Quotes That Grab Ya: May Digest

Here's the collection of May quotes I posted on FB -- enjoy!

1-May "The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are." ― C.G. Jung
2-May "People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone." ― Audrey Hepburn
3-May "My motto was always to keep swinging. Whether I was in a slump or feeling badly or having trouble off the field, the only thing to do was keep swinging." ― Hank Aaron
(out of town on 4th and 5th)
6-May "I feel keeping a promise to yourself is a direct reflection of the love you have for yourself. I used to make promises to myself and find them easy to break. Today, I love myself enough to not only make a promise to myself, but I love myself enough to keep that promise." ― Steve Maraboli
7-May "A wonderful gift may not be wrapped as you expect." ― Jonathan Lockwood Huie
8-May "Never lose a holy curiosity." ― Albert Einstein
9-May "To the people who love you, you are beautiful already. This is not because they’re blind to your shortcomings but because they so clearly see your soul. Your shortcomings then dim by comparison. The people who care about you are willing to let you be imperfect and beautiful, too." ― Victoria Moran
10-May "Consult not your fears but your hopes and your dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what it is still possible for you to do." ― Pope John XXIII
11-May From one of my very favorite songs and CD's ever:  "And in this world there's a whole lot of golden / In this world there's a whole lot of plain / In this world you've a soul for a compass and a heart for a pair of wings / There's a star on the far horizon / Shining bright in an azure sky / For the rest of the time that you're given / Why walk when you can fly" ― Mary Chapin Carpenter, "Why Walk When You Can Fly" (from Stones in the Road)
(5/12 - Mother's Day)
13-May "Life is filled with unanswered questions, but it is the courage to seek those answers that continues to give meaning to life. You can spend your life wallowing in despair, wondering why you were the one who was led towards the road strewn with pain, or you can be grateful that you are strong enough to survive it." ― J.D. Stroube
14-May "Vulnerability is the only authentic state. Being vulnerable means being open, for wounding, but also for pleasure. Being open to the wounds of life means also being open to the bounty and beauty. Don’t mask or deny your vulnerability: it is your greatest asset. Be vulnerable: quake and shake in your boots with it. the new goodness that is coming to you, in the form of people, situations, and things can only come to you when you are vulnerable, i.e. open." ― Stephen Russell
15-May "Tell yourself often: I am going to tackle my aspirations head on with the passion and dedication necessary to exceed even my expectations." ― Lori Myers
16-May "I live for those who love me, for those who know me true; for the heaven that smiles above me and awaits my spirit too. For the cause that lacks assistance, for the wrong that needs resistance, for the future in the distance, and the good that I can do." ― George Linnaeus Banks
17-May "Become a possibilitarian. No matter how dark things seem to be or actually are, raise your sights and see possibilities: always see them, for they're always there." ― Norman Vincent Peale
18-May "Would you like to know your future? If your answer is yes, think again. Not knowing is the greatest life motivator. So enjoy, endure, survive each moment as it comes to you in its proper sequence -- a surprise." ― Vera Nazarian
19-May "After the resurrection of Jesus, his disciples are unable to pick up the spirit of his new presence. They want, instead, to have their old earthly Jesus back. Eventually, they are reduced to huddling in fear in a locked room, paralyzed. When they do receive the spirit of the resurrected Christ, they burst from that room, now alive with the spirit for their actual lives. When we live in restless unhappiness, not satisfied with our situation in life because we are unmarried, or because we are not married to whom we would like to be, or because we would want a different job, or different family, or different body, or a different set of friends, or a different city to live it, we live, like the Apostles, huddled in fear.... Pentecost is not an abstract mystery. We are asked to accept the spirit of our actual lives. When we do this, then we no longer belittle our own lives but know that even with all our inferiorities and frustrations, just by ourselves, we are something." ― Fr. Ronald Rolheiser, OMI
20-May "The 'what should be' never did exist, but people keep trying to live up to it. There is no 'what should be,' there is only 'what is.'" ― Lenny Bruce
21-May "One of the marvelous things about community is that it enables us to welcome and help people in a way we couldn't as individuals. When we pool our strength and share the work and responsibility, we can welcome many people, even those in deep distress, and perhaps help them find self-confidence and inner healing." ― Jean Vanier
22-May "True discipline is really just self-remembering; no forcing or fighting is necessary." ― Charles Eisenstein .... BONUS QUOTE: "Except our own thoughts, there is nothing absolutely in our power." ― René Descartes
23-May "The fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown." ― Carl Sagan
24-May "Most people are searching for happiness. They're looking for it. They're trying to find it in someone or something outside of themselves. That's a fundamental mistake. Happiness is something that you are, and it comes from the way you think." ― Dr. Wayne Dyer
25-May "Heroes are selfless people who perform extraordinary acts. The mark of heroes is not necessarily the result of their action, but what they are willing to do for others and for their chosen cause. Even if they fail, their determination lives on for others to follow. The glory lies not in the achievement, but in the sacrifice." ― Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono
26-May "All human nature vigorously resists grace because grace changes us and the change is painful." ― Flannery O'Connor
27-May Flanders Fields
28-May "If life is not a celebration, why remember it ? If life -- mine or that of my fellow man -- is not an offering to the other, what are we doing on this earth?" ― Elie Wiesel
29-May "The purpose of art is the gradual, lifelong construction of a state of wonder and serenity." ― Glenn Gould
30-May "Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude." ― Dennis Waitley
31-May "Whatever the cost of our libraries, the price is cheap compared to that of an ignorant nation." ― Walter Cronkite

Let me tell you about a little town I know

There's a quaint, picturesque little place about 3 hours from me with which I have fallen in love. It's tucked in the mountains of Virginia, and yet it's well known in certain circles. And last weekend, the nation got to see just a peek inside Damascus, albeit due to some very scary news.

Damascus, Virginia is a well-known oasis on the Appalachian Trail, billing itself as "Trail Town, USA" and every third weekend in May hosts a festival entitled "Trail Days" -- a huge extravaganza for a town of less than 1000 people. Their hearts are friendly, open and warm, and there's not a yearly resident I've met yet who doesn't embody hospitality and kindness. I was just up there the first weekend of the month for some riding along another of their trails (the Virginia Creeper Multi-Use Trail -- mostly for biking but good for walking/running as well, and even the occasional horse ride).

Last weekend, however, during the Trail Days parade, this little beautiful crossroads made the national newsclips for a sad accident that injured 60 people in the parade. An older gentleman driving one of the parade cars suffered a medical crisis, and hit the accelerator, plowing into a huge crowd. Some of them were injured critically, but fortunately no one died as a result, including the driver.

I hate that this is how the world discovered Damascus. Everyone should know it for what it really is: a town of friendly people, who have welcomed the transients and strangers among them, the people who come to enjoy the beauty of the town and its surroundings. Each time I have been to this area, whether in Damascus or in Abingdon or any of the places along the Creeper Trail, I have witnessed faces where the smile goes all the way into the eyes and radiates out from the heart, not just a mechanical widening of the mouth. But there's something about that little town that grabbed me and isn't letting me go.

I'm a beach girl -- God knows, I love the ocean as it calls to me with a primal beat, something seared deep in me. But in the last few years especially, I have finally grown to love the mountains, especially the Appalachians that are close to my home and my heart. And the Rockies..... oh, my! But that's another story.