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January
4 |
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Today's
quotation:
As a
doctor, I studied survivors--people who got sick but
exceeded expectations. Many of those exceptional patients
had been given little time to live, yet they were some of
the happiest people I'd ever met. They knew, or they
discovered through their illness, which became their
teacher, that if you want to be happy, you must answer
some key questions. What are you here for? And how do you
want to spend your limited time? If your answer is that
you are here to love, to serve others and not to be
served, then you already have everything you need to be
happy. If you wake up in the morning, that's enough; you
are grateful for life and the opportunity to contribute
in your way.
Bernie
Siegel
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Today's
Meditation:
Making
our contributions--how many people are frustrated with
life because they're unable to contribute on their terms
in the ways that they feel they should be contributing to
life and other people? How many are frustrated
because people don't accept their service in exactly the
way they feel they should accept it? Love and
service both should be unconditional if we want them to be
true. I cannot put expectations of how others will
react to my love or my service if I want my love or
service to be true.
If
people who are sick and even dying from illnesses over
which they have no control can find happiness and meaning
in love and service, how much more can we as healthy
people make our lives brighter and more fulfilling by
using the wonderful powers that we've been given to help
others?
Have
you asked yourselves the key questions that Bernie mentions? What are you here for?
And how can you love and serve? Everyone has
different ways to do so--personally, I'm not so good at
serving face-to-face, so I've developed a website that I
hope will be helpful to people who might need some
encouragement or motivation. Others serve by playing
music or by making artwork or by rooting cuttings of
plants and giving them away. Others have learned the
power of the compliment and a kind word or three.
Others coach sports in a way that builds up their players'
confidence and self-image rather than in a way that
focuses on winning at all costs.
How
do you want to spend your limited time here on this
planet? Personally, I've found that I've been much
happier when I've tried to focus on helping others, and I
believe that since I'm going through life consciously
trying to strengthen that focus, I will continue to grow
as a human being and to make a difference (however small)
in the lives of others. And I hope--but don't
require--that they pass that helpfulness on as they make
their ways through life.
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Questions to
consider:
What are you here for?
How can you give your life
a broader sense of meaning?
Why is it that people with terminal illnesses so often
have a much healthier perspective on life, even though
they're faced with the imminent threat of losing their
lives?
Do you want to wait until you're about to die or until
you narrowly escape death before you ask yourself some of
the important questions about life?
When you do something for someone else, what kind of
expectations do you have of how that other person should
react to your help?
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thought:
Everybody can
be great. . . because anybody can serve.
You don't have to have a
college degree to serve. . . .
You only need a heart full of grace.
A soul generated by love.
Martin Luther
King, Jr.
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