Mimi and Polly's bike trip

Check out Mimi and Polly's bike trip blog 

These wonder-women are riding 90 to 150 miles per day

on their bikes and after a fourteen hour day,

that includes meals and prep for the next day, 

they are maintaining this awesome blog.  

Go Mimi and Polly!

Quotes from Aleph, Paulo Coelho

We will always need to be humble enough to accept that our hearts know why we are here.  Yes, it's difficult to talk toy our heart, and perhaps it isn't even necessary.  We simply have to trust and follow the signs and live our Personal Legend; sooner or later, we will realize that we are all part of something, even if we can't understand rationally what that something is.  They say that in the second before our death, each of us understands the real reason for our existence, and out of that moment, Heaven or Hell is born.

Hell is when we look back during that fraction of a second and know that we wasted an opportunity to dignify the miracle of life.  Paradise is being able to say at that moment: "I made some mistakes, but I wasn't a coward.  I lived my life and did what I had to do."

Even those who didn't do all they could have done have already been forgiven; they had their punishment while they were alive by being unhappy when they could have been living in peace and harmony.

That is what marks out the warrior: the knowledge that willpower and courage are not the same thing.  Courage can attract fear and adulation, but willpower requires patience and commitment.  Men and women with immense willpower are generally solitary types and give off a kind of coolness.  Many people mistakenly think that (they) are cold (people) when nothing could be further from the truth.  

When faced by any loss, there's no point in trying to recover what has been; it's best to take advantage of the large space that opens up before us and fill it with something new.

Bless and you will be blessed.

 

we always try to interpret things in accordance with what we want and not as they are

Do you know anything about Chinese bamboo?  It apparently spends five years as a little shoot, using that time to develop its root system.  
And then, from one moment to the next, 
it puts on a spurt and grows up to twenty-five meters high.

If I believe I will win, then victory will believe in me.  

No life is complete without a touch of madness

I know only that a life without cause is a life without effect.

Words are tears that have been written down.  Tears are words that need to be shed.  Without them, joy loses all its brilliance and sadness has no end.  
Thank you, then, for your tears.

People never leave; we are always here in our past and future lives.  
It appears in the Bible, too

What can't be cured must be endured.

Inhale deeply and ask for all the blessings in the air to enter your body and fill every cell.  Then exhale slowly, projecting happiness and peace around you.  Repeat this ten times.  You'll be helping to heal yourself and contributing to healing the world as well.

There's no point explaining that all we achieve by exacting revenge is to make ourselves the equals of our enemies, whereas by forgiving we show wisdom and intelligence.

Expend your energies and you will remain young.

But it's a sunny day, and if the world seems to be at peace, that's because it is.

No one ever loses anyone.  
We are all one soul that needs to continue growing and developing in order for the world to carry on and  for us all to meet once again.  
Sadness really doesn't help.

On the other hand, I know very few people capable of receiving, even when the gift is given with love and generosity.  It's as if the act of receiving made them feel interior, as if depending on someone else was undignified.  They think, if someone is giving us something, that's because we're incapable of getting it for ourselves.  Or else, The person giving me this now will one day ask for it back with interest.  Or, even worse, I don't deserve to be treated well.

love is the only thing that will save us, independent of any mistakes we may make. 
Love is always stronger.

Each new experience of love has nothing whatsoever to do with past experiences.  
It's always new.

We are not the person other people wish we were.  
We are who we decide to be.  It's always easy to blame other.  
You can spend your entire life blaming the world, 
but your success of failures are entirely your own responsibility.

You can try to stop time, but it's a complete waste of energy.

Love always triumphs over what we call death.  
That's why there's no need to grieve for our loved ones, 
because they continue to be loved and remain by our side.  
It's hard for us to accept that. 

That is what the harmony of the Universe is: a man and a woman becoming a single energy.

The Path of Peace appears to be a fight, but it isn't.  
It's the art of filling up what is missing and emptying out what is superfluous.

He beat me every time, but there are no marks on my body; to injure yourself.  
Controlling your aggression in order not to harm the other in the Path of Peace.

Life is on long training session in preparation for what will come.  
Life and death lose their meaning; there are only challenges to be met with joy and overcome with tranquility.

I free myself from hatred through forgiveness and love.  I understand that suffering, when it cannot be avoided, is here to help me on my way to glory.  I understand that everything is connected, that all roads meet, and that all rivers flow into the same sea.  
That is why I am, at this moment, an instrument of forgiveness

Let us concentrate all our efforts on achieving Perfection 
through the imperfect gestures of everyday life.

True wisdom means respecting the simple things we do, 
for they can take us where we need to go.

The same thing happened with the church I belong to.  We killed in God's name, we tortured in Jesus' name, we decided that women were a threat to society and so suppressed all displays of female ingenuity, we practiced usury, murdered the innocent, and made pacts with the Devil.  and yet, two thousand years later, we're still here.

Is it possible to deviate from the path God has made?  
Yes but it's always a mistake.  Is it possible to avoid pain?  
Yes, but you'll never learn anything.  
Is it possible to know something without ever having experienced it?  
yes, but it will never truly be part of you.

sometimes you have to travel a long way to find what is near

at any moment of his life he could be confronted by an opponent.  
Not an enemy, an opponent.  
When an opponent is sure of his power, as he was, you have to confront them or be undermined by your failure to exercise your own power.