change

If there’s a world here in a hundred years, it’s going to be saved by tens of millions of little things.  The powers-that-be can break up any big thing they want.  They can corrupt it or co-opt it from the inside, or they can attack it from the outside.  But what are they going to do about 10 million little things?  They break up two of them, and three more like them spring up!

Life as such has to be taken as a cosmic joke - and then suddenly you
relax because there is nothing to be tense about.
And in that very relaxation something starts changing in you
- a radical change, a transformation - and the small things of life
starts having new meaning, new significance.
One learns only one thing, how to rejoice in life.

I believe in what I see, I believe in what I hear, I believe that what I'm feeling, Changes how the world appears.

    ..."we all make vows, Jimmy.  And there is something very beautiful and touching and noble about wanting good impulses to be permanent and true forever," she said.  "Most of us stand up and vow to love, honor and cherish someone.  And we truly mean it, at the time.  But two or twelve or twenty years down the road, the lawyers are negotiating the property settlement."
    "You and George didn't go back on your promises."
    She laughed.  "Lemme tell ya something, sweetface.  I have been married at least four times, to four different men."  She watched him chew that over for a moment before continuing, "They've all been named George Edwards but, believe me, the man who is waiting for me down the hall is a whole lot different animal from the boy I married, back before there was dirt.  Oh, there are continuities.  He has always been fun and he has never been able to budget his time properly and - well, the rest is none of your business."
    "But people change," he said quietly.
    "Precisely.  People change.  Cultures change.  Empires rise and fall.  Shit.  Geology changes!  Every ten years or so, George and I have faced the fact that we have changed and we've had to decide if it makes sense to create a new marriage between these two new people."  She flopped back against her chair.  "Which is why vows are such a tricky business.  Because nothing stays the same forever.  Okay.  Okay!  I'm figuring something out now."  She sat up straight, eyes focused somewhere outside the room, and Jimmy realized that even Anne didn't have all the answers and that was either the most comforting thing he'd learned in a long time or the most discouraging.  "Maybe because so few of us would be able to give up something so fundamental for something so abstract, we protect ourselves from the nobility of a priest's vows by jeering at him when he can't live up to them, always and forever."  She shivered and slumped suddenly, "But, Jimmy!  What unnatural words.  Always and forever!  Those aren't human words, Jim.  Not even stones are always and forever."

Since periods of great change, such as the present one, come so rarely in human history, it is up to each of us to make the best use of our time to help create a happier world.

NO CHALLENGE, NO CHANGE !  Forget the no pain no gain thing.  If it's pain, then STOP!  I made up the phrase 'no challenge no change' over 15 years ago when I realized it was not the pain that made one change, but the challenge that was overcome.  It started out with references to working out and then I realized I could apply that idea to every part of my life, including motherhood, relationships, school, work, etc.  I will continue to live by this phrase and hope to instill it in my daughter as well.  It has gotten me through so many hard times, including divorce, losing my mom 3 years ago, and while being in school for the last 7 years... getting closer to that PhD every semester.  There have been an insane amount of challenges I have dealt with in my life, so my goal is that the changes that result will in turn have an insane impact, not only on myself, but my daughter, and everyone I come into contact with. 

You really can change the world if you care enough.

I get up every morning determined to both change the world and have one hell of a good time. Sometimes this makes planning my day difficult.
  - EB White

To achieve what you've never achieved before, you need to do what you've never done before

For most women, beauty and body issues are the easiest path to awakening, because the pain is so very close to the surface and the inner critic’s voice is the easiest to hear. The beauty of awakening is getting this, down to your bones, so that the world no longer needs to play our internal dramas on the backdrop of life. We can watch the drama as it comes and goes, maybe making a genuine wise crack, or just laughing at our own antics.

We stop looking to manifest abundance; we are abundance. Even without a job. Even when you give away the majority of what you create. Even when there is no one but ourselves standing at the finish line to thank us for doing out part to help save the world.