I Got To Thinking
When I was 8 years old I watched my father playing chess with a friend. Afterwards his friend took the time to explain to me how the pieces moved and eventually sat me down for a game.I was fascinated with it, hooked, but for a long time I would have nobody to play with. My father worked 3 jobs and slept most of the time, so I played both sides of the chess board by myself. I remember how frustrated I was as a child to have learned how to play chess and not have anyone to play against. I recall how happy I was years later to discover electronic games. I could finaly play against something every day if I wanted to; And then came the internet. Talk about kewl. I was in heaven, many people around the world were also. I don't think anyone could have envisioned how the internet would evolve. There is so much good to be done out here but some still find a need to be hurtful, evil, and destructive. While you are imagining a world of no hate, only love, never any wars, they are imagining attacking that world because they'de never suspect it. When it comes to the world of chess out here, we, collectively as human beings, can and should try to make a difference for the good of all involved. There are a whole lot more peaceful players than war mongers here, and that's a good thing. We should make the difference here, not them. One day while playing a word game with some nice people here, we got a visitor. This was his comment and then my response.
ablankslate:
Damn, yall have no life.
UnbridledOne:
Hello ablankslate, was your user name inspired by your mind?
I bet that name just popped right out of your head, literally. smiles....
Consider yourself just a hiccup here.
Maybe I could have handled him better.
Maybe just ignore him?
But his user name kept screaming at me, "slap me, slap me, slap me!"
So I slapped him. What can I say :)
Wishing you all a piece filled experience.
~~The Unbridled One
When I was a teenager I learned how to milk a cow. It took some time to get the technique down and I finaly began filling the bucket. As I milked ,there was a fly buzzing all around my face and I was forced to milk with one hand and shoo away the fly with one. I noticed the fly land on the cow's face and slowly crawl it's way up and into the cow's ear. I thought to myself, uh oh, this cow is gonna go nuts in a second. I prepared myself for the worst as I milked. As I readjusted myself I noticed the fly was now floating dead in my bucket of milk. The moral to this story is ? In one ear and out the utter, but don't quote me on that.
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise.
Seek what they sought."
~~ Basho
"Two of the greatest gifts we can give our children are roots and wings"
~~ Hodding Carter
"The most important trip you may take in life is meeting people half way"
~~ Henry Boye
"We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them."
~~ Albert Einstein
"Today's mighty oak is just yesterday's nut,
that held its ground."
~~ David Icke
"Sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together."
~~ Marilyn Monroe
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do
than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor.
Catch the tradewinds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."
~~ Mark Twain
"The real voyage of discovery is not in the landscapes, but in having new eyes."
~~ Unknown
"Do one thing every day that scares you."
~~ Mary Schmich
"Someday" is a disease that will take your dreams to the grave with you"
~~ Timothy Ferris
There is probably no more terrible instant of enlightenment
than the one in which you discover your father is a man--with human flesh.
~~ Frank Herbert
"I learned to give not because I had plenty,
but because I know exactly how it feels to have nothing"
~~ Unknown
"Courage is not the great oak tree that withstood two hundred years of storms.
Courage is the tiny fragile flower that blossomed in the snow."
~~ Unknown
"Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness."
~~ Unknown
If I love you, what business is it of yours?
~~ JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU
"Be patient towards all that is unresolved in your heart,
and learn to love the questions themselves."
~~ Rainier Maria Rilke
"Pity the bird in the cage who looks up at the ceiling
and thinks that it is the sky"
~~ Unknown
"There is a difference between knowing the path and walking the path"
~~ Unknown
A "rut' is a long grave
~~ Unknown
"You can never touch the same water twice"
~~ Unknown
"If you are patient in one moment of anger,
you will escape a hundred days of sorrow."
~~ Unknown
"Hold on to the love, not the loss"
~~ Unknown
"if everything is coming your way, you are probably in the wrong lane"
~~ Unknown
"Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl
is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves"
~~ Albert Einstein
“May those who love me love me. And those that don't love me,
May God turn their hearts. And if He can't turn their hearts,
May he turn their ankles, So I will know them by their limp.”
~~ Unknown
"While going up the stairs one day,
I met a man who wasn't there.
He wasn't there again today.
I wish he'd go away."
~~ Polonius
“My grandmother started walking five miles a day when she was sixty.
She's ninety-seven now, and we don't know where the heck she is.”
~~ Ellen DeGeneres
"They said it couldn't be done. Everyone said it couldn't be done.
No matter who you asked all around the world,
they all said the same thing, it just couldn't be done.
Well there was an old man living in a cave high up on a mountain,
far away from any people, and he never heard it couldn't be done.
He couldn't do it either."
~~ Unknown
"Gaining weight while you owe me money is a sign of disrespect"
~~ Unknown
“The statistics on sanity are that one out of every four people
is suffering from a mental illness. Look at your 3 best friends.
If they're ok, then it's you.”
~~ Rita Mae Brown
“When you're in jail, a good friend will be trying to bail you out.
A best friend will be in the cell next to you saying, 'Damn, that was fun'.”
~~ Groucho Marx
"I did not attend his funeral,
but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it."
~~ Mark Twain
“Right now I’m having amnesia and déjà vu at the same time.
I think I’ve forgotten this before.”
~~ Steven Wright
"Opera is when a guy gets stabbed in the back
and instead of bleeding, he sings."
~~ Robert Benchly
"To be is to do"
~~ Socrates
"To do is to be"
~~ Plato
"Do-be-do-be-do"
~~ Frank Sinatra"
"I'M not being defensive! YOOOOOU"RE being defensive!"
~~ Unknown
“What are you reading?" Polonius asked.
"Words, words, words," said Hamlet.
"I mean what do you read about?"
"All in a line, back and forth." said Hamlet.
"I go from left to right with my mind full,
and then must drop it there and head back empty-headed to the left side again,
and take up another load to carry forward.
It's a most tedious job, and when I'm done,
there are all the letters right where I found them,
unchanged despite my having carried them all into my head.”
~~ Orson Scott Card
"Said the little boy, "Sometimes I drop my spoon."
Said the old man, "I do that too."
The little boy whispered, "I wet my pants."
I do that too," laughed the little old man.
Said the little boy, "I often cry."
The old man nodded, "So do I."
But worst of all," said the boy, "it seems
Grown-ups don't pay attention to me."
And he felt the warmth of a wrinkled old hand.
I know what you mean," said the little old man.”
~~ Shel Silverstein
"When you go out into the woods and you look at trees,
you see all these different trees.
And some of them are bent,
and some of them are straight,
and some of them are evergreens,
and some of them are whatever.
And you look at the tree and you allow it.
You see why it is the way it is. You sort of understand that it didn't get enough light, and so it turned that way.
And you don't get all emotional about it. You just allow it.
You appreciate the tree. The minute you get near humans, you lose all that.
And you are constantly saying, 'You're too this, or I'm too this.'
That judging mind comes in. And so I practice turning people into trees.
Which means appreciating them just the way they are."
~~ Ram Dass
JAR OF STONES
One day, an old professor of the School of Public Management in France,
was invited to lecture on the topic of “Efficient Time Management” in front
of a group of 15 executive managers representing the largest, most successful companies in America.
The lecture was one in a series of 5 lectures conducted in one day,
and the old professor was given 1 hr to lecture.
Standing in front of this group of elite managers,
who were willing to write down every word that would come out of the famous professor’s mouth,
the professor slowly met eyes with each manager, one by one, and finally said,
“we are going to conduct an experiment”.
From under the table that stood between the professor and the listeners,
the professor pulled out a big glass jar and gently placed it in front of him.
Next, he pulled out from under the table a bag of stones, each the size of a tennis ball,
and placed the stones one by one in the jar.
He did so until there was no room to add another stone in the jar.
Lifting his gaze to the managers, the professor asked, “Is the jar full?”
The managers replied, “Yes”.
The professor paused for a moment, and replied, “Really?”
Once again, he reached under the table and pulled out a bag full of pebbles.
Carefully, the professor poured the pebbles in and slightly rattled the jar,
allowing the pebbles to slip through the larger stones, until they settled at the bottom.
Again, the professor lifted his gaze to his audience and asked, “Is the jar full?”
At this point, the managers began to understand his intentions. One replied, “apparently not!”
“Correct”, replied the old professor, now pulling out a bag of sand from under the table.
Cautiously, the professor poured the sand into the jar.
The sand filled up the spaces between the stones and the pebbles.
Yet again, the professor asked, “Is the jar full?”
Without hesitation, the entire group of students replied in unison, “NO!” “Correct”, replied the professor.
And as was expected by the students, the professor reached for the pitcher of water that was on the table,
and poured water in the jar until it was absolutely full.
The professor now lifted his gaze once again and asked,
“What great truth can we surmise from this experiment?”
With his thoughts on the lecture topic, one manager quickly replied,
“We learn that as full as our schedules may appear,
if we only increase our effort, it is always possible to add more meetings and tasks.”
“No”, replied the professor. The great truth that we can conclude from this experiment is:
If we don’t put all the larger stones in the jar first, we will never be able to fit all of them later.
The auditorium fell silent, as every manager processed the significance of the professor’s words in their entirety.
The old professor continued, “What are the large stones in your life?
Health? Family? Friends? Your goals? Doing what you love? Fighting for a Cause? Taking time for yourself?”
What we must remember is that it is most important to include the larger stones in our lives,
because if we don’t do so, we are likely to miss out on life altogether.
If we give priority to the smaller things in life (pebbles & sand),
our lives will be filled up with less important things,
leaving little or no time for the things in our lives that are most important to us.
Because of this, never forget to ask yourself,
What are the Large Stones in your Life? And once you identify them, be sure to put them first in your “Jar of Life”.
With a warm wave of his hand, the professor bid farewell to the managers, and slowly walked out of the room.
