Sara Arizona » Stories

Estachological Laundry List by Sheldon Kopp

Sara Fryd — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 18:11:39 +0000

1. This is it!

2. There are no hidden meanings.

3. You can’t get there from here, and besides there’s no place else to go.

4. We are all already dying, and we will be dead for a long time.

5. Nothing lasts.

6. There is no way of getting all you want.

7. You can’t have anything unless you let go of it.

8. You only get to keep what you give away.

9. There is no particular reason why you lost out on some things.

10. The world is not necessarily just. Being good often does not pay off and there is no compensation for misfortune.

11. You have a responsibility to do your best nonetheless.

12. It is a random universe to which we bring meaning.

13. You don’t really control anything.

14. You can’t make anyone love you.

15. No one is any stronger or any weaker than anyone else.

16. Everyone is, in his own way, vulnerable.

17. There are no great men.

18. If you have a hero, look again: you have diminished yourself in some way.

19. Everyone lies, cheats, pretends (yes, you too, and most certainly I myself).

20. All evil is potential vitality in need of transformation.

21. All of you is worth something, if you will only own it.

22. Progress is an illusion.

23. Evil can be displaced but never eradicated, as all solutions breed new problems.

24. Yet it is necessary to keep on struggling toward solution.

25. Childhood is a nightmare.

26. But it is so very hard to be an on-your-own-take-care-of-yourself-casue-there-is-no-one-else-to-do-it-for-you grown-up.

27. Each of us is ultimately alone.

28. The most important things, each man must do for himself.

29. Love is not enough, but it sure helps.

30. We have only ourselves, and one another. That may not be much, but that’s all there is.

31. How strange, that so often, it all seems worth it.

32. We must live within the ambiguity of partial freedom, partial power, and partial knowledge.

33. All important decisions must be made on the basis of insufficient data.

34. Yet we are responsible for everything we do.

35. No excuses will be accepted.

36. You can run, but you can’t hide.

37. It is most important to run out of scapegoats.

38. We must learn the power of living with our helplessness.

39. The only victory lies in surrender to oneself.

40. All of the significant battles are waged within the self.

41. You are free to do whatever you like. You need only face the consequences.

42. What do you know…for sure…anyway?

43. Learn to forgive yourself, again and again and again and again…

*You can find a list of Dr. Kopp’s books on wikipedia.org and many used on Amazon.com. Titles are as fantastic as the books.

God Will Save Me

Sara Fryd — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 18:11:01 +0000

*It is noted I did NOT write this story. I’ve heard many variations, nevertheless it is still a great story.

A very religious man who had followed God’s commandments his whole life found himself living in a house on the banks of a river that was rising. It was raining hard and all predictions were for bad flooding. The banks of the river were rising and coming into his home. The water was gushing in quickly.

He thought I will be all right “God will save me.”

First the town’s fire truck came for him. His friend the fire chief called, “Bob, come on climb aboard. It’s rising fast, we need to evacuate everyone. Hurry up, Bob!”

“No, no”, he said, “I will be all right God will save me.”

Next the Coast Guard boat came for him. “Come on, climb aboard. It’s rising fast, we need to evacuate everyone. Hurry up, Bob!”

“No, no”, he said, “I will be all right God will save me.”

Then Bob was on the roof of his house, when a helicopter came for him dropping the basket down and he refused to climb in saying, “That’s okay, I’ll wait here. God will save me.”

Bob dies drowning as the water is now higher than the roof and when he gets to heaven he gets really mad and says to God, “I was a good man my whole life, a good religious man. How then could you let me drown like that?”

God smiles and responds, “What do you mean? I sent you a fire truck, a boat, and a helicopter. We all couldn’t get you to leave your house.”

1st Anniversary

Sara Fryd — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 19:38:13 +0000

One year! Happy Anniversary http://sarafryd.com. Not so hard to believe that a year has passed, though overwhelmed by the response to the words I have written on napkins, scraps of paper from the bottom of my purse, notebooks, backs of Walgreen’s receipts, Mead spiral notebooks, my wrist, and the palm of my hands with a pen, a crayon, chaulk, pencil, and even a tube of lipstick when I was desperately seeking pen. 186 countries and 148,063 as of 11:59 am this morning. I am blessed by all of you. All of you who stop by to share, to read, to leave a note of encouragement. Thank you from every pore of my being for helping a lost little girl find her way home. May God bless each and every one of you.