by Marty Coleman | Mar 3, 2011 | Chinese Proverbs, Self |
Thanks to CK for the quote today.
Everything is part of a cycle. It isn’t just one thing about you that can help fill others. It’s all sides of you.
- That includes your kindnesses, wisdom and expressions of concern.
- It also includes your humor, intelligence and expertise.
- Don’t forget your athleticism, competitiveness and enthusiasm.
- Don’t denigrate or downplay the value of your beauty, looks, clothing, smile, hair, and body.
- Your creativity as well; your art, voice, green thumb and love of culture.
- Most importantly, don’t make the mistake of thinking your struggles, successes and failings aren’t helpful to others.
The world and the people in it may need all sorts of sides to you. To give yourself, you need to feed all those things in you as well. That is why being enthusiastic about your life, pursuing with passion what you have available to learn and experience, isn’t a selfish thing.
I have a friend, from whom I got this quote actually, who is a great example of this. She has her own personal goals in many aspects of her life. She pursues them with a passion. BUT, she doesn’t just do it just for herself. Every step of the way she is revealing herself and her passion to others. She is encouraging others in concrete ways to pursue their own dreams and goals as well. It is not one-sided, and she is not alone. There are many who do the same for her as well.
Everything is part of a cycle. Fill yourself to fill others. Fill others and you will be filled.
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Quote is a Chinese Proverb
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One year ago today at The Napkin Dad Daily – Imitation (guest napkin)
giving 2011 love self growth sustainability “chinese proverb” proverb receiving selflessness
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by Marty Coleman | Mar 2, 2011 | African Proverbs |
Sometimes it’s good to jump in, other times it’s not. When to be careful and when to throw caution to the wind is a delicate art. It can lead to bad consequences and it can lead to great leaps of wonder. How to know the difference isn’t easy. The only advice I have is to be as thoughtful and intelligent as best you can, but test with one foot first!
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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote is an African proverb
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by Marty Coleman | Nov 8, 2010 | Yiddish Proverbs |
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Aha Moment News:
Hello everyone! Just wanted to let you know the results of the Aha Moment project. I didn’t make it into the top 10 so my ad will not be running in 2011. Thank you all so much for your support and your votes. It was a lot of fun and a great opportunity to get The Napkin Dad Story out there. I appreciate you all!
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Imagine your thoughts could be seen. What would they look like in the mirror? Would they be as pretty or ugly or boring or exciting as you see your physical self? Would your thoughts be ‘presentable’ to others? Do you have to put a lot of ‘makeup’ on your thoughts before you go out of the house?
It’s so much easier to put on the right clothes and other stylings to look better than you would otherwise look. But our thoughts are really what carry us more than our looks so how do we go about making sure our thoughts are what we want them to be? It’s no different than with your looks. You can do one or more of these 3 things.
- You can put on ‘thought makeup’. Present a better version of your thoughts to the public. Nothing wrong with that, it’s what civilization is made of.
- You can look at your raw thoughts, just like your raw looks, and find the value and beauty in them instead of seeing the flaws, shortcomings and insufficiencies.
- You can train your thoughts, just as you can train your muscles of your body, to be better than they used to be – to be stronger, more resilient, less inclined to be injured or disabled.
It might give a whole new meaning to the idea of a ‘make over’!
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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote is a Yiddish proverb
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by Marty Coleman | Oct 11, 2010 | Memory - 2010, Persia, Persian Proverbs |
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I am trying to remember if I have done a series on memory yet.
I have had some relationships over my life with people who have had long memories for slights and injuries. I know this because as I got to know them I found out all the places we couldn’t go and things we couldn’t do. We couldn’t go to this restaurant because a former boyfriend and she had gotten in a fight there. We couldn’t watch this old movie because it reminded her of a really bad experience she had as a child. I wasn’t suppose to call her by a certain pet name because her mean older brother had called her that. I couldn’t cook with this vegetable because she was forced to eat it as a child and now despised it. Something I said 15 years prior got brought up in an argument.
It can be endearing in a cute way, a little quirky element in the relationship. But it also can lead to having nothing but those negative attachments. If you want to be free to experience the positive, you can’t have your memory bank filled up with only negatives.
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote is a Persian proverb
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| Persian empire around 500 BCE under the reign of King Darius |
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by Marty Coleman | Aug 25, 2010 | Jewish Proverbs, Lying About The Truth - 2013 |
I think this is a great quote. What it says to me is that telling the truth is an art. It is within the realm of truth that you are allowed the greatest leeway. You can craft that truth in such a way that it is kinder or meaner, transparent or opaque, light-hearted or deadly serious.
Manipulating the truth is not the same as crafting the truth. Crafting it means you use your wisdom and knowledge to say something the best way you can. Manipulating the truth means you use your knowledge to make that truth sound like it is a different truth, a truth you want your rabid followers to hear for example, or that you tell to get money or attention. Those manipulated truths are half-truths, they are mutated truths. And those are lies.
You can see it in politicians but even more so you can see it in the mean-spirited demagogues who rule the airwaves. They aren’t interested in the truth, they are interested in manipulating people to do what they want. And what they want is to have adulation, power, prestige and money. It’s the most depressing thing I know about modern society at this time. It is an embarrassment and they should be ashamed. But they aren’t.
Drawing by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote is a Jewish proverb
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by Marty Coleman | Jul 23, 2010 | American Proverbs |
They also will not write proposals, get trademarks and copyrights, find vendors, get publicity, draw up a business plan, advertise, sell products, build relationships, or do windows.
There is a passage in the Christian New Testament, in the Book of James, where he writes ‘Faith without works is dead’. Truer religious words have never been spoken. But replace the word ‘faith’ with the word ‘wishes’ and see if it isn’t the exact same truth. Replace it with the word ‘dreams’. Replace it with the word ‘hope’. Replace it with the word ‘want’. What do you find? Basically James was saying either put up or shut up. If you are going to say you have faith, then prove it. The same is true in the world of wishes and dreams.
You want to fulfill your wishes and dreams? Then make this your pact with yourself:
- Ever time you SAY a wish or dream you will have ALREADY taken one step towards it.
Not the whole journey, not a huge, gigantic leap. Just one step. It doesn’t mean every wish or dream is going to come to pass, but it does mean you will be basing your life’s wishes and dreams in a more inspirational world. Because a truly inspirational world is one where you see things happen, you see YOURSELF make them happen. THAT is inspiration made real, that is a wish that has done dishes.
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote is an American Proverb. Thanks to Ella Sempreviva, @infinitealoe of twitter for tweeting it.
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by Marty Coleman | May 25, 2010 | Art, Swiss Proverbs |
Day 2 of Art Week at The Napkin Dad Daily!
When I have an art exhibition I can guarantee there will be a number of people who want to know what the art means. They will not feel comfortable or at ease without knowing what it is I meant to say in the art. What I usually say in response is a question. What do YOU think it means. That is not to say I don’t have a reason for doing what I did. But I know part of the fun of seeing art is using it as a springboard for one’s own creativity. I want to hear what others think, how they interpret, to see their mind gears turning. I know other artists do and enjoy the same thing.
The reason we do this is because we know that our intention, our meaning, is not the end of the artwork. It is not the only thing that can be gathered from it. As a matter of fact, if it is the only thing that can be gathered then it isn’t art, it’s propaganda. Propaganda is created in such a way that there is almost no chance of it being seen or interpreted in any way but the way the creator intended. Everything is spelled out.
I don’t know of any great art that attempts to spell out one and only one meaning. That is why this quote is good and true. Mature artists create with joy in the knowledge that others will come and take new and unique ideas from their art. Ideas the artist didn’t think of, nor could have anticipated.When you look at art (and you should, regularly) don’t restrict yourself to what you think is the ‘right’ interpretation. Your interpretation IS the right one, even if it is off the deep end. Nobody can tell you otherwise.
Drawing and commentary © Marty Coleman
“A good spectator also creates.” – Swiss proverb
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by Marty Coleman | Apr 8, 2010 | Swedish Proverbs |
My wife and I had my unwife and my daughter over for dinner last night. We talked a lot about our various family members, some doing well, some doing not so well. Some battling cancer, some exploding with opportunities of a brand new life ahead. Some in hard jobs, some dealing with very difficult situations. We talked about someone dear to all of us, and the sadness we feel with how that life has gone, it fills us with sorrow at times. Sharing that amongst ourselves diminished the sorrow a bit, knowing others are feeling what you are feeling.
We remembered back, talking about when we were young. Remembering a mother who is no longer with us, a home we used to live in, a funny story of growing up. I told of getting an email recently from a friend of one of my daughters. The friend wrote of her remembrances of our household, it’s fun and light. She is grown now and just wanted to share her gratefulness and joy when she thought back on it. That joy was doubled and tripled and quadrupled because of her willingness to share it.
You want joy and sorrow in their proper place in your life? Share them both.
Quote is a Swedish Proverb.
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by Marty Coleman | Mar 26, 2010 | Italian Proverbs |
When my daughters were small I remembering getting sympathy from others because we had 3 in 4 years. It was the cliché of the ‘headache’. But it didn’t really produce an actual headache for me, and my wife didn’t often say she had one. What it really was was an ever-constant mental vigilance. I think most couples are amazed by the overwhelming amount of attention you must pay to this eating and pooping machine for so many years!
There does come a time when you can let them play alone for periods of time. They do eventually go to school. Little by little the need to physically supervise them levels off and the emotional supervision starts up. I remember those same people who were sympathetic to me about having 3 young ones, were, at the same time, saying ‘oh, wait ten years, then you will have 3 teenagers!’ There was dread in their voice.
And it is true that the teen years have more emotional drama than a parent might choose, but I didn’t have many more heartaches than I had real headaches 10 years earlier. What I had was ever constant emotional vigilance, this time to help them navigate through the minefields of adolescence. I wish I did it better, all parents do.
And then the third phase. It’s the phase that doesn’t get rid of the first two, but combines them. Your child might be out of the house, but he or she is still growing into adulthood, still physically trying to find their home in the world, still trying to find their emotional ground. You are at a greater distance, yes. But the desire, and the opportunity, to be of service to them never ends, whether offering an old table for her first dining room or a shoulder to cry on when the first big relationship goes south.
I am glad being a parent can never be taken away from me, no matter how old my children get. And no amount of headaches and heartaches can ever change my mind about that.
What do you like about being a parent, or about your parents if you are a mini-person still?
Drawing and commentary © Marty Coleman
“Little children, headache; big children, heartache.” – Italian proverb
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by Marty Coleman | Mar 18, 2010 | Spanish Proverbs |
When I was in the second year of my first marriage, we moved into my in-laws house while we reestablished ourselves in San Jose. Getting a job, applying to grad schools, and other things kept us living there for almost 11 months. I was, and still am, grateful for the openheartedness the Johnson family showed to me during that time.
One thing that I learned from that time was the benefits and drawbacks of being a busy man. My then father-in-law was a busy man. He kept moving and working on something all day, almost every day. He had a full-time job, and on nights and weekends he was in the garage making, testing, fixing, building, evaluating or finding something. He fixed everything himself, he tested everything before and after he fixed it. He had a purpose and a reason behind everything he did. It was in his engineering nature. He is still like that.
He accomplished a lot every day. I learned a lot about repairing cars, appliances and any number of home improvement projects because of it. But I also remember what, to me, were the drawbacks. The inability to enjoy something without trying to figure out how it worked. The freedom to enjoy a TV show without feeling like you were wasting time (unless it was an educational program of course). It was always a source of amusement to see him stand in the doorway of the TV room watching a show, a whole show, but not sitting down. That way he felt he was just stopping briefly while doing projects.
But one thing I do know when I compare him to me (inclined to be busy, inclined to not be). I think I battle a lot more devils than he ever did. Maybe that isn’t true, maybe he had deep dark secrets I don’t know about. But I think it is safe to say his major, if not only, devil was time. Time was on his back always. But it was a scrawny time. It wasn’t enough time.
I on the other hand, I think up plans and ideas and things to do. I actually do some of them. But I do a lot less than I wish, mostly because I am not as filled with the moral drive to be busy all the time. Sometimes I wish I was, other times I am very grateful I am not. My devils over the years have included that same ‘time’, but it has companions of ‘thought’ and ‘waste’ and ‘trouble making’ among the thousands.
Of course, I have only mentioned the time devil and its friends. There is a time angel and friends as well, and I will bring those up…when I have time.
Drawing and commentary © Marty Coleman
“The busy man is troubled with but one devil; the idle man by a thousand.” – Spanish proverb
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