Vows: Deborah Jacobs and Michael McPhearson

"He shows good manners to everyone," Ms. Jacobs said. "He puts toilet seats down, but not people."

Mr. McPhearson, 45, said he liked the fact that Ms. Jacobs was confident enough to cut her hair very short and go out some Saturday nights without him.

The couple made a pact not to argue about things like who did the dishes or made more money. "You don't need to deal with put-downs or whispers of failure at home," Mr. McPhearson said. "You need to come home to someone who believes in you."

--L.S. Brady (May 21, 2010). Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/23/fashion/weddings/23VOWS.html?ref=weddings

One-liners

A conclusion is simply the place where you got tired of thinking.

A smoking section in a restaurant is like a peeing section in a pool.

Unknown

When you don't know what to do next, do any damn thing.

Albert Einstein

Three Rules of Work:
1. Out of clutter, find simplicity.
2. From discord, find harmony.
3. In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.

Metta Meditation

May you be safe from internal and external harm.
May you have a calm, clear mind and a peaceful, loving heart.
May you be physically strong, healthy, and vital.
May you experience love, joy, wonder, and wisdom in this life, just as it is.

Eknath Easwaran

Simply by slowing down the mind - the first purpose of meditation - much tension can be removed. Then we are free to respond to life's difficulties not as sources of stress by as challenges, which will draw out of us deeper resources than we ever suspected we had. A one-pointed mind is slow and sound, which gives it immense resilience under stress.

With a mind like this, we always have a choice in how we respond to life around us.

(Words to Live By, May 18)

Dae Haeng

Go forward with steps that never leave any trace.
Accept everything that confronts you with a positive attitude. ...Just make sure you aren't trying to avoid the things that are coming, and don't try to cling to the things that are leaving.
Become a brave person who is never stained by anything or attached to anything.
Become a true human being, a person who is both the most normal and the most extraordinary.

"No River to Cross"
Zen Master Dae Haeng

Peace Pilgrim, Activist

If your life is in harmony... then your life is full and good, but not overcrowded. If it is overcrowded, you are doing more than is right for you, more than is your job to do in the total scheme of things.

Thomas Paine

It is the direction and not the magnitude which is to be taken into consideration.

Eknath Easwaran

[I]f a negative wave whispers to you one morning, "Just five minutes more...let's make it five after six," send a contrary wave back. Leap out of bed, and the next morning get up at five *to* six. Tell your mind, "If you like, you can even suggest six thirty. I will get up at five thirty and have my meditation." After a few mornings of this, I can assure you that your mind will have nothing more to say on the subject.

Eknath Easwaran

[M]ost thoughts are neither joyful or necessary....Anxious thoughts—who needs them? Worry—better off without it. Resentments—why ask? Quite a host of our troubles, if you stop to think about it, are due to thinking too much.

Richard Wiseman

After carefully following the recovery rates of patients who had suffered a heart attack, Friedman discovered that those who were dog owners, compared to those without a canine pal, were almost nine times more likely to be alive twelve months later. This remarkable result encouraged scientists to explore other possible benefits of canine companionship, resulting in studies showing that dog owners coped well with everyday stress, were relaxed about life, had high self-esteem, and were less likely to be diagnosed with depression.

--from 59 Seconds

Betty Fridan

Women who do not look for jobs equal to their capacity, who do not let themselves develop the lifetime interests and goals which require serious education and training, who take a job at twenty or thirty or forty to 'help out at home' or just to kill extra time, are walking, almost as surely as the ones who stay inside the housewife trap, to a non-existent future.

--from The Feminine Mystique

Abraham Hicks

Most people have a hard time delegating, or even wanting to delegate, because they have been justifying their existence through their hard work, and they equate success with struggle; they equate results with struggle. And so, they sort of wear their struggle like a badge of honor. And all of that is opposite of allowing their own well-being.

The only thing that ever matters in success or achievement is achieving the things that you want to achieve.

So if you're feeling uncomfortable about the standards that you've set, tweak the standards back a little bit. Ratchet it back a notch. Give yourself a break. Give yourself the benefit of the doubt. Lighten up. Be easier. Go slower. Take it easy. Have more fun. Love yourself more. Laugh more. Appreciate more.

All is well. You can't get it wrong. You never get it done.

Helen Gurley Brown

Men who help women with their careers are sexier than men with flat stomachs, large biceps, and other remarkable assets. So many women have got all this 'stuff' in them--a book or a play. Or they may have fabulous business or other talent. I want every woman to have a husband like mine, a husband who can be a real friend and companion, who knows how to bring out that secret gift or talent so many women have, but never put to use.

--as quoted in Bad Girls Go Everywhere: The Life of Helen Gurley Brown by Jennifer Scanlon