Library Meditations…Friendship

Welcome to another addition of meditation quotes. This week me and my yoga gals meditated on the idea of friendship, and our love for our friends. The girls didn’t pick this week’s theme, I started to gather some quotes on love and thought that my teenage group might be better served by the warm thoughts of friendship than the pressure of love (in high school also known as Who’s Dating Who…)

Plus, I didn’t think my high schoolers were ready for quotes proclaiming that what you want in a man is humor and loyalty…judging by their Google searches and computer backgrounds muscles and dreamy eyes still seem to be the main motivation for romantic love…

Considering my own hormones aren’t dead I’ll give them that it’s a convincing argument…

But I’ve been in a relationship long enough to know that the quotes are right…in the end you just want someone to be with you no matter what…someone you’re not embarrassed to fart in front of 😉 Ha. Teens out there are still thinking “Oh the Horror!”

But I believe girls of any age can appreciate the value of a friend who will more than tolerate some flatulence…she’ll giggle her way through the situation, and nod understandingly when you mention something about too many FiberOne bars…

All of the quotes below were read aloud to my students just a few short minutes ago. And I encourage you to scan through them yourself and try to see if one catches your imagination more than others. I encourage my girls to do the same. Because as voracious readers we know nothing can be as powerful as a well written phrase that catches our fancy. And a good friend is worth her weight in gold.

Enjoy. And Namaste.

Without Further Ado…Friendship Quotes

There are big ships and small ships. But the best ship of all is friendship. ~Author Unknown

A friend is one of the nicest things you can have, and one of the best things you can be. ~Douglas Pagels

Friendship isn’t a big thing – it’s a million little things. ~Author Unknown

A true friend never gets in your way unless you happen to be going down. ~Arnold Glasow

Don’t walk behind me; I may not lead. Don’t walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend. – Albert Camus

The most beautiful discovery true friends make is that they can grow separately without growing apart. ~Elisabeth Foley

It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend. ~William Blake

A friend knows the song in my heart and sings it to me when my memory fails. ~Donna Roberts

Friends are those rare people who ask how you are and then wait for the answer. ~Author Unknown

What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies. ~Aristotle

Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art…. It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival. ~C.S. Lewis

A friend is the one who comes in when the whole world has gone out. ~Grace Pulpit

Cherish the friend who tells you a harsh truth, wanting ten times more to tell you a loving lie. ~Robert Brault

Our most difficult task as a friend is to offer understanding when we don’t understand. ~Robert Brault

Nothing but heaven itself is better than a friend who is really a friend. ~Plautus

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom. – Marcel Proust

A real friend is someone who would feel loss if you jumped on a train, or in front of one. ~Author Unknown

It takes a long time to grow an old friend. ~John Leonard

“Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?” ― Abraham Lincoln

He who has a thousand friends has not a friend to spare, and he who has one enemy will meet him everywhere. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

A true friend reaches for your hand and touches your heart. ~Attributed to Heather Pryor

“There is nothing better than a friend, unless it is a friend with chocolate.” ― Linda Grayson

“Why did you do all this for me?” he asked. “I don’t deserve it. I’ve never done anything for you.’
You have been my friend,’ replied Charlotte. ‘That in itself is a tremendous thing.” ― E.B. White, Charlotte’s Web

Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down. – Oprah Winfrey

But oh! the blessing it is to have a friend to whom one can speak fearlessly on any subject; with whom one’s deepest as well as one’s most foolish thoughts come out simply and safely. Oh, the comfort – the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person – having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all right out, just as they are, chaff and grain together; certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then with the breath of kindness blow the rest away. ~Dinah Craik

A true friend unbosoms freely, advises justly, assists readily, adventures boldly, takes all patiently, defends courageously, and continues a friend unchangeably. ~William Penn

We are the captains of our own ships sailing the sea of life, but in times of a stormy weather, you will discover true friends when they don’t hesitate to be a lighthouse. ~Dodinsky

I don’t need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod; my shadow does that much better. ~Plutarch

The best time to make friends is before you need them. ~Ethel Barrymore

Never explain – your friends do not need it and your enemies will not believe you anyway. – Elbert Hubbard

If you’re alone, I’ll be your shadow. If you want to cry, I’ll be your shoulder. If you want a hug, I’ll be your pillow. If you need to be happy, I’ll be your smile. But anytime you need a friend, I’ll just be me. ~Author Unknown

“If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day so I never have to live without you.” ― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

Poem: I Carry Your Heart With Me by E. E. Cummings

i carry your heart with me (i carry it in
my heart) i am never without it (anywhere
i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing, my darling)
i fear
no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet) i want
no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)

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Library Meditations…Peace or The Story of How TheLibrarian rid a group of teens of a Death-Stare

Little known fact: TheLibrarian taught yoga in her college years.

Yep. I like myself some Yoga.

Though I’ve practiced on and off throughout the years following my undergrad education I hadn’t attempted to teach again until this year.

You see, my private orthodox Jewish school decided to switch up the prayer groups offered…give students creative and alternative ways of praying and using prayer. There is a ‘Glee’ or singing tefilah (the name for the daily prayers), an Art tefilah, and even a very short-lived Photography tefilah.

But how did this Christian gal end up leading a yoga tefilah? Well, the teacher they had outsourced decided to move to NYC…the day before school started…and I tentatively  announced that I had a few years experience teaching yoga. Sold.

And I forgot how much I LOVE teaching yoga.

How much I love getting to know my students in this intimate way…different from the relationship the Librarian usually forms with the kids.

Anyway…As my yoga girls and I settled into a rhythm of what they enjoyed during class, for example no poses done on the knees (concrete makes for poor padding) and a surprising love of breathing exercises (I thought making loud, awkward noises would embarrass them!) I found that the most difficult of all things for these teens was the Corpse Pose at the end of practice.

Girls ages 14 to 18 Can. Not. Lie. Still.

Nope.

Not even for 5 minutes.

Ugh, it was beyond painful to watch them fidget, sigh, cross  and uncross arms and legs. Worst of all, the ones who lay there with a wide-eyed-stare-of-horror I had previously only associated with slasher film heroines waiting for the killer to find them. My students were only missing the bloody tank tops!

Something had to be done. These girls were missing what I loved most about a Yoga practice; an inner sense of peace; an ability to find a moment of calm in your own mind. These girls were too terrified of…well…I’m not sure what. Perhaps an existential fear of society itself…that or being the only one with their eyes closed. The horror.

It was time we started meditating. You can make an executive decision when you’re the teacher. It’s one of the few perks 😉

Needless to say an attempt at traditional meditation (think eyes closed, attempting to clear the mind, while sitting in a cross-legged position) failed miserably. But I was not deterred!

Enter Quotes.

Yes Quotes. What does a teenage girl love better than lists of quotes on a subject? Heck, what does a Librarian love more than quotes? Maybe bacon cheeseburgers and wine, but neither is appropriate for my Jewish students, so onward to the quote experiment.

It worked like a charm.

Each week I ask the girls for a theme suggestion. Then, I pull tons of quotes on that theme. Sometimes arranging with thought-provoking questions or breathing exercises. Mostly we enter into a relaxed state, clear our minds, and then I read off the quotes to soothing music with slight pauses in between. The girls don’t think because even in the pauses their minds are clear, waiting for my next quote.

They stopped fidgeting.

They started relaxing.

The wide-eyed-stare-of-horror was gone.

It’s a thing of beauty, let me tell you!

This week’s theme was Peace. All of the quotes below were read aloud to my students just a few short minutes ago. And I encourage you to scan through them yourself and try to see if one catches your imagination more than others. I encourage my girls to do the same. Because as voracious readers we know nothing can be as powerful as a well written phrase that catches our fancy.

Enjoy. And Namaste.

Without Further Ado…Peace Quotes

Peacefulness is an inner sense of calm – it comes from becoming still – in order to reflect and meditate on our inner wisdom and receive answers. A peaceful heart is one that is free from worry and trouble. It’s becoming quiet so we can look at things quietly so we can more clearly understand them and thus come up with creative solutions. It is learning to live in the present.

Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.

Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.
– Albert Einstein

Better than a thousand hollow words, is one word that brings peace.
– Buddha

Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.
– Buddha

Avoid popularity if you would have peace.
– Abraham Lincoln

If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.
– Mother Teresa

Peace begins with a smile.
– Mother Teresa

We can never obtain peace in the outer world until we make peace with ourselves.
– Dalai Lama

When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace.
– Jimi Hendrix

A people free to choose will always choose peace.
– Ronald Reagan

There was never a good war, or a bad peace.
– Benjamin Franklin

Those who can win a war well can rarely make a good peace and those who could make a good peace would never have won the war.
 – Winston Churchill

An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind.
– Mahatma Gandhi, The Story of My Experiments With Truth

Fighting for peace is like screwing for virginity.
– George Carlin

Yes, we love peace, but we are not willing to take wounds for it, as we are for war.
– John Andrew Holmes, Wisdom in Small Doses

He that would live in peace and at ease must not speak all he knows or all he sees.
– Benjamin Franklin

End each day with thoughts of peace.  Begin each day with thoughts of peace. Continue thinking thoughts of peace throughout your precious day and happiness will be yours.

My therapist told me the way to achieve true inner peace is to finish what I start. So far today, I have finished 2 bags of M&M’s and a chocolate cake. I feel better already.
– Dave Barry

It isn’t enough to talk about peace, one must believe it. And it isn’t enough to believe in it, one must work for it.
– Eleanor Roosevelt

He who lives in harmony with himself lives in harmony with the world.
– Marcus Aurelius

In acceptance, there is peace.

Peace of mind is attained not by ignoring problems, but by solving them.
– Raymond Hull

One must look hard through history to find when a clear understanding of the truth moved anyone to fire the first shot.
– Robert Brault

Let there be peace on earth
And let it begin with me.
– Seymour Miller & Jill Jackson, “Let There Be Peace on Earth,” 1955

If you go, go in Peace it makes the flowers sweeter along the path.
Mike Dolan

It’s so hard to forget pain, but it’s even harder to remember sweetness. We have no scar to show for happiness. We learn so little from peace.
– Chuck Palahniuk, Diary

World peace must develop from inner peace. Peace is not just mere absence of violence. Peace is, I think, the manifestation of human compassion.
– Dalai Lama XIV

Imagine that the universe is a great spinning engine. You want to stay near the core of the thing – right in the hub of the wheel – not out at the edges where all the wild whirling takes place, where you can get frayed and crazy. The hub of calmness – that’s your heart. That’s where God lives within you. So stop looking for answers in the world. Just keep coming back to that center and you’ll always find peace.
– Elizabeth Gilbert

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