One evening an old Cherokee Indian told his grandson about a battle that was going on inside himself.
He said, “My boy, the fight is between two wolves.”
That certainly got the boy’s attention.
“One is evil,” the old man continued.
“Anger, envy, sorrow, regret,greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt,
resentment, inferiority, lies,false pride, superiority and ego.”
“What of the other, grandfather?” the boy asked.
“The other is good,” he said.
“Joy, Peace, Love, Hope, Serenity,Humility, Kindness, Benevolence,
Empathy, Generosity, Truth, Compassion and Faith.”
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather,
“Do we all have such wolves fighting inside us, grandfather?”
“Yes,” the wise old man said.
“Then, which wolf wins the fight?”
The old Cherokee simply replied,
“The one you feed.”unknown

The owner of a small business,
a friend of the poet Olavo Bilac, met him on the street and asked,

“Mr. Bilac, I need to sell my small farm the one you know so well.
Could you please write an announcement for me for the paper?”

Bilac wrote:
“For sale: a beautiful property, where birds sing at dawn in extensive woodland,
bi-sected by the brilliant and sparkling waters of a large stream.
The house is bathed by the rising sun.
It offers tranquil shade in the evenings on the veranda.”

Some time later, the poet met his friend and asked whether he had sold the property
to which he replied:

“I’ve changed my mind.
When I read what you had written, I realized the treasure that was mine.”

Sometimes we underestimate the good things we have,
chasing after the mirages of false treasures.

Look around and appreciate what you have:
your home, your loved ones, friends on whom you can really count,
the knowledge you have gained, your good health.
And all the beautiful things of life,
that are truly your most precious treasure.

Ask of God at every moment that our problems and concerns
never degenerate into feelings of sadness and anxiety.

Be in union with God,
who will provide the courage needed
for victory in the struggle;
because God gives with abundance what we need.

Author Unknown

If this were all of life we’ll know,
If this brief space of breath
Were all there is to human toil,
If death were really death,
And never should the soul arise
A finer world to see,
How foolish would our struggles seem,
How grim the earth would be!

If living were the whole of life,
To end in seventy years,
How pitiful its joys would seem!
How idle all its tears!
There’d be no faith to keep us true,
No hope to keep us strong,
And only fools would cherish dreams–
No smile would last for long.

How purposeless the strife would be
If there were nothing more,
If there were not a plan to serve,
An end to struggle for!
No reason for a mortal’s birth
Except to have him die–
How silly all the goals would seem
For which men bravely try.

There must be something after death;
Behind the toil of man
There must exist a God divine
Who’s working out a plan;
And this brief journey that we know
As life must really be
The gateway to a finer world
That some day we shall see.~~edgar guest

^1-6 God, investigate my life; get all the facts firsthand.
I’m an open book to you;
even from a distance, you know what I’m thinking.
You know when I leave and when I get back;
I’m never out of your sight.
You know everything I’m going to say
before I start the first sentence.
I look behind me and you’re there,
then up ahead and you’re there, too—
your reassuring presence, coming and going.
This is too much, too wonderful—
I can’t take it all in!

^7-12 Is there anyplace I can go to avoid your Spirit?
to be out of your sight?
If I climb to the sky, you’re there!
If I go underground, you’re there!
If I flew on morning’s wings
to the far western horizon,
You’d find me in a minute—
you’re already there waiting!
Then I said to myself, “Oh, he even sees me in the dark!
At night I’m immersed in the light!”
It’s a fact: darkness isn’t dark to you;
night and day, darkness and light, they’re all the same to you.

^13-16 Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out;
you formed me in my mother’s womb.
I thank you, High God—you’re breathtaking!
Body and soul, I am marvelously made!
I worship in adoration—what a creation!
You know me inside and out,
you know every bone in my body;
You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit,
how I was sculpted from nothing into something.
Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth;
all the stages of my life were spread out before you,
The days of my life all prepared
before I’d even lived one day.

^17-22 Your thoughts—how rare, how beautiful!
God, I’ll never comprehend them!
I couldn’t even begin to count them—
any more than I could count the sand of the sea.
Oh, let me rise in the morning and live always with you!
And please, God, do away with wickedness for good!
And you murderers—out of here!—
all the men and women who belittle you, God,
infatuated with cheap god-imitations.
See how I hate those who hate you, God,
see how I loathe all this godless arrogance;
I hate it with pure, unadulterated hatred.
Your enemies are my enemies!

^23-24 Investigate my life, O God,
find out everything about me;
Cross-examine and test me,
get a clear picture of what I’m about;
See for yourself whether I’ve done anything wrong—
then guide me on the road to eternal life.

God grant me the serenity to accept
the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships
as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is,
not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make
all things right if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.~~reinhold niebuhr

“The world is against me,” he said with a sigh.
“Somebody stops every scheme that I try.

The world has me down and it’s keeping me there;
I don’t get a chance. Oh, the world is unfair!
When a fellow is poor then he can’t get a show;
The world is determined to keep him down low.”

“What of Abe Lincoln?” I asked. “Would you say
That he was much richer than you are to-day?
He hadn’t your chance of making his mark,
And his outlook was often exceedingly dark;
Yet he clung to his purpose with courage most grim
And he got to the top. Was the world against him?”

“What of Ben Franklin? I’ve oft heard it said
That many a time he went hungry to bed.
He started with nothing but courage to climb,
But patiently struggled and waited his time.
He dangled awhile from real poverty’s limb,
Yet he got to the top. Was the world against him?

“I could name you a dozen, yes, hundreds, I guess,
Of poor boys who’ve patiently climbed to success;
All boys who were down and who struggled alone,
Who’d have thought themselves rich if your fortune they’d known;
Yet they rose in the world you’re so quick to condemn,
And I’m asking you now, was the world against them?”~~edgar guest

A Promise from God

I am your shepherd
You will never have need of anything that I want for you.
If you will trust me, and allow me to be the shepherd of your life,
I will give to you such great peace of mind that it will be like
lying in the cool green grass of a springtime meadow;
And as you learn to deepen your love and trust,
a quietness will come over your soul
like a serene, calm lake.

It will be a time of great refreshment to your inner man,
thus preparing you to do whatever tasks I set before you to do;
And do not minimize any task that I give you to do,
as it is for my honor and glory, not yours.

There will be times when, because of my great love for you,
it will be necessary for me to lead you
into great darkness…..
Darkness that will be so great that you will feel as
though you are standing at the very edge of life,
with death awaiting you below.

But always remember, I am still your shepherd.
In the darkness you may not be able to see me,
but you have my eternal promise that
I will never leave you nor forsake you.

If you will continue to trust me,
even after you have been through a time of darkness,
I will again flood your heart with such peace
that you could even sit down with your enemies.

Your joy will be so great that it will spill over
into the lives of others.
And as your reward I will give to you all the really
important things of life.
When you have completed all that I have planned for you
to do on earth,
I want you to come up and live
with me forever
and ever
and ever.~~unknown

I wish that there were some wonderful place
Called the Land of Beginning Again
Where all our mistakes and all our heartaches
And all of our selfish grief
Could be dropped like a shabby old coat by the door
And never be put on again.

I wish we could come on it all unaware
Like the hunter who finds a lost trail
And I wish that the one whom our blindness has done
The greatest injustice of all
Could be at the gates like an old friend that waits
For the comrade he’s gladdest to hail.

We would find all the things we intended to do
But forgot, and remembered too late;
Little praises unspoken, little promises broken
And all of the thousand and one
Little duties neglected that might have perfected
The day for one less fortunate.

It wouldn’t be possible not to be kind
In the Land of Beginning Again
And the ones we misjudged and the ones whom we grudged
Their moments of victory then
Would find in the grasp of our loving handclasp
More than penitent lips could explain.

For what had been hardest we’d know had been best
And what had seemed loss would be gain
For there isn’t a sting that will not take a wing
When we’ve faced it and laughed it away,
And I think that the laughter is most what we’re after
In the Land of Beginning Again.

So I wish that there were some wondered place
Called the Land of Beginning Again
Where all our mistakes and all our heartaches
And all of our selfish grief
Could be dropped like a shabby old coat at the door
And never be put on again.~~louise fletcher

it is never too late to make a new beginning

learning from the past. as the saying

goes, “if i knew now what i didn’t

know back when, i would have done

things differently”.  well now you know

and can do things differently.

After a while
you learn the subtle difference between holding a hand and chaining a soul
and you learn love doesn’t mean leaning
and company doesn’t always mean security.
And you begin to learn that kisses aren’t contracts
and presents aren’t always promises
and you begin to accept your defeats with your head up
and your eyes ahead with the grace of a woman,
not the grief of a child.
And you learn to build all your roads on today
because tomorrow’s ground is too uncertain
for plans and futures have a way of falling down in mid-flight.
After a while you learn that even sunshine burns if you get too much
So you plant your own garden
and decorate your own soul
instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers
And you learn that you really can endure,
that you really are strong
and you really do have worth
and you learn and you learn
with every good-bye you learn.~~veronica shoffstall

As you travel through life there are always those times
When decisions just have to be made,
When the choices are hard, and solutions seem scarce
and the rain seems to soak your parade.
There are some situations where all you can do
 Is simply let go and move on,
Gather your courage and choose a direction
that carries you toward a new dawn.
So pack up your troubles and take a step forward -
The process of change can be tough,
but think about all the excitement ahead,
There might be adventures you never imagined
just waiting around the next bend,
and wishes and dreams just about to come true
In ways you can’t yet comprehend!
Perhaps you’ll find friendships that spring from new things
as you challenge your status quo,
and learn there are so many options in life,
perhaps you’ll go places you never expected
and see things that you’ve never seen,
or travel to fabulous, faraway worlds
and wonderful spots in between!
Perhaps you’ll find warmth and affection and caring
and somebody special who’s there
 to help you stay
centered and listen with interest
to stories and feelings you share.
Perhaps you’ll find comfort in knowing your friends
are supportive of all that you do,
and believe that whatever decisions you make,
they’ll be the right choices for you.
So keep putting one foot in front of the other,
and taking your life day by day…
There’s a brighter tomorrow that’s just down the road -
don’t look back! You’re not going that way!~~anonymous
you have eyes in the front to look  forward
not in the back of your head to look back!