Bare and Beautiful: Japan

1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.

2.When you lose, don't lose the lesson.

3.Follow the three R’s:

...Respect for self

...Respect for others and

...Responsibility for all your actions.

4.Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.

5.Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.

6.Don't let a little dispute injure a great friendship.

7.When you realize you've made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.

8.Spend some time alone every day.

9.Open your arms to change, but don't let go of your values.

10.Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.

11.Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you'll be able to enjoy it a second time.

12. A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.

13.In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don't bring up the past.

14.Share your knowledge. It's a way to achieve immortality.

15.Be gentle with the earth.

16.Once a year, go someplace you've never been before.

17.Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.

18.Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.

19.Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.

~Dalai Lama

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I --
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

~Robert Frost

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I'm telling lies.
I say,
It's in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It's the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can't touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them,
They say they still can't see.
I say,
It's in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Now you understand
Just why my head's not bowed.
I don't shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It's in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
The palm of my hand,
The need for my care,
'Cause I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

~Maya Angelou