Time for some music to put the sway in today.  Put a pause on life for a little six minutes.  Plug in, and click this.  Here is Jimmy Cliff live at Marquee in London 2006, singing “Rivers of Babylon”.

So let the words of our mouth
And the meditations of our hearts
Be acceptable in thy sight
O-verride

Peace and Love.  I bring to you, Peace and Love…

When you blame others, you give up your power to change.
~Author Unknown

I believe that every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an obligation; every possession, a duty.
~John D. Rockefeller, Jr.

It is easy to dodge our responsibility, but we can not dodge the consequences of dodging our responsibilities.
~Josiah Charles Stamp

Consequence is no coincidence.
~Lauryn Hill

Freedom is the will to be responsible to ourselves.
~Friedrich Nietzsche

Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility.
~Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Be the change you want to see in this world.
~Mahatma Gandhi

A man sooner or later discovers that he is the master-gardener of his soul, the director of his life.
~James Allen

God has entrusted me with myself.
~Epictetus

We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future.
~George Bernard Shaw

You’re not the only one who’s made mistakes
But they’re the only thing that you can truly call your own
~Billy Joel

When a man points a finger at someone else, he should remember that four of his fingers are pointing at himself.
~Louis Nizer

“It’s a question of discipline,” the little prince told me later on. “When you’ve finished washing and dressing each morning, you must tend your planet.”
~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Le Petit Prince

Said the foreigner on ferry upon seeing the Statue Of Liberty in New York City for the first time, “That’s nice, but incomplete. Is there a Statue Of Responsibility in San Francisco?”
~My Great-Grand Uncle Leonardo J. Victoria

While incarcerated on Robben Island prison, Nelson Mandela recited this poem to other prisoners and was empowered by its message of self mastery.  If you haven’t seen the movie Invictus yet, I highly recommend it.  Here is the poem the movie is titled after.

Invictus
by William Ernest Henley

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

The secret to Happiness is Freedom, and the secret to Freedom, Courage.
~Thuycudides

Valor grows by daring, fear by holding back.
~Publilius

Bravery never goes out of fashion.
~William Makepeace Thackeray

All gave some, and some gave all.
~Billy Ray Cyrus

On thy grave the rain shall fall from the eyes of a mighty nation!
~Thomas William Parsons

The dead soldier’s silence sings our national anthem.
~Aaron Kilbourn

The patriot’s blood is the seed of Freedom’s tree.
~Thomas Campbell

They hover as a cloud of witnesses above this Nation.
~Henry Ward Beecher

Four things support the world: the learning of the wise, the justice of the great, the prayers of the good, and the valor of the brave.
~Muhammad

How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes!
~Maya Angelou

Won’t you help me sing these songs of freedom.
~Bob Marley

Thank you for pausing a moment to remember each fallen soldier who gave their lives for the vision of freedom from our nations eyes.  I bow to them, this Memorial Day weekend.  Here’s one for you,  it’s Beyonce’s version of Lee Greenwood’s song, God Bless the USA.

And I’m proud to be an American,
where at least I know I’m free.
And I wont forget the men who died,
who gave that right to me.

~Lee Greenwood

Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others.
~Jonathan Swift

We are limited, not by our abilities, but by our vision.
~Unknown

Vision looks inward and becomes duty.  Vision looks outward and becomes aspiration.  Vision looks upward and becomes faith. ~Stephen S. Wise

People only see what they are prepared to see.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ability is what you’re capable of doing.  Motivation determines what you do.  Attitude determines how well you do it.
~Lou Holtz

The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight, but has no vision.
~Hellen Keller

There are always flowers for those who want to see them.
~Henri Matisse

When most I wink, then do my eyes best see.
~William Shakespeare

Men often become what they believe themselves to be.  If I believe I cannot do something, it makes me incapable of doing it.  But when I believe I can, then I acquire the ability to do it even if I didn’t have it in the beginning.
~Mahatma Gandhi

Vision without action is a dream.  Action without vision is simplly passing the time.  Action with Vision is making a positive difference.
~Joel Barker

No one is less ready for tomorrow than the person who holds the most rigid beliefs about what tomorrow will contain.
~Wacker, Taylor and Means, The Visionary’s Handbook

Dissatisfaction and discouragement are not caused by the absence of things but the absence of vision.
~Anonymous

Last, but certainly not least, one of our planets most prolific visionaries, here is Imagine by John Lennon.

Imagine there’s no heaven,
It’s easy if you try,
No hell below us,
Above us only sky,
Imagine all the people
Living for today…

Imagine there’s no countries,
It isn’t hard to do,
Nothing to kill or die for,
No religion too,
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace…

Imagine no possessions,
I wonder if you can,
No need for greed or hunger,
A brotherhood of man,
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world…

You may say I’m a dreamer,
But I’m not the only one,
I hope some day you’ll join us,
And the world will live as one.

This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine.
~Sam Cooke

Sun is shining, the weather is sweet
Make you want to move your dancing feet.
~Bob Marley

The windows of my soul I throw
Wide open to the sun.
~John Greenleaf Whittier

Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you.
~Maori Proverb

People are like stained-glass windows.  They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in their true beauty is revealed only if there is light from within. 
~Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

Three things can not be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.
~Buddha

The hero is the one who kindles a great light in the world, who sets up blazing torches in the dark streets of life for men to see by.  The saint is the man who walks through the dark paths of the world, himself a light. 
~Felix Adle

Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness. 
~Chinese Proverb

What is to give light must endure the burning.
~Viktor Frankl

And finally, a song I that keeps delighting the ears of my heart.  It’s Il Volo’s hip, modern neopolitan version of “O Sole Mio”.  (I saw/heard them for the first time on American Idol, and a I’m just crazy about these incredibly talented Italian teenagers!)  Turn it up and click this  O Sole Mio.

Here’s O Sole Mio translated into english:

My Sun