The following are a bunch of thoughts that sometimes help me stay centered, insights I have had, and quotations from various places.  If it's mine only the date I have it recorded is present.  If it's someone else's, it's attributed as best I could.

• Don't be so obsessed with where you're going that you miss the beauty of the road in getting there. Life is about learning - not the completion of the lesson. It isn't about what you have learned or will learn, it is about what you are, at this moment, learning. 991011
• Forget the past and the future, and even the present. Live the moment to the fullest. 991011
• Life only follows rules because we have chosen to accept these rules. While some of the rules may be necessary to live in this existence, ALL of the rules surely are not. Choose which rules you wish to embrace; ignore the rest. 991011
• Cut the superfluities, and find the pure center, then choose which extras you really want and eliminate the rest. None of it is really necessary. 991011
• Never make assumptions, never take anything for granted. Assumptions and expectations lead to a loss of gratitude and respect, which leads to a loss of joy. Every day, every act of love - be it help from a friend or lover, or a beautiful sunrise or waterfall - is worthy of the highest expression of joy and gratitude. Otherwise you can become jaded, and lose the joy - which can in turn kill the love. No - nothing can kill the love. But expectations and assumptions can become a set of glasses through which you see the world, which can filter out the joy and love, and leave you with - mundane. 991011
• Thinking and feeling - if you're too caught up in one or the other, you not only lose half the experience, you also are not offering all of yourself. You are not fully living. 991011
• Anger happens when we are afraid. 991011
• Labels mean nothing; don't bother chasing a label for yourself. While it makes communication easier, it also tries to put you in an artificial box that is rarely accurate. 991010
• When puzzling over an issue, reduce it down to the indestructible underlying principles.  Remove the symbols, then work with what's left. 000330
• We can't create or destroy reality, only shift our perceptions of it. 000330
• The only one with all the answers is you. Others can only teach you the what and how of the questions. 8/4/2003
  • Corollary 1: Your answers are not necessarily the same as someone else's answers.  Everyone has a different background which must be taken into account. 8/4/2003
  • Corollary 2: We often trick ourselves into thinking we've found an answer, when what we've found is a lapwing. - 8/4/2003
  • Corollary 3: There are often layers to answers; the first layer may appear to be "the" answer, when there's still an entire onion underneath. - 8/4/2003
• Mysteries have no answers.  They simply are.  Contemplating them will, however, lead to other answers and insights. - 8/4/2003
• Just because something is fiction, doesn't mean it isn't true - 4/21/2009