Neglecting Neighbors

I LOVE this quote from Neal A. Maxwell!

I need to be a better neighbor.


"Isn't it interesting that of the many ways in which the Lord might have phrased the object of the "thou shalt" in the second great commandment, He chose the word neighbor—not mankind, not organizations, not people, and not society, but neighbor.

It has only been in recent times, since people started saying they loved all mankind, that neighbors have suffered so much neglect." 

- Neal A. Maxwell - 

Fear and Hope

The only thing stronger than fear is hope.

Strategy - close and distance

In strategy it is important to see distant things as if they were close and to take a distanced view of close things.

–Miyamoto Musashi

Precise Human Orbits

"The same God that placed that star in a precise orbit millenia before it appeared over Bethlehem in celebration of the birth of the Babe, has given at least equal attention to placement of each of us in precise human orbits so that we may, if we will, illuminate the landscape of our individual lives, so that our light may not only lead others but warm them as well."  - Elder Neal A. Maxwell

Lions and Gazelles

$86,400

If you had a bank that credited your account each morning with $86,400 that carried over no balance from day to day, and allowed you to keep no cash in your account, and every evening cancelled whatever part of the amount you had failed to use during the day, what would you do? Draw out every cent, of course!

Well, you have such a bank and its name is "time." Every morning it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Each night it rules off, as lost, whatever of this you have failed to invest to good purpose. It carries over no balances. It allows no over-drafts. Each day it opens a new account with you. Each night it burns the records of the day. If you fail to use the day's deposits the loss is yours. There is no drawing against the "tomorrow." You must live in the present - on today's deposit.

Invest it so as to get from it the utmost in health, happiness and success!

Persistence

Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence.

Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.

Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.

Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.

Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.

My Creed - quote by Howard Arnold Walter

“My Creed I would be true, for there are those who trust me; I would be pure, for there are those who care; I would be strong, for there is much to suffer; I would be brave, for there is much to dare. I would be friend of all- the foe, the friendless; I would be giving, and forget the gift. I would be humble, for I know my weakness; I would look up- and laugh- and love- and lift. ”

Howard Arnold Walter  (1883-1918);
poet

Risk being a bud

Some people...

Some people will be your friend because of whom you know.
Some people will be your friend because of your position.
Some people will be your friend because of the way you look.
Some people will be your friend because of your possessions.

But, the only real friends are the people who will be your friends because they like you for who you are inside.

Evolution of Authority

Once Upon Enchantment

Torches light a winding road
Through the forest's
Humble abode

Breezes wisp
Her hair around
Leaves float softly
To cool ground.

All is silent
On full moon night
The quiet woods
She thinks are right.

Hooves come beating
'Round the bend
Sound is soft
And then strengthened.

Swish of skirts
She turns to see
A knight come riding,
Galliantly.

He comes closer
She knows the pace
He draws her up,
Sees her face.

Bows low
Strong, firm arm
Lifts her gently
With no harm.

Slowly now
She turns her face
To his warm skin
And loving embrace.

With one hand
Lifts her chin
And to her lips
A kiss therein.

Holding her close
To his heart
Heels to horse
They swiftly depart.

Into the moonlight
The ground
Fog covers
Ride the two
Enchanted lovers.

Grass is Greener

An old farmhouse, with meadows wide,
And sweet with clover on either side;
A bright-eyed boy, who looks from out
The door, with woodpine wreathed about
And wishes this one thought all the day;
"Oh, if I could but fly away
From this dull spot the world to see.
How happy, O how happy,
How happy I would be."

Amid the city's constant din
A man who 'round the world had been
Who, 'Mid the tumult and the throng,
Is thinking, thinking all the day long:
"Oh, could I only tread once more
The field-path to the farmhouse door
The old green meadows could I see,
How happy, Oh how happy
How happy I would be."

Conscience By David O. McKay

"To have the approval of your conscience when you are alone with your thoughts is like being in the company of true and loving friends. To merit your own self-respect give strength of character. Conscience is the link that binds your soul to the Spirit of God."

- David O. McKay -

Love can last forever if you want it to by Susan Polis Schutz

Love is the strongest and
most fulfilling emotion possible
It lets you share
your goals, your desires, your experiences
It lets you share
your life with someone
It lets you be yourself
with someone who will always support you
It lets you speak
your innermost feelings to someone who understands you
It lets you feel tenderness and warmth -
a wholeness that avoids loneliness
Love lets you feel complete

But in order to have
a successful love relationship
you must make a strong commitment to each other and love
and you must do and feel everything within your mind and body
to make this commitment work

You must be happy with yourself
and you must understand yourself
before you can expect someone else
to be happy with you or to understand you
You must be honest about yourself and each other at all times
and not hold any feelings back
You must accept each other the way you are
and not try to change each other
You must be free to grow as individuals yet share your life as one
but not live your life through each other
You must follow your own principles and morals
and not follow what societal roles tell you to do
You must follow the philosophy that men and women are equal
and not treat either person with inferiority in any way

In order to have
a lasting love relationship
you must be together always in your heart
but not necessarily always in your activities
You must be proud of each other and love
and not be ashamed to show your sensitive feelings
You must treat every day spent with each other as special
and not take each other or your love for granted
You must spend time talking with each other every day
and not be too busy with outside events that you
are too tired for each other
You must understand each other's moods and feelings
and not hurt each other intentionally
but if your frustrations are taken out on each other
you must both realize that it is not a personal attack
You must be passionate with each other often
and not get into boring patterns
You must continue to have fun and excitement with each other
and not be afraid to try new things
You must always work at love and your love relationship
and not forget how important this relationship is or what
you would feel like without it

Love is the strongest
and most fulfilling emotion possible
If you live
your commitment to love
you will live your dreams
between awakenings

-Poem by Susan Polis Schutz
I'll love you forever 

Three Degrees of Glory by Melvin J. Ballard

Found this print out in my notes and thought it would be online at this point. It is indeed!

So, here's a link to it:

http://scottwoodward.org/Talks/html/Ballard,%20Melvin%20J/BallardMJ_TheThreeDegreesOfGlory.html

Wear Sunscreen by Mary Schmich

Wear Sunscreen

Mary Schmich

Wear sunscreen.

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they've faded. But trust me, in 20 years, you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine.

Don't worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing every day that scares you.

Sing.

Don't be reckless with other people's hearts. Don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss.

Don't waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is long and, in the end, it's only with yourself.

Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch.

Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don't.

Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees. You'll miss them when they're gone.

Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else's.

Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don't be afraid of it or of what other people think of it. It's the greatest instrument you'll ever own.

Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room.

Read the directions, even if you don't follow them.

Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents. You never know when they'll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings. They're your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft. Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise. Politicians will philander. You, too, will get old. And when you do, you'll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund. Maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either one might run out.

Don't mess too much with your hair or by the time you're 40 it will look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen.

Reflections in the Wind

REFLECTIONS IN THE WIND 
Written by: Karen Slater, Improvement Era, May 1969

Her I stand:
The girl I was, the person I am,
and the woman I will become.
The three of us so dependent upon the other.

The girl I was.....
laughing, carefree, young
afraid of nothing, loving everything,
trusting all.

The person I am.....
still laughing, not quite as carefree,
still young, afraid of self, loving many,
trusting few, happy and contented with all.
Needing nothing but time to grow, expand,
mature, and discover the hows and whys within myself.

The woman I will become.... laughing, purposeful, young in heart,
having won the game of life playing with God's rules.
Afraid of evil, loving all that is good, trusting in the Lord.
Full  of joy which comes from a marriage sealed by the Holy Spirit of Promise,
and blessed with loving children sent from God.

I am today what I did yesterday,
and Tomorrow I will be What I did Today.
The woman I will become is dependent upon the person I am now.
How unfair, that her salvation should rest upon one so proud, so vain, so frightened, so weak.

Why curse her for my mistakes?

How careful then I must be, for mine
is not the only soul I must save fromfuture grief.
Hers too, and the girl I was....
Three of us dependent upon a bending willow in the wind.

Here I stand: The girl I was,
The person I am,
The woman I will become. 

God of Miracles

"For behold, I am God; and I am a God of miracles; and I will show unto the world that I am the same yesterday, today and forever; and I work not among the children of men save it be according to their faith."

- 2 Nephi 27:23 -

Willing and Obedient

"If we be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land."

- Isaiah 1:19 -

Words from Isaiah

"Learn to do well; seek judgement, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow."

- Isaiah 1:17 -

Getting closer to God

Getting closer to God begins the painful process of unlearning the things that keep you from him.

God watches over us

"God does notice us, and He watches over us. But it is usually through another person that He meets our needs."

(Ensign, Dec. 1974, pg. 5)

Greatest Gift - to see yourself

The greatest gift I could give to you is if you could see yourself the way I do.

Stress

Stress adds sparkle to your life if you are trying to live God's commandments!

I do my thing

I do my thing
And you do your thing
I am not in this world to live up to
your expectations
And you are not in this world to live up to
mine
You are you and
I am I
And if by chance we find each other,
It's beautiful!

- Frederick J. Peril -

Of God, is Light

"That which is of God is Light; and he that receiveth light, and continueth in God, receiveth more light; and that light groweth brighter and brighter until the perfect day."

- D&C 50:24

Edified

"Wherefore, he that preacheth and he that receiveth, understand one another, and both are edified and rejoice together."

- D&C 50:22

Poem - Broken Dreams

BROKEN   DREAMS

As children bring
their broken toys
With tears for us to mend,
I brought my broken dreams
to God
Because He was my Friend.
But then instead
of leaving Him
in peace to work alone,
I hung around
and tried to help
With ways that 
that were my own.
At last I snatched them back
and cried,
"How can You be so slow?"
"My child," He said,
"What could I do?
You never did let go."
author unknown  

Single Available Men

Project Quote

So, over the next few months of the end of 2012, I am going through ALL of my old files from the last 30+ years and starting to upload the quotes from the past.

They are on scraps of paper, ditto sheets, print outs and on plaques.nMany I've been able to find on the Internet and am using the copy/paste function to place them in this blog. Others are handmade objects that will be documented through pictures and maybe saved and maybe tossed.

Either way, they'll end up here and perhaps next year I'll wrap this all up in a blog book.

For now, it will continue to be my place for keeping all my favorite quotes, notes, and inspirational links.

My house is looking cleaner already!
r

Meeting and Passing by Robert Frost

Meeting And Passing

As I went down the hill along the wall
There was a gate I had leaned at for the view
And had just turned from when I first saw you
As you came up the hill. We met. But all
We did that day was mingle great and small
Footprints in summer dust as if we drew
The figure of our being less that two
But more than one as yet. Your parasol
Pointed the decimal off with one deep thrust.
And all the time we talked you seemed to see
Something down there to smile at in the dust.
(Oh, it was without prejudice to me!)
Afterward I went past what you had passed
Before we met and you what I had passed. 

Robert Frost

People and stained glass windows

Star Throwers

Good Company and Good Discourse

"Good company and good discourse are the very sinews of virtue."

Imagine yourself as a living house - C.S. Lewis

“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.”

― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Audrey Hepburn's Beauty Tips

For attractive lips, speak words of kindness.

For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people.

For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry.

For beautiful hair, let a child run his or her fingers through it once a day.

For poise, walk with the knowledge you'll never walk alone.

People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived,  reclaimed, and redeemed; Never throw out anybody.

Remember, If you ever need a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of your arm.

As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself, the other for helping others.

The beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears, the  figure that she carries, or the way she combs her hair. The beauty of a woman must be seen from in her eyes, because that is the doorway to her heart, the place where love resides.

The beauty of a woman is not in a facial mole, but true beauty in a woman is reflected in her soul. It is the caring that she lovingly gives, the passion that she shows, and the beauty of a woman with passing years only grows!

Sam Levenson 

Note:

Contrary to what some may think, Audrey Hepburn did not write this beautiful poem, Sam Levenson did. Levenson wrote "Time Tested Beauty Tips" for his grandchild, and it just so happened to be one of Audrey's favorite poems. She read it to her children on the very last Christmas Eve she spent with us here on Earth.

Come with Me Child

One of my friends wrote this, but I can't remember who. I will have to trigger a Facebook post about it:

Come With Me Child

Darling child come with me
to an enchanted place,
where the flowers feel like velvet
and the snowflakes are made of lace.

Come child; come and see
this place where imaginations grow,
like tangled vines and bright green moss,
the place only you and I know.

And when the stars shine through the night,
I'll think of you, little one,
And call you "Golden Hair,"
for your shine is as bright as the sun.

Come with me tiny "miracle of heaven";
Let's get away from this evil sphere,
to this place where you'll be loved -
where you'll rid of all your fears.

So let us be gone to this enchanted land
where many friends there'll be,
to wipe our tears and make us smile;
Come child; come with me.

The Greatest Gift Song Lyrics - by Afterglow

The Greatest Gift
Words and Music by Afterglow

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It happened oh so long ago,
In a time I can't recall;
But its spirit spans the years and comes to me.
A far greater thing than battles,
or when mighty kingdoms fall,
when a carpenter came out of Galilee.

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He taught the people simply,
in a way to touch their souls;
He opened the eyes of men so they might see;
And the precious truths he taught them,
and the simple acts of love,
have come down to touch the hearts of you and me.

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It's the greatest gift the world has known,
for the Savior to come down and guide us home.
A single heartfelt plea,
as he said, "Come follow me,"
He taught us all the way back home,
then lived it perfectly.

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They took this man, this carpenter,
and nailed him to a tree,
and he suffered pain no mortal man could bear,
when he took upon him all our sins
in the place Gethsemane.
I hope someday to understand,
the perfect love he shared.

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It's the greatest gift we'll ever see;
his sacrifice that someday we may be
together once again,
with our wise, Eternal Friend,
if we but meet out challenges
then strive on till the end.

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It's the sweetest story ever told;
It means more to me then precious gems or gold,
Though the world may not believe,
it goes on eternally,
those ancient truths have been restored,
to set the people free.

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Now I've got my chance to show him
the gratitude I feel,
and I'll go and spread the word to all I know.
With angels to uphold me,
and sacred truths revealed,
I'll share this testimony in my soul.

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And the greatest gift that I can give,
is to show my brothers here the way to live.
With angels to uphold,
and these sacred things I hold.
I'll share this testimony from my soul.
I'll give to them the greatest gift I know.

Questions of Life - website

I was just looking for a document called "Questions of Life" and came across this website.

Interesting and thought I'd share - http://www.questionsoflife.com/

Letter from a Friend - from Jesus

Dear Friend, 

I just had to write to tell you how much I love you and care for you.

Yesterday, I saw you walking and laughing with your friends; I hoped that soon you'd want Me to walk along with you, too. So, I painted you a sunset to close your day and whispered a cool breeze to refresh you. I waited; you never called. I just kept on loving you. 

As I watched you fall asleep last night, I wanted so much to touch you. I spilled moonlight onto your face trickling down your cheeks as so many tears have. You didn't even think of me; I wanted so much to comfort you. 

The next day I exploded a brilliant sunrise into a glorious morning for you. But you woke up late and rushed off to work-you didn't evennotice. 

My sky became cloudy and Mytears were the rain. 

I love you! Oh, if you'd only listen. I really love you! I try to say it in the quiet of the green meadow and in the blue sky. The wind whispers My love throughout the treetops and spills it into the vibrant colors of the flowers. 

I shout it to you in the thunder of the great waterfalls and composed love songs for birds to sing for you. I warm you with the clothing of My sunshine and perfume the air with nature's sweet scent. 

My love for you is deeper than the ocean and greaterthan any need in your heart. If you'd only realize how I care. I died just for you. My Dad sends His love. I want you to meet Him. He cares, too. Fathers are just that way. 

So please call Me soon. No matter how long it takes, I'll wait because I love you. 

Your Friend, 
Jesus 

By: Author Unknown

Willingness - capability, availability

The Lord does not ask about
our ability or inability.
But only about our availability,
The Lord will take care of
our capability.

- Neal A. Maxwell -

All the Water in the World

All the water in the world
No matter how it tried
Could never sink the smallest ship
Unless it got inside
All the evil of the world
And every kind of sin
Could never damn a human soul
Unless we let it in...