Wow! 30 days have flown by. my parents definitely instilled in me to be honest and i struggled with honesty for a long time because i wasn’t happy and knew that people didn’t really want to know what was going on. but now i struggle sometimes with my honesty in the other direction. i know that i can be blunt and can definitely overshare – but i also know that my bluntness and oversharing comes from a genuine, loving place. that seems like it might be an excuse – but i do feel that most people need a bit more honesty in their life. including myself. i seek out people who will tell me when i’m not being myself or not growing. i can appreciate someone who tells me that i am wrong or that i need to reconsider an opinion.
today i am grateful for my honesty and openness.
tomorrow begins my creativity endeavor. i will be posting a mono print each morning (which is already making my mind go into overdrive about how to create on the spot each morning, in an already short amount of time).
here are the quotes that i will be inspired by: (they aren’t all from buddha, but they come from the book 1325 Buddhist Ways to Be Happy by Barbara Ann Kipfer)
- With a peaceful heart whatever happens can be met with wisdom.
- The Buddha pointed us toward three skillful thoughts: letting go, or generosity in the highest sense; loving-kindness/friendliness; and compassion.
- Your awareness of the present is the nourishment you have been looking for.
- Happy cooks make happy food
- See things as they are, observe, let everything go as it passes
- Have room for everything and hold onto nothing
- Success is not found in what you have achieved, but rather in who you have become.
- Even when it rains the sunshine is always there a little bit above the clouds
- Make yourself an island that flood cannot overwhelm
- Awareness will take you where you need to go
- Right here is paradise, Nirvana
- Have gratitude, even for difficult emotions, because of their potential to wake you up.
- Your actions will bear fruit when the time is right
- There are three doors – thought, speech, and actions – with which karma is made. If an unskillful thought arises be careful that it does not turn into speech or action
- Seek to be balanced, centered, and simple in the midst of change
- Value silence and its eloquence
- Meet each experience with strength, softness, and fluidity
- Love completely, unselfishly and unconditionally
- What is most needed is a loving heart
- Happiness and love comes naturally in letting go of fear
- One who drinks deep the Dharma live happily with a tranquil mind
- Find joy in the sweetness of surrender, the stillness of meditation
- Every moment can be used to gain insight from that calm arises
- Make any transition a conscious one
- When the mind is still, you can hear the silence and let it guide you
- It is often our very idea of happiness that prevents us from being happy
- Laugh when you let yourself get caught up in something small
- Let go of anger with gentleness
- Be interested in doing this very simple thing in the moment
- Awareness is the key that unlocks the door of the present moment. Wake up to this present moment
- In solitude we gain peace and balance like the wind not caught by any net
How will you close out 2015? With positivity and honesty?
lizzie fortin 