Category Archives: love

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What 25 Movies Teach Us About Love

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Love comes in all shapes and sizes and to each his own.  In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, I put together a sampling of 25 movies and what they can teach us about life and love.  Even if you’re not a fan of Valentine’s Day, enjoy the quotes and perhaps see things in a new light.  Sometimes just the right words, are like an old song, sung new.

Here they are:

  1. As Good as it Gets – Love can bring out your best.  Melvin: “You make me want to be a better man.”
  2. Be My Valentine Charlie Brown – Just because you don’t get a Valentine, doesn’t mean you aren’t lovable.
  3. Casablanca.  Kiss like you mean it.  Ilsa: “Kiss me. Kiss me as if it were the last time.
    It’s the kind of thing you want to hold on to forever.”
  4. Casper: Don’t let go.  Casper: “If I tell you I love you, can I keep you forever?”
  5. Cinderella.  It’s what dreams are made of.  Cinderella: “A dream is a wish your heart makes when you’re fast asleep. In dreams you will lose your heartaches. Whatever you wish for, you keep. Have faith in your dreams, and someday, your rainbow will come smiling through. No matter how your heart is grieving, if you keep on believing, the dream that you wish will come true.”
  6. Dan in Real Life.  Love is an ability.  Marty: “Love is not a feeling, Mr. Burns. It’s an ability.”
  7. Don Juan DeMarco.  The answer is love.  Don Juan: “There are only four questions of value in life, Don Octavio. What is sacred? Of what is the spirit made? What is worth living for, and what is worth dying for? The answer to each is the same: only love.”
  8. Ghost.  Sometimes you need to hear it.  Sam: “Ditto.”
  9. It’s a Wonderful Life.  We’ll do anything to impress the one we love.  George: “What is it you want, Mary? What do you want? You want the moon? Just say the word and I’ll throw a lasso around it and pull it down. Hey. That’s a pretty good idea. I’ll give you the moon, Mary.”
  10. Memoirs of a Geisha. Love is a bond.  Nobu: “We are tied to each other. I know you feel it too.”
  11. My Girl – Butterflies and fuzzy feelings are what first kisses are about.  Loss hurts.
  12. P.S. I Love You – Cherish the time you have together.  It’s part of the journey.  Gerry: “If you can promise me anything, promise me that whenever you’re sad, or unsure, or you lose complete faith, that you’ll try to see yourself through my eyes. Thank you for the honor of being my wife. I’m a man with no regrets. How lucky am I. You made my life, Holly. But I’m just one chapter in yours. There’ll be more. I promise. So here it comes, the big one. Don’t be afraid to fall in love again. Watch out for that signal, when life as you know it ends. P.S. I will always love you”
  13. Romeo and Juliet – Puppy love makes you say the darnedest things.  Romeo: “See, how she leans her cheek upon her hand! O that I were a glove upon that hand, that I might touch that cheek!”
  14. Runnaway Bride – Sometimes it’s a bumpy ride.  But it’s worth it.  Maggie: “I guarantee there’ll be tough times. I guarantee that at some point, one or both of us is going to want get out. But I also guarantee… that if I don’t ask you to be mine, I’ll regret it for the rest of my life. Because I know in my heart… you’re the only one for me.”
  15. Shrek – Love comes in all shapes and sizes.  Stay true to you.
  16. Sleepless in Seattle.  Sometimes, it’s like a snowflake just for you.  Sam: “Well, how long is your program? Well, it was a million tiny little things that, when you added them all up, they meant we were supposed to be together… and I knew it. I knew it the very first time I touched her. It was like coming home… only to no home I’d ever known… I was just taking her hand to help her out of a car and I knew. It was like… magic.”
  17. The Bridges of Madison County.  You know it when you feel it. Robert Kinkaid: “This kind of certainty comes but once in a lifetime.”
  18. The Crow.  Remember them.  Sarah: “If the people we love are stolen from us, the way to have them live on is to never stop loving them. Buildings burn, people die, but real love is forever.”
  19. The Notebook – If you’ve ever really loved, you know what it’s like to really live.  Noah: “I am nothing special; just a common man with common thoughts, and I’ve led a common life. There are no monuments dedicated to me and my name will soon be forgotten. But in one respect I have succeeded as gloriously as anyone who’s ever lived: I’ve loved another with all my heart and soul; and to me, this has always been enough.”
  20. The Princess Bride – Nothing beats true love.  Miracle Max says, “Sonny, true love is the greatest thing, in the world-except for a nice MLT – mutton, lettuce and tomato sandwich, where the mutton is nice and lean and the tomato is ripe.”
  21. The Way We Were – Remember how it felt when it wasn’t complicated.  Hold on to that.  Katie: “Wouldn’t it be lovely if we were old? We’d have survived all this. Everything thing would be easy and uncomplicated; the way it was when we were young.”
  22. The Wizard of Oz.  Love isn’t meant to be practical.  Wizard of Oz: “As for you, my galvanized friend, you want a heart. You don’t know how lucky you are not to have one. Hearts will never be practical until they can be made unbreakable.”
  23. Titanic. Endings can be bitter sweet.  Jack: “Winning that ticket, Rose, was the best thing that ever happened to me… it brought me to you. And I’m thankful for that, Rose. I’m thankful. You must do me this honor. Promise me you’ll survive. That you won’t give up, no matter what happens, no matter how hopeless. Promise me now, Rose, and never let go of that promise.”
  24. Wedding Crashers – Love more.  You’ve got more capacity than you might think you do.  John: “You know how they say we only use 10 percent of our brains? I think we only use 10 percent of our hearts.”
  25. When Harry Met Sally.  Sometimes love is like a new lease on life.  Harry: “I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.”

What movies wrinkled your brain when it comes to love?

Education, Entreprenuer, Health, Home, love

WE ARE NOT IN THE SAME BOAT

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I heard that we are in the same boat

But it’s not like that

We are in the same storm

But not in the same boat

Your ship can be shipwrecked

And mine might not be

Or vice versa

For some, quarantine is optimal

Moment of reflection, or re-connection

Easy, in flip flops, with a whiskey or tea.

For others, this is a desperate crisis.

For others it is facing loneliness

For some, a peace, rest time, vacation

Yet for others, torture:

How am I going to pay my bills?

Some were concerned about a brand of chocolates

Others were concerned about the bread for the weekend,

Or if the noodles would last for a few more days.

Some were in their ‘home office’

Others are looking through trash to survive

Some want to go back to work because

They are running out of money

Others want to kill those who break the quarantine

Some need to break the quarantine to stand in line at the banks

Others to escape

Others criticize the government for the lines

Some have experienced the near death of the virus

Some have already lost someone from it

Some are not sure their loved ones are going to make it

And some don’t even believe this is a big deal.

Some of us who are well now

May end up experiencing it,

And some believe they are infallible and will be blown

Away if or when this hits

Someone they know

Some have faith in God and expect miracles during this 2021

Others say the worst is yet to come

So, friends, we are not in the same boat

We are going through a time when our perceptions and

Needs are completely different

And each one will emerge in

His own way, from that storm

Some with a tan from their pool

Others with scars on the soul

It is very important to see

Beyond what is seen at first glance

Not just looking, more that looking, seeing

See beyond the political party

Beyond the biases

Beyond the nose on your face

Do not underestimate the pain of others

If you do not feel it

Do not judge the good life of the other

Do not condemn the bad life of the other

Don’t be a judge

Let us not judge the one who lacks

As well as the one who exceeds him

We are on different ships looking to survive

Let everyone navigate their route with respect

Empathy and responsibility

Business, Education, Health, love, Travel, Weddings:-)

Manhood Is Not Natural

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Manhood is not natural, but it is essential. No society can endure if it does not harness male sexual energy and teach men to take care of the children they father and the women who bear them.

Few would disagree that manhood is in crisis today. Men are falling behind women in important measures of personal and social well-being. In deeply consequential ways, they have become the weaker sex.

Some women celebrate this. Most, however, are deeply concerned, especially since the weakness of the men in their lives makes it increasingly difficult for them to become wives and mothers. The equation is really quite simple: if boys don’t become good, dependable men, they can’t become good, dependable husbands and fathers.

The majority of women want marriage and babies, and usually quite dearly. They don’t need to be talked into them and never really have. Ask women today their biggest obstacle to achieving this goal. It’s not a shortage of males, but of responsible adult males. Men. If they cannot find marriageable men, they often go with other choices. It’s no coincidence that the two fastest growing family formation trends are unmarried cohabitation and out-of-wedlock childbearing among twenty- and thirty-something women.

The causes of these trends can be found in the underappreciated and often-denied distinct natures of manhood and womanhood. It’s rooted in a strange but essential anthropological truth: Womanhood is natural. Manhood is not.

Womanhood Is Natural

Womanhood is a natural phenomenon. A female’s biological make-up usually ensures that she will grow into a healthy woman. Leave her to herself, and it’s likely to happen. It’s why the phrases “woman up,” “be a woman,” or “make a woman out of her” don’t exist.

As her body matures, internally and externally, it sends her and those around her an unmistakable message about what she is and what she’s becoming. It moves her inexorably in that direction with a force as great as it is mysterious. Few girls miss these cues. It’s not just her body that is changing; she is becoming a different person. Her family and community treat her differently because of it. A father shudders at it, as it forever changes the way he interacts with “his little girl.” He must bow to and honor it. I’m the father of a girl. I know it all too well.

Women must be taught, with great political and ideological pressure, to ignore their womanhood and abandon their children, for doing so is contrary to all nature.

Manhood Is Taught

The opposite is true of manhood.  Unlike a woman, a man has no civilized role or agenda inscribed in his body. The boy has no on-board GPS directing him toward his future. His transition into manhood can only come into being with significant, intentional work by other men. As a behavior, manhood must be learned, proven, and earned. As an identity, manhood must be bestowed by a boy’s father and the community’s larger fraternity of men. His mother can only affirm it. She cannot bequeath it.

Maleness just happens, but manhood does not. The first is a biological event, while the second is a developed character quality. When manhood is not formed and cultivated, males fail to mature, resulting in the “perpetual adolescence” or “failure to launch” that plagues our culture. When so many men play beer pong into their forties, live in their parents’ basements, play videogames twelve hours a day, and encounter women only in the form of pixels on a porn site, it seems clear that we have a manhood problem.

The human male nature doesn’t naturally go in the direction civilization requires; it requires the direction of other men. Unlike the female nature, which tends to exist reliably among the median scale of human behavior, the male nature is oriented more toward extremes, for good or bad.

Manhood must be crafted and refined in order to orient males in pro-social, communitarian directions. In fact, this is the first work of every civilization. Anthropologists tell us that the original and most fundamental social problem of any culture is the unattached male. Left to his own, he is not inclined to play well with others. He is not disposed to make himself, or anyone around him, a better person. He is not likely to become other-focused. Either fiercely competitive or indolent, he is more likely to become a social contagion. He will either seek to define himself in the community by power, false confidence, and selfish conquest, or shrink away toward inactivity and reticence.

In every known human society, everywhere in the world, the young male learns that when he grows up, one of the things which he must do in order to be a full member of society is to provide food [and protection] for some female and her young. … every known human society rests firmly on the learned nurturing behaviour of men.

Thus, across virtually all cultures, manhood has largely consisted of three essential qualities: procreation, provision, and protection. If the boy doesn’t learn these things, then he is not likely to become a good, selfless, serving man. Shame and derision from the community will become his lot.

Tragically, manhood is becoming extinct because we are not teaching it.

Male vs. Female Sexuality

Additionally, the most elemental destabilizing force in every culture is not merely unrefined male energy, but his unchecked sexual energy. Full stop. In its fundamental essence, it is deeply anti-social. It has no civilizing, pro-social nature in itself. To become so, it must be acted upon by other forces. By contrast, female sexual energy tends to be inherently pro-social. Female sexuality has the power to create human civilization by moderating the behavior of men, but it can only do this when there is social appreciation for these differences in male and female sexuality, coupled with the strong social morals they require.

Of course, the flip side of unmoderated male energy goes beyond sexuality. A female’s naturally domesticating influence on overall male energy and behavior is easily demonstrated. Who pays substantially lower auto, health, and life insurance premiums, married men or their single peers? Service to the god of equality requires there be no difference here. But we all know better. The wedding-ring-clad man enjoys the financial benefit, and not because insurance companies have a sentimental heart for weddings. Every insurance company knows married men direct their male wanderlust and energy toward safety and responsibility. Single men, not so much.

Without the essential tempering influence of female sexuality, male sexuality is a whole other animal, and not a pretty one.

Sex Makes Babies

This is a problem, because sex makes babies. Every society must give greater attention to this fact than it does to the need for food, shelter, and protection from outside attack. These and all other vital needs are either enhanced or crippled by what a community expects of the relationship between a man, the children he sires, and the woman he does so with. If it doesn’t get this right, few other good things the community needs are likely.

Of course, the male’s attitude and approach toward his procreative act is drastically different from hers. His necessary participation in the act is solely orgasmic, lasting seconds, and is all pleasure. He is not naturally connected to the potential of that act. The mother’s connection, however, is profound, starting shortly after conception and intensifying daily. It costs her dearly in energy, sleep, and overall comfort, starting long before the pain of childbirth. She is inescapably invested. He is not.

The crucial process of civilization is the subordination of male sexual impulses and biology to the long-term horizons of female sexuality . . . It is male behavior that must be changed to create a civilized order. The crucial process of civilization. No society can develop or endure without succeeding at this.

Manhood, Marriage, and Fatherhood

The woman is not only the stabilizing force of male sexuality; she is the authorizing factor in fatherhood. If a particular man desires to be involved in the life of his child, it is the child’s mother, and she alone, who determines whether and how he may do this. She typically desires to make this relationship public by making the father of the child her husband. Anthropologists have called this the legitimization of the child.

Consider the etymology of two key words: matrimony and husband. The first comes from the Latin, matrimonium, meaning literally “obligation to the mother.” Since it is virtually impossible for a mother and her child to thrive by themselves, marriage arose in nearly every civilization throughout time as a way to have the impregnating male take responsibility for his child and the mother. The surrounding community expects the male to fulfill his obligation so it doesn’t have to. It is why marriage is a deeply public act and no society has found a way to function without it.

Thus, the good man steps up, and in doing so, becomes a husband. This stems from the Old Norse, meaning literally house dweller: hús (“house”) bóndi (“dweller” and “bonded serf” or “slave”). The husband settles down and confines himself to a particular household, serving and providing resources for its inhabitants. He becomes a whole other kind of man, taking full responsible for his sexuality and his part in the coming generation.

What Happens When Manhood Isn’t Taught?

It is then certainly no coincidence that the term “feminization of poverty” was coined as the sexual revolution initiated the great divorce between sex, babies, and marriage.  While large opportunities were opening for women due to greater equality, Poverty is rapidly becoming a female problem. She blamed the significant increase in the number of female-headed families.

Ghettos are not created by city planners, crime by the police, or failing health by big pharma. Each of these social ills arises by inattention to the sexual behaviors of males. If he doesn’t have to marry before having sex (and potentially fathering children), the average man won’t. So he hasn’t. The feminization of poverty and the accompanying declines in female happiness and childhood well-being are the tragic results.

Manhood ideologies always include a criterion of selfless generosity, even to the point of sacrifice. Again and again, we find that “real” men are those who give more than they take away; they serve others. Real men are generous, even to a fault. Non-men are often those stigmatized as stingy and unproductive.

A good man is the fountain, not the drain. The formation of such men is the first task of human civilization, and its largest threat when ignored.

The question is, how can we recover manhood today? We must find the answer. For it is not only the fate of men that is at stake, but the fate of our women, children, and society as well.

love, Society, Travel, Weddings:-)

Valentine Quotes

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In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, I decided to put together a collection of love quotes for your browsing pleasure.

I reached far and wide across songs, movies, and famous people to find some of the best love quotes available.

Love Quotes Teach Us that Love Shapes Your Experience

My most important lessons in love are that love is what you make of it, the more you give, the more you get, true love is falling in love with the same person over and over again, and I also learned that “Those who are the hardest to love, need it the most.”

Top 10 Love Quotes

I selected a few of my favorite love quotes for a top 10 list:

  1. “I have an everyday religion that works for me. Love yourself first, and everything else falls into line.” — Lucille Ball
  2. “Love is like heaven, but it can hurt like hell.” – Unknown
  3. “Love is not a feeling, it’s an ability.” — Dan in Real Life
  4. “When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.” — When Harry Met Sally
  5. “One of the hardest things in life is having words in your heart that you can’t utter.” — James Earl Jones
  6. “One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life — that word is love.” – Sophocles
  7. “The grand essentials of happiness are: something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.” — Allan K. Chalmers
  8. “The best things in life aren’t things.” — Art Buchwald
  9. “There is a place you can touch a woman that will drive her crazy. Her heart.” — Milk Money
  10. “You make me want to be a better man.” — As Good As It Gets

Beauty

Is it beauty that makes us fall head over heels?  Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and beauty ranges from acts of kindness to beautiful looks, and inner beauty can last a lifetime, while outer beauty is up against Mother Nature and gravity.  With that in mind, here are love quotes focused on beauty and love:

“But soft! What light through yonder window breaks? It is the east and Juliet is the sun.”

– William Shakespeare

“Do you love me because I am beautiful or am I beautiful because I am loved?”

– Unknown

“If I could ask God one thing, it would be to stop the moon. Stop the moon and make this night and your beauty last forever.”

— A Knight’s Tale

“Kindness in women, not their beauteous looks, shall win my love.”

— William Shakespeare

“See, how she leans her cheek upon her hand! Oh that I were a glove upon that hand, that I might touch that cheek!”

— William Shakespeare

“Things are beautiful if you love them.”

— Jean Anouilh

“Your eyes are the sweetest stars I’ve ever seen.”

— Moulin Rouge

Broken Hearts and Loss

For many people, the pain of a broken bone is nothing like the pain of a broken heart.  Here are love quotes on broken hearts and loss:

“’Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.”

— Alfred Lord Tennyson

“Hearts will be practical only when they are made unbreakable.”

— The Wizard of Oz

“How come we don’t always know when love begins, but we always know when it ends?”

— L.A. Story

“If the people we love are stolen from us, the way to have them live on, is to remember them. Buildings burn, people die, but real love is forever.”

— The Crow

“If you love something, set it free; if it comes back it’s yours, if it doesn’t, it never was.”

— Richard Bach

“Love begins with a smile, grows with a kiss, and ends with a teardrop.”

– Unknown

“That’s why they call them crushes. If they were easy, they’d call them something else.”

— Sixteen Candles

“The hottest love has the coldest end.”

– Socrates

“The love that lasts the longest is the love that is never returned.”

— William Somerset Maugham

“To fall in love is awfully simple, but to fall out of love is simply awful.”

— Bess Myerson

“Who do you turn to when the only person in the world that can stop you from crying, is exactly the one making you cry?”

– Unknown

Falling in Love

There are so many ways to describe the act of falling in love.  Here are some of the best love quotes that do just that:

“A man falls in love through his eyes, a woman through her ears.”

— Woodrow Wyatt

“Do you ever put your arms out and just spin and spin and spin? Well, that’s what love is like. Everything inside of you tells you to stop before you fall, but you just keep going.”

— Practical Magic

“Do you want to know the easiest way to fall in love? Just associate with all your pleasant experiences with someone, and disassociate from all the unpleasant ones.”

— Richard Bandler

“Fate exists but it can only take you so far, because once you’re there, it’s up to you to make it happen.”

— Can’t Hardly Wait

“Love is like a butterfly, it settles upon you when you least expect it.”

– Unknown

“To be loved, be lovable.”

– Unknown

“Wise men say, only fools rush in. But I can’t help falling in love with you.”

— Elvis Presley

Fear

Fear comes with the territory.  Here are some of the best love quotes on fear as it relates to love:

“If you love someone you say it, you say it right then, out loud. Otherwise the moment just … passes you by.”

— My Best friend’s Wedding

“I would rather have eyes that cannot see; ears that cannot hear; lips that cannot speak, than a heart that cannot love.”

— Robert Tizon

“Tell her that you love her. You’ve got nothing to lose, and you’ll always regret it if you don’t.”

— Love Actually

“You never lose by loving. You always lose by holding back.”

— Barbara De Angelis

“What is love … Oh baby, don’t hurt me … Don’t hurt me no more.”

– Haddaway

Fun

While love can be some serious business, don’t lose your funny bone.  Here are some light-hearted love quotes that might just put a smile on your face:

“If love is the answer, can you please repeat the question?”

– Unknown

“Marriage is the triumph of imagination over intelligence. Second marriage is the triumph of hope over experience.”

— Samuel Johnson

“My husband and I fell in love at first sight… maybe I should have taken a second look.”

— Crimes and Misdemeanors

“Nothing spoils the taste of peanut butter like unrequited love.”

— Charlie Brown

“Swoon. I’ll catch you.”

— The English Patient

“You are what I never knew I always wanted.”

— Fools Rush In

“You can’t put a price tag on love, but you can on all its accessories.”

— Melanie Clark

“Your heart is my piñata.”

— Chuck Palahniuk

Kissing

Love adds the magic to an otherwise ordinary kiss.  Here are some interesting love quotes about kissing:

“A kiss isn’t worth anything until you give it to somebody else.”

– Unknown

“For it was not into my ear you whispered, but into my heart. It was not my lips you kissed, but my soul.”

— Judy Garland

“Kiss me. Kiss me as if it were the last time.”

– Casablanca

“There have been five great kisses since 1642 B.C. (before then couples hooked thumbs) … and the precise rating of kisses is a terribly difficult thing, often leading to great controversy.  Well, this one left them all behind.”

— The Princess Bride

“What do you want to marry me for anyhow? … So I can kiss you anytime I want.”

– Sweet Home Alabama

“You know, that moment when you kiss someone and everything around you becomes hazy. And the only thing in focus is you and that person. And you realize that that person is the only person that you’re supposed to kiss for the rest of your life. And for one moment you get this gift. And you want to laugh and you want to cry because you feel so lucky that you found it and so scared that it will go away all at the same time.”

— Never Been Kissed

Love and Life

Some say that it’s love that makes life worth living.  Others say that love is all you need.  Here are some love quotes on love and life:

“A life filled with love must have some thorns, but a life empty of love will have no roses.”

– Unknown

“All our young lives we search for someone to love, someone to make us complete. We choose partners and change partners. We dance to a song of heartbreak and hope, all the while wondering if somewhere, somehow, someone perfect is searching for us.”

— The Wonder Years

“Beginnings are usually scary and endings are usually sad, but it’s everything in between that makes it all worth living.”

— Hope Floats

“Life is messy. Love is messier.”

— Catch and Release

“Love doesn’t just sit there like a stone; it has to be made – like bread, remade all the time, made new.”

— Ursula K. LeGuin

“Love grows by giving. The love we give away is the only love we keep. The only way to retain love is to give it away.”

— Elbert Hubbard

“Love makes life so confusing, but without love would you really want to live?”

– Unknown

“The rules of fair play do not apply in love and war.”

— John Lyly

“The secret of love is seeking variety in your life together, and never letting routine chords dull the melody of your romance.”

— Unknown

Significance and Meaning

Love can turn the ordinary into the extraordinary.  Here are some love quotes on significance and meaning:

“I love you not because of who you are, but because of who I am when I am with you.”

— Roy Croft

“No one is perfect until you fall in love with them.”

– Unknown

“The greatest possession we have costs nothing, it’s known as love.”

— Brian Jett

“There are four questions of value in life… What is sacred? Of what is the spirit made? What is worth living for, and what is worth dying for? The answer to each is the same. Only love.”

— Don Juan DeMarco

“To be able to say how much you love is to love but little.”

— Petrarch

“To the world you may be just one person, but to one person you may be the world.”

– Unknown

“We cannot do great things on this Earth, only small things with great love.”

— Mother Teresa

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”

— William Shakespeare

“You will see a lot of things, but they will mean nothing to you, if you lose sight of the thing you love.”

— At First Sight

The Power of Love

Love is a powerful thing.   Here are some love quotes on the power of love:

“All you need is love, love, love is all you need.”

– The Beatles

“Faith makes all things possible. Love makes them easy.”

– Unknown

“I will find you. No matter how long it will take, no matter how far.”

— The Last Of The Mohicans

“Let your heart guide you. It whispers so listen carefully.”

— The Land Before Time

“Love has given me wings, so I must fly.”

— A Knight’s Tale

“Love is like a knife, it can stab the heart or it can carve wonderful images into the soul that will last a lifetime.”

– Unknown

“Suddenly the world seems such a perfect place, suddenly it moves with such a perfect grace, suddenly my life doesn’t seem such a waste, it all revolves around you.”

— Moulin Rouge

“Take love, multiply it by infinity and take it to the depths of forever.. and you still have only a glimpse of how I feel for you.”

— Meet Joe Black

“The best love is the kind that weakens the soul, that makes us reach for more, that plants fire in our hearts and brings peace to our minds. And that’s what you’ve given me. That’s what I hope to give to you forever.”

— The Notebook

“When a man loves a woman, he can’t keep his mind on nothing else.”

— Percy Sledge

“When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.”

— Jimi Hendrix

True Love

True love is what many people seek, and some people find, and others abandon.   Here are some love quotes on true love:

“Don’t say we aren’t right for each other, the way i see it is … we aren’t right for anyone else.”

— The Cutting Edge

“Have you never met a woman who inspires you to love? Until your every sense is filled with her? You inhale her. You taste her. You see your unborn children in her eyes and know that your heart has at last found a home. Your life begins with her, and without her it must surely end.”

— Don Juan DeMarco

“I am someone else when I’m with you, someone more like myself.”

— Original Sin

“I wonder how many people never get the one they want, but end up with the one they’re supposed to have.”

— Fried Green Tomatoes

“Lucky is the man who is the first love of a woman, but luckier is the woman who is the last love of a man.”

– Unknown

“This kind of certainty comes but once in a lifetime.”

— Bridges of Madison County

“True love cannot be found where it does not truly exist, nor can it be hidden where it truly does.”

— Kissing A Fool “”

“True love is like a fine wine, the older the better.”

— Fred Jacob

“True love is when your heart and your minds are saying the same thing.”

— Leanna L. Bartram

“Trying to make someone fall in love with you is about as pointless as trying to control who you fall in love with.”

– Unknown

“You’re not perfect sport, and let me save you the suspense, this girl you met, she isn’t perfect either. But the question is whether or not you’re perfect for each other.”

— Good Will Hunting

“We come to love not by finding a perfect person, but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly.”

– Unknown

General Love Quotes

Here is a cornucopia of love quotes on general ideas about love:

“A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person.”

–Mignon McLaughlin

“An immature love says I love you because I need you, but a mature love says I need you because I love you.”

– Unknown

“I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.”

— Mother Teresa

“I love you. I am who I am because of you. You are every reason, every hope, and every dream I’ve ever had, and no matter what happens to us in the future, everyday we are together is the greatest day of my life. I will always be yours.”

— The Notebook

“In these dreams I’ve loved you so, that by now I think I know what it’s like to be loved by you. I will love being loved by you.”

— The King and I

“I’ve been saying it so long to you, you just wouldn’t listen. Every time you said ‘Farm Boy do this’ you thought I was answering ‘As you wish’ but that’s only because you were hearing wrong. ‘I love you’ was what it was, but you never heard.”

— The Princess Bride

“Love comforteth like sunshine after rain.”

— William Shakespeare

“Summer romances begin for all kinds of reasons, but when all is said and done, they have one thing in common. They’re shooting stars, a spectacular moment of light in the heavens, fleeting glimpse of eternity, and in a flash they’re gone.”

— The Notebook

“The heart has its reasons that reason does not know.”

— Pascal

“The mark of a true crush, Is that you fall in love first, and grope for reasons afterward.”

–Shana Alexander

“What will NY152 say today, I wonder. I turn on my computer, I wait impatiently as it boots up. I go online, and my breath catches in my chest until I hear three little words: You’ve got mail. I hear nothing, not even a sound on the streets of New York, just the beat of my own heart. I have mail. From you.”

— You’ve Got Mail

“When they ask me what I liked best, I’ll tell them it was you.”

— City Of Angels

What’s your favorite love quote of all time?

Entreprenuer, Finance, Health, love, Travel

Roho Juu!

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images

*Roho Juu* is a term commonly used by the so called ‘hustlers’ who wake up early everyday to either seek an employment opportunity or going about their day work schedule in the hope of making ends meet.

It’s usually associated by the common ‘mwana inchi’ who earn a meagre salary or a hand to mouth type of income.

Direct translation would be ‘heart up’ or in simpler explanation ‘high spirited’
This is what I have come to hear, see and be part of ever since I joined the ‘hustling clan’

With so many challenges and obstacles coming their way, it’s easy to give up, call it quits and go home. But day after day, come rain or sunshine, the everyday greeting of *Roho Juu* uplifts and motivates each of us to continue hustling on despite all odds.

The powerful mantra of *Roho Juu* has nany translations all with the same common meaning and most importantly serves the purpose of inspiring our inner-selfs’ to keep sane, afloat and not just carry on but seek to thrive when all seems lost.

Below are synonyms associated with *Roho Juu*

-Undaunted
-Unshaken
-Showing resolution
-Unsubdued
-Fearless & Brave
-Bold & Confident
-Intrepid
-Gallant
-Indomitable
-Steadfast
-Undeterred
-Valiant
-Unfaltering
-Unflinching
-Valorous

If you can identify with *Roho Juu* feel free to add your own interpretation of the same.

Love
Jambu

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Inspiring Shipments by Ivana

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this is a post from a special person i hold dear for the depth of knowledge that she has shared to the masses and on a personal level because she inspired me to start blogging some two years ago.
thanks Ivana.

Inspiring Shipments (#IS) by Ivana Sendecka

Hi hi hi my dear SCG,

believe it or not, on 17th September 2012  this blog reached another milestone on its journey. Three years ago was the first time I have posted a blog post in this digital space. Naive,   enthusiastic , fearless, driven,  a bit “I know it all”,   “let me save the world” Ivana  posted a video about quitting my job and with title “End, which got me to begin.” Indeed in 2009, closed a door on security, on predictability, on the beaten path of a 9 to 5 job  walked by too many before me.  I have jumped with a bliss of  ignorant  beginner into the world where those who really do the work  meet,  create and collaborate. I have learned how little I know about myself , about human nature and about the world out there.  It is three  years since I set…

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How To Think Like Bill Gates

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bill gates

10 Ways to Think Like Bill Gates
While I don’t think Bill will lend you his brain, you can do the next best thing. You can take some of this thought patterns and practices for a test-drive. Here are ten patterns to get you started:

  1. Prioritize. “What’s the next best thing you should be thinking about?” It starts here. Time is your most limited and precious resource. This is about asking whether the problem is even worth your time. Before you throw cycles at it, figure out whether it’s worth it. Is it significant? How much time should you spend on it? For an example of how Bill Gates figures out how to prioritize.
  2. Ask smarter questions. If you want better answers, ask better questions. Rather than getting stuck in one line of questioning, such as “what’s wrong with this?” or “what’s right with this?”, you can explore your thinking more deeply, by asking a range of questions. One of the skills we learn at Microsoft is Precision Questions / Precision Answers. In this approach, there are 7 categories of precise questions: 1) Go / NoGo – Do we need to talk about this? 2) Clarification – What do you mean? 3) Assumptions – What are we assuming? 4) Basic Critical Question – How do we know this is true? 5) Causes – What’s causing this? 6) Effects – What will be the effects? 7) Action – What should be done?
  3. Make data-driven decisions. This is one of the toughest switches to make. By default, most people make emotional decisions and then find data to support the decision. This means asking questions like, “what’s the data say?” This means getting informed, before you make your decision. This means evaluating the sources of data. It’s an extreme exercise in emotional intelligence to pause your emotional response, while you check your logic and critical thinking.
  4. Divorce your ego. This is where you separate yourself from the problem. This is also about separating yourself from the solution. Instead, you hold the problem or solution out in your hands and inspect it from different angles. Rather than focus on whether you’re right, it’s about whether the solution is right. It’s about being able to beat up the thinking, without taking it personally.
  5. Frame the problem. Framing a problem is simply how you look at a problem, just like how you frame a picture. It’s about choosing what to focus on, what’s in and what’s out. When you frame the problem, you bound it. Framing also helps you get a better perspective on the problem, as well as share the problem more effectively with others. Some questions to help frame a problem include: Who’s the customer? What are their needs and priorities? What’s happening in the market? What are competitors doing? What are our options for responding? How do we differentiate? How is technology changing and what possibilities does it offer our customers? What are the priorities for our business?
  6. Get perspectives on the problem. This means being able to switch your perspectives. Rather than see the glass half-full or the glass half-empty, you should see both. Challenge yourself to switch back and forth from finding flaws to finding opportunities. If you only know how to play the Devil’s advocate, you have a limited view. Like a mulch-faceted diamond, you should be able to look at the problem from different angles. This also means being able to broker in experts and get other people’s perspective on the problem. Problem solving is a team sport. It’s also about leveraging smart people without domain expertise. For example, you can take a dev manager in consumer devices and have him/her move into the enterprise or business applications.
  7. Model the problem. By abstracting the problem into a model, you can think about it in simpler ways, without being bogged down by the implementation details. One of Bill Gate’s favorite tools is his whiteboard. A whiteboard makes it easy to sketch out ideas and visualize them. A whiteboard can help whether you’re trying to map out the problem or draw a solution. Keep in mind that George Box taught us that, “all models are wrong, but some are useful.”
  8. Think of the system and the ecosystem. Bill Gates has an engineering mind. He can see the problem as a system. You can map out the system by asking yourself questions along the line of, what are the bits and pieces? … How does it work? … How do the bits and pieces work together? … what’s the flow through the system? … what are the inputs and outputs? After you have a handle on the system, you can ask yourself about the ecosystem or the system of systems.
  9. Think of the problem over time. It’s easy to look at the problem and just see it as a static snapshot. The challenge is playing out the problem or your solution over time. Time can dramatically change what it looks like. Consider the impact of trends. Consider sustainability. Some things that look good only temporary, and really break down when you apply time to them. Sometimes time is on your side. You might find that there may be better windows of opportunity.
  10. Think strategically. Strategy guides your actions. You can think strategically along different lines. Consider the core of what you do (mission, vision, values, and goals.) Consider internal analysis (strengths and weaknesses, resources and capabilities, and benchmarking.) Consider external analysis (competitive analysis, opportunities and threats, and industry conditions.) Consider the organization design (structure, controls and incentives, culture and people.) Consider execution (roles, responsibilities, resources, action plans, measurement, and accountability.) Consider functional strategies (marketing and sales, operations, human resources, and R&D.) Consider strategic choices (corporate strategy and business strategy.)
Business, Education, Finance, Home, love

Six Keys to Being Excellent

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If you want to be really good at something, it’s going to involve relentlessly pushing past your comfort zone, as well as frustration, struggle, setbacks and failures. That’s true as long as you want to continue to improve, or even maintain a high level of excellence. The reward is that being really good at something you’ve earned through your own hard work can be immensely satisfying.

Here, then, are the six keys to achieving excellence we’ve found are most effective for our clients:

  1. Pursue what you love. Passion is an incredible motivator. It fuels focus, resilience, and perseverance.

  2. Do the hardest work first. We all move instinctively toward pleasure and away from pain. Most great performers, Ericsson and others have found, delay gratification and take on the difficult work of practice in the mornings, before they do anything else. That’s when most of us have the most energy and the fewest distractions.

  3. Practice intensely, without interruption for short periods of no longer than 90 minutes and then take a break. Ninety minutes appears to be the maximum amount of time that we can bring the highest level of focus to any given activity. The evidence is equally strong that great performers practice no more than 4 ½ hours a day.

  4. Seek expert feedback, in intermittent doses. The simpler and more precise the feedback, the more equipped you are to make adjustments. Too much feedback, too continuously can create cognitive overload, increase anxiety, and interfere with learning.

  5. Take regular renewal breaks. Relaxing after intense effort not only provides an opportunity to rejuvenate, but also to metabolize and embed learning. It’s also during rest that the right hemisphere becomes more dominant, which can lead to creative breakthroughs.

  6. Ritualize practice. Will and discipline are wildly overrated. As the researcher Roy Baumeister has found, none of us have very much of it. The best way to insure you’ll take on difficult tasks is to build rituals — specific, inviolable times at which you do them, so that over time you do them without having to squander energy thinking about them.

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Outlook

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Forget each kindness that you do
As soon as you have done it.
Forget the praise that falls to you
The moment you have won it.
Forget the slander that you hear
Before you can repeat it.
Forget each slight, each spite, each sheer
Wherever you may meet it.
Remember every kindness done
To you, whatever its measure.
Remember praise by others won
And pass it on with pleasure.
Remember every promise made
And keep it to the letter.
Remember those who lend you aid
And be a grateful debtor.
Remember all the happiness
That comes your way in living.
Forget each worry and distress;
Be hopeful and forgiving.
Remember good, remember truth,
Remember Heaven’s above you,
And you will find, through age and youth,
True joys and hearts to love you.

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Be The Best of Whatever You Are

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If you can’t be a pine on the top of the hill,
Be a scrub in the valley-but be

The best little scrub by the side of the rill;
Be a bush if you can’t be a tree.

If you can’t be a bush be a bit of the grass,
And some highway happier make;

If you can’t be a muskie then just be a bass-
But the liveliest bass in the lake!

We can’t all be captains, we’ve got to be crew,
There’s something for all of us here,

There’s big work to do, and there’s lesser to do,
And the task you must do is the near.

If you can’t be a highway then just be a trail,
If you can’t be the sun be a star;

It isn’t by size that you win or you fail-
Be the best of whatever you are!

Business, Health, Home, love, Travel

How When Where

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Maasai warriors

It is not so much WHERE you live,
As HOW, and WHY, and WHEN you live,
That answers in the affirmative,
Or maybe in the negative,
The question Are you fit to live?

It is not so much WHERE you live,
As HOW you live, and whether good
Flows from you through your neighbourhood
And WHY you live, and whether you
Aim high and noblest ends pursue,
And keep Life brimming full and true.

And WHEN you live, and whether Time
Is at its near or its prime,
And whether you descend or climb.
It is not so much WHERE you live,
As whether while you live you live
And to the world your highest give,
And so make answer positive
That you are truly fit to live.

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The True Meaning Of Christmas

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In today’s’ day and time,
it’s easy to lose sight,
of the true meaning of Christmas
and one special night.

When we go shopping,
We say “How much will it cost?”
Then the true meaning of Christmas,
Somehow becomes lost.

Amidst the tinsel, glitter
And ribbons of gold,
We forget about the child,
born on a night so cold.

The children look for Santa
In his big, red sleigh
Never thinking of the child
Whose bed was made of hay.

In reality,
When we look into the night sky,
We don’t see a sleigh
But a star, burning bright and high.

A faithful reminder,
Of that night so long ago,
And of the child we call Jesus,
Whose love, the world would know.

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You Are

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One day not too long ago the employees of a large company in St. Louis, Missouri returned from their lunch break and were greeted with a sign on the front door. The sign said: “Yesterday the person who has been hindering your growth in this company passed away. We invite you to join the funeral in the room that has been prepared in the gym.”

At first everyone was sad to hear that one of their colleagues had died, but after a while they started getting curious about who this person might be. The excitement grew as the employees arrived at the gym to pay their last respects. Everyone wondered: “Who is this person who was hindering my progress? Well, at least he’s no longer here!”

One by one the employees got closer to the coffin and when they looked inside it they suddenly became speechless. They stood over the coffin, shocked and in silence, as if someone had touched the deepest part of their soul.

There was a mirror inside the coffin: everyone who looked inside it could see himself. There was also a sign next to the mirror that said:
“There is only one person who is capable to set limits to your growth: it is YOU.”

YOU are the only person who can revolutionise your life.
YOU are the only person who can influence your happiness, your realisation and your success.
YOU are the only person who can help yourself. Your life does not change when your boss changes, when your friends change, when your parents change, when your partner changes, when your company changes.

Your life changes when YOU change, when you go beyond your limiting beliefs, when you realise that YOU ARE the only one responsible for your life.

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The Power of Trust

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“In the Indiana Jones movie, The Quest for The Holy Grail, Indy finds himself at the precipice of a bottomless chasm. On the other side of the abyss stands the sacred temple in which the cup of Christ awaits him. Indy has searched the entire world for the Holy Grail, defied all kinds rats, skeletons and villains, nearly lost his father, and risked death many times to come to this point.   Now he is so close and yet so far. Standing alone, looking down into this endless gorge, he remembers the instruction that was foretold to help him when he reached this point in his journey: Faith. Indy takes a deep breath and steps out over the chasm. He sees nothing to stand on, but he decides to follow the advice to *Trust*. As soon as he leans out over the abyss, a bridge appears and he finds himself fully supported on a solid mass. The entire chasm, which seemed quite impossible to mortal eyes, was but a test of Faith. The bridge was there all along, but it could only be seen by those who stepped onto it. Faith is the vision of things unseen. Only those who see the invisible can do the impossible. Jesus instructed, Blessed are those who see and believe, and even more blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe” How many bridges have you not crossed because you couldn’t see them? How can you view things differently this time and notice the hidden gold within every fear or obstacle? Will you give yourself the permission to leap across the chasm of your fears?, knowing that when you do, you’ll transform not only yourself, but your world as well? How many missed opportunities for joy and fulfilment are waiting for you, right now as you read this? Can you see the possibilities of daring to Dream a bigger Dream for yourself, your family, your community, your world? The possibilities are endless! As you become the co-creator of your world, you’ll realise how incredible your power really is. As you share your Dream with others, you’ll liberate them as well! Dare to Dream my friend, DARE to Dream! and you’ll build a bridge to your Dreams and in ways you haven’t imagined!