Every once in awhile someone says something that strikes the right chord with me. It makes me think. It makes me wonder. It makes me smile. And I want to share it. So today I will share a few quotes.
A friend shared this on social media the other day and it’s attributed to berkana.vuno poetry.
“At the end of the day, you want to know where their heart lies. You want to be chosen above everything else. You need to feel safe - to have that intimate connection - seen in the reflection of their eyes. Someone who is always in your corner and feels honored to be with you. At the end of the day, you want to fall into the arms of the person you call home.”
Wow, just wow was my first thought upon reading this. Powerful, touching, hit me right in my heart … the feelings and words kept coming so I googled berkana.vuno poetry to see if there was more. A lot of social media feeds popped up and when I delved deeper into one of them there was a suggestion of plagiarism. I froze because I didn’t want those words to be tainted. So I searched. I found a few more postings of plagiarism and many books written. I found the social media accounts had followers and the books were sold on Amazon. Some had good reviews. What I didn’t find was a definitive answer. So my conundrum … do I include it here and risk giving credence to plagiarism. I loved the words so I’m taking a risk. Any opinions?
A quote from Canadian politician Jack Layton’s deathbed letter in 2011 …
“My friends love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world.”
I had such mixed feelings when I first read this. So sad for him and his family but also a glimmer of hope for better times overall if people at least tried to do what he suggested.
From Harvey MacKay, businessman, author and syndicated columnist …
“Life is too short to wake up with regrets. So love the people who treat you right. Forget about the ones who don’t. Believe everything happens for a reason. If you get a second chance, grab it with both hands. If it changes your life, let it. Nobody said life would be easy, they just promised it would be worth it.”
This I’ve shared time and time again. It never gets old for me. And when shared I’ve had friends tell me it’s helped them through tough situations. Many times when I’ve felt things going in the wrong direction or I’m out of sorts with a situation I look this up and give it a reread. It steadies me.
And this by Charles Swindoll, evangelical Christian pastor, author, educator and radio preacher …
“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think, say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company … a church … a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we embrace for that day. We cannot change our past. We cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you … we are in charge of our attitudes.”
Agreed. Attitude is what sets us apart. We can wake each morning and decide how we’re going to set the tone for the day. A positive attitude will take you a long way.
And finally, attributed to Freud …
“Before you diagnose yourself with depression or low self-esteem, first make sure you are not, in fact, surrounded by assholes.”
Snopes disagrees that Freud said it. After much research it was found that according to Quote Investigator the earliest version of this quote was claimed by a former Twitter user @debihope. I do find this quote humorous but also think it should not in any way be taken seriously by anyone suffering with depression or low self esteem.
Until the next time.