Life is Growth ...

Life is growth, from our first helpless cry at birth to our last breath. Life is also a personal journey and we make our choices along the way, and observe our outer world in the way we choose.

“The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness,
and the power of contemplation
rather than upon mere survival.”
–Aristotle (384–322 B.C.)

“We arrive at truth, not by reason only,
but also by the heart.”
–Pascal (1623–1662)

“Our happiness depends on wisdom all the way.”
–Sophocles (c. 495–406 B.C.)

“Truth is the only safe ground to stand upon.”
–Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902)

“Dignity does not consist in possessing honors,
but in deserving them.”
–Aristotle (384–322 B.C.)

“Keep what is worth keeping–
And with the breath of kindness
Blow the rest away.”
–Dinah Mulock Craik (1826–1887)

“Three things cannot be hidden, the sun, the moon and the truth.”
–Buddha (568–488 B.C.)

“No man ever prayed heartily without learning something.”
–Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

“Be not forgetful to entertain strangers:
for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.”
–Bible, Hebrews 13:2

“First say to yourself what you would be;
and then do what you have to do.”
–Epictetus (c. 50–120)

“The best thing about the future is that it comes
only one day at a time.”
–Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)

“The important thing is not to stop questioning.”
–Albert Einstein (1879–1955)

Life

“It is often said that one has but one life to live, but that is nonsense. For one who reads, there is no limit to the number of lives that may be lived, for fiction, biography and history offer an inexhaustible number of lives in all periods of time.” –Louis L’Amour, Author (1908-1988)

“I can find my biography in every fable that I read.” –Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

“We must be willing to get rid of the life we planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.” ~Joseph Campbell (1904-1987)

“Even when you think you have your life all mapped out, things happen that shape your destiny in ways you might never have imagined.” ~Deepak Chopra

“I just found it interesting to talk to adults I admired, and to discover that the path they took was never all that clearly defined. It was comforting to me when I figured out that you don't have to know what you want to do with your life; you just have to take a few steps in one direction, and other opportunities will open up.” ~Anderson Cooper, CNN Television Reporter

“Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Soul Lessons

"The whole of life, from the moment you are born
to the moment you die, is a process of learning."
–Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895–1986)

As we age, most of us can look back at our lives and recall the emotional reaction we may have had to an event and now realize that our reaction may seem to have been inappropriate. Was it inappropriate, or, for instance, were we then looking at our world through the eyes of a young child? Why would we expect the reaction of a child to have been any different than it was? We cannot now judge the reaction of that child we once were with our adult eyes. But how often do we do that to ourselves? Isn’t more logical to believe that in the past we were doing the best we could under the given circumstances, even with our immaturity, lack of world experience, irrational thinking, or even as the victim of abuse, real or imagined? The important thing to understand is that the past cannot be changed and when we hold onto it, it pulls us down and does not allow us the freedom to move forward with joy and passion.

Have we come into life to experience certain lessons and to grow from these? Are some of these lessons predestined, chosen by ourselves at some soul-level, to be experienced in this lifetime? Are these lessons part of our soul-growth?

~Linda

Life Lessons

“Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself
and now that everything in life has a purpose.”
~Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (1926–2004)

Have you ever wondered if life here on earth is an opportunity for lessons to be learned? In other words, is earth simply a school for learning? Are we here to have many, many experiences that allow us new spiritual understandings as we journey through life?

Surely, there is no denying that life gives us many challenges, many surprises, and lots of opportunity to learn from our misconceptions, our mistakes, or from our emotional reactions to events. It seems that spiritual and mental growth is the main objective of life. Of course, we may not always accept an experience or event as necessary to our growth. But the result, most often, is that we do learn more about ourselves after such life experiences.

We also learn from others as we observe how they move through events in their lives. Even with the most traumatic of occurrences, some are able to move quickly through the trauma and go on.
How do people achieve that? I believe it comes from an inner-strength that we all have. Often we are not aware that we do possess that kind of strength within us and we may not even discover it until we are put to the challenge of having to deal with some kind of devastating event. It is at those times that we must believe in ourselves and trust that we can indeed do what we need to do.

“Sit in reverie and watch the changing colors of the waves
that break upon the idle seashore of the mind.”
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882)

~Linda