Wednesday 30 January 2013

Choices

If you find your here and now intolerable
 and it makes you unhappy, 
you have three options: 
remove yourself from the situation, 
change it, or accept it…
you must choose now…
then accept the consequences.   
– Eckhart Tolle

Monday 28 January 2013

Light

Light is too painful for someone 
who wants to remain in darkness.   
– Eckhart Tolle

Friday 25 January 2013

Inside/Outside

If you get the inside right, 
the outside will fall into place.   
– Eckhart Tolle

Wednesday 23 January 2013

Sails

The pessimist complains about the wind.   
The optimist expects it to change.   
The realist adjusts the sails.
- Author Unknown

Monday 21 January 2013

With

Whatever the present moment contains... 
Always work with it, not against it.   
– Eckhart Tolle

Friday 18 January 2013

January 18, 2013 Chautauqua


From the Editor's Computer


   Where are you right now?  The answer to this question could refer to where you are physically located as you read these words.  Or, it could refer to where you are in your particular life situation.

   Where do you want to be?

   The main character in Mitch Albom’s book, “The Five People You Meet In Heaven,” and the movie of the same title, Eddie dies in a work-related accident and goes to Heaven where he meets five people who were part of his life in some manner.

   Eddie feels that his entire life was a waste, and that he was a failure, because he never left Ruby Pier, an amusement park where his father worked at all his life as a maintenance man, and where Eddie himself worked as a maintenance man for his entire life.  He felt he was trapped in Ruby Pier, and constantly had wished and dreamt he was somewhere else doing grand things.

   Through the five encounters, Eddie discovers how our lives are entwined with those around us, even people we may have never actually met in person, and how what we may think and believe our lives are about is not necessarily what our lives may really be about.

   But more importantly, Eddie discovers where he was supposed to be in his life, and thus why he was there.

   Without spoiling the story too much, Eddie discovers that where he was, was exactly where he was supposed to be.

   Where are you right now?

   Where do you want to be?

   Ultimately no matter how you answer to the first question, the answer to the second question should be identical to the first answer.

   Because no matter where you are right now, you are exactly where you should be so you are where you want to be. 

   It may not be obvious to you right now, but know that without a doubt, there is a reason why you are in this spot, and in this particular time, interacting with the people you are interacting with.  Your presence is making a difference to someone in some form.

Beth

Read the complete issue of The Chautauqua here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jQazWcmudW9lZiiH_Q98DfIAf0CfVf-Z/view?usp=sharing

To contact The Chautauqua, email: thechautauqua@gmail.com.

Wednesday 16 January 2013

Let Go

How do you let go?...
Don’t even try. It’s impossible. 
Attachment...drops away by itself 
when you no longer seek 
to find yourself in [it]. 
- Eckhart Tolle

Monday 14 January 2013

Peace

You find peace not by rearranging 
the circumstances of your life, 
but by realizing who you are 
at the deepest level. 
– Eckhart Tolle

Friday 11 January 2013

Good

You do not become good by trying to be good, 
but by finding the goodness
 that is already within you, 
and allowing that goodness to emerge.  
- Eckhart Tolle

Wednesday 9 January 2013

Are

The lamp shines on you
 whether you are kind or cranky.  
 The rose spreads its fragrance to all. 
 The sun shines on saints and sinners alike…
The sun isn’t looking for praise 
or the rain for applause…
The tree gives shade 
even if there’s no one to receive it…
These things, like love…simply are, 
regardless of whether someone 
will benefit from them or not. 
 – Joan Borysenko

Monday 7 January 2013

Time

Birds are not late.   
A dog does not check his watch. 
 Deer do not fret over passing birthdays.  
 Man alone measures time…
and because of this, 
man alone suffers a paralyzing fear 
that no other creature endures.  
 A fear of time running out.  
 – Mitch Albom

Friday 4 January 2013

January 4, 2013 Chautauqua


From the Editor's Computer


   We will open the book.  Its pages are blank.  We are going to put words on them ourselves.  The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day.  ~ Edith Lovejoy Pierce

   Happy New Year!  Can it really be 2013 already?

   We are entering a new year with endless possibilities, opportunities and adventures ahead of us. 

   How many of you have already pretty much filled your calendar to overflowing for the year?  Is there any free time or flexibility in your schedule, or is it as jam-packed and out-of-control as last year?

   We just finished a chapter in our lives.  2012 has ended and we’ve turned the page to the next chapter - 2013 - and the pages ahead of us.

   Unfortunately, we humans have a tendency to try and jump ahead and read a few chapters down the line.  We don’t want to be on the page we’re on, plus we think we need to know what happens later.

   We don’t know what is in store for us this new year, and all the planning and scheduling in the world won’t reveal the answer.  We can schedule and plan all we want, but there is no guarantee that we will do any of it.

   That is because life unfolds moment by moment as it unfolds.  The page ahead of us blank, as are the subsequent pages.  Even the next line is blank.  We truly only know what will happen in our lives after it has happened.

   This year, instead of racing around… pause.  Let your life unfold, let your blank pages be filled, not by frantic, mindless scheduling, but by embracing what life sends you.

Beth

Read the complete issue of The Chautauqua here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JvTa_WxIox4SIuHnrCuGkLEhL7ZWk4zG/view?usp=sharing

To contact The Chautauqua, email: thechautauqua@gmail.com.

Wednesday 2 January 2013

Late

It is never too late or too soon.   
It is when it is supposed to be.   
– Mitch Albom