"When one door closes, another door opens but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the one that is open." - Alexander Graham Bell

"People never improve unless they look to some standard or example higher or better than themselves." - Tryon Edwards

"There are moments when everything goes well, but don't be frightened." - Jules Renard

"If you are suffering right now because you feel that there is something that you want that you don't have, notice that this comes from lack. Instead, what if you turned it around? What if you asked, "What gifts do I have, right now, that can be of service to others?" In other words, you go from a desire to get, to a desire to give. Giving opens the heart, wanting closes it. So when you give, ALL benefit!" – Michael Jeffreys

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Nothingness

"How can nothing give you something? How can that which has no power in itself give you the immense power of the universe? How can that Ultimate which has no knowledge yet bring forth from itself all knowledge? My Master said, "It is possible. It has been done. It will continue to be done, too." And he gave me a simple example, the zero of mathematics. One is one. Put a zero by its side, it is multiplied by ten. It is nothing, yet it gives value to something."

Shri. P. Rajagopalachari, President, Shri Ram Chandra Mission -http://www.sahajmarg.org 

It was a warm day so the back door stood wide open. Sam’s balloon snuggled up against the ceiling. It was bobbing and bumping in the breeze.

After breakfast, Sam and Dad went upstairs to wash their hands. Then from the bathroom window Dad caught sight of a glint of silver and red.

“Look! There goes your balloon,” he said. It must have been blown out of the back door!” They watched it rising up as straight and smooth as a lift on its way to the very top floor of a building taller than the tallest tree.

They ran downstairs and went outside. Up and up went the balloon, jerkily, fidgety now, in fits and starts like a rock climber zig-zagging up a cliff.

And then, when it was so high it looked like a red berry in the sky, the wind grabbed it. “I want my balloon,” Sam cried. "No!” said the wind. “It’s mine! All mine!” And off rushed the balloon, in a hurry now, south, towards the mountains.

“Don’t cry,” said Dad. “Across the mountains is the sea, and across the sea is the desert, and across the desert, a river, and in the river, an island.” “And on that island,” said Sam, “my Grandad Abdulla lives looking after his goats and tending his dates trees.”

“That’s right, said Dad. “Perhaps, said Sam, “my balloon is going to visit Grandad Abdulla.”

“Yes,” said Dad. “Then it will fly high, high, high over the snow decorated mountains where golden eagles nest; high, high over the sparkling blue-green sea where silver fish leap from waves; high over the hot yellow sand of the desert where scorpions, and spitting spiders, and sidewinder snakes hide from the heat.”

“And sand grouse will peck at it,” said Sam, and falcons will fall on it, and hawks will fly after it, and vultures with their big hooky beaks and their sharp talons will tear at it, but the dry desert wind will help it to dodge and weave and nothing will harm it.”

“That’s right,” said Dad. “And then, Tired after its long journey, it will see down below the long blue ribbon of the river; it will see the small gold and emerald jewel of the island; it will see the little brow house built of baked mud.”

“Yes,” said Sam, “and it will see Grandad Abdulla sitting in the shade of his mango tree. And down, down, down it will glide, landing in the yard like a seagull setting on the sea. And Grandad Abdulla will say, ‘A balloon! A balloon for me! My grandson Sam must have sent it to show that, although he’s so far away, he’s thinking of me!”

“Yes. It’s sad to see it go,” said Dad, “but the balloon will be happy after its great adventure. And Grandad Abdulla will be happy thinking of you.”

“I’m glad my balloon’s gone to see Grandad,”said Sam, because if I know Grandad’s happy, then I feel happy too.”

"Let us remember that, as much has been given us, much will be expected from us, and that true homage comes from the heart as well as from the lips, and shows itself in deeds." - Theodore Roosevelt

"Life is 10 percent what you make it and 90 percent how you take it." - Irving Berlin

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow." - Melody Beattie

"The rituals and the sacrifices described In the Vedas deal with lower knowledge. The sages ignored these rituals And went in search of higher knowledge. ... Such rituals are unsafe rafts for crossing The sea of samsara, of birth and death. Doomed to shipwreck are those who try to cross The sea of samsara on these poor rafts. Ignorant of their own ignorance, yet wise In their own esteem, these deluded men Proud of their vain learning go round and round Like the blind led by the blind." - Mundaka Upanishad

"One cannot see God as long as one feels "I am the doer." Fully awakened souls are beyond virtue and vice. They realize that it is God who does everything." - Ramakrishna

"If you can't accept losing, you can't win." - Vince Lombardi

"Anything is possible for someone who has faith." - Mark 9:23

"Without heroes, we are all plain people and dont know how far we can go." - Bernard Malamud

"The world we see merely reflects our own internal frame of reference - the dominant ideas, wishes and emotions in our minds. We look inside first, decide the kind of world we want to see and then project that world outside, making it the truth as we see it. We make it true by our interpretations of what it is we are seeing." - A Course in Miracles

"The major value in life is not what you get. The major value in life is what you become. That is why I wish to pay fair price for every value. If I have to pay for it or earn it, that makes something of me. If I get it for free, that makes nothing of me.' " — Jim Rohn

"Excellence is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well." - John W. Gardner

"The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper." - Eden Phillpotts

"People see the world not as it is, but as they are." - Al Lee

Life is Like That

Getting to Heaven from the Post Office A preacher, newly called to a small country town, needed to mail a letter. Passing a young boy on the street, the pastor asked where he could find the post office.

After getting his answer, the minister thanked the boy and said, “If you’ll come to the community church this evening, you can hear me tell everyone how to get to heaven.”

“I don’t know, sir,” the boy replied. “You don’t even know how to get to the post office!”