|
3 March
2009 |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
| |
| Happiness
cannot come from without. It must come from
within. It is not what we see and touch or that
which others do for us which makes us happy; it is that
which we think and feel and do, first for the other fellow
and then for ourselves.
Helen
Keller |
|
Your
life is made up of many different facets. Don't focus
on one aspect of your life so much that you can't experience
pleasure if that one area is unsettled. It can become
all you think about, and it can deaden your enjoyment of
everything else--things you would otherwise love.
David
Niven |
|
It is this way that
we must train ourselves:
by liberation of the self through love.
We will develop love,
we will practice it,
we will make it both a way and a basis,
take a stand upon it,
store it up,
and thoroughly set it going. The
Buddha |
|
| |
Eyes Wide Open
tom walsh
Remember Me
Sometimes I run across songs that I've had in my music
collection for years, but that I just haven't listened to
closely enough to like them or dislike them. Usually
they're on an album with other songs that I really like,
so I tend to focus on the already-known songs and not the
ones with which I'm not familiar. It's not all that
big of a deal, but I do know that I've missed out on a lot
of treasures this way.
Recently I was listening to Diana Ross' greatest hits
when I heard the song "Remember Me," and I knew
immediately that I had discovered a new treasure. I
had heard the song before, probably many, many times, but
the lyrics had never entered into my mind before.
This time, they stuck with me.
Remember me as a sunny day
That you once had along the way
Didn't I inspire you a little higher
Remember me as a funny clown
That made you laugh when you were down
Remember me as a big balloon
At a carnival that ended too soon
Remember me as a breath of spring
Remember me as a good thing
Hearing those words got me thinking immediately about
how I want to be remembered. I love the image of
being remembered as a "big balloon," and I
pictured myself saying those words to people whom I know
and love. The question that came to mind was pretty
obvious: Would I be justified in telling people to
remember me that way? After all, if they see me as
rude and obnoxious (and I hope not!), then what are the
chances that they're going to see me as a "breath of
spring"?
And those thoughts led to others: How do I have
to act each day in order to get people to remember me this
way? What do I have to do? How do I have to
treat people?
I'm not a very funny person, usually, so for me to act
in ways that would get people to remember me as a clown
that made them laugh would be unrealistic. But I am
a compassionate person, so perhaps I should focus on
acting in ways that would allow me to ask people to
"Remember me as a caring soul."
Remember me when you drink the wine
Of sweet success and I gave you my best
Remember me with every song you sing
Remember me as a good thing
Remember me as a sunny day
Please darling, remember me as a good thing
Remember me when you drink the wine
Remember me as a good thing
Remember me as a big balloon
We all will be remembered. We won't be on
people's minds twenty-four hours a day every day, but
things will happen in people's lives that will suddenly
remind them of us, and they'll think back to times they
spent with us. Do we want them to think, "Boy,
I'm glad he doesn't work here any more!" or do we
want them to think more pleasant thoughts?
Personally,
I see this song as a huge part of how I want to spend my
life here on this planet. I can't tell someone I
work with to "remember me as a sunny day" if all
I do at work is act gloomy or angry all the time. I
can't ask my stepchildren to remember me as a fair and
loving person if I'm arbitrary and judgmental. I
can't say to my wife, "Remember me as a breath of
spring" if I always carried around with me the cold
and darkness of a mid-winter ice storm.
Whenever
I'm with people, I have decisions to make about how I act
and things I say and do. The results of those
decisions are going to determine how people remember me
later on today, tomorrow, and five years from now. I
have patterns of behavior, and people will remember me
based on those patterns. Even if I have a down day,
people will remember me as a bright part of their lives if
I carry brightness with me most of the time.
I may die
this afternoon, I may die tomorrow, or I may die fifty
years from now--it's not for me to say. But when I
go, I'll be leaving people behind, and I'll be leaving
with them the only legacy that really matters when it
comes to my life--the memories of who I was and what I
contributed to their lives. My loved ones aren't
gardens--they don't need me to rain on their
parades. They will thrive and open up much more if
I'm able to give them the positive side of who I am, the
friendship and encouragement and love that they have the
right to expect from me. How will they remember
me? That's up to me--right here, and right
now. Hopefully, they'll remember me as a good thing.
(Song
lyrics by Nicholas Ashford and Valerie Simpson)
|
|
| |
|
| |
|
|
|
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. |
|
| |
Wholeness
(an excerpt)
Rachel Naomi Remen
When
I first met Jeanne, her psychology practice was barely
above water. She shared offices with a group of
physicians, and, desperate to be accepted and work under
what she perceived as the umbrella of their credibility,
she took whatever crumbs fell from their professional
table. Hers was the smallest office in the complex
and hers the only name not listed on the office
door. It was obvious from the first how dedicated
and gifted a therapist she was, and this compromising
attitude troubled me. But Jeanne felt validated by
the association and certain that she needed referrals from
these physicians in order to have patients. She
would stay there two more years.
Jeanne
was a shy person, a little apologetic and sometimes
hesitant in finding the right words. She was also
just the slightest bit clumsy. All this made her
very endearing. You felt somehow at home with her
and safe. Her patients adored her.
One
day at lunch, she told me that she was moving from her
present office. Pleased, I asked her why she had
decided to leave. "They do not have wheelchair
access," she said. I looked at her in
surprise. She looked away. "Rachel,"
she said, "I have not told you everything about
myself. Years ago when I was young, I had a very
serious stroke. I was not expected to
recover." I was astonished. "I had
no idea," I said. She nodded. "I
know," she replied. "Nobody does."
I
had noticed her occasional troubles with words and her
awkwardness. But even with my training, I had not
guessed Jeanne was a miracle. I could barely imagine
the focus and determination she had drawn upon all these
years, that she drew upon still, to live her life every
day. "But why have you kept this a secret,
Jeanne?" I asked, astounded.
Almost
in tears, she said that for years she had felt damaged and
ashamed. "I wanted to put it behind me,"
she said. "I thought if I could be seen as
normal I would be more than I was." And so she
had guarded her secret closely. Neither her
colleagues nor her parents knew. She had felt
certain that others would not refer to her or want to come
to her for care if they knew. She was no longer sure
this was true.
"And
what do you plan to do now?" I asked her. She
looked down at her hands clasped in her lap. "I
think I will just be myself," she told me.
"I will see people like myself. People who are
not like others. People who have had strokes and
other brain injuries. People who can never be normal
again. I think I can help them be whole.
Over
the past five years, Jeanne has become widely known for
her work. She has been honored by several community
groups and interviewed in the newspapers. She speaks
often and consults for businesses and hospitals. The
many people she has helped refer others to her. For
the first time, her practice is full. Her own name
is on her door. All that she needed in order to
serve was the courage of her vulnerability.
|
|
Remen
uses the heart-rending stories of her patients to
teach readers how to follow in her example, that
is, combining a life of service with a life of
receiving and giving blessings (a combination that
avoids common problems such as burnout,
self-sacrifice, and navel gazing). Remen also
includes personal stories of her grandfather, who
showered the world with his mystical beliefs and
wizened blessings. |
|
|
| |
| From
the porch one observes the simple rhythms of daily
life: the neighbor setting out the garbage in the
early morning, the woman from the next street who
regularly walks her little dog just after suppertime, the
school-age boys exercising prowess in bicycling, the
elderly widow receiving a rare visit from an in-law, the
business-like drivers of passing cars whose faces mirror
their intent to get where they are going.
On
the porch one hears the sounds that surround us--the
worried chirping of jays hovering over a nest, the cries
of a waking baby across the street, the approaching bell
of the ice cream man's truck, distant sirens from the
city, the neighborhood dogs whose resonant barks carry
airborne canine conversations well over the barrier of
fenced-in yards.
Seated
upon the porch one finds it unnecessary to comment upon or
analyze what one sees and hears. It is enough that
it is. Being is not something to be taken for
granted or overlooked but something to be breathed in and
celebrated with sweet contentment and a grateful heart.
Wendy
Wright
Many
people do not know that they can strengthen or diminish
the life around them.
The way we live day to day simply may not
reflect back to us our power to influence life or the web of
relationships
that connects us.
Life responds to us anyway.
We all have the power
to affect others.
We may affect those we know and those we do not even
know at all. . . . Without our knowing, we may influence
the lives of others in very simple ways.
Rachel Naomi Remen |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
| |
There's
a Lot More Left in the Tube
Jeff Keller
When I shave each morning, I use shaving cream that comes
out of a small "travel size" aerosol can.
The can is only about 3 inches high. I'd been using
that little can for several weeks when I realized the can
was getting very light. I immediately thought,
"Can't be much more left in here."
I was just about to throw it in the wastebasket when I
figured I could eke out another shave or two.
Much to my amazement, the shaving cream kept coming out
day after day after day. I ended up getting 19 more
shaves from that little dispenser! And to think that
I was just about to throw the can away.
I'm sure you've experienced the same thing with a tube of
toothpaste or shampoo. It looks like the tube is
just about empty, but you keep folding the tube and
squeezing - and you get days or weeks of extra use from
the supposedly empty tube.
There's a lesson here for all of us. We work toward
a goal and sometimes get frustrating results for a long
time. Things aren't working out as we had
anticipated. We think there's not much left in "our
tube" and we give some thought to quitting. The
reality is that we have a lot more left in the tube, if
we'll only continue to believe in ourselves and keep
moving forward.
In fact, our biggest breakthroughs often occur when we
think there's nothing left in our tube. You see,
there's a polarity to life, and when you experience
setbacks and disappointments, these are often balanced by
significant achievements. Yet most people quit
before the "turnaround" happens.
Napoleon Hill, one of the most insightful success writers
of all time described this phenomenon in his classic
self-help book, Think & Grow Rich. In the early
1900s, Hill spent decades interviewing more than 500 of
the most successful people in the United States - people
like Thomas Edison, Henry Ford and Andrew Carnegie.
Hill reported that hundreds of these successful
individuals told him that their greatest success came just
one step after they suffered their greatest defeat.
Harriet Beecher Stowe put the principle this way:
"When you get into a tight place and everything goes
against you until it seems that you cannot hold on for a
minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the
place and time that the tide will turn."
About 10 years ago, Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen
began pitching their book to various publishers. The
first 30 rejected their book. They could have thrown
in the towel then, believing the tube was empty.
Then they got the 31st rejection... and then the 32nd
rejection. Was the tube empty? They didn't
think so. On the 34th attempt, they finally got a
publisher to say "yes" to their book.
That book was Chicken Soup for the Soul, and it
spawned a series of books that has now sold over 80
million copies! Sometimes we have to fight our own
doubts as to whether we can keep going in the face of
setbacks. At other times, we have to ignore the
beliefs of others who tell us that there's nothing left in
our tube and that we have to give up on our dreams.
Take the example of George Foreman - businessman,
broadcaster and former heavyweight boxing champion.
As he approached the age of 40, George decided he would
come out of retirement and regain the heavyweight
championship. Most people thought he had nothing
left in the tube; certainly not enough to win the
championship again at his "advanced" age.
They said he was too old, out of shape and
"rusty" after being away from boxing for so
long. But George never listened to the nay-sayers
and on Nov. 5, 1994 at the age of 45, George Foreman
knocked out Michael Moorer to re-capture the heavyweight
title. In the end, it didn't matter that others
doubted George because he never doubted himself. He
knew he had plenty left in the tube.
Some of you may be wondering whether there's ever a time
to "cut your losses" and stop pursuing your
goal. I think the answer to that is "yes,"
but it's usually when you come to the point where you lack
enthusiasm to achieve that goal, or if you find you no
longer have the commitment to do what it might take to
accomplish it. Without enthusiasm and commitment,
there really is very little left in your tube.
However, if you're still excited about reaching a goal
that may seem off in the distance, it might be time to
reexamine your strategy and see if any adjustments are
called for. After all, there's no point in
continuing to take steps that have proven ineffective.
Once you believe you have a viable strategy, and you're
willing to expend the energy and effort to do what it
takes to accomplish your goal, don't give up. It's
just a matter of time until you'll get a "second
wind."
If you've played sports or exercised, you've experienced
the "second wind." You're exerting
yourself for a while and you think you can't go on any
longer. Then, you suddenly feel a new burst of
energy as you catch your second wind. You're
re-energized!
William James said "most people never run far enough
on their first wind to find out they've got a
second." Don't let that happen to you.
What a shame to give up when you can still reach your
fondest dreams.
So, when you think the tube is just about empty, take
heart and realize that now is not the time to call it
quits. Success may be just over the horizon. |
|
| |
|
 
|
The frantic pace of
our daily lives can take a serious toll on even the most calm and
collected person. Who has time to worry about happiness, health,
and peace of mind, when you have a million little urgencies to
take care of each day?
Now there is a way to get off life’s treadmill for good, without
sacrificing your career, financial status, or activities.
In his exciting program, Creating Miracles Every Day: How to Turn
Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Experiences, best-selling
author Richard Carlson shows you how to bridge the gap between
what you think you want and what will make you happy.
If you’re ready to transform negative attitudes, trust your
intuition, and live each day as if it were your last, then
Creating Miracles Every Day is the program you’ve been waiting
for!
Play an excerpt
now!
If you'd like to find out
more about the program, click on the image. |
|
| |
| Oren
Lyons was the first Onandagan to enter college. When
he returned to his reservation for his first vacation, his
uncle proposed a fishing trip on a lake. Once he had
his nephew in the middle of the lake where he wanted him,
he began to interrogate him. "Well, Oren,"
he said, "you've been to college; you must be pretty
smart now from all they've been teaching you. Let me
ask you a question. Who are you?"
Taken
aback by the question, Oren fumbled for an answer.
"What do you mean, who am I? Why, I'm your
nephew, of course." His uncle rejected his
answer and repeated his question. Successively, the
nephew ventured that he was Oren Lyons, an Onandagan, a
human being, a man, a young man, all to no avail.
When
his uncle had reduced him to silence and he asked to be
informed as to who he was, his uncle said, "Do you
see that bluff over there? Oren, you are that
bluff. And that giant pine on the other shore?
Oren, you are that pine. And this water that
supports our boat? You are this water."
Huston
Smith |
|
| |
|
| |
|
Some
Important "Don't's"
Imagine
life as a game in which you are juggling five balls in the air.
You name them Work, Family, Health, Friends and Spirit, and you
are keeping all of them in the air. You will soon understand
that Work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce
back. But the other four balls--Family, Health, Friends and
Spirit--are made of glass. If you drop one of these, they
will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged or even
shattered. They will never be the same. You must understand that
and strive for balance in your life.
How?
1. Don't
undermine your worth by comparing yourself with others. It is
because we are different that each of us is special.
2. Don't
set your goals by what others deem important. Only you know what
is best for you.
3. Don't
take for granted the things closest to your heart. Cling to them
as you would your life, for without them, life is meaningless.
4. Don't
let your life slip through your fingers by living in the past or
for the future. By living your life one day at a time, you live
all the days of your life.
5. Don't
give up when you still have something to give. Nothing is really
over until the moment you stop trying.
6. Don't be
afraid to admit that you are less than perfect. It is the fragile
thread that binds us each together.
7.
Don't be afraid to encounter risks. It is by taking chances that
we learn how to be brave.
8.
Don't shut love out of your life by saying it's impossible to
find. The quickest way to receive love is to give; the fastest way
to lose love is to hold it too tightly; and the best way to keep
love is to give it wings.
9.
Don't run through life so fast that you forget not only where
you've been, but also where you are going.
10.
Don't forget that a person' s greatest emotional need is to feel
appreciated.
11.
Don't be afraid to learn. Knowledge is weightless, a treasure you
can always carry easily.
12.
Don't use time or words carelessly. Neither can be retrieved.
Life
is not a race, but a journey to be savoured each step of the way.
Author
Unknown |
|
| |
|
|
|
Letting
go can feel so unnatural. We work hard for a promotion,
a relationship, a new car, a vacation. Then the universe
has the gall to come along and mess up our plans. How dare
it!
And so, rather than opening ourselves to the experiences the await
us,
we hold on to the plans that we made for ourselves. Or we
hold on
to bitterness about our plans gone awry. Sometimes losing
our
dreams and plans for our future can hurt as much as losing a
tangible thing. Sometimes accepting and releasing our broken
dreams
is part of accepting a loss.
Let go of your expectations. The universe will do what it
will. Sometimes
your dreams will come true. Sometimes they won't.
Sometimes when
you let go of a broken dream, another one gently takes its place.
Be aware of what is, not what you
would like to be, taking place.
Melody
Beattie |
| |
 |
® |
|
|
|
All contents © 2009 Living Life Fully®, all rights
reserved.
Please feel free to re-use material from this site other than
copyrighted articles--
contact each author for permission to use those. If you use
material, it would be
greatly appreciated if you would provide credit and a link back to
the original
source, and let us know where the material is published.
Thank you. |
|
| |
|
HOME - contents
- Full Life Online
abundance - acceptance
- achievement
- action
- adversity
- aging - anticipation
- appreciation - attitude
- authenticity
awareness
- balance - beauty
- being yourself - beliefs
- body - character
- children
- Christianity
- coincidence
commitment - common
sense - community - compassion
- compliments - compromise
- confidence - conscience
contentment
- courage - creativity
-
death
- determination
- earth - ego - encouragement
- enthusiasm - eternity
faith
- family
- flowers - forgiveness
- freedom - friendship
- fun - gardening - gentleness
- giving
- God - goodness
grace - gratitude
-growing up - happiness
- healing - helpfulness
- home - hope
- humility - imagination
integrity - joy
- kindness - laughter
- learning - letting
go - life
- listening - love
- marriage - miracles
- mystery
nature
- now - open-mindedness
- opportunity
- optimism - patience
- peace - perseverance
- perspective
play - prayer - principle
- purpose - religion
- rest - role models
- sadness
- self - self-respect
- serving others - silence
simplicity - spirit - success
- time - today
- truth - values - war
- wisdom
- wonder - work
- worship
spring - summer
- fall - winter - Christmas
- Thanksgiving - New
Year - zen sayings
obstacles to living
life fully - e-zine archives
- quotations
contents |
| |
|
please take good
care of yourself this week. . . . |
|
