Quotes about Gifts

Beware of despair.  You do not serve a tyrant, but your service is to a kind Lord, Who, taking nothing from you, He has given you all.  And when you did not exist at all, He fashioned you so that you would be in that [ state ] in which you now are.  Who is sufficient to render Him thanks for the fact that He has brought us into existence?  O the immeasurable grace!  Who can sufficiently honor Him with hymns?  For He has given us knowledge of all things.  And not only those which are manifest, but also of the hidden things.  For we know that if there is anything we do not know, it is necessary for us only to ask this [ knowledge ] from Him.

For the warrior, there is no "better" or "worse"; everyone has the necessary gifts for his particular path.

An uncomfortable feeling is not an enemy. It’s a gift that says, "Get honest; inquire." We reach out for alcohol, or television, or credit cards, so we can focus out there and not have to look at the feeling. And that's as it should be, because in our innocence we haven't known how. So now what we can do is reach out for a paper and a pencil, write thought down, and investigate.

Willing to experience aloneness,
I discover connection everywhere;
Turning to face my fear,
I meet the warrior who lives within;
Opening to my loss,
I am given unimaginable gifts;
Surrendering into emptiness,
I find fullness without end.

Each condition I flee from pursues me.
Each condition I welcome transforms me
And becomes itself transformed…

This is a perfect moment.

It's a perfect moment for many reasons, but especially because you and I are waking up from our sleepwalking, thumb-sucking dumb-clucking collusion with the masters of illusion and destruction.

Thanks to them, from whom the painful blessings flow, we are waking up.

Their wars and tortures,
their crimes against nature,
extinctions of species
and brand new diseases.

Their spying and lying
in the name of the father,
sterilizing seeds and
trademarking water.

Molestations of God,
celebrations of shame,
stealing our dreams and
changing our names.

Their cunning commercials
and blood-sucking hustles,
their endless rehearsals
for the end of the world.

Thanks to them, from whom the awful teachings flow, we are waking up.

~~

Their painful blessings are cracking open more and more gashes in the shrunken and crippled mass hallucination that is mistakenly called "reality." And through the fractures, ripe eternity is flooding in; news of the soul's true home is pouring in; our allies from the other side of the veil are swarming in, inspiring us to become smarter and wilder and kinder and trickier.

We are waking up.

As heaven and earth come together, as the dreamtime and daytime merge, we register the shockingly exhilarating fact that we are in charge of creating a brand new world. Not in some distant time or faraway place, but right here and right now.

~~

As we stand on this brink, as we dance on this verge, we can't let the ruling fools of the dying world sustain their curses.... We can't afford to be consumed with our anger; we can't be obsessed and possessed by their danger. Our mysterious bodies crave delight and fertility. Our boisterous imaginations demand fresh tastes of infinity.

In the new world we're gestating, we need to be suffused with lusty compassion and ecstatic duty, ingenious love and insurrectionary beauty. We've got to be teeming with radical curiosity and reverent pranks, voracious listening and ferocious thanks.

~~

So I'm curious, my fellow creators. Since we are in charge of making a new world - not just breaking the old world - where do we begin?

...Here's what I say: We will ignore the cult of gloom and doom and embrace the cause of zoom and boom. We will laugh at the stupidity of evil and hate, and summon the brilliance to praise and create. No matter how upside-down it all may temporarily appear, we will have no fear, because we know this secret: Life is crazily in love with us - wildly and innocently in love with us....

Pronoia is our word of power, the spell we cast to shake ourselves awake again and again.... It's the brazen perception that all of creation is conspiring to shower us with blessings.

Pronoia means that even if we can't see and don't know, primal benefactors are plotting to emancipate us. The winds and tides are on our side, forever and ever, amen. The fire and rain are scheming to steal our pain. The sun and moon know our real names, and the animals pray for us while we're dreaming. Do you believe in guardian angels and divine helpers? Whether you do or not, they're always wangling to give you the gifts you don’t even realize you want....

~~

...Some people argue that life is strife and suffering is normal. Others swear we're born sinful and only heaven can provide us with the peace that passes understanding. But pronoia says that being alive on the rough green and brown earth is the highest honor and privilege. It's an invitation to work wonders and perform miracles that aren't possible in any nirvana, promised land, or afterlife.

I'm not exaggerating or indulging in poetic metaphor when I tell you that we are already living in paradise. Visualize it if you dare. The sweet stuff that quenches all of our longing is not far away in some other time and place. It's right here and right now.

Poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning knew the truth: "Earth's crammed with heaven."

YOU'RE ALIVE BECAUSE OF LOVE. YOU'RE *MADE* OF LOVE.

Change always comes bearing gifts.

A child born of chance might imagine that Chance was its father, in the way that gods fathered children, and then abandoned them, without a backward glance, but with one small gift. I wondered if a gift had been left for me. I had no idea where to look, or what I was looking for, but I know now that all the important journeys start that way.

There are times I forget to be grateful
easier to see things that are wrong
as I dishonor the the gifts I've been given
with worry, angst and woe.

There are times I need reminding
of the things I take for granted each day;
my children, my home or a stranger,
sent to brighten my way.

Take some time to say thank you
for the blessings that color your day;
Those colors will form a rainbow,
and chase the darkness away.

Marianne Goldweber

Love is not a religion.

Forget what you would have for yourself, instead allow the universe to give what it has for you.

When we embrace the gifts within our soul we create a blissful state of happiness to be savoured , pondered and cherished.

Your performance is not about you. It is about you giving the gift of your talent to your audience.

The Best Gift is love; truthful, unselfish, unconditional and inexhaustible.  ~Carissa~

"Your purpose here on the Earth is to give the gifts that your soul desires to give; those that create harmony, cooperation, sharing, and reverence for life, no matter what form they take."

If you're going to tally up things in life, tally up what others do for you, rather than what you do for others.

Look around you at the gifts of God, the clear sky, the pure air, the tender grass, the birds; nature is beautiful and sinless, and we, only we, are godless and foolish, and we don't understand that life is a paradise, for we have only to understand that and it will at once be fulfilled in all its beauty, we shall embrace each other and weep.

An idea comes as close to something for nothing as you can get.

Do you measure your greatness more by your gifts or your possessions?

We all have different gifts and different ways of saying to the world who we are. The world needs a sense of worth, and it will achieve it only by its people feeling they are worthwhile.

Giving is a generative act.  When you give of yourself something new comes in to being.  Two people, who moments before were trapped in separate worlds of private cares, suddenly meet each other over a simple act of sharing; warmth, even joy is created.  The world expands, a bit of goodness is brought forth, and a small miracle occurs.  You must never underestimate this miracle.  Too many good people think they have to become Mother Teresa or Albert Schweetzer, or even Santa Claus, and perform great acts if they are to be givers.  They don't see the simple openings of the heart that can be practiced anywhere with almost anyone.

How will you know someone really loves if they only meet your expectations and not your needs

The sea does not reward those who are too anxious, too greedy, or too impatient. To dig for treasures shows not only impatience and greed, but lack of faith. Patience, patience, patience, is what the sea teaches. Patience and faith. One should lie empty, open, choiceless as a beach -- waiting for a gift from the sea.

What we are is God's gift to us; What we become is our gift to God.

Always demanding the best of oneself, living with honor, devoting one's talents and gifts to the benefits of others - these are the measures of success that endure when material things have passed away.

"At last, psychology gets serious about glee, fun, and happiness. Martin Seligman has given us a gift--a practical map for the perennial quest for a flourishing life."

~ Daniel Goleman, author of "Emotional Intelligence," commenting on "Authentic Happiness" by Martin Seligman

Nothing in this world is a gift. Whatever must be learned must be learned the hard way.

The greatest gift that you can give to others is the gift of unconditional love and acceptance.

I believe that life is a journey, often difficult and sometimes incredibly cruel, but we are well equipped for it if only we tap into our talents and gifts and allow them to blossom.

If you set goals and go after them with all the determination you can muster, your gifts will take you places that will amaze you.

The greatest gifts you can give your children are the roots of responsibility and the wings of independence.