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September 4, 2007
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I
didn't belong as a kid, and that always bothered me.
If only I'd known that one day my differentness would be
an asset, then my early life would have been much easier.
Bette
Midler |
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| Who
will tell whether one happy moment of love, or the joy of
breathing or walking on a bright morning and smelling the
fresh air, is not worth all the suffering and effort that
life implies?
Eric
Fromm |
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Anyone
can forge a little link of brotherhood, or at least
understanding. Some day perhaps every boy and girl
will have become at home in a foreign country, and there
could be no more useful step towards the abolition of war.
Havelock Ellis |
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I'd
Pick More Daisies
Don Herold (from 1953)
Of
course, you can't unfry an egg, but there is no law
against thinking about it.
If
I had my life to live over, I would try to make more
mistakes. I would relax. I would be sillier
than I have been this trip. I know of very few
things that I would take seriously. I would be less
hygienic. I would go more places. I would
climb more mountains and swim more rivers. I would
eat more ice cream and less bran.
I
would have more actual troubles and fewer imaginary
troubles.
You
see, I have been one of those fellows who live prudently
and sanely, hour after hour, day after day. Oh, I
have had my moments. But if I had it to do over
again, I would have more of them - a lot more. I
never go anywhere without a thermometer, a gargle, a
raincoat and a parachute. If I had it to do over, I
would travel lighter.
It
may be too late to unteach an old dog old tricks, but
perhaps a word from the unwise may be of benefit to a
coming generation. I may help them to fall into some
of the pitfalls I have avoided.
If
I had my life to live over, I would pay less attention to
people who teach tension. In a world of
specialization we naturally have a superabundance of
individuals who cry at us to be serious about their
individual specialty.
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They tell us we must
learn Latin or History; otherwise we will be disgraced and
ruined and flunked and failed. After a dozen or so
of these protagonists have worked on a young mind, they
are apt to leave it in hard knots for life. I wish
they had sold me Latin and History as a lark.
I
would seek out more teachers who inspire relaxation and
fun. I had a few of them, fortunately, and I figure
it was they who kept me from going entirely to the
dogs. From them I learned how to gather what few
scraggly daisies I have gathered along life's cindery
pathway.
If
I had my life to live over, I would start barefooted a
little earlier in the spring and stay that way a little
later in the fall. I would play hooky more. I
would shoot more paper wads at my teachers. I would
have more dogs. I would keep later hours. I'd
have more sweethearts.
I
would fish more. I would go to more circuses.
I would go to more dances. I would ride on more
merry-go-rounds. I would be carefree as long as I
could, or at least until I got some care - instead of
having my cares in advance.
More
errors are made solemnly than in fun. The rubs of
family life come in moments of intense seriousness rather
than in moments of light-heartedness. If nations -
to magnify my point - declared international carnivals
instead of international war, how much better that would
be!
G.
K. Chesterton once said, "A characteristic of the
great saints is their power of levity. Angels can
fly because they can take themselves lightly. One
'settles down' into a sort of selfish seriousness; but one
has to rise to a gay self-forgetfulness. A man falls
into a 'brown study'; he reaches up at a blue sky."
In
a world in which practically everybody else seems to be
consecrated to the gravity of the situation, I would rise
to glorify the levity of the situation. For I agree
with Will Durant that "gaiety is wiser than
wisdom."
I
doubt, however, that I'll do much damage with my
creed. The opposition is too strong.
There are too many serious people trying to get everybody
else to be too darned serious.
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Eyes
Wide Open
tom walsh
Living
from My Heart
What does
it mean to live from my heart? I often ask myself if
I am living a true, authentic life that comes from my
heart, or if I might be living my life more based on what
I believe other people expect from me or what I think are
the expectations that I need to fulfill in order to
"get by" in life. It's not an easy
question to answer, no matter how much I'd like to tell
myself that I'm living truly and honestly.
I haven't
come up with criteria yet that will tell me one hundred
percent of the time that my actions are on the right
track, that I'm not doing something merely because it's
convenient or because it's the easiest road to travel or
because it helps me to avoid conflict or
problems. Perhaps I'm harder on myself than I
need to be, but I think it's important to acknowledge the
doubts when they're here.
You see,
there are many more factors involved in my life than I
would care to count. For example, even though I have
some very strong ethical dilemmas involving the school
where I work, I continue to work there, mostly for
financial reasons. I do have a family that I need to
continue to support, and the loss of the income would be
pretty drastic for all of us. So I continue to go to
work each day in spite of the ethical problems that I
have, and I tell myself that I still can do a good job for
the students I work with in spite of the way things are.
According
to most of the literature that I read, though, I'm making
a mistake if I continue to work at a job that doesn't make
me happy, even if providing for my family does give me a
strong sense of satisfaction and knowing that my
step-children are well provided for is more important to
me than my own personal or professional satisfaction. |
There's
also another factor involved: if I continue to
search for other work and nothing comes up, then does that
mean that I'm meant to continue at my current job? I
tend to think it does, for I know that no matter how I
feel about working there, I know that I'm learning some
very important things about life and living by
staying. I also know that I'm able to provide a
positive influence for the students with whom I work, and
that much of what I do for them and with them is important
to them.
If I had
my heart's desire, I would no longer be there. But
is that what's best for me? We have to let life give
us its input and respect it, even if we don't understand
it completely.
Or is
this just rationalization for not having the courage, or
for not trusting life or God enough to leave my job?
What
happens if living from our hearts affects other people far
too strongly for us to be able to do so completely?
Can we just disregard the effects on others in order to
live genuinely and authentically? There are those
who argue not only that we can, but that we should, for
the negative feelings that I have about work, for example,
can negatively affect my family just as much as a shortage
of money can.
For my
part, though, as long as I continue to pursue every option
available to me and meet with no success, I feel that I
can see life's or God's hand in the picture, and that for
reasons that I can't comprehend right now, I'm right where
I'm meant to be, learning lessons that I need to learn.
In this
way, even though I may not be living from my heart by
having the "perfect" job for me, I'm accepting
the gift of the job that I do have (when many people would
be grateful to have a similar one), and I'm doing all I
can to learn and experience what I need where I'm
at. And I can be sure that as long as I'm at peace
concerning my motives and the outcomes of staying at the
job I'm at, I truly am living from my heart and not making
decisions based on fear or rationalizations or any other
factors.
Why can't
life be simpler? I don't know, but my hunch is that
if it were, we wouldn't get nearly as much from it. . . .
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One
of Life's Great Lessons--
Learn to be Thankful for What You Already Have
Jim Rohn
Is thankfulness a survival skill? Perhaps most of you
would respond with, "No, Jim, thankfulness is not key
to survival", and I would tend to agree with
you. Most of us have probably already solved the
necessary problems of survival, gone beyond that and are
now working to achieve our desires. But let me give
you this key phrase, "Learn to be thankful for what
you already have, while you pursue all that you
want." I believe one of the greatest and
perhaps one of the simplest lessons in life we can learn
is to be thankful for what we have already received and
accomplished.
Both the years and the experiences have brought me here to
where I stand today, but it is the thankfulness that
opened the windows of opportunities, of blessings, of
unique experiences to flow my way. My gratitude
starts with my parents who raised me, gave me an
incredible foundation that has lasted me all of these
years and continues with the mentors that I've met along
the way who absolutely changed and revolutionized my life,
my income, my bank account, my future. I am also
very thankful for the people, the associations, for the
ideas, for the chance to work and labor, and to produce
results, all of that has brought me to this place, to this
weekend. I'm grateful for it all.
What a unique opportunity each one of you here has, so
many of us; representing different countries, nations and
cultures, to appreciate the uniqueness of our own
experiences that has brought us all here, together on this
planet, to learn new skills and sharpen old ones.
For the countries we represent; we have freedom and
liberty. These are extraordinary times: about
eleven years ago the walls came tumbling down, in Germany,
and it started a wave of democracy and freedom like the
world has never seen before. We as a country and as
a world have so much to be thankful for. Always
start with thanksgiving; be thankful for what you already
have and see the miracles that come from this one simple
act.
Now thankfulness is just the beginning; next, you've got
to challenge yourself to produce. Produce more ideas
than you need for yourself so you can share and give your
ideas away. That is called fruitfulness and
abundance. Here's what I think fruitfulness and
abundance mean - to go to work on producing more than you
need for yourself so you can begin blessing others,
blessing your nation and blessing your enterprise.
Once abundance starts to come, once someone becomes
incredibly productive, it's amazing what the numbers turn
out to be. But to begin this incredible process of
blessing, it often starts with the act of thanksgiving and
gratitude, being thankful for what you already have and
for what you've already done. Begin the act of
thanksgiving today and watch the miracles flow your way.
To Your Success,
Jim Rohn
Reproduced
with permission from the Jim Rohn Weekly E-zine. Subscribe at: www.jimrohn.com or send an email with Join
in the subject to: mailto:subscribe@jimrohn.com
All contents Copyright (c) Jim Rohn International
except where indicated otherwise. All rights reserved
worldwide. |
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Is it wholly fantastic to admit
the
possibility that Nature
herself strove toward
what we
call beauty? Face to face with
any one of the elaborate
flowers
which the human's cultivation
has had nothing to do
with,
it does
not seem fantastic to me. We put survival
first. But when we have
a margin of safety left over,
we
expend it in the search for
the beautiful. Who can say
that
Nature does not do the same?
Joseph Wood Krutch |
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Be
a Positive Thinker
Pamela Owens Renfro
Remember.
. . there is a deeper strength
and an amazing abundance of peace
available to you.
Draw from this well;
call on your faith to uphold you.
You will make it through this time
and find joy in life again.
Life
continues around us,
even when our troubles seem to stop time.
There is good in life every day.
Take a few minutes to distract yourself
from your concerns--
long enough to draw strength from a tree
or to find pleasure in a bird's song.
Return a
smile;
realize that life is a series of levels,
cycles of ups and downs--
some easy, some challenging.
Through it all, we learn;
we grow strong in faith;
we mature in understanding.
The difficult times are often
the best teachers, and there is
good to be found in all situations.
Reach for the good.
Be strong, and don't give up.
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The
glory is not in never failing,
but in rising every time you fail.
Chinese proverb
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Alone
in his car heading west, it's easy for Jason to feel sorry
for himself and mad at the world. But then he gives
a ride to Hector and learns life isn't as negative as we
sometimes see it. The friendship between this young
man and his 70-year-old passenger is an inspiring story of
love and of dealing with obstacles in life. It's a
story that you'll treasure long after you've finished
reading. Three
Cavaliers, Tom Walsh's second published novel, is now available in book form! Click
on the image to the left to order! |
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Finish every day and be
done with it. You have done what you could.
Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them
as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and
serenely
and with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense.
This day is all that is good and fair. It is too dear,
with its hopes and invitations, to waste a moment on yesterdays.
Ralph Waldo Emerson |
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