The football coach, Paul “Bear” Bryant read this poem at the beginning of every day:

“This is the beginning of a new day.
God has given me this day to use as I will.
I can waste it or use it for good.
What I do today is important because I am exchanging a day of my life for it.
When tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever.
Leaving something in it’s place I have traded for it.
I want it to be a gain, not loss; good not evil
Success, not failure, in order that I shall not forget the price I paid for it. “

Via LA Times– 

San Francisco, grappling with the exploits of the Riddler and the Penguin, will call upon a pint-sized crusader: Miles, a 5-year-old cancer-stricken boy, a.k.a. Batkid.

“A human being is part of a whole, called by us the Universe, a part limited in time and space. [We experience ourselves, our] thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest — a kind of optical delusion of [our] consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us [excluding others, including animals]. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”

Check out more pictures of Julian and his huge dog, a five-year-old Newfoundland named Max — here.

~Claude Monet

When I was in London conducting the weekend Free Yourself meditation program, one of the guided meditations I led the group through was a meditation on conscious drinking. So often, in our busy lives, we grab water by the glass or by the bottle, chug it down when we’re parched, and dump whatever is left back down the drain. We don’t feel connected to our water the way people did in generations past, when water was gathered at a stream or from a well. We don’t know the thrill of grateful exhilaration felt by people in dry lands when rains come, or when clean water is discovered. For this reason, the conscious drinking meditation is one of the most important meditations we can do; it awakens our natural gratitude for the hydration we so often take for granted, and it also rekindles our awareness of who we are as a part of all things around us.

The meditation itself is really very simple, and you can do it anywhere, any time. First, get yourself a glass (or bottle, or even a mug- whatever,) of water. Make sure it’s pure water, clean and free of pollutants. For a few moments, hold it near to your eyes and look at it closely. Then hold it up to your ear and swish it around in it’s glass and listen to the sound it makes. Put it under your nose, and breathe in it’s clean scent. Dip your fingers into it, and feel it’s cool wetness. Then, holding it gently, close your eyes, and imagine the journey your water has taken to make it into your cup.

Click to read more on water meditation. 

Via Manithyasudevi/Image via Deviant Art