Mosaic of Life

She wanted something else, something different, something more. Passion and romance, perhaps, or maybe quiet conversations in candlelit rooms, or perhaps something as simple as not being second.

Be nice first, because you can always be mean later, but once you’ve been mean to someone, they won’t believe the nice anymore.

Some friendships die because they aren’t moving forward. They die from stagnation or plain neglect. You promised to call but didn’t. You knew it was your friend’s birthday but were too busy to celebrate. When we’re busy we only do what comes easy, and even good friendships aren’t always easy. Lack of attention and concern is sure to cause a rift. And when it does, it almost always catches us off guard, when we least expect it or can least handle it: when we’re going through stressful times that make us less attentive and less able to respond - which is what caused the neglect to begin with. That’s why it can seem that the best friendships break precisely when we need them the most.

Life is so full of unpredictable beauty and strange surprises. Sometimes that beauty is too much for me to handle. Do you know that feeling? When something is just too beautiful? When someone says something or writes something or plays something that moves you to the point of tears, maybe even changes you.

For most of life, nothing wonderful happens. If you don’t enjoy getting up and working and finishing your work and sitting down to a meal with family or friends, then the chances are that you’re not going to be very happy. If someone bases his happiness or unhappiness on major events like a great new job, huge amounts of money, a flawlessly happy marriage or a trip to Paris, that person isn’t going to be happy much of the time. If, on the other hand, happiness depends on a good breakfast, flowers in the yard, a drink or a nap, then we are more likely to live with quite a bit of happiness.

Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody’s going to know whether you did it or not.