New Year Wisdoms and Inspirations
For years, I’ve collected inspiring quotes. As this new year begins, here are words of wisdom offered to encourage, refresh, enrich creative thinking and inspire. Click here for a free, printable, PDF booklet of these inspirations. Take big steps. You can’t cross a chasm in two small jumps. –David Lloyd GeorgeGetting to know and like people and getting people to know and like you are the two top cards in the game of success. –UnknownCherish your visions and your dreams, as they are the children of your soul; the blueprints of your ultimate achievements. –Napoleon HillObstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal. –Henry Ford What is the recipe for successful achievement? To my mind there are just four essential ingredients: Choose a career you love . . . Give it the best there is in you . . . Seize your opportunities. And be a member of the team. –Benjamin F. Fairless Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other. –Abraham Lincoln Succeed and Soar! Sandra Gould Ford Presenting arts experiences to encourage, refresh, enrich creative thinking and inspire. COMMENT.
Understanding Children
Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up. ~Pablo Picasso For decades, I’ve gathered precious insights. Each one I read is like a breath of life. They lift my spirit and remind of the good we can do and marvelous things we can be. I hope this web site’s words and images encourage, refresh, enrich creative thinking and inspire. I hope these words of wisdom about children gladden your heart. Treat the world well … It was not given to you by your parents … It was lent to you by your children. –Kenyan proverb You are not the child of the people you call mother and father, but their fellow-adventurer on a bright journey to understand the things that are. – Richard Bach Children Learn What They Live If children live with criticism, they learn to condemn. If children live with hostility, they learn to fight. If children live with fear, they learn to be apprehensive. If children live with pity, they learn to feel sorry for themselves. If children live with ridicule, they learn to be shy. If children live with jealousy, they learn what envy is. If children live with shame, they learn to feel guilty. If children live with tolerance, they learn to be patient. If children live with encouragement, they learn to be confident. – Dorothy Law Nolte Two of the greatest gifts we can give our children are roots and wings. — Hodding Carter The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere in which we are permitted to remain children all of our lives. –– Albert Einstein Succeed and Soar! Sandra Gould Ford Life Well Lived offers floral photographs, wise words and invitations to see life as a garden of possibilities. This 60-page book offers lots of space for personal notes, sketches and meditations. Here are opportunities to both enjoy life’s seasons and find enrichment. A great gift. * 5×8 $14.50 Preview and Purchase. * 8×10 $19.00 Preview and Purchase. Thanks for shopping! While a How-To Illustrated Wisdom video is developed for Life Well Lived, here’s a helpful companion, Self Care through Visual Journaling: 5 Easy Steps.
Wisdoms, Understanding Happiness
Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own. — Robert A. Heinlein For decades, I’ve gathered precious insights. Each one I read is like a breath of life. They lift my spirit and remind of the good we can do and marvelous things we can be. I hope this web site’s words and images encourage, refresh, enrich creative thinking and inspire. I hope they gladden your heart. True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future. — Lucius Annaeus Seneca A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery while on a detour. — Unknown The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved; loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves. — Victor Hugo Live as though life is rigged in your favor. — Rumi The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up. – – Mark Twain Succeed and Soar! Sandra Gould Ford Beautiful, inspiring Succeed and Soar posters. Sizes from 8”x6.5” to the popular 30” x 23.5” Four Shape Options: Natural, Vertical, Horizontal and Square Printed on acid-free paper with archival inks Includes 1” white border to allow for future framing and mounting View All Posters Thanks for shopping!
Life Well Lived #1: Baby Grapes
Attend to and nourish the garden of your becoming. -Jean Houston This post begins the new Succeed and Soar theme: Life Well Lived. Each week, you’ll receive a wisdom to consider. Because the first quote mentions garden, my floral photographs will illustrate this theme. I was going to take a summer break to focus on my own gardens and my novel. Last night, I decided to stay in touch and hope you’ll take a moment to meditate on the featured picture and quote. What fruits do you want to grow in your garden? Share your thought here. In the meantime, live well. Stay safe. The difference between the right word and almost the right word is the difference between lightning and lightning bug. — Mark Twain One of my EMail joys is the The New York Times “Word A Day “. It’s called, “The most welcomed, most enduring piece of daily mass e-mail in cyberspace.” In this one-minute read, I gain a word’s: definition origin and usage Author Hart Crane said, “One must be drenched in words, literally soaked in them, to have the right ones form themselves into the proper patterns at the right moment.” Word A Day is a quick and delightful, daily shower. Learn more. This Week’s Special Offer Each week, a featured item is offered at 25% off [plus any discounts offered by my Galleries]. This week, my ethereal photograph “Baby Grapes” is selected. Shop here. Thank you for your purchases. They help support Succeed and Soar. NOTE The original image was shot with a Nikon Coolpix camera. The jpg was “developed” in Adobe Photoshop Elements 14. Along with enriching color and enhancing the lighting, a primary adjustment was use of the Accented Edges filter.
Desiderata [the List]
When I was twenty, I worked for an airline and used my first travel passes to fly my mom cross country to San Francisco for her birthday-Mother’s Day. In a Fisherman’s Wharf gift shop, I found Desiderata. It raised my awareness. From time to time, I like to share this list: Go placidly amid the noise & haste & remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible without surrender, be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly & clearly; and listen to others, even the dull & ignorant; they too have their story. Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain & bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time. Exercise caution in your business affairs; for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is. Many persons strive for high ideals; and everywhere life is full of heroism. Be yourself. Especially, do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity & disenchantment it is perennial as the grass. Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue & loneliness. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees & the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore, be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be, and whatever your labors & aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul. With all its sham, drudgery & broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be careful. Strive to be happy. Max Ehrmann Wisdoms Collection The inspiring and beautiful work in my Fine Art America collections is available as prints, framed and on canvas as well as on journals, greeting cards, weekender bags, shower curtains, puzzles and much more. Shop Here Thanks for your support! Sandra Gould Ford NOTE: size and placement of the art and words]can be changed as well as background colors.
Success: Six Ingredients
Decades ago, I wrote the six ingredients of a successful life on a manila folder and tacked it on my sewing room wall. When I find that advice from time to time, I recall that success is an interior, self-defined experience and am gladdened. For all of these years, I thought this wisdom’s source was unknown. Ahhh. The internet finds many things. The success advice is from William C. Menninger. Next, I sought a quote to accompany the six success keys and found Thomas Jefferson’s words, “One man with courage is a majority.” Imagine a world of majorities who create success with these six ingredients: SINCERITY: honest, genuine, trustworthy PERSONAL INTEGRITY: upright, whole, moral HUMILITY: modest, free from pride COURTESY: polite, respectful, kind WISDOM: good sense, sane, smart CHARITY: caring, offering assistance, good will Onward and Upward Sandra Gould Ford Shop the Inspiring, Beautiful Succeed and Soar Collections Click Here