Day 24: Sharing my thoughts without Sartre today.

Today, I didn't get much out of the AFL reading... but  I have something else that excited me.  I am working on a little project for my up and coming birthday party.  I am inviting my family and some friends to celebrate my Freedom 55 at a restaurant that has a Chinese Food buffet.  Since I don't do the fortune cookies anymore, I thought I might provide a replacement.  I understand that fortune cookies are a standard with Canadian Chinese food meals, but I don't eat them anymore.  It's my party and I want to feel included in the whole experience.  So I am making something else.  Part of the project includes quotes that I have harvested from a collection of my writings over the years.  I found a few that I will be using in the fortune cookie replacements.  I figured that since my family and friends don't read my AFL blog, it would be safe to share them here.   

"Isn't that the way Love works?  Once you see what it does when it touches your heart and life, it seems impossible to keep it to yourself." 

"Maybe instead of pictures, we need to pass along an invitation to seeing nature's beauty bloom in person.  Maybe we do a disservice to another human being by just providing pictures, when what they really need to fill their soul is a walk outside without the electronics."  

"You don't have to like someone to have compassion for them." 

"Hope in the little things when the big things look hopeless."

"One person's act of love done over and over, risks becoming a tradition. When it becomes tradition, it risks turning into an obligation. An act done out of obligation is seldom an act of love." 

"Asking someone to love you, is like asking a cat to purr. First find a way to love them and then hope that your love will mean something to them, eventually initiating a response of love in return." 

"Wisdom always takes a little extra effort." 

"There is an attraction and even a romance in the LETTING GO of the need to have all the answers; to understand everything; to know it all, and to be able to explain what is really beyond all explaining." 

"Imagine an artist that paints a landscape.  The artist asks nothing of the painting. They don't even sign it.  They just paint it and let the beauty be enjoyed by others.  No one knows the artist, and maybe some wonder who that artist is, but the artist cares not about recognition.  It was never about recognition... it was always and only about the beauty of the painting."  

"I used to believe I needed to change the world to think like me. I now want to embrace the only thing that can change the world... Love.  And the way I understand Love... it doesn't require that I change anyone.  Love only invites me into its flow and that is the most beautiful thing." 

"Life is too short and too valuable for us to spend it pretending we are someone we are not." 

"The "best conversation" happens when we are both okay with our different approaches to life and our differing journeys.   Having a conversation with someone doesn't in anyway mean that you have support their conclusions."