Friendship

No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow.
~Alice Walker~

What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies.
~Aristotle~

Those truly linked don't need correspondence. When they meet again after many years apart, Their friendship is as true as ever.
~Deng Ming-Dao~

When a friend is in trouble, don't annoy him by asking if there is anything you can do. Think up something appropriate and do it.
~Edgar Watson Howe~

Friendship marks a life even more deeply than love. Love risks degenerating into obsession, friendship is never anything but sharing.
~Elie Wiesel~

It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages.
~Friedrich Nietzsche~

When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives means the most us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving much advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a gentle and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.
~Henri Nouwen~

The Invitation

It doesn't interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting in your heart's longing.

It doesn't interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dreams, for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life's betrayals or have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain.

I want to know if you can sit in pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it or fade it or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own,if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tip of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, be realistic, or to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn't interest me if the story you're telling me is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself; if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul.

I want to know if you can be faithful and therefore be trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see beauty even when it is not pretty every day, and if you can source your life from God's presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand on the edge of a lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, "Yes!"

It doesn't interest me to know where you live or how much money you have.

I want to know if you can get up after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done for the children.

It doesn't interest me who you are, how you came to be here.

I want to know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me and not shrink back.

It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom you have studied.

I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone with yourself, and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.

The Invitation
By Oriah Mountain Dreamer
(A Native American Elder)

Native American Ponder Points

"We who are clay blended by the Master Potter, come from the kiln of Creation in many hues. How can people say one skin is colored, when each has its own coloration? What should it matter that one bowl is dark and the other pale, if each is of good design and serves its purpose well."
~Polingaysi Qoyawayma, Hopi ~

"Lose your temper and you lose a friend; lie and you lose yourself."
~Hopi ~

Brother, you say there is but one way to worship and serve the Great Spirit. If there is but one religion, why do you white people differ so much about it? Why not all agreed, as you can all read the Book?
~Sogoyewapha, "Red Jacket" - Senaca~

You have noticed that everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the Power of the World always works in circles, and everything tries to be round..... The Sky is round, and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball, and so are all the stars. The wind, in its greatest power, whirls. Birds make their nest in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours....

Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were. The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves.
-Black Elk (Oglala) 1863-1950

...... everything on the earth has a purpose, every disease an herb to cure it, and every person a mission. This is the Indian theory of existence.
-Mourning Dove (Salish) 1888-1936

"When we Indians kill meat, we eat it all up. When we dig roots, we make little holes. When we build houses, we make little holes. When we burn grass for grasshoppers, we don't ruin things. We shake down acorns and pine nuts. We don't chop down the trees. We only use dead wood. But the white people plow up the ground, pull down the trees, kill everything. ... the White people pay no attention. ...How can the spirit of the earth like the White man? ... everywhere the White man has touched it, it is sore."
-Wintu Woman, 19th Century

Ponder Points On Politics and Government From Will Rogers

Ancient Rome declined because it had a Senate; now what's going to happen to us with both a Senate and a House?

Be thankful we're not getting all the government we're paying for.

Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie' until you can find a rock.

I belong to no organized party. I am a Democrat.

On account of being a democracy and run by the people, we are the only nation in the world that has to keep a government four years, no matter what it does.

Our constitution protects aliens, drunks and U.S. Senators.

Take the diplomacy out of war and the thing would fall flat in a week.

There ought to be one day-- just one-- when there is open season on senators.

This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when the baby gets hold of a hammer.

The more you read and observe about this Politics thing, you got to admit that each party is worse than the other. The one that's out always looks the best.

Ponderpoints From Mahatma Gandhi

Indolence is a delightful but distressing state; we must be doing something to be happy.

You must be the change you want to see in the world.

You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.

What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?

Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.

GandhiLive as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.

The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world's problems.

Even as wisdom often comes from the mouths of babes, so does it often come from the mouths of old people. The golden rule is to test everything in the light of reason and experience, no matter from where it comes.

Points Worth Pondering From Thoreau

I learned this, at least, by my experiment;that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams,and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined,he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.

If a man does not keep pace with his companions,perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.

An efficient and valuable man does what he can,whether the community pay him for it or not.The inefficient offer their inefficiency to the highest bidder,and are forever expecting to be put in office.

Perfect sincerity and transparency make a great part of beauty,as in dewdrops, lakes, and diamonds.

Say what you have to say, not what you ought.Any truth is better than make-believe.

Be true to your work, your word, and your friend.

I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestioned ability of a man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.

If you would convince a man that he does wrong, do right. Men will believe what they see.

It is never too late to give up your prejudices.

Ponder Points From John Wayne

Courage is being scared to death - but saddling up anyway.

I've always followed my father's advice: he told me, first to always keep my word and, second, to never insult anybody unintentionally. If I insult you, you can be goddamn sure I intend to. And, third, he told me not to go around looking for trouble.

Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday.

Talk low, talk slow, and don't talk too much.

If everything isn't black and white, I say, "Why the hell not?"

I've had three wives, six children and six grandchildren and I still don't understand women

"I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted, and I won't be laid a hand on. I don't do these things to other people and I expect the same from them." (From The Shootist)

Scary Points To Ponder On Credit And Finances

I read and interesting article about finances and credit selected a few ponder points from it to post here. The entire article is worth a read and can be found at http://credit.about.com/library/weekly/aa100902a.htm

Did you know:

A trend-reporting publication suggests that there is an increased trend of men worth more at age 18 than at age 65. That's a scarry thought.

We surpassed 1 million bankruptcies per year 7 years ago, and it hasn't let up since.

IRS tells us that 85% of those reaching age 65 do not have $200 in the bank and that 87% retire on less than $250 per week for life.

The amount of national debt equates to a stack of $1000 bills laid one on top of the other (flat side on flat side) 67 miles high.

A $2000 sofa financed at 19.8% interest with minimum monthly payments will take 31 years and 2 months to pay off and you will pay more than $10,000. The debt will outlast the sofa!

Let's say you regularly buy a new car and pay $300 per month. If you do that for just 1/2 of your working life or twenty years, you will be giving up money which if invested at 10%, would build to $227,810.65. That amount would generate $1,936.39 per month for the rest of your life.

The average American consumer can eliminate all debt including their mortgage with the money currently earned in an average of 7.5 years.

First Things First

To put the world right in order, we must first put the nation in order; to put the nation in order, we must first put the family in order; to put the family in order, we must first cultivate our personal life; we must first set our hearts right. - Confucius

How Big Is Your Universe?

A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. - Albert Einstein

A Handful Of Ponder Points About Age

I am long on ideas, but short on time. I expect to live to be only about a hundred. - Thomas Alva Edison

You can judge your age by the amount of pain you feel when you come in contact with a new idea. - Pearl S. Buck

Old age is fifteen years older than I am. - Oliver Wendell Holmes

Age does not protect you from love, but love to some extent protects you from age. - Jeanne Moreau

None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm. - Henry David Thoreau

I have enjoyed greatly the second blooming that comes when you finish the life of the emotions and of personal relations; and suddenly find - at the age of fifty, say - that a whole new life has opened before you, filled with things you can think about, study, or read about...It is as if a fresh sap of ideas and thoughts was rising in you. - Agatha Christie

Live your life and forget your age. - Norman Vincent Peale

Half A Dozen Ponder Points On Life

And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years. - Abraham Lincoln

Ethics, too, are nothing but reverence for life. This is what gives me the fundamental principle of morality, namely, that good consists in maintaining, promoting, and enhancing life, and that destroying, injuring, and limiting life are evil. - Albert Schweitzer

Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death. - Anais Nin

There are as many nights as days, and the one is just as long as the other in the year's course. Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word 'happy' would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. - Carl Jung

A useless life is an early death. - Goethe

You don't get to choose how you're going to die. Or when. You can only decide how you're going to live. Now. - Joan Baez