A Soulful Journey

At the Boulder Dam, eighty-nine men died building that structure.  There, an inscription reads: "For those who died that the desert might bloom."   May it be said of us when we have passed from the world that it is a brighter place because we worked to make it so.

"The tyrant dies and his rule ends, the martyr dies and his rule begins."  - Soren Kierkegaard It is better live than die. It is better to work for a cause that is noble that to hide from it for fear of ridicule.

A Rabbi who served as a chaplain in the army came home after the last war and he told his friends that he had received many letters from the members of his congregation back home. But the letter he liked the most, that he treasured the most, was a letter from a little girl who attended his religious school, and she wrote New Year greetings to him in a very childish manner, and then she closed the letter with this sentence: “We send our love and we hope that you live all your life.”

Abe was killing half an hour waiting for a train to arrive. He wandered around the station, bought a soft drink, and then stepped on a penny scale to learn his weight and fortune. The fortune card amazed him. It said, “You are Jewish, you weigh 185 pounds, and you are on your way to Chicago.” Every word of it was true and this was too good to be a coincidence.  So he decided to wait for another man to use the scale. ”You are Catholic,” said the card, “you weigh 179 pounds and you are on the way to Detroit.” Upon checking with the man he found the statements were correct. Now for the acid test. The traveler decided that he would get on the scale again. Up on the scale he went down in the slot went his penny.  He could hardly wait to read the card which said, “Shmo! You just missed your train!”  The future waits for us but do not to waste too much energy anticipating.  Live in the now.

Dorothy Parker gives an unforgettable poem about why not to commit suicide that portrays a life unable to live and let live: Razors pain you; Rivers are damp; Acids stain you; And drugs cause cramp. Guns aren't lawful; Nooses give; Gas smells awful; You might as well live.

"The Jew knows that the great commandment is to live." - Rabbi Leo Baeck What doe this mean for your life choices?

“Life is not a problem to be solved.   Life is a story to be lived.” – Leo Buscaglia

The late Malcolm Forbes, editor of Forbes Magazine, stated that, “anybody who thinks money is everything has never been sick, or is.”  Pastor David McKenchie, who found this quote, expands its meaning:  “The two most important days of our lives are the day we will born and the day we discover why we are born. We spend most of our lives conjugating three verbs: to want, to have and to do. They have no real significance for us, except as they are transcended from the verb to be. The essence of life is tied up in being, not wanting, having or doing.”   -   David McKenchie, Experiencing God’s Pleasure

“One thing I charge you. As you live, believe in life! Always human beings will live! Always human beings will progress to greater, broader and fuller life.  The only possible death is to lose belief in this truth simply because the great end comes slowly, because time is long.”   W.E. B. Du Bois

"Sleep's overrated.  You get all the sleep you need after you die."  - Charles Whittingham Carpe Diem.

An old man wished for his best friend, "You should live to 120 and a few weeks."  When the friend asked why the few extra weeks, the well-wisher replied, "God forbid, you should drop dead on your birthday. " - Alan Dershowitz

It is a fearful thing to love what death can touch. A fearful thing to love,  hope, dream: to be -- to be, and oh! to lose. A thing for fools this, and a holy thing, a holy thing to love. For your life has lived in me,  your laugh once lifted me,  your word was gift to me. To remember this brings a painful joy. 'Tis a human thing, love, a holy thing,  to love what death has touched. – Chaim Stern and this is the fullness of life.

"He who has a WHY to live can bear with almost any HOW." -Nietzsche

If I had to live life over I'd try to make more mistakes next time I would relax, I'd limber up I would be sillier than I have been on this trip I know of very few things I would take seriously I would be crazier, I would be less hygienic I would take more chances I would take more trips I would climb more mountains Swim more rivers And watch more sunsets. I would eat more ice cream and less beans I'd pick more daisies -  Jenny Joseph

The Baal Shem Tov ,   the founder of Chasidism, 
met the Messiah. 
The Besht asked, "When will You finally come?" 
The Messiah answered, "When your wellsprings break forth to the outside!"  
(from a letter written by the Besht to his brother-in-law).

“Smart people spend time alone.   They don’t fill their days with appointments from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., as many politicians and executives do.   Great science does not emerge from hard logic and grinding hours.   It comes from the mysterious resources of the human brain and soul.   Inspiration is nurtured by activities like chopping wood and raking leaves, preparing dinner and reading to the kids.   The activities soften the rigid pace of the day’s pursuits and allow all our God-given intuition to work its unlogical magic.   Only then can we reach our fullest potential.   Only then can we leap from thinking to understanding.”   -  Philip K. Howard The secret of  life may be gained while walking down the street or holding the hand of a toddler.

“Someone interviewed me recently and wanted to know if I saved ideas so that I could be assured of at least one column a week. “I don’t save anything so that pockets are empty at the end of the week.   So is my refrigerator, so is my gas tank, so is my file of ideas.   I tried out the best lines on God and come the next week I bargain, whimper, make promises, cower and throw myself on the mercy of the Almighty for just three more columns in exchange for cleaning my oven. “I don’t get to this point overnight.   I come from a family of savers who were sired by poverty, raised in the Depression, worshiped on the altar of self-denial. “Throughout the years I have seen a fair number of my family who have died leaving candles that have never been lit, appliances that never got out of the box, wines that were saved for something special, and new sofas shrouded in chenille bedspreads.   It gets to be a habit; after a while you have dreams that you hide away for the days w...

Respect people and their boundaries. There are times when we may feel that people have juvenile opinions about their faith. Or childish thoughts about God, superstition, love or whatever. Yet sometimes these thoughts are the essence that holds them together. This may be the "glue” that keeps them from falling apart. It is not our job to disparage or tear down their beliefs. G.K Chesterton wrote: “You can free things from alien or accidental laws, but not from the laws of their own nature…Don’t go about…encouraging triangles to break out of the prison of their three sides. If a triangle breaks out of its three sides, its life comes to a lamentable end.”