the big picture

making moves. it's something that i've been saying for a while now. i think i originally heard it in a song by the rocket summer, but i've taken stole it and made it my own (that's how art works, folks). i've been making a lot of moves within the past year or so. oh, i guess i should clarify...'making moves' meaning changing something in your life. speaking of making moves...i was able to sleep in (7:30am) today and it was amazing. i ate some cereal (three freakin' bowls), watched some informational television educating us on the difference between monkeys and apes. did you know male monkeys can't see the color red? so, here i sit blogging away with american football playing lightly in the background so my gorgeous wife can continue to rest before we go get lost in the woods trail running.

you ever wonder what the big picture looks like? i do...all of the time. as big as it is though, i lose sight of it all too quickly. it's probably more that i am distracted and looking the other way really. i'll admit it...i am a selfish human that cares about what i'm going through way too much. i turn twenty-six today and i'm having the exact same feelings that i did when i turned twenty-five..."what have i done?" i'm not talking about college degrees, careers, getting married, reaching goals, vacations or anything like that. i'm talking stuff that's helping. what have i done that's helped make a difference? so take a look at the big picture with me. from far away it looks great and has amazing detail with colors you've never seen. as we bring it closer we start seeing the poverty, crime, murder, homelessness, pollution, war, racism, sexism and all other hatred/bad things you can think of. the good: tons of ordinary people are making moves to get rid of things like those listed above. the bad: not enough people are stepping up willing to make those moves. some of us are being lazy and not pulling our weight. so now that i'm a wise twenty-six year old i'm stepping up my game. i'm gonna make freakin' moves like a u-haul (pretty sure i'm making that into a t-shirt). we need to take our blinders off and look more closely at the big picture and pick a spot that needs help (everywhere) and focus on it. we're all artists and we can touch up any part of the big picture as long as we try (wow...i knew that was bad while even writing it). if we don't do anything then guess what happens...you guessed it!

I have found the paradox that if I love until it hurts, then there is no hurt, but only more love. 
-Mother Teresa


How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world. 
-Anne Frank


Act as if what you do makes a difference.  It does. 
-William James


Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself. 
-Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy


The purpose of life is not to be happy - but to matter, to be productive, to be useful, to have it make some difference that you have lived at all. 
-Leo Rosten


Live simply that others might simply live. 
-Elizabeth Ann Seton

We can do no great things, only small things with great love. 
-Mother Teresa


Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better.  It's not. 
-Dr. Seuss

It seems to me that any full grown, mature adult would have a desire to be responsible, to help where he can in a world that needs so very much, that threatens us so very much. 
-Norman Lear


Being good is commendable, but only when it is combined with doing good is it useful. 
-Author Unknown


I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world. 
-Mother Teresa (Agnes Gonxha Bojarhiu)


I am only one, but I am one.  I cannot do everything, but I can do something.  And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do. 
-Edward Everett Hale


The willingness to share does not make one charitable; it makes one free. 
-Robert Brault

It is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing because you can only do little - do what you can. 
-Sydney Smith


Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little. 
-Edmund Burke


If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one. 
-Mother Teresa


Never worry about numbers.  Help one person at a time, and always start with the person nearest you. 
-Mother Teresa


Wherever a man turns he can find someone who needs him. 
-Albert Schweitzer


He who gives when he is asked has waited too long. 
-Sunshine Magazine


This is the true joy in life - being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap; 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


Nobody can do everything, but everyone can do something. 
-Author Unknown


The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit. 
-Nelson Henderson


While earning your daily bread, be sure you share a slice with those less fortunate. 
-H. Jackson Brown, Jr.


The difference between a helping hand and an outstretched palm is a twist of the wrist. 
-Laurence Leamer, King of the Night


No man stands so straight as when he stoops to help a boy. 
-Knights of Pythagoras 

Charity sees the need, not the cause. 
-German Proverb


In about the same degree as you are helpful, you will be happy. 
-Karl Reiland


How far that little candle throws his beams!
So shines a good deed in a naughty world.
-William Shakespeare

If we could all hear one another's prayers, God might be relieved of some of his burdens. 
-Ashleigh Brilliant


Dare to reach out your hand into the darkness, to pull another hand into the light. 
-Norman B. Rice


I expect to pass through life but once.  If therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not defer or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again. 
-William Penn


Be an opener of doors for such as come after thee, and do not try to make the universe a blind alley. 
-Ralph Waldo Emerson


The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him his own. 
-Benjamin Disraeli