Quotation Saturday

Acts 18:9 “Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace:”

OBSCURED

“Even the darkest cloud cannot obscure the brightest light.” 
― Ken Poirot

“Writers whose thoughts are expressed with clarity and precision are assumed by readers to be superficial. Where the meaning is obscured, then readers give more attention and consider the fruit of their labour more valuable” 
― Friedrich Nietzsche

“You can't be successful if you are good at hiding yourself! Be success minded; think about uncovering what you know, what you have, and what you have to know for the comfort, inspiration and enlightenment of others!” 
― Israelmore Ayivor

“If you don't want to be average, don't rush into doing what the crowd is doing” 
― Constance Chuks Friday

BLIND

“If the Creator stood before a million men with the light of a million lamps, only a few would truly see him because truth is already alive in their hearts. Truth can only be seen by those with truth in them. He who does not have Truth in his heart, will always be blind to it.” 
― Suzy Kassem

“Sometimes your light shines so bright that it blinds people from seeing who you really are.” 
― Shannon L. Alder

“A philosopher is a blind man in a dark room looking for a black cat that isn't there. A theologian is the man who finds it.” 
― H.L. Mencken

“So blind is the curiosity by which mortals are possessed, that they often conduct their minds along unexplored routes, having no reason to hope for success, but merely being willing to risk the experiment of finding whether the truth they seek lies there.” 
― René Descartes

CLARITY

“Appearance blinds, whereas words reveal.” 
― Oscar Wilde

“A solid answer to everything is not necessary. Blurry concepts influence one to focus, but postulated clarity influences arrogance.” 
― Criss Jami

“When people will not weed their own minds, they are apt to be overrun by nettles.” 
― Horace Walpole

“...it is precisely because the world appears to us to be multiple, ambiguous, and paradoxical, that we must strive to speak and write clearly.” 
― Mark Dintenfass

VISION

“The most pathetic person in the world is some one who has sight but no vision.” 
― Helen Keller

“Never surrender your hopes and dreams to the fateful limitations others have placed on their own lives. The vision of your true destiny does not reside within the blinkered outlook of the naysayers and the doom prophets. Judge not by their words, but accept advice based on the evidence of actual results. Do not be surprised should you find a complete absence of anything mystical or miraculous in the manifested reality of those who are so eager to advise you. Friends and family who suffer the lack of abundance, joy, love, fulfillment and prosperity in their own lives really have no business imposing their self-limiting beliefs on your reality experience.” 
― Anthon St. Maarten

“Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps down new roads armed with nothing but their own vision. Their goals differed, but they all had this in common: that the step was first, the road new, the vision unborrowed, and the response they received — hatred. The great creators — the thinkers, the artists, the scientists, the inventors — stood alone against the men of their time. Every great new thought was opposed. Every great new invention was denounced. The first motor was considered foolish. The airplane was considered impossible. The power loom was considered vicious. Anesthesia was considered sinful. But the men of unborrowed vision went ahead. They fought, they suffered and they paid. But they won.” 
― Ayn Rand,

“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.” 
― Albert Einstein

The Pool...

Pss. 49:3 3 My mouth shall speak of wisdom; and the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding.
***

Writers call it the pool of words, some the pool of thought, any way you look at it, there is a metaphorical meaning behind... the pool.

Steven King made fictional use of this pool in Lisey’s Story. While Lisey and her deceased husband found the pool to be either a healing place, an imaginary portal that few could step through, or a burying place where the deceased lingered or passed into another realm, the pool existed in their minds, and apparently Manda bunny, Lisey’s sister.

In a form of reality, the pool exists within each and every one of us but often we get so caught up with our daily existence that we never take a dip. We stand back looking at the ripples, fear the plunge because the water appears too cold to be immersed in, or we just walk around the pool edges running our fingers across the top, so we can add to the ripples.

In the pool lies clarity. I love a pool that is ice blue, wrinkled with drips of sunshine embellishing the length and depth. A pool is so different from say an ocean or a river because of the clarity. (assuming you have the proper chemicals and filter to keep it clean.)

The ocean can be laden with crabs and such that keep you at a foots length from really diving in to feel the jellyfish wriggle between your legs. The river is equipped with many rocks and sharp edges that you always want to be wearing protective gear on your feet so they don’t get cut or bruised.

Then there’s the pool. The refreshing pool that sits with it’s wavering water, calling out to you to come in and drink from the beauty. You wade into the shallow end, perhaps slowly making your way to where the water almost crests the mouth then you feel yourself getting lighter and lighter and you float off to the deep end. I always like clinging to the side with my feet paddling behind me, a complete control experience.

Writer’s are metaphorical people. We like to swim, not dip in the pool! This is where we get our clarity, whether we are in the ocean of turmoil, the river of boulders, or the pool of sanity; we swallow all of the offerings and gulp down the intense feeling and bring forth a story of reliable prose.

We have a filter in our brain that allows us to see through the murky, algae infested waters and it is in this place...we listen. We block out all of the incoming thoughts, scrambled as they were and we decipher just what the universe is trying to tell us.

The pool is our meditative process, one that a lot of writer’s or people, rarely dip into, for unknown reasons. Why not dapple in the pool of silence and meditation? You’ll see... it's a clarifying experience.

Pss. 119:99 I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my meditation.

Quotation Saturday

EMOTIONS ~

“Never apologize for showing feeling. When you do so, you apologize for the truth.”          --Benjamin Disraeli

“When you develop your ability to balance your emotions, unexpected problems won’t knock you off balance as easily, and you’ll return more quickly to a positive outlook.”           
--Peggy McColl
    
“One ought to hold on to one’s heart; for if one lets go, one soon loses control of the head too.”
--Nietzsche

CHALLENGES ~

"Self-acceptance comes from meeting life's challenges vigorously. Don't numb yourself to your trials and difficulties, nor build mental walls to exclude pain from your life. You will find peace not by trying to escape your problems, but by confronting them courageously. You will find peace not in denial, but in victory."
-- J. Donald Walters

"Challenges make you discover things about yourself that you never really knew. They’re what make the instrument stretch—what makes you go beyond the norm."
-- Cicely Tyson

"When we long for life without difficulties, remind us that oaks grow strong in contrary winds and diamonds are made under pressure."
-- Peter Marshal

CLARITY~

"When you know clearly what you want, you’ll wake up every morning excited about life."
-- Mark Victor Hansen

"If you are clear about what you want, the world responds with clarity."
-- Loretta Staples

"Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain cool and unruffled under all circumstances."
-- Thomas Jefferson

HOPE ~

"True hope is swift, and flies with swallow's wings."
-- William Shakespeare

"A comforting acquaintance, hope, a contagious thing like spring, inebriating like lager."
 -- Sylvia Ashton-Warner

"Everything that is done in the world is done by hope."
-- Martin Luther

LOVE ~

Never pretend to a love which you do not actually feel, for love is not ours to command.
---Alan Watts

To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead.
 --Bertrand Russell (1872 - 1970), Marriage and Morals (1929) ch. 19

The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.
 --Carl Jung (1875 - 1961)

Some might wonder how I choose the quotes that I do. I have to admit, I wholeheartedly choose from an emotional state of mind. If I’m in a writing mood, they are about writing. If I am debating my life choices, then the quotes become an abstract part of all that I am feeling.

May the light of the world shine clarity in your heart, and give you strength to face any challenge before you. Only then can you have hope in a new tomorrow full of LOVE.
-- Joni