Inspiration-to-Go
Take-Out for the Spirit
Joy is not in you.
It is you.
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Your joy matters.
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Joy doesn't just come and go.
What comes and goes is your "attunement" to joy.
(So, be sure to stay "tuned" ...)
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The truth about myself.
No matter how beautiful it is.
~Marina Weiderkehr
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Not only is joy a vital component of
your total well-being,
Your joy impacts everyone around you.
Think about it ...
Your joy
is a powerful example to others.
It is an absolute inspiration !
Your joy inspires others to experience their own joy.
Your joy is nothing less than a gift to the world!
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Naomi Shahib Nye
Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.
Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,
you must travel where the dead Indian in a poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.
Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.
Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to mail letters and purchase bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
It is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you everywhere
like a shadow or a friend.
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When faced with a difficult decision,
ask yourself the following:
"What would I do if I weren't afraid of making a mistake,
feeling rejected,
looking foolish, or being alone ?
Remove the fear
and the answer comes into focus.
(With thanks to Oprah Winfrey)
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Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our Light, not our Darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, "Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?"
Actually, who are you NOT to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the World.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that
other people won't feel insecure around you.
You were born to make manifest the glory of God
that is within us. It is not just for some of us;
it is in everyone.
As we let our own Light shine,
we unconsciously
give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear,
our Presence automatically liberates others.
Marianne Williamson
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ASK YOURSELF: Where are you "playing small" in your life ?
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Taking Stock: An Inner Inventory
1) Who are you?
2) Who and what do you love?
3) Why are you here?
What is your purpose in life?
4) What are your priorities in life?
Is the way you use your time,
energy and resources consistent with your priorities ?
5) What balances and grounds you?
6) What are your gifts?
7) What image do you project to others?
Does it really reflect who you are?
Does it hold you hostage in any way?
8) What is your "shadow self," the dark part that you resist owning?
What gift might your shadow have to give you?
9) What nurtures you?
10) In what instances are you untrue to yourself?
11) What is incomplete for you in your life?
12) What would you change about your life?
13) How would you describe yourself?
14) What do you feel you've learned from your life so far?
15) What do you want your legacy to be ?
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ASK YOURSELF: What questions are you avoiding asking?
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We have just so much strength in us to give.
And if we give and give and give,
we have less and less and less--
and after a while, at a certain point,
we're so weak and worn,
we hoist up the flag of surrender.
We surrender to the worst side of ourselves,
and then we display that to others.
We surrender to self-pity
and to spite
and to self-preoccupation.
If you want to call it depression or burnout,
well, all right.
If you want to call it the triumph of sin--
when our goodness has been knocked out from under us--
well, all right.
Whatever we think or say,
this is arduous duty doing this kind of work;
to live out one's idealism brings with it
hazards.
Excerpts from conference remarks made by the late Dr. Martin Luther King in 1964. Quoted by Robert Coles in The Call to Service. Format for the remarks created by Rev. Susan Hawkins Sager.
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Questions to ak yourself:
...What "fires" you up?
...What causes you to "burn out" ?
... How can you create balance in your life?
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MIRACLES ... PASS 'EM ON!
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