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Sunday Thought For The Day

Fuego olimpicoCreative Commons License photo credit: Y0si

“This is the true joy in life, being used for a pur­pose rec­og­nized by your­self as a mighty one. Being a force of nature instead of a fever­ish, self­ish lit­tle clod of ail­ments and griev­ances, com­plain­ing that the world will not devote itself to mak­ing you happy. I am of the opin­ion that my life belongs to the whole com­mu­nity and as long as I live, it is my priv­i­lege to do for it what I can. I want to be thor­oughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no brief can­dle to me. It is a sort of splen­did torch which I have got hold of for the moment and I want to make it burn as brightly as pos­si­ble before hand­ing it on to future gen­er­a­tions.” ~ George Bernard Shaw

Lance writes sto­ries from his heart, aim­ing to inspire and moti­vate, as you align more fully with YOUR true peak. When he’s not here, you can find him hang­ing out with his fam­ily, rid­ing a bike, or just gen­er­ally act­ing goofy.   Sign up for the Thoughts from the Tree­house newslet­ter and get addi­tional inspi­ra­tion in your email inbox!
Lance Ekum
View all posts by Lance Ekum

Comments

  1. Daphne says:

    Lance, I get to make the first com­ment, woohoo! There are advan­tages to being 12–15 hours ahead of Amer­ica :)

    I love this George Bernard Shaw quote, and have used part of it myself on a pre­vi­ous post. Your pic­ture of the Barcelona Olympic flame makes the quote ten times more pow­er­ful, as usual.

    I’ve started to ask myself on Sun­days, “I won­der what Lance’s quote is today?” so you’re lodged in my mem­ory some­where! And I guess I’m slow but it just occurred to me that you prob­a­bly get lots of quotes ready and set the pub­lish­ing date in advance. Is that right? And here I was think­ing, wow Lance is really dis­ci­plined, remem­ber­ing to do this every Sun­day! ;)

    Daphne´s last blog post..Par­al­lel Uni­verses: You May Be Every­thing You Ever Wanted To Be

  2. Davina says:

    Hi Lance. I just saw this in my reader and thought, “Hey, maybe I’ll get the first com­ment this time!” But rats, Daphne beat me to it. Happy Sun­day. I was reply­ing to your com­ment on my blog just hours ago and won­der­ing what would be up for your Sun­day Thought for the Day. This is another great one. “Life is no brief can­dle to me.” — I can appre­ci­ate this metaphor. And you keep that can­dle burn­ing pretty well over here Lance :-)

    Davina´s last blog post..Ben­e­fits Of Turn­ing Off Comments

  3. Ian Peatey says:

    And I get to be third! Which is no shame when it’s after Daphne and Davina.

    I’m guess­ing that if this quote is any indi­ca­tion of his true atti­tude to life then it might explain why he lived to the age of 94! It’s a really won­der­ful quote and thanks for shar­ing it, Lance!

    Ian

    Ian Peatey´s last blog post..Top 8 taboo words

  4. Sarah Lulu says:

    Isn’t that a mar­velous quote. Thank you for bless­ing my day with it.
    Actu­ally Sun­day is almost over for me.

    Sarah Lulu

  5. Hi Lance

    This is such a pow­er­ful quote — tow­er­ing. A lit­tle large for me at the moment ;)

    Juliet

    Life­Made­Great | Juliet´s last blog post..Would You Pros­ti­tute Your Blog­ging Style?

  6. Jay says:

    Great quote today Lance. My favorite line is “I am of the opin­ion that my life belongs to the whole com­mu­nity and as long as I live, it is my priv­i­lege to do for it what I can.”- I agree. we are not here to live self­ish lives, we are here to live together as one, help­ing each other suc­ceed, lov­ing each other, because when it is all over, we want to leave this place know­ing we touched lives for the bet­ter. Thanks Lance!

    Jay´s last blog post..The Sun­day Ponder

  7. Rupal says:

    I want to be thor­oughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live.” Love this part. Reminds me of the thought that you have to expe­ri­ence life with no regrets. Live life as fully as possible.

    ~rupal

    Rupal´s last blog post..Sprained Ankles No More

  8. Lance says:

    @Daphne — I’m laugh­ing! Yes, and you’re always ahead of me Daphne — you’re every­where! The Olympic flame, I felt that really exem­pli­fied the “torch” part of this quote — a light that shines brightly ((like you!). It’s always great to have you here, and that you’re think­ing about this ahead of time — that’s a touch­ing ges­ture to me — thank you. So…when do I put these Sun­day posts together? Well…the truth is — I have a cou­ple setup to go if I really need some­thing, am short of time, etc. Usu­ally, though, it’s a Fri­day or Sat­ur­day activ­ity to put this together. I’m just not dis­ci­plined enough to plan in advance very often!

    @Davina — Yep, Daphne’s quick! And…she’s got an advan­tage of being ahead of us by many hours!! She’s wide awake, and I’m still groggy! Happy Sun­day to you too, Davina. And right back at you — your site is a pow­er­ful exam­ple of keep­ing that splen­did torch — just look at the recent “Quote Effect” Ebook you cre­ated — what a pow­er­ful exam­ple of burn­ing brightly, and includ­ing so many oth­ers in the process!

    @Ian — You’re right Ian — fol­low­ing these two fine ladies is a great honor! And with Mr. Shaw liv­ing until 94, it really does say some­thing about what atti­tude plays in longevity, and in hav­ing a great life!

    @Sarah Lulu — It IS mar­velous, that’s a great word to describe it! So, I’m glad you could end your Sun­day with this, and over here, we’ll start it out on this note! Have a great night!

    @Juliet — It is pow­er­ful. Maybe the tow­er­ing part is related to the photo. Juliet, know that you are a force of nature — and you ARE doing great things. Maybe that seems “large”… Just know that you are unique and your words alone are a brightly shin­ing torch in our world today…

    @Jay — Liv­ing in com­mu­nity, it’s a great thought. And when we live this way, when we can impact oth­ers, and allow oth­ers to impact us — what a con­nec­tion that is devel­oped! And what a way to make a dif­fer­ence in our world! You’re doing that Jay!

    @Rupal — Live life fully — there’s no bet­ter way! What­ever “fully” is for you. And that’s what makes our world so amaz­ing — is that we can all do this in our own unique ways — and when we do — we really can leave the world a bet­ter place. And with no regrets. Keep on doing that Rupal!

  9. LisaNewton says:

    Great quote, Lance, and words to live by. Live each day to the fullest, enjoy, share, and relax. I love it.….….….:)

    LisaNewton´s last blog post..A Sanc­tu­ary in Los Angeles

  10. Hi Lance,
    I’m with Jay — that part of the quote is what really struck me though the whole thing is bril­liant. Thank you for shar­ing — I had never heard that before. I also love the part about being a force of nature. When I was ill I did feel like the world was against me. I agree that we are in charge of know­ing WHAT will make us truly happy and work­ing towards get­ting there. Thanks Lance, awe­some as always!
    Love,
    Jenny

    Jenny Mannion´s last blog post..Do You Want to Get in Touch With Your Inner Psy­chic and Intuition?

  11. I like the idea of being a keeper of a torch before hand­ing it off to future gen­er­a­tions. Nice idea. Thanks for the thought­ful qoute!

    - Dave

    David at Animal-Kingdom-Workouts´s last blog post..Every­thing is AMAZING and Nobody’s Happy

  12. Hi Lance, That is a great pic­ture and an even greater quote. Liv­ing life to the fullest! I think that I am just learn­ing that doing what a per­son loves is very impor­tant. We are try­ing to raise our son to do what he has a pas­sion for, not nec­es­sar­ily what he can make the most money doing. Of course we don’t talk about the money aspect of it, that would be lost on a 4 yr old. But talk­ing about things we love to do and how much hap­pier daddy is, and we are as a fam­ily, with daddy doing what he loves! I also think that doing what you have a pas­sion for, what makes you happy, makes you more avail­able to the community.

    Natalia Burleson´s last blog post..It was a fun day!

  13. Laurie says:

    I agree that we all have a pur­pose in this life. The trick is know­ing your heart, trust­ing God, and going for what­ever that pur­pose is. If every­one could actu­ally fig­ure out what their pur­pose is.…wow, what a world it would be!

  14. Cath Lawson says:

    Hi Lance — I love the Bernard Shaw quote. And the pic is awe­some. But i need to find my glasses as I couldn’t work out what it was at first, even though it has the Olympics sym­bol on it.

  15. Annette says:

    very deep this morn­ing Lance ;) The last two sen­tences really hit home for me.….. Life is no brief can­dle to me. It is a sort of splen­did torch which I have got hold of for the moment and I want to make it burn as brightly as pos­si­ble before hand­ing it on to future generations.”

    What an awe­some way to think of your life! I am feel­ing inspired today! Some­times the “act of doing” can be a very tir­ing thing.….….but on the days I didn’t try as hard, even though I’m not as worn out, I feel like I missed out a lit­tle bit on life that day.

    Hop­ing to burn bright today and all month :) I resolve not to live life on auto-pilot!

    Annette´s last blog post..Sexy Work­outs :)

  16. Do I rec­og­nize my pur­pose as being mighty? It took me a long time. Now I only work part time and have to remem­ber I’m an ordi­nary per­son doing extra­or­dia­nary things.

    I have to put value on my writ­ing, hik­ing, run­ning, golf­ing and spend­ing time trav­el­ing, vol­un­teer­ing vis­it­ing my grand­chil­dren and chil­dren in my now mostly leisurely life.

    The joy and value of my mighty pur­pose comes from accept­ing these as gifts, liv­ing in the present moment mak­ing our world a more lov­ing place.

    Tess The Bold Life´s last blog post..How to Be Bold Enough to Surrender

  17. Mark says:

    Fan­tas­tic quote! Happy Sun­day Lance!

  18. Evelyn Lim says:

    I some­times feel so exhausted from the big pile of things on my desk that I feel as if I need to dis­con­tinue my blog­ging life. And then, I will stop to think about how enriched I have become, just by serv­ing oth­ers with the words I pub­lish on my site. I know that I will not have it any other way. If I can impact at least one life, I am already happy. Hope­fully, what I do is enough to inspire the future gen­er­a­tion — namely my kids — to carry on light­ing the torch for oth­ers in years to come.

    Eve­lyn Lim´s last blog post..How To Get To Enlightenment

  19. Hi Lance — Hmmm, this quote speaks to the idea that what we can do for oth­ers is also the same thing that makes the torch burn bright in us. (Really nice pic­ture, by the way.) I like the idea of our lives being some­thing “great” by what we can do for our­selves and others.

    Amanda Linehan´s last blog post..How To Be Flexible

  20. rummuser says:

    Lance, you have quoted one of my all time favorite quotes, that I have used in thou­sands of com­mu­ni­ca­tions. I am not exag­ger­at­ing. What a quote from a man who lived it.

    rummuser´s last blog post..Out Of Box Think­ing — Cur­rent Eco­nomic Dissolve

  21. Evita says:

    Very pow­er­ful Lance!

    Love the part about “com­plain­ing that the world will not devote itself to mak­ing you happy”

    I some­times feel I am sur­rounded by a num­ber of peo­ple who feel like that, but they also have such blind­ers on that it is impos­si­ble to break through their wall to help them and allow them to see the free­dom that sits just out­side of that wall, when they stop lim­it­ing them­selves in how the world has “wronged” them.

    Evita´s last blog post..The Quote Effect E-Book — What Effect Will It Have On You?

  22. Very inspir­ing Lance! May I be able to live my life that way. We are capa­ble of so much more, aren’t we?? Liv­ing our true poten­tial would be such a joy.

    Jewel/Pink Ink´s last blog post..Got Good News?

  23. He was one cool and smart man. I’ve been a fan of his writ­ings for many many years. And now this quote — can I be a George Bernard Shaw too?

    Jan­nie Funster´s last blog post..Why?

  24. Lizwi says:

    This really inspires me. It reminds me that I have a duty to keep the torch of life brighter each day so that it can make tomor­row brighter than today. It is also very impor­tant to always remem­ber that the world will not end when I die, but will be there for gen­er­a­tions to come.

    Lizwi´s last blog post..Tak­ing a holiday

  25. Caroline says:

    WOW! What a quote. Thank you Lance. Also, big hug to you for your com­ment you left on my blog. I am over­whelmed with the sup­port and love that has been poured on me. It’s funny, I didn’t con­sider the impact we make as blog­gers. It is amaz­ing what we all give and receive. Although it’s in a vir­tual world…it is so real. It’s blow­ing my mind right now.

  26. Audra Krell says:

    I have never heard this quote before, bits and pieces for sure, but it was great to see the whole thing and to find out who said it.
    I have sev­eral peo­ple in my life that think the world owes them and the tenac­ity of these peo­ple is amaz­ing. They never give up try­ing to get the world to serve them. I just wish they could know that they are a clod of ail­ments and griev­ances.
    That said, I walked through my own many years of being a clod and didn’t really know it. By the grace of God, the truth was revealed to me (hit­ting rock bot­tom will do that) and once free from my all engag­ing self, I strive to not return to that per­son. Aware­ness is every­thing.
    Maybe we need a quiz that all peo­ple should be required to take…“You might be a clod of griev­ances if you answer yes to ANY of the following!” ; )

  27. Mindful Mimi says:

    Lance, spot on again.
    Of course the world will not itself to mak­ing you happy. I think that is the biggest les­son we need to learn.
    Other peo­ple can­not make you happy. Money can’t. Mate­r­ial things can’t. Only you can. It is fine to think of that in the big­ger sense. But some­times, on the day to day sit­u­a­tions, emer­gen­cies and deal­ings, we tend to for­get this, become upset, mope and blame the other, the job or the whole wide world.
    Although I know this, I am still learn­ing to put it to prac­tice in every­day life.
    I believe that we all have the same ardor to live the best life we can, to love and give, make peo­ple happy, shine our light, make the world — or just a tiny part of it — a bet­ter place, accom­plish some­thing that we hold dear.
    THanks for shin­ing your light in blo­gosh­pere.
    Have a great start of the week.

    Mind­ful Mimi´s last blog post..The pur­pose of art is wash­ing the dust of daily life off our souls — Pablo Picasso

  28. suZen says:

    Fab­u­lous pic­ture! If you look back a week or so on my blog you’ll see the same Shaw quote! We are STILL at it! haha
    suzen

    suZen´s last blog post..Love and The Lonely

  29. Julie says:

    Hi, Lance. Happy Sun­day! I think this quote can be con­densed to two of his sen­tences: “This is the true joy in life, being used for a pur­pose rec­og­nized by your­self as a mighty one” [empha­sis on “being used”] and “I rejoice in life for its own sake.” These two cre­ate a com­plete, ful­fill­ing cir­cle. Once I under­stood my own unique, indi­vid­ual pur­pose and of being an instru­ment toward that end, the act of liv­ing life itself became my joy­ous reward! Sure, I fal­ter and slip and even fail com­pletely, some­times, and I kick myself for it—but then the pur­pose calls, and I offer myself, and the birds start singing, again, and life is beautiful!

    Julie´s last blog post..The Gift

  30. I love this quote — I’ve read it before but it’s always worth read­ing again.

    Frisky Librarian´s last blog post..Big wheel and silly sausages

  31. Stacey / Create a Balance says:

    I want to be a force of nature and will con­tinue to do my thing, wait­ing for when prepa­ra­tion and oppor­tu­nity col­lide. I will con­tinue to move my ideas into real­ity, one by one, until I cre­ate the ulti­mate gift to the world that I was born to share with oth­ers. Loved this quote Lance, it spoke to my heart and soul.

  32. If that quote doesn’t move your soul then check your pulse.

    That was a glo­ri­ous quote. A lot of times we avoid work so to make life feel eas­ier. We neglect the fact that we don’t feel use­ful. This lack of use makes us more tired and even more lazy.

    We have to build a life that helps oth­ers. If we don’t we live an empty existence.

    Karl Staib — Work Happy Now´s last blog post..How to Change Your Company’s Office Culture

  33. Angel says:

    Yes, Lance, Let it burn! I live for Sun­days. I am in such a good mood right now. I have decided (again) not to let the lit­tle things get me down. Life is pre­cious and short. And too much time is wasted wor­ry­ing and stress­ing. This quote reminds me to live my life to the fullest and let my lit­tle light shine. So I’m gonna. I’m shin­ing, Lance!

    Angel´s last blog post..Client quote of the week

  34. Arswino says:

    Hi Lance, this is a pow­er­ful quote to start a new day. My favorite line is “Life is no brief can­dle to me. It is a sort of splen­did torch which I have got hold of for the moment and I want to make it burn as brightly as pos­si­ble before hand­ing it on to future gen­er­a­tions.“
    Thanks for shar­ing it, Lance. :)

    Arswino´s last blog post..I Want To Be Extraordinary !!

  35. Henie says:

    Thank you, Lance, for always remind­ing us to live in heart and soul!

    Live to give not live to get!” ~Henie~

    Henie´s last blog post..Back­yard Splendor

  36. Lance says:

    @LisaNewton — If we’re liv­ing each day to the fullest — if we’ve done this — and have done this lis­ten­ing to our heart — we have suc­ceeded. Thanks Lisa!

    @Jenny Man­nion — Belong­ing to the whole com­mu­nity is a won­der­ful thought. If we all thought like this — like we belonged, and as part of that we con­tributed self­lessly — what a more won­der­ful world we would live in. Espe­cially if this wasn’t’ just one vil­lage becom­ing a com­mu­nity, but really the whole world becom­ing both community-minded and feel­ing a real sense of belong­ing. Jenny, you are a shin­ing exam­ple of this in action — I really believe you live this, your torch shines brightly!

    @David — I really liked that too, David. If we think about those who will inhabit this place once we’ve moved on, then being the keeper of one of the torches shin­ing into that future is an impor­tant one — for each of us. And I find that to be inspir­ing as we pre­pare this world for the future by what we are doing today.

    @Natalia — I loved them both, too! I think we all evolve toward that point — doing what you love. Whether we get there or not, that’s another ques­tion. And you are rais­ing your son won­der­fully Natalia! Going after your pas­sions in life will make life so much more ful­fill­ing. And the money…money can be tempt­ing. It’s tempt­ing for me. What’s really pretty cool, I think, is that you are liv­ing it. Your hus­band is liv­ing it. What you speak to your son, then, comes from the heart. And yes, I think if we develop our pas­sions, they can become part of the com­mu­nity, and part of us mak­ing the world a bet­ter place, through what we are pas­sion­ate about.

    @Laurie — Lau­rie, you really summed this up so well — if we were to all really fig­ure out our pur­pose, from deep within our soul, what a place this world would be. It is pretty fan­tas­tic now, and it would only be bet­ter in ways that peo­ple really and deeply cared about…

    @Cath — This photo, I believe, is the Olympic Flame from the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. And the whole idea of a torch struck me for the photo — and what bet­ter than the Olympic Flame? A torch larger than life adn sym­bol­iz­ing all of our nations together as one. And there is true joy in that thought!

    @Annette — This was really the thought that jumped out at me in this whole quote too. And the inspi­ra­tion for the photo today! And you’re right — the act of doing — it can be exhaust­ing! When we give it our all, when we go all out, even if it makes us tired — if we’re doing this out of love, from the depths of our soul — it will feel right and good. And I hap­pen to think, Annette, that you to a very excel­lent job of hold­ing that torch, and keep­ing it shin­ing brightly!

    @Tess — What you’ve writ­ten, Tess, is beau­ti­ful! Your pur­pose is indeed mighty. And I can tell you value what you do very much — and that speaks to what’s in your heart. You DO make the world a more lov­ing place — just from what I’ve wit­nessed here and at your own site. Con­tinue to do those things you value (like vis­it­ing the grand­chil­dren) — you are doing great works!

    @Mark Sali­nas — Thanks Mark! And a very happy Sun­day to you and your fam­ily as well!

  37. Lance says:

    @Evelyn — Eve­lyn, I have that same feel­ing some days! And then I think the same thing you do — how enrich­ing it is to write and engage with so many tal­ented peo­ple from all over the world — really giv­ing new per­spec­tives on so many things for me. And con­sider your­self happy Eve­lyn — you have impacted my life, in very pos­i­tive ways! And I have a pretty good feel­ing your kids will be given a well-used torch, and one that shines brightly. Their mother is doing much good in this world — they are indeed lucky to have you!

    @Amanda — I really strug­gled with the right pic­ture for this, even after I had an idea what I wanted to use. Find­ing one that really fit what I was hop­ing for was dif­fi­cult to find. Then I found this, and really felt, with the flame, and the look­ing up, that it was exactly what I was look­ing for. And then your com­ment to the torch within us — that’s such a great way of look­ing at this. As we do for oth­ers, that torch within us gets brighter and brighter. Love the thoughts today Amanda, thanks much!

    @Rummuser — Well, that’s pretty cool! It’s been a long time since I’d heard this quote, and when I saw it again, wow, it just seemed to fit with where I’m at right now. So, hear­ing this is a favorite of yours, and one you’ve used many times over — fan­tas­tic! Thanks Ramana!

    @Evita — It’s so easy to “blame”, isn’t it. We all have, within us, the abil­ity to have a full and happy life. We do need to take an active role in our life, and in mak­ing it what we desire. And when we tie that into the mak­ing of a com­mu­nity, that really adds to our blind­ers com­ing off… so we can see what good­ness there really is in our world.

    @Jewel — We are capa­ble of so much, and so much more than we do usu­ally. Just think of what could be if our torch was brightly shin­ing all the time! Wow!! Here’s to all of us step­ping it up just a notch — to shine just a lit­tle brighter…

    @Jannie — Very cool, and very smart — yes he cer­tainly was! Jan­nie, I think you do embody much of what this quote says, so, yes — you can be a George Bernard Shaw (well, except he’s a man!!) (wait…George that can be a man’s or a woman’s name, right?!?!?!?)

    @Lizwi — We CAN leave the world a bet­ter place, and we can keep our torches lit and shin­ing brightly — a great mes­sage, isn’t it! Great to have you here today!

    @Caroline — It really is a pow­er­ful quote! I recall start­ing out, and how blog­ging seemed dis­tant, remote. And,over time that has really changed. It IS real. In amaz­ing ways, it’s real. It’s not just an unknown per­son leav­ing a com­ment any­more. It’s some­one I know, some­one I con­sider friend. You. So, know that I think wher­ever the future leads you to, it will be the right place for you. And, know that you have sup­port here always, as well as many other places, I’m sure — from the com­ments I’ve read on your site.

    @Audra — This whole quote, all together in one spot — really says so much. For some, this just doesn’t click. And if/when it does — what a moment it will be for them. Life looks so com­pletely dif­fer­ent when you view it as abun­dance instead of scarcity. I’ve been that clod too, not know­ing it. And I think that’s part of it — peo­ple don’t nec­es­sar­ily real­ize the “woe is me” atti­tude they spin some­times. All we can do is con­tinue to sup­port these peo­ple, with gen­tle brushes with what life can be like. At the same time, it’s impor­tant that we also have the uplif­ing asso­ci­a­tions too, so we don’t get pulled back into the fray of scarcity. “By the grace of God” — pow­er­ful state­ment Audra, and I love that you’ve used that here. Our God is an awe­some God! And one of His most awe­some things is grace… And the test, yes — let’s make it sim­ple one that any­one can take!!

  38. Lance says:

    @Mimi — That is so much “it”, Mimi! Only we, our­selves, can truly make us happy. It’s not some­thing we can buy in the store, or solve with a big­ger pay­check. Hey, you’ve seen me Mimi? (I have moped before!). And a very true and raw-honest state­ment — all you know this, putting into prac­tice isn’t always easy. Thank you. It’s not. And if I’m shin­ing my light, it’s really a reflec­tion off of all the won­der­ful peo­ple who stop here and share their light — that really is the amaz­ing light that shines from here! (and thank you Mimi…). And same to you, have a great Monday!

    @SuZen — I love how the photo really fits to the torch idea! So, I just came back from your site — this is too wild, crazy, unbe­liev­able. And just to add to the mix — the Louis Arm­strong song you have up — I included that song back in Octo­ber on my site. We are still at it! Hmmm.…I won­der what SuZen will post next??? (maybe I have a good idea already!!)

    @Julie — Hi Julie, and a very Happy Sun­day to you too! Yes those two sen­tences really do sum this up. Get­ting to that point of under­stand­ing your pur­pose — what a great place to get to. Julie, pas­sion rings from your words! And we all fal­ter and slip. The thing is to get back up. And get back to what our soul calls out for. Con­tinue to live in that place Julie, you are amaz­ing there…

    @Frisky Librar­ian — It is worth read­ing manay times over! Thanks for stop­ping by!

    @Stacey/Create A Bal­ance — Ah yes, being pre­pared — thanks for bring­ing that up Stacey! Some­thing we’ve talked about recently here — and it still applies. In this case our prepa­ra­tion should be focused on what our heart and soul call out. YOu are doing very amaz­ing things Stacey! And it’s all very excit­ing to watch it unfold. Your words today mean much to me, my friend. Thank you…

    @Karl — This is a very mov­ing quote — it does go straight to our hearts and souls. To the idea of work­ing and being all used up is a great thought — and when put into action — a true tes­ti­mony to what this really means! Do work that speaks to your heart, and live!

    @Angel — Hey Angel! “Life is pre­cious and short.” — I love this state­ment, and I do because it reminds me that I’ve got one shot here on earth — and I also don’t know how long that shot is. And that speaks to urgency — to look­ing “now” to find that which speaks deeply. Angel, your light isn’t lit­tle at all. You are shin­ing Angel — you are shin­ing brightly!

    @Arswino — My favorite line in this one too! Con­tinue to shine brightly Arswino!

    @Henie — I’m pretty sure you’re one of those who “gets” this, Henie. Liv­ing in the heart and soul — is a place where true joy resides! And being of a giv­ing spirit — that’s just another way we can be a light into the world!

  39. I am of the opin­ion that my life belongs to the whole com­mu­nity” — what an unusual per­spec­tive. We tend to be self-centered — per­haps giv­ing to our imme­di­ate fam­ily but often feel­ing reluc­tant or ambiva­lent vabout giv­ing to the big­ger community.

  40. Linda Abbit says:

    Wow, Lance! One pow­er­ful sen­tence after another by Shaw — and a pow­er­ful photo to top it all off. Thank *you* for mak­ing my Sun­day (night) richer!

    Linda Abbit´s last blog post..Funny Fri­days 2÷27÷09 — Because It’s Bet­ter to Laugh than to Cry!

  41. The last line is what really strikes me. Burn as brightly as pos­si­ble before pass­ing it on. We pass on what we live and expe­ri­ence, don’t we? I want to pass on hope and inspi­ra­tion and pos­i­tive action. Not doom, gloom and “give up, it’s eas­ier”. Make it shine. We all need a light to guide us…

  42. Great quote. I agree with Vered and thought that was an inter­est­ing part of the quote that Shaw would men­tion com­mu­nity. He did live in a dif­fer­ent time than we do today. They may have relied on each other more than we do today or at least there may be that perception.

    This is my favorite part of the quote: “Life is no brief can­dle to me. It is a sort of splen­did torch which I have got hold of for the moment and I want to make it burn as brightly as pos­si­ble before hand­ing it on to future generations.”

    Thanks for the post Lance!

    Hap­pi­ness Is Better´s last blog post..Cool Links for Week of Feb­ru­ary 16th

  43. Always such words of wis­dom over here! Thanks for that.

    meleah rebeccah´s last blog post..Sports

  44. YES! YES! YES!
    Lance, this is SO how I feel and I’m beam­ing to have read this here! We all should feel this way EVERYDAY of our lives.

    I truly enjoy your blog!!

    Tabitha in Bliss´s last blog post..A Deli­cious Day!

  45. Jennifer says:

    How splen­did Lance! I have been think­ing about so much of this lately. It is what brings so much hap­pi­ness — think­ing out­side of myself to truly make a dif­fer­ence in the time I have.

    I want to make it burn as brightly as pos­si­ble before hand­ing it on to future gen­er­a­tions.” — What great words to live by!

    Thank you for post­ing this.

    Jennifer´s last blog post..The Four Purifi­ca­tions of Peace taught by Peace Pilgrim

  46. Dragos Roua says:

    Enlight­en­ing! Burn­ing with a pur­pose is so much bet­ter than fak­ing a shal­low hap­pi­ness. Inspir­ing post! Thank you :-)

    Dra­gos Roua´s last blog post..How To Cre­ate A Habit In 15 Days

  47. Bri says:

    Being a force of nature instead of a fever­ish, self­ish lit­tle clod of ail­ments and griev­ances, com­plain­ing that the world will not devote itself to mak­ing you happy.”

    I like that sen­tence. I think that too many peo­ple blame life and cir­cum­stances for the way things are, rather than tak­ing respon­si­bil­ity them­selves. They end up tossed around by life and never really get any­where, though they may talk a big game.

    We’re all oblig­ated to find our life’s pur­pose, and live it to the fullest.

  48. Liara Covert says:

    George Bernard Shaw’s view is pro­found and invites reflec­tion. And yet, no energy being is sep­a­rate or ever used up. An energy being can­not exhaust spir­i­tual immor­tal­ity. Some peo­ple evolve to sense that work­ing harder is not nec­es­sar­ily smarter or bet­ter. To rejoice in being present now is to rec­og­nize time does not exist and no being is might­ier than any other.

    Liara Covert´s last blog post..What is the uni­verse telling you?

  49. Liara Covert says:

    The con­tents of this clever ebook remind peo­ple they are doing things part of them thinks they are not. You remind read­ers that dead lan­guage is very much alive. Every being lives a Zen koan.

    Liara Covert´s last blog post..What is the uni­verse telling you?

  50. Sagan says:

    I rejoice in life for its own sake”… I think we live bet­ter lives when we wake up each morn­ing and the first thought is that we are so grate­ful and happy to be able to wake up, to go out and LIVE and do what we choose.

    Sagan´s last blog post..Book Review: “The New Rules of Lift­ing for Women” by Lou Schuler

  51. Lance says:

    @Vered — If we all looked out­ward a bit more, to those around us — if we ALL did this — then that feel­ing of fam­ily would spread beyond our imme­di­ate fam­ily — to include really the com­mu­nity around us. I know what you mean, Vered, it is much eas­ier to focus on those we are clos­est to — our imme­di­ate fam­ily — get­ting to being more community-minded is not nec­es­sar­ily easy…

    @Linda — Thank you for stop­ping by Linda! Each line in this quote is so powerful!

    @Stacey Ship­man — There are lights out there that guide us — voices of hope for us. And, just like there are peo­ple who shine light in our life, we have that oppor­tu­nity to shine light for oth­ers. You’re doing that Stacey! Keep shining!

    @Happiness is Bet­ter — I think we are more iso­lated today. There are so many dis­trac­tions that pull us away from real com­mu­nity. And the part that is your favorite — mine too. Be a torch!!

    @Meleah — Your wel­come, and great to see you here today!

    @Tabitha — This quote is so uplifting…and when I first read it, I just felt it call­ing out to become a Sun­day post! Con­tinue to do amaz­ing things in your life Tabitha!

    @Jennifer — Jen­nifer, know that you do truly shine! And I think you’ve hit upon some­thing — hap­pi­ness. Look­ing out­ward, to be a gift in our world — when we do this with love and car­ing — true hap­pi­ness is not far behind.

    @Dragos — Fak­ing hap­pi­ness — oh, another great point. Fak­ing hap­pi­ness is just that — fake. And when we do our life activ­i­ties with pur­pose — that is real happiness!

    @Bri — Tak­ing respon­si­bil­ity vs. blam­ing and com­plain­ing — a great point Bri. When we take respon­si­bil­ity, we also take action. And thats’ what is needed to get us mov­ing in the right direction.

    @Liara — The idea of us never being used up — I love this point. We always have some­thing to give, even as we near the end. Even if it’s just a smile. Every­thing we can give of our­selves is a way to spread the good­ness described in this quote.

    @Sagan — I love this idea Sagan! Now…can I remem­ber that come morn­ing? I’m going to give this a shot — so easy, and such an easy way to real­ize how truly abun­dant our lives are. Thank so much Sagan!

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