Vassago

2026-10-16T14:07:28.766+01:00

No matter how remote you are or isolated you feel, there's hope.

And help is usually closer than you think.

It's not always easy to ask.

But with a little courage, if you look, you'll find what you need.

Your family, your friends, your community, lifting you up.

2026-10-16T14:06:34.840+01:00

Before the 20th century, drug safety studies were not required.

Narcotics were sold under the counter.

Teething babies were given serums laced with morphine.

A medicine for strep was made with anti-freeze.

No one was responsible for distinguishing between medicine that heals and medicine that harmed.

No one studied side effects or adverse reactions.

All you could do was roll the dice.

Recommendations, rules, guidelines.

Ideally, they exist to save you from unnecessary pain.

Have fun and stay safe while doing it.

But rules only work if you follow them.

But sometimes the rules you've been following turn out to be flawed.

All bets are off.

You're completely on your own.

2026-10-16T14:04:13.918+01:00

In the 1940s, while stuck in bed with tuberculosis, biochemist Karl Link read a book on rodent control.

Karl created a rat poison from an anticoagulant he'd discovered while trying, but failing, to treat sick cows.

Later, a soldier trying to end his life ate Karl's rat poison, which, unexpectedly, helped lead to its use as a blood thinner in humans.

From multiple failures, the compound warfarin was born, and it's been used to treat and save millions of people.

Whether in science or life, the road to discovery is rarely a straight line.

We take two steps forward, then fall three steps back.

We veer off course and have to find our way back.

Surprise detours lead us to unsuspected places.

Places we never imagined were possible.

2026-10-16T14:03:14.424+01:00

James Harrison, an Australian blood donor, was nicknamed the "Man with the Golden Arm."

His blood contained the rare antibody necessary to make a life-saving medication: anti-D.

Anti-D injections were given to pregnant mothers whose blood was incompatible with their unborn baby's.

James donated over 1,000 times.

What he could survive without saved over 2 million lives.

What we find important to keep in our lives changes over time.

Things break, hobbies age, and dreams evolve.

You learn from experience to narrow down what really matters.

And who you want standing by your side at all times.

And once you do, you hold on as tightly as you can.

“You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.”

2026-10-16T13:59:16.961+01:00

if you hold its head underwater long enough,

it will drink

2026-10-16T13:56:20.816+01:00

When patients leave the hospital, they're often taking home a brand new regimen of medication, physical therapy, and aftercare.

Ideally, every patient would do exactly as they're told.

But reality has a different story.

Too often medication costs, memory lapses, and poor health literacy impede patients' recovery.

For the doctors, there's not a whole lot you can do about it.

In other words, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.

2026-10-16T13:56:05.732+01:00

It's easy to judge people for their actions but you don't always know what's driving them.

You don't know what they're born into, the struggles they faced.

Sometimes we make rash decisions with no idea why.

But often it's fear pulling the strings behind the curtain.

Fear of failure, of being let down, or, one of the old favorites: fear of happiness.

It's all too easy to be your own worst enemy.

And the damage we inflict can take a lifetime to undo.

2026-10-16T07:30:00.000+01:00

At all costs, we avoid negative experiences.

We ignore pain. We steer clear of the unfamiliar.

We lie when asked about how we feel

2026-10-15T07:00:00.000+01:00

A recent study found that marriage actually has health benefits.

Married people live longer, have fewer strokes, and fewer heart attacks than people who are single.

Happily, there are other studies that tell us the real truth about the health benefits of marriage, which is that the benefits have nothing to do with marriage at all.

Because those studies have shown that staying in an unhappy marriage is the worst thing you can do for your health and your children.

So better health is a direct result of healthy relationships.

You don't need a spouse, you just need someone you can trust. You need someone you can talk to. You need someone who will celebrate your wins and grieve your losses. You need someone who can forgive you.

You need someone who will show up, no questions asked, and walk with you through every unexpected twist and turn life throws your way.

2026-10-14T07:00:00.000+01:00

We define ourselves by our actions,

but it doesn't mean we have to live by that definition.

We can change our own story.

We can refuse to accept the way people define us.

We can work like hell to escape a bad reputation, only to wonder if we succeeded.

It can be hard to shake the mistakes of the past. They'll always come back to haunt us.

But one thing we never do. We don't stop. We don't quit.

We get up and rejoin the fight

2026-10-13T06:30:00.000+01:00

What really frightens and dismays us is not external events themselves, but the way in which we think about them.

It is not things that disturb us, but our interpretation of their significance

2026-10-12T06:30:00.000+01:00

A great tree develops over time and can tell stories not only those of happiness, but also those that contain pain from what it has seen over the years, and as a result is the wise ancient tree that it is today.

As the seasons change, the tree naturally goes through changes as well:

where the leaves turn yellow and orange in the fall,

falling by the Winter,

returning in the Spring,

and with full set of new leafs by the Summer.

Love is no different in that there will be times when we are fully naked in the Winter, and left to wonder about Spring when it seemed so easy to love,

yet the wise tree knows that no winter will last forever

no matter how cold it may be.

2026-10-11T06:30:00.000+01:00

An ignorant person is inclined to blame others for his own misfortune.

To blame oneself is proof of progress.

But the wise man never has to blame another or himself.

2026-10-10T06:30:00.000+01:00

If you want to make progress, put up with being perceived as ignorant or niaive in worldly matters,

don't aspire to a reputation for sagacity.

If you do impress others as somebody, don't altogether believe it.

You have to realize, it isn't easy to keep your will in agreement with nature, as well as externals.

Caring about the one inevitably means you are going to shortchange the other

2026-10-09T06:30:00.000+01:00

People wanted security.

They couldn't bear the idea of death being a big black nothing,

couldn't bear the thought of their loved ones not existing,

and couldn't even imagine themselves not existing.

people believed in an afterlife because they couldn't bear not to.

Epicurus

2026-10-08T06:30:00.000+01:00

Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?

Then he is not omnipotent.

Is he able, but not willing?

Then he is malevolent.

Is he both able and willing?

Then whence cometh evil?

Is he neither able nor willing?

Then why call him God?”

2026-10-07T06:30:00.000+01:00

In the wild you don’t see old animals
because as soon as they age,
animals die.

If they get sick or slow down,
something stronger kills them.

Animals aren’t meant to get old.

Our culture has made death something wrong.

Old animals should be an unnatural exception.

2026-10-06T06:30:00.000+01:00

We are not human beings having a spiritual experience.

We are spiritual beings having a human experience.

2026-10-05T10:00:00.000+01:00

There are just some kind of men

who're so busy worrying about the next world

they've never learned to live in this one,

2026-10-04T11:01:19.812+01:00

Years go by, if I'm stripped of my beauty

When I wore a younger man's clothes

we all lose our charms in the end

Time takes it all, whether you want it to or not

2026-10-04T09:30:00.000+01:00

Tori Amos

Years go by, will I still be waitingFor somebody else to understandYears go by, if I'm stripped of my beautyAnd the orange clouds raining in my headYears go by, will I choke on my tears'Til, finally there is nothing left

Billy Joel

He says, "Son can you play me a memory?I'm not really sure how it goesBut it's sad and it's sweet and I knew it completeWhen I wore a younger man's clothes"

Marilyn

Men grow coldAs girls grow oldAnd we all lose our charms in the end

Bucks Fizz

Youth,
it passes,
while age is collected

2026-10-04T09:00:00.000+01:00

Time takes it all,

whether you want it to or not

2026-10-04T06:30:00.000+01:00

A med school professor once said, the hardest decision in surgery is knowing when to abandon a repair and just remove the whole organ.

If a spleen is shattered, we'll take it out to protect the rest of the body. Same with a section of colon or small bowel.

The human body can survive a fair amount of loss.

People live without an appendix, a kidney, tonsils, and more.

The body finds ways to compensate for what it's missing but it will eventually reach a breaking point. The body can only give up so much before it no longer works at all.

Much like with surgery, life is full of calculated risks.

We often make sacrifices in hopes of better outcomes. Not every gamble pays off the way we hoped.

So we ask ourselves, "What are we willing to give up?

What can we leave behind?

What do we need to live?

What makes life worth living?

What are we willing to put on the line when a life is at stake?

How much are we ready to lose if things don't break our way?"

2026-10-03T07:00:00.000+01:00

a dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight,

and his punishment is that he sees the dawn

before the rest of the world

Jesus

2026-10-02T09:30:00.000+01:00

prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him:

I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God.

A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher.

He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell.

You must make your choice.

Either this man was, and is, the Son of God,

or else a madman

or something worse.

You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God,

but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher.

He has not left that open to us.

He did not intend to