“Sometimes failure is the beginning of success.”
This quote comes from a novel by Astrid Scholte. It makes us imagine ourselves accomplishing a particular goal with our first step or attempt being falling flat on our face. It reminds us that sometimes there’ll be failures on our road to whatever destination we’re trying to reach. And sometimes that failure happens at the very beginning. The key is to not take that initial failure as final. It may just be the perfect beginning.
Living Life Poetically: Rest for a Barren Heart
“Rest for a Barren Heart” isn’t the most uplifting poem; however, it is hopeful toward the end. It’s for all those times we go to bed feeling a bit under the weather after a bad day. While the body needs rest, so does the soul. Rest for a Barren Heart If I hug this pillow tightly, Would it give comfort to my heart?If I press it against my chest,Would it support a heart’s barren weight of sorrow?If on it a heavy mind can press its head for dreams to follow,Can an emptied soul press its heart to fill the hollow? Perhaps, I would fall asleepand wake up to a better tomorrow …
“You were given this life because you are strong enough to live it.”
If you’ve ever thought ‘why me?’ when something bad happens to you or when you realize your situation isn’t quite what you hope, there could be a simple answer to that question. The simple answer could just be because that’s the life you’ve been given. When we’re born, we have no choice over what life we would be given. We have no control over the cards we’ll be dealt. We may not feel like we can change, let alone handle, our life. However, this anonymous quote (possibly by Ain Eineziz) reminds us that whatever life we’re uniquely given is also one we’re strong enough to live. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be…
“Do not pray for an easy life, pray for the strength to endure a difficult one.”
Sadness, frustration, hardship, and loss are almost unavoidable in life. Therefore, praying for an easy life would be an unrealistic expectation. There’s no such thing as a life free of these conditions no matter your geographic location, socioeconomic status, age, or piety. The truth is, there are always going to be some negatives intermixed with the positives. This is why, as suggested in this Bruce Lee quote, we should pray for strength for when we do fall on hard times rather than pray that we never do at all. There’s no such thing as a life free of sadness, frustration, hardship, and loss. However, having the strength to surmount these…
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“Successful people have fear, successful people have doubts, and successful people have worries. They just don’t let these feelings stop them.”
Depression Part 3: Finding the Cause and Working Toward the Solution
“Everything that has a beginning has an ending. Make your peace with that and all will be well.”
“In the end, everything will be okay. If it’s not okay, it’s not yet the end.”
When reading a book, we eventually come to its definitive end. We turn the final page of a story or series and there’s nothing more to be said. Typically, things end on a good note. There’s a sense of closure. Similarly this quote, by Fernando Sabino, reminds us that if everything’s not ok, we’ve not yet arrived at the end of our story. However, unlike a story book the pages of our story are indefinite. So when everything feels broken and we feel like we’ve reached our last page, we can remember that tomorrow’s always a new page.
“Forget your past, forgive yourself, and begin again right now.”
We tend to be the harshest critic of our own shortcomings and failures. While a little introspection is good, constantly beating ourselves up over past shortcomings and failures means constantly being stuck in the past. As a result, we’re not able to focus on the present. We become so stuck in the past that we may miss the great opportunity life gives us to learn from our mistakes and begin again. Interestingly, at the literal center of this anonymous quote is forgiving yourself. Meanwhile, this is also central to the quote’s message. It’s only when we aren’t stuck in the past (having forgiven ourselves) that we can be “present” enough…
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“You can’t fall if you don’t climb. But there’s no joy in living your whole life on the ground.”
“We must be willing to let go of the life we planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us.”
“Letting there be room for not knowing is the most important thing of all. When there’s a big disappointment, we don’t know if that’s the end of the story. It may just be the beginning of a great adventure.”
“A river cuts through a rock not because of its power, but its persistence.”
It’s fascinating to realize that water causes the formation of caves, canyons, and valleys. It’s a process geologist refer to as downcutting. Rivers slowly erode rocks, cutting away at them bit by bit to form canyons and valleys. Meanwhile, water slowly drips into rock layers, dissolving the rock and creating open spaces within to form caves. These natural processes take millions of years. This quote, by Jim Watkins, reminds us to be like the water. It may not be the strongest or most powerful element on earth; however, we can never underestimate what is possible with consistency and persistence.
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What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.
“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
“Don’t bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.”
Living Life Poetically: The Psychology of the Calm Mind
This is the second of a two-part poem series looking into the psychology of the calm mind. Check out the previous poem, “The Psychology of the Worried Mind”, here. Instead of personifying a mind that’s worried, “The Psychology of the Calm Mind” personifies a mind that’s calm. Again, a bit of imagination needed here as we psychoanalyze what it’s like inside a calm mind. If you’re needing more peace and serenity (as we all are from time to time), perhaps this window into what that looks like can be a source of inspiration. The Psychology of the Calm Mind While the worried mind seeks to find what will be tomorrow,The…
“We all have problems. But it’s not what happens to us, it’s the choices we make after.”
Elizabeth Smart has survived the unimaginable. And for someone who’s had her experience to be able to move forward with their life in such a positive way is nothing short of amazing. This quote, from Smart, reminds us that our negative experiences don’t have to define us. However, the choices we make afterward are what counts. Our negative experiences can inspire us toward negative choices–making our wounds last. However, they can also inspire us toward positive choices that not only heal our own wounds but also help in the healing of others’.
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“Every accomplishment starts with the decision to try.”
“There is neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the comparison of one state with another, nothing more. He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness.”
“When you arise in the morning think of what a privilege it is to be alive, to think, to enjoy, to love.”
“A bend in the road is not the end of the road…Unless you fail to make the turn.”
Life is full of twists and turns, which can make it difficult to stay on course when you have a one-track mind. Having a one-track mind is like constantly going straight and never bending the wheel. This quote, by Helen Keller, reminds us that without making the turn–being willing to embrace change–we’ll inevitably crash. So what if we embrace change? What if we choose to round the corner? Who knows where we might find ourselves and what new direction the road will lead.
