Quote of the day:
“Life is a gift, and it offers us the privilege, opportunity, and responsibility to give something back and in so doing we become more.” – Anthony Robbins Think about it: I read this story by Amy Carroll on line the other day and wanted to share it with you as so often I find it hard to give and I need renewed inspiration to do so. I hope this story will inspire you as it did me. My friend Rita told me a story that was just what I needed. Her mother, an immigrant who grew up in desperate poverty, was very committed to a relief project for her home country. She would collect gently used shoes and ship them to an organization in her homeland that needed help. Rita’s mother did this for years, during which her own eight children observed their mother’s work and generosity. Surprisingly, Rita was frustrated with her mother instead of admiring her work. One day, in exasperation, she said to her mother, “Why do you continue to work on this project? You know how corrupt the system is over there. Those shoes are probably stolen, resold and used to line the pockets of some corrupt official. You are just wasting your time.” Her mother looked at Rita compassionately and responded, “Rita, my responsibility is not in the receiving. My responsibility is in the giving.” Wow! How true. It’s easy to find reasons not to give. Like being too busy, disgusted by one too many scams, believing nobody cares about giving to you in your time of need, thinking that somehow, somebody else will take care of it and the list goes on. But the wisdom Rita’s mom shared softened my heart. If you’re full of excuses like I was, the best way to renew your commitment to helping others is to start giving. Join me in the refreshing act of giving.
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Quote of the day: "The first step in receiving is giving.” – Catherine Ponder Think about it: There is a Chinese legend that nicely illustrates the necessity to give before you may expect to receive: On a certain street in a Chinese city there was a poor beggar who held out his cup all (lay begging for rice or whatever the passers-by chose to give him. One day the beggar saw a great parade coming down his street headed by the Emperor riding in his stately rickshaw and freely handing out gifts to his subjects. The poor beggar was filled with delight. "Now," thought Woo, "my great opportunity has come. For once I shall receive a worthy gift," and he (lanced with joy. When the Emperor reached him, Woo held out his cup with great earnestness, but instead of the expected gift from the Emperor his Majesty asked Woo for a gift. Poor Woo was greatly disappointed and vexed, so he reached in his cup and with much grtirnbling handed the Emperor two of the smallest grains of' rice he could find. The Emperor passed on. All that day Woo fumed and grumbled. He denounced the Emperor, he berated Buddha, he was cross to those who spoke to him and few people even stopped to speak to him or drop grains of rice in his cup. That night when Woo reached his poor hut and poured out his scant supply of rice, he found in his cup two nuggets of gold just the size of the grains of rice he had given to the Emperor. You have to give to get. There is nothing permanent except change.—Heraclitus
Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything. —George Bernard Shaw If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.—Maya Angelou You must be the change you wish to see in the world. –Mahatma Gandhi Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.—John F. Kennedy When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.—Viktor E. Frankl If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change. —Wayne Dyer It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.—C. S. Lewis The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance. –Alan Watts For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.—Steve Jobs God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. —Reinhold Quote of the day:
“Know the value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it." --Lord Chesterfield Think about it: The last wishes of Alexander the Great on his death bed were: 1. The best doctors should carry his coffin. 2. The wealth he has accumulated (money, gold, precious stones) should be scattered along the procession to the cemetery. 3. His hands should be let loose, so they hang outside the coffin for all to see! One of his generals who was surprised by these unusual requests asked Alexander to explain. Here is what Alexander the Great had to say: “I want the best doctors to carry my coffin to demonstrate that in the face of death, even the best doctors in the world have no power to heal. "I want the road to be covered with my treasure so that everybody sees that material wealth acquired on earth, will stay on earth. “I want my hands to swing in the wind, so that people understand that we come to this world empty handed and we leave this world empty handed after the most precious treasure of all is exhausted, and that is time.” We do not take to our grave any material wealth. Time is our most precious treasure because it is limited. We can produce more wealth, but we cannot produce more time. Treasure it. Quote of the day:
"Some people are always grumbling because roses have thorns; I am thankful that thorns have roses.” -- Alphonse Karr Think about it: A writer says: "A cold firebrand and a burning lamp started out one day to see what they could find. The firebrand came back and wrote in its journal, that the whole world was very dark. It did not find a place wherever it went, in which there was light. Everywhere was darkness. The lamp when it came back wrote in its journal: 'Wherever I went—it was light. I did not find any darkness in all my journey. The whole world was light. The lamp carried light with it, and when it went abroad it illuminated everything. The dead firebrand carried no light, and it found none where it went." Just so, men and women go through the world, and, returning, write records of observation just as diverse as these. Some find only gloom—in the fairest paths; and amid the lovely scenes—nothing beautiful. Others find nothing but beauty and brightness, even in the deepest valleys of earth. Each one finds—just what he takes out in himself. The colors he sees—are the tints of his own inner life. This is true in our commonest life. How many of us find all the good there is in our lot? Do we extract the honey from every flower that blooms in our path? Do we find all the gold that lies in the hard rocks over which our feet stumble? Do not many good things pass through our hands and slip away from us forever, before we even recognize their loveliness or their worth? Do not angels come to us unaware in homely disguise, walk with us, talk with us, minister to us, and then only become known to us—when their place is empty and they have spread their radiant wings in flight which we have no power ever to recall? “Life is relationships; the rest is just details.” —Gary Smalley
“Give whatever you are doing and whoever you are with the gift of your attention.” — Jim Rohn “Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.” — Carl Jung “Be loyal to those who are not present. In doing so, we build the trust of those who are present.” — Stephen Covey “A lot of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus when the limo breaks down.” — Oprah Winfrey “Don't find fault, find a remedy.”—Henry Ford “When you must shoot an arrow of truth, dip its point in honey.” —George Mapir “It seems rather incongruous that in a society of super sophisticated communication, we often suffer from a shortage of listeners.” —Erma Bombeck “I remind myself every morning: Nothing I say this day will teach me anything. So if I'm going to learn, I must do it by listening.” —Larry King “If you make it plain you like people, it's hard for them to resist liking you back.” —Lois McMaster Bujold “Let us labor to make the heart grow larger as we become older, as the spreading oak gives more shelter.” —John Richard Jefferies “To connect with people, be yourself, at your best.” — John C. Maxwell Quote of the day:
“He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.”--Edmund Burke Think about it: Ever hear of a tumbling barrel? It’s an industrial device for smoothing newly made pieces of metal. It is a cask or drum equipped to revolve at a predetermined speed. Into it are put steel castings or manufactured metal pieces. An abrasive such as powdered alumina or carborundum is also put into the barrel, or maybe sand, rubber pellets, or steel balls, depending on the character and hardness of the metal parts. The tumbling barrel is then rotated. With each revolution the metal pieces are carried partway up the side of the drum; then they fall free and drop back down. As they tumble and spill against each other and are rubbed by the abrasive, the burrs disappear and the rough edges are smoothed. They are then in shape to function properly. We come into the world with burrs and edges characteristic of raw newness. But as we go along, we tumble against each other and also rub against hardships and difficulties. This affects us much as the abrasives in tumbling barrels affect new pieces of metal. Such friction and attrition make for a rounding and maturing of personalities. Next time you feel tumbled about remember the tumbling barrel and all the good that is coming out from it. Quote of the day:
“The finest gift you can give anyone is encouragement. Yet, almost no one gets the encouragement they need to grow to their full potential. If everyone received the encouragement they need to grow, the genius in most everyone would blossom and the world would produce abundance beyond our wildest dreams.”—Sidney Madwed Think about it: I read this story in the Activated magazine by Florence Littauer that was very thought provoking. The week before my father died, when I was a senior in college, he took me aside and showed me a box of clippings of newspaper and magazine articles he had written and hidden away. When I asked in surprise why he hadn't shown me these before, he replied, "Your mother discouraged me from writing because I don't have a college education, so I've done it in secret and she doesn't know." Mother had not meant to be a discourager, but she had stated what seemed an obvious fact to her: If you're not educated, you shouldn't write. My father had not let this attitude depress him, but he had "hidden his light under a bushel." He told me he had written an article for the Advance magazine but it had not been published. "I guess I reached for something a little too big this time," he shared. How touched I was that he had told me about his interest in writing and the article he had submitted to the Advance magazine! Within days my father dropped dead in a Boston subway station, and on the day of the funeral the new issue of Advance arrived--with his article published in it. Had he not confided in me, I would never have opened that issue. I have the framed article with my father's picture hanging in my study, and each time I glance at it I wonder what that man might have become as a writer if only someone had believed in him.--Florence Littauer We live in a discouraging world full of people who put us down. What bright lights we can be when we say the simple words, "I have confidence in you!" “Good friendships are fragile things and require as much care as any other fragile and precious thing.”—Randolph S. Bourne
“A friend can tell you things you don't want to tell yourself.” —Frances Ward Weller “If you go looking for a friend, you're going to find they're very scarce. If you go out to be a friend, you'll find them everywhere.” — Zig Ziglar “Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light.” — Helen Keller “Real friendship is shown in times of trouble; prosperity is full of friends."—Euripedes “If you do not let your heart grow hard, if you prove your friendliness toward your fellow people, they will answer you with affection. They will send you friendly thoughts. The more people you can help, the more positive thoughts you will receive. That people act kindly toward you is worth more than wealth.” —Henry Old Coyote “When you choose your friends, don't be short-changed by choosing personality over character.”—W. Somerset Maugham Quote of the day:
"You don’t have the power to make life “fair,” but you do have the power to make life joyful.”-- E. Pratwi Think about it: Beethoven wrote the famous 9th symphony when he was completely deaf by transferring the music he heard in his heart to written musical notes. Consider these opening lines of the chorale of the 9th symphony written by a deaf man: Oh friends, not these tones! Rather let us sing more cheerful and more joyful ones. Joy! Joy! Joy, thou glorious spark of heaven. Helen Keller, who became a famous lecturer despite being deaf and blind, said, “Your success and happiness lies in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties.” If these to handicapped people were able to accomplish so much so can you. Don’t let your weakness discourage you but use them to your advantage. |
AuthorThe goal of the blog is to provide interesting, motivational, soul feeding material. All to help remind us that God loves us all and wants a personal relationship with each of us and will take care of us in times of trouble. I aspire to be a force for good by providing you with positive input. I encourage you to share the blog with others. Archives
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