"The skilful traveller leaves no traces of his wheels or footsteps; the skilful speaker says nothing that can be found fault with or blamed; the skilful reckoner uses no tallies; the skilful closer needs no bolts or bars, while to open what he has shut will be impossible; the skilful binder uses no strings or …
Category: Observations on Life
Alternate Choice
"Is the glass half full, or half empty? It depends on whether you're pouring or drinking it." ~ Bill Cosby People love to answer alternate choice questions. This or that? Red or blue? Republican or Democrat? Three or four? Science or religion? But the better answer is often found elsewhere. I read somewhere recently that …
New Experiences
"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime." ~ Mark Twain I was speaking with fellow yesterday who had spent the …
You are an Alchemist
"Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm." ~ Publilius Syrus Hardly a day goes by without some form of turbulence, frustration or challenge. The sooner you come to peace with this reality, the better. When you allow for the possibility of impediments to the accomplishment of your daily goals, you are much …
Boldness, Providence and Magic
You no doubt have heard on occasion someone say that once they had committed to action, the factors necessary to its completion magically lined up. While this may not always not always be the case, as the choices made by others often complicate that which you seek to accomplish, it does happen frequently enough to …
The Better Angels of our Nature
"We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot's grave, to every living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when touched again, as surely they …
The Primacy of Water
Inspired by one of my reader's comments yesterday, I've done a little research and discovered a number of interesting facts about the world's freshwater. For starters, only 2.5% of the total water on earth is freshwater. Of that small percentage, 60% is trapped in glaciers and ice caps, 10% is found in surface waters (lakes and rivers), …
Oil, Oil, Everywhere
You have no doubt heard the classical paradox of the immovable object and the irresistible force. While I am not so sure that either naturally exists, it does seem that the appealing idea of infinite economic expansion is pressing up against the outer boundaries of a finite base of resources, particularly oil, these days. Fortunately …
The Right Light
"A man's errors are his portals of discovery." ~ James Joyce When I look back at the mistakes I've made over the last few years at work or home, while training my horse, hawk and dogs, I take comfort in the fact that each one - once recognized and corrected - opened the way for …
The Decision to Act
"The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life; and the procedure, the process is its own reward." ~ Amelia Earhart What, if anything, do you fear? Change? …
Gregory Hake 