
Don't squat with your spurs on.
Don't interfere with something that ain't botherin' you none.
Timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a rain dance.
The easiest way to eat crow is while it's still warm. The colder it gets, the harder it is to swaller.
If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop diggin'.
If it don't seem like it's worth the effort, it probably ain't.
It don't take a genius to spot a goat in a flock of sheep.
The biggest troublemaker you'll probably ever have to deal with watches you shave his face in the mirror every morning.
Never ask a barber if you need a haircut.
If you get to thinkin' you're a person of some influence, try orderin' somebody else's dog around.
Don't worry about bitin' off more'n you can chew; your mouth is probably a whole lot bigger'n you think.
Always drink upstream from the herd.
Generally, you ain't learnin' nothing when your mouth's a-jawin'.
Tellin' a man to git lost and makin' him do it are two entirely different propositions.
If you're ridin' ahead of the herd, take a look back every now and then to make sure it's still there with ya.
Good judgment comes from experience, and a lotta that comes from bad judgment.
When you give a personal lesson in meanness to a critter or to a person, don't be surprised if they learn their lesson.
When you're throwin' your weight around, be ready to have it thrown around by somebody else.
Lettin' the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier than puttin' it back.
Always take a good look at what you're about to eat. It's not so important to know what it is, but it's sure crucial to know what it was.
The quickest way to double your money is to fold it over and put it back into your pocket.
Never miss a good chance to shut up. ~ Cowboy unknown
2. A master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between his work and his play, his labour and his leisure, his mind and his body, his education and his recreation. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence through whatever he is doing and leaves others to determine whether he is working or playing. To himself he always seems to be doing both. ~James Michener
3. A Story To Live By
My brother-in-law opened the bottom drawer of my sister's bureau and lifted out a tissue-wrapped package. "This," he said, "is not a slip. This is lingerie." He discarded the tissue and handed me the slip. It was exquisite; silk, handmade and trimmed with a cobweb of lace. The price tag with an astronomical figure on it was still attached. "Jan bought this the first time we went to New York, at least 8 or 9 years ago. She never wore it. She was saving it for a special occasion. Well, I guess this is the occasion."
He took the slip from me and put it on the bed with the other clothes we were taking to the mortician. His hand lingered on the soft material for a moment, then he slammed the drawer shut and turned to me. "Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Every day you're alive is a special occasion." I remembered those words through the funeral and the days that followed when I helped him and my niece attend to all the sad chores that follow an unexpected death. I thought about them on the plane returning to California from the Midwestern town where my sister's family lives. I thought about all the things that she hadn't seen or heard or done. I thought about the things that she had done without realizing that they were special.
I'm still thinking about his words, and they've changed my life. I'm reading more and dusting less. I'm sitting on the deck and admiring the view without fussing about the weeds in the garden. I'm spending more time with my family and friends and less time in committee meetings. Whenever possible, life should be a pattern of experience to savor, not endure. I'm trying to recognize these moments now and cherish them.
I'm not "saving" anything; we use our good china and crystal for every special event-such as losing a pound, getting the sink unstopped, the first camellia blossom. I wear my good blazer to the market if I feel like it. My theory is if I look prosperous, I can shell out $28.49 for one small bag of groceries without wincing. I'm not saving my good perfume for special parties; clerks in hardware stores and tellers in banks have noses that function as well as my party-going friends'. "Someday" and "one of these days" are losing their grip on my vocabulary. If it's worth seeing or hearing or doing, I want to see and hear and do it now.
I'm not sure what my sister would have done had she known that she wouldn't be here for the tomorrow we all take for granted. I think she would have called family members and a few close friends. She might have called a few former friends to apologize and mend fences for past squabbles. I like to think she would have gone out for a Chinese dinner, her favorite food. I'm guessing-I'll never know.
It's those little things left undone that would make me angry if I knew that my hours were limited. Angry because I put off seeing good Friends whom I was going to get in touch with-someday. Angry because I hadn't written certain letters that I intended to write-one of these days. Angry and sorry that I didn't tell my husband and daughter often enough how much I truly love them. I'm trying very hard not to put off, hold back, or save anything that would add laughter and luster to our lives. And every morning when I open my eyes, I tell myself that it is special.
Every day, every minute, every breath truly is a gift. ~ Ann Wells ~Los Angeles Times
4. An Interview with God
"Come in," God said. "So, you would like to interview Me?"
"If you have the time," I said.
God smiled and said: "My time is eternity and is enough to do everything; what questions do you have in mind to ask Me?"
"What surprises you most about mankind?"
God answered: "That they get bored of being children, are in a rush to grow up, and then long to be children again.
That they lose their health to make money and then lose their money to restore their health.
That by thinking anxiously about the future, they forget the present, such that they live neither for the present nor the future.
They live as if they will never die, and they die as if they had never lived......."
God's hands took mine and we were silent for awhile and then I asked.....
"As a parent, what are some of life's lessons you want your children to learn?"
God replied with a smile: "To learn that they cannot make anyone love them. What they can do is to let themselves be loved.
To learn that what is most valuable is not what they have in their lives, but who they have in their lives.
To learn that it is not good to compare themselves to others. All will be judged individually on their own merits, not as a group on a comparison basis!
To learn that a rich person is not the one who has the most, but is one who needs the least.
To learn that it only takes a few seconds to open profound wounds in persons we love, and that it takes many years to heal them.
To learn to forgive by practising forgiveness. To learn that there are persons that love them dearly, but simply do not know how to express or show their feelings.
To learn that money can buy everything but happiness. To learn that a true friend is someone who knows everything about them....and likes them anyway."
I sat there for awhile enjoying the moment. I thanked Him for His time and for all that He has done for me and my family, and He replied, "Anytime. I am here 24 hours a day. All you have to do is ask for me, and I will answer."
5. Are you bored with life? Then throw yourself into some work you believe in with all your heart, live for it, die for it, and you will find happiness that you had thought could never be yours. ~Dale Carnegie
6. As you walk down the fairway of life you must smell the roses, for you only get to play one round. ~Ben Hogan
7. Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken. ~Gilbert Perreira
8. ...but life never comes to a closure; life is process, even mystery. Life is known only to those who have found a way to be comfortable with change and the unknown. Given the nature of life, there may be no security, but only adventure. ~Rachel Naomi Remen
9. Each day, and the living of it, has to be a conscious creation in which discipline and order are relieved with some play and pure foolishness. ~May Sarton
10. Every man's life lies within the present; for the past is spent and done with, and the future is uncertain. ~Marcus Aurelius
11. Everything in life changes you in some way. Even the smallest things. If you do not accept these changes, you do not accept yourself. For through these changes brings new and greater things to you, making you wiser, as time progresses. To avoid these changes is a loss. You only live your life once. Do not waste a minute of it avoiding things. Let them come to you, and learn from them. There's always tomorrow. ~Adam R. Gwizdala
12. Great Truths About Life That Little Children Have Learned
No matter how hard you try, you can't baptize cats.
When your Mom is mad at your dad, don't let her brush your hair.
If your sister hits you, don't hit her back. They always catch the second person.
Never ask your 3-year-old brother to hold a tomato.
You can't trust dogs to watch your food.
Reading what people write on desks can teach you a lot.
Don't sneeze when someone is cutting your hair.
Puppies still have bad breath even after eating a tic tac.
Never hold a dustbuster and a cat at the same time.
School lunches stick to the wall.
You can't hide a piece of broccoli in a glass of milk.
Don't wear polka-dot underwear under white shorts. ~No matter how cute the underwear is.
13. "Human being" is more a verb than a noun. Each of us is unfinished, a work in progress." ~Rachel Naomi Remen
14. I began to have an idea of my life, not as the slow shaping of achievement to fit my pre-conceived purposes, but as the gradual discovery and growth of a purpose which I did not know. ~Joanna Field
15. I Will Do You No Favor
If I withhold my voice of anger from you for your sake, you, in listening too hard to me, will hear more anger than ever any real voice of mine would have held.
If I curb my raucous ribald pleasure voice for anticipation of your sensibilities, you will know I have curbed, and pleasure will be dimmed and overlaid with grimy speculation as to why. ~what else than pleasure was there that he did not say?
If I damp my robust affection for you and keep my arms, that want to hug you, bound at my sides ~as would seem appropriate for men of our station and trade your arms, or perhaps only fingers, will twitch too, stifled and pinched off meanly, and perhaps, in spite against their mind-formed shackles, will tense to fists.
All that I withhold diminishes me and cheats you. All that you withhold diminishes you and cheats me. When we hold back ourselves for each other’s sake, that is no service to us either one. We only collude in the weakening of us both.
16. If a man hasn't discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live. ~Martin Luther King, Jr.
17. If you were all alone in the universe with no one to talk to, no one with which to share the beauty of the stars, to laugh with, to touch, what would be your purpose in life? It is other life, it is love, which gives your life meaning. This is harmony. We must discover the joy of each other, the joy of challenge, the joy of growth. ~Mitsugi Saotome
18. Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling five balls in the air. You name them - work, family, health, friends, and spirit - and you're keeping all of these in the air. You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls - family, health, friends, and spirit are made of glass. If you drop one of these, they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged, or even shattered. They will never be the same. You must understand that and strive for balance in your life. ~Brian Dyson, former CEO of Coca Cola
19. Life accepts only partners, not bosses. Systems do not accept direction, only provocation. ~Margaret Wheatley
20. Life is a continual process of remaking ourselves. ~Unknown
21. Life is a series of collisions with the future; it is not the sum of what we have been, but what we yearn to be. ~Jose Ortega y Gasset
22. Life is a succession of lessons, which must be lived to be understood. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
23. Life is not a spectacle or a feast; it is a predicament. ~George Santayana
24. Life is the ultimate teacher, but it is usually through experience and not scientific research that we discover its deepest lessons. We are all here for a single purpose: to grow in wisdom and to learn to love better. We can do this through losing as well as through winning, by having and by not having, by succeeding or by failing. All we need to do is to show up openhearted for class. ~Rachel Naomi Remen
25. Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told, "I am with you kid. Let's go." ~Maya Angelou
26. Life must be lived forwards, but can only be understood backwards. ~Kierkegaard Soren
27. People may forget what you said, People may forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. ~ Author Unknown
28. The evening of a well spent life brings its lamps with it. ~ Joseph Joubert
29. The Logic of Life
Every thing is in a constant process of discovery and creating;
Life uses messes to get to well- ordered solutions;
Life is intent on finding what works, not what’s “right;”
Life creates more possibilities as it engages with opportunities;
Life is attracted to order;
Life organizes around identity;
Everything participates in the creation and evolution of its neighbours. ~ Margaret Wheatley - A Simpler Way
30. The Man in the Glass
When you get what you want in your struggle for life,
And the world makes you king for a day,
Just go to a mirror and look at yourself
And see what that man has to say.
For it isn’t your mother or father or wife,
Whose judgement upon you must pass,
The fellow whose verdict counts most in your life,
Is the one staring back from the glass.
Some people may think you a straight-shooting chum,
And call you a wonderful guy;
But the man in the glass says you’re only a bum,
If you can’t look him straight in the eye.
He’s the fellow to please, never mind all the rest,
For he’s with you clean up to the end,
And you’ve passed your most dangerous, difficult test
If the man in the glass is your friend.
You may fool the whole world down the pathway of life,
And get pats on your back as you pass,
But your final reward will be heartaches and tears,
If you’ve cheated the man in the glass. ~Unknown
31. The road of life can only reveal itself as it is traveled; each turn in the road reveals a surprise. Man's future is hidden. ~Unknown
32. the Rules for Being Human
You will receive a body. You may like it or hate it, but it will be yours for the duration.
You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called Life. Each day in this school you will have the opportunity to learn lessons. You may like the lessons, or think them irrelevant and stupid.
There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of trial and error: experimentation. The “failed” experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiment that ultimately “works.”
A lesson is repeated until learned. A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it, you can then go on to the next lesson.
Learning lessons does not end. There is no part of life that does not contain its lessons. If you are alive, there are lessons to be learned.
“There” is no better than “here.” When your “there” has become a “here,” you will simply obtain another “there” that will again look better than “here.”
Others are merely mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects something you love or hate about yourself.
What you make of your life is up to you. You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you. The choice is yours.
Your answers lie inside you. The answers to Life’s questions lie inside you. All you need to do is look, listen and trust.
You will forget all this. ~Chérie Carter-Scott
33. The tendency of an event to occur varies inversely with one's preparation for it. ~David Searles
34. The unique personality which is the real life in me, I can not gain unless I search for the real life, the spiritual quality, in others. I am myself spiritually dead unless I reach out to the fine quality dormant in others. For it is only with the god enthroned in the innermost shrine of the other, that the god hidden in me, will consent to appear. ~Felix Adler
35. There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle. ~Albert Einstein
36. There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening, that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. ~Martha Graham
37. Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for. ~Addison
38. We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give. ~Winston Churchill
39. What is the meaning of human life, or of organic life altogether? To answer this question at all implies a religion. Is there any sense then, you ask, in putting it? I answer, the man who regards his own life and that of his fellow creatures as meaningless is not merely unfortunate but almost disqualified for life. ~Albert Einstein
40. Work like you don't need money,
Love Like you've never been hurt,
And dance like no one's watching. ~Satchel Paige
41. Yesterday is but a dream, and tomorrow is only a vision; but today well-lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness, and every tomorrow a vision of hope. Look well therefore, to this day. Such is the salutation of the dawn. ~Sanskrit teaching