12 December 2023
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Should
you shield the canyons from the windstorms,
you would never see the beauty of their carvings.
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
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The
ark was built by amateurs and the Titanic
by experts. Don't wait for experts.
Murray
Cohen
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Success
has nothing to do with what you gain in life
or accomplish for yourself. It's what you do for others.
Danny
Thomas
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Life
is a great and wondrous mystery, and the only thing we
know that we have for sure is what is right here and
now. Don't miss it.
Leo
Buscaglia
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Creating
and Living Your Ideal Legacy
Steve Brunkhorst
A
legacy is more than a gift that lives on after
you. Certainly, a legacy is a contribution to
humanity. A legacy provides value to future
generations. However, if you are creating your
ideal legacy, it will also make your heart bubble
with passion and excitement today!
Louisa
May Alcott wrote:
"When
Emerson's library was burning at Concord, I went
to him as he stood with the firelight on his
strong, sweet face, and endeavored to express my
sympathy for the loss of his most valued
possessions, but he answered cheerily, 'Never
mind, Louisa, see what a beautiful blaze they
make! We will enjoy that now.' The lesson was one
never forgotten and in the varied lessons that
have come to me I have learned to look for
something beautiful and bright."
Emerson
left future generations with a philosophy of
creativity, spiritual development, and
individualism. He saw value and quality in
each moment of life. His writings continue to
share the message that people have the mental and
spiritual capacities to achieve their dreams.
He lived a philosophy that continues to benefit
humanity.
The
building blocks of your legacy are the ideas and
philosophies that you live and value.
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Your
contributions will provide something beautiful and
bright to cherish during this lifetime. They
will increase your sense of aliveness and fill you
with the energy of a unique purpose for which you
were born. They make up the quality of your
life now.
How
can you begin creating and living your ideal legacy
today?
1.
Decide What You Value the Most
Write
down all the things that you value, and select at
least five core values: those things that
provide the foundation for your actions, beliefs,
and philosophies. Examples of values are love,
health, spirituality, family, career, adventure,
peace, and community.
2.
Draw a Time Line of Your Life
Draw
a long line and mark it by years and months
beginning with your birthday. Extend it for
decades after your life will have ended.
Include all the things you have done and things you
want to do. Include the benefits future
generations will experience from your
contributions. Show how your life's work will
actually continue after you. Your timeline is
a very eye opening exercise. Spend adequate
time with it and fill in as many details as
possible. Then return from time to time to
update your timeline and add extra details.
3.
Write a Purpose Statement
Notice
the themes running through your timeline. They
can help to reveal your purpose if you are not
already aware of it. A purpose statement is a
simple, private statement that guides your daily
actions. For example, you might write, "I
help others to live happy and healthy lives" or
"I create art that brings spiritual
awareness." Do not confuse a purpose
statement with a mission statement, which is a more
specific way you might fulfill your purpose.
4.
Focus on Today
Your
timeline presented a large picture. What is
your focus just for today? Spend sufficient
time focusing on your current steps as well as on
the future. How are your actions in each
moment supporting your values and contributing to
your purpose? If you are on purpose, you will
feel authentically happy and fulfilled.
5.
Move Forward with Gratitude
Live
your ideal legacy by taking positive steps each day
toward your vision for a better world. Savor
the small treasures in your relationships with
people. Live with gratitude for each
contribution you have received and created.
Give thanks even for the setbacks that ultimately
reveal clearer paths forward.
Evangelist
Billy Graham said, "The legacy we leave is not
just in our possessions, but in the quality of our
lives." What legacy does the quality of
your life reveal today? Envision your ideal
legacy. See your role in creating a richer
humanity. The legacy you share and live today
can create a better world for future generations.
* * * *
©
Copyright by Steve Brunkhorst.
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Giving and
Receiving
An excerpt
Shakti Gawain
Our abilities
to give and receive are at the core of our capacity to create and
experience true prosperity.
We each
receive certain gifts when we come into this life. These gifts
take the form of our special talents, interests, and attributes, as
well as our universal human characteristics, such as our ability to
love and care for one another.
When we do
our best to live our truth and express ourselves as authentically as
possible, sharing ourselves as we are genuinely moved to, we
naturally give our gifts to others and to the world.
In return, we
may receive acknowledgement, appreciation, validation, nurturing,
love, and in certain circumstances, money or other material
rewards. Receiving in these ways allows us to replenish the
life force we have "spent," which in turn enables us to
continue giving.
So receiving
and giving are opposite energies that are inextricably linked
together in the natural flow of life, like inhaling and
exhaling. If one aspect of that cycle doesn't function, the
entire cycle ceases to function and the life force cannot move
freely. If you can't inhale, you will soon have nothing to
exhale, and before long, your body will be unable to continue
living.
This might
seem fairly simple and obvious, yet we have enormous confusion in
this area. Many of us have difficulty with giving, receiving,
or both.
In my
observation, the more common problem is the inability to truly
receive. There are a number of reasons why receiving is
difficult for so many of us. Certainly, one factor is cultural
conditioning. Giving is generally viewed as honorable and
praiseworthy. Receiving, or taking, seems perilously close to
selfishness, which has a lot of negative connotations for most of
us.
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Life Fully, the e-zine
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Whatever
noble aims we may have, paths we may be on, or necessary efforts
we may make, our only real freedom is to awaken now, this very
instant, to
the mystery and miracle of being, to the spacious awareness that we
are.
It is only this immediate awakening to the deepest levels of
ourselves, to the
conscious source that connects us all, that will enable us to
experience and
manifest real harmony, intelligence, kindness, love, and compassion
in our
lives and bring about the transformation in the world that we all
wish for.
Dennis
Lewis
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Little Gifts
As the season for gift-giving comes upon us once
more, we start to think a lot about gifts, those
we're going to give, and those we're going to
get. As we grow older, hopefully, we focus
more on the former than the latter, though that
isn't always the case. In the eyes of many
people, gifts follow a simple rule: the bigger
the better. Speaking realistically, though,
that rule is far from valid. In my life, I've
found that the most important gifts that I've given
and received have been the small ones that have
special meaning.
When I sit at my desk and work, I always have
around me plenty of small gifts that I've received
from friends and students. They do a great job
of reminding me of people who have been a very
important part of my life, and because they're
small, they can go with me anywhere and I can keep
plenty of them. The memories of the people and
the times I spent with them are much more important
to me than the objects themselves, but the objects
have the ability to refresh my memory of pleasant
times at just a quick glance.
Even as I write, I see a small inch-high globe
that a former student gave me at her graduation, and
I remember how good she felt on that day. I
see a small dream catcher made out of colored pipe
cleaners, and I remember the day at camp when one of
the campers gave it to me as a gift. There's
also a small glass fish that my wife bought me when
she was in the Bahamas, and I know how good it felt
to know that someone was thinking about me when she
was in such a lovely place.
The small gifts are the ones that keep me going,
the ones that give me a great feeling inside.
They're the ones that let me know that someone tried
to consider what I liked, and what would be most
appropriate for me.
The same goes for when I give gifts--I try to
find the small ones that are special to someone, the
ones that show that I've considered who they are and
what they would like. From time to time I've
bought the large gifts, but as time goes on I see
that they don't have nearly the effect that the
smaller ones do.
When we think about what kinds of gifts we're
going to give this season, we always can choose to
go for the gifts that are more special rather than
the gifts that are more expensive or just plain
big. The most special gifts have nothing to do
with money or size; rather, they reflect the fact
that we've been thinking seriously about the
recipient and what they would truly want to
receive. I would much rather get a small,
cheap gift that shows that someone was thinking
about me than a large expensive gift that's meant to
impress me somehow.
Many people ruin their enjoyment of receiving
gifts by allowing their expectations to blur their
vision, not allowing themselves to see just how
great a gift is because it might not be what they
wanted, or it might not be big enough or special
enough. During this holiday season, we have
choices to make on what types of gifts to give to
others, and finding the very special ones is a great
way to make the holidays special. Likewise, we
have choices to make as to how we react to gifts
given to us by others, and we can make our holidays
much brighter by recognizing how special gifts are.
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We will discover the true nature of
our particular genius when we stop trying to conform
to our own or to other people's models, learn to be
ourselves, and allow our natural channels to open.
Shakti Gawain
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The
True Measure of Greatness
Randall S. Weeks
A
young student once asked his old teacher,
"Teacher, what is the true measure of
greatness?" The teacher looked far away
into the mountains and gave the following reply:
Some
measure greatness in height and weight, but great
people are never so tall as when they stoop to talk
to a child or bend their knees to help a hurting
friend.
Some
measure greatness in physical strength, but great
people are never so strong as when they shoulder the
burden of the downtrodden stranger.
Some
measure greatness in terms of financial gain, but
those who show generosity to their family and
friends, they are the ones who are truly rich.
Some
measure greatness in applause and accolades, but
those who seek opportunity to serve in the quiet
places of the world, theirs is the higher reward.
Some
measure greatness in commitment to achieving in
material ways, but those who spur others on to reach
their goals is great indeed.
Great
people have vision and do not keep the truth to
themselves.
Great
people have passion for life and are not ashamed to
show it.
Great
people expect the best from others and give the best
of themselves.
Great
people know how to work and how to play, how to
laugh and how to cry, how to give and how to
receive, how to love and how to be loved.
There
are many people who are by the world called
"great," but those who bear honor in their
hearts, who can, in the evening hours, lie upon
their beds and peacefully close their eyes, knowing
that they have done all that is within their power
to live their lives fully and fruitfully, those are
truly great people.
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When
you accept that you are not in charge of everything, you can
begin to work with the one who really is in charge.
This has been
my experience; when I accepted that I was not in charge and
started
to work with someone else's plan, the Boss showed up.
Now we
are a team and I have less to be concerned about. He
organizes my
schedule. I just follow it, and when He is taking a
day off my wife steps in.
Bernie
Siegel
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