“A man watches his pear tree day after day, impatient for the ripening of the fruit. Let him attempt to force the ripening of the fruit and he may spoil both fruit and tree. But let him patiently wait, and the ripe pear at length falls into his lap!”

-Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)

Ah! We are rewarded for our patience! There’s another saying that “good things come to those who wait.” Even if we pluck a pear straight from the tree, that doesn’t make it ripe. It is ripe only in its own time. We can apply the concept to our ideas and projects, our relationships and job searches. We know when the time is right to proceed, to take action. We don’t need to rush.

-Lissa Coffey

“I was so surprised at being born that I didn’t speak for a year and a half.”

-Gracie Allen (1932)

Look at these little babies, little wise souls just new to this earth. How sweet and precious and rare. Sometimes when I meet someone I think about what they must have been like as a child. Children are innocent, and that child-like innocence remains within us somewhere, we just don’t let everyone see it.

-Lissa Coffey

“The eternity of the moment.”

-Hermann Hesse (1877-1962)

The beauty of the moment. It all comes down to that really. We can’t predict the future, it can change with a thought. We can’t change the past, what’s done is done. But we can live in, and enjoy, and appreciate this precious present moment. When we are totally in the moment, time stands still.

-Lissa Coffey

“Nobody has ever measured, even the poets, how much a heart can hold.”
-Zelda Fitzgerald, 1945

The heart is associated with love. How much love can we hold in our hearts? What is our capacity for love? It is immeasurable! There’s not a limit on how many people we can love, or how much we can love, or how deeply we can love. Love can’t be quantified.
-Lissa Coffey

“Some day, after we have mastered the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness… the energies of love. Then, for the second time in the history of the world, we will have discovered fire.”

-Pierre Tielhard de Chardin

Is there anything more powerful than love? Love is creative; with love we can accomplish anything. With love we have accomplished everything! Love is the great up-lifter, the strongest force there is. Love heals. Love grows. Love is the basis for life itself. Love is invisible, and yet ever-present. Love is the most valuable gift we will ever give or receive, and yet love is perfectly free.

-Lisa Marie Coffey

“I make the most lf all that comes and the least of all that goes.”

-Sara Teasdale

There’s an old saying: “Don’t sweat the small stuff.” It goes. Let it go. Rather than focus on it and invite it to hang around, instead turn your attention to something that deserves your appreciation. Ah! Doesn’t that feel better already?

-Lissa Coffey

“We are told that people stay in love because of chemistry, or because they remain intrigued with each other, because of many kindnesses, because of luck. But part of it has got to be forgiveness and gratefulness.”

-Ellen Goodman

If there is any one factor that sustains a relationship it has to be appreciation. Recognizing, and acknowledging, a person’s presence in our lives, and the value that they add to the quality of our lives is key. We all have a desire to be appreciated, not just for what we do, but for who we are. And we feel closest to the people in our lives who allow us to feel appreciated.

-Lissa Coffey

Happy Halloween!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy New Year!

Happy Father’s Day!

Happy Mother’s Day!

Happy Easter!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

All the great pleasures in life are silent.
-Georges Clemenceau

What is the sound of love, joy, or beauty? These are things we recognize because we feel them, we know them. Great composers have tried to express this with music, and great poets have tried to put it into words. And yet love and joy and beauty are too big to be captured on any canvas, or any recording. We can close our eyes, we can listen to the silence, and find them anytime.
-Lissa Coffey

“Earth laughs in flowers.”
-Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

Flowers are an expression of joy. It seems like a miracle that the earth can produce such a variety of species, so colorful, vibrant and full of life. Is it any wonder that we’ve made such a tradition of giving flowers in courtship? Sometimes flowers say what words cannot.
-Lissa Coffey

“Men love to wonder, and that is the seed of our science.”
-Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

Emerson always states it so well. Wonder is that “what if” that spurs us on to progress. It is the seed of science, but also the seed of creativity. We come up with ideas before we can make them into a reality – and those ideas come from wonder. Let’s make it a point to spend some time just wondering today.
-Lissa Coffey

“Wonder is music heard in the heart, is voiceless.”
-Rosemary Dobson, 1973

We can’t hear wonder with our ears, or see it with our eyes. It’s something that goes on in our hearts. It’s the process of translating something that might ordinarily seem mundane into something spectacular. It’s recognizing the divine within everything and everyone.
-Lissa Coffey

Bon Voyage!

“To me travel is a triple delight: anticipation, performance, and recollection.”

-Ilka Chase, 1961

Travel is something that sticks with us. We look forward to, and plan the trip, learning about where we’re going and how to get there. And then just being there – soaking up all there is in unfamiliar surroundings, exploring new territory. It excites our senses! And most importantly, there are the memories we bring home with us, which we can revisit at any time.

-Lissa Coffey

Have a WONDERFUL birthday!

“Birth may be a matter of a moment. But it is a unique one.”

-Frederick Leboyer

Birth is a beginning. It is the single event that starts us on our journey in this lifetime. Our grand entrance into the world! And here we are. Somehow all the right pieces were in place to make this miracle, and we were born to live this life. Life is precious.

-Lissa Coffey

CONGRATULATIONS!

“Do not scorn little victories.”

-Andre Gide (1869-1951)

Can we leap to the top of a mountain? That would be a difficult task. But what we can do is to climb a mountain, one step at a time. Each step that brings us toward that peak is a victory in itself. It takes effort, it takes vision, and it takes persistence. When we get discouraged, thinking the goal is too far off in the distance, we can look back and see just how far we’ve come.

-Lissa Coffey

Providence has hidden a charm in difficult undertakings, which is appreciated only by those who dare to grapple with them.
-Anne-Sophie Swetchine, 1869

Ah! Doesn’t this explain it! When we accept a challenge, work through it to the other side, then we understand and appreciate the growth that comes as our reward. It’s easy to shrug off a challenge, to think that it’s too big of a risk, that it could be a waste of our time. But to tackle a challenge, to grapple with it, leads us to a place where we discover just what we are capable of, and that is beautiful.
-Lissa Coffey

“If a man write a better book, preach a better sermon, or make a better mousetrap than his neighbor, though he build his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door.”

-Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

Excellence is noticed in this society. Excellence is honored. It doesn’t matter if it comes with an award, or a paycheck, or the appreciation of others, or even just our own peace of mind knowing that we have done something good – excellence is its own reward.

-Lissa Coffey

“Every exit is an entrance somewhere else.”

-Tom Stoppard (1937 – )

This sounds like an optimistic way of looking at things. It’s the same as “when one door closes, another one opens.” But it’s so true. Look at the opportunities that arise when something ends. All that energy has to go somewhere – so new situations and circumstances are created. It’s exciting! Change is good. Beginnings are good.

-Lissa Coffey