Inspiration Online http://inspirationonline.com A Collection of Insightful Reflections Wed, 17 Apr 2013 20:49:31 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 To Never Look Away… http://inspirationonline.com/2013/04/to-never-look-away/ http://inspirationonline.com/2013/04/to-never-look-away/#comments Wed, 17 Apr 2013 20:48:02 +0000 http://inspirationonline.com/?p=842 “To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power. Above all, to watch. To try and understand. To never look away. And never, never to forget.”
— Arundhati Roy

Anita Bergen — Life is a never-ending series of contradictions. But to live life fully, we must embrace the parts that are painful, try to understand the offensive, distasteful, or crude, bring hope to injustice and never forget to spread love and compassion wherever we are, today.

]]> http://inspirationonline.com/2013/04/to-never-look-away/feed/ 5 Life Is Short http://inspirationonline.com/2013/03/life-is-short/ http://inspirationonline.com/2013/03/life-is-short/#comments Tue, 19 Mar 2013 01:16:34 +0000 http://inspirationonline.com/?p=840 “Life is short. Each year passes more quickly than the previous one. It’s easy to deny yourself many of life’s simple pleasures because you want to be practical. Forget about practical and decide instead to become a joy collector. Always be on the lookout for gifts without ribbons. God is strewing them across your path right now. His gifts come tagged with a note: ‘Life can be wonderful. Do your best not to miss it!’ Enjoy what it is before it isn’t anymore. . . . Dare to slip on a pair of bunny slippers once in a while! Surprise yourself! Enjoy the little things because one day you’ll look back and realize they were the big things!”
-Barbara Johnson

Anita Bergen — Sometimes, being practical has its drawbacks. Take some time being totally impractical, joyously silly and radiantly carefree. Enjoy brilliantly singing your song. Make as much joy as you can. Life is short.

]]> http://inspirationonline.com/2013/03/life-is-short/feed/ 7 Impossibilities http://inspirationonline.com/2013/03/impossibilities/ http://inspirationonline.com/2013/03/impossibilities/#comments Sun, 03 Mar 2013 01:44:23 +0000 http://inspirationonline.com/?p=836 “Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easy to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact, It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”
— Muhammad Ali

Anita Bergen — Fear can make us accept that something is impossible to accomplish, overcome or change. However, all impossibilities shrink from the sheer determination of one who says, “I think I can do this!”

]]> http://inspirationonline.com/2013/03/impossibilities/feed/ 6 A Perpetual Hurry http://inspirationonline.com/2013/01/a-perpetual-hurry/ http://inspirationonline.com/2013/01/a-perpetual-hurry/#comments Fri, 18 Jan 2013 01:44:37 +0000 http://inspirationonline.com/?p=834 “The world is full of men and women who work too much, sleep too little, hardly ever exercise, eat poorly, and are always struggling or failing to find adequate time with their families. We are in a perpetual hurry–constantly rushing from one activity to another, with little understanding of where all this activity is leading us. . . . The world has gone and got itself in an awful rush, to whose benefit I do not know. We are too busy for our own good. We need to slow down. Our lifestyles are destroying us. The worst part is, we are rushing east in search of a sunset.”
— Matthew Kelly

Anita Bergen — Have you ever stopped to wonder why we are constantly rushing?… Me, too. Maybe we just need to slow down long enough to realize: “Life isn’t about attaining maximum speed. Life is about discovering ultimate truth.”

]]> http://inspirationonline.com/2013/01/a-perpetual-hurry/feed/ 2 New Year’s Wish http://inspirationonline.com/2012/12/new-years-wish/ http://inspirationonline.com/2012/12/new-years-wish/#comments Sun, 30 Dec 2012 19:52:42 +0000 http://inspirationonline.com/?p=832 I salute you.
There is nothing I can give you which you have not,
but there is much that while I cannot give, you can take.
No heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in it today.
Take heaven.
No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this present instant.
Take peace.
The gloom of the world is but a shadow. Behind it, yet within our reach, is joy.
Take joy.
And so at this Christmastime,
I greet you, with the prayer that for you, now and forever,
the day breaks and the shadows flee away.
— Fra Giovanni

Anita Bergen — Wishing everyone a healthy and prosperous New Year filled with many blessings, loads of laughter and sunshine.

]]> http://inspirationonline.com/2012/12/new-years-wish/feed/ 3 No Love Is Ever Lost http://inspirationonline.com/2012/10/no-love-is-ever-lost/ http://inspirationonline.com/2012/10/no-love-is-ever-lost/#comments Tue, 30 Oct 2012 20:55:08 +0000 http://inspirationonline.com/?p=827 “No relationship is ever truly over, and as hard as it may seem to believe sometimes, no love is ever lost. We are eternal, we are timeless, and so are our connections with one another. We’re fooled by our physical senses into believing that something is gone, blinding us to what has been gained, but whether or not we sense the gain, it’s still imparted.

No love is ever lost because whether or not the relationship continues, the good compounds and its effects will outlast any pain or suffering in the long run. What truly hurts when a relationship ends is our pride… Use the pain, trace it back to its source, and get a handle on why you feel less when obviously you’re the exact same person you were prior to feeling it.”
— Mike Dooley

Anita Bergen — Even though a relationship is over, remember the good — the love that the Universe brought you together to create. No love is ever lost; no good deed is ever in vain.

]]> http://inspirationonline.com/2012/10/no-love-is-ever-lost/feed/ 0 Dogs Expand Your Heart http://inspirationonline.com/2012/10/dogs-expand-your-heart/ http://inspirationonline.com/2012/10/dogs-expand-your-heart/#comments Wed, 03 Oct 2012 19:24:45 +0000 http://inspirationonline.com/?p=824 “Dogs come into our lives to teach us about love … they depart to teach us about loss. A new dog never replaces an old dog; it merely expands the heart. If you have loved many dogs, your heart is very big.”
— Erica Jong

Anita Bergen — Dogs are the greatest gift God ever bestowed on humankind. Dogs make us feel loved without judgment or conditions. Their undeniable devotion is candid and unequivocal. They expand our heart because our brain could not possibly comprehend the depth of their love.

]]> http://inspirationonline.com/2012/10/dogs-expand-your-heart/feed/ 0 True Joy in Life http://inspirationonline.com/2012/06/true-joy-in-life/ http://inspirationonline.com/2012/06/true-joy-in-life/#comments Mon, 25 Jun 2012 15:40:10 +0000 http://inspirationonline.com/?p=822 “This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.”
— George Bernard Shaw
featured in Life and Other Options

Anita Bergen — A great reminder to spend all our time and energy on this journey, working on things we are passionate about, creating happiness and abundance — not whining about why it’s taking so long.

]]> http://inspirationonline.com/2012/06/true-joy-in-life/feed/ 8 Success Formula http://inspirationonline.com/2012/06/success-formula/ http://inspirationonline.com/2012/06/success-formula/#comments Mon, 11 Jun 2012 19:26:24 +0000 http://inspirationonline.com/?p=820 Just two things are necessary for success in this life: One is a sense of purpose and the other is a touch of madness.
— John Harricharan

Anita Bergen — Who could believe success could be this simple?… Simple, perhaps – Easy, not necessarily. When you become single-mindedly focused on your goal – despite all opinions and “facts” to the contrary – the universe magically arranges all the necessary “coincidences” to make it happen.

]]> http://inspirationonline.com/2012/06/success-formula/feed/ 0 Others Should Provide You with Answers http://inspirationonline.com/2012/03/others-should-provide-you-with-answers/ http://inspirationonline.com/2012/03/others-should-provide-you-with-answers/#comments Tue, 20 Mar 2012 20:26:24 +0000 http://inspirationonline.com/?p=815 You yourself are the child you must learn to know, rear, and above all enlighten. To demand that others should provide you with answers is like asking a strange woman to give birth to your baby. There are insights that can be born only of your own pain, and they are the most precious. Seek in your child the undiscovered part of yourself.
— Janusz Korczak

Anita Bergen — Sometimes it is hard to accept that our greatest lessons are learned through our personal experiences — good or bad, heart wrenching or blissful. The best teacher is firsthand experience. We don’t forget what we have felt.

]]> http://inspirationonline.com/2012/03/others-should-provide-you-with-answers/feed/ 2