Vogue Spain
Special Jewels
It is never a waste of time to saturate your mind, body and affairs in rich ideas, rich associations, rich atmospheres, and in any activity, inner or outer, which brings a feeling of richness to your inner being, especially during those periods when it seems that success is slow in manifesting.
Catherine Ponder
Helen Keller at work in her study
Photograph by A. Marshall, 1902.
The most important day I remember in all my life is the one on which my teacher, Anne Mansfield Sullivan, came to me. I am filled with wonder when I consider the immeasurable contrasts between the two lives which it connects. It was the third of March, 1887, three months before I was seven years old.
On the afternoon of that eventful day, I stood on the porch, dumb, expectant. I guessed vaguely from my mother's signs and from the hurrying to and fro in the house that something unusual was about to happen, so I went to the door and waited on the steps. The afternoon sun penetrated the mass of honeysuckle that covered the porch, and fell on my upturned face. My fingers lingered almost unconsciously on the familiar leaves and blossoms which had just come forth to greet the sweet southern spring. I did not know what the future held of marvel or surprise for me. Anger and bitterness had preyed upon me continually for weeks and a deep languor had succeeded this passionate struggle.
Have you ever been at sea in a dense fog, when it seemed as if a tangible white darkness shut you in, and the great ship, tense and anxious, groped her way toward the shore with plummet and sounding-line, and you waited with beating heart for something to happen? I was like that ship before my education began, only I was without compass or sounding-line, and had no way of knowing how near the harbour was. "Light! give me light!" was the wordless cry of my soul, and the light of love shone on me in that very hour.
I felt approaching footsteps. I stretched out my hand as I supposed to my mother. Some one took it, and I was caught up and held close in the arms of her who had come to reveal all things to me, and, more than all things else, to love me.
Helen Keller
Helen Keller
and her teacher Anne Mansfield Sullivan.
Affectionately yours. Helen Keller
Photograph by A. Marshall, 1899.
Helen Keller and her dog Phiz
Photograph by Emily Stokes, 1902.
The above words written by Helen Keller are a testimony about the extraordinary importance of finding and having the right teacher at the right moment. This literally can change our life. Helen Keller's life changed for the better after she met her great teacher, Anne Mansfield Sullivan.
I think "a teacher" can take many forms: a writer, a philosopher, a speaker, a preacher... even a friend, a relative or an acquaintance. And can take also the form of a book or other texts (sacred or otherwise), an audiobook... even the situations of life can act as teachers. Even animals can teach us many useful things.
If a TEACHER appears in our life, that means we have a great opportunity to improve it. Helen Keller recognized her teacher, Anne Mansfield Sullivan, and knew how to take advantage of this great opportunity. And so thanks to this fact and her extraordinary qualities her life was wonderful, extraordinary, a blessing for manking and an example for all of us.
Certainly Helen Keller can be for us a wonderful teacher.
Juan Bielsa
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