“Blessed are those who can give without remembering and receive without forgetting.” – Elizabeth Bibesco
“Give what you have; to someone it may be better than you dare think.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow “A minister once prayed, “Lord, we can’t hold much, but we can overflow lots!” – Author unknown “From what we get, we can make a living; what we give, however, makes a life.” – Arthur Ashe “As the purse is emptied, the heart is filled." – Victor Hugo “All the best things in life are shared.” – Author unknown “Giving is the greatest of all pleasures.” – Author unknown “You do not have to be rich to be generous. If he has the spirit of true generosity, a pauper can give like a prince.” – Corrine U. Wells “Life is like a tennis game; you can’t win without serving." – Author unknown “A man’s bank account doesn’t indicate whether he is rich or poor. It is the heart that makes a man rich. A man is rich according to what he is, not according to what he has.” — Henry Ward Beecher
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Quote of the day:
"Guard well within yourself that treasure, kindness. Know how to give without hesitation, how to lose without regret, how to acquire without meanness.” -- George Sand Amantine Think about it: I read this web reprint by Patty Kuzen and it really spoke to me. I hope it does the same for you. “I live on the beautiful island of Kauai, Hawaii. I moved here 33 years ago, attracted by the genuine, kind, loving, giving-for-the-sake-of giving type of mindset that embraces the aloha* spirit. (*The word “aloha” is commonly used to mean love, and is also used to express compassion, regret, or sympathy.) “Unfortunately, over the years, a different mindset has been creeping in—especially when it comes to business. Any time a person has to say, ‘Don’t take it personally; it’s just business’ or has to rationalize anything they have said or done, there is an element of ‘wrong’ involved. Common decency never has to be explained. Acts of kindness never need excuses. “Life can throw us some bad pitches and deal us some crummy hands, and sometimes the ‘right thing’ may seem more hidden than at other times, but it is always there. When we hold the right kind of values, ultimately we always know what that right thing is. “If only we would all start paying more attention to our consciences, even when it may not be quite as profitable, everyone would benefit, and the aloha spirit would become as front-and-center again as it was when I moved here 33 years ago.” I agree with her. No matter where you live it is better to follow this advice rather than having “it is just business mentality. By Joyce Suttin (adapted from Motivated Magazine)
It sure was a long time coming! For months, we had suffered from detours and delays. Traffic was often backed up so badly along the construction site that I began avoiding the area altogether when possible. Sometimes the congestion was so bad that I wished they had never attempted to “improve” the roads in the area. Then after having endured lane closures, work zones, and long, long delays for what felt like forever, I found myself this morning coasting along on a beautiful new stretch of smooth tarmac. I was so excited. Isn’t life like that? We get used to our regular routes and ruts. Even though they’re a little problematic, they’re also comfortably familiar. We swerve around the potholes and think nothing of it. Then we get annoyed with somebody who isn’t familiar with our well-worn route and doesn’t know how to navigate it. Finally, we see the big machines and yellow cones and realize it’s time for a change, and that improvement—perhaps long overdue—is about to happen. Just like the Department of Transportation’s road improvements, change in our lives doesn’t just happen overnight. Whether it’s time for a widening, a little resurfacing, or an entirely new stretch, it takes a lot of courage to follow the road to someplace new. Often, the preparation seems like it will last forever. Then the day finally comes and you’re really on your way. A few twists and turns and you just seem to sail along to the place you’re meant to be. Gone are the ruts, the bumps and holes, the delays! It may take a little time to get used to the new road, but it is so worthwhile. As we approach the start of any new project—or even if we’re not there yet, but we’re still at the stage of considering our options—it is good to think about new roads. Is it time to do something new? Do those delays that test our patience so much mean something really smooth is just about ready to roll out? Let’s face the future with excitement and anticipation. Rather than lament the old roads, or bemoan the hassle the changes are bringing, let’s fix our focus on what’s ahead. Life has ups and downs, stops and starts, but eventually we’ll find ourselves once again happily sailing along on the open road of life. "Thanksgiving Day comes, by statute, once a year; to the honest man it comes as frequently as the heart of gratitude will allow.” — Edward Sandford Martin
“If you want to feel rich, just count all of the things you have that money can't buy.” -– Author Unknown “I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder." -–Gilbert Keith Chesterton "No one is as capable of gratitude as one who has escaped the kingdom of night.” -– Elie Wiesel "A person however learned and qualified in his life's work in whom gratitude is absent, is devoid of that beauty of character which makes personality fragrant.” -– Hazrat Inayat Khan "Does not the gratitude of the dog put to shame any man who is ungrateful to his benefactors?” -– Saint Basil "At whatever straws we must grasp, there is always a time for gratitude and new beginnings.” -– J. Robert Moskin "If you haven’t all the things you want, be grateful for the things you don’t have that you wouldn’t want.” -– Unknown "Gratitude: A lively sense of future benefit.” -– A French Definition "To speak gratitude is courteous and pleasant, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live gratitude is to touch Heaven.” -– Johannes A. Gaertner "Gratitude is the inward feeling of kindness received. Thankfulness is the natural impulse to express that feeling. Thanksgiving is the following of that impulse.” -– Henry Van Dyke "There is a calmness to a life lived in gratitude, a quiet joy.” -– Ralph H. Blum "It is impossible to feel grateful and depressed in the same moment.” -– Naomi Williams "If you concentrate on finding whatever is good in every situation, you will discover that your life will suddenly be filled with gratitude, a feeling that nurtures the soul.” -– Rabbi Harold Kushner "Gratitude is the moral memory of mankind.” -– Georg Simmel "You won't be happy with more until you're happy with what you've got.” -– Viki King Quote of the day:
“Don't fear failure so much that you refuse to try new things. The saddest summary of a life contains three descriptions: could have, might have and should have.”--Louis Boone Think about it: When young F. W. Woolworth was a store clerk, he tried to convince his boss to have a ten-cent sale to reduce inventory. The boss agreed, and the idea was a resounding success. This inspired Woolworth to open his own store and price items at a nickel and a dime. He needed capital for such a venture, so he asked his boss to supply the capital for part interest in the store. His boss turned him down flat. “The idea is too risky,” he told Woolworth. “There are not enough items to sell for five and ten cents.” Woolworth went ahead without his boss’s backing, and he not only was successful in his first store, but eventually he owned a chain of F. W. Woolworth stores across the nation. Later, his former boss was heard to remark, “As far as I can figure out, every word I used to turn Woolworth down cost me about a million dollars.” The 100 Thing Challenge (100TC) is a simple living movement started by Dave Bruno and made awesome by many thousands of people just like you from all around the world. 100TC is about creating better relationships of all kinds through the formative power of simplicity.
How does 100TC work? That is a great question with multiple answers. Originally, the 100 Thing Challenge was a personal simple living project Dave did to break free from consumerism. He lived with 100 personal possessions for a year in order to form new habits of consumption. 100TC got some press. Dave wrote a book. And with the insight and participation of many likeminded people, including contributors to the blog, 100TC grew into what is now a thriving community. 100TC has additional expressions. Many people have been inspired by 100TC and used that inspiration to do different kinds of simplicity projects. Instead of living with 100 personal possessions for a year, some people have gotten rid of 100 personal possessions in a month. Others have used 100TC as the catalyst to pay off their consumer debt. Many have simply used 100TC principles to trade a cluttered lifestyle for a peaceful life. Those 100TC principles are: 1. Reduce. By reducing the number of our possessions for an extended period of time, we prove to ourselves that consumerism does not define us. 2. Refuse. By refusing to go along with the misleading lifestyle of consumerism, we form new priorities in line with personal values and what is best for the world around us. 3. Rejigger. By rejiggering our lives through simplicity, we nurture better relationships with God, family, community, and nature. https://www.facebook.com/100thingchallenge "To live a life of gratitude is to open our eyes to the countless ways in which we are supported by the world around us. Such a life provides less space for our suffering because our attention is more balanced.” — Gregg Krech
"As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.” — John Fitzgerald Kennedy “Every man in his lifetime needs to thank his faults.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson “If you don’t get everything you want, think of the things you don’t get that you don’t want." — Oscar Wilde “To be content, just think how happy you would be if you lost everything you have right now, and then got it back again!” — Author Unknown “The more you recognize and express gratitude for the things you have, the more things you will have to express gratitude for.” — Zig Ziglar “We tend to forget that happiness doesn't come as a result of getting something we don't have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have.” — Frederick Keonig “Of all the attitudes we can acquire, surely the attitude of gratitude is the most important and by far the most life-changing.”— Zig Ziglar “Ignorant men don't know what good they hold in their hands until they've flung it away." — Sophocles “People who live the most fulfilling lives are the ones who are always rejoicing at what they have.” —Richard Carlson “It is not good for all our wishes to be filled; through sickness we recognize the value of health; through evil, the value of good; through hunger, the value of food; through exertion, the value of rest.” — Greek saying “Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.” — Melody Beattie "Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn't learn a little, at least we didn't get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn't die; so, let us all be thankful.” — The Buddha “A man without ambition is dead. A man with ambition but no love is dead. A man with ambition and love for his blessings here on earth is ever so alive." — Pearl Bailey “Give thy mind more to what thou has than to what thou hast not." — Marcus Antonius Quote of the day:
“No one cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.” -- Theodore Roosevelt Think about it: A father once shared that he hadn’t realized how unfair he’d been with his son until he learned an important lesson. His son received a very low grade in math. In spite of scolding and extra study, it seemed the boy simply could not bring up his grade. One day the son said to his father, “I guess when you went to school you got all A’s in math.” “What makes you say that?” the father asked. “Well,” said the son, “I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but I assumed this because you always scold me when I don’t do well.” The father realized that the way he had corrected his son was a misrepresentation of the truth. “No, the fact is that I had a really hard time with math,” the father replied.“Especially algebra.” From that moment on the boy did better, freed from the impression that he was inferior, and a failure. Seeing that his dad had the same problem, but succeeded, gave him hope. This story is about a father and son but it applies to all our relationships with others. It instead of making others feel that we are so smart and never fail we need to free people from the impression that they are inferior and give them hope that they will succeed and then they will. What Makes People Happy? The top three list.
The one thing most studies on happiness agree on is this: family and relationships are the surest way to happiness. Close behind are meaningful work, positive thinking, and the ability to forgive. What does not seem to make people happy are money, material possessions, intelligence, education, age, gender, or attractiveness. Here are the top three factors that make us happy, and what you can do to increase happiness in your life. 1. Family and relationships The happiest people spend time with those they love, including family, partners, or friends. Contact with others fulfills two basic human needs—the need for social connections with others of our kind, and the need for personal growth, which makes us feel fully alive. A simple strategy for happiness is to accept social invitations whenever possible, or to initiate social gatherings with family and friends. Face-to-face meetings make us happier than online networking, especially because different forms of physical contact release endorphins. So use technology to set up meetings, but get out there and meet up the old-fashioned way. 2. Meaningful work We are happiest when engaged in activities that make us forget ourselves and lose track of time. This can happen when making music, gardening, playing with children, practicing sports, writing, or even pouring over a spreadsheet. We experience a sense of fulfillment when using and developing our skills, talents, and abilities. When we complete a challenge or task that we are pleased with, we are happy with our achievement. 3. Positive thinking One attitude contributing to happiness is the refusal to compare with others. Be content that the house you have is “enough of a house” instead of envying your neighbor’s bigger house. If you really have to compare, compare down and not up. For example, Olympic bronze medalists who consider themselves lucky to get a medal are happier than silver medalists who feel that they missed the gold medal. A subset of positive thinking is gratitude. Grateful people are happy people. Keeping a gratitude journal or saying prayers aloud every night is a surefire way to increase your happiness. “A penny saved is a penny earned.” -- Ben Franklin
“It's easy to make a buck. It's a lot tougher to make a difference.” — Tom Brokaw “Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.” -- Dr. Seuss “Nothing external to you has any power over you.” -- Ralph Waldo Emerson “Temptations, of course, cannot be avoided, but because we cannot prevent the birds from flying over our heads, there is no need that we should let them nest in our hair.” -- Martin Luther “Believe and act as if it were impossible to fail.” -- Charles F. Kettering "The more you know who you are, the less you let things upset you." -- Bob Harris “Too many people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are.” -- Malcolm Forbes “Each person is a V.S.P. (Very Special Person) because we are each created in the image of God.” —Desmond Tutu “Change your thoughts and you change your world.”— Norman Vincent Peale |
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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