β
Until you have suffered much in your heart, you cannot learn humility.
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Thaddeus of Vitovnica (Our Thoughts Determine Our Lives: The Life and Teachings of Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica)
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To care for those who once cared for us is one of the highest honors.
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Tia Walker (The Inspired Caregiver: Finding Joy While Caring for Those You Love)
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THE FOUR HEAVENLY FOUNTAINS
Laugh, I tell you
And you will turn back
The hands of time.
Smile, I tell you
And you will reflect
The face of the divine.
Sing, I tell you
And all the angels will sing with you!
Cry, I tell you
And the reflections found in your pool of tears -
Will remind you of the lessons of today and yesterday
To guide you through the fears of tomorrow.
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β
Suzy Kassem (Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem)
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Anyone who is having troubles should pray. Anyone who is happy should sing praises. Anyone who is sick should call the church's elders. They should pray for and pour oil on the person in the name of the Lord. And the prayer that is said with faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will heal that person. And if the person has sinned, the sins will be forgiven. Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so God can heal you. When a believing person prays, great things happen. (James 5:13-16)
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Anonymous (The Holy Bible: King James Version)
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Caregiving often calls us to lean into love we didn't know possible.
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Tia Walker (The Inspired Caregiver: Finding Joy While Caring for Those You Love)
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Love is sacrifice. Love sacrifices itself for its neighbor.
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Thaddeus of Vitovnica (Our Thoughts Determine Our Lives: The Life and Teachings of Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica)
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If you wish success in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counselor, caution your elder brother and hope your guardian genius.
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Joseph Addison
β
In the heart or every caregiver is a knowing that we are all connected. As I do for you, I do for me.
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Tia Walker (The Inspired Caregiver: Finding Joy While Caring for Those You Love)
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Elder Neal A. Maxwell suggests that the prime reason the Savior personally acts as the gatekeeper of the celestial kingdom is not to exclude people, but to personally welcome and embrace those who have made it back home.
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Tad R. Callister (The Infinite Atonement)
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Everything is defeated before love.
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Thaddeus of Vitovnica (Our Thoughts Determine Our Lives: The Life and Teachings of Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica)
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I love you but I got to love me more.
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Peggi Speers (The Inspired Caregiver: Finding Joy While Caring for Those You Love)
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Where there is prayer, the fallen spirits have no power.
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Thaddeus of Vitovnica (Our Thoughts Determine Our Lives: The Life and Teachings of Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica)
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Let us die trying.
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Velma Wallis
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Our starting point is always wrong. Instead of beginning with ourselves,we always want to change others first and ourselves last. If everyone would begin first with themselves, then there would be peace all around!
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Thaddeus of Vitovnica (Our Thoughts Determine Our Lives: The Life and Teachings of Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica)
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Respect the young and chastise your elders. It's about time the world was set aright.
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Vera Nazarian (The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration)
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By loving you more, you love the person you are caring for more.
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Peggi Speers (The Inspired Caregiver: Finding Joy While Caring for Those You Love)
β
a hero is just somebody who does the right thing when it would be far, far easier to do nothing.β
-Cedric Diggory-
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β
G. Norman Lippert (James Potter and the Hall of Elders' Crossing (James Potter, #1))
β
When you enter a grove peopled with ancient trees, higher than the ordinary, and shutting out the sky with their thickly inter-twined branches, do not the stately shadows of the wood, the stillness of the place, and the awful gloom of this doomed cavern then strike you with the presence of a deity?
β
β
Seneca
β
Real mothers don't just listen with humble embarrassment to the elderly lady who offers unsolicited advice in the checkout line when a child is throwing a tantrum. We take the child, dump him in the lady's cart, and say, "Great. Maybe you can do a better job."
Real mothers know that it's okay to eat cold pizza for breakfast.
Real mothers admit it is easier to fail at this job than to succeed.
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Jodi Picoult (House Rules)
β
Tell your story until it becomes woven into the fabric of our story. Write about the joys and the pain and every event and every artist who inspires you to dream. Tell your story, because if you don't, it could be wiped out. No one tells our stories for us. And one more thing. If you see an elderly person walking down the street, or across from you at a coffee shop, don't look away from them, don't dismiss them, and don't just ask them how they're doing. Ask them where they have been instead. And then listen. Because there's no future without a past.
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Abdi Nazemian (Like a Love Story)
β
A young child is a leader to an elderly person once his purpose has a faithful, sincere and trustworthy influence on people. Leadership is not restricted to position and age; it is self-made and influencial. Everyone has this self-leadership quality.
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Israelmore Ayivor
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Learn from those who have paved the way before you. - Kailin Gow on Wisdom
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Kailin Gow
β
When I understood that neither parents, nor family, nor friends, nor anyone in the world could offer me anything but pain, insults and wounds, I resolved to stop living for the world.
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Thaddeus of Vitovnica (Our Thoughts Determine Our Lives: the Life and Teachings of Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica)
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Life does not belong to you. It is the apartment you rent. Love without fear, for love is an airplane that carries you to new lands. There is a universe in silence. A tunnel to peace in a scream. Get a good night's sleep. Laugh when you can. You are more magical than you know. Take your advice from the elderly and children. None of it as crucial as you think, but that makes it no less vital. Our lives go on, and on. Look for the breadcrumbs.
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Marisha Pessl (Neverworld Wake)
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Each and every Indian, man or woman, child or Elder, is a spirit-warrior.
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Leonard Peltier
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Trying to live up to yourself is the most trying thing.
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Ren Garcia
β
The phrase 'Love one another' is so wise. By loving one another, we invest in each other and in ourselves. Perhaps someday, when we need someone to care for us, it may not come from the person we expect, but from the person we least expect. It may be our sons or daughter-in-laws, our neighbors, friends, cousins, stepchildren, or stepparents whose love for us has assigned them to the honorable, yet dangerous position of caregiver.
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Peggi Speers (The Inspired Caregiver: Finding Joy While Caring for Those You Love)
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Doubt not without hoping, hope not without doubting (free after Seneca)
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Marcus Annaeus Seneca
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It always a blessing to learn the wisdom from elderly people.
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Lailah Gifty Akita
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You can learn something from everything and everybody, especially the elderly.
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Tyler Perry
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Never give up hope! If you do, you be dead already.
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Rose in The Inspired Caregiver
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A mother's gentle love, an elder's wise words
Same heart and soul, no matter where in the world
So in this one world, we got one chance, under this one sky
Lets come together for all mankind
Let's make this earth from house to home
Safe for every child to roam
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β
Marie Helen Abramyan
β
Saying you "have" something implies that it's temporary and undesirable. Asperger's isn't like that. You've been Aspergian as long as you can remember, and you'll be that way all your life. It's a way of being, not a disease.
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John Elder Robison (Be Different: Adventures of a Free-Range Aspergian)
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We cannot help where we are born or how we are raised," Tel Hesani said. "But we can reject the twisted beliefs of those around us if we need to. Our loved ones and elders don't always know what is best. A man should listen to his heart and make his own decisions about what is wrong and what is right.
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Darren Shan (The Thin Executioner)
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Whatever harm I would do to another, I shall do first to myself.
As I respect and am kind to myself, so shall I respect and be kind to peers, to elders, to kits.
I claim for others the freedom to live as they wish, to think and believe as they will. I claim that freedom for myself.
I shall make each choice and live each day to my highest sense of right.
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β
Richard Bach
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You don't have to be old to be wise, but you have to be wise to get old.
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Matshona Dhliwayo
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Never give up hope. If you do, you'll be dead already.--Dementia Patient, Rose from The Inspired Caregiver
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Peggi Speers (The Inspired Caregiver: Finding Joy While Caring for Those You Love)
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Appreciate youthfulness and empathize with elderly people.
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Lailah Gifty Akita (Think Great: Be Great! (Beautiful Quotes, #1))
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They enrolled me in a group for troubled kids. We would meet each week in an old farmhouse owned by the university and talk about our problems getting along. . . . . They didn't teach me to get along, but I did learn that there were plenty of other kids who couldn't get along any better than me. That in itself was encouraging. I realized that I was not the bottom of the barrel. Or if I was, the bottom was roomy because there were a lot of us down there.
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John Elder Robison (Look Me in the Eye)
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The words make sense, but deeper than the words is the truth. She's right. If Mabel's talking about the girl who hugged her good-bye before she left for Los Angeles, who laced fingers with her at the last bonfire of the summer and accepted shells from almost-strangers, who analyzed novels for fun and lives with her grandfather in a pink, rent-controlled house in the Sunset that often smelled like cake and was often filled with elderly, gambling menβif she's talking about that girl, then yes, I dissapeared.
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Nina LaCour (We Are Okay)
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Some years ago, I was lucky enough invited to a gathering of great and good people: artists and scientists, writers and discoverers of things. And I felt that at any moment they would realise that I didnβt qualify to be there, among these people who had really done things.
On my second or third night there, I was standing at the back of the hall, while a musical entertainment happened, and I started talking to a very nice, polite, elderly gentleman about several things, including our shared first name. And then he pointed to the hall of people, and said words to the effect of, βI just look at all these people, and I think, what the heck am I doing here? Theyβve made amazing things. I just went where I was sent.β
And I said, βYes. But you were the first man on the moon. I think that counts for something.β
And I felt a bit better. Because if Neil Armstrong felt like an imposter, maybe everyone did. Maybe there werenβt any grown-ups, only people who had worked hard and also got lucky and were slightly out of their depth, all of us doing the best job we could, which is all we can really hope for.
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β
Neil Gaiman
β
Whatever your difficulty, whatever your hardship in life: Dance and make the song you sing your prayer. Sing it courageously, and with each step strengthen yourself with the knowledge and wisdom of your elders, so that whatever next happens, you can survive and not lose your rhythm.
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β
Red Haircrow
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When the elders built this place, it was only bare mountaintops.' I look to the crowd. 'It didn't become a home because they filled it with towers. It became a home because they built it together. This land, these temples--they're not what matters. As long as we have each other, we will carry Orisha in our veins. No one can ever take that away.
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β
Tomi Adeyemi (Children of Virtue and Vengeance (Legacy of OrΓ―sha, #2))
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Our elders, and our eldersβ kin, and their kin before them, fought to keep Sunningrocks in our territory. Many of them lost their lives, giving up their last breath for stones that belong to us. Can we give up where they did not, turn tail and flee when they kept fighting so that their kits could hunt and play and bask on these rocks? Will you fight with me now, in honor of all our elders and all our unborn kits?
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β
Erin Hunter (Code of the Clans (Warriors Field Guide))
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Love, care and treasure the elderly people in the society.
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Lailah Gifty Akita (Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind)
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Appeal with respect to elderly people as you would to the members of your own family.
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Lailah Gifty Akita (Think Great: Be Great! (Beautiful Quotes, #1))
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Education comes from living life, following passions, accessing information, observing, reflecting, and being inspired by wise and courageous elders in the community.
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β
Claire Aumonier
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The young must learn to appreciate the wisdom of elderly people and learn from their life experiences.
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Lailah Gifty Akita
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Age is only a number. Keep an active life.
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Lailah Gifty Akita (Think Great: Be Great! (Beautiful Quotes, #1))
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Blessed are you when you enjoyed the company of elderly people. They are always ready to share their rich experience and wisdom with young people.
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Lailah Gifty Akita
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So Rise now to the Occasion that is Life
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Septem Nuntius (Messages from the Elder Gods (777 #1))
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When kids come on the dance floor itβs time for elders to go to the bed.
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β
Vijay Kedia
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Do not forget you mother, when she is old.
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β
Lailah Gifty Akita
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Gray hair is the glory of a long life.
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Lailah Gifty Akita
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Once we were young, now we are adult.
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Lailah Gifty Akita (Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind)
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You ought to love and care for your parents in their old age.
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Lailah Gifty Akita (Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind)
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Do all the work you can in your youthful days while you have the greatest strength.
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Lailah Gifty Akita (Think Great: Be Great! (Beautiful Quotes, #1))
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Never give up hope. If you do, you'll be dead already.-- Dementia Patient Rose in The Inspired Caregiver
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Peggi Speer and Tia Walker
β
Butterfly Kisses
Aged imperfections
stitched upon my face
years and years of wisdom
earned by His holy grace.
Quiet solitude in a humble home
all the family scattered now
like nomads do they roam.
Then a gift
sent from above
a memory
pure and tangible
wrapped in innocence and
unquestioning love.
A butterfly kiss
lands gently upon my cheek
from an unseen child
a kiss most sweet.
Heaven grants grace
and tears follow
as youth revisits
this empty hollow.
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β
Muse (Enigmatic Evolution)
β
Most striking about the traditional societies of the Congo was their remarkable artwork: baskets, mats, pottery, copper and ironwork, and, above all, woodcarving. It would be two decades before Europeans really noticed this art. Its discovery then had a strong influence on Braque, Matisse, and Picasso -- who subsequently kept African art objects in his studio until his death. Cubism was new only for Europeans, for it was partly inspired by specific pieces of African art, some of them from the Pende and Songye peoples, who live in the basin of the Kasai River, one of the Congo's major tributaries.
It was easy to see the distinctive brilliance that so entranced Picasso and his colleagues at their first encounter with this art at an exhibit in Paris in 1907. In these central African sculptures some body parts are exaggerated, some shrunken; eyes project, cheeks sink, mouths disappear, torsos become elongated; eye sockets expand to cover almost the entire face; the human face and figure are broken apart and formed again in new ways and proportions that had previously lain beyond sight of traditional European realism.
The art sprang from cultures that had, among other things, a looser sense than Islam or Christianity of the boundaries between our world and the next, as well as those between the world of humans and the world of beasts. Among the Bolia people of the Congo, for example, a king was chosen by a council of elders; by ancestors, who appeared to him in a dream; and finally by wild animals, who signaled their assent by roaring during a night when the royal candidate was left at a particular spot in the rain forest. Perhaps it was the fluidity of these boundaries that granted central Africa's artists a freedom those in Europe had not yet discovered.
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Adam Hochschild (King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa)
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I believe in you my soul, the other I am must not abase itself to you,
And you must not be abased to the other.
Loaf with me on the grass, loose the stop from your throat,
Not words, not music or rhyme I want, not custom or lecture, not even the best,
Only the lull I like, the hum of your valved voice.
I mind how once we lay such a transparent summer morning,
How you settled your head athwart my hips, and gently turned over upon me,
And parted the shirt from my bosom bone, and plunged your tongue to my bare-stripped heart,
And reached till you felt my beard, and reached till you held my feet.
Swiftly arose and spread around me the peace and knowledge that pass all the argument of the earth,
And I know that the hand of God is the promise of my own,
And I know that the spirit of God is the brother of my own,
And that all the men ever born are also my brothers, and the women my sisters and lovers,
And that a kelson of the creation is love,
And limitless are leaves stiff or drooping in the fields,
And brown ants in the little wells beneath them,
And mossy scabs of the worm fence, heaped stones, elder, mullein and pokeweed.
β
β
Walt Whitman
β
The Durhannians' countenance lifted as is the way of Hope. There was a village elder whose eyes flickered with the light of Understanding. We knew he would soon be able to illuminate paths in the darkness.
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β
L.G. Westlake (Quest for the Life Tree)
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Your big heart will make you care and care a lot - About nature, a friend, a moment, even an enemy. Sometimes you will feel no one else does. Take a breath and trust it will be momentarily. Keep looking for those who care and keep them close to you.
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Septem Nuntius (Messages from the Elder Gods (777 #1))
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If, like the elder brother, you believe that God ought to bless you and help you because you have worked so hard to obey him and be a good person, then Jesus may be your helper, your example, even your inspiration, but he is not your Savior. You are serving as your own Savior.
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Timothy J. Keller (The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith)
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It is here too that I learn about a survey carried out among a group of 95 year olds. If they could do it all again, these wise elders were asked, what would they do differently? They would take more risks. They would take more time for reflection. And they would leave a legacy.
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Sharon Pincott (Elephant Dawn: The Inspirational Story of Thirteen Years Living with Elephants in the African Wilderness)
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Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.
Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.
Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.
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β
James Baldwin
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I believe that most caregivers find that they inherit a situation where they just kind of move into caregiving. It's not a conscious decision for most caregivers, and they are ultimately left with the responsibility of working while still trying to be the caregiver, the provider, and the nurturer.- Sharon Law Tucker
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Peggi Speers (The Inspired Caregiver: Finding Joy While Caring for Those You Love)
β
I maintain that what is taken for a naturally inspired horror of death is merely the fruit of the absurd fears which we, starting in childhood, develop regarding this total annihilation, fears initiated by the religious notions our elders stupidly cram into our young heads. Once cured of these fears and reassured concerning our fate, not only do we cease to behold death with alarm and repugnance, but it becomes easy to prove that death is in reality nothing more nor less than a voluptuous pleasure.
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β
Marquis de Sade (Juliette)
β
My son, you are just an infant now, but on that day when the world disrobes of its alluring cloak, it is then that I pray this letter is in your hands.
Listen closely, my dear child, for I am more than that old man in the dusty portrait beside your bed. I was once a little boy in my motherβs arms and a babbling toddler on my father's lap.
I played till the sun would set and climbed trees with ease and skill. Then I grew into a fine young man with shoulders broad and strong. My bones were firm and my limbs were straight; my hair was blacker than a raven's beak. I had a spring in my step and a lion's roar. I travelled the world, found love and married. Then off to war I bled in battle and danced with death.
But today, vigor and grace have forsaken me and left me crippled.
Listen closely, then, as I have lived not only all the years you have existed, but another forty more of my own.
My son, We take this world for a permanent place; we assume our gains and triumphs will always be; that all that is dear to us will last forever.
But my child, time is a patient hunter and a treacherous thief: it robs us of our loved ones and snatches up our glory. It crumbles mountains and turns stone to sand. So who are we to impede its path?
No, everything and everyone we love will vanish, one day.
So take time to appreciate the wee hours and seconds you have in this world. Your life is nothing but a sum of days so why take any day for granted? Don't despise evil people, they are here for a reason, too, for just as the gift salt offers to food, so do the worst of men allow us to savor the sweet, hidden flavor of true friendship.
Dear boy, treat your elders with respect and shower them with gratitude; they are the keepers of hidden treasures and bridges to our past. Give meaning to your every goodbye and hold on to that parting embrace just a moment longer--you never know if it will be your last.
Beware the temptation of riches and fame for both will abandon you faster than our own shadow deserts us at the approach of the setting sun. Cultivate seeds of knowledge in your soul and reap the harvest of good character.
Above all, know why you have been placed on this floating blue sphere, swimming through space, for there is nothing more worthy of regret than a life lived void of this knowing.
My son, dark days are upon you. This world will not leave you with tears unshed. It will squeeze you in its talons and lift you high, then drop you to plummet and shatter to bits . But when you lay there in pieces scattered and broken, gather yourself together and be whole once more. That is the secret of those who know.
So let not my graying hairs and wrinkled skin deceive you that I do not understand this modern world. My life was filled with a thousand sacrifices that only I will ever know and a hundred gulps of poison I drank to be the father I wanted you to have.
But, alas, such is the nature of this life that we will never truly know the struggles of our parents--not until that time arrives when a little hand--resembling our own--gently clutches our finger from its crib.
My dear child, I fear that day when you will call hopelessly upon my lifeless corpse and no response shall come from me. I will be of no use to you then but I hope these words I leave behind will echo in your ears that day when I am no more. This life is but a blink in the eye of time, so cherish each moment dearly, my son.
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β
Shakieb Orgunwall
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If it wasn't for the elderly we wouldn't be were we are today.
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β
Nettie Febus
β
The paradox of life; I wish to have healthy long life. But no one wants to show the glory of the gray hair.
β
β
Lailah Gifty Akita
β
He possessed an unflinching belief that all people β the poor, children, the elderly β were human assets, waiting to be developed so they could earn their success.
β
β
Arthur C. Brooks
β
Blessed is the society that has oldies.
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β
Lailah Gifty Akita (Think Great: Be Great! (Beautiful Quotes, #1))
β
When the elders are an inspiration to the youth then the youth become the inspiration for the elders
β
β
Tumani Mutasa Nyajeka
β
If you want elders to love you and children to respect you, then you should respect elders and love children".
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β
Sar Faraz Harfi
β
What do you mean by "Back in my day?" Today is your day. So is tomorrow.
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β
Nate Hamon
β
It is hardly unusual for a young man to be drawn to a pursuit considered reckless by his elders; engaging in risky behavior is a rite of passage in our culture no less than in most others. Danger has always held a certain allure. That, in large part, is why so many teenagers drive too fast and drink too much and take too many drugs, why it has always been so easy for nations to recruit young men to go to war. It can be argued that youthful derring-do is in fact evolutionarily adaptive, a behavior encoded in our genes. McCandless, in his fashion, merely took risk-taking to its logical extreme.
β
β
Jon Krakauer (Into the Wild)
β
Let it be..let it be..
Let the ppl think the way they want,
Live the life the way u want
Let it be..let it be..
Nothing is permanent then why to worry,
Live life condition free
Let it be..let it be..
Smile cost nothing..still u pay for it, why we live life in hurry when everthing is tempory..
Let it be..let it be..
Respect ur elders wether they scold u, love urslf wthr no1 else does, u r most beautiful creature.beleive and accept it nd..
Let it be..let it be..
U r the king, u r the ruler..conquer urslf nd let things pass like water in the river..move with flow..live has no other flow..
So..let it be..let it be..
β
β
Nitish Sharma
β
The temporary alliance between the elite and the mob rested largely on this genuine delight with which the former watched the latter destroy respectability. This could be achieved when the German steel barons were forced to deal with and to receive socially Hitler's the housepainter and self-admitted former derelict, as it could be with the crude and vulgar forgeries perpetrated by the totalitarian movements in all fields of intellectual life, insofar as they gathered all the subterranean, nonrespectable elements of European history into one consistent picture. From this viewpoint it was rather gratifying to see that Bolshevism and Nazism began even to eliminate those sources of their own ideologies which had already won some recognition in academic or other official quarters. Not Marx's dialectical materialism, but the conspiracy of 300 families; not the pompous scientificality of Gobineau and Chamberlain, but the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion"; not the traceable influence of the Catholic Church and the role played by anti-clericalism in Latin countries, but the backstairs literature about the Jesuits and the Freemasons became the inspiration for the rewriters of history. The object of the most varied and variable constructions was always to reveal history as a joke, to demonstrate a sphere of secret influences of which the visible, traceable, and known historical reality was only the outward façade erected explicitly to fool the people.
To this aversion of the intellectual elite for official historiography, to its conviction that history, which was a forgery anyway, might as well be the playground of crackpots, must be added the terrible, demoralizing fascination in the possibility that gigantic lies and monstrous falsehoods can eventually be established as unquestioned facts, that man may be free to change his own past at will, and that the difference between truth and falsehood may cease to be objective and become a mere matter of power and cleverness, of pressure and infinite repetition. Not Stalinβs and Hitler's skill in the art of lying but the fact that they were able to organize the masses into a collective unit to back up their lies with impressive magnificence, exerted the fascination. Simple forgeries from the viewpoint of scholarship appeared to receive the sanction of history itself when the whole marching reality of the movements stood behind them and pretended to draw from them the necessary inspiration for action.
β
β
Hannah Arendt (The Origins of Totalitarianism)
β
Nnaka my son, our elders say, when a kid washes his hands clean, he becomes fit to dine with the elders. Our hearts are filled with indescribable joy and we can rub our belly with delight, so much so that we should give you the largest farmland and the most beautiful bride in the community but alas, we can only do so much. Nonetheless, the crack on the buttocks has not diminished its functions and we shall not disappoint you.
β
β
Sinachi Ukpabi
β
It is currently said that hope goes with youth, and lends to youth its wings of a butterfly; but I fancy that hope is the last gift given to man, and the only gift not given to youth. Youth is pre-eminently the period in which a man can be lyric, fanatical, poetic; but youth is the period in which a man can be hopeless. The end of every episode is the end of the world. But the power of hoping through everything, the knowledge that the soul survives its adventures, that great inspiration comes to the middle-aged; God has kept that good wine until not. It is from the backs of the elderly gentlemen that the wings of the butterfly should burst.
β
β
G.K. Chesterton (Charles Dickens: A Critical Study)
β
These wrinkles are the hands of time,
The journeys Iβve been on
Theyβve seen me through a thousand days,
And evβry victory won
These fragile hands, With exposed bones,
Are not a fearful sight
But rather, they, my faithful partners,
Rocked babies through the night
These eyes are weak, They see much less,
Than yours theyβve seen much more
Theyβve guided me through birth, through death,
Through grief, through hurt, through war
These ears can hear so very little,
Yet theyβve learned to listen much
They perk up not for gossip now,
But for a heart to touch
Those younger often look my way,
With pity looks to give
Yet this old body doesnβt mean I am dying,
But rather, that I have lived
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Emily Nelson
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We need a conversion of morals,β the elderly man said. βNot just superficially, but profoundly. And in both races. We need a great saint - some enlightened common sense. Otherwise, weβll never have the right answers when the pressure groups - those racists, super-patriots, whatever you want to call them - tag every move toward racial justice as communist-inspired, Zionist-inspired, Illuminati-inspired, Satan-inspired β¦ part of some secret conspiracy to overthrow the Christian civilization.
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John Howard Griffin (Black Like Me)
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If, like the elder brother, you believe that God ought to bless you and help you because you have worked so hard to obey him and be a good person, then Jesus may be your helper, your example, even your inspiration, but he is not your Savior. You are serving as your own Savior. Underneath
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Timothy J. Keller (The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith)
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This new spirituality is much more about taking off the masks of pretense and cultivating genuine heart connections that inspire growth in both elders and youth, rather than in keeping with tradition or respecting authority. It is all about true aliveness and entering into life in a more full and deep way.
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Adam Bucko (Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation (Sacred Activism))
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Finally there are those who saw at once that the question was a trap. There is no answer. Instead of wasting time grappling with that trap. They decide to act. They look to their childhood and look for what filled them with enthusiasm then and disregarding the advice of their elders, devote their life to it. Because enthusiasm is the sacred fire. They slowly discover, their actions are linked to a mysterious impulse beyond human knowledge. And they bow their heads as a sign of respect for that mystery and pray that they will not be diverted from a path they do not know, a path which they have chosen to travel because of the flame burning in their hearts. They use their intuition when they can and resort to discipline when intuition fails them. They seem quite mad. And sometimes they behave like mad people. But they are not mad. They have discovered true love and will. And those two things reveal the goal and the direction that they should follow. Their will is crystalline, their love is pure and their steps determined. In moments of doubt or sadness they never forget: I am an instrument, allow me to be an instrument capable of manifesting your will. They have chosen their road, and they may understand what their goal is only when they find themselves before the unwanted visitor. That is the beauty of the person who continues onward with enthusiasm and respect for the mystery of life as his only guide. His road is beautiful, and his burden light. The goal will be large or small, it can be far away or right next door. He goes in search of it with respect and honor. He knows what each step means, and how much it costs in effort and training and intuition. He focuses not just on the goal to be reached but on everything happening around him. He often has to stop because his strength fails him. At such moments, love appears and says: You think you're heading toward a specific point, but the whole justification for the goals existence lies in your love for it. Rest a little. But as soon as you can, get up and carry on. Because ever since your goal found out that you were traveling toward it, it has been running to meet you.
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Paulo Coelho
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WORSHIP IS ACTION.
Worship is not lazy, boring and sad.
Worship is zealous, famous and joyful.
Psalm 66:1-2
Shout joyfully to God, all the earth; Sing the glory of His name; Make His praise glorious.
1 Corinthians 6:20
For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.
Psalm 107:32
Let them extol Him also in the congregation of the people, And praise Him at the seat of the elders.
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Mac Canoza
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Texts like the Bible and the works of the holy elders were written under the inspiration and guidance of the Holy Spirit. The person who studies them partakes of this Divine Grace in a mystical way. The soul is nourished with Grace even if the person who reads such literature does not understand the meaning of what is being read. βJust by reading this material,β he claimed, βthe individual becomes spiritually empowered by the Grace embedded in the words themselves.
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Kyriacos C. Markides (The Mountain of Silence: A Search for Orthodox Spirituality)
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when Atlantic Monthly published one of Thoreauβs essays, called βWalking.β At present, in this vicinity, the best part of the land is not private property; the landscape is not owned, and the walker enjoys comparative freedom. But possibly the day will come when it will be partitioned off into so-called pleasure-grounds, in which a few will take a narrow and exclusive pleasure only, when fences shall be multiplied, and mantraps and other engines invented to confine men to the public road, and walking over the surface of Godβs earth shall be construed to mean trespassing on some gentlemanβs grounds. To enjoy a thing exclusively is commonly to exclude yourself from the true enjoyment of it. Let us improve our opportunities, then, before the evil days are upon us. Anthropologists estimate that early man walked twenty miles a day. Mental and physical benefits have been attributed to walking as far back as ancient times. The Roman writer Pliny the Elder (23β79 AD) described walking as one of the βMedicines of the Will.β Hippocrates, the Greek physician, called walking βmanβs best medicineβ and prescribed walks to treat emotional problems, hallucinations, and digestive disorders.
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Ben Montgomery (Grandma Gatewood's Walk: The Inspiring Story of the Woman Who Saved the Appalachian Trail)
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I was inspired by their intergenerational relationships and annoyed that in the US, many of our elder Black liberals in the mainstream media condemned our music for its profane language, and young Black people too easily dismissed the messy yet rich traditions that made us possible. For many of us in the beginning, βBlack Lives Matterβ was a response to violence or a non-indictment; South Africa demonstrated that we deserved much more. I felt completely politically undone and inadequate. Iβd been reading so much history but had not quite yet developed a political analysis connected to any tradition of organizing. I was getting smarter, not necessarily getting free.
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Derecka Purnell (Becoming Abolitionists: Police, Protests, and the Pursuit of Freedom)
β
TEN UNIVERSAL VALUES
SHOW RESPECT TO OTHERS
each person has a special gift
*************
SHARE WHAT YOU HAVE
giving makes you richer
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KNOW WHO YOU ARE
you are a reflection on your family
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ACCEPT WHAT LIFE BRINGS
you cannot control many things
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HAVE PATIENCE
some things cannot be rushed
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LIVE CAREFULLY
what you do will come back to you
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TAKE CARE OF OTHERS
you cannot live without them
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HONOR YOUR ELDER
they show you the way in life
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PRAY FOR GUIDANCE
many things are not known
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SEE CONNECTIONS
all things are related
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{Taken from the Alaska Native Knowledge Network}
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Alaska Native Heritage Center
β
Chiropractic: There are obviously a lot of different niches you could serve in this industry. But, letβs say for a moment that you serve the elderly demographic. You might think that they just want to be able to play a little more golf or keep up with their grandkids. Those things might be true and theyβll certainly admit to them. But if you go deeper, youβll find that they want to be the envy of all of their friends who are falling apart. Thatβs the secret ego motivation that inspires them to find you. And further, they do NOT want to be put into a nursing home. Thatβs the secret fear that has them searching for you. Sell them abilities their friends donβt have and youβll have them eating out of your hand.
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Dan S. Kennedy (Magnetic Marketing: How To Attract A Flood Of New Customers That Pay, Stay, and Refer)
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At such times, it is particularly important to return to fundamentals. Many assumptions about leadership in the political realm are superficial and unsubstantiated ; there is no need to guide oneβs policies by the results of the latest poll or to force every complex idea into a sound bite. Here one can take inspiration from those individuals who have not accepted the conventional wisdom, who have risked defeat, rejection, obscurity, even their lives, in order to pursue ideas in which they (and perhaps a few followers) believe. To put it simply: Leaders can actually lead. One of the important roles that elders can provide in a society is to call attention to those figures from whom one may learn, and by whose lives one may be guided.
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Howard Gardner (Leading Minds: An Anatomy Of Leadership)
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When I was seventeen I could still see well enough to read. My reading was a trait my parents admired without sharing it themselves. They described me to their friends as βbookish.β Really, I just appreciated how static and parsable words were on a page, how little they demanded of me visually. I liked books that took a long time to read, which meant that I read a lot of Russian novels, and The Brothers Karamazov was my favorite. I was reading it for the third time at Last Chance, imagining that I was Alyosha, a saint surrounded by sinners. I especially liked the part where the Elder Zosima described his childhood: I was the sickly elder brother who inspired him to become a man of the cloth, or maybe I was Zosima himself, who Alyosha prayed both for and with. The book had as many examples of how to be good as it had examples of how to be bad. It stretched for miles in my head.
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Rafael Frumkin (Confidence)
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He was not a rebel. Rebels fought against the trammels of convention, and burned to rectify what they saw to be evil in the shibboleths of an elder generation, but Miles Calverleigh was not of their number. No wish to reform the world inspired him, not the smallest desire to convert others to his own way of thinking. He accepted, out of a vast and perhaps idle tolerance, the rules laid down by a civilised society, and, when he transgressed these, accepted also, and with unshaken good-humour, societyβs revenge on him. Neither the zeal of a reformer, nor the rancour of one bitterly punished for the sins of his youth, awoke a spark of resentment in his breast. He did not defy convention: when it did not interfere with whatever line of conduct he meant to pursue he conformed to it; and when it did he ignored it, affably conceding to his critics their right to censure him, if they felt so inclined, and caring neither for their praise nor their blame.
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Georgette Heyer (Black Sheep)
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It's evident that with Beethoven the Romantic Revolution had already begun, bringing with it the new Artist, the artist as Priest and Prophet. This new creator had a new self-image: he felt himself possessed of divine rights, of almost Napoleonic powers and liberties β especially the liberty to break rules and make new ones, to invent new forms and concepts, all in the name of greater expressivity. His mission was to lead the way to a new aesthetic world, confident that history would follow his inspirational leadership. And so there exploded onto the scene Byron, Jean Paul, Delacroix, Victor Hugo, E. T. A. Hoffmann, Schumann, Chopin, Berlioz β all proclaiming new freedoms.
Where music was concerned, the new freedoms affected formal structures, harmonic procedures, instrumental color, melody, rhythm β all of these were part of a new expanding universe, at the center of which lay the artist's personal passions. From the purely phonological point of view, the most striking of these freedoms was the new chromaticism, now employing a vastly enriched palette, and bringing with it the concomitant enrichment of ambiguity. The air was now filled with volcanic, chromatic sparks. More and more the upper partials of the harmonic series were taking on an independence of their own, playing hide-and-seek with their sober diatonic elders, like defiant youngsters in the heyday of revolt.
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Leonard Bernstein (The Unanswered Question: Six Talks at Harvard)
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Although a youth culture was in evidence by the 1950s, the first obvious and dramatic manifestation of a culture generated by peer-orientation was the hippie counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s. The Canadian media theorist Marshall McLuhan called it βthe new tribalism of the Electric Age.β Hair and dress and music played a significant part in shaping this culture, but what defined it more than anything was its glorification of the peer attachment that gave rise to it. Friends took precedence over family. Physical contact and connection with peers were pursued; the brotherhood of the pop tribe was declared, as in the generation-based βWoodstock nation.β The peer group was the true home.
βDon't trust anyone over thirtyβ became the byword of youth who went far beyond a healthy critique of their elders to a militant rejection of tradition. The degeneration of that culture into alienation and drug use, on the one hand, and its co-optation for commercial purposes by the very mainstream institutions it was rebelling against were almost predictable. The wisdom of well-seasoned cultures has accumulated over hundreds and sometimes thousands of years. Healthy cultures also contain rituals and customs and ways of doing things that protect us from ourselves and safeguard values important to human life, even when we are not conscious of what such values are.
An evolved culture needs to have some art and music that one can grow into, symbols that convey deeper meanings to existence and models that inspire greatness. Most important of all, a culture must protect its essence and its ability to reproduce itself β the attachment of children to their parents. The culture generated by peer orientation contains no wisdom, does not protect its members from themselves, creates only fleeting fads, and worships idols hollow of value or meaning. It symbolizes only the undeveloped ego of callow youth and destroys child-parent attachments.
We may observe the cheapening of cultural values with each new peer-oriented generation. For all its self-delusion and smug isolation from the adult world, the Woodstock βtribeβ still embraced universal values of peace, freedom, and brotherhood. Today's mass musical gatherings are about little more than style, ego, tribal exuberance, and dollars.
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Gabor MatΓ© (Hold On to Your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter More Than Peers)
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But there were problems. After the movie came out I couldnβt go to a tournament without being surrounded by fans asking for autographs. Instead of focusing on chess positions, I was pulled into the image of myself as a celebrity. Since childhood I had treasured the sublime study of chess, the swim through ever-deepening layers of complexity. I could spend hours at a chessboard and stand up from the experience on fire with insight about chess, basketball, the ocean, psychology, love, art. The game was exhilarating and also spiritually calming. It centered me. Chess was my friend. Then, suddenly, the game became alien and disquieting. I recall one tournament in Las Vegas: I was a young International Master in a field of a thousand competitors including twenty-six strong Grandmasters from around the world. As an up-and-coming player, I had huge respect for the great sages around me. I had studied their masterpieces for hundreds of hours and was awed by the artistry of these men. Before first-round play began I was seated at my board, deep in thought about my opening preparation, when the public address system announced that the subject of Searching for Bobby Fischer was at the event. A tournament director placed a poster of the movie next to my table, and immediately a sea of fans surged around the ropes separating the top boards from the audience. As the games progressed, when I rose to clear my mind young girls gave me their phone numbers and asked me to autograph their stomachs or legs. This might sound like a dream for a seventeen-year-old boy, and I wonβt deny enjoying the attention, but professionally it was a nightmare. My game began to unravel. I caught myself thinking about how I looked thinking instead of losing myself in thought. The Grandmasters, my elders, were ignored and scowled at me. Some of them treated me like a pariah. I had won eight national championships and had more fans, public support and recognition than I could dream of, but none of this was helping my search for excellence, let alone for happiness. At a young age I came to know that there is something profoundly hollow about the nature of fame. I had spent my life devoted to artistic growth and was used to the sweaty-palmed sense of contentment one gets after many hours of intense reflection. This peaceful feeling had nothing to do with external adulation, and I yearned for a return to that innocent, fertile time. I missed just being a student of the game, but there was no escaping the spotlight. I found myself dreading chess, miserable before leaving for tournaments. I played without inspiration and was invited to appear on television shows. I smiled.
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Josh Waitzkin (The Art of Learning: An Inner Journey to Optimal Performance)
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Sometimes we think we are not capable of doing certain things. I hear comments from my students such as, βMy brain isnβt wired to do math,β or βI am not good at math.β It is true that there are people who are better at math than you, but that does not mean you canβt do it. This just means you need to put in more effort than others do. Focusing on our weaknesses may hinder our progress. We may think that we must be born with certain skills and abilities; they must be in our genes. This is not the case.
Do you think Nephi could build a ship? Could the brother of Jared have caused light to come into dark barges? Do you think Noah could have built an ark that would hold two of every animal species on the earth? Do you think Moses had the power to part a sea? Actually, no. None of these men had the power to do any of these things. However, they all had something in common. They all knew how to tap into the power of someone who couldβthe Saviorβs power.
It is so important that we learn how to tap into that power. The Atonement literally means βat-one-ment,β or becoming one with God. The Savior gave us the power to become gods. He enabled us so we would be able to perform miracles through Him. But we must understand that this kind of power is not free. There is only one thing that the Savior, through His Atonement, gave us for free and that is the power to overcome death. Everything else that He offers must come βafter all we can do.β [2]
For example, Jesus Christ promises us eternal life, but only after we have faith in Him, obey His commandments, and endure to the end. Similarly, He gives us power to move mountains, but only after doing all we can and having trust in Him. The power to change our lives, change the world, and perform miracles is within each of us. However, we need to have enough humility to realize that, in the end, we are not the ones performing the miraclesβHe is.
Occasionally, I have a student who does not do their homework, rarely comes to class, and then comes at the end of the semester and asks, βSister Qumsiyeh, is there anything I can do to pass? Do you offer any extra credit?β
I know some of you are smiling right now because you know you have done this to your teachers. This is what I wish I could say to the student who asks that question: βYou need to invent a time machine and go back and do what you should have done this semester. You failed because you did not try your best. It is too late.β
Do we all really hope to stand before the Savior at the Judgement Day and expect Him to save us without us doing our part? Do we really expect Him to allow us into the celestial kingdom and to just save us? No, that is not how the Atonement works. It does not work without us having tried our best. Of course, our best may not be enough. In fact, it hardly ever is. But if we do our best and have faith in Him, He magnifies our efforts. The brother of Jared could not make the 16 stones shine, but he spent hours preparing them and then humbly took them to the Lord and basically said, βHere is my small effort; magnify it.β This the Lord did. [3]
Elder David A. Bednar said, βThe power of the Atonement makes repentance possible and quells the despair caused by sin; it also strengthens us to see, do, and become good in ways that we could never recognize or accomplish with our limited mortal capacity.
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Sahar Qumsiyeh
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If the claims of the papacy cannot be proven from what we know of the historical Peter, there are, on the other hand, several undoubted facts in the real history of Peter which bear heavily upon those claims, namely: 1. That Peter was married, Matt. 8:14, took his wife with him on his missionary tours, 1 Cor. 9:5, and, according to a possible interpretation of the "coΓ«lect" (sister), mentions her in 1 Pet. 5:13. Patristic tradition ascribes to him children, or at least a daughter (Petronilla). His wife is said to have suffered martyrdom in Rome before him. What right have the popes, in view of this example, to forbid clerical marriage?Β We pass by the equally striking contrast between the poverty of Peter, who had no silver nor gold (Acts 3:6) and the gorgeous display of the triple-crowned papacy in the middle ages and down to the recent collapse of the temporal power. 2. That in the Council at Jerusalem (Acts 15:1β11), Peter appears simply as the first speaker and debater, not as president and judge (James presided), and assumes no special prerogative, least of all an infallibility of judgment. According to the Vatican theory the whole question of circumcision ought to have been submitted to Peter rather than to a Council, and the decision ought to have gone out from him rather than from "the apostles and elders, brethren" (or "the elder brethren," 15:23). 3. That Peter was openly rebuked for inconsistency by a younger apostle at Antioch (Gal. 2:11β14). Peterβs conduct on that occasion is irreconcilable with his infallibility as to discipline; Paulβs conduct is irreconcilable with Peterβs alleged supremacy; and the whole scene, though perfectly plain, is so inconvenient to Roman and Romanizing views, that it has been variously distorted by patristic and Jesuit commentators, even into a theatrical farce gotten up by the apostles for the more effectual refutation of the Judaizers! 4. That, while the greatest of popes, from Leo I. down to Leo XIII. never cease to speak of their authority over all the bishops and all the churches, Peter, in his speeches in the Acts, never does so. And his Epistles, far from assuming any superiority over his "fellow-elders" and over "the clergy" (by which he means the Christian people), breathe the spirit of the sincerest humility and contain a prophetic warning against the besetting sins of the papacy, filthy avarice and lordly ambition (1 Pet. 5:1β3). Love of money and love of power are twin-sisters, and either of them is "a root of all evil." It is certainly very significant that the weaknesses even more than the virtues of the natural Peterβhis boldness and presumption, his dread of the cross, his love for secular glory, his carnal zeal, his use of the sword, his sleepiness in Gethsemaneβare faithfully reproduced in the history of the papacy; while the addresses and epistles of the converted and inspired Peter contain the most emphatic protest against the hierarchical pretensions and worldly vices of the papacy, and enjoin truly evangelical principlesβthe general priesthood and royalty of believers, apostolic poverty before the rich temple, obedience to God rather than man, yet with proper regard for the civil authorities, honorable marriage, condemnation of mental reservation in Ananias and Sapphira, and of simony in Simon Magus, liberal appreciation of heathen piety in Cornelius, opposition to the yoke of legal bondage, salvation in no other name but that of Jesus Christ.
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Philip Schaff (History Of The Christian Church (The Complete Eight Volumes In One))