You know, there's a limit to what you can do for others. When you see someone feeling sad and down, there's only so much encouragements can do for them. Ultimately, it is up to him or her to either accept things as it is and move on, or take some time to chew over it before letting go.
For myself, I'm more or less acquainted with the results that I've gotten back. haha so far it's B.A.D, ya so it's not that good, nor is it very bad.
Anyway, I've always thought that the best thing to take one's mind off matters is to read, because reading teleports you to a parallel universe where you can assume roles of fictitious characters and lead a temporary unreal life, a life characterized by adventure, romance, excitement and whatnots. So here are some nice quotes from random books that I've collected at some point or another in my life (:
The Myth of Tomorrow, Gary Buffone, Ph.D.
There is a danger of being overly sentimental about the relation of love and death. It is too easy to glibly mention love as the solution to all of life’s problems. Yet love is a solution, albeit an imperfect antidote.
Life’s much too short to toil under the heavy yoke of perfectionism. Know and accept your true feelings and needs and let go the pressure of living up to others’ expectations of you and your life.
Dichotomous thinking – the “all or nothing” perceptual style where everything you see is good-bad, right-wrong, or black-white. You are either wonderful or worthless, brilliant or stupid, beautiful or ugly, great or awful. If you think in polarities, look for shades of gray. People are too complex to be simply categorized and labelled. We each fall somewhere along a continuum and deserve more understanding.
The Language of God by Francis S. Collins
Would you condemn an oak tree because its timbers had been used to build battering rams? Would you blame the air for allowing lies to be transmitted through it? Would you judge Mozart's The Magic Flute on the basis of a poorly rehearsed performance by fifth-graders? If you had never seen a real sunset over the Pacific, would you allow a tourist brochure as a substitute? Would you evaluate the power of romantic love solely in the light of an abusive marriage next door?
Perfect Love – Imperfect Relationships by John Welwood
At bottom, most of the things we strive for – security, success, wealth, status, power, recognition, validation, praise – are ways of trying to fill a gaping hole within us, a hole formed out of our separation from love. As ways of trying to win love indirectly, these substitute gratifications do not truly nourish us, because they do not deliver the real thing. In that sense, they are like junk food. Their failure to truly nourish only intensifies our inner hunger, driving us to run all the harder on the hamster wheel of success, desperate hoping to win some reward that will truly satisfy.
To love is to cast light. To be loved means to be ablaze. How else can we cast pure light if we are not set ablaze ourselves?
Similarly, just as the sky can hold clouds but clouds cannot hold the vast expanse of the sky, so love is greater than hatred because it can embrace hatred while hatred cannot embrace love. While love can exist freely of hatred, hatred exists only because of love, as a painful symptom of our disconnection from it.
There is a danger of being overly sentimental about the relation of love and death. It is too easy to glibly mention love as the solution to all of life’s problems. Yet love is a solution, albeit an imperfect antidote.
Life’s much too short to toil under the heavy yoke of perfectionism. Know and accept your true feelings and needs and let go the pressure of living up to others’ expectations of you and your life.
Dichotomous thinking – the “all or nothing” perceptual style where everything you see is good-bad, right-wrong, or black-white. You are either wonderful or worthless, brilliant or stupid, beautiful or ugly, great or awful. If you think in polarities, look for shades of gray. People are too complex to be simply categorized and labelled. We each fall somewhere along a continuum and deserve more understanding.
The Language of God by Francis S. Collins
Would you condemn an oak tree because its timbers had been used to build battering rams? Would you blame the air for allowing lies to be transmitted through it? Would you judge Mozart's The Magic Flute on the basis of a poorly rehearsed performance by fifth-graders? If you had never seen a real sunset over the Pacific, would you allow a tourist brochure as a substitute? Would you evaluate the power of romantic love solely in the light of an abusive marriage next door?
Perfect Love – Imperfect Relationships by John Welwood
At bottom, most of the things we strive for – security, success, wealth, status, power, recognition, validation, praise – are ways of trying to fill a gaping hole within us, a hole formed out of our separation from love. As ways of trying to win love indirectly, these substitute gratifications do not truly nourish us, because they do not deliver the real thing. In that sense, they are like junk food. Their failure to truly nourish only intensifies our inner hunger, driving us to run all the harder on the hamster wheel of success, desperate hoping to win some reward that will truly satisfy.
To love is to cast light. To be loved means to be ablaze. How else can we cast pure light if we are not set ablaze ourselves?
Similarly, just as the sky can hold clouds but clouds cannot hold the vast expanse of the sky, so love is greater than hatred because it can embrace hatred while hatred cannot embrace love. While love can exist freely of hatred, hatred exists only because of love, as a painful symptom of our disconnection from it.
Just looking at this collection makes me want to start reading again! haha Jiening told me about this book by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett called Good Omens so I thought I'd just borrow it, and while it's a funny book, it's not really a satisfying read. The emo-momo one that Lynette is reading seems quite nice judging from the few lines she quoted from the book.
Hmmm... The unexpected and unprecendented (my first!) A for GP, a good long lunch and a good long nap sums up a pretty good day, so I'm feeling happy and ready to kickstart my mugging regime with the Coks again tomorrow! Oh, Tiddy and I will be sending off Kay Hwee tomorrow (:
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