“Sometimes our ‘stop-doing’ list needs to be bigger than our ‘to-do’ list.”

 “Sometimes our ‘stop-doing’ list needs to be bigger than our ‘to-do’ list.”

​~ Patti Digh

“I just learned to try to just keep shining like the sun and never keeping score.”

Gwyneth Paltrow on being a stepmom to husband Brad Falchuk’s kids:

“I really like to talk about this because it’s one of my biggest learnings as a human being. And my area of growth personally came from the initial difficult relationship I had with my step-kids, and now they’re like my kids.”
She added, “I just learned to try to just keep shining like the sun and never keeping score.”

Marie Claire.com, 3/7/2024
https://www.marieclaire.com/celebrity/gisele-bundchen-on-being-a-stepmother/

“What I’ve learned from Trump world, no one’s ever going to be as vicious as he is"

Haley ran a near perfect race. She just couldn’t figure out Trump.

By Natalie Allison, 03/07/2024, Politico

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/03/07/nikki-haley-2024-campaign-failures-donald-trump-00145535 

"More than anyone else’s, [Nikki] Haley’s candidacy — her traditional campaign approach, the discipline of her advisers, the big money she attracted as she built her coalition — raises the question of whether there was any political solution for defeating Trump." . . .

"'What I’ve learned from Trump world, no one’s ever going to be as vicious as he is, but you better come close if you want to have a shot,' DuHaime said."

Prayer of Protection

Prayer of Protection

Richard Foster begins his time of contemplation with this prayer of protection: 

“By the authority of almighty God,
I surround myself with the light of Christ, 
I cover myself with the blood of Christ,
and I seal myself with the cross of Christ. 

All dark and evil spirits must now leave.
No influence is allowed to come near to me 
but that it is first filtered through the light of Jesus Christ,
in whose name I pray.
Amen.”

Richard Foster. Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home. San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1992, page 157.

Pray first before doing anything worthwhile.

Pray first before doing anything worthwhile.

"Listen, Child of God, to your teacher’s wisdom. Pay attention to what your heart hears. Make sure you freely accept and live out the loving Father’s directions.

Pray first before doing anything worthwhile. Then persist and never falter in prayer. God loves us as his own children, and forgives us, so we must not grieve him by rejecting that love and doing evil.

We must always make the best use of the good things God gives us."

~ St. Benedict, c. 480-550 AD in Italy, a patron saint of Europe and students

A Student’s Prayer, St. Thomas Aquinas

A Student’s Prayer

Come, Holy Spirit, Divine Creator,
true source of light and fountain of wisdom!
Pour forth your brilliance upon my dense intellect,
dissipate the darkness which covers me, that of sin and of ignorance.

Grant me a penetrating mind to understand,
a retentive memory, method and ease in learning,
the lucidity to comprehend, and abundant grace in expressing myself.
Guide the beginning of my work, direct its progress,
and bring it to successful completion.

This I ask through Jesus Christ,
true God and true man,
living and reigning with You and the Father,
forever and ever.
Amen.

~ St. Thomas Aquinas

“Done is better than perfect.”

“Done is better than perfect.”

~ Silicon Valley maxim

“Anxiety is the residue of perceived or desired control when we have none.“

 “Anxiety is the residue of perceived or desired control when we have none.“

~ Seth Scott

She writes down everything that worries her and her greatest fears, then burns the paper

“Anne Hathaway taught me this thing on the set of 'Ocean’s 8.' 

She takes a piece of paper and writes down everything that worries her and her greatest fears. At the end of it, she burns [the paper]. 

I do it a couple times a year. I go out to my backyard, because I’m not trying to set my house on fire, and I get a candle and burn it.”  

~ Mindy Kaling

https://www.wsj.com/style/mindy-kaling-sex-lives-of-college-girls-oprah-advice-083067bd

“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”

 “Do the best you can until you know better.
Then when you know better, do better.”

~ Maya Angelou