|
1 April
2008 |
|
|
| |
|
Face
your deficiencies and acknowledge them;
but do not let them master you. Let them teach
you patience, sweetness, insight. When we do the
best we can, we never know what miracle is
wrought in our life, or in the life of another.
Helen
Keller
|
|
| |
| The
soul is a breath of living spirit, that with excellent
sensitivity, permeates the entire body to give it
life. Just so, the breath of the air makes the earth
fruitful. Thus the air is the soul of the earth,
moistening it, greening it.
Hildegard
of Bingen |
|
| |
|
It
doesn't take monumental feats to make the world a better
place.
It can be as simple as letting someone go ahead of
you in a grocery store.
Barbara
Johnson
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
Seagull
Elsa
Joy Bailey
It
was a day like most others, except that the mist had a
tender feel to it. You know the kind of mist I
mean: you turn your face and there's a slight brush
of silk against your skin.
I
wanted a ferry ride, and to get that you go down to the
Embarcadero in San Francisco, where well-scrubbed red and
white ferries carry passengers slowly back and forth
between the city of cities and a string of picturesque
little towns across the Bay.
On
a ferry ride you can go to a quiet deck and meditate, if
you want to, with the sun splashing warm all over you and
the bay tossing wet spray on your face. There's no
way to describe how magnificent that feels unless you've
gone on a ferry ride yourself. I hope you've done
it.
So
I found my deck and settled there, and for a while just
watched the seagulls stabbing after food bits and having
fun being aloft. Seagulls are always aloftier than
thou, and they know it. Watching the sleekness of
their split-second dives and leaps, I don't blame them for
bragging a little.
Then
I closed my eyes and yes, there was that reassuring warm
pulse from the sun, and the spray, which was jumping with
life and willing to include me in. And the hum from
the motor: the ferry's heartbeat informing passengers that
things were fine and we would arrive intact. It
didn't seem like an actual boatride at that point:
it felt more like a dream that had edged its way into real
life.
|
|
|
Resting
there, I thought about something I had done earlier in the
week which I now wished I hadn't. It was a minor
offense, but it had left a sharp sting in the base of my
neck; that's how I knew I shouldn't have done it.
So
this is what it was: I had been thoughtless to
someone I don't like very well. This person came up
and requested a certain file while I was focused hard on
another project. My response was - and there is no
other way to say this - abrupt and rude. And I
wasn't rude because of the interruption, I was rude
because I don't like the person very well, and the
interruption gave me an excuse to express it.
Shortly
afterwards I saw what I had done, got up and took the file
over to the person and apologized for my earlier
response. All was well.
All
was well, except that I was left with noticing how easily
I can still be small. That is a very, very
uncomfortable feeling. Here I am, walking on the
path, closing my eyes each morning to allow in some Light
from not-here, and yet here was an opportunity to be
slighting and I took it without batting an eye.
You
may say: but that is such a small thing. No
harm done. And you are right, except we all know it
is the small inelegancies which breed our larger
ones. And so it is the tiny mistakes that need
noticing, as well as the large ones.
So
there I was on the deck, looking at how small I had been
in that one moment. I don't mean I was calling
myself a bad person; I mean I was looking at how small I
had been in that one moment.
Meanwhile,
despite this earlier mis-step, the sun was still pouring
itself over me in great unbroken waves of affection.
That's the sun for you: unconditional heat.
Even
the bench I sat on was warm and alive. The spray
kept saying hello, hello, hello, on my nose and cheeks;
not once did it say goodbye.
At
one point I sensed a presence quite near to me. I
opened my eyes slowly into the brilliant light and there
was a lone seagull, settled close to my feet, about to
lunch on a stray piece of bread that had fallen down from
the deck above.
I
looked at the seagull, and it looked right back at me for
at least one full minute. I can't actually swear to
this, but in the last second, before the seagull shot back
into the blue sea above us, I think it winked.
And
I knew I had been forgiven.
Visit
Elsa at her tremendous "Spiritual Growth"
website: "This
is a chapel without walls. Our purpose is to offer daily
spiritual inspiration & healing to all who stop
by. This teaching is non-sectarian and
interfaith. We believe that you are a holy &
loving being, and that your greatest task in life is to
discover your own sacred self, and your own sacred
purpose." Just
click here to drop by!
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
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. |
|
| |
|
|
| |
Success
is Easy, but So is Neglect
Jim Rohn
People
often ask me how I became successful in that six-year
period of time while many of the people I knew did
not. The answer is simple: The things I found
to be easy to do, they found to be easy not to do. I
found it easy to set the goals that could change my
life. They found it easy not to. I found it
easy to read the books that could affect my thinking and
my ideas. They found that easy not to. I found
it easy to attend the classes and the seminars, and to get
around other successful people. They said it
probably really wouldn't matter.
If
I had to sum it up, I would say what I found to be easy to
do, they found to be easy not to do. Six years
later, I'm a millionaire and they are all still blaming
the economy, the government, and company policies, yet
they neglected to do the basic, easy things.
In fact, the primary reason most people are not doing as
well as they could and should, can be summed up in a
single word: neglect.
It is not the lack of money - banks are full of
money. It is not the lack of opportunity - America,
and much of the free World, continues to offer the most
unprecedented and abundant opportunities in the last six
thousand years of recorded history. It is not the
lack of books – libraries are full of books - and they
are free! It is not the schools - the classrooms are
full of good teachers. We have plenty of ministers,
leaders, counselors and advisors.
Everything we would ever need to become rich and powerful
and sophisticated is within our reach. The major
reason that so few take advantage of all that we have is
simply neglect.
Neglect is like an infection. Left unchecked it will
spread throughout our entire system of disciplines and
eventually lead to a complete breakdown of a potentially
joy-filled and prosperous human life.
Not doing the things we know we should do causes us to
feel guilty and guilt leads to an erosion of
self-confidence. As our self-confidence diminishes,
so does the level of our activity. And as our
activity diminishes, our results inevitably decline.
And as our results suffer, our attitude begins to
weaken. And as our attitude begins the slow shift
from positive to negative, our self-confidence diminishes
even more. . . and on and on it goes.
So my suggestion is that when giving the choice of
"easy to" and "easy not to" that you
do not neglect to do the simple, basic, "easy";
but potentially life-changing activities and disciplines.
To Your Success,
Jim Rohn
Reproduced
with permission from the Jim Rohn Weekly E-zine
|
|
| |
|
|
|
We've
been looking for a way to recommend many of the books
and movies that inspire us to live our lives more fully, and
Amazon
finally has provided it. Check out our new bookstore,
which is full
of inspirational and motivational material. We'd also
appreciate any
suggestions you might have of what to stock it with--please
visit
our feedback page
to make recommendations! |
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
Free
Wallpaper! Just click
below on
the size your desktop
is formatted to,
right-click
on the picture that appears
in the new window, and choose
"Set as background."
1024
x 768 - 1280 x 800 |
|
| |
Eyes
Wide Open
tom walsh
Abundance
or Poverty?
It's very
easy in life to develop a poverty perspective. It's
quite simple to listen to the perspectives of people who
try their best to convince us that we're the victims of
circumstance, and that we need to scrimp and save all the
time in order just to get by. These days, now that
we're living at the beginning of what looks to be a severe
recession to come, it can be even easier to fall into a
poverty mindset, a way of thinking that keeps us focused
on lack as opposed to abundance, on want as opposed to
fulfillment of that want.
There are
times, of course, when it's important for us to
"watch" our spending, to save money when we know
that hard times may be ahead. But just how many of
our hard times actually are created by the ways we think
about what we have and don't have? Just how much of
our poverty is created by our refusal to spend our money
because we're afraid that we won't have enough?
In my
life I think that's happened quite a lot. I used to
try to save money at every turn, only to find out that in
saving a few pennies, I was costing myself many
dollars. One time in particular stands out in my
mind. I needed a bike so that I didn't have to drive
to class, and I was sure that the best thing I could do
was get a used one. So I looked in the papers and on
bulletin boards and wherever else I could, and I finally
found a bike for forty dollars, rather than the
ninety-dollar bike, which was the cheapest new one I could
find at the time.
While I
was looking over the bike, I had my doubts. But what
kept running through my mind? Money. I ended
up making the decision to buy the used bike based on the
thought that I couldn't afford to buy a new one, and that
was a move that I ended up regretting. Within days I
realized that this bike that I had bought was going to
need new brakes, a new seat, new tires, and possibly a new
shifting mechanism. I found out that this bike was
going to end up costing me more than a new bike would
have, and it came without a warranty, without any sort of
guarantee. It came with all used parts, many of
which were in need of replacement, while the new bike of
course would have come with all new parts which wouldn't
have needed to be replaced for quite a while, depending on
how I treated it.
I came to
the deal with a poverty mindset. I didn't have
enough money, so I went for the cheapest thing I could
find. I didn't trust that life and God would provide
for me, and I didn't trust that I would have enough money
in my life even if I had paid the price for the new
bike. Ironically enough, when I realized what I had
gotten myself into, I bought the new bike anyway and gave
away the used one that I had bought, rather than having to
pay the money for repairs and still end up with an older
bike that had been repaired rather than a new bike.
I go
through this struggle now on a much smaller basis with
English muffins. Those of you who eat English
muffins probably have realized that over the years, the
quality of this particular bread product has gone down
significantly. They're much thinner now as companies
try to use less dough to save themselves money. They
don't taste as good, and it's harder to find
consistency. But I have found a brand that is still
incredible, and I buy them regularly--even though they
cost over $3 per package. Ouch!
There's
still the voice inside of me that tells me that I
shouldn't buy them, that I should buy the cheaper
brands--even the cheapest brand--because that's far too
much money for something like English muffins. After
all, three dollars a week becomes over $150 per year, just
for English muffins!
But the
abundance side of me tells me differently. Would the
savings compensate for having to eat muffins that I know
aren't very good each morning? No. Would I be
happier eating good English muffins each day, or eating
worse ones, but knowing that I've saved twenty
cents? That seems to be an obvious answer to me.
But the
main question is this: Whom am I supporting?
If I buy those of lesser quality, then aren't I rewarding
a company for putting out a product of lower quality, even
if it is at a lower price? And if I buy the more
expensive ones, aren't I supporting the company that still
insists on making a high-quality product, even if they
have to charge more?
Sometimes
my wife and I go across the street to a cafe for coffee
and pastry, even though we could have the same things at
home for much less money. But we know that the place
is family-owned, and they need to have customers in order
to support themselves. And our money isn't just for
us--it's something that we can use to help others by
supporting their businesses. With a poverty mindset,
though, I never saw that. I never realized that what
goes around, comes around, and that by withholding my
money from the community around me, I was actually kind of
hurting other people. People in our communities
deserve our support, and one of the most important ways
that we can support them is to help them to earn the money
they need to support themselves and their families.
An
abundance mindset says simply: Life will support
me. God will support me. I do need to take the
steps to support myself, of course, but when I take a risk
or take an important financial step, I can trust that
things will turn out fine. And it's that trust that
allows us to use our money in positive ways, thus being
part of the financial cycles upon which the well-being of
our communities and even our world is based. |
|
| |
|
Mission
statements represent your belief system—the priorities,
values and principles
that measure your decisions. It
provides
overall direction and clarifies your purpose
and
meaning. When you clearly know what
you want to be and to
do in your life, you feel strong in your sense of mission.
You’re no
longer driven by everything that happens to
you. Rather, you feel a deep and complete commitment to
following your innermost values.
Dawn
Angier |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
I
have learned from experience that the greater part
of our happiness or misery depends on our
dispositions and not on our circumstances.
Martha
Washington
|
| |
| Never
Forget
Your
presence is a present to the world.
You're unique and one of a kind.
Your life can be what you want it to be.
Take the days just one at a time.
Count your blessings, not your troubles.
You'll make it through, whatever comes along.
Within you are so many answers.
Understand, have courage, be strong.
Don't put limits on yourself.
So many dreams are waiting to be realized.
Decisions are too important to leave to chance.
Reach for your peak, your goal and your prize.
Nothing wastes more energy than worrying.
The longer one carries a problem the heavier it gets.
Don't take things too seriously.
Live a life of serenity, not a life of regrets.
Remember that a little love goes a long way.
Remember that a lot of love goes forever.
Remember that friendship is a wise investment.
Life's treasures, are people . . . together.
Realize that it's never too late.
Do ordinary things in an extraordinary way.
Have health, hope and happiness.
Take the time to wish upon a star.
And don't ever forget . . .
For even a day . . .
How very special you are.
-- Author Unknown
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
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! |
|
An excerpt:
But then he noticed Hector’s bag still on the
floor. He sat
up and put his seat back in its upright position.
He looked out the windows and he spied Hector
sitting on a picnic table, his feet on the bench and his
elbows on his thighs, his hands together with the fingers
intertwined as he stared off into the distance.
Behind the rest area was a large field of grass
that easily could have reached to Jason’s chest if he
were to walk in it, and behind that started a forest.
Hector stared in that direction, and Jason imagined
him at that moment a dreamer, a poet searching for
inspiration or searching for words that would make his
inspiration a reality, something tangible.
He
got slowly out of the car, knowing that his legs would be
worse now than they had been.
He had to go to the bathroom, but he wanted to
check in with Hector first.
He took his first few steps very slowly to get his
walking legs back, and then he went over to the picnic
table where Hector sat.
He sat down, too, not saying a word, and looked out
at the grass and the forest.
“Hello,
amigo mío,” Hector said quietly.
“You have slept?”
“I
have slept,” Jason replied.
“I slept pretty well, too,” he fibbed, not
wanting Hector to worry that he might be too sleepy to
drive.
“That
is good,” Hector said, not removing his gaze from the
scene before him.
“What
are you looking at?” Jason asked after a few long
moments.
Hector
shrugged. “I
do not know,” he said.
“I am not looking so much as I am thinking.
I never have seen this particular field before, or
that forest behind it.
I am wondering what kind of life there is right
before me that I cannot even see.
In that grass must live many snakes, insects,
birds, perhaps even foxes and mice and other animals.
In the forest beyond, how many different creatures
are living their lives right at this moment, with no idea
at all that I am sitting here watching the edges of their
world? And
they do not care that I watch.
It does not matter to them because it does not
affect them. Why
are we trained to see only the surfaces of things and
people without regard for the life that is deeper than the
surface? When
we learn to live life that way, we lose the opportunity to
see and feel the very essence of life, the very depths of
life that we only can guess at because we do not see
it.”
“Maybe
it’s too scary for us,” Jason said.
“Maybe if we were able to see the depths, we’d
lose our minds. Go
insane.”
Hector
turned to him slowly and regarded him very curiously.
“That is a very wise thing that you say,” he
told Jason. “I
am very impressed with your insight.”
“Thanks,”
Jason said awkwardly, not sure if Hector was being serious
or was joking with him.
“You
are welcome,” Hector replied, turning back around and
returning his gaze to the scene before him.
“The question is, though:
What is so wrong with losing our minds?
Just what are we trying to preserve by not losing
them?”
Jason
laughed. “That’s
a good question. Sometimes
I wonder. Sometimes
the people that other people call ‘flakes’ seem to be
much happier than the ones we all call ‘normal.’
I think sometimes it’s good to be weird.”
“Personally, I would not be any other way,”
Hector said. “I
want to be weird always, for only in weirdness can we find
the normal. We
all are trained to see the world in certain ways, and that
keeps us from seeing the world as it really is.
And we create these carefully controlled façades
for ourselves that become so normal that it makes me sick
sometimes to see them.
In order to become ‘normal,’ people have
sacrificed their sense of play, their ability to have fun,
their willingness to try different things and to take
risks. It is
so very sad.”
|
|
| |
|
Whatever
my individual desires were to be free, I was not alone.
There were many others who felt the same way.
Rosa
Parks
|
| |
|
