We all now the dangers of clinging on too tightly or feeling the need to control others. It feels like an addiction, where we turn our focus away from ourselves and onto something or someone else, for which we have no control. If you’ve been there (and haven’t we all?) here are some quotes to lead you back to yourself:

As I started to picture the trees in the storm, the answer began to dawn on me. The trees in the storm don’t try to stand up straight and tall and erect. They allow themselves to bend and be blown with the wind. They understand the power of letting go. Those trees and those branches that try too hard to stand up strong and straight are the ones that break. Now is not the time for you to be strong, Julia, or you, too, will break.
– Julia Butterfly Hill



Breathe. Let go. And remind yourself that this very moment is the only one you know you have for sure.
– Oprah Winfrey


By letting it go it all gets done. The world is won by those who let it go. But when you try and try. The world is beyond the winning.
– Lao Tzu


Courage is the power to let go of the familiar.
– Raymond Lindquist


Creativity can be described as letting go of certainties.
– Gail Sheehy


Getting over a painful experience is much like crossing monkey bars. You have to let go at some point in order to move forward.
– Author Unknown


Hanging onto resentment is letting someone you despise live rent-free in your head.
– Ann Landers


Inner peace can be reached only when we practice forgiveness. Forgiveness is letting go of the past, and is therefore the means for correcting our misperceptions.
– Gerald Jampolsky


Let go. Why do you cling to pain? There is nothing you can do about the wrongs of yesterday. It is not yours to judge. Why hold on to the very thing which keeps you from hope and love?
– Leo Buscaglia

Letting go doesn’t mean giving up, but rather accepting that there are things that cannot be.
– Anon

Loving someone is setting them free, letting them go.
– Kate Winslet


People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar.
– Thich Nhat Hanh


Some think it’s holding on that makes one strong; sometimes it’s letting go.
– Sylvia Robinson

There is a time for silence. A time to let go and allow people to hurl themselves into their own destiny. And a time to prepare to pick up the pieces when it’s all over.
– Gloria Naylor


Stand up and walk out of your history.
– Phil McGraw

The harder you fight to hold on to specific assumptions, the more likely there’s gold in letting go of them. — John Seely Brown

True love doesn’t have a happy ending, because true love never ends. Letting go is one way of saying I love you.
– Author Unknown

Truly loving another means letting go of all expectations. It means full acceptance, even celebration of another’s personhood.


– Karen Casey

There are things that we never want to let go of, people we never want to leave behind. But keep in mind that letting go isn’t the end of the world, it’s the beginning of a new life.
– Author Unknown

We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the life that is waiting for us.
– Joseph Campbell

Source: Great Inspirational Quotes

We have been called to help the people of Haiti in whatever way possible, realizing it’s a poor country and their disaster has been so profound. This couple has used their medical expertise and household items to help their neighbors - a real reminder that you do what it takes to help:

They have few medical supplies, no nurses, and are using an armchair as an operating table—but Haitian doctors Claude and Yolene Surena make do with what they have to save as many lives as possible in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

Ever since the earthquake hit last Tuesday, neighbors have been banging on the doctor couple’s door, pleading for help with urgent medical needs. Fortunately, their house didn’t sustain damage, but many of their neighbors’ homes had collapsed. Some were hurt by falling debris, and had suffered injuries like puncture wounds, gaping cuts, and broken bones.

Yolene Surena said that she treated her first patient about five minutes after the earthquake struck, and by Saturday, she and her husband had helped more than 300 injured earthquake victims, substituting household items like Krazy Clue to help close wounds when they didn’t have the appropriate equipment. They’ve worked tirelessly, night and day, with assistance only from friends with no medical training. Despite the makeshift nature of their operation, they have lost only six patients.

Though it’s tough for the couple to keep up their relentless pace, they are determined to help as many people as they can.

“Each time you get something to do further, you hope that you can save one more life.”

Source: Gimundo

Today, ask yourself, very seriously, “What More Can I Do?”

Sometimes it doesn’t take much to start a positive chain reaction. Take this example in a Philadelphia diner where one couple anonymously paid for another table’s bill:

“It was magical. I had tears in my eyes because it never happened before. I’ve been here for 10 years, and I’ve never seen anything like that,” said Lynn Willard, a waitress.

Willard and other waitresses told NBC Philadelphia that the couple started the chain reaction by paying double: for their own meal and for the tab of another table of diners at the restaurant. There’s no evidence that one group of diners knew the others.

“I could not believe it. And it continued and continued — it was very nice,” said Willard. “They asked us not to say anything until they left, say, ‘Merry Christmas, that person picked up your check.’”

For the next five hours, dozens of patrons got into that same holiday spirit and paid the favor forward.

The diner’s manager said not one person was concerned about price of the check — which ran between $12 and $30.

“It was a surprise to all of us; the girls were even taken aback,” said the diner’s manager. “Those who took the check also tipped the waitress. So nobody had to do anything other than pass it on, and that’s what they did. They just passed it forward.”

It’s a true holiday story that proves how a small gesture of kindness can create some magic.

Some of us make the most of our time, no matter how limited. Such was the case of Elena Desserich, a little girl with a serious problem. When Elena was only five years old, she was diagnosed with pediatric brain cancer.

“They told us at the very beginning that she had 135 days to live,” Elena’s father, Keith Desserich, told WLWT News.

Elena and her family made the most of that time. She spent the long days in the hospital working on her paintings, which were full of hearts, fairies, and smiling families. One of her artworks was displayed in a local gallery in Cincinnati, right next to a Picasso painting. As the tumor grew larger and she lost the use of her voice, she began to communicate with her family by writing notes.

Elena died in 2007, just nine months after her diagnosis, lying in bed beside her parents.

Even though they’d known Elena’s death was inevitable, her parents Keith and Brooke were devastated by the loss. But they soon discovered that she had left a gift behind for them.

Not long after her death, Elena’s parents were sorting through her things when they began to find notes that she had written to them. “They would be in between CDs or between books on our bookshelf,” said Keith.

All through her final days, Elena had been writing love notes to her family, and hiding them in secret places throughout the house.

“We started to collect them and they would all say ‘I love you Mom, Dad and Grace.’ We kept finding them, and still to this day, we keep finding them.”

While Brooke and Keith treasure all of the notes from Elena, each of them has left a single envelope unopened. “We always want to know that there’s one more note that we haven’t read yet,” said Keith.

Elena’s parents Keith and Brooke recently published a book about Elena’s short but inspiring life, called Notes Left Behind. All proceeds from the sale of the book go towards The Cure Starts Now, the non-profit they founded to help find a cure for cancer.

Source: Gimundo

So many of us hold material items so dearly in our lives - as if we’ll be able to take them with us when we go! Of course, we can’t and that kind of possessiveness can lead to a certain coveting mentality.

“It’s mine! It’s mine! You can’t have it!”

Look around you and see what you can give away to help others - and try to include something in there that’s a little tough to let go, just for the sake of spiritual flexibility.

A Wisconsin priest is auctioning off his late mother’s collection of old silver pieces to raise money for a homeless shelter.

The Rev. Guy Blair donated 14 silver items, including five sugar urns dating back to the 1790s. Other pieces include vases and coffee and tea pots.

Tim Rigdon, a director at Heritage Auctions, says the sum of the items’ minimum bids is $21,000.

Blair hopes they fetch at least $50,000. He says that would cover the shelter’s costs for a few weeks. The proceeds benefit the St. John’s the Evangelist Church shelter in Green Bay.

Blair’s mother died in July. He says she agreed with him and his four sisters that the silver would do the most good if it were sold for a worthy cause. The auction is Nov. 10 in Dallas.

Source: MSNBC

Rev. Guy Blair, pastor of St. John the Evangelist Church in Green Bay, sits next to what he refers to as the “first homeless family” inside the church. Jim Matthews/Press-Gazette

I heard a sermon years ago where the priest encouraged us to do one quiet, thankless act a day - one you didn’t tell anyone about, one you didn’t overly celebrate - just an act you performed quietly, humbly.

This isn’t as easy as one would think. Most of us want notice for the ways in which we contribute. We want to pat ourselves on the back for our act. None of this is bad per se, but there is a higher spiritual place one can attain by keeping the act to ourselves and being quiet, even to ourselves, about it.

What kind of acts? It could be something as seemingly small as a smile to someone who needs it, cleaning up a park or beach nearby, petting a lonely dog, playing with a child, calling a loved one you haven’t spoken to in a while. Or perhaps its time to look into some volunteer services in your area. (Many of us want to volunteer but something always gets in the way, doesn’t it?)

Give. Be quiet. Be humble in the face of your own act.

At Only Positive News, we’re happy to spread the word about other sites that are doing a wonderful job spreading only positive news. The more, the merrier!

The website Zen Habits offers up this great entry about simplifying life. It’s entitled “10 Odd Little Minimalist Things I Do:

As I noted last week, I consider myself a minimalist. Does that mean everything I do is minimalist? No, but there are some odd little things I do that you might consider minimalist.

Today I felt like taking a minute to share them with you.

1. No watch. My watch broke a couple of years ago, and I decided I’d go without it. It saves me from having to put on a watch every day, and I feel much lighter. Plus, it has the advantage of making me less conscious of time, and more conscious of what I’m doing and who I’m with.
2. No wallet. This isn’t an original idea, of course, but about a year ago I put my wallet in my car’s glove compartment. Now I only carry a few bills in cash, my driver’s license and my debit card, bound with a clip. My membership cards, discount cards, etc. are stored in my wallet in my glove compartment, and you know what? I never need them. I think I’ve only gone in the wallet once to get out a card in the last year.
3. No keys. I began to simplify my key ring until it just has a few keys: office, home, car and post office box. Then I decided I didn’t need to carry them around with me. Now I just leave them in my glove compartment, and only carry around my car’s remote key (that little clicker thing that locks and unlocks the car). My pockets are so much emptier.
4. No cell. Well, actually, I do own a cell phone. And it’s usually in my car. But I just have it for emergencies, mostly because I have kids and want to be available for them. However, I rarely make phone calls and if my kids are with me, I turn the cell off and leave it in the glove compartment. Man, I love that glove compartment.
5. No bed. Actually, I have a bed. But it’s just a king-sized mattress that sleeps myself, Eva, and our two youngest babies. As our babies sleep with us, we decided it would be safer if the bed was low. Plus, I love the minimalist look of having only a mattress.
6. No desktop icons. I think I’ve mentioned this before, but my computer desktop is completely free of icons. They are just visual clutter, they slow the computer down (it takes extra cpu cycles to draw icons), and they are an inefficient way of organizing or accessing your programs and documents. I use keyboard shortcuts for everything.
7. No desktop storage. I don’t store my info on my computer’s hard drive. First, because I got tired of emailing myself my work files, so I could access them from home, or putting them on a flash drive or uploading them to web storage, or syncing my files. I decided to put everything online, and use online apps so that I could access info from anywhere. And it has made my life so much easier and simpler. I sometimes use desktop apps, but I then transfer it online and delete the file from the hard drive. I still have stuff on my hard drive, of course, but that’s just because I haven’t bothered to delete my old files — I don’t actually use them.
8. No mobile Internet. I know iPhones and Blackberries and laptops with WiFi and other such mobile computing is all the rage these days, and I’ve been sorely tempted myself, but I’ve opted not to get such a device. The cell phone I mentioned only makes and receives phone calls. Actually, it can send text messages, but I’ve never done it. I like the freedom of being away from the Internet when I’m out doing something, either alone or with my family. It’s liberating to be disconnected.
9. No cable TV. I’ve mentioned this before too, but a few years ago we made the decision to cut out cable TV from our lives. It was partly out of frugality, but also because cable TV tends to run your life. There is so much junk … er, I mean entertainment … on cable that you never do anything else. For a few months, we used rabbit-ear antennas to get the few free channels they have here on Guam, but we soon scrapped that too. Now, we watch DVDs, but not even every night. In fact, we haven’t watched a DVD for a few days now. Instead, we do miraculous things like read, and talk, and go outside.
10. No ipod. My teen-aged daughter has an ipod. It’s almost always hooked into her ear. It makes conversation difficult. I have a cheap mp3 player that I bought for running, but it made running less enjoyable for me. Now, I run with only my thoughts and nature in my head, and I go places without the distraction of constant music. It’s nice.

Photo by cristina4K

At first they might come across as insincere but The Compliment Guys are quite serious in their intent: they want to spread as much good cheer as humanly possible.

According to Lafayette Online, the two stand in the center of campuses weekly “giving out free compliments to thousands of passersby. Initial suspicion of their motives quickly melted in the face of their enthusiasm and earnestness.”

“When I started giving compliments on the Purdue campus almost a year ago, I never expected it to be so well received all over the world,” said complimenter Brent Westcott (along with Cameron Brown.) “This trip will allow us to share the same good feelings with people around the country that we have exchanged at Purdue.”

The BrightSide tour begins today in New Orleans. From there, the dynamic duo will travel to Birmingham, Ala.; Atlanta; Charleston, S.C.; Charlotte, N.C.; Washington; Baltimore; Philadelphia; and New York City. The tour ends on Aug. 7 in Rochester, N.Y.

Take a quick look at this fun video to see these guys in action!

Pete Peterson had been doing some serious soul searching. A billionairre with a zest for life and a desire to make a difference. In his own words:

“In 2007 the company I cofounded, the Blackstone Group, held a most successful public offering. I found myself, at 81, an instant billionaire. I wish I could’ve called my father, a Greek immigrant who had spent most of his life running a 24-hour diner in Kearney, Neb. The news might have pleased him as much as my being the first Greek cabinet officer, which he never hesitated to tell perfect strangers. In the 1930s, when I was growing up, there was all this talk about millionaires like John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie. Now I was a millionaire 1,000 times over.

But immediately I began wondering: what do I do with $1 billion? The idea of trying to make the money grow felt empty to me. For my father, who saved or gave away so much of his modest income, the ultimate pejorative was “big spender.” So buying a yacht was out of the question. I was also struggling over what to do with myself. I would be retiring from Blackstone, but my mind was still sharp and my energy was good. As my work commitments diminished, the phones gradually stopped ringing. The e-mails slowed. My schedule had too many blank spots. I was liberated. I was free. But I was joyless. I found my new life to be a kind of metaphor for my declining years—one might say a slow dying. I missed the frequent interactions with people I respected and enjoyed. I missed being needed. So I started looking at the lives of other billionaires. Almost all the ones I most admired were major philanthropists: Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Mike Bloomberg, George Soros, Eli Broad—each with a passion to do good, each getting so much pleasure from giving their money away. I decided that’s what I wanted to do. But to which worthy cause would I direct my money?

….Ultimately, I decided to commit $1 billion to the Peter G. Peterson foundation—the vast majority of my net proceeds from Blackstone. Why so much?

Kurt Vonnegut once told a story about seeing Joseph Heller at a wealthy hedge-fund manager’s party at a beach house in the Hamptons. Casting his eye around the luxurious setting, Vonnegut said, “Joe, doesn’t it bother you that this guy makes more in a day than you ever made from Catch-22?” “No, not really,” Heller said. “I have something that he doesn’t have: I know the meaning of enough.” I have far more than enough.”

Peterson’s memoir, The Education Of An American Dreamer, will be published by Twelve this month.

Source: Newsweek

There have been several articles in major publications as of late showing the increase of people cooking at home and a decrease in going out to restaurants for a meal. Obviously, this is tied into our recent economic woes but is positive news nonetheless.

Why? Because a home-cooked meal will always be better for your overall health in my opinion. When you create a meal with your own hands, you become part of your meal. It is an extension of you.

Now of course, what you make counts: a premade dinner that you nuke in a microwave doesn’t count. Nor does a box of macaroni and cheese. Your meal needs to consist of more basic ingredients (vegetables, fish, poultry, etc.) and grow from there.

Ideally, the closer you can move toward organic ingredients, the better. If you can’t afford those ingredients, then learn how to read labels thoroughly and wash your produce very well.

If you’re one of the people bemoaning that you just don’t cook, stop fooling yourself! Everyone knows how to cook. It really isn’t brain surgery. And because of the wide, wide world of the Internet, simple, easy recipes are literally at your fingertips.

Cooking is a very therapeautic process, in addition to a money saver. Get in touch with your meals agan. Ultimately, it means getting in touch with yourself!