Irish Blessing

May you be blessed in the name of Jesus, who took the cross up the hill so we may be transfigured, in His holy name, may your life be blessed. May deep within you the places of darkness turn towards the light.
When pain comes may you be given a stillness in it. May you be given the wisdom not to resist it, but to let it flow through you.
May you recognize in any suffering that comes to the door of your heart a guest who brings you special gifts and may you have the courage to open that door so that your lovely heart can become larger and more kind and more beautiful.

May you never forget or lose the fruits of light which your own suffering has brought you. May you go back in your mind to recover these lost bright candles of light that you sorely earned and that you now need and may you now be able to gather around you the wonderful shelters that you have received and earned through your own pain.
May you realize that you are sistered to every thing that is alive and that what ever you suffer brings new life to everything that is.
May you never be afraid of suffering because may you know that within the eye of the storm, that there is the stillness of the Divine voice whispering to you that you are safely held within the loving embrace of a great tenderness which will never let anything happen to you.

Though the storms may rage in your heart and all about you, you will never fall out of the tenderness and love and gentle protection of the Divine Embrace.

John O’Donohue

Superior Aging

Self Magazine has an article this month about 8 health secrets to stay youthful. I went over most of these in my workshop, The Hypnotic Fountain of Youth.


http://lifestyle.msn.com/your-look/video/default.aspx?vid=0f74392c-188c-4add-b45e-6141e7a9126b%26tab=beauty%26ap=today&from=en-us_lifestyle_beauty

Eat Your Heart Out

That's a weird expression. Eat your heat out. Eat to your heart's content? I have to look into these and find out how they came about.

I'm reading Eat, Pray, Love and it is very funny. And I'm wondering about the eating part. The author is trying to mend her broken heart. She traveled to Italy first to try every kind of food available. The description of pizza in Naples is indescribably delicious!

More to follow.

I have total recall

Marie Antoinette:

There is nothing new except what has been forgotten.

I thought this was relevant since I am doing a workshop about Memory Techniques.

Mnemonic devices do work. I used the Memory Palace technique to memorize my last speech for Toastmasters and it was a success. The first time I did a speech with NO NOTES!

What was the name of my speech? I forgot.

That's the name. "I forgot" was the title!

Reunion of Immaculation Conception School

Since I am a toastmaster and I will be at a reunion in a few weeks, I need a nice Toast for the group. of people I haven't seen in 30 something years. Some of them I don't remember at all. Some I may actually never even have spoken to. I went to Catholic School, Immaculate Conception School. In Stapleton, Staten Island.

What do I remember from those days?

My best friend for almost all 8 years was Lila.
She lived close by. I played with Lila and her sisters, Marla and Cynthia since I was 5 years old.

Monica lived nearby.

Regina lived close.

Jeanne Marie and Debbie lived down the street.

Maryann lived across the street from the church. We actually counted the Sunday collection for a while. That was when we had to go to church. We had to put the little envelopes in numerical order so they could take attendance and see if Sr. Elizabeth had to talk to you about skipping Mass! We did this for maybe a few months. I think we talked too much and thay had to get new recruits.

I remember Sr. Cathleen (eighth) was strict. Mr. Garrett (seventh) was interesting, the first and only male teacher we had. Sr. Eileen (fifth) was a character. She told me I should take cod liver oil. I've never taken cod liver oil, but I can't think of anything that sounds more disgusting (Cod? LIVER?! Yuk!).

Mrs. Moriarity in 4th grade was my favorite teacher. She used to have multiplication table bees. Not spelling, multiplication!

Mrs. O'Callahan. Third.
Mrs. Wranovix. Second.
Sr. Patricia who later changed her name to Sr. Mary.

You may notice I skipped sixth.In sixth grade we started the year with a pretty young nun, named Sr. Margaret. She must have left after a few weeks. Then we got Mrs. Benedetto. I don't remember much about her.

Quotations about Graceful Aging

Oprah:
Whether you're 28 or 88, you've probably stamped yourself with a label. Look at the label that comes with your age, then replace it with the one that reflects the reality of your life. I know for sure that every birthday, you decide whether to make it the end of your greatest days or the beginning of your finest hour. Your call.

Katharine Hepburn:
I never lose sight of the fact that just being is fun.

George Sand:
It is a mistake to regard age as a downhill grade toward dissolution. The reverse is true. As one grows older, one climbs with surprising strides.

Carol Channing:
This is the best time in my life -- the first eighty years are definitely the hardest.

Oprah, again:
All these years I've been taking lessons from life experiences and feeling like I was growing into myself. Finally, I feel grown, more like myself than I've ever been. If it's true what Maya Angelou says--that the fifties represent everything you were meant to be--all I can say is WATCH OUT!

Time Heals

Quotation of the Month (July 2010)

Time heals all wounds and wounds all heels.

Who said it?

Most people would attribute this to Chaucer. In Troilus & Criseyde he says (in Old English): "As tyme hem hurt, a tyme doth hem cure"

However some people may argue that someone said this even earlier, Menander (342BC-291BC) in Greek: "Time is the healer of all necessary evils."

My father, Victor J. Dolan said it this way.

But apparently he was combining 2 expressions into one.

"Time heals all wounds" is an American Proverb.

"Time wounds all heels," was a variation attributed to a commedienne who regularly worked on the radio, during its heyday, Jane Sherwood Ace.