Mary McDonnell Quotes

Fear keeps us focused on the past or worried about the future. If we can acknowledge our fear, we can realize that right now we are okay. Right now, today, we are still alive, and our bodies are working marvelously. Our eyes can still see the beautiful sky. Our ears can still hear the voices of our loved ones.

Existence itself does not feel horrible; it feels like an ecstasy, rather, which we have only to be still to experience.

Look up from what you're doing and look around for a minute. See what a beautiful world you're in.

At some point in life the world's beauty becomes enough. You don't need to photograph, paint or even remember it. It is enough.

With a warm drink, in a rocking chair and family and friends around, I am working on finding peace and joy in the moments we have been given. It doesn't have to all make sense. I don't have all the answers.

Happiness is a simple everyday miracle, like water, and we are not aware of it.

Life is such a beautiful thing. When you sit for a moment during the day and live that particular moment, everything seems perfect.

Peace is present right here and now, in ourselves and in everything we do and see. Every breath we take, every step we take, can be filled with peace, joy, and serenity. The question is whether or not we are in touch with it. We need only to be awake, alive in the present moment.

I am breathing in and out. Realizing this, I began to notice that each moment was not without its beauty.

Wherever we are we have the capacity to enjoy the sunshine, the presence of each other and the wonder of our breathing.

In a meadow full of flowers, you cannot walk through and breathe those smells and see all those colors and remain angry. We have to support the beauty, the poetry, of life.

I know that the purpose of life is to understand and be in the present moment with the people you love. It's just that simple.

It is so small a thing to have enjoyed the sun, to have lived light in the spring, to have loved, to have thought, to have done.

What is the good of your stars and trees, your sunrise and the wind, if they do not enter into our daily lives?

One of the best things to do sometimes is simply to be.

Happiness is rarely absent; it is we that know not of its presence.

Unending joy is actually closer to us than our own skin, and there is nothing we have to do or get or be to experience it. All we have to do is stop driving it away.

Turn your attention for a while away from the worries and anxieties. Remind yourself of all your many blessings.

Whenever you're feeling grateful, you are not feeling frustrated and angry and all those negative states that we go into. And that's a big benefit in and of itself.

When you are present, the world is truly alive.

I love being. There's so much wisdom in it. You wake up in the morning and you think, Hey, isn't it great just being?

I want to stay in the moment and enjoy the great things that are happening.

Every breath we take, every step we make, can be filled with peace, joy and serenity.

Just living is not enough... one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.

I don't want to wake up and not truly be enjoying my life and these amazing things around me.