Action

Annie Dillard:
How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.

Anais Nin:
Dreams pass into the reality of action. From the actions stems the dream again; and this interdependence produces the highest form of living.

Albert Einstein:
The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.

André Gide:
The most decisive actions of our life ... are most often unconsidered actions.

Aristotle:
Moral excellence comes about as a result of habit. We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts.

Benjamin Disraeli:
Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action.

Colleen C. Barrett:
When it comes to getting things done, we need fewer architects and more bricklayers.

Edmund Burke:
Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.

Harold Nicolson:
We are all inclined to judge ourselves by our ideals; others, by their acts.

Holocaust Museum, Washington, DC:
Thou shalt not be a victim. Thou shalt not be a perpetrator. Above all, thou shalt not be a bystander.

Hugh Prather:
To live for results would be to sentence myself to continuous frustration. My only sure reward is in my actions and not from them.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe:
Thinking is easy, acting is difficult, and to put one's thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world.

John Andrew Holmes:
Speech is conveniently located midway between thought and action, where it often substitutes for both.

Konosuke Matsushita:
No matter how deep a study you make. What you really have to rely on is your own intuition and when it comes down to it, you really don't know what's going to happen until you do it.

Pearl Bailey:
Everybody wants to do something to help, but nobody wants to be first.

Ralph Waldo Emerson:
Do not say things. What you are stands over you the while, and thunders, so that I cannot hear what you say to the contrary.

Walter Linn:
It is surprising what a man can do when he has to, and how little most men will do when they don't have to.

Edward Everett Hale:
I am only one,
But still I am one.
I cannot do everything,
But still I can do something;
And because I cannot do everything
I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.

Pebbles

"Nobody trips over mountains. It is the small pebble that causes you to stumble. Pass all the pebbles in your path and you will find you have crossed the mountain."

"Say"

"Take all of your wasted honour"

"Every little past frustation"

"Take all of your so called problems"

"Better put 'em in quotations"

Say what you need to say

(x8)

"Walkin' like a one man army"

"Fightin' with the shadows in your head"

"Livin' out the same old moments"

"Knowin you'd be better of instead"

"If you could only"

Say what you need to say

(x8)

"Have no fear for givin' in"

"Have no fear for givin' over"

"You better know that in the end"

"It's better to say to much"

"Than never to say what you need to say again"

"Even if your hands are shakin' "

"And your faith is broken"

"Even as your eyes are closin' "

"Do it with a heart wide open"

"Wide"

Say what you need to say

(x20)

John Mayer (Say)

Much

“There is much in the world for us all”
“If only we have the eyes to see it”
“And the heart to love it”
“And the hand to gather it to ourselves.”

L.M Montgomery

Meeting Yourself

Some people find it easy to strike up a conversation with almost anyone they meet. Others find it hard to greet a passerby in the road! And yet others seem to attract people without any effort at all. And even once you've introduced yourself, and the usual topics for strangers such as the weather and where you might live are exhausted- what then? Does communication just break down? Why should this be the case? What happens to us that we suddenly find that someone potentially interesting or beautiful is causing us distress by mere silence?

OK, so maybe we just don't trust that we are interesting enough or similar enough to be engaged with. And what do you think that person is thinking at that time? The same thing that you are? Possible AND likely!

"Our thoughts are unseen hands shaping the people we meet. Whatever you truly think them to be, that's what they'll become for us." (Richard Cowper)

So what do you think of the person when you meet them?
Maybe some of these look familiar?
-"They look scared that I approached them"
-"They look suspicious of my intentions"
-"They look bored"
-"These are not people that I usually mix with"
-"I hope they don't think I'm weird"
And a whole host of other thoughts as well! Maybe subconsciously?!
"When two people meet there are really six people present. There is each man as he sees himself, each man as the other person sees him and each man as he really is." (William James)
And that, in my opinion, is the best reason to meet people. We ARE different. And sometimes it IS difficult. We come to a person with all our complexities and assumptions. But if we persist and explore it is truly amazing what we can find in another person!
Don't be afraid of rejection. By being afraid of it we are, in effect, rejecting a whole range of people by simply not giving them a chance to 'discover' us!
"Never lose sight of the fact that the most important yardstick of your success will be how you treat other people- your family, friends and coworkers and even strangers you meet along the way." (Barbara Bush)

"Hi, I'm Brett"

Mountain

I climbed a mountain.

A place i am already "familiar" with. A beautiful place. I've climbed this mountain once before but this time i succeeded in reaching the summit. It was far harder than i remember or expected. But i achieved the stillness amidst the clouds. And i learnt a valuable lesson along the way.

"I've learned that everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you're climbing it.”

I made a friend along the way. I pushed my limits. I changed my perspective. I admired the views and understood the valleys and paths. I felt what it meant to be small and large at the same time. My body was small but my heart was large. My pain was small but my willpower large.

And i had fun!

I climbed a mountain.