Well Within Our Power

Here we face a critical branch point in history, what we do with our world, right now, will propagate down through the centuries and powerfully affect the destiny of our descendants.
We are star stuff, which has taken its destiny into its own hands.  The loom of time and space works the most astonishing transformations of matter.  Our own planet is only a tiny part of the vast cosmic tapestry, a starry fabric of worlds yet untold.  Those worlds in space are as countless as all the grains of sand on all the beaches of the earth.  Each of those worlds is as real as ours.  In every one of them there’s a succession of incidents, events, occurrences, which influence its future.  Countless worlds, numberless moments, an immensity of space and time, and our small planet at this moment — here we face a critical branch point in history.  What we do with our world, right now will propagate down through the centuries and powerfully affect the destiny of our descendants.  It is well within our power to destroy our civilization and perhaps our species as well.  If we capitulate a superstition or greed or stupidity, we can plunge our world into a darkness deeper than the time between the collapse of classical civilization and the Italian Renaissance.  But we are also capable of using our compassion and our intelligence, our technology and our wealth, to make an abundant and meaningful life for every inhabitant of this planet, to enhance enormously our understanding of the universe and to carry us to the stars.
—    Carl Sagan
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The Responsibility Side Is On The Right

Yes, in this country we have freedom, we have rights, but our rights end when they infringe on the health and safety of others.
We have rights, but we also have responsibilities.  When did we forget the responsibility side of the equation?
Our love of freedom causes us to make wise choices to keep each other safe.
Our freedom engenders concern and compassion.  Our freedom gives us strength, not weakness.  Our freedom makes us bold.  Our freedom gives us dignity.  Our freedom causes us to protect the most vulnerable among us.  Our freedom generates in us the desire to do the right thing.
Our freedom prompts us to wear a mask.
From the site:   Meditations in Motion
Located at:  https://meditationsinmotion.wordpress.com/
The specific post is at:  https://meditationsinmotion.wordpress.com/2020/08/16/wearing-the-masks-of-freedom-and-love/
[Please visit the original site if you have a spare moment.   —   KMAB]
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On This Day In:
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2016	With No Allowance For Chance?
2015	Details
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2013	Non-Fungible Commodities
2012	Hope And Tears
2011	Just Long Enough
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Seen Any Messages Lately?

From time to time in the years to come, I hope you will be treated unfairly, so that you will come to know the value of justice.  I hope that you will suffer betrayal because that will teach you the importance of loyalty.  Sorry to say, but I hope you will be lonely from time to time so that you don’t take friends for granted.  I wish you bad luck, again, from time to time so that you will be conscious of the role of chance in life and understand that your success is not completely deserved and that the failure of others is not completely deserved either.  And when you lose, as you will from time to time, I hope every now and then, your opponent will gloat over your failure.  It is a way for you to understand the importance of sportsmanship. I hope you’ll be ignored so you know the importance of listening to others, and I hope you will have just enough pain to learn compassion.  Whether I wish these things or not, they’re going to happen.  And whether you benefit from them or not will depend upon your ability to see the message in your misfortunes.
—    Jonathan Haidt and Gregory Lukianoff
From their book:  “The Coddling of the American Mind“
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On This Day In:
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2015	True Value In Life
2014	A Potential To Be Concerned
2013	Fine No More
2012	Have You Checked Your Height Lately?
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Me Too

When it comes to love, compassion, and other feelings of the heart, I am rich.
―    Muhammad Ali
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On This Day In:
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2015	Still The Best Teacher
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2012	Believe It Or Not
2011	The Road To Recovery (And More Myths)

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In Times Of Crisis

The measure of a country’s greatness is its ability to retain compassion in times of crisis.
—    Thurgood Marshall
Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice
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2012	Beyond Reasonable Doubt
2011	Celebrating Values
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A Gardening Goal: Feed The Flowers

If we make our goal to live a life of compassion and unconditional love, then the world will indeed become a garden where all kinds of flowers can bloom and grow.
—    Daphne Rose Kingma
Do not take life too seriously.  You will never get out of it alive.
—    Elbert Hubbard
I am not what I ought to be.  I am not what I want to be.  I am not what I hope to be.  But still, I am not what I used to be.  And by the grace of God, I am what I am.
—    John Newton
[Hopefully, one year closer to reaching the garden with a smile and content with where I am…   Happy Birthday to me!    —    KMAB]
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On This Day In:
2017	Freakishly Happy Cowboy
2016	One More, Please
2015	Infinite Adventure
2014	Unpaved
2013	Headstones
2012	Keeping Young
2011	Lessons Well Learned

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Small Things

To me, God and compassion are one and the same.  Compassion is the joy of sharing.  It’s doing small things for the love of each other – just a smile, or carrying a bucket of water, or showing some simple kindness.  These are the small things that make up compassion.
—    Mother Teresa
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2017	Clear And Warm To Me
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2014	Are You Confused?
2013	But The Odds Are Against It
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2011	Timid And Fainthearted

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