The Lost ShangriLa - Le ciel bleu profond - Keep Walking, Traveler25

"Choosing to be hopeful is easier said than done, of course, but it’s a life-sustaining mindset. To adopt it, Zaki recommends getting closer to our fellow humans and opening our eyes to the beauty of being alive, if we’re already awake to the hardships. Sometimes you’ll be disappointed with what you find, he says — but you will also be pleasantly surprised. "

- To your health, from The good stuff,   November 16, 2024

" Humor is a very, very important part of our life. It's not just laughing at a joke, it's an attitude toward life. And as the world gets crazier, it's more important to laugh at it. It's a survival technique. "

- Bob Newhart, iconic comedian and actor, who died this week at the age of 94

"But she also warned about going overboard. “We can push ourselves and engage in challenges; those can be some of the happiest, most flow-inducing moments of our lives,” she said. “But we need to make sure we’re doing that in balance.” 

See, the grass is full of stars,

Sometimes things don’t go, after all,
from bad to worse. Some years, muscadel
faces down frost; green thrives; the crops don’t fail.
Sometimes a man aims high, and all goes well.

A people sometimes will step back from war,
elect an honest man, decide they care
enough, that they can’t leave some stranger poor.
Some men become what they were born for.

"At first, I used to think negative things, like why is there so much pressure? why is this so hard? ... I realized in a way it's pressure but it's not. I mean, there are people struggling to feed their families, people who don't know where their next meal is going to come from, people who have to pay their bills. That's real pressure, that's real hardship, that's real life. I'm in a very privileged position, I'm getting paid to do what I love and getting support to do what I love. That's something that I don't take for granted ... I have a lucky life, and so I should enjoy it." 

Cruelty is easy, and it breeds only misery. Kindness is harder, and you have to be brave to give it. To be cruel, you can stay closed off from everyone, wear a mask, but to be kind, in essence, to show love, you have to make yourself vulnerable, show your true self to someone and open yourself up to rejection. 

This is a great article cited from Fareed's briefing :

Quote from CNN Good Stuff   July 2, 2022 :