Throwing Away Our Happiness III

"The soul of our happiness may be—love. This love may be so fine and great and simple and it so fills our life that it leaves no room for pain, as light crowds out darkness. It may, with its Midas touch, turn even our trials and troubles into the gold of sweetness, strength and consolation. …

Continue reading Throwing Away Our Happiness III

Alchemy of Calmness II

People have gone to great lengths to achieve the elusive state of being called calmness. They've surrendered, medicated, denied, avoided, distracted and withdrawn themselves to death, trying desperately to wrap their hands and heads around what appears to be a fleeting experience. Calmness, like happiness, cannot be pasted on from the outside. It must emerge …

Continue reading Alchemy of Calmness II

The Achievement of Serenity

"The final wisdom of life requires not the annulment of incongruity but the achievement of serenity within and above it." ~ Reinhold Niebuhr How do you achieve serenity while living in a world of incongruity and limitations? Everywhere you look in the world today there is evidence of turmoil, conflict and unrest, a state that …

Continue reading The Achievement of Serenity

Out of the mouths of babes

My sons have taken an interest in war recently and I've found it quite interesting to answer their many questions within their present scope of consciousness. Four and five year olds can surprise you with their wisdom, though at the same time they know very little about the world and the many twists and turns …

Continue reading Out of the mouths of babes

Pluck a Thistle and Plant a Flower

"Die when I may, I want it said by those who knew me best that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow." ~ Abraham Lincoln One of the characteristics I admire most in people is the ability to pluck a thistle and plant a flower. The …

Continue reading Pluck a Thistle and Plant a Flower

In Retrospect

"Righteousness is easy in retrospect." ~Arthur Schlesinger Jr. How true is that?!? More often than not the right thing to do is the least popular thing to do. Politicians find themselves between a rock and a hard place on this point as reelection concerns are often pitted against the need to support unpopular but clearly …

Continue reading In Retrospect

Good Policy: Magnanimity

MAGNANIM'ITY, n. [L. magnanimitas; magnus, great, and animus, mind.] Greatness of mind; that elevation or dignity of soul, which encounters danger and trouble with tranquillity and firmness, which raises the possessor above revenge, and makes him delight in acts of benevolence, which makes him disdain injustice and meanness, and prompts him to sacrifice personal ease, …

Continue reading Good Policy: Magnanimity

Life is not a dream so dark

Life by Charlotte Bronte Life, believe, is not a dream So dark as sages say; Oft a little morning rain Foretells a pleasant day. Sometimes there are clouds of gloom, But these are transient all; If the shower will make the roses bloom, O why lament its fall? Rapidly, merrily, Life's sunny hours flit by, …

Continue reading Life is not a dream so dark