Tag Archives: famous people

A New Page in the Book of Life

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Each day is a new page in the book of life. Many words may appear on the page but only a few will be meaningful. There are so many instances in which we have to pick and choose our words in order to keep peace in a relationship, make the most of a bad situation, and use words of encouragement when needed. It is up to us how we are going to fill each new page so that any particular day in the book of our life will make a good read for us and those with whom we share our lives.

It is also good to not only write our daily page but to read the pages of others who have gone before us, such as Dr. Frederick “Fritz” Perls (1893-1970) who wrote this as perhaps one way of dealing with relationships strained to the limit:

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.
If not, it can’t be helped.

And then there was this by American Theologian, Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971):

God grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change;
Courage to change the things I can;
And wisdom to know the difference.

This one recently caught my eye in Harry Belafonte’s memoir, My Song:

“Not everyone can be who you want him or her to be.”

Whether we are writing our own page, or reading that of another, each new page in the book of life is a challenging experience. It should not only be written well, but lived well, and make good reading for all whose lives touch ours.

 

Why Am I Here, Anyway?

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This is chapter ten and the tenth prayer in Ten Prayers God Always Says Yes To. The chapter is called Why Am I Here Anyway? And the prayer is God, Lead Me to My Destiny. Here is an excerpt from this final chapter:

In the final analysis, we are not just human beings but keys–keys that God has individually crafted to fit certain locks. Each of us is special because the lock we are called to open will accept only one key–one that looks different, acts different, and feels different from any other one; one that has different kinds of emotions, passions, skills, and defects from any other one. In fact, in all the world and in all of time itself, there has only been one key that has the ability to open this one particular lock–and you are it. Make no mistake: when you find the lock, you will find your destiny. It could be virtually anything. It could be something big or something small, something loud or something quiet. It could be something that makes you famous overnight or something that keeps you hidden. It could be that you’re destined to save someone’s life in a fire or some other disaster–or that you’re destined to change someone’s life through a simple conversation. It could be that you’ll one day create something that helps people–like an invention or a piece of inspiring music or a book or an article. It could be that your son or daughter is destined to achieve something stupendous–something he or she could not have achieved without your influence. Your destiny might be one decisive, dramatic moment in your life, or it might be many actions taken over many years. Who knows? Whatever it turns out to be, though, one thing is certain: it will be profoundly important to the life of this world and immensely fulfilling to you personally.

This has been my favorite chapter in the book. The author touches on science and religion, genetics and DNA, Forrest Gump and George Washington, and the destiny God has planned for all of us.

I have to admit to praying the above prayer, but also have to admit to still waiting for the answer–unless my book, My Precious Life, published last June, is the answer.

One thing I know for sure is that with God leading, my destiny can only be the best. I’m willing to wait forever.

 

Learn from the Best

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This quote by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe was in part responsible for me writing my book, My Precious Life. Procrastination had prolonged my beginning it until I read this quote for the umpteenth time, and along with the encouragement from my family, finally sat down and seized the very minute on December 26, 2012.

Here then is Goethe’s famous quote:

Are you in earnest? Seize this very minute.

What you can do, or dream you can, begin it.

Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.

Only engage and then the mind grows heated;

Begin and then the work will be completed.

I am pleased to say the work has been completed and My Precious Life is the result of finally seizing the minute.

I love learning from the best.

More Quotes from Great People

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The longer I live, the more I learn, and the more I learn, the more I want to learn. Now, onto more famous quotes. (Once again, my comments are in parenthesis.) By the way, I saved the best for last; it’s a real thought provoker.

No man’s life can be encompassed in one telling. There is no way to give each year its allotted weight, to include each event, each person who helped to shape a lifetime. What can be done is to be faithful in spirit to the record and try to find one’s way to the heart of man…Mahatma Ghandi. (I always wondered what this meant until I wrote my book, and then it became clear.)

We are not human beings having a spiritual experience, we are spiritual beings having a human experience…Pierre Tielhard de Chardin. (This one keeps my thinking cap on!)

Never be entirely idle but either be reading or writing or praying or meditating or endeavoring something for the public good…Thomas A Kempis-early 15th century. (I found this one in a cemetary.)

All that we are is a result of all that we have thought…Buddha. (It reminds me of As a Man Thinketh by James Allen.)

I keep six honest serving men (they taught me all I ever knew), their names are what and where and when and how and why and who…Rudyard Kipling. (It is said that this is a journalist’s mantra.)

The individual human personality has bound up inside itself, a connection to all the wonders of the universe…Sidney Poitier in The Measure of a Man. (I like to think of this as truth.)

Focus on the front windshield and not on the rearview mirror of life…Colin Powell, former U.S. Secretary of State. (That goes for driving a car too!)

It is one thing to talk about God. It is quite another thing to experience God…Leonard Sweet, Methodist Theologian. (The experience is what encourages the talk.)

Life is God’s gift to you, the way you live it is your gift to God…Leo Buscaglia. (Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee.)

Live that you wouldn’t be ashamed to sell the family parrot to the town gossip…Will Rogers. (That’s why I never had a parrot.)

We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give…Winston Churchill. (This doesn’t mean just money…does it?)

I expect to pass through life but once, if therefore, there can be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow human being, let me do it now…William Penn. (I hope this cures me of my procrastination.)

And finally…

What if you slept? And what if, in your sleep you dreamed? And what if in your dream you went to heaven and plucked a strange and beautiful flower? And what if, when you awoke, you had the flower in your hand?…Samuel Taylor Coleridge. (No comment.)

In Good Company

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I’ve had this life-long dream of writing a book, never believing it would come to fruition…but it is…(coming to fruition!) Why did it take me so long? Well, living life played a great role, and “to everything there is a season” as Ecclesiastes, chapter three, so eloquently puts it: “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven…”

It took me seventy-seven years but look what famous people accomplished in their elder years:

Albert Schweitzer was still treating his patients at age 90.

Grandma Moses was still painting at 100.

Edison was still inventing at 80.

Shaw was still writing plays after 90.

Frank Lloyd Wright worked until 90 as did Picasso.

Rubenstein received a standing ovation at 88

Monet was still painting in his 80’s.

Michelangelo was still building St. Peter’s in Rome when he died at 89.

And our own Alice Munroe, Canadian short story author, won the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature at age 82

So, I don’t feel so bad. These people are my creative heroes.

There’s a good old saying, “You are judged by the company you keep”, which I used to tell my children, if they ever found themselves in the company of some who would or could lead them off the path I felt they should follow; one of honesty (above all) and truth.

And now, here am I, ordinary person, trying to keep company with these famous “oldsters” of bygone days. Maybe I’ll be worthy of a Nobel Prize in Literature by the age of one-hundred-and-twenty: and then again, maybe not. One can only dream. I would love to rub shoulders with these celebrated people, and be judged by the company I keep.