"Only the hand that erases can write the true thing.” I like this quote. Again, this quote lends itself to Buddhist thought and the way of Zen. In fact. it's almost a koan in and of itself!
Funny, this quote is by Meister Eckhart, a German theologian and philosopher who was tried for heresy by the Catholic church. In other words, he was very far from being a Buddhist! I am also fairly certain that his meaning for this quote was much different to the meaning I am going to give it. I view the quote as one of the steps toward gaining enlightenment. What is the true thing? It is nothing. And Everything. There is no past. There is no future. There is just the present. Although we all hope that we will live for a long time, there is no guarantee. All we have is the present. The now. In the end, we have our minds, and that's about it. We have what we are doing right now. And nothing else. Although there are alternatives to what I am doing right now, I am not doing them. Thus, they do not really exist anywhere but in my mind. And the potentials that those actions may produce, are only that. Potentials. The body is made up of a number of living cells. And yet we recognize ourselves as only one. If we lose a limb, it is detached from us, and withers and dies. Meanwhile the rest of us lumbers on. A little inconvenienced, but still alive and able to function. In the end, our possessions do not matter. We cannot take them with us. We spend all of our lives collecting this or that and actually saving it, expecting it to give us happiness. And yet, in the end, we all return to the source. Our survivors throw what remains away. And we return to the nothing, as if we were erased from history.
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My mom has been passed for 3 years now... it's crazy to think that I was only 11 when everything happened so fast. Before my mom died, she taught me a lot about being a good person- and I've found she's taught me a lot more since her passing. This post isn't going to be long, or drawn out. It's simply going to be the wisdom I've learned from my mom. Enjoy... hopefully you can incorporate some of this into your own life.
Before Don't judge others based on appearance. Give people a chance and get to know them for who they are. Be kind and accepting. A nice word goes a long way and sometimes you'll never realize the impact you have on someone. Don't see every situation as being the worst. Try to find the good in everything, no matter how bad it may seem. Try your best at whatever you do. Treat others how you would want to be treated. Be honest. After... Don't ever take anything for granted. You never know when you can lose it. You don't know what you have until it's gone. Never hesitate in telling someone how you really feel about them because you DO NOT KNOW how long you have left to do so. Never go to bed angry with someone you care about. Don't waste your time foolishly. If you need help, don't be afraid to ask for it. However... no one can help you if you won't help yourself. Don't blame yourself for the mistakes of others. Choices you make now will affect your future whether you're conscious of it or not. In the end, love is all there is. "And once the storm is over, you won't remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won't even be sure if the storm is really over. But one thing is certain- when you come out of the storm, you won't be the same person that walked in. That's what this storm's all about." - maddie One Day I was Jumping up, and down with my jump rope under the trees. A little later, I put my jump rope down and started to run up and down the hill. Then I ran inside my house and got some bubbles to blow outside. A few minutes later, I got my skooter, and rode it up and down. Finally, I went inside to have a rest! It is fun to play outside when the weather is nice!
Ashleigh I was looking at some Zen koans earlier, and I came across something that wasn't realy a koan, but got me thinking nonetheless. A koan typically is a paradoxical anecdote or riddle, used in Zen Buddhism to demonstrate the inadequacy of logical reasoning and to provoke enlightenment.. The following anecdote, will get you thinking, but it isn't really a koan since it gives you the answer to think about. A true koan would leave it to you to figure out, and thus gain enlightenment. Here is the paragraph in question: Read this slowly: "LIFEISNOWHERE" What did you read? Life is No Where? OR Life is Now Here? My friends, Life is all about how you look at it! That last line is what really kills it as a koan in my opinion. Still, it does make you think, and the author is correct, in my opinion. Life is all about how you look at it!
Have you ever met someone who seems perpetually happy? I have. I think we all have actually. I notice when I am around these people that the world seems to be a little less foreboding and seems to have more opportunity. Their smiles are infectious, and I generally seem to have a better time while I am around them. Other people seem to have the opposite effect. Everything is a chore for them, and if you are not miserable too, then you are just not trying enough! These people have the ability to suck the life out of me, and I try to avoid them as much as I can. I also notice that these people are not the same for all people (although the happy ones are!). Someone who is a time suck and a drain for me, may just be an ordinary person for someone else The final group of people are what most people seem to be... that is neutral. For the most part, these people have little impact on your life most of the time. About 90% of the people you meet are going to be neutral in your life. My advice is to find the perpetually happy, and try to make friends with them. At the same time, make friends with all of the neutrals you can as well, since they are usually nice people, and while they don't have the ability to always be happy around you and help your happiness, at least most times they will be amicable. The final group, I call them the buzz kills, are the ones you really want to steer away from in your life. Life is too short to be miserable, or to be around perpetually miserable people. For me, I also try to avoid drunks and liars as well, since I really don't have the patience for them. Finally, although I initially read the above line of letters as life is no where, it is not how I truly feel. I like to live my life so that I am experiencing the now. Life is way too short to live in the past, and I find I am happiest when I am working towards a better tomorrow. There is a quote I read once that I honestly try to live by. That is: "Be the change you want to see in the world." Now, although I'd like to see many changes in the world, I am realistic. I won't be able to change the entire world, but I should be able to have an impact on my immediate surroundings. Thus, I focus on making things better around me. I like to help out people when I can and I try not to harm anyone around me, if they are not hurting me. Peace over power. In general, I see my world as a happy place, filled with opportunity. That type of attitude makes me happy. I am happy as long as I actually work towards bringing those opportunities about. How do you see the world? Do you take steps to be the type of change you want to see in the world? Because, in the end, life really is how you look at it! Meld it into your vision. Today I wrote a song called ''Painters In My House.'' And here are all the words: Painters are in my house in this nice time of year. They are painting inside and out. And it's like the paint is coming from the spout. They are so quiet, they never shout. Who know's when they will be done, but their work is bound to stun. Ashleigh
Today's blog post is going to be a bit different than usual; because I'm writing it while I'm out and without a real set topic!!! I have a lot to get done today before my friend comes over, so I figured I'd write this before I even got back to the house so I wouldn't have to deal with TOO much stress. I still have some algebra, another post, AND my vacuuming to take care of.
However, my caffeine addiction knows no bounds and even with this heavy schedule I still asked my dad to take me out for our routine cup of coffee during the day. I really enjoy the coffee; but more than the coffee I enjoy the time spent in the truck with my dad talking about whatever we happen to come up with. Usually, we end up talking about life or some such engrossing topic- in fact; we just started talking about how life could possibly be a computer simulation!!! Talks like these are why my dad and I are so close. He doesn't have any real limits and he never "grew up" in the ways that DON'T matter- so he doesn't mind talking about whatever and making jokes with me. It's pretty awesome, to be honest. I feel like most people say that they "never grew up", but so many say it without knowing what it means. How close are you to your kids, if you have them? Can you relate to them and help them and talk about the world with them? Or would you rather blame them for your own mistakes and categorize them into the generation they were born without choice into. My dad can not only level with me on most things; but he tries to take interest in the things that I'm interested in as well. Hell, he even took up karate to help me train when I was 7; never knowing that he'd enjoy it! He's now a second degree black belt and a sensei. Aside from that; he also hikes with me and my sister, plays xbox with us, watches anime with me, and even tries to fit in with "meme" culture (which can be a mix of embarrassing and amusing to me). He's a great dad and he has a great connection with me... and in today's world, I couldn't be more thankful. - maddie I like going for walks. Guess What? I went for a walk Yesterday and I saw a locust. I also found a little frog. I picked up the frog and showed it to my Sister and her two friends. They liked it. I also picked up the locust and Cupped it in my hands. We found acorns, and I saw many pretty leaves They were red and yellow.
Ashleigh Don't judge this post by its title; that's the first thing I'll say before jumping into this topic. Something that's strange to me, is the lack of songs that are written about addiction. I realize that yes, there are a good handful, but I'm going to break down into specifics. I think it's odd that there's so few songs about addiction affecting families through the parents... particularly since "Seventy six million Americans, about 43% of the U.S. adult population, have been exposed to alcoholism in the family. Almost one in five adult Americans (18%) lived with an alcoholic while growing up". What I've noticed in music is that if addiction is covered; it's almost always directed onto the fathers. It's odd to me that even addiction has gender roles and it disgusts me in a way because I actually know more people who have mothers with addiction problems than fathers. That's besides the point though; everyone's experience is different and I just say that about the music industry's personification of addiction. I'd never discredit anyone of their experience with addiction... then again; I'd never wish it upon anyone to experience addiction within their family. It's a horrible thing and it's terrifying. In any case, for any new readers to this blog... my mom was an alcoholic who suffered from addictive personality disorder and multiple eating disorders. She passed away 3 years ago; a result of her poor life decisions and mental illness but most prominently because of her addiction. Prior to that, her addiction split apart my family and I stood witness to everything she did for my entire life; beginning to understand things at 7. This post is semi-inspired by my dad's post from yesterday. He's written numerous posts about my mom, and I have too- I'm sure of you scroll back enough (or go through the carefully organized categories he's put together) you can piece together my life's story. Due to the gender roles that have been slapped onto addiction in pop culture; I've always found it hard finding music that deals with mothers with addictions. However, recently I've been listening to an artist named NF (I believe I've mentioned a few of his songs in previous posts) and I've found 2 of his songs that actually do cover a very similar situation to mine, Upon doing some research; I discovered that the 2 songs I had found were inspired by his own experience as he had lost his mother to an accidental drug overdose. While my mom (thankfully) was never hooked on any hard drugs; the alcohol was bad enough. I honestly do consider alcohol to be a drug, at the end of the day. In any case, I greatly appreciate the two songs because I find them to be quite relatable, even though the lyrics are pretty heavy. If you aren't into rap, at least read the lyrics. I'll leave a link to the songs below. - maddie Miss You - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtRy75dqzGc How Could You Leave Us - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9tqvCYlZSQ
"When watching after yourself, you watch after others. When watching after others, you watch after yourself." That, of course, is a quote by Buddha. The interesting thing about Buddha is that everyone quotes him, but he has no actual writings of his own. In fact, the first sayings written as Buddha's were written about four hundred years after his death.
Have you ever played a game of pass the secret? That's the game where one person starts with a message and then whispers it into the ear of the person sitting to their left. Everyone is in a circle by the way... Well, by the time the "secret" gets back to the original person, the secret is nothing near to what was actually said to begin with! Well, now think about doing that for four hundred years. I am guessing that if any of "his" sayings ever got back to Buddha he would have a Yogi Berra moment. .. "I haven't said half the things they say I said!" Anyway, to get back to the quote, I don't care if Buddha actually said it or not, I believe there is some truth to it. It is particularly true when you are watching after others. Here is a personal example: As many of you know, my wife was an alcoholic, and she drank herself to death. What you might not know is that I am also an alcoholic. I have been sober for seventeen years. When I first met my wife, we both drank. While I drank socially, always with other people, my wife was more of a sneak drinker. So much so, that I didn't even know she had a drinking problem until we were already dating for a couple of weeks! It was at that point that Sharon told me she was an alcoholic and asked me to help her to stop drinking. She asked me, because she did not know how heavily I drank (since I did it mainly on the weekends and occasionally after work). At first I just thought she meant that she drank too much socially, and I told her that in the two weeks that I had known her I only saw her have a couple of drinks. It was at that point that she opened her pocket book and showed me her bottle of vodka. She had a one liter bottle in her pocketbook and it was about halfway gone. She was drinking daily, then, including while she was at work... and I never would have known. At that moment, I promised her that I would help her to quit, and it was then that I had my last drink. That was back in July 1999. Sharon never stopped drinking, even with all of my "help". I literally took hundreds of bottles from her over the years, but it did no good. In 2013, she died of esophageal varices, which was caused by the damage she did to her liver while drinking. To bring it back full circle, in trying to save my wife, I ended up saving myself. (When watching after others, you watch after yourself.} In the end, although I tried my hardest, no one can really save anyone who is caught in an addiction...they must save themselves. BUT, in trying to save Sharon, I ended up saving myself. Sharon and I divorced in 2011 to protect the children. I have raised Maddie alone since she was seven and Ashleigh since the day she came home from the hospital. It pains me that I could not help Sharon. Psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, in patient, out patient, AA... none of it worked with Sharon. It ended up she had addictive personality disorder, but we didn't find that out until it was way too late. I held Sharon for the last six hours of her life after they removed her from life support. She died in my arms. When we first met, I never thought that our last embrace would be in death. I didn't realize how badly she needed help, and I never guessed that I would not be able to give it to her. I was naive, and I felt that if I just stopped drinking myself, I would be able to provide all of the willpower she needed for her to do the same. The other night, someone on Imgur put up a picture of the token they received from AA for being sober for one year. It really touched me, and made me think of Sharon, and myself. I congratulated them, told them how long I had been sober and said "Take it one day at a time, my friend." For those of you who are not afflicted with alcoholism, I can tell you from experience becoming sober is not an easy thing to do. In fact, some never quite make it. Like my wife. Rest in peace Sharon. For those of you still suffering with alcoholism, seek help. AA is a great place to start, and there are in-patient programs that may be of help as well. Guess what? My sister's room is going to get painted. She is going to have two black walls and two gray walls My room is going to be painted too! The color I want in my room is pink! The painters names are Perry and Calvin. They are very nice and like to talk to me.
Ashleigh I'm having another one of those anxiety-filled days currently; and due to that I don't particularly feel like writing much. I'm stressed out and mentally exhausted and really just need a boost. Because of this, I'm going to search online for quotes to brighten my mood and then share them with my audience. I truly believe that everyone could use a positive reminder every day; or a quote that they could relate to in a tough time. I'll call this part 2; since I've done a post of a similar nature before.
Keep in mind that these quotes are going to be relating directly to me and the mood I'm in currently... and thus; not all may be positive. Some may be little nuggets of wisdom for you as you traverse you day. Whatever the case may be for you, I hope that these quotes help you as they've helped me. "Change your thoughts, and you'll change your world." "The mind is everything. What you think, you become." "You can never win an argument with a negative person. They only hear what suits them and listen only to respond." "Don't worry about those who talk about you behind your back, they're behind you for a reason." "It's discouraging to think of how many people are shocked by honesty, and how few by deceit." "The moment you feel you need to prove yourself, is the moment you need to hold your tongue and walk away." "Controllers, abusers, and manipulative people don't question themselves. They never ask themselves if the problem is them. They always say the problem is someone else." - Maddie Tonight I finished a book called ''The Planets In Our Solar System.'' Tonight for something new I'm going to talk about two outer planets, and two in er planets. The two outer planets I'm going to talk about are ''Saturn, and Uranus.''
Saturn has a lot of rings. And it is one of our gas giants. Uranus also has a lot of rings! And Guess what! Uranus has 15 moons (Maybe more)! And the next two planets I'm going to talk about is going to be Earth and Venus Earth is a special planet. It's the planet we live on! We don't celebrate Earth Day it is just a day same with ''April Fools Day.'' And Venus is a black, and white Planet. It has no rings and it is another of our gas giants. Ashleigh Ashleigh Recently, some of the events in my life have been surrounding religion. What's right; what's wrong... etc; etc. I personally believe that religion is so wide-spread that there's no real surefire religion that's correct, and that people should be allowed to believe whatever they want so long as they don't cause harm or discomfort to others. .Personally, I'm agnostic, and I do believe in God. NASA has proved that there's God- whatever created us; whether it's nature or some higher power, is God. And we were created SOME HOW- therefore, there's a God. I just don't believe there's a just God due to all of the horrible things going on in the world.
I could go deeper on my opinions about religion and why I disagree with the one I was brought up in; but that wasn't what I intended this post to be about. In the end; there's no way to be certain about religion anyway and arguing about it is; in my opinion, is pointless. The rest of this post is going to be quotes about coexisting. "There are many paths up the mountain, but the view of the moon from the top is the same." "You don't need religion to have morals. If you can't determine right from wrong, then you lack empathy- not religion." "Freedom of religion means freedom of ALL religions; not just your own." "All major religious traditions carry basically the same message; that is love, compassion, and forgiveness. The important thing is that they should be a part of our daily lives." "In the end; only three things matter: how much you loved, how gently you lived, and how gracefully you let go of things not meant for you." "Morality is doing what is right regardless of what you are told. Religion is doing what you are told regardless of what is right." "God has no religion." - maddie Today we are going to talk about the four outer planets.' You know the inner planets already, but do you know the outer planets? The outer planets are Uranus, Saturn, Jupiter, and Neptune. Neptune is far away from the sun, so it gets very, very cold. It gets colder than the South Pole! Mercury and Venus, the two inner-most planets, are the hottest planets in our Solar System. Did you know Mercury is the closest planet to the sun? Now you do!
Ashleigh "Yelling silences your message. Speak quietly, so that your children can hear your words instead of just your voice." I agree with the above quote whole-heartedly... because I've been in both situations with adults before. Yelling is an unfortunate common occurrence in my house; and while I'm just as guilty as the rest of my family is about it... I often think of ways that the yelling could possibly be tuned down a bit. I mean, it gets ridiculous! It's constant, it's unnecessary, and it happens for no reason. There's yelling going on as I write this post because my sister had the volume 2 notches too high on her iPad... and instead of calmly asking her to turn it down, she got yelled at to do it.
Was there any particular reason for the yell as opposed to the calm question? Honestly, I don't know. When it comes to pointless little things like that; I can't figure out why people choose to yell. I can somewhat understand yelling when arguing or when emotionally disturbed, but yelling for no reason just seems like a waste of time. I think some believe that the louder they are; the more valid their argument- and it's not the case. If anything; yelling takes away from your argument by making you seem foolish. The other day in the car, my dad got around to telling me two pieces of advice that he remembered his dad telling him and taking to heart- and that got me thinking about advice that HE has given me. And one of the most valuable pieces of advice that I think my dad has given me is that it's always better to approach things calmly and logically; and to avoid yelling in arguments for the same reason I stated above (looking foolish and sounding ignorant). So thank you, dad. I do try to follow that bit of advice (and the many other bits of advice that you've given me) as often as I can, when I remember. If the world could follow that advice, I think there would be far less problems. "Arguing with idiots is like playing chess with a pigeon- no matter how good you are, the bird is going to shit on the board and strut around like it won anyway." - Maddie "What makes earth feel like hell is our expectation that it should feel like heaven.” That's a quote by Chuck Palahniuk. So who is Chuck? He is the author of the book "Fight Club". Although I have not read the book, I have seen the movie. (God it felt horrible saying THAT!!!) I guess I will have to put it on my list of things to read, since I did enjoy the movie, and oftentimes I enjoy the books more than the movies. I must admit, I like Chuck's quote. I have always felt that false expectations always works to make things seem worse than they actually are. Sometimes I go to movies with very high expectations and I end up disappointed... even if the movie isn't bad, but just mediocre. Meanwhile, I have also gone to films where I entered with little to no expectations and left the theater happy that I went! Buddha had a number of great quotes about expectations. I'll list a few below, then continue on with my thoughts. "Serenity comes when you trade expectations for acceptance." "The root of suffering is attachment." "Do not dwell on the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment." "Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without." "When we do not expect anything, we can be ourselves." That last quote may not be by Buddha. I believe I have heard it somewhere before. But for right now, we'll give it to Buddha since it seems like something he would say! It seems to be a recurring theme with Buddha that all troubles seem to start when we set expectations. Even worse than having expectations about things, we sometimes set expectations for ourselves.
Unfortunately, I like to do this. They are not expectations per se, but goals. I definitely like to set goals for myself and then strive to reach them. It is a way for me to focus my energy and use it towards creating a favorable outcome. While I do not always reach my "goals" right away, I can note progress towards them over time. Sometimes, I will change my goals due to changes in my life.When I do this, I do not feel like I am in hell. It is usually because I realized that there was either a better way of accomplishing my goal, or there was a better goal available. Now with all of that said, I will admit that I had a period in my life that I considered hell. Expectations did lead to some of it. When I was younger, I always expected that my wife would outlive me. She was ten years younger than me and given the mortality table, I was reasonably confident that she would survive me. That wasn't the case, however. She died three years ago. Although her mental illness took her away from our family three years before that. For the past seven years I have been raising my daughters on my own. My Mom lives with us now, and she is a great help, but I raise the girls as I see fit. At any rate, I think you can see where my hell was coming from. My expectations led me to have all of my plans tied to my wife being alive and with us. My business was based out of my home, and I had banked on my wife being there to help raise the children. For three years, there was only me to do that. Me, a single Dad with a newborn baby, a seven-year-old little girl, and a mentally ill wife who still needed my love and understanding... even though she could no longer live with us. To make a long story short, it is amazing that we survived that time as well as we did. I never want to have to relive those circumstances. Long-time readers of this blog, likely know some of our trials. There are some things I will never talk about though. Those are parts of my own personal hell. Once again, I have expectations for myself and my family. Am I setting myself up for further hellish times? I don't think so. I try to listen to Buddha, and keep my expectations low. I do aim high with my goals, though, and work diligently to make those happen. Are those expectations? No, they are goals, and they help to give my life meaning. In the end, keep your expectations low and set your goals high... and diligently work towards them. Hopefully, this strategy will let you walk the thin line between heaven and hell and allow you to survive. While there may not be a heaven on earth, there certainly doesn't have to be a hell either. God bless! Today's been long... incredibly long. Lately I've been dealing with a lot of dishonesty in my life and its been taking its toll on me, I must admit. I'm sick of it. It literally makes me physically ill knowing some people can do such terrible things to people and live with no remorse for it... it really says something about character. I personally have come to the point where it's extremely hard for me to tell big lies. I tell the occasional white lie; but who doesn't..? Whenever I even try to tell a big lie (which is rare to begin with) I always get overcome with guilt and fess up to whatever it is.
Because of this, I decided to look through some quotes on google and post some of the best ones. I'm not much in the mood for writing; but I did figure I'd give a little insight to my choice of topic. "Before us lie two paths- honesty and dishonesty. The shortsighted embark on the dishonest path; the wise on the honest. For the wise know the truth: in helping others, we help ourselves; and in hurting others, we hurt ourselves. Character overshadows money, and trust rises above fame. Honesty is still the best policy." "Lying and dishonesty never work- and it is a great human tragedy that people think dishonesty can work for a good motive." "You lie so often and so well that you actually believe your lies to be the truth. You are a superb pathological liar; and it's terrifying." "When someone lies to you, it's because they don't respect you enough to be honest, and they think you're too stupid to know the difference." "Never try to destroy someone's life with a lie; when yours could be destroyed with the truth." "More people would learn from their mistakes if they weren't so busy denying them." "Should you ever find yourself the victim of other people's bitterness, lies, or insecurities... just remember that it could be worse. You could be them." - maddie Today I read a new book called ''The Planets In Our Solar System''. Do you know the eight planets? I bet you do. you are lucky because we are going to talk about planets.
But if you don't know the eight planets, I will teach them to you. ''The eight are Mercury, Mars, Earth, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn Neptune and Uranus. Pluto used to be a planet, but is now considered a dwarf planet. The earth orbits around the sun and spins on its own axis. We spin at an angle though, and that is what causes us to have seasons. When the top of our planet is angled towards the sun, we have Summer. When it is angled away from the sun, we have Winter. I like to build snowmen in the Winter, and to swim during the Summer. The Spring and Fall happen when the angle begins to change. I hope you liked my report on the planets. Ashleigh Before you get on me for copying my dad- I'm not. Winnie the Pooh was just a large part of my childhood that I dearly appreciated; and because of this I wanted to write a post about it. My dad's post just happened to inspire me. My dad did snatch up most of the good quotes that I wanted to use in this post; so it seems I'll have to do some deeper digging to find mine.. but honestly; for a children's book series the quotes that can be found within it are very good and fortunately for me; very many.
As I mention the quotes, if I have anything to say about them I will. I don't want this post to seem like TOO much of a knock-off of my dad's. "A little consideration, a little thought for others, makes all the difference." I've written a few posts about this before that explore this subject in further detail, but it's quite true. Sometimes even a simple compliment can change someone's day around; and if you have a small opportunity to be nice... then by all means, do so. "Weeds are flowers, too, once you get to know them." Simple though it may be, I love the message that this quote conveys. While it might mean something else, I took it as a judgment of outward beauty compared to inward beauty... some people may not be the most attractive on the outside; but if they have a beautiful soul it doesn't matter. I truly believe that beauty is defined by what's on the inside anyway; and that outer appearance barely matters. "One of the advantages of being disorganized is that one is always having surprising discoveries." This quote speaks to me on a spiritual level; honestly. I am an extremely disorganized person and I tend to "go with the flow" of things on a regular basis. The quote is right- doing so will lead you to some surprising discoveries... some of which create the best memories you'll have. “I don't see much sense in that," said Rabbit. "No," said Pooh humbly, "there isn't. But there was going to be when I began it. It's just that something happened to it along the way.” - Maddie Well, here is a weird post for you. One of my favorite characters growing up was Winnie The Pooh. In fact, during college for a time a few of my friends called me Pooh Bear, both for my ability to quote the friendly cartoon bear, and unfortunately for my shape and style of walking after a night of drinking. As an adult, I made sure to raise my daughters with a good dose of Winnie The Pooh. Both had Winnie The Pooh blankets and many of the stuffed animals. In fact, I even sang the Winnie The Pooh song to Ashleigh when she was younger and I was trying to get her to fall asleep. Those facts aside, it took my wife's death to unknowingly teach me the hard way that many of the things the little bear said had a pearl of wisdom hidden within them. Without further ado, here are some of the pearls of wisdom that Winnie the Pooh has uttered over the years that are very true: "Sometimes the smallest things take up the most room in your heart." "We didn't realize that we were making memories, we just knew we were having fun." "If there ever comes a day when we can't be together, keep me in your heart. I'll stay there forever." "People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day." "I think we dream so that we don't have to be apart so long. If we are in each other's dreams, we can be together all of the time." Promise me you'll never forget me, because if I thought you would, I'd never leave." Piglet: "How do you spell love Pooh?" Pooh: "You don't spell love... you feel it." "How lucky am I to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard." Well, there you go! And remember (to quote Eeyore) "It never hurts to keep looking for sunshine."
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