Wordful Wednesday

The following quotes are from Richard Bach. He wrote a book named Jonathan Livingston Seagull. I read it in 1972. I was totally taken by it. I bought a Jonathan Livingston Seagull keychain and used it for years. I want to go back and read it but am afraid the magic and innocence will be gone for me. I will get there some day.

You are led through your lifetime by the inner learning creature,

the playful spiritual being that is your real self.

Don't turn away from possible futures before you're certain you don't have anything to learn from them.

You're always free to change your mind and choose a different future, or a different past.

- from "Illusions, The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah"

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Argue for your limitations, and sure enough, they're yours.

- from "Illusions, The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah"

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Your only obligation in any lifetime is to be true to yourself.

Being true to anyone else or anything else is not only impossible,

but the mark of a false messiah.

- from "Illusions, The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah"

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The simplest questions are the most profound.
Where were you born?

Where is your home?

Where are you going?

What are you doing?

Think about these once in awhile, and watch your answers change.

- from "Illusions, The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah"

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You are never given a wish without being given the power to make it true.

You may have to work for it, however.

- from "Illusions, The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah"

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Every person, all the events of your life, are there because you have drawn them there.

What you choose to do with them is up to you.

- from "Illusions, The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah"

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Your friends will know you better in the first minute you meet than your acquaintances will know you in a thousand years.

- from "Illusions, The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah"

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A cloud does not know why it moves in just such a direction and at such a speed,

it feels an impulsion....this is the place to go now.

But the sky knows the reason and the patterns behind all clouds,

and you will know, too, when you lift yourself high enough to see beyond horizons..

- from "Illusions, The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah"

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The gulls who scorn perfection for the sake of travel go nowhere, slowly.

Those who put aside travel for the sake of perfection go anywhere, instantly.

- from "Jonathan Livingston Seagull"

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For most gulls, it is not flying that matters, but eating.

For this gull, though, it was not eating that mattered, but flight.

- from "Jonathan Livingston Seagull"

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If our friendship depends on things like space and time,

then when we finally overcome space and time, we've destroyed our own brotherhood!

But overcome space, and all we have left is Here.

Overcome time, and all we have left is Now.

And in the middle of Here and Now,

don't you think that we might see each other once or twice?

- from "Jonathan Livingston Seagull"

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That's what learning is, after all;

not whether we lose the game,

but how we lose and how we've changed because of it

and what we take away from it that we never had before,

to apply to other games.

Losing, in a curious way, is winning.

- from "The Bridge Across Forever"

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We're the bridge across forever, arching above the sea,

adventuring for our pleasure, living mysteries for the fun of it,

choosing disasters triumphs challenges impossible odds,

testing ourselves over and again, learning love and love and LOVE!

- from "The Bridge Across Forever"

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If it's never our fault, we can't take responsibility for it.

If we can't take responsibility for it, we'll always be its victim.

- from "Running From Safety"

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Can miles truly separate us from friends?

If you want to be with Rae, aren't you already there?

- from "There' No Such Place As Far Away"

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You have no birthday because you have always lived;

you were never born, and never will die.

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.

- from "There' No Such Place As Far Away"

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Fly free and happy beyond birthdays and across forever,

and we'll meet now and then when we wish,

in the midst of the one celebration that never can end.

- from "There' No Such Place As Far Away"

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Nothing happens by chance, my friend...

No such thing as luck.

A meaning behind every little thing, and such a meaning behind this.

Part for you, part for me,

may not see it all real clear right now,

but we will, before long.

- from "Nothing By Chance"

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