True Quotes

Dear Friends and Readers,

I have decided to suspend updating this Blog — TrueQuotes. 

I will be putting my efforts into my other Blog: God Family Crafts

It is my hope that you will visit God Family Crafts often,  and also, that you will make plentiful use of the archives here at TrueQuotes.

Please check back from time-to-time and see if I have posted any special notices, and…

in the mean time - see you at God Family Crafts.

Peace be with you,

Ann

We find no real satisfaction or happiness in life without obstacles to conquer and goals to achieve. 

Maxwell Maltz

Each thing we undertake, each project we set out to do has an end goal.  It is these end goals that that we pursue, it is for these that we willingly confront obstacles, in order to come to a successful end. Something as simple as writing a letter may present obstacles –  finding the time, how to express oneself, who to write to and what to write about.  When all is done, we have a feeling of accomplishment, happiness and satisfaction. We have reached our end goal and we feel empowered.

Of course, the real goals can be much bigger and end in a feeling of greater satisfaction. Whether it painting a room for the first time, making homemade bread with success, or changing a flat time.  All present obstacle, all have end goals, all yield satisfaction.

 My Blog, True Quotes features quotes the make you think. Well, this one sure made me think — probably because I am doing just the opposite.  It is good advice that perhaps I should consider heartily myself.

I am a wife and mother first, but I am a photographer, artist and writer as well.  In my role as mother, I homeschool my children.  I am a grandmother, a daughter and a sister.  I wear alot of hats!

Some of the things a person is, can be negotiable, others are our responsibility and that’s that.

I want to have a farm, and I raise chickens for eggs. I am thinking of adding another farm animal - a sheep or goat - next year. But the more I diversify myself and my activities,  the less I limit myself, and the less I am content with my own “definite work” like Amiel suggests.

What does this quote say to you.  Does it make you think?  I hope so.

True devotion hinders no one, but rather it perfects everything, and whenever it is out of keeping with any person’s legitimate vocation, it must be spurious.

– St. Francis de Sales

Vocation is call.  If we devote ourselves, seemingly to doing God’s work, but it is at odds with our true vocation, then this devotion is not true.

A mother who is called to be home and to serve her family, and is instead, busy with things at church to the neglect of her family, is not living her vocation.  No matter how good her intentions are, no matter how helpful her works are.

Each of us has a call, a call from God. Practicing this vocation may not be glamorous, and sometimes it may not even be interesting, but it is our True Work. In deciding what other things we are to be involved in and to undertake, we must weigh each activity against the meaning and purpose of our True Work. And in the act of weighing, we find a balance, and this is the key.

The simplest and shortest ethical precept is to be served by others as little as possible, and to serve others as much as possible. — Leo Tolstoy

What a goal to work for - service of others.  To some it comes with the job, goes with the territory — mothers, for instance, but also nurses come to mind.  All job, occupations, vocations, are a call to service in some way.  But in daily life, in those little things, the anticipation of the needs of others is often the key.  It does not cost us anything to hand a thing to a person so they might not have to bend and pick it up. It is good for us to be aware of the needs of those around us so as to serve them in small and larger ways.  If all people followed this precept, then we would be on the receiving end as well.

How much is a great waiter or waitress valued?  It can make the difference between a great dining out experience and a lousy one.  Waitresses who serve well are worth their weight in gold, so to speak.  And in each walk of life, there is room for one who serves more, and expects less.

“Blessed is he who has found his work; let him ask no other blessedness.” — Thomas Carlyle

To awaken each morning and be happy to go to work, because you have found YOUR work, is said to be the most blessed things of all. To spend one’s day doing something loved, and enjoyed, and at which one feels useful and appreciated is indeed special.

I wonder how many people are thus blessed? Many people tolerate their job; others like their job, but do not consider it their work.  The work they do, and wish to call their own, is what they accomplish in the time set aside for hobbies, interests and volunteering.

Such is life, that it sends us a livelihood - a way to pay the bills - but not always in doing something we love. If there is any possibility of spending your life in a pursuit that you could really claim to be the work you love, then make the change and fulfill that blessedness.