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Love is something if you give away,

you end up having more.

-- Malvina Reynolds

Inspirational Short Story, Female Fantasy Art, Relaxing Music

The other side of giving is taking.

Many of us were brought up to believe that

it's not okay to take, so we diminish admiration that people give us.

"Oh, this old rag, I got it at a garage sale for next to nothing."

This response to a compliment can take away the joy of giving it from the person who admired the way we looked.

Giving needs taking to complete it.

We can keep the cycle of generosity going by taking gracefully.

A world without those who take would be unbalanced.

When someone gives us love, appreciation, or a gift, we can show our real pleasure with a simple thank you, and stop thinking we don't deserve it.

All acts performed in the world

begin in the imagination.

-- Barbara Grizzuti Harrison

We use our imaginations to plan how we're going to build a model car or plane,

rearrange the furniture in our rooms, even dress for a special party.

The imagination is like a big piece of drawing paper on which we sketch the way we want something to look.

When we don't know just how to begin a task, the imagination gets us started.

It's like having the directions for playing a new game.

Dreams about the future, where we want to go, the jobs we want to have, are made more real when we "draw" them in our minds.

The imagination gives us courage, too.

I never found the companion that was

so companionable as solitude.

-- Henry David Thoreau

One of the greatest gifts of our lives is the ability to enjoy solitude.

Many of us are unable to enjoy this gift.

We are too busy -- busy with work, with friends, with entertainment.

When we slow down, we find out we can feel peaceful when we are alone.

For most of us, solitude is ordinary -- we each find our private place and take up our favorite activities: fishing, sewing, writing, building models, making pictures.

These simple activities are so much fun it's hard to figure out why it took us so long to calm down and enjoy them. Our dreams may be quite ordinary. We can learn how to find them.

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10/26/2024

Dividers from Disney Clipart (dead link)

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