FAVORITE MOVIES

(that means I saw them 2 to 5 times...each)

Amadeus Gone with the Wind Scarlett Scent of a Woman Braveheart Sister Act I Dances with Wolves Ghost Story Pretty Woman The American President Crocodile Dundee I The Lion King Return of Jafar (Aladdin series) Titanic Kate & Leopold Original Sin John Q ...and a few more!

BOOKS

QUOTES

Here is a sampling of some favorite quotes.

In particular, I like two quotes from: 365 Tao - Daily Meditations by Deng Ming-Dao.

An unfortunate one is a rootless ghost,
His walk a mad angel's gait
Insolent steps of one thrown from heaven
To toil in red dust,
As if he had not had enough
In a thousand previous lifetimes.
Where is his heart? Where is his soul?
To call this heaven's will
Is a cheap answer.

There was once a god who committed a crime. His punishment was to be thrown back to earth to suffer the misfortunes of being human.

When you see those less fortunate than yourself, whether they are the homeless on the streets or simply the ugly and unpopular, can you be sure that they are not like that god flung back to this mad planet?

Is their misfortune their own fault? Or do you explain with references to morality, destiny, reincarnation, and cosmic justice? Even the words of saints offer no relief for their suffering, so it hardly seems fair to blame them.

Let us not hold ourselves above our fellow human beings, no matter how great the disparity. To withhold your scorn is already beautiful. To see how we are all of one family is compassion.

Imagine a sculpture
You work on every day,
If you stop, the beauty
Will slowly go away.

What if you were at work on a beautiful sculpture but your material reverted or decayed if you ever ceased to progress? This is the unfortunate nature of spiritual efforts.

You can never stop trying to purify yourself, improve yourself, strengthen yourself, and cultivate the sacred that is inside your efforts, you will slide backwards. That is why you must strive on every level, from the physical to the mental to the spiritual. Your vigliance must never flag. Your determination must never waiver.

Paradoxically, there is nothing to achieve. It is only our minds that convince ourselves that we must do something. We are already pure, already sacred. But we live in a polluted world, we have egotistical thoughts that constantly divide us from the true Tao, and we cannot remain forever in a pure state and still function in the world. If you attained the higher levels of Tao, you would appear to an outsider as if in a trance, and it would be impossible to interact with others. So if you are trying to be spiritual in today's world, you must never cease striving to keep yourself pure. Once you are not with Tao, you must constantly struggle with the impurity of the world.

I have this one hanging on my wall in my office

Following is another favorite quote from Night Light by Amy E. Dean:

...If we want to keep living with ourselves, we must keep on trying, trying, trying.

Robert J. White, M.D.

Tonight we may feel we failed in some way today. Even though we may have done our best, we may now believe we could have done more, done it better, or tried harder, then things would be different now.

But there are things beyond our control. One of them is the outcome of any circumstance. We cannot expect that, if we do all we can, all will be well. Even the most skilled surgeon loses patients. The surgeon knows the grace of God is with the patient, no matter what the outcome.

The grace of God is in our lives and the lives of those around us. Though we strive to do our best and to make everything better, we need to remember the outcomes are not in our control. How we accept them, however, is in our control.

Higher Power, help me keep trying to do my best, no matter what the outcome.