10 Learning Lessons From Albert Einstein

Just because a person is smart doesn’t make them a great teacher, and why that is happens to be another topic entirely.

But in the case of Albert Einstein, we’ve had more than half a century to digest his work, his influence, and some of the lessons that can be extracted from both.

In this way, Brenda Chapman has put together 10 life lessons from Albert Einstein that, not coincidentally, also work brilliantly as learning lessons.

1. Follow your curiosity

“I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.”

What piques your curiosity? I am curious as to what causes one person to succeed while another person fails; this is why I’ve spent years studying success. What are you most curious about? The pursuit of your curiosity is the secret to your success.

2. Perseverance is priceless

“It's not that I'm so smart; it's just that I stay with problems longer.”

Through perseverance the turtle reached the ark. Are you willing to persevere until you get to your intended destination? They say the entire value of the postage stamp consist in its ability to stick to something until it gets there. Be like the postage stamp; finish the race that you’ve started!

3. Focus on the present

“Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves.”

My father always says you cannot ride two horses at the same time. I like to say, you can do anything, but not everything. Learn to be present where you are; give your all to whatever you’re currently doing.

Focused energy is power, and it’s the difference between success and failure.

4. The imagination is powerful, priceless and paramount

“Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions. Imagination is more important than knowledge.”

Are you using your imagination daily? Einstein said the imagination is more important than knowledge! Your imagination pre-plays your future. Einstein went on to say, “The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge, but imagination.” Are you exercising your “imagination muscles” daily, don’t let something as powerful as your imagination lie dormant.

5. Make mistakes

“A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.”

Never be afraid of making a mistake. A mistake is not a failure. Mistakes can make you better, smarter and faster, if you utilize them properly. Discover the power of making mistakes. I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again, if you want to succeed, triple the amount of mistakes that you make.

6. Live in the moment

“I never think of the future - it comes soon enough.”

The only way to properly address your future is to be as present as possible “in the present.”

You cannot “presently” change yesterday or tomorrow, so it’s of supreme importance that you dedicate all of your efforts to “right now.” It’s the only time that matters, it’s the only time there is.

7. Create value

“Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value."

Don’t waste your time trying to be successful, spend your time creating value. If you’re valuable, then you will attract success.

Discover the talents and gifts that you possess, learn how to offer those talents and gifts in a way that most benefits others.

Labor to be valuable and success will chase you down.

8. Don’t expect different results

“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

You can’t keep doing the same thing everyday and expect different results. In other words, you can’t keep doing the same workout routine and expect to look differently. In order for your life to change, you must change, to the degree that you change your actions and your thinking is to the degree that your life will change.

9. Knowledge comes from experience

“Information is not knowledge. The only source of knowledge is experience.”

Knowledge comes from experience. You can discuss a task, but discussion will only give you a philosophical understanding of it; you must experience the task first hand to “know it.” What’s the lesson? Get experience! Don’t spend your time hiding behind speculative information, go out there and do it, and you will have gained priceless knowledge.

10. Learn the rules and then play better

“You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.”

To put it all in simple terms, there are two things that you must do. The first thing you must do is to learn the rules of the game that you’re playing. It doesn’t sound exciting, but it’s vital. Secondly, you must commit to play the game better than anyone else. If you can do these two things, success will be yours!
Thank you for reading and be sure to pass this article along!

Source: http://www.teachthought.com/learning/10-learning-lessons-from-albert-einstein/

Poster:  http://www.dumblittleman.com/

http://www.dumblittleman.com/2010/03/10-amazing-lessons-albert-einstein.html

Written on 3/09/2010 by Mr. Self Development who is a motivational author that offers a practical guide to success and wealth; support him by visiting his blog at mrselfdevelopment.com.

http://www.mrselfdevelopment.com/

Quotes

Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.   - Wm Penn


We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit. - Aristotle


 "One sees great things from the valley, only small things from the peak."
-  G. K. Chesterton


 "Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life." (Confucius)


Ninety-nine percent of failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses." George Washington Carver


"Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, you ought to set up a life you don’t need to escape from."
- Seth Godin


 “Vision without execution is hallucination” - Edison


 "It is our moral obligation to give every child the very best education possible." -Desmond Tutu


"Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step." - mlk


Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality - Carl Sagan


"You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think." ~ Christopher Robin


"Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going." - Jim Rohn


“Hardship often prepares an ordinary person for an extraordinary destiny.”
- C.S. Lewis


 "No one who works full-time should have to live in poverty." -President Obama


Philosophy is such an impertinently litigious lady that a man has as good be engaged in law suits as have to do with her
- Sir Isaac Newton (letter to Edmund Halley)



"Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase. Just take the first step."
- Martin Luther King Jr.

Making Changes

The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.
- Socrates  

A Haircut In Reverse / Vom Glatzkopf Zum Hippie

Uploaded on Aug 9, 2011

A bald guy transforms into a hippie!!
Tom Offer-Westort wanted to shave his beard, but his friend Peter Simon suggested they do it in style. So, they filmed it and cut it together via a bit of stop-motion animation and rolled it out in reverse. Of course, we don't actually see Abby Simon cutting Tom's hair in between snaps, which is because Tom has magic beard-altering fingers. Der Amerikaner Tom Offer-Westort hat sich seine Haare und seinen Bart vollständig wegschneiden lassen. Dabei liess er sich von einem Freund, Peter Simon, filmen -- um das Ganze rückwärts zu zeigen. Und weil die Stop-Motion-Technik verwendet wurde, zeigt der Film in 40 Sekunden, wie der kahlrasierte Mann lange Haare und einen buschigen Bart bekommt.

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  Entertainment

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  Standard YouTube License

Source:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ialQ7qZ8jlQ#!

I am a child whose teacher is love, surely my master won't let me grow to be a fool.
- Rumi.

The website of psychologist, author and performer Professor Richard Wiseman. 
http://richardwiseman.wordpress.com/

http://richardwiseman.wordpress.com/blog-2/

Are You Focusing on ‘What is Wrong’ or ‘What is Right’ With Your Life?

Are You Focusing on ‘What is Wrong’ or ‘What is Right’ With Your Life?


Posted by admin on May 22, 2013 in Higher Consciousness, Manifestation Techniques, mastery consciousness, Personal Development, Personal Growth, Self Improvement, spiritual evolution, Spiritual Healing, Spirituality · 2 Comments







By Truth | The Healers Journal

–

One of the biggest challenges I see people facing that keeps them from expressing their full potential and manifesting what they truly desire is constantly focusing on ‘what is wrong with their life’ or ‘what is lacking in their life’ without realizing they are doing so.  After all, it seems to make perfect sense:  identify those areas of yourself which are lacking or in need of improvement so that you can develop the skills, experience or knowledge necessary to overcome whatever perceived personal deficiency there is.

While this appears to be logical and supportive of greater personal development, in reality it is a trap that actually causes one to create further lack and difficulty in their lives and one that many highly conscious individuals fall into.  If left unacknowledged, it can eventually lead to frustration, depression and other maladaptive beliefs and emotions.



Thankfully, it is quite easily fixed.  More often than not, it simply takes someone pointing out the essence of what is occurring to snap people out of this ‘bad thinking habit’.



What We Focus On Is What We Create

I think this excerpt from the Seth/Jane Roberts book The Nature of Personal Reality, does a wonderful job of eloquently summarizing the problem in a way that gets right to the heart of the matter:

Individuals can go from psychologist to psychologist, from self-therapy to self-therapy, always with the same question: “What is wrong?” The question itself becomes a format through which experience is seen, and itself represents one of the main reasons for all limitations, physical, psychic or spiritual.

At one point or another the individual ceased concentrating upon what was right in certain personal areas, and began to focus upon and magnify specific “lacks.” With all good intentions, then, various solutions are looked for, but all based upon the premise that something is wrong.

If such a practice is continued, the concentration upon negatives can gradually bleed out into other previously unblemished areas of experience.

The essence of what is being described here is this: If you focus on what is lacking in your life, even if the intention is to change it for the better, you are still focusing on what you are lacking and so that is what you will create and continue to find in your life.  It is a self-perpetuating cycle.

Instead, if you switch to focusing on, as Seth puts it, ‘What is Right’ in your life, you will develop those qualities and hence find more and more things that are right in your life as you continue to create them.

It is all a matter of your focus and perception — it always is and always will be.

This concept is based on the divine Law of Attraction, which can be simply stated as follows: 

What you focus on, is what you create.









Source:
http://www.thehealersjournal.com/2013/05/22/what-you-focus-on-is-what-you-get/

Quotes

No one has ever made himself great by showing how small someone else is. - Irvin Himmel



"People may forget what you SAID. People may forget what you DID. But people will never forget how you made them FEEL" - Maya Angelou


“The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best."
 - Epictetus






How Failure Makes You a Winner: The One Quality That All Achievers Have in Common

Make the Rest of Your Life The Best of Your Life!
This is what Jose Silva’s UltraMind ESP System is all about and this is what more than a million graduates have experienced, changing their lives for better and getting results that could sound impossible. Now, for the very first time ever, you can experience what actually goes on in a liveUltraMind ESP Seminar. And you can experience this today!
	Meet the Founder of the Ultramind ESP Seminar Jose Silva began his research into the mind and human potential in 1944, and began teaching courses based on his research findings in 1966. His first course, the Silva Mind Control Method was taught to over a million people worldwide and his books sold over 10 million copies. He continued to conduct research to find a reliable way to communicate with and obtain guidance from higher intelligence. He finally found the answer in 1997 with different techniques and concepts. The Silva UltraMind ESP System is the culmination of Jose Silva 55 years of research.
Experience The Benefits of the Silva Ultramind ESP Seminar The Silva UltraMind ESP System is a modern method of Dynamic Meditation, to help youfeel better, healthier and with peace of mind. And it's also a proven way to develop your God given senses to improve conditions, project solutions, experience abundance in evey area of your life, take the right decisions  and enjoy a happier life. http://www.silvaultramindhomeseminar.com - Discover the last course authored by Jose Silva, founder of "The Silva Method". Best-Selling Author. Best selling author of Jonathan Livingston Seagull. National Syndicated Radio Host. You too can start transforming your life for better after completing the 2 days seminar. And Now, for the first time you can bring the complete seminar to your home and share it with your loved ones. Develop and use your God-given intuition now! Develop your Intuition and Make the Correct Decisions. Use Your Mind to Detect Information to Improve Any Area of Your Life. Feel Better and Guided. Live a life that's Prosperous, Fulfilled, and Happy. Enjoy a Better Life. Make a Better World! Feel Better, Guided and in Union with Everything. Stress can harm your health, ruin relationships, and impede your ability to achieve your mission in life. When stress builds into distress, it can kill you. By learning to use the Silva Dynamic Meditation System, you'll be able toreduce stress automatically, feeling better, guided and in union with everything. Feel centered and develop a positive attitude. Make the Correct Decisions. Experience Positive "Coincidences". Better Decisions = A Better Life. Bad decisions lead to disappointment, unhappiness, suffering, failure. Good decisions bring you success, happiness, respect, fulfillment, love.What's the secret to making better decisions? It is this: The more information you have, the easier it is to make the correct decision. With the UM ESP Seminar, you'll learn how to use your mind - your natural God-given intuition - to detect additional information to help you make better decisions concerning health,relationships, business, and everything else in your life. Gain More Control Over Your Life. Enjoy a Better Life! Learn How to Experience Abundance in Every Area of your life. This is simple: If we're not experiencing abundance in every area of your life, something insinde of us is blocking it. Learn how to remove impediments to success and how to gain more control over your life with proventechniques. Learn How to Project the things You want for Your Life and How to Make the Law of Attraction Work For You! Use Your Senses to Project Solutions and Improve Conditions. We're here to solve problems and to improve conditions. With the UM ESP Seminar, You'll Learn How to Communicate in an effective way to solve problems and improve conditions, using your subjective senses. You'll also learn how use your subjective senses to help others physically or mentally. After completing the whole seminar, you'll be able to positively influence others from a distance, in minutes. Enjoy The Benefits of ESP In Your Daily Life! Detecting information using the subjective senses may sound impossible for you right now, but it's a reality for Silva Graduates. Now you can learn how to get the same results: - Project Your Mind to Any Place in the World to Detect Information. - Read People Like a Book and Know if Someone's Telling the Truth.- Perform Remote Viewing In Minutes. - Positively Influence Others At The Distance. Help Your Loved Ones. - Make all Your Relationships More Fulfilling and Meaningful.  - Establish Instant Rapport With Anyone You Meet. - Attract Wealth and Prosperity Into Your Life! - Experience Positive Coincidences Each and Every Day. - Feel Guided For The Rest of Your Life. By the end of the Second Day, your mind will have lots of points of reference to easily detect information at a distance in seconds, and you'll test this with an Amazing Experience: Case Working. This is the most jaw-dropping part of the seminar. You'll be given the name, age and location of someone you don't know, and you'll be able to remotely detect information about that person (describing their physical state, etc) and you'll be also ready to remotely provide mental healing to this person. This is a very profound experience that will confirm your new abilities to improve any area of your life. The Only Home Study Program That Covers The Whole Seminar.  This New UltraMind Home Seminar is different from the Home Workshop that we recorded for Nightingale Conant back in the year 2000. This New Home Seminar is the only one that covers all the sessions, lectures and conditionings as presented at the live Silva Ultramind ESP Systems Seminar (Click to Compare) You're a Click Away from Having Instant Access to the Complete Silva Ultramind ESP Home Seminar!

1. Adyashanti ‏@adyashanti8 Dec 11

   "Truth has no finality to it. It is not something to be held on to. Truth is discovered minute to minute or not at all."

   
   

   adyashanti8 Dec 11

   "This teaching is not so much a raft to carry you to enlightenment as it is a fire to ignite the raft you are now holding on to."

   
   

   
   

   "Whenever you find whole world against you just turn around and lead the world." — Anonymous

   
   

   
   

   , CA · adyashanti.org

   
   

   
   

   

   
   

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   

   
   

   
   

   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   

   
   

   
   

   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   

   
   

   
   

   

   
   

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   

   
   

   
   

   

   
   

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   

   
   

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   
   

   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   

   
   

   
   

   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   “But the eyes are blind. One must look with the heart" Antoine de Saint-Exupéry 

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   Source:

   https://twitter.com/Urban_Zen

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

A bit about Sophocles ...

One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life; that word is love.    Sophocles

Sophocles (circa. 496 BC - 406 BC) was the second of the three ancient Greek tragedians whose work has survived to the present day. His first plays were written later than those of Aeschylus, and earlier than those of Euripides. According to the Suda, a 10th century encyclopedia, Sophocles wrote 123 or more plays during the course of his life, but only seven have survived in a complete form. For almost 50 years, Sophocles was the most-awarded playwright in the dramatic competitions of ancient Athens that took place during the religious festivals of the Lenaea and the Dionysia. The most famous of Sophocles's tragedies are those concerning Oedipus and Antigone: these are often known as the Theban plays or The Oedipus Cycle, although they were not originally written or performed as a single trilogy. Sophocles influenced the development of the drama, most importantly by adding a third character and thereby reducing the importance of the chorus in the presentation of the plot. He also developed his characters to a greater extent than earlier playwrights such as Aeschylus.

- See more at: http://quotationsbook.com/quote/24818/#sthash.KfsnBS0w.dpuf


 http://quotationsbook.com/quote/24818/#sthash.KfsnBS0w.dpuf

Jerzy Kosiński

“I am going to put myself to sleep now for a bit longer than usual. Call it Eternity”
― Jerzy Kosiński, suicide-note


“There's a place beyond words where experience first occurs to which I always want to return. I suspect that whenever I articulate my thoughts or translate my impulses into words, I am betraying the real thoughts and impulses which remain hidden.”
― Jerzy Kosiński, The Painted Bird


“It seems that what I really want is a drug that will increase my consciousness of others, not myself.”
― Jerzy Kosiński, The Painted Bird




Kosiński was born Josef Lewinkopf to Jewish parents in Łódź, Poland. As a child during World War II, he lived in central Poland under a false identity his father gave him to use, Jerzy Kosiński. A Roman Catholic priest issued him a forged baptismal certificate. The Kosiński family survived the Holocaust thanks to local villagers, who offered assistance to Jewish Poles often at great personal risk (the penalty for assisting Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland was death). Kosiński's father received help not only from Polish town leaders and churchmen, but also from individuals such as Marianna Pasiowa, a member of the Polish underground network helping Jews to evade capture. The family lived openly in Dąbrowa Rzeczycka near Stalowa Wola, and attended church in nearby Wola Rzeczycka, obtaining support from villagers in Kępa Rzeczycka. They were sheltered temporarily by a Catholic family in Rzeczyca Okrągła. The young Jerzy even served as an altar boy in a local church.

After World War II, Kosiński remained with his parents in Poland, moved to Jelenia Góra, and earned degrees in history and political science at the University of Łódź. He worked as an assistant in Institute of History and Sociology at the Polish Academy of Sciences. In 1957, he emigrated to the United States, creating a fake foundation which supposedly sponsored him; he later claimed that the letters from eminent Polish communist authorities guaranteeing his loyal return, which were needed for anyone leaving the communist country at that time, had all been forged by him.

After taking odd jobs to get by, such as driving a truck, Kosiński graduated from Columbia University. In 1965, he became an American citizen. He received grants from Guggenheim Fellowship in 1967, Ford Foundation in 1968, and the American Academy in 1970, which allowed him to write a political non-fiction book, opening new doors of opportunity. In the States he became a lecturer at Yale, Princeton, Davenport University, and Wesleyan.

In 1962 Kosiński married Mary Hayward Weir who was 10 years his senior. They were divorced in 1966. Weir died in 1968 from brain cancer. Kosiński was left nothing in her will. He later fictionalized this marriage in his novel Blind Date speaking of Weir under pseudonym Mary-Jane Kirkland. Kosiński went on to marry Katherina "Kiki" von Fraunhofer, a marketing consultant and descendant of Bavarian aristocracy. They met in 1968.


Death

Kosiński suffered from multiple illnesses at the end of his life, and was under attack from journalists who alleged he was a plagiarist. By the time he reached his late 50s, Kosiński was suffering from an irregular heartbeat as well as severe physical and nervous exhaustion. Kosiński committed suicide on May 3, 1991, by taking a fatal dose of barbiturates. His parting suicide note read: "I am going to put myself to sleep now for a bit longer than usual. Call it Eternity".

Thich Nhat Hanh - On Letting Go

Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh discusses what he calls the most important practice in Buddhist meditation - the practice of letting go or "throwing away."

Wrong perceptions, ideas and notions are at the root of our suffering—they are the ground of all afflictions.

In order for us to touch happiness in the here and now, we need to throw away the ideas and notions that prevent us from learning and growing.

The Diamond Sutra suggests four notions that should be thrown away: self, human being, living being and life span.

The substantive portion of this talk is dedicated to elaborating on these notions as well as our attachment to views, pairs of extremes, and rules and rituals.

Thich Nhat Hanh's website is called "Plum Village", available at: www.plumvillage.org 


Free Buddhist eBooks can be downloaded at: www.sourceoflightmonastery.com/

Category - Education
License - Standard YouTube License



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1Kph9R6y1E

QUOTES

I have never met a man who has given me as much trouble as myself.
- D.L. Moody


He who climbs the highest is he who helps others ascend.
- Anon


Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.
- Thomas Edison



 It is in our faults and failings, not in our virtues, that we touch one another and find sympathy.
- Jerome K. Jerome



A friend is one before whom I may think aloud.  Ralph Waldo Emerson


Common sense is genius dressed in its working clothes. Ralph Waldo Emerson


Strong and bitter words indicate a weak cause.   Victor Hugo


You can’t help someone get up a hill without getting closer to the top yourself. - Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf


Teaching a child not to step on a caterpillar is as valuable to the child as it is to the caterpillar.  Bradley Miller



A solitary man is either a brute or an angel.  
- Italian Proverb


The tragedy of life is what dies in the hearts and souls of people while they live.   Albert Einstein



Use what talent you possess. The woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those that sang best.  Henry Van Dyke



Often the test of courage is not to die but to live.   Conte Vittorio Alfieri



I know that you think you know what I said. But I’m not sure whether you understood that what you heard is what I meant.  Alan Greenspan


Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority - it’s time to pause and reflect.  Mark Twain



We find comfort among those who agree with us - growth among those who don't.  Frank Clark


Don't speak unless you can improve on the silence.  Spanish Proverb


It is worse still to be ignorant of your ignorance.  Saint Jerome


As is the master, so is his dog.  Spanish Proverb

The better I get to know men, the more I find myself loving dogs.  Charles De Gaulle

Rumi: The Guest House

This being human is a guest-house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you
out for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

Say I Am You: Poetry Interspersed with Stories of Rumi and Shams, Translated by John Moyne and Coleman Barks, Maypop, 1994.

Be Here Now

LOST

Stand still.
The trees ahead and the bushes beside you Are not lost.
Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you,
If you leave it you may come back again, saying Here.

No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still.
The forest knows Where you are.
You must let it find you.

An old Native American elder story rendered into modern English by David Wagoner, in The Heart Aroused - Poetry and the Preservation of the Soul in Corporate America by David Whyte, Currency Doubleday, New York, 1996.

Wild Geese

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting-
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

Mary Oliver, Dream Work, Grove Atlantic Inc., 1986 & New and Selected Poems, Beacon Press, 1992.

The Summer Day

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean-- the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down--
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

Mary Oliver, The House Light Beacon Press Boston, 1990.

The JOURNEY

The greatest things on Earth have been created little by little; one step at a time, so start putting one foot in front of the other.

urney

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice-
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
"Mend my life!"
each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations, though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen branches and stones.
but little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do-
determined to save
the only life you could save.

Mary Oliver, Dream Work, Grove Atlantic Inc., 1986 & New and Selected Poems, Beacon Press, 1992.

 or watch Mary Oliver read her poem.



http://blip.tv/mariashrivercom/mary-oliver-recites-percy-about-her-dog-the-journey-5089143