Little drops of water
make the mighty ocean.
Little grains of sand
make this beautiful land.
Little moments
make the mighty ages.
Little pies and farthings
make millions and crores.
Little mistakes,
little unkind acts
will make you a devil.
Little words of love,
little acts of kindness,
little good thoughts
will make you a saint.
Swami Sivananda
Dardos Award
Given to me by Kim - Creating Space.
Kim, all I can say is THANK YOU for your generosity.
If you visit kim's blog, you'll find her splendid art, conversations about aesthetics, painting, culture, philosophy... And certainly you'll find much more: the spirit of cordiality.
Juan Bielsa
Orison Swett Marden
New England, 1848.
American author.
Many a man has been ruined by not confining himself within sufficiently narrow limits to give concentration and direction to his energies.
Said Andrew Carnegie: "One great cause of failure of young men in business is lack of concentration. They are prone to seek outside investments, side-lines. The cause of many a surprising failure lies in so doing.
Every dollar of capital and credit, every business thought, should be concentrated upon the one business upon which a man has embarked. He should never scatter his shot. It is a poor business which will not yield better returns for increased capital than any outside investment.
No man or set of men or corporation can manage a business man's capital as well as he can manage it himself. The rule, `Do not put all your eggs in one basket,' does not apply to a man's life-work."
Don't be afraid of being known as a man of one idea. The men who have moved the world have been men of this kind. It is the man who has his purpose burned into every fiber of his being, who has the faculty of focusing his scattered energies on one point as a burning glass focuses the scattered rays of the sun, that succeeds.
"When I have a subject in hand I study it profoundly," said Alexander Hamilton. "Day and night it is before me. My mind becomes pervaded with it. Then the success I make, the people are pleased to call genius. It is the fruit of thought and labor."
Concentration without genius will accomplish more than genius without concentration.
Orison Swett Marden
An iron will
by Orison Swett marden
I would like to write some words to pay homage to my dog, Boi.
He died three days ago. He has been my companion for fifteen years. I've lived with him the most happy years of my life. Thank you, dear Boi.
Poets know that all beings have a soul, that exists a paradise for all of them.
Boi, I know that you live now in the most beautiful landscapes. Yes, we lived together for years in our wonderful paradise as well, on this Earth, which you loved with all your heart. You were the soul of our beloved deserts.
Boi loved these landscapes
Photograph by Juan Bielsa
You adored freedom all your life. That's the word: freedom. You loved it.
My friend, Boi.... Allow me to say to you: I loved you and I love you. And I will always love you. My companion for eternity.
Boi, if you, sometimes, remember me, that's an honor. From your paradise of freedom and beauty, please remember me, sometimes, as I remember you now, from these lands that you loved.
Please remember me. I would like to know also, some day, your paradise. I would like to wander with you the ways of eternity, as we wandered on this Earth the ways of happiness.
Boi, thank you for your friendship, thank you for you love, for your generous soul.
Juan Bielsa
The lands where Boi lived
Photograph by Juan Bielsa
Bushmen Rockpainting in Zimbabwe
Photo by Steve Evans
If interested in Steve Evans' photos,
please click here. Creative Commons.
A story is told of some Americans who were making their way through Africa. They had employed a group of natives at the seaport and had told them they were in a great hurry, as Americans usually are.
The first day they went with rapid progress through the jungle. They continued the relentless pace the second day. The third morning, when they were hurriedly preparing for another day of rapid travel, they found the savages squatting under the trees and refusing to move. When their bewildered and helpless employers asked them why they were not ready to start, they said simply, "We shall rest today to let our souls catch up with our bodies."
Norman Vincent Peale
Norman Vincent Peale
Bowersville (Ohio), 1898.
American author.
We are a generation busy with things. Stevenson wrote, "The world is so full of a number of things; I am sure we should all be as happy as kings." The world has many more things than in Stevenson's day but there is grave doubt if their possession has really solved the problem of happiness.
I can push buttons all over my house and have light, music, and heat. My grandfather had no buttons to push, but just the same he knew the art of living. He was a happy man. The increase of things, instead of providing leisure to be enjoyed, in all too many cases has but multiplied our confusion.(...)
This has done something even more serious to modern people. I refer to its deep psychological and cultural effects. It has had a tendency to make us superficial and thus incapable of appreciating the deeper and more subtle values.
This hectic, hasty, hurrying age of ours has left the average man bewildered and out of breath. It has made him think that the chief virtue is to keep up with the flying clock.
We seem to have the idea that everyone must be constantly doing something. One must be driving a car or dancing or playing bridge or golf or going to the theater or doing something. The American people —and that means you and me— greatly need to learn to reduce life's tempo unless we are to allow this hurly-burly space age to rob us of life's deepest meaning and happiness.
Norman Vincent Peale
The Power of Positive Thinking
by Norman Vincent Peale
Phineas Taylor Barnum
Bethel (Connecticut), 1810.
The greatest showman that America
has ever seen.
Young men starting in life should avoid running into debt.
There is scarcely anything that drags a person down like debt. It is a slavish position to get in, yet we find many a young man hardly out of his "teens" running in debt. He meets a chum and says, "Look at this; I have got trusted for a new suit of clothes." He seems to look upon the clothes as so much given to him. Well, it frequently is so, but, if he succeeds in paying and then gets trusted again, he is adopting a habit which will keep him in poverty through life. Debt robs a man of his self-respect, and makes him almost despise himself.(...)
Money is in some respects life fire —it is a very excellent servant but a terrible master.(...)
Don't let money work against you; if you do, there is no chance for success in life so far as money is corcerned. John Randolph, the eccentric Virginian, once exclaimed in Congress, "Mr. Speaker, I have discovered the philosopher's stone: pay as you go." This is indeed nearer to the philosopher's stone than any alchemist has ever yet arrived.
The Art of Money Getting
by Phineas Taylor Barnum
Phineas Taylor Barnum
Debt is like any other trap, easy enough to get into it, but hard enough to get out.
Shaw
• Excellent motivational blogs :
- Self Growth :
www.selfgrowth.com/articles
- Zen Habits :
www.zenhabits.net
- Think Simple Now :
www.thinksimplenow.com
- Steve Pavlina :
www.stevepavlina.com
- Positivity Blog :
www.positivityblog.com
- Embrace Living :
www.embraceliving.net
- Our Best Version :
www.ourbestversion.com
- Abundance Blog :
abundance-blog.marelisa-online.com
- Look Far :
www.amandalinehan.com
- On Simplicity :
www.onsimplicity.net
- Happy Lotus :
www.happylotus.com
- New Age Self Help :
www.newageselfhelp.com
- Robert Vance :
www.robertbvance.com/blog/
- Write To Done :
www.writetodone.com
- Scott H. Young :
www.scotthyoung.com
- Motivational Memo :
www.motivationalmemo.com
- Self Help Daily :
www.selfhelpdaily.com
- Life Optimizer :
www.lifeoptimizer.org
- Today Is That Day :
www.todayisthatday.com/blog/
- Seth Godin :
sethgodin.typepad.com
- Tips for success :
www.cathlawson.com
- Make It Great :
makeitgreat.typepad.com
- Success Begins Today :
www.successbeginstoday.org
- LifeDev :
www.lifedev.net
- Monica Ricci :
monicaricci.typepad.com
- I Need Motivation :
www.ineedmotivation.com/blog/
- Pick The Brain :
www.pickthebrain.com/blog/
- Yes To Me :
www.yes-to-me.com
- Matthew Cornell :
www.matthewcornell.org/blog/
- Writer Dad :
www.writerdad.com
- Motivate Thyself :
www.motivatethyself.com
- The Simple Dollar :
www.thesimpledollar.com
- Penelope Trunk :
blog.penelopetrunk.com
- I Will Teach You To Be Rich :
www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog/
- Get Rich Slowly :
www.getrichslowly.org/blog/
- Dr. Robbell :
www.drrobbell.com
- Mr. Fire (Joe Vitale) :
blog.mrfire.com
- Personal Development :
www.personal-development.com
- Persistence Unlimited :
www.persistenceunlimited.com
- Face to the Sun :
www.facetothesun.com
- Michael Martine :
www.michaelmartine.com
- Micro Persuasion :
www.micropersuasion.com
- Motivation Point :
www.getmotivation.com
Wings of the heart
Original painting by Juan Bielsa
Oil on board - 54 x 65 cm
Painting for sale
Today I've failed.
No Silence.
No prayer.
Today, my life
full of noise.
Today I've failed.
Today, all spaces
full of words
in confusion.
No Silence.
No prayer.
My love, today
I've not seen
the blue mountains of your heart,
your land.
Today
no prayer, no prayer,
no rain, no sun in my life,
in the ways into Beauty.
Today, I've completely
failed.
Today
ashes in the hands,
sadness in the eyes.
Juan Bielsa
My first poem in my bad English
In the confusion of the world, we have a mission.
A voice within us speaks very clearly: "You have a mission".
But all the confusion in the world speaks very loudly; a thousand televisions speaks, and a thousand cell phones, and thousands of opinions... Our solitary soul remains in the distance, silent in the dark.
But, at night, sometimes, when there is a great silence... we hear the voice, the voice of the heart: "You have a mission... You need to love. You have a dream".
We'll try a thousand tasks in the world, maybe will be successful in the eyes of the world... But then silence speaks, like the memory of our first love, with virgin lips and a kiss full of innocence and truth: "You have a great dream". Silence will always speak, and our soul will always will be calling to us, with feminine freshness, a caress: "I'm with you. You have a mission".
We'll always have our dream at hand, in our hearts, waiting, like an eternal love. Time passes, time passes... But it will never be too late to start to accomplish our task of eternity.
Am I failing in my life? If I'm not answering positively my inner call, yes, I'm failing. Absolutely.
I have no choice. All my efforts in this world will be useless and condemned to nothingness if they don't meet my dream.
I would like to be prepared to fail in this world if necessary (and I know that is tremendously hard). But I don't want to fail in my heart, I don't want to see all my years wasted without accomplishing worthy dreams, a prayer.
Juan Bielsa
New Matsushima
Painting by Juan Bielsa
Oil on canvas - 55 x 46 cm
WORK FOR SALE
Say to yourself a hundred times every day and mean it with all your heart :
I will become more than I am.
I will achieve more and more every day because I know that I can.
I will recognise only that which is good in myself; only that which is good in others; only that in all things and places that I know should live and grow.
When adversity threatens I will be more determined than ever in my life to prove that I can turn all things to good account.
And when those whom I have trusted seem to fail me, I will have a thousand times more faith in the honour and nobleness of man.
I will think only of that which has virtue and worth.
I will wish only for that which can give freedom and truth.
I will expect only that which can add to the welfare of the world.
I will live to live more.
I will speak to give encouragement, inspiration and joy.
I will work to be of service to an ever-increasing number.
And in every thought, word and action my ruling desire shall be to enrich, ennoble and beautify existence for all who come my way.
Christian Larson
Your forces and how to use them (1912)