Dr. Ginger Grancagnolo, Ed.D.,D.Min.

Dear Friends,

Happy Spring and Blessed Passover and Easter! These are signs and reasons to celebrate new life and new beginnings! Trees are starting to bloom and the days are filled with more sunlight a little bit longer. These are all good signs! Yet, certainly we are not in denial about the unrest and turmoil that is so evident around the world. How can we ever resolve such deep and longstanding issues? It would be unrealistic to assume that any simple answer could be an answer! That being said we still seek to live in peace and pursue our path and purpose in harmonious ways.

There may not be a simple answer but there can be simple wisdom that can help us to live in the moment with more confidence and direction. Perhaps the following words by Max Ehrmann written in 1927 can be a helpful start.

DESIDERATA

Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and ignorant; they too have their story. Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they are vexatious to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time. Exercise caution in your business affairs for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism. Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love, for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment, it is as perennial as the grass. Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be. And whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

Peace and blessings,

“If you correct your mind the rest of your life will fall into place”

Lao-tzu (late century b.c.)

“Every human being’s essential nature is perfect and faultless, but after years of immersion in the world we easily forget our roots and take on a counterfeit nature”

Lao-tzu (late century b.c.)

“Thinking without awareness is the main dilemma of human existence”

Eckhart Tolle

“The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it but that it is too low and we reach it.”

Michelangelo
(1415 - 1564)

“All man’s miseries derive from not being able to sit quietly in room alone”

Blaise Pascal
(1623 - 1662)

“When you work you are a flute through whose heart the whispering of the hours turns music. To love life through labor is to be intimate with life’s inmost secret. All work is empty save when there is love, for work is love made visible”

Kahlil Gibran
(1883 - 1931)

“There is a law in psychology that if you form a picture in your mind of what you would like to be, and you keep and hold that picture there for long enough, you will soon become exactly as you have been thinking"

William James
(1842 - 1910)

NEW BOOK!