“As soon as the love relationship does not lead me to me, as soon as I in a love relationship do not lead another person to himself or herself, this love, even if it seems to be the most secure and ecstatic attachment I have ever experienced, is not true love. For real love is dedicated to continual becoming.” –Leo B.

“Courage and compassion are two sides of the same coin. Compassion without courage is not genuine. You may have a compassionate thought or impulse, but if you don’t do or say anything, it’s not real compassion.” –Daisaku Ikeda

Happy Friday everyone! You’re probably staring at the clock right now with a smile on your face that keeps getting bigger as you’re nearing the end of your work day. Hopefully, I can add to that excitement by sharing some groovy quotes with you guys. Enjoy! -Rob

“You can be anything you want to be. You just can’t be everything you want to be all at once. That is what a lifetime is for.” – Randy Dean

“Your daily life is your temple and your religion. When you enter into it take with you your all.” –Kahlil Gibran

“A loving relationship is one in which the loved one is free to be himself – to laugh with me, but never at me; to cry with me, but never because of me; to love life, to love himself, to love being loved. Such a relationship is based upon freedom and can never grow in a jealous heart.” –Leo B.

A single rose can be you garden… a single friend, your world…

by Anonymous

Remember the day I borrowed your brand new car and I dented it?

I thought you’d kill me, but you didn’t.

And remember the time I dragged you to the beach, and you

said it would rain, and it did? I thought you’d say, “I told you so.”

But you didn’t.

Do you remember the time I flirted with all the guys to make you

jealous, and you were? I thought you’d leave me, but you didn’t.

Do you remember the time I spilled strawberry pie all over your car rug?

I thought you’d hit me, but you didn’t.

And remember the time I forgot to tell you the dance was formal and

you showed up in jeans? I thought you’d drop me, but you didn’t.

Yes, there were lots of things you didn’t do,

But you put up with me, and you loved me, and you

protected me.

There were lots of things I wanted to make up to you when you returned from Vietnam.

But you didn’t…

Go ahead and put it off, go ahead and wait for tomorrow. I say, if there’s something that needs to be done you do it now! Because tomorrow may never be there, and that’s especially true with human relationships. Don’t wait. The time for life is now, the time to love is now, the time to do is now, not tomorrow…

Love you all!

Rob

by Leo Buscaglia

You should learn that you cannot be loved by everyone.

You may be the finest plum in the world:

Ripe, juicy and succulent, and offer yourself to all.

But there will be people who do not like plums.

You must understand that if you are the world’s finest plum.

And someone you like doesn’t happen to like plums.

You have the choice of becoming a banana, but you must

Be warned that if you choose to become a banana

You will be a second-rate banana.

But you can always be the best plum.

You must also realise, if you choose to be a banana,

There will be people who do not like bananas.

Furthermore, you could spend your life trying to be the best banana,

which is Impossible if you are a plum,

Or

You can seek again to be the best plum!

Cheers!

Rob

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, & more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today,and creates a vision for tomorrow.” –Melody Beattie

“Loving yourself involves the discovery of the true wonder of you; not only the present you, but the many possibilities of you. It involves the continual realization that you are unique, like no other person in the world, that life is, or should be, the discovery, the development and the sharing of this uniqueness.” –Leo Buscaglia

Happy Monday everyone! Start your morning off on the right note with some beautiful quotes. Check them out below. Cheers! Rob

“Love is like a mirror. When you love another, you become her mirror and she becomes yours. In reflecting each other’s love, you see infinity…” –Leo Buscaglia

“Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.” –George Smith Patton

“Happiness is a state of mind/heart, not a state of having…”

Check out these six year old Shaolin monks. I wouldn’t think twice about stepping in the ring with them. Enjoy… Rob

Happy Friday everyone! Oscar Wilde once said, “When the Gods wish to punish us, they answer our prayers” (An Ideal Husband, act 2). I couldn’t agree more.

If God answered yes to all our prayers, there would be no sickness, no discomfort, no death, no hunger, no pain, no adversity, no poverty, no challenges, no disappointments, and especially, no freedom.

If there were no pain, there would be no learning, no growth, and no change. And without those things, why would we be here?

All those things give life meaning and value. So when stress and the pace of modern life has got you down, remember to keep your head up high and smile. Great things are just waiting around the corner…

Happy trails!

-Rob

“Dreams are never destroyed by circumstance, they’re created in the mind and heart — only there can they be destroyed.” –Art Berg

“You will find as you look back upon your life that the moments when you have really lived are the moments when you have done things in the spirit of love.” –Henry Drummond

Happy Wednesday Everyone! Sorry for being MIA, I just returned from my five day adventure in Arizona (already having Sedona withdrawals). The trip was much needed, as it helped me to disconnect from the material and reconnect with the spiritual. Out of all the places visited, the one that humbled me the most was Walnut Canyon National Monument .

I recommend anyone visiting Flagstaff to check it out. You can still sense the energy and spirit of those who lived there more than 700 years ago. It’s a great place to meditate and connect with your inner-wisdom.

Below is a quote I found etched into a rock on one of the trails:

Honor the sacred.
Honor the Earth, our Mother.
Honor the Elders.
Honor all with whom we
share the Earth:-
Four-leggeds, two-leggeds,
winged ones,
Swimmers, crawlers,
plant and rock people.
Walk in balance and beauty.

Happy Trails…

Rob

“Being Aware means being a witness of life and thereby solely and fully participating in the life that you witness into oneness with the seen and the unseen.” –Maurice Spees

“We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude.” –Cynthia Ozick

“People ask for criticism, but they only want praise.” –W. Somerset Maugham, 1874-1965

“Seize the moment of excited curiosity on any subject to solve your doubts; for if you let it pass, the desire may never return, and you may remain in ignorance.” –William Wirt

It’s been a hectic week for me. I decided to leave town and experience the amazing energy and people in Hippie Town (Sedona, AZ). It’s snowing cats and dogs here right now! I’m soaking up all the goodness from nature and drinking tons of living spring water. Also, I’ve been stuffing my face at this amazing vegetarian restaurant (Chocolat Treat) off 89A in downtown Sedona. Anyhow I thought I’d share a quote I came up (with the help of an alchemist chocolateer) with after drinking an amazing cacao elixir:

“Peace is not about you. It’s about community and living in peace with everything. It’s about living in harmony and sharing your peace with everyone where ever you are…”

Hope everyone had an amazing Sunday. Love you all.

Cheers!

Rob

(updating via phone)

“As we strive to better ourselves and learn from our missteps, we build more strength and happiness for ourselves and others. The more experience we gain, the more the path of our own happiness will open up for us. In realizing this, we discover our own self-worth and a sense of gratitude for all that life has to offer…” –Rob

Feel what you want to give most as a gift, to your man, to your woman and to the

world, and do what you can to give it today. Every moment waited is a moment

wasted, and each wasted moment degrades your clarity of purpose. Life is far too

valuable to waste in a relationship that isn’t opening your heart, and her/his heart

way more than you could on your own…

Love you all!

Rob

William James (January 11, 1842 – August 26, 1910) was a pioneering American psychologist and philosopher trained as a medical doctor, who said:

“We become what we make our minds to become. It is nobody’s fault that the great majority of the people never make up their minds to become anything at all.”

“If you would be learned, you will be learned … if you would be rich, you will be rich … but work for whatever it is you want exclusively and don’t at the same time wish for a thousand other things.”

“There is no more miserable a human being than one in whom nothing is habitual but indecision.”

“The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes.”

“Act as if what you do makes a difference… It does.”

I totally agree! We can do anything we want to do, be anything we want to be. All we need is clarity, laser-like focus and a vision. Our minds are constantly bogged down and overloaded with information coming from all directions, hitting all quadrants of our brain.

It’s time to tune out pesky distractions and tune into your inner-self. Listen to the inner voice to crystallize your dreams and purpose, then commit all your mental, physical and spiritual resources in order to fulfill your destiny. For in the end of your life you’ll be able to look back and have no regrets…

Happy Tuesday and love you all!

Cheers,

Rob

Sorry for the late post. I was recovering from a car accident. Anyhow, I hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine’s Day! Love you all! Cheers! -Rob

“Love is a symbol of eternity.  It wipes out all sense of time, destroying all memory of a beginning and all fear of an end.” 

“Your body needs to be held and to hold, to be touched and to touch. None of these needs is to be despised, denied, or repressed. But you have to keep searching for your body’s deeper need, the need for genuine love. Every time you are able to go beyond the body’s superficial desires for love, you are bringing your body home and moving toward integration and unity.” –Henri Nouwen

“Love can touch us one time and last for a lifetime, and never let go till we’re gone.” –Titanic Theme, My Heart Will Go On

“The greatest weakness of most humans is their hesitancy to tell others how much they love them while they’re alive.” –O. A. Battista

“We are not held back by the love we didn’t receive in the past, but by the love we’re not extending in the present.” –Marianne Williamson (A Return to Love)

Young people often think that by the time they are 28 years old,

if they don’t make as much as their fathers, live in a bigger house,

and drive a faster car, they are failures. Why? Because we live in

a world that teaches us that if we can’t have it now, do it now,

or enjoy it now, then it must not be worth very much. That’s a

big lie–a lie that is taught by product-pushing corporations. the

truth is, perhaps the greatest things of value in life come only

after great effort, hard work, and just as important, time…

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

-Rob

“When we limit ourselves with low expectations, the growth of the tree of happiness ceases. The power of growth, of improvement, the power to overcome all stagnation and break through every obstacle and transform a barren wasteland into a verdant field–that unstoppable power of hope resides right within your own heart. It wells up from the rich earth of your innermost being when you face the future without doubt or fear: “I can do more. I can grow. I can become a bigger and better human being.” Life is a never-ending struggle to grow.” –Daisaku Ikeda

“The greatest distance in the world for most people to travel is the 14 inches from their minds to their hearts.” –Me

Happy Wednesday everyone. Below are some really great quotes on how children see the world. Remember to nurture and encourage that child within you in order to see and experience life in a new way. Feed that part of you, and I promise you’ll become more playful, silly and imaginative.

Cheers! -Rob

“To speak truly, few adult persons can see nature. Most persons do not see the sun. At least they have a very superficial seeing. The sun illuminates only the eye of the man, but shines into the eye and heart of the child. The lover of nature is he whose inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other; who has retained the spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood.” –Ralph Waldo Emerson

“The highest level of creativity consists in being, not doing. When the being is intense enough, when the words are spoken enough, when the thoughts are thought enough, the doing will automatically follow.” –Marianne Williamson

“The end of childhood is not when we reach a certain age, but when things cease to astonish and amaze us. When the world seems familiar, when one has got used to existence, one has become an adult.” –Eugene Ionesco

Happy Tuesday everyone! Here are a couple of quotes from two of my favourite thought leaders. Enjoy… -Rob

“The secret of attraction is to love yourself. Attractive people judge neither themselves nor others. They are open to gestures of love. They think about love, and express their love in every action. They know that love is not a mere sentiment, but the ultimate truth at the heart of the universe.”  Deepak Chopra

“Where is the peace in more is better?  This idea keeps us exclusively in the physical domain.  You can replace the more is better belief with an inner serenity that doesn’t need more to be acceptable.  There is no peace in more is better, and if it doesn’t being peace to your life, then it’s something you want to discard.”  –Wayne Dyer

Happy Monday everyone! Below is a Norman Cousins quote that I found in, Good Housekeeping, Nov. 1989, pg. 92. Cheers! Rob

“Hope, faith, love, humor, and a strong will to live offer no promise of immortality, only proof of our uniqueness as human beings and the opportunity to experience full growth even under the grimmest circumstances. Far more real than the ticking of time is the way we open up the minutes and invest them with meaning. Death is not the ultimate tragedy in life. The ultimate tragedy is to die without discovering the infinite possibilities within you.”

Okay, so I was going to post some quotes by famous NFL players but decided against it. It was a prodigious undertaking trying to find good quotes that people could actually relate to (unless you’re an athlete of course, and ballerina-ing doesn’t count), so I acquiesced and threw in the proverbial “terrible” towel (think Steelers).

I’ll give you an example of the ones my good-ole-pal Google spat out:

“Throw me the ball” –Keyshawn Johnson, “If my mother put on a helmet and shoulder pads and a uniform that wasn’t the same as the one I was wearing, I’d run over her if she was in my way. And I love my mother” –Bo Jackson, “Hey, Warren, the Raiders signed you to a seven-year deal. I guess Bill Callahan was right — they are the dumbest team in America.” and “Nobody in football should be called a genius. A genius is a guy like Norman Einstein.” –Joe Theisman

Get the picture?

Lets digress for a second and talk about today’s match up – Saints vs Colts. Who am I rooting for today? (Drum roll please) Saints! Why? Well, I was fortunate enough to run into Brees (the most stellar quarterback on the face of this planet) a few years back at Z-Galleries (furniture store). I took advantage of the opportunity and machine gunned him with questions about his accuracy.

He advised that his accuracy comes from eating tons of carrots in order to improve his vision – just joking. Actually his precision and accuracy are result of his work ethic and his ability to throw the ball blind-folded (yes, blind-folded, that’s not typo) to his receivers in practice. Hearing that blew my mind because I often draw and paint blind-folded, which helps to improve my ability to concentrate and helps in fostering creativity. I highly recommend it to all that are interested in nurturing that part of them, which is literally educated out of us as we get older (we become analytical machines).

Anyhow, enough of the rambling – here are your quotes (handpicked by yours truly) for Sunday:

“Health is not simply the absence of illness. Real health is the will to overcome every form of adversity and use even the worst of circumstances as a springboard for new growth and development. Simply put, the essence of health is the constant renewal and rejuvenation of life.” –Daisaku Ikeda

“When our memories outweigh our dreams, we become old.” –Bill Clinton

“The age of a person doesn’t matter. The sweetest music is played on the oldest violin.” –Jessie Andrews

“Failure will always remain behind you as long as you confront it.” –Arthur Tugman

Tricked you! Slipped a Vince Lombardi quote in!

“The spirit, the will to win, and the will to excel are the things that endure. These qualities are so much more important than the events that occur.” –Vince Lombardi

Cheers!

Rob

Was at Borders this morning perusing through the spirituality book section and found a really cool book titled, The Law of Attraction, Plain and Simple: Create the Extraordinary Life That You Deserve by Sonia Ricotti. I plowed through all 144 pages in about 40 minutes and found a gem of a quote that I’d like to share with everyone:

“Forgiveness is freeing up and putting to better use the energy once consumed by holding grudges, harboring resentments, and nursing unhealed wounds. It is rediscovering the strengths we always had and relocating our limitless capacity to understand and accept other people and ourselves.” –Sidney and Suzanne Simon

Check out the author’s website when you get a chance http://www.leadoutloud.ca

Cheers!

Rob

“It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power.” —Alan Cohen

“If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.” –Anne Bradstreet

“I hope you never lose your sense of wonder…. You get your fill to eat, but always keep that hunger….
May you never take one single breath for granted…. God forbid love ever leave you empty-handed.

I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean…. Whenever one door closes, I hope one more opens….

Promise me that you’ll give faith a fighting chance…. And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance….

I hope you dance. ” –Lee Ann Womack