Abundance

With September being the month of harvest, the last day of the month seemed like a good time to talk about abundance. We have abundance in our gardens, and it is also a time of abundance in nature, as seeds are scattered abroad to be ready for next year’s growing season.

There are two kinds of viewpoints one can have. One is the scarcity mentality, and the other the abundance mentality. The scarcity mentality looks at life as being a pie with only so many pieces. The thought is that I need to get as much of the pie for myself before someone else gets it. Or it says, one of two extremes, either I must spend my paycheck now before someone takes the money away from me, or I must hoard money so that in the future when everything is failing, I will have some money to use. Decisions are made either with immediate consequences in mind, or the extreme future. It is a very self-centered and fearful way to live.

Quoting from Trent Hamm: “The Abundance Mentality, on the other hand, flows out of a deep inner sense of personal worth and security. It is the paradigm that there is plenty out there and enough to spare for everybody. It results in sharing of prestige, of recognition, of profits, of decision making. It opens possibilities, options, alternatives, and creativity.” It allows one to rejoice in another’s good fortune, knowing that my time will come. It tends to see things from the viewpoint of the common good, so it understands that we are all in this together. It is an other-centered and open-hearted way to live.

So in this time of harvest and abundance, let us remember that there can be enough for all if we share, and do our part to take care of each other.

Quotes about abundance

Abundance consists not so much in material possessions, but in an uncovetous spirit.–John Seldon

Abundance is, in large part, an attitude.–Sue Patton Thoele

Abundance is not something we acquire. It is something we tune into.–Wayne Dyer

An abundance mentality springs from internal security, not from external rankings, comparisons, opinions, possessions, or associations.–Stephen R. Covey

Both abundance and lack exist simultaneously in our lives, as parallel realities. It is always our conscious choice which secret garden we will tend…when we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives but are grateful for the abundance that’s present–love, health, family, friends, work, the joys of nature and personal pursuits that bring us pleasure–the wasteland of illusion falls away and we experience Heaven on earth.–Sarah Ban Breathnach

Each moment a blessing of abundance, each breath a prayer of thanksgiving.–Michael Rawls

Embrace with joy the changing seasons. For each yields its own abundance. The Energy and Birth of Spring. The Growth and Contentment of Summer. The Wisdom to let go of leaves in the Fall. The Rest and Quiet Renewal of Winter.–Ilan Shamir

Generosity does not require material abundance. When I think back on the many people who have been so generous toward me, I never think of money or “things.” Instead, I think of the way they gave me their presence, their confidence, their affirmation, support, and blessing — all gifts of “self” that any of us can give.–Parker Palmer

Giving is the secret of abundance.—Sivananda

The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.–Oprah Winfrey

Not what we have But what we enjoy, constitutes our abundance.–John Petit-Senn

There is enough in the world for everyone’s need; there is not enough for everyone’s greed.–Mohandas Gandhi

… when we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives but are grateful for the abundance that’s present–love, health, family, friends, work, the joys of nature, and personal pursuits that bring us pleasure–the wasteland of illusion falls away and we experience heaven on earth.–Sarah Ban Brethnach

Find more than 9000 inspirational quotes and a link to the Quote of the Day list, as well as quotation related merchandise, at http://www.quotelady.com

Autumn

I thought a lot about what I wanted to do my 100^th post on, and decided the season of autumn was appropriate. (I apologize in advance for anyone in the southern hemisphere who is reading this, and moving into spring instead.)

Autumn is an interesting time. For some, it is a wonderful season because it is relief from the heat of summer, and is moving into the crisp coldness of winter. For others, it is bittersweet because it marks the end of the long, warm days of summer, and heralds the time of coats and boots and chilliness that won’t really go away until next spring.

For gardeners, autumn is harvest, when all the hard work of the spring and summer finally pays off with fruit and vegetables. I have been eating tomato sandwiches for days in a row, and we made fresh salsa with the romas. Yum! A promise made in March when I planted the seeds, and now fulfilled.

Autumn is the time of bright colors – the turning of the leaves, the bright red of tomatoes, orange pumpkins, multi-colored gourds, green, then yellow corn, the purples and golds and rusts of mums. There are colors everywhere.

It’s also the season of abundance in other ways, as nature scatters the seeds that will grow next year, whether that’s by wind or the birds or other. My sunflowers have been picked clean by the birds this year. I hope they dropped enough seeds so there is another crop next year.

Finally, for now, it is also the season of pulling back, of getting ready for the darker days to come, getting the garden ready for winter, as I remove the dead flowers and vegetables. Soon I will be moving into my winter mode, getting out the crochet, and doing more inside. But now it’s time to enjoy autumn with its beauty and abundance.

Quotes about autumn

All those golden autumn days the sky was full of wings. Wings beating low over the blue water of Silver Lake, wings beating high in the blue air far above it … bearing them all away to the green fields in the South.–Laura Ingalls Wilder

Autumn begins to decorate the ground with its fragile bits of loosened gold.–Teresita Fernandez

Autumn burned brightly, a running flame through the mountains, a torch flung to the trees.–Faith Baldwin

Autumn is the best season in which to sniff, and to sniff for pleasure, for this is the season of universal pungency.–Bertha Damon

Autumn … makes a double demand. It asks that we prepare for the future – that we be wise in the ways of garnering and keeping. But it also asks that we learn to let go – to acknowledge the beauty of sparseness.–Bonaro W. Overstreet

Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.–George Eliot

For man, autumn is a time of harvest, of gathering together. For nature, it is a time of sowing, of scattering abroad.–Edwin Way Teale

I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.–L. M. Montgomery

I’ve never known anyone yet who doesn’t suffer a certain restlessness when autumn rolls around… We’re all eight years old again and anything is possible.–Sue Grafton

October is a symphony of permanence and change.–Borono W. Overstreet

October is the fallen leaf, but it is also a wider horizon more clearly seen. It is the distant hills once more in sight, and the enduring constellations above them once again.–Hal Borland

There is no season when such pleasant and sunny spots may be lighted on, and produce so pleasant an effect on the feelings, as now in October.–Nathaniel Hawthorne

Find more than 9000 inspirational quotes and a link to the Quote of the Day list, as well as quotation related merchandise, at http://www.quotelady.com

Banned Books Week

The last week in September is Banned Books Week. What does that mean? Quoting from the American Libraries Website: “By focusing on efforts across the country to remove or restrict access to books, Banned Books Week draws national attention to the harms of censorship. … Banned Books Week brings together the entire book community – librarians, booksellers, publishers, journalists, teachers, and readers of all types – in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas, even those some consider unorthodox or unpopular.”

As a librarian, it is important to me to be able to stock the library shelves with books which represent many different views and beliefs. In fact, I have a sweatshirt which says, “There is something in my library to offend everyone.” The freedom to read widely and without censorship is one of the hallmarks of democracy, and the good news is that most challenged books remain on the shelves.

What books are challenged in different years demonstrate what our society fears at that time. You can find a list of the ten most challenged books for 2015 here. Most were challenged for some kind of sexuality, either explicit sex or what the challengers considered inappropriate, such as homosexuality, or a religious viewpoint differing from the challenger. I worked in the libraries of Christian universities for much of my professional life, and our books most challenged were those which expressed a religious viewpoint differing from Christianity. Censorship there often consisted of those from off campus either writing their opinions in these books or simply removing the book from the shelf and carrying it away. There were some books we had to buy over and over again because they kept getting stolen. Ironic isn’t it.

So celebrate your freedom to read this week. Find out what books have been challenged or banned and read one!

Quotes about banned books and censorship

I hate it that Americans are taught to fear some books and some ideas as though they were diseases…–Kurt Vonnegut

There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches.–Ray Bradbury

A word to the unwise. Torch every book. Char every page. Burn every word to ash. Ideas are incombustible. And therein lies your real fear.–Ellen Hopkins

What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist.–Salman Rushdie

Libraries should be open to all – except the censor. We must know all the facts and hear all the alternatives and listen to all the criticisms. Let us welcome controversial books and controversial authors. For the Bill of Rights is the guardian of our security as well as our liberty.–John F. Kennedy

If you didn’t want your kids to eat candy, would you forbid all their friends to eat it too? If you didn’t want your kids to stay up late, would you forbid all their friends to stay up too? If you didn’t want your kids to read Twilight, would you forbid all their friends to read it too?–Sonya Sones

Censorship is the child of fear and the father of ignorance.–Laurie Halse Anderson

Having the freedom to read and the freedom to choose is one of the best gifts my parents ever gave me.–Judy Blume

Banning books gives us silence when we need speech. It closes our ears when we need to listen. It makes us blind when we need sight.–Stephen Chbosky

The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.–Oscar Wilde

Yes, books are dangerous. They should be dangerous – they contain ideas.–Pete Hautman

Banning books is just another form of bullying. It’s all about fear and an assumption of power. The key is to address the fear and deny the power.–James Howe

Find more than 9000 inspirational quotes and a link to the Quote of the Day list, as well as quotation related merchandise, at http://www.quotelady.com

Museum Day

September 24 is Museum Day. Sponsored by the Smithsonian, it is a day when many museums across the U.S. are free to visit. To see if there is one near you, go to the Museum Day Live! page and enter your information.

I have always loved museums. When I was young, my parents spent hours taking me to the Rochester Museum and Science Center over and over again (which was free, way back then). When they added a planetarium, I was in heaven! I remember visiting the natural history museum in New York City when I was young. My parents had to drag me away from the dinosaur exhibit to see the other things the museum offered. A year ago or so, I spent a day in the British Museum. You could spend a week there and not see everything.

There are, of course, all kinds of museums, from the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum to art galleries to small, specific museums, like the Sherlock Holmes Museum in London, or Madame Tussauds wax museum or the Lego Museum. And don’t overlook local town museums with artifacts from times past in that area. Everyone is bound to find a museum somewhere to delight them.

So celebrate today by going to a museum, or perhaps watching one of the Night at the Museum movies. It’s fun and you might learn something new.

British Museum

Quotes about museums.

Do not fall in love with people like me. I will take you to museums, and parks, and monuments…–Caitlyn Siehl

Museums have no political power, but they do have the possibility of influencing the political process.–Richard Fortey

I wonder if we are seeing a return to the object in the science-based museum. Since any visitor can go to a film like Jurassic Park and see dinosaurs reawakened more graphically than any museum could emulate, maybe a museum should be the place to have an encounter with the bony truth.–Richard Fortey

Langdon had often suspected his attraction to the art world as a young boy sprang from his love of museums’ wide open spaces.–Dan Brown

There are moments when one feels a desperate gratitude for museums, whatever their own ambiguous histories. Their objects from lost cities lead us back to who we are.–Amy Davidson

To preserve the past is to save the future…–Nanette L. Avery

That’s why we have the Museum, Matty, to remind us of how we came, and why: to start fresh, and begin a new place from what we had learned and carried from the old.–Lois Lowry

Museums and art stores are also sources of pleasure and inspiration. Doubtless it will seem strange to many that the hand unaided by sight can feel action, sentiment, beauty in the cold marble; and yet it is true that I derive genuine pleasure from touching great works of art. As my finger tips trace line and curve, they discover the thought and emotion which the artist has portrayed.–Helen Keller

Museums are managers of consciousness. They give us an interpretation of history, of how to view the world and locate ourselves in it.–Hans Haacke

A society – any society – is defined as a set of mutual benefits and duties embodied most visibly in public institutions: public schools, public libraries, public transportation, public hospitals, public parks, public museums, public recreation, public universities, and so on.–Robert Reich

Museums are good things, places to look and absorb and learn.–Alan King

Sometimes, you just have to clear your head and get out to see other things. It is very important to be nourished. I love to go to museums and galleries…–Marc Jacobs

London has fine museums, the British Library is one of the greatest library institutions in the world… It’s got everything you want, really.–David Attenborough

I’m one for rushing off to museums at the crack of dawn, eating fabulous things on terraces for lunch, and enjoying long dinners on balmy evenings.–Jane Birkin

Find more than 9000 inspirational quotes and a link to the Quote of the Day list, as well as quotation related merchandise, at http://www.quotelady.com

Hobbit Day

September 22 is Hobbit Day. It is designated so because according to the books, Bilbo and Frodo Baggins share a birthday this day. I first read The Lord of the Ring when I was a pre-teen, and I have read The Hobbit and the entire Ring trilogy (along with most of the stories/books that go along with them) many times since. In fact, I wore out my original paperback copies, and now have hardcover editions of the stories. In addition, I have both the unabridged Rob Inglis audiobook of the stories, as well as the BBC dramatizations.

J. R. R. (John Ronald Reuel) Tolkien was born January 3, 1892, in South Africa, though he moved back to England when he was three years old. His father died soon afterward and his mother when he was twelve. He was educated at King Edward’s School in Birmingham, and later at Oxford, where he excelled in languages. He fought in World War I at the front. Back in England, his first job was as a lexicographer on the New English Dictionary. Later, he became a professor in English Language at the University of Leeds. Then he took a position teaching Anglo-Saxon at Oxford University, where he stayed until he retired. While at Oxford, he began work on The Hobbit, which was first published in 1936, and then the ring trilogy, published in 1954-55. However, it didn’t become popular until it was released in paperback in the 1960s. Since then it has sold more than 100 million copies and been translated into more than 25 languages. And of course, in the last few years, the works have been the basis of the epic Peter Jackson movies.

So celebrate Hobbit Day either by reading passages from the novels, or holding a party as Bible and Frodo did.

Tolkien quotes

A single dream is more powerful than a thousand realities.–J.R.R. Tolkien

Courage is found in unlikely places.–J.R.R. Tolkien

All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost.–J.R.R. Tolkien

There is some good in this world, and it’s worth fighting for.–J.R.R. Tolkien

If most of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold it would be a merrier world.–J.R.R. Tolkien

You can only come to the morning through the shadows.–J.R.R. Tolkien

I feel that as long as the Shire lies behind, safe and comfortable, I shall find wandering more bearable: I shall know that somewhere there is a firm foothold, even if my feet cannot stand there again.–J.R.R. Tolkien

It is no bad thing to celebrate a simple life.–J.R.R. Tolkien

All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.–J.R.R. Tolkien

I found it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay, small acts of kindness and love.–J.R.R. Tolkien

Darkness must pass, a new day will come. And when the sun shines, it will shine out the clearer.–J.R.R. Tolkien

The road goes ever on and on, down from the door where it began. Now far ahead the road has gone, and I must follow, if I can.–J.R.R. Tolkien

It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no telling where you might be swept off to.–J.R.R. Tolkien

The world is indeed full of peril and in it there are many dark places. But still there is much that is fair. And though in all lands, love is now mingled with grief, it still grows, perhaps, the greater.–J.R.R. Tolkien

For even the very wise cannot see all ends.–J.R.R. Tolkien

Little by little, one travels far.–J.R.R. Tolkien

Even the smallest person can change the course of the future.–J.R.R. Tolkien

Find more than 9000 inspirational quotes and a link to the Quote of the Day list, as well as quotation related merchandise, at http://www.quotelady.com

National Rehabilitation Awareness Week

Today I want to celebrate all those involved in rehabilitation work. I have been the recipient of such for a couple of weeks, and I have great respect and admiration for the men and women who provide this useful service. Fortunately, my disability – a broken hip – will heal eventually, but for many, becoming disabled is a permanent life change.

There are a couple of kinds of rehabilitation for a physical injury (probably more, but two that I have been involved with) – physical therapy and occupational theory. Physical therapy is just what you would expect. You learn how to move without hurting yourself more, strengthen those areas which are weak, and learn to get along with any assistance device you might have. For me, it is a walker for now. Occupational therapy consists in seeing how many of your normal activities you can do now that you have this disability. So I practiced doing laundry, doing dishes, wiping counters, cooking, sweeping the floor and other such.

It’s not all drudgery, though. Therapy has moved into the modern era, with something like Wii. I went into a small room with a television screen up front. The therapist puts up a game that will test how well you can move – forwards, backwards, and diagonally. I had to move myself to move my marker on the screen to do various things, such as whack a mole, protect sheep from a hungry wolf, and cut flowers without blunting my scissors on cactuses. The games were fun!

Of course, there are many other kinds of rehabilitation as well, from drug and alcohol to speech, and many others. I only speak here of my experiences.

So today I salute the rehabilitation therapists out there. If you know one, thank him or her. They provide a wonderful service.

Some quotes about physical therapy

No class in physical therapy school prepared me to counsel a patient dealing with a life-changing injury.–Adele Levine

Regardless of a patient’s true motives to get out of bed, I always applaud on the inside. That’s what physical therapy is all about. To get them out of bed.–Adele Levine

Be patient with your body, with your time, with yourself.–Unknown

Physical therapists put the fun in functional.–Unknown

Some catchy physical therapy slogans

• A touch of care.
• Caring is our passion.
• Don’t let pain keep you from life.
• Enriching lives through physical independence.
• Excellence driven. Superior results.
• Finding the right specialist for your orthopedic needs just got easier.
• Genuine commitment to your health.
• Get back your active life.
• Get Up! Get here! Get better!
• Getting better everyday.
• Hands on therapy that gets results.
• Helping people take steps towards independence.
• Helping you, help yourself.
• Hope for a better tomorrow.
• It’s about life… As you remember it.
• Let your health shine.
• Move forward.
• Moving you to a better health.
• One to One Hands On Care.
• Quality care for a better quality of life.
• Quality care from people who care.
• Recover independence and get back to the life you love.
• Relieve pain. Regain your life.
• Strength, Mobility, Function, Life.
• Teaching you today what you need to know tomorrow.
• The best hour of your day, everyday.
• The results you want. The care you deserve.
• We help you get back in motion.
• We help you get back on the right track.
• When injury gets you out, we’ll get you back.
• Where you can feel the change.
• Your health. Our priority.

Find more than 9000 inspirational quotes and a link to the Quote of the Day list, as well as quotation related merchandise, at http://www.quotelady.com

Hug a Greeting Card Writer Day

When we want to wish someone happy birthday or happy anniversary or happy retirement, or commemorate an important event in life, one of the first things we do is find a greeting card. Whether we want something inspiring or funny or even a bit rude, there is likely a card for that, whether it’s a paper card or an ecard available on the Web. But how often do we stop to think about the people who create the cards? They don’t just appear out of the blue complete and whole. Someone somewhere has put together the words to express the feelings we have for whatever occasion we are commemorating.

According to Wikipedia, “The custom of sending greeting cards can be traced back to the ancient Chinese, who exchanged messages of good will to celebrate the New Year, and to the early Egyptians, who conveyed their greetings on papyrus scrolls. By the early 15th century, handmade paper greeting cards were being exchanged in Europe. The Germans are known to have printed New Year’s greetings from woodcuts as early as 1400, and handmade paper Valentines were being exchanged in various parts of Europe in the early to mid-15th century, with the oldest Valentine in existence being in the British Museum.” For paper cards, Hallmark and American Greetings are the two market leaders. Today, it’s estimated that around 170 billion cards are sent worldwide each year.

I usually create my own cards with a program I’ve used at least since the 1990s called PrintShop. It’s not the easiest program or the best on the market, but I know its quirks inside out by now. I love creating personalized cards for friends and family.

Although I make my own cards, if I were to purchase cards, my favorite artist is Sandra Boynton. Her whimsical drawings always make me smile.

So if you know a greeting card writer, hug them today. Otherwise, support them by sending someone a card for a special occasion or none at all.

Here are a few examples of thank you card messages I found online to thank you all for reading this blog. As the sayings demonstrate, in cards the pictures and the words work together to send a message. The words alone don’t work as well. So in addition to the writers, let’s celebrate the artists.

Thank you for thinking of me.

Your generous gift is greatly appreciated.

Thank you for this gift and the gift of knowing you.

Thank you for all you do, you are truly a great friend.

I could not have done it without you, thanks.

Thanks for everything.

You have our heartfelt thanks.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Your thoughtfulness knows no bounds.

Please accept my sincerest thanks.

Thank You: Two small words to convey the infinite feeling in my heart.

You have my undying gratitude.

I’m so grateful for your thoughtful gift.

Thanks so much for your hospitality.

I love your gift., thanks so much.

You have my sincerest thanks.

Thank you for celebrating our special occasion with us.

Find more than 9000 inspirational quotes and a link to the Quote of the Day list, as well as quotation related merchandise, at http://www.quotelady.com

World Play-Doh Day

Who can resist those tubs of brightly colored soft modeling clay? September 16 is the day to celebrate and create something cute and squashy.

Play Doh was originally created in the 1930s as a product for cleaning wallpaper.  At that time it was an uninspiring off-white. People could remove soot and dirt from their wall coverings by simply rolling the wad of goop across the surface. The inventor was Joe McVicker. Joe learned from a teacher that kids usually found modeling clay too hard to manipulate. Discovering that the squishy cleaning product he manufactured could substitute, McVicker shipped some to the school. After teachers and kids raved, he offered to supply the product to all Cincinnati schools. More rave reviews followed.

But Play-Doh’s big break came when Captain Kangaroo began to feature it on his children’s show. Sales picked up and have never gone down. Play-Doh now comes in a wide variety of colors, with some being Paradise Purple, silver and gold. Since its inception, two billion cans of Play-Doh have been sold. If you took all of that Play-Doh ever made and wadded it into a giant ball, it would weigh as much as 2,000 Statues of Liberty, or be long enough to reach to the moon and back three times.

If this has whetted your creativity, go to your local toy store or check out Amazon’s offering.

One quote about Play-Doh, and a few about clay.

Once Play-Doh colors are mixed, there’s no going back.–Dee Ann Stewart

All that happens to us, including our humiliations, our misfortunes, our embarrassments, all is given to us as raw material, as clay, so that we may shape our art.–Jorge Luis Borges

Clay and people interact on a daily and continuous basis.–Tessie Naranjo

We throw clay to shape a pot, But the utility of the clay pot is a function of the nothingness inside it.–Tao Te Chin

Your life is a piece of clay, don’t let anyone else mold it for you.–Unknown

I like having my hands in the clay. I like the movie-making process.–Matthew McConaughey

I love to create, and to me, the ultimate freedom of expression is a blank canvas or a block of clay to capture whatever emotions your imagination gives it.–Daniel Boulud

Gold like the sun, which melts wax, but hardens clay, expands great souls.–Antoine Rivarol

I like doing clay work. It’s different from drawing on a page because you have something to mold into different shapes. It’s quite visual, it’s a thing you can hold and feel, and that makes it different from drawing.–Bonnie Wright

My mom’s the one I look up to for everything. I feel like I’m a lump of clay and she’s moulding me into a woman.–Chloe Grace Moretz

When you have clay in your hands, it’s hard to avoid making birds.–Eva Zeisel

Find more than 9000 inspirational quotes and a link to the Quote of the Day list, as well as quotation related merchandise, at http://www.quotelady.com

Balance Awareness Week

Once this week wouldn’t have meant very much to me. But right now when I am learning to walk with a walker and have nurses, physical therapists, aides, and others hanging all around me to make sure I don’t lose my balance and fall, it suddenly brings such things home to me.

This week is actually to raise awareness about vestibular disorders, a disease of the inner ear which affects balance. My mother suffered from this briefly when I was in high school, and it is not nice at all. The mascot, if you will, of the Vestibular Disorders Association Website is the “flat flamingo,” the bird that stands on one leg. They sponsor a photo contest with people taking their printouts of the flamingo and having selfies taken all over the world. You can print your own at their site and join in the fun.

But more than just the physical, we all need balance in our lives. We need to find the balance between work and play, between giving and taking, waking and sleeping, and on and on. So whether or not you or someone you know needs to approach this a needing physical balance, all of us can look for places in our lives where we need to cultivate balance.

The Flat Flamingo

Quotes about balance

All extremes are error. The reverse of error is not truth but error still. Truth lies between these extremes.–Richard Cecil

The best and safest thing is to keep a balance in your life, acknowledge the great powers around us and in us. If you can do that, and live that way, you are really a wise man.–Euripides

Each one of us must face our own issues of balance, and the real key lies within your own hands. It is not someone else’s responsibility to manage your life, or to help create balance in your life. It is something you need to control.–Byron Pulsifer

Just as your car runs more smoothly and requires less energy to go faster and farther when the wheels are in perfect alignment, you perform better when your thoughts, feelings, emotions, goals, and values are in balance.–Brian Tracy

The word “happiness” would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.–Carl Jung

Live a balanced life – learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.–Robert Fulgham

Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance and order and rhythm and harmony.–Thomas Merton

Balance, peace, and joy are the fruit of a successful life. It starts with recognizing your talents and finding ways to serve others by using them.–Thomas Kinkade

Problems arise in that one has to find a balance between what people need from you and what you need for yourself.–Jessye Norman

A well-developed sense of humor is the pole that adds balance to your steps as you walk the tightrope of life.–William Arthur Ward

Next to love, balance is the most important thing.–John Wooden

Like with anything in life, find the balance between too much work and being too lazy; between spending too much and being a scrooge; between being gone all the time and being in each other’s way; between talking each other’s ears off and dead silence.–Christian Olsen

The critical part of a balance in life is choosing priorities. If you are trying to balance a family and a career, the choices are complex because both are important.–Byron Pulsifer

While it is important to love others unselfishly, it is crucial to find a balance. When we compromise our needs and martyr ourselves to the point of depleting ourselves and neglecting our needs, we become out of balance.–Jessica Minty

Find more than 9000 inspirational quotes and a link to the Quote of the Day list, as well as quotation related merchandise, at http://www.quotelady.com

National Chocolate Milkshake Day

Oh boy! Any day with chocolate in the name gets my wholehearted support! September 12 is your invitation to imbibe in this most delicious treat.

First, a little history: the first reference to a milkshake appeared in a British newspaper in 1885. At that time, it was an alcoholic beverage – an eggnog type of drink made with whiskey. The story goes that if the customer liked the drink, he would shake hands with the bartender, leaving a coin in his palm. By 1900 milkshakes were referred to as “wholesome drinks made with chocolate, strawberry or vanilla syrup.” Once this change happened, people began asking for this treat with a scoop of ice cream. When the electric blender was invented in 1922, milkshakes began to have the frothy consistency we know today. That same year Ivar Coulson, a Walgreen’s soda jerk, added malt to the drink, and the malted milkshake was born.

I saw several suggestions for how to celebrate this day, but to my mind there is only one – get yourself a chocolate milk shake! GoBankingRates has a list of where you might score a free milkshake today.

Here are a few quotes about chocolate milkshakes and chocolate in general

If I can’t suck your milkshake through a straw, it’s not a milkshake–it’s a glass of ice cream.–Bill Maher

I blow up fireworks all the time, and I love making milkshakes and banana splits.–Chris Isaak

I’m not complaining about Romance Being Dead – I’ve just described a happy marriage as based on talking about plants and a canceled Ray Romano show and drinking milkshakes.–Mindy Kaling

If you look in my fridge, it’s, like, children’s food – chips, milkshakes, yogurt.–Simon Cowell

Love is that which happens while enjoying a chocolate milkshake.–Unknown

Next week we’ll be investigating rumours that the president of the dairy council has become a Mason, and goes around giving his colleagues the ‘secret milkshake.–Ronnie Barker

I remember the fact that milk was delivered every day by a milkman. In summer, my mother would make what now seem in my middle-aged imagination the most delicious iced milkshakes.–Simon McBurney

As a child, I lived with being punier than other boys in class. The only consolation was my parents’ empathy – they encouraged constant trips to the local drugstore for chocolate milk shakes to fatten me up.–James D. Watson

As with most fine things, chocolate has its season. There is a simple memory aid that you can use to determine whether it is the correct time to order chocolate dishes: any month whose name contains the letter A, E, or U is the proper time for chocolate.–Sandra Boynton

Chocolate causes certain endocrine glands to secrete hormones that affect your feelings and behavior by making you happy. Therefore, it counteracts depression, in turn reducing the stress of depression. Your stress-free life helps you maintain a youthful disposition, both physically and mentally. So, eat lots of chocolate!–Elaine Sherman

Chocolate is nature’s way of making up for Mondays.–Anonymous

Chocolate is a perfect food, as wholesome as it is delicious, a beneficent restorer of exhausted power. It is the best friend of those engaged in literary pursuits.–Baron Justus von Liebig

I don’t understand why so many “so called” chocolate lovers complain about the calories in chocolate, when all true chocoholics know that it is a vegetable. It comes from the cocoa bean, beans are veggies, ’nuff said.–Author Unknown

There are four basic food groups: milk chocolate, dark chocolate, white chocolate, and chocolate truffles.–Anonymous

There’s nothing better than a good friend, except a good friend with CHOCOLATE.–Linda Grayson

Find more than 9000 inspirational quotes and a link to the Quote of the Day list, as well as quotation related merchandise, at http://www.quotelady.com