Living
Life Fully--
a little bit of insight into how
and why this site came to be. |
| |
| This
website exists in order to provide its visitors with a place of
peace, comfort, wisdom, and hope that they can use as a sanctuary
on the World Wide Web. The Internet is full of sites that
want to sell us material goods and get information from us, but
there are relatively few places that actively offer a place of
peace that presents wisdom that can have practical and direct
applications to everyone's lives. While there are quite a
few motivational sites online, most of them suffer from
neglect--not having been updated in months or years--or a lack of
truly deep, truly relevant material, or an overabundance of
advertising that tends to undermine the main messages that they
claim to be sharing. There are exceptions, of course, but
not as many exceptions as one would hope.
Most
quotation sites rely on databases to present their information,
which tends to result in a rather cold feel. Furthermore,
there's very little editing for content done on those sites, which
results in many quotations being put on pages that are only
marginally relevant to the topic. When all is said and done,
I choose to present fewer than half of the quotations that I find on any given topic--the ones
I leave out either don't say
much at all or they're more negative in nature. I also do my
best to make
sure that the material that's presented isn't just my favorite
stuff, for this site isn't about me. This site is about you
and anyone else who wants to visit.
I see the
site as a kind of online coffee-table book, and thus I've done my best to make it as attractive as possible. Scenes of
nature and people tend to be relaxing and help us keep perspective
by reminding us of the beauty that's out there in the world.
My choice of fonts is also important--I change fonts and colors
and sizes in order to make each quotation stand on its own in the
reader's eyes so that it's easier to read and to separate mentally
from the rest of the quotations on the page. There are few
things more difficult than trying to internalize an idea or
concept when it's just one of thirty passages on a given page, and
all are in the same small font. It can be very difficult to read
that way.
|
| |
|
|
|
I strive to use all
original photos; I took this shot
just north of Ennis, Montana, a few years ago. |
| |
| We
truly hope that our presentation of material is helpful and useful
to almost everyone. There's enough of a broad spectrum here
that this should be the case, though we know that it's pretty much
impossible to please everyone in the world. |
| |
|
That said, I'll tell you that
I started this site in 1999 because I felt that it was important that
there be somewhere on the web that people could go to for
encouragement and inspiration, a place that's creative and
attractive as well as full of material. I've spent lots of
time searching the Web for backgrounds that are peaceful,
artistic, and pleasing to the eye. I choose quotations on
the basis of their potential relevance and depth, and since I started the site,
I've seen my collection of books of quotations
and other inspiring material grow dramatically.
This site is important to
me because I know that
this material has worked to pull me out of depression, feelings of
anxiety and hopelessness, and feelings of being completely alone
in the world. Personally, I don't need to go into details about my
childhood, but so many of the behaviors and thought patterns that
I developed then were destructive to me, and I continued to allow
them to grow as an adult. Reading this material is a way for
me to counter those tendencies. Most of the concept has
grown out of a writing course that I taught for several years at
St. Anselm College entitled Carpe Diem, in which we explored the
concept of what life was all about through literature, film,
music, and philosophy.
One
of the things I most like about the site is that it allows
the important words of many caring and loving people to
continue to do their work, encouraging and motivating us to
go on with our lives, improving ourselves and recognizing
our own worth. Many of the people whose words appear
here are dead and gone, but their work continues to be
helpful to many, many people.
|
|
Mission
Statement
With these pages, I hope to create an area on the
worldwide web where people can come for inspiration,
encouragement, hope, and peace, or just to feel
positive about life. In a world with news and
entertainment media that tend to focus on the
violent and the abnormal, I hope to remind people
that life is, indeed, beautiful, and that we are
constantly surrounded by wonderful people who do
mostly good in their lives; unfortunately, we don't
always recognize these people for who they are.
I hope to be always within the realms
of copyright law concerning fair use and public
domain. I will never present non-original
material as original, and any use of any quotations
will be intended to present the author in a positive
light insofar as she or he is focusing on the
positive aspects of being human.
I realize that many people object to
the use of the pronoun "he" in generic
fashion, and I've tried to eliminate this archaic
use when possible, as long as the change doesn't
modify the original meaning or intent of a
particular quotation. This isn't an attempt to
be politically correct-- it's an effort to recognize
and show our appreciation for the many wonderful
contributions to our lives made by many gifted women
and others who don't feel "assigned" to
any particular gender identity.
|
|
|
| |
|
For me, this type of reading is my
meditation. It's my way of reminding myself that the world
is a positive place, and that we ALL have a place of value in
it. I'm a pretty independent person by nature, and I just
don't feel comfortable in many social settings (especially those
that are staged or "required fun"), so it's important to
me to have a refuge for my mind, a place where my thoughts can
refocus and grow stronger. |
| |
| I
would like this site to be a reminder to all who visit that each one of
us is a beautiful, unique, valuable member of humanity and of the
earth, and we all need to be here for things to work. I want
to make available to people the messages of value and worth
because we all are worth it, and the better we take care of
ourselves, especially mentally and emotionally, the more positive
effects we can have on others, and they can then spread the
positivity to others. . . . |
|
|
| I
thank you for your visit, and
I wish you all the best in
life. If you have any comments on the site, please feel free
to drop me a line at info
at
livinglifefully.com.
Take good care, and enjoy your visit!
tom |
|
|