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November 10, 2009
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Good
day, and welcome to the newest issue of our e-zine! We're
thrilled
to be sharing this planet with you on this new day in our lives,
and we hope
that there's something here in this issue that you enjoy reading,
and that you
find relevant and helpful to you in your life. |
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If we fight
against the waves
that pass
over us in life, we are
overpowered. If we move with
the waves in life
as they roll
over us, the wave passes on.
Pesikta Zurtarti |
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We
need to find the courage to say NO to the things and people
that are not serving us if we want to rediscover ourselves
and live our lives with authenticity.
Barbara
De Angelis |
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Your
beliefs are your reality. If you don't like
the reality you see, change your beliefs!
Stephen C.
Paul |
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From In the
Heart of the World
Mother Teresa
One day an
Australian man came and made a substantial donation. But
as he did this he said, "This is something external.
Now I want to give something of myself." He now comes
regularly to the house of the dying to shave the sick men and to
converse with them. This man gives not only his money but
also his time. He could have spent it on himself, but what
he wants is to give of himself.
I often ask for
gifts that have nothing to do with money. There are so
many other things one can give. What I desire is the
presence of the donor, for him to touch those to whom he gives,
to smile at them, for him to pay attention to them. All of
this is very meaningful for those people.
I urge people
to join our work, for our profit and for the profit of
everyone. I never ask them for money or any material
things. I ask them to bring their love, to offer the
sacrifice of their hands. When these people run across
those in need, their first move is to do something. When
they come the second time, they already feel committed.
After some time they feel they belong to the poor and they are
filled with the need to love. They discover who they are
and what it is that they themselves can give.
I think that a
person who is attached to riches, who lives with the worry of
riches, is actually very poor. If this person puts his
money at the service of others, then he is rich, very rich.
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The
other day, two friends of mine came to see me.
They brought me a large amount of money to use for
feeding the poor. I asked them, "Where
did you get all this money?"
They
answered, "We were married two days ago, but
before that we had decided not to have a large
wedding banquet. As a witness of our love for
each other, we wanted to bring this money to Mother
Teresa."
This
is the greatness of young people! They are so
generous! I asked them further, "Why did
you do this?"
They
answered, "We love each other so much, and we
wanted to share our love with other people,
especially with those you are serving."
For
some time now, we have had a small community of
sisters in Guatemala. We came there during the
earthquake of 1972 that caused so much damage.
The
sisters in Guatemala came to love and serve, as they
do everywhere. They told me something
beautiful about a very poor man who was picked up
from the city streets and brought to one of our
homes. He was very sick, disabled, hungry, and
helpless. But somehow, with the help he
received, he got well again.
He
told the sisters, "I want to go and leave this
bed for somebody else who may need it as much as I
needed it when I came here."
Now
he has a job. I don't think he earns much, but
he is working. Every time he gets a little
money, he remembers the other disabled people who
are in the home and comes to see them.
He
always brings something for them. Even with
the little he has, he always brings something.
This
is the great gift of our poor people: the love
they have.
In
Calcutta, we cook for nine thousand people very
day. One day a sister came and said,
"Mother, there's nothing to eat, nothing to
give the people." I had no answer.
And then by nine o'clock that morning a truck full
of bread came to our house. The government
gives a slice of bread and milk each day to the poor
children at school. But that day - no one in
the city knew why - all the schools were closed
suddenly. And all the bread came to Mother
Teresa.
See,
God closed the schools. He would not let our
people go without food. And this was the first
time in their lives, I think, that these people had
had such good bread and so much of it. This
way you can see the tenderness of God.
Some
young people who ran away from home have gotten sick
with AIDS. We have opened a home in New York
for AIDS patients, who find themselves among the
most unwanted people of today.
What
a tremendous change has been brought about in their
lives just because of a few sisters who take care of
them, and have made a home for them!
A
home of love!
A
gift of love!
A
place, perhaps the only place, where they feel
loved, where they are somebody to someone.
This has changed their lives in such a way that they
die a most beautiful death. Not one of them
has yet died in distress.
The
other day, a sister called to tell me that one of
the young men was dying. But, strange to say,
he couldn’t die. He was struggling with
death.
So
she asked him, "What is it? What is
wrong?"
And
he said, "Sister, I cannot die until I ask my
father to forgive me."
So
the sister found out where the father was, and she
called him. And something extraordinary
happened, like a living page from the Gospel:
The father came and embraced his son and cried,
"My son! My beloved son!"
And
the son begged his father, "Forgive me!"
Two
hours later the young man died.
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Divided
into three sections--Thoughts,
Prayer, and Stories--this
powerful collection
speaks to the principles
of selflessness, forgiveness, compassion, and
spiritual
strength that have guided
this diminutive heroine along
the steep and rocky paths
she has chosen to pursue. |
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Living
Life Fully, the e-zine
exists to try to provide for visitors of the world wide web a
place
of growth, peace, inspiration, and encouragement. Our
articles
are presented as thoughts of the authors--by no means do
we
mean to present them as ways that anyone has to live
life. Take
from them what you will, and disagree with
whatever you disagree
with--just know that they'll be here for you
each week. |
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In
Short Supply of Kindness
Judy Mae Bingman
The
broadcaster read the story with a smirk in his
voice. A child was found unharmed after the car she
was riding in was stolen. The story unfolded.
In the winter morning hours, a mother had left her car
running while she went into an all-night convenience
store. Her car was stolen, with the child inside.
The
broadcaster didn’t hide his disgust.
“What
mother,” he editorialized, “would leave her child in
an unlocked running car at two in the morning?”
Obviously,
this broadcaster has never been a single mother.
I can think of any number of reasons that young mother
would find herself in that situation.
Perhaps
she worked the evening shift, had just picked up her child
at the sitter’s and needed milk for a morning bottle.
Perhaps
the child was sick, and, alone, the mother had to take the
child with her to the drugstore for fever-reducing
medicine.
Perhaps
the woman was traveling late at night and stopped at the
store for a cup of coffee to help her stay alert, choosing
to leave the child in the warmth of the car instead of
waking her in the frigid air.
Yes,
I can understand what type of mother she was because I
have been that type of mother.
I’ve taken my children home asleep late at night after
working, and I’ve found myself alone with a sick child
and no medicine, and I’ve been the one sleepy and
exhausted at night traveling a dark road.
I
can understand this mother.
What
I can’t understand is how someone else could so easily
find fault in another’s life they knew nothing about.
Some
people are so quick to judge. In court, judges must
draw opinion merely on the “evidence at hand,” but in
real life, sometimes the “evidence” isn’t so
obvious. Sometimes, you have to get to know the
person before the reasons for their actions become clear.
But
getting to know someone takes time, and most people
don’t take the time. It’s just easier to
judge. Judging keeps us emotionally detached from
caring about (and thus helping) others.
It
is easier to say “she shouldn’t have” than to learn
the circumstances which led to this young mother’s
actions.
I
suppose some folks judge my actions. Someone else
judges theirs. But does it help either of us?
It
is a kind soul who can look at another’s actions not
with disgust and criticism, but with trust that they made
the best choice they could at that single moment in their
life.
I
fear, though, we are in short
supply of kind souls.
Judy
Mae is one-third of the creative force behind
likemylife.com--drop by and give her a visit for more
thoughtful and inspirational material! |
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Eyes
Wide Open
tom walsh
Showing
Caring
I know many people who care deeply for other people, but
who rarely or never share those feelings with the people
for who they care. Heck, I'm guilty of that myself,
to be honest. There are people in my life for whom I
care for a great deal, but who never hear that fact from
me--the person from whom they should hear it, of course.
Just
what is it that keeps me from letting these people know
that I care for them?
The
answer is simple: it doesn't matter what keeps me
from doing so.
What
matters is that I recognize the fact and do something
about it. It's like a lot of things in life--we can
spend hours and hours analyzing why certain things happen
or don't happen, but unless we actually do something about
it, all that analysis is simply a waste of time. We
might be able to rationalize ways to make ourselves feel
better about situations, but that rationalization doesn't
change anything, does it?
With
something like this, the only thing that can turn around a
problem is action. The only thing that I can do to
change the fact that I haven't told or showed a person
that I care deeply for him or her is to tell that person
or show him or her that I care.
It's
amazing how simple it can be to say to someone, "I
really value your friendship," or "I'm really
glad that I know you and that you're a part of my
life. It doesn't cost anything to say something like
that, and as long as we do so with no preconceived notions
of what the response should be, it's not even very risky,
either.
The
only things that are necessary to make such a statement or
demonstration are sincerity and honesty. If these
two elements are part of what I say, then I can't help but
do the right thing.
Some
people will say that giving a gift is a poor substitute
for heartfelt words, but I have to say that I
disagree. While I don't believe that buying
something for someone is always a sincere way of showing
affection or appreciation, I do know that sometimes,
getting just the right gift for a certain person can give
the absolutely unmistakable message that I care,
especially if the gift is unexpected or something that the
person has wanted or needed for a very long time.
When
I met my wife, for example, her ex-husband was refusing to
pay any child support at all, and she was working several
jobs to make ends meet--barely. After we got to know
each other well, some others and I pitched in and bought
her and her kids a whole bunch of groceries. The
gift to her was a beautiful one, and she never considered
it to be anything but a sincere gesture of caring from
people who did care for her. In that situation, the
gift was not only telling her that people cared about her,
but it was also a practical gesture that relieved her of a
lot of stress in her life, as she didn't need to worry
about how she was going to feed her kids for the next few
weeks.
Sometimes
when I'm in a store, I see a little something that I know
someone else would love. Often, I'll buy that little
thing and give it to the person, just because. That
person then knows that I care enough to know what they
like, and to take the time to purchase something special
for them. At times, a two- or three-dollar purchase
has been a wonderful way to tell someone I care.
Everyone
we know would love to know that they're cared for and
appreciated, and there's no reason at all why we shouldn't
tell them that we care from them. Saying that we're
afraid they'll misunderstand is simply bowing to
fear. Having a preconceived notion of how they
should respond is putting an unfair and potentially
damaging burden on them.
So
if you care deeply about people, what are you waiting
for? Tell them! Since we can't ever trust
tomorrow to come, today is the only day during which we
can act, and there's no moment like this moment.
Brighten someone's day by telling them that you care for
them, and brighten your own day by doing something that
you know you should be doing! |
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Many people live as if life were a dress
rehearsal for some later date.
It isn't. In fact, no one has a guarantee that he or she
will be here
tomorrow. Now is the only time we have, and the only
time that we
have any control over. When our attention is in the
present moment,
we push fear from our minds. . . . Practice keeping your
attention
on the here and now. Your efforts will pay great
dividends.
Richard
Carlson |
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When I think of giving as an art. . . I pour more of
myself into giving. I tune in to
ways I can support others and give meaningful gifts that will delight
the receiver.
Divine ideas come to mind as I shift my focus away from
"things" to the art of true
giving. As I write a letter to a friend with whom I've lost
contact or give an
encouraging smile to a struggling stranger, I know that just what is
needed is
mine to give. I am inspired to give more as new creative
expressions of giving
come to mind. Knowing that the circle of giving is also
receiving,
I am grateful for all that I give and all that I receive.
unattributed, The Daily Word |
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