everydaymeditations-blog

[everydaymeditations-blog]

New landscapes

When we’re on vacation, we have a heightened interest in everything around us. Our eyes are wide open. We try new things and visit new places. We are upbeat and optimistic. 

At home, we take many things for granted. Habit blinds us to discoveries that lie right before our eyes. We may never visit attractions that outsiders travel miles to see. We miss out on all sorts of opportunities because we’re simply not looking for them.

[everydaymeditations-blog]

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.

Marcel Proust

[everydaymeditations-blog]

Too many details

We keep our to do list handy all the time, filled with one chore after another. At the end of the day, even if we’ve finished several of these chores, we still don’t feel that we’ve made a much of a dent in our list.

But think about this: If months pass and certain goals still haven’t been accomplished, how important could these goals have been to begin with?

[everydaymeditations-blog]

Our life is frittered away by detail... Simplify, simplify.

Henry David Thoreau

[everydaymeditations-blog]

Holding back criticism

It’s tempting to criticize others. Sometimes we’re just gossiping “for fun,” and sometimes we are truly offended by what others have said or done.

But we hate to be criticized ourselves. Sure, there may be reasons for others to criticize us. But how could they be so insensitive? So heartless? Don’t they realize that we’re just ordinary folk trying to do our best? So we’re not perfect-so what?

[everydaymeditations-blog]

Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.

Jesus Christ

[everydaymeditations-blog]

Facing the consequences

What holds us back isn’t necessarily that we don’t know what to do; it’s that we worry about what will happen if we do it. What if people think we’re being silly? what if we make enemies? What if our ideas doesn’t work the way we thought it would? 

People who make a difference are those who understand that taking an action may cause an equal and opposing reaction-but who takes action anyway.

[everydaymeditations-blog]

You can do anything in this world if you are prepared to take the consequences.

W. Somerset Maugham

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Near to happiness

There is no great mystery to being happy. Happiness is within easy reach of us all, though we don’t always appreciate this fact. 

The secret to happiness is this: treat others as you would like to be treated. That’s about it. Like a stick thrown to a dog, love and kindness keep coming back. When we make others happy, we make ourselves happy.

[everydaymeditations-blog]

To be kind to all, to like many and love a few, to be needed and wanted by those we love, is certainly the nearest we can come to happiness.

Mary Roberts Rinehart

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Prosperity

Money makes many things easier, no doubt about it. We sleep more soundly when we’re not worrying about how we’re going to pay our bills.

Where we go wrong is not in having money, but thinking that money is what defines our worth. We take a job we’re not crazy about because of the money. We think the man down the block must be smart and important because he has more money than we do. 

[everydaymeditations-blog]

Prosperity is only an instrument to be used, not a deity to be worshiped.

Calvin Coolidge

[everydaymeditations-blog]

Doing what we can do

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by bad news in the world. How can we possibly help when the problems seem to big?

Instead of becoming discouraged about how much needs to be done, we can focus on what is doable, however limited this may seem. One hour a week tutoring a new immigrant. A donation to an organization that provides services to those in need. A casserole for a sick friend. A phone call to a lonenly senior.

If one hundred of us feed just one hungry person each, a hundred people will be fed.

[everydaymeditations-blog]

If you can't feed a hundred people, then just feed one.

Mother Teresa

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Wanting more

How many things do we need to make us happy? Fewer than we think. In fact, doesn’t it sometimes seem like the more “stuff” we have, the less happy we feel? More stuff means more that we have to take care of, more that can suddenly go wrong on us, more clutter around us. 

We can’t get everything we think we want, but we can readjust our thinking to find happiness in the riches we already have.

[everydaymeditations-blog]

It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.

Seneca

[everydaymeditations-blog]

Tact

When we're right, we're right -and we want everyone to know it. Funny how others roll their eyes and cough a little behind their hands when we tell them just what we think. Discouraging how they don't agree with us right away. There's no problem with having strong opinions -it shows that we care about things. But if we wield our opinions like clubs, we will never convince anyone that our opinions are right.