Reflections on life. Collections of inspirational quotes. Rediscovering relationships and faith.
Posted in COMMITMENT, COMMUNICATION, LOVE, QUOTES, RELATIONSHIP QUOTES, RELATIONSHIPS on Jun 20th, 2012 No Comments »
“Love doesn’t lie, people do. Love doesn’t leave, people do. Love surely doesn’t leave you broken and annoyed. That’s something only a person is capable of doing. Don’t blame love, if it’s not in you.” –DeAndre Carswell
Are you happy with your relationship?Do you still feel the need to hold on to it even when you no longer feel its magical power of not being annoyed by your partner’s smell, look, opinions and behavior?
You slowly feel your needs are not satisfied. Emotionally, physically, financially, sexually and morally you feel like going down the drain.You feel hurt, in pain and alone.You might post your status in Facebook from “ In a relationship” to “it’s complicated” leaning to “single” and finally “unstable”!
Now let’s take an honest look at the mirror and ask ourselves “what have I done for this relationship?” “Am I still committed to this relationship?”For me it is important to believe that love is MORE than just a feeling. Love is also a decision, a commitment, a choice.Having said so, let us evaluate 5 important areas of our relationship.
5. Don’t keep score – Keeping score is one of the most damaging things you can do to your relationship. I did the dishes last night, it’s his turn to apologize , it’s her turn to clean the bathroom, sexual intimacy is going zero every week, etc. Keeping score leads to resentment, hard feelings and a whole lot of stuff. If you find yourself starting to keep score -STOP- get together and talk. Talk about joint responsibilities, set realistic expectations, and talk openly about how you may feel you’re being taken for granted and where the other person could pitch in.
All relationships have their ups and downs just like a roller coaster. It does not ride at a continuous high all the time. Working together through the hard times will make the relationship stronger. Patience, respect , listening skills and love are our handy tools.
So try to make a good sense of a bad relationship by examining it as a reflection of your beliefs about yourself. Don’t just run away from a bad relationship; you’ll only repeat it with the next partner.Let us examine it and use it as a mirror to look at yourself, to understand what in you is creating this relationship.
Change yourself before you change your relationship. Remember, love is not an absolute, not a limited commodity that you’re in of or out of.It’s a feeling that ebbs and flows depending on how you treat each other.If you learn new ways to interact, the feelings can come flowing back, often stronger than before. What do you think?
RELATIONSHIP QUOTES
Man is a knot into which relationships are tied. – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry,Flight to Arras, 1942, translated from French by Lewis Galantière
Celebrate every relationship you have ever had. For better or worse, our relationships are our best teachers. And on a soul level, we’ve attracted each and every one of them so we can learn and grow. -Dr. Christiane Northrup
Relationship is an art. The dream that two people create is more difficult to master than one. – Don Miguel Ruiz
Relationships are harder now because conversations became texting, arguments became phone calls, feelings became subliminal messages online. Sex became easy, the word “love” gets used out of context, insecurities have become your way of thinking. Getting jealous became a habit, trust has been lost, cheating became an accident, leaving became the only option and being hurt became natural. –unknown
Remember, we all stumble, every one of us. That’s why it’s a comfort to go hand in hand. – Emily Kimbrough
There are days when you need someone who just wants to be your sunshine and not the air you breathe. –Robert Brault
Don’t smother each other. No one can grow in the shade. – Leo Buscaglia
If you were going to die soon and had only one phone call you could make, who would you call and what would you say? And why are you waiting? – Stephen Levine
Assumptions are the termites of relationships. – Henry Winkler
I felt it shelter to speak to you. – Emily Dickinson
Are we not like two volumes of one book? ~Marceline Desbordes-Valmor
Relationships: If you put up with it, you’re going to end up with it. Set the standard you want and don’t settle for less. -Steve Maraboli
Every relationship can be a lesson in self-worth. The person who is the hardest to forgive is the one who can teach you the greatest lessons. Its important to remember, that when you believe that – We are all One, its virtually impossible to find that hurting another feels good. For hurting another means hurting yourself. So-called irresponsible behavior vanishes and your gifted with the freedom to create a new life.” –Neale Donald Walsch
To know when to go away and when to come closer is the key to any lasting relationship. – Doménico Cieri Estrada
Never give up on someone you can’t go a day without thinking about. –Author Unknown
As we grow up, we learn that even the one person that wasn’t supposed to ever let you down probably will. You will have your heart broken probably more than once and it’s harder every time. You’ll break hearts too, so remember how it felt when yours was broken. You’ll fight with your best friend. You’ll blame a new love for things an old one did. You’ll cry because time is passing too fast, and you’ll eventually lose someone you love. -Author Unknown
Don’t bring baggage from an ex-relationship into your next relationship…unless you want it to be a short trip.” –Robert Tew
Without a single thought, two hands collide and the world finally makes sense again. – Kayla Dawn
Happiness is having a dream you cannot let go of and a partner who would never ask you to. – Robert Brault
Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down. – Oprah Winfrey
There are times when two people need to step apart from one another, but there is no rule that says they have to turn and fire. – Robert Brault
Plan your relationships around your life… Not your life around your relationships. –Robert Tew
Not all relationships are meant to last, they’re just practice for the one that does. -Linda Poindexter
Love makes the relationship. Trust makes the difference in the success of the relationship. –Mark Amend
Posted in COMMUNICATION, CONVERSION QUOTES, FAITH, HOPE, LOVE, POWER of PRAYER, QUOTES, RELATIONSHIPS on Jun 25th, 2007 No Comments »
In the middle of the journey of our life
I found myself within a dark forest
where the straight path was lost.” –Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita
mi ritrovai per una selva oscura
ché la diritta via era smarrita.
Dante Alighieri, Divine Comedy- Inferno, canto I Lines 1-3
After my last post, I can’t seem to find a glimpse on how I’m going to talk about the power of prayer. I feel so empty inside. I feel something is missing or maybe I am looking for my own way of writing it, not according to what the Good Spirit is telling me. I waited. I am just flowing like a falling leaf not knowing where the wind will take it.
Five days counting and nothing! This evening my friend Bea dropped by carrying a book “The Divine Comedy” by Dante. She asked me to translate some italian lines in english. I told her it was my favorite book in College days and I considered it the world’s greatest work of theological poetry. As I was trying to translate Canto I of “Inferno”, memory of a past spiritual rebirth starts flashing before me.
“In the middle of the journey of our life, I found myself within a dark forest, where the straight path was lost.” were the first three lines. They keep on stirring my memory, back into my past.
Yes I have ” journeyed through life” on my whims to follow my own desires, my obstinacy to bend to rules and narcissism to ignore and understand a human affection for me. If there are seven deadly sins, I had eight !
My indifference was the eight and I believe it is the epitome of all evil! When there is indifference, you don’t feel love nor hate. You just live alone on your own island blind to other’s feeling and situation.
That condition was my “dark forest where my path is lost” as Dante described his life. My life followed a wandering course like a planetary vagabond. Through my drifting, I became unhappy, unsatisfied. I felt lost!
A “light” in my dark forest , beamed on my “muddy” ground. It is that perfect moment which led me to be conscious of having erred and strayed.
And in the “midst of my journey“, He presented Himself to me like a dawning day or a strike of a lightning. It was similar to Saul’s experience on his road to Damascus .
That Light was my saving grace. Its touch, a soothing balm to my weary soul. It was the first moment I felt God caressing my life. I never knew Him. I heard about Him but never had a contact with Him. I never talked to Him.
How did I know it was God? Something changed inside me. I felt a supernatural aura, a Presence too intense to make my indifference changed into reaching out, my inner wounds were healed, my hollow strength became weak, my self- fortress crumbled! Most of all, if you believe it or not, I heard his voice saying: “Ross, I love you.”
His words, His touch made me discover the right path. He made me discover a “relationship” between us two. His compassion and mercy for my sins made me realized His personal Presence in my life making me see what is inner beauty and what is true fullness of life.
Now, you might asked me, what am I trying to converge between my conversion and power of prayer?
Well, I am convinced it is the focal point of our prayer life.
It is that personal relationship with God that will uplift your prayer. It is a personal love relationship between you and your God.
It is analogous to your love relationship with your “significant other”. You constantly seek her/his presence. You yearn to hear her/his voice, to stay beside your partner…to talk, to listen, to observe or simply, to be a loving presence! True??
To be touched by Love is important for it becomes your fulcrum to lift up your soul to God. Prayer is a surge of the heart; it is a cry of recognition and of love, it is the heart that prays.
Prayer is not a half-hearted ritual recitation of words; it is an outpouring of the heart.
Let me reiterate, it is only when you recognize His loving presence in your daily life, your prayer becomes to be powerful to see beyond the horizon, to see beyond the stumbling blocks of life, to feel beyond pain, to feel tranquility in being empty-handed or feel joy when you feel un-needed…all because…you simply love LOVE!
The power of prayer begins to unfold!
to be continued…
Bless The Broken Road by Rascal Flatts
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAwHyYuhdgM[/youtube]
CONVERSION QUOTES
Once my heart was captured, reason was shown the door, deliberately and with a sort of frantic joy. I accepted everything, I believed everything, without struggle, without suffering, without regret, without false shame. How can one blush for what one adores?” – George Sand
I believe that a man is converted when first he hears the low, vast murmur of life, of human life, troubling his hitherto unconscious self.” – D. H. Lawrence
The great danger of conversion in all ages has been that when the religion of the high mind is offered to the lower mind, the lower mind, feeling its fascination without understanding it, and being incapable of rising to it, drags it down to its level by degrading it.” – George Bernard Shaw
Jesus tapped me on the shoulder and said, Bob, why are you resisting me? I said, I’m not resisting you! He said, You gonna follow me? I said, I’ve never thought about that before! He said, When you’re not following me, you’re resisting me.” – Bob Dylan
I used to say: there is a God-shaped hole in me. For a long time I stressed the absence, the hole. Now I find it is the shape which has become more important.” – Salman Rushdie