QUICK WISDOM: WORDS and IDEAS that MAY HELP at MIDLIFE

QUICK WISDOM

Words and Ideas 
That May Help at Midlife

  Images and all unattributed lines  
© Copyright 2024 by Neall Calvert

Goldfish Glow  (c) 2018 by Neall Calvert
(No goldfish were harmed in the taking of this picture.)

      

      "The wisdom 
            with which we live

                  the first half of our lives   

                        is insufficient 

                              to get us through 
                                    the second half."

                                    [ thank you, Naomi Moseley—

                   www.intimacytraining.com ]

     The ones who most successfully navigate midlife

              are those who reinvent themselves.

 

               [ thank you, Gail Sheehy—

                www.gailsheehy.com/bio.php ]

   "The primary task of the second half of life
        is the recovery of personal authority, 

        namely, to discover what is true for oneself,
        and finding the courage to live it."

        [ thank you, James Hollis—
           www.jameshollis.net/ ]
 











           "The pain pushes you

                 until the vision pulls you."

                   [ thank you, Rev. Michael Beckwith—

                    www.agapelive.com ]

     Nature wants us to be here, 

               to revel in its magnificence.

               A is for ATTITUDE

      Miserable again?

            Mad, sad, bad or glad

                  —choices.

                        Try some gladitude!

                         [ Thank you, 
                                  Rev. Angelica Jayne Taggart ]

"When you're feeling

         lower than a toad on mowing day

                  don’t hunker down—reach out."

                      [ thank you, [Texan] Landon Saunders—

                        www.landonsaunders.org ]

       Call no one hero who has not 

               opened their heart.

      Embraos the chaos—

            full catastrophe living.

               [ thank you, Jon Kabat-Zinn—

                http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Kabat-Zinn ]

The purpose of illness and accidents

is to teach a greater perspective on life.










Feeling conflicted or fearful?
No dilemma—Dalai Lama.

      To get the love you want, you have to give it.

           [ thank you, Chuck Spezzano—

            www.psychologyofvision.com ]

                You can’t 'take Heaven by storm’ . . .

                         Heaven is a hierarchy of love.   

          

          Feeling insecure? Too small? Too big?—
                Become spiritual. As a spiritual 
                      person / soul being, we are the equal
                            of anyone on the planet.












Nowadays, millions live like kings;

       fewer act like kings—

              for the good of the realm.

               I forgive the part of me
                     that judges the addicted part of me.

      There is only one fear:

            of the unknown—the darkness—

                             within me.













          It is time the world took its inner eye
          away from an angry God and set it toward
          'Him who healeth all diseases, 
          who redeemeth the life 
          from destruction . . .'

                       [ Thank you, Emma Curtis Hopkins,
                           in High Mysticism, ca. 1910 ]

      










Stress-relief choice:

holiday or hospital.

                     ENDING ANGER

       Give people your peace of mind

       Rather than a piece of your mind.

            INSIGHT UPON LEAVING

            THE BUDDHIST TEMPLE

              FOR THE FIRST TIME

I had thought that because I was suffering

         I needed to be alone, but actually it was being alone

                 that was most of the suffering.

      Misery has a purpose:

             It teaches me

                    to find my joy.

      Loneliness is

             a spiritual disconnect

                    whose solution lies
                           in more solitude
                                  rather than

                                         more socializing.

      When you’re doing what you love,

              no matter where you are,

                      you’re in sacred territory.

                          H.A.L.T.!

       Never buy or sell anything Big

             when you’re feeling

                   Hungry, Angry, Lonely or Tired.

                         [ thank you, D.A.—
                          http://debtorsanonymous.org/ ]

STILLNESS

is 

BIGGER

than

ILLNESS.

"Membership in a society, tribe, nation, church
or other group is of the utmost importance,
since it represents support and protection
without which the single individual 
can only manage with difficulty, 
if at all."

 

[ thank you, Emma Jung 
& Marie-Louise von Franz
—in The Grail Legend (p. 76) ]

"Trauma, if it doesn’t destroy us, wakes us up 

both to our own relational capacities and to 

the suffering of others. Not only does it make 

us hurt, it makes us more human, caring, 

and wise."

[ Thank you, Mark Epstein, M.D., 

psychiatrist, author and Buddhist,

The Trauma of Everyday Life, p. 203

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mark-Epstein-MD/201450013207216 ]

       











"We don’t see the world as it is,

             we see the world as we are."

                    [ thank you, Anaïs Nin—
                     http://www.anaisnin.com/home.html ]

       "Sometimes what appears as love is merely passion

             and what appears as friendship is really love."
  
                  [ thank you, Ed Varney—            
                  British Columbia graphic artist and poet ]

      "Our greatest glory lies not in never falling

              but in rising each time we fall."

                [ thank you, Confucius—
                 http://www.confucius.org/ ]

         

          A headache is not 
          an aspirin-deficiency 
          condition.

                BUMPER STICKER:

                No Jesus, No Peace
                Know Jesus, Know Peace

          They don’t care 
                how much you know
                      until they know 
                           how much you care.

                                  [ Thank you, John C. Maxwell ]

        Love dissolves problems
               or doesn’t create them 
                       in the first place.          

“The older you are, the more humbled
you’ve probably been. Our mistakes can help
prepare us further. . . . Sometimes it’s when we feel
that we have failed or made mistakes that
can’t be corrected and we think it is all over for us
that God looks at us and says:
‘Can we start now?’"

[ Thank you, Marianne Williamson 

(speaking at the launch of her book
The Gift of Change)—http://marianne.com/ ]

          The only revolution

                 I want to start

                        brings down the walls

                               around the human heart.

To live in Heaven 
while still on Earth,
see everything in the world 
through the eyes of love.

OMG!

The longing for belonging,

the longing to be celebrated

and the longing for inner peace

can all be satisfied when we

discipline ourselves to discover

a relationship with a ready-and-steady, 

 

reaching-and-teaching, demonstratively 

 

compassionate Higher Power—

a connection for which is hardwired 

 

into every human brain.

∞






To read Neall’s book
in progress:

"THROUGH TO THE NEW:
A Dialogue with Higher Self:

Transforming Hopelessness and Despair
through Unconditional Love," go to

neallcalvert2.blogspot.ca/2010/12/through-to-new-dialogue-with-higher.html

Fifth Avenue Diamond (c) by Neall Calvert






To see the full set of Neall Calvert’s 
mandala photographs, go to:

www.flickr.com/photos/neallcalvert/sets/72157625165883511/