A Soulful Journey

  "There is an art to wandering.  If I have a destination, a plan -an objective - I've lost the ability find serendipity.  I've become too focused, too single-minded.  I am on a quest, not a ramble.  I search for the Holy Grail of particularity and miss the chalice freely offered, filled and overflowing."  - from On Becoming Lost: A Naturalist's Search for Meaning.

"In the future a person will have to give account for everything that his or her eye saw and did not take time to appreciate." - Jerusalem Talmud 4:12

Renoir suffered from intense rheumatic pain.  Day after day his friends old him to stop painting.  He could have relieved himself from great torture. He would then point to his masterpiece and say, “You see, the pain has passed - the beauty endures.” - Bernard Greenfield A great imprimatur for a more meaningful life - do not dwell on the pain, focus on the beauty.

“If you call an Italian girl a hooker you’re in a lot of trouble.   Somebody will kill you.   You call a Jewish girl a hooker…”No kidding, I look like a hooker?”   It’s a compliment.   You have to be beautiful to make a living from that field.   A short fat yenta with a mustache; what are you going to give her, eighty cents?"    -Jackie Mason

An artist who wanted to paint the most beautiful picture in the world asked a pastor, "What is the most beautiful thing in the world?" "Faith," answered the pastor.  "You can feel it in every house of worship, find it at every altar." The artist asked a young bride the same question. "Love," she replied.  "Love builds poverty into riches, sweetness tears, makes much of little. Without it there is no beauty." A weary soldier said, "Peace is the most beautiful thing in the world. War is ugly. Wherever you find peace you find beauty." "Faith, love and peace! How can I paint them?" thought the artist. Entering his door he saw faith in the eyes of his children and love in the eyes of his wife. And there in his home was the peace that love and faith had built. So he painted the picture of the most beautiful thing in the home. And when when he finished, he called it "HOME."

Once a Zen Master stood up before his students and was about to deliver a sermon.   Jut as he was about to open his mouth, a bird sang.   And he said, “The sermon has been delivered.”   -Joseph Campbell

A little girl is sitting with her grandfather.  She touches her grandfather’s wrinkled skin and innocently asks, “Grandpa, who made you?”  The grandpa answers, “God made me long ago.”  Then she walks over to the mirror, looks at her smooth skin, and asks, “Grandpa, who made me?”  The grandpa answers, “God made you very recently.”  The little girl ponders this a moment, and then says, “God is getting better, isn’t He?” – Rabbi Michael Gold

"Whatever you may look like, marry a man your own age.  As your beauty fades, so will his eyesight." -Phyllis Diller

Two blind beggars are sitting across from one another in Central Park. Each carries a sign asking for contributions. The first one reads: "Help me. I am blind." The second reads: "It's May and I am blind." - Robert Gordis Think. Thank. Now.