COOL HEADS AND WARM HEARTS IN LIFE

Airasia plane on the runway - “There comes a time when the mind takes a higher plane of knowledge but can never prove how it got there.”

If you've ever struggled making the right decision, you may appreciate
this story:

A young man seemed to take an unusually long time to place his order
at the flower shop. When the clerk asked how she could help, he
explained that his girlfriend was turning 19 and he couldn't decide
whether to give her a dozen roses or 19 roses -- one for each year of
her life.

The woman put aside her business judgment and advised, "She may be
your 19-year-old girlfriend now, but someday she could be your
50-year-old wife."

The young man bought a dozen roses. He made his decision from both his
head and his heart.

Abraham Lincoln has been considered one of the greatest leaders of all
time. He maintained a cool head, even under personal attack. Though
constantly criticized in public, he rarely answered back. "If I were
to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this
shop might as well be closed for any other business," he said. He
showed courage in the face of unjust criticism. He refused to
retaliate and chose instead to quietly do the very best he could.

And Lincoln was also widely known for his compassion. He made
difficult and tough decisions during America's Civil War, but at the
same time showed great leniency. He pardoned more prisoners than any
U. S. president before or since. And when a general asked Lincoln how
the defeated Confederates should be treated, Lincoln replied, "Let 'em
up easy." He was both cool-headed and warm-hearted.

Too many people get it the other way around. They have hot heads and
cold hearts. They react in the heat of anger or passion. They are cold
and unfeeling. And they invariably make poor decisions.

A cool head asks the hard questions. A cool head thinks it through. A
cool head fairly weighs the options and asks, "What is the logical
thing to do?"

A warm heart empathizes. A warm heart considers feelings and
relationships. A warm heart asks, "What is my spirit telling me to
do?"

Some decisions we make with our heads. Others with our hearts. But I
think it takes both to get it right.

From Lifesupport

Lifesigns Life Quotes

I WANT TO BE READY IN LIFE

Little White Dragon First Grade model kit of Force Impulse Gundam - “Everyone has the brainpower to follow the stock market. If you made it through fifth-grade math, you can do it.”

In her book TEACHING A STONE TO TALK (New York: Harper Collins, 1988), Annie Dillard reveals a sad, but poignant story. She tells of a British Arctic expedition that set sail in 1845 to chart the Northwest Passage around the Canadian Arctic to the Pacific Ocean. Neither of the two ships and none of the 138 men aboard returned.

Dillard argues that Captain Sir John Franklin prepared as if they were
embarking on a pleasure cruise rather than an arduous and grueling
journey through one of earth's most hostile environments. He packed a
1,200 volume library, a hand-organ, china place settings for officers
and men, cut-glass wine goblets and sterling silver flatware,
beautifully and intricately designed. Years later, some of these place
settings would be found near a clump of frozen, cannibalized bodies.

The voyage was doomed when the ships sailed into frigid waters and
became trapped in ice. First ice coated the decks, the spars and the
rigging. Then water froze around the rudders, and the ships became
hopelessly locked in the now-frozen sea.

Sailors set out to search for help (possibly delirious from
lead-poisoning from the cans which preserved their food), but soon
succumbed to severe Arctic weather and died of exposure to its harsh
winds and subfreezing temperatures. For the next twenty years, remains
of the expedition were found all over the frozen landscape.

Dillard reports that the crew did not prepare either for the cold or
for the eventuality of the ships becoming ice-locked. On a voyage that
was to last two to three years, they packed only their Navy-issue
uniforms and the captain carried just a 12-day supply of coal for the
auxiliary steam engines. The frozen body of an officer was eventually
found, miles from the vessel, wearing his uniform of fine blue cloth,
edged with silk braid, a blue greatcoat and a silk neckerchief –
clothing which was noble and respectful, but wholly inadequate.

Historians may doubt the wisdom of such an ill-prepared journey. But
more important for us is the question: Are we, too, prepared for the
important voyage we've embarked upon, that journey we call "life"? I
want to be as ready as possible for whatever may lie ahead.

I try to prepare myself for the future in several ways:

* Intimacy: I need some caring people in my life.
* Work & Finance: I like to work hard, pay my way and help others
where possible.
* Spiritual Life: When I am spiritually centered and at peace, I can
handle most things.
* Service to Others: A lake with no outlet becomes a dead sea. It's
true with people, too.
* Mind and Body: Exercising my body as well as my mind helps them both
work better.
* Attitude Adjustments: I really can control my outlook and attitudes.
* Emotions: I can also control my reactions, including anger.
* Relationships: I need to make sure my relationships are healthy.

As long as we are alive, our journey is not over. And in large part,
the success of our voyage will be determined by our regular and
systematic preparation.

I want to be ready.

From Lifesupport

Lifesigns Life Quotes

SUCKER DAY IN LIFE

Rotated photo of a purple flower batik painting - “If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change.”

I've never visited the town of Wetumka in Oklahoma (USA). But I
understand the folks there celebrate a day every year when they laugh
at themselves. They call it Sucker Day and they plan a town festival
on the last Saturday of September to commemorate it.

It all started in 1950 when a man calling himself F. Bam Morrison
arrived in Wetumka and persuaded local residents to put up the money
to bring a circus to town. They did not know F. Bam, but he was a nice
enough fellow and they trusted his word.

Merchants bought plenty of food, beverages, and souvenirs in
preparation for the crowds of people who were bound to attend. And
Morrison sold advance tickets. The townspeople were ecstatic at the
thought of a circus in their very own village. Children could hardly
sleep at night.

On the day the circus parade was to march down the main street,
ecstasy turned into dismay when nothing happened. F. Bam had slipped
quietly away in the night with any money he had left. There would be
no circus. The good folks of Wetumka had been swindled.

It didn't take long for their disappointment to turn into amusement,
however. Someone came up with the idea of holding a four-day
celebration anyway. And why not? They had all the food and goodies.
Calendars were cleared and, besides, everyone's heart was set on
having a good time.

They called their party The Sucker Festival. In a display of
good-natured fun, people celebrated the fact that they'd been conned,
snookered and hornswoggled. And now Sucker Day is an annual event
Wetumka – a good excuse to come together, to laugh and to have some
fun.

We're going to be fooled sometimes. Especially if we easily place our
confidence in people. But I'm not going to give up trusting just to
avoid being had.

I've observed that some of the happiest people I know are far from
being the most wary – in fact, they are quite often open and trusting.
These contented folks share at least two traits.

The first is that they are trustworthy. They are known to be honest
and true to their word.

And the second trait these happy and satisfied people share is that
they easily trust others. Sometimes their trust is misplaced, but they've discovered that the benefits of trusting usually outweigh the risks of disappointment.

I expect I'll get taken in plenty of times yet by friends and
strangers I believed in. But I hope the next time I trusted when I
should have been more cautious, I can learn from the good folks of
Wetumka and laugh at myself.

Because I'd rather let others into my heart than shut them out. I'd
rather be a sucker for a day than unhappy for a lifetime. And I'd
rather believe there is goodness in most people, for that is the only
way to find it.

From Lifesupport

Lifesigns Life Quotes

DRIVING OUT BAD NAILS FOR LIFE

Tall orange building - “A man is not an orange. You can't eat the fruit and throw the peel away”

A teacher who was lecturing on habits told his class, "Anything you
repeat twenty times is yours forever." From the back of the classroom
came a whispered voice, "Sarah, Sarah, Sarah, Sarah…." Of course, what
the teacher was trying to say is that any behavior, often repeated,
becomes habit.

The Dutch scholar Desiderius Erasmus once said, "A nail is driven out
by another nail. Habit is overcome by habit." And if I understand him
right, he suggests that saying no to a bad habit is not enough.
Instead, we should try to replace it with a good one. Repeat the new
behavior twenty times … and it is yours.

If any behavior, good or bad, is often repeated, it becomes stronger
and more powerful. "Since habits become power, make them work for you
and not against you," said E. Stanley Jones. In other words, drive out
the undesirable nail, the behavior you'd like to change, with a better
one.

One woman did just that after lamenting to her friend, "I hate being
late. It has been a problem for me all of my life."

"Do you really want to change that habit?" her friend asked. The woman
said that she did and her friend responded, "All right. Every time you're
late for work or anywhere else, then give me $25."

"I'd go broke!" she said. "But I'll do $10."

"It's got to hurt," said the friend.

"Believe me, that will hurt," the woman replied. They agreed that the
money should be deposited in a jar and used for charity.

In the first week, the habitually tardy woman made a concerted effort
to plan ahead and she only paid $10 to her friend. The next week, $20.
The third week, none at all. By week five, she had built a strong
habit of leaving early, and her new behavior replaced the old pattern
of tardiness that had hindered her for so long. She drove out one nail
with another one. And she found freedom.

If you're like me, there is a bad nail you want to remove. Today is a
good day to pick up a better nail and start using it.

From Lifesupport

Lifesigns Life Quotes

A LIFE THAT MATTERS

Decorative fake flowers for sale - “To write or even speak English is not a science but an art. There are no reliable words. Whoever writes English is involved in a struggle that never lets up even for a sentence. He is struggling against vagueness, against obscurity, against the lure of the decorative adjective, against the encroachment of Latin and Greek, and, above all, against the worn-out phrases and dead metaphors with which the language is cluttered up.”

They said he died.

One morning in 1888, Alfred Nobel, inventor of dynamite, the man who
had spent his life amassing a fortune from the manufacture and sale of
weapons of destruction, awoke to read his own obituary. Of course, it
was a mistake. Alfred's brother had died, and the reporter
inadvertently wrote Alfred's obituary.

For the first time, Alfred Nobel saw himself as the world saw him –
"the dynamite king," the great industrialist who had made an immense
fortune from explosives. This, as far as the general public was
concerned, was the entire purpose of his life. None of his true
intentions surfaced. Nothing was said about his work to break down the
barriers that separated persons and ideas. He was, quite simply, a
merchant of death, and for that alone would he be remembered.

Alfred read the obituary with horror. He felt that the world must know
the true meaning and purpose of his life. He resolved to do this
through his last will and testament. The final disposition of his
fortune would show the world his life's ideals. And at that time came
into being yearly prizes for chemistry, physics, medicine,
literature – and the famous Nobel Peace Prize.

If you were to read your own obituary today, what would it say? Do
others know what you stand for, what you believe in and what truly
matters to you?

Dr. Philip Humbert asks, "What remarkable, extraordinary and amazing
things will you do with this wild and wonderful miracle, your one and
only life?" I believe that the question should also be asked this way:
"What will you do with this wild and wonderful miracle, your one and
only DAY?" For it's increasingly clear to me that the decisions I make
every day, even little decisions, will decide how my life will
eventually turn out.

Hopefully, I won't wake up to read my own obituary. But I have already
begun to write it – day by day, moment by moment. And if I live a life
that matters today, then my obituary will already be written in the
hearts of those who know me.

From Lifesupport

Lifesigns Life Quotes

THE HAND IN LIFE

Papercraft bus - “Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down.”

At first it sounded like a Thanksgiving story, but the more I
reflected on it, the more appropriate it seemed for any time of the
year. The way I heard it, the story went like this:

Thanksgiving Day was near. The first grade teacher gave her class a
fun assignment -- to draw a picture of something for which they were
thankful.

Most of the class might be considered economically disadvantaged, but
still many would celebrate the holiday with turkey and other
traditional goodies of the season. These, the teacher thought, would
be the subjects of most of her student's art. And they were.

But Douglas made a different kind of picture. Douglas was a different
kind of boy. He was the teacher's true child of misery, frail and
unhappy. As other children played at recess, Douglas was likely to
stand close by her side. One could only guess at the pain Douglas felt
behind those sad eyes.

Yes, his picture was different. When asked to draw a picture of
something for which he was thankful, he drew a hand. Nothing else.
Just an empty hand.

His abstract image captured the imagination of his peers. Whose hand
could it be? One child guessed it was the hand of a farmer, because
farmers raise turkeys. Another suggested a police officer, because the
police protect and care for people. Still others guessed it was the
hand of God, for God feeds us. And so the discussion went -- until the
teacher almost forgot the young artist himself.

When the children had gone on to other assignments, she paused at
Douglas' desk, bent down, and asked him whose hand it was. The little
boy looked away and murmured, "It's yours, teacher."

She recalled the times she had taken his hand and walked with him here
or there, as she had the other students. How often had she said, "Take
my hand, Douglas, we'll go outside." Or, "Let me show you how to hold
your pencil." Or, "Let's do this together." Douglas was most thankful
for his teacher's hand.

Brushing aside a tear, she went on with her work.

The story speaks of more than thankfulness. It says something about
teachers teaching and parents parenting and friends showing
friendship, and how much it means to the Douglases of the world. They
might not always say thanks. But they'll remember the hand that
reaches out.

From Lifesupport

Lifesigns Life Quotes

BELIEVE IT IN LIFE

Steamed soy marinated pork - “Steam is no stronger now than it was a hundred years ago but it is put to better use”

Writer Norman Cousins tells about a football game at which a doctor
found himself treating five spectators for stomach disorder. Each
complained of nausea, dizziness and cramps. Upon checking, the doctor
learned that all five had previously consumed soft drinks from the
arena's concession stands. In the interest of protecting public
safety, an announcement was made to the crowd that it would be wise to
forego drinks in the stadium because certain people were becoming ill.

By the third quarter of the game, 200 people – all of whom had been
slurping sodas – were reporting the same symptoms. Half of these
hurried off to a nearby hospital. Later in the afternoon the doctor
determined that his five original patients had also eaten potato salad
from the same delicatessen on the way to the game. The potato salad,
not the drinks, was apparently the culprit.

An announcement was made. Almost immediately those who were sick felt
remarkably better. The fans taken to the hospital were sent home as
their symptoms quickly disappeared.

All of this goes to show the tremendous power of belief. What we
believe to be true will often become true.

The power of our beliefs will dramatically affect our future. Like
automaker Henry Ford said, "Whether you think you can or not, you are
right." If you believe you will succeed or fail, you are probably
right. If you believe strongly enough that something good or bad will
surely happen to you, it likely will.

Mahatma Gandhi found this principle to be true in his own experience.
"If I believe I cannot do something, it makes me incapable of doing
it," the Indian leader said. "But when I believe I can, then I acquire
the ability to do it, even if I did not have the ability in the
beginning."

Where did that ability come from? Was it the sheer power of his belief
that gave him the capacity to do what seemed impossible? He was sure
that was the case.

Great belief is great power. And probably more than any other single
factor, great belief that something just might be possible … can bring
about what we want in life.

Believe it.

From Lifesupport

Lifesigns Life Quotes

AREN'T THEY ALL OUR CHILDREN IN LIFE?

Bustling square at shopping complex - “If a man knew anything, he would sit in a corner and be modest; but he is such an ignorant peacock, that he goes bustling up and down, and hits on extraordinary discoveries.”

There are few things in this life more difficult to experience than
the loss of one's child. Jim Wallis, in WHO SPEAKS FOR GOD tells about
a sad and terrifying incident that occurred during the tragic war in
Sarajevo not too many years back. A reporter who was covering the
violence in the middle of the city saw a little girl fatally shot by a
sniper.

The reporter threw down his pad and pencil and rushed to the aid of a
man who was now holding the child. He helped them both into his car
and sped off to a hospital.

"Hurry, my friend," the man urged, "my child is still alive." A moment
or two later he pleaded, "Hurry, my friend, my child is still
breathing." A little later he said, "Hurry, my friend, my child is
still warm."

When they got to the hospital, the young girl was gone. "This is a
terrible task for me," the distraught man said to the reporter. "I
must go tell her father that his child is dead. He will be
heartbroken. "

The reporter was amazed. He looked at the grieving man and said, "I
thought she was YOUR child."

The man replied, "No, but aren't they all our children?"

I think that is one of the great questions of our age. Aren't they all
our children? It is a question that deserves an answer.

Aren't they all our children? Those who live under our roof and those
who reside with another family? Those to whom we are related as well
as those whom we have never known?

Aren't they all our children? Those on our side of the border as well
as those on the other side? Those of our nation no more or less than
those of another?

Aren't they all our children? Those who worship like us and those who
worship differently? Those who look like us and those who do not?

Aren't they all our children? The well-educated and the
under-educated? The well-fed and the under-fed? Those who are secure
and those who are at risk?

Aren't they all our children? The highly valued and highly esteemed as
well as the castaways and the lost?

Aren't they all our children? Aren't they all our responsibility? ALL
of them? Ours to nurture? Ours to protect? Ours to love?

I don't think it is an exaggeration to say that the survival of our
world hinges on the answer to that question.

To say they are NOT all our children is to condemn the world to more
struggle – family against family, group against group, nation against
nation.

Aren't they all our children? If we say yes, can we ever again pit
them against each other? "If we have no peace," said Mother Teresa,
"it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other."

Aren't they all our children?

There may be no greater question for our generation. And how we answer
that question will determine the shape of our world for years to come.

From Lifesupport

Lifesigns Life Quotes

TURTLES CAN'T FLY FOR LIFE

Fresh pineapples for sale - “Fresh activity is the only means of overcoming adversity.”

A determined little turtle once climbed a tree. He somehow made it to
the first branch. Then he jumped into the air waving his front legs
and crashed to the ground.

After a while he slowly climbed the tree again. And again he jumped.
This time he flapped all four of his limbs, but still plummeted to the
hard ground.

The persistent turtle tried again and again with the same results. A
couple of birds perched on a branch nearby watched his futile efforts.
One of them turned to her mate and said, "Dear, don't you think it's
time to tell him he's adopted?"

There are simply some things we cannot do. Turtles can't fly.

Comedian Bob Hope once thought of pursuing a career in boxing. Later
in life he quipped about it: "I ruined my hands in the ring" he said.
"The referee kept stepping on them."

Fighting is something he could not do well. But he became a great
comedian.

Lots of people have ability and talent. And most people have an idea
about what they think they can do. So why do some excel but many do
not?

The famous American caricaturist Al Hirschfield explained it like
this: "I believe everybody is creative and everybody is talented," he
said. "I just don't think that everybody is disciplined. I think that's a rare commodity."

The secret seems to be discipline. Whatever ability we are born with
is not enough. Even raw talent requires discipline to be nurtured and
developed. And enough hard work and discipline can turn the most
meager skill or ability into a great strength.

A man jumped into a taxi cab in New York and asked the driver, "How do
I get to Yankee stadium?"

The cabbie replied, "Practice! Practice! Practice!"

He's right. And although discipline and practice may never get a
turtle to actually fly, it will probably get you and me just about
wherever we want to go.

From Lifesupport

Lifesigns Life Quotes

TRUE LOVE IN LIFE

Mix rice for lunch - “Dogs love their friends and bite their enemies, quite unlike people, who are incapable of pure love and always have to mix love and hate in their object-relations”

I'm not sure I can always tell love from passion. One father said of
his teenaged son, "I don't know if he's in love or in heat!" What
teenager would know? Besides, feelings of attraction can change more
quickly than a pouty expression.

But love, in its truest form, is greater than feelings. It is as much
a decision as it is a feeling.

Love is what Mr. and Mrs. Strauss shared. Mrs. Isadore Strauss was one
of the few first class women passengers to go down with the Titanic in
1912, and she drowned because she could not bear to leave her husband.

They remained calm throughout the excitement of the sinking vessel.
They both aided frightened women and children to find places aboard
lifeboats. Finally, Mr. Strauss, who had repeatedly urged his wife to
claim a spot safely aboard a lifeboat, forced her to enter one.

She was seated but a moment, however, when she sprang up and climbed
back on deck before he could stop her. There, she caught his arm,
snuggling it familiarly against her side, and exclaimed, "We have been
long together for a great many years. We are old now. Where you go, I
will go."

Where you go, I will go. It is a decision to be together, come what
may. I suspect she said something like that to him many times before.
Maybe the words she used were different, but the meaning was the same.
I want to be with you. Let's do this together.

Where you go, I will go. It's a decision to love. It is deciding to be
there, wherever "there" may be. It is a decision to sacrifice, if
sacrifice is needed. And it is choosing to re-decide it all over again
tomorrow and the next day and the next.

As the ship sank beneath icy water on that cold and dark, April night,
the Strausses merely re-made a decision they had made many times
before throughout their life together. They decided on each other.

Where you go, I will go. At the heart of true love is often a
decision, made again and again, to face the next day together … hand
in hand.

From Lifesupport

Lifesigns Life Quotes

ARE YOU HAVING FUN YET IN LIFE?

Lining up for the exit - “It is impossible to fall out of love. Love is such a powerful emotion, that once it envelops you it does not depart. True love is eternal. If you think that you were once in love, but fell out of it, then it wasn't love you were in. There are no 'exit' signs in love, there is only an 'on' ramp.”

Plato said that work should be play. Some airline employees have taken his injunction seriously. After landing, one flight attendant announced, "Thank you for flying Delta Business Express. We hope you enjoyed giving us the business as much as we enjoyed taking you for a ride." There's a flight attendant who knows how to turn her work into play.

She may have been the same one who, as the passengers disembarked from the aircraft, announced, "Last one off the plane must clean it."

A British insurance agent has fun with the accident reports he reads from some of his clients. Like the one who wrote: "I started to slow down but the traffic was more stationary than I thought." You know, stationary traffic can be like that.

Another client reported, "Windscreen broken. Cause unknown. Probably Voodoo." Voodoo would be a worry.

Before he became an actor, Ray Liotta worked in a cemetery. "I had a hundred people under me, and it was quiet," he fondly remembers. Actually, that doesn't sound half bad.

I have friends in the medical industry. She is a pharmacist and he is a sales rep for a pharmaceutical company. When I first met them I asked what they did for a living. He said, "She make drugs and I sell them."

I like the idea of injecting some play into work. And one of the great benefits is this: when our work is more fun, we like it better. And when we like it better, we do it better.

Are you having fun yet?

From Lifesupport

Lifesigns Life Quotes

CAN YOU SAY, "AWE" FOR LIFE?

Frozen sausages for sale - “In a sense, words are encyclopedias of ignorance because they freeze perceptions at one moment in history and then insist we continue to use these frozen perceptions when we should be doing better.”

Albert Einstein said that wonder is the source of all true art and all
science. "He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer
pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes
are closed."

I remember standing in rapt awe when I gazed upon the wonders of the
ancient Incan city of Machu Picchu in Peru. That amazing city was
built above the clouds, and it was more than the high altitude that
took my breath away. Can you say, "Awe"?

I'm reminded of the little girl who rode a train with her mother.
Looking out the window, she exclaimed, "Look! A horse!" And a moment
later, "Look! Houses!"

She gave every indication of keeping this up, so her embarrassed
mother apologized to the man next to her. "I'm sorry my daughter is
going on like this," she said. "She still thinks everything is
wonderful."

When do we stop thinking everything is wonderful? When we grow up?
When do we stop saying, "Awe"? Does growing older mean growing jaded?

And must we travel to faraway places to marvel once again? Can't we
experience wonder and awe today - this moment?

The slice of raisin toast I ate this morning was no less marvelous
today than when I first tasted it. But I did not notice how good it
really was. I think that few things are commonplace in themselves –
it's our reaction to them that grows dull over the years.

A man on his way to lunch happened to notice a visitor in Venice's
Piazza San Marco standing among the pigeons and gazing in apparent
rhapsody at the Doge's Palace. After his meal he noticed the same man
still studying the magnificent structure. Curious as to whether he'd
been standing there all morning, he asked the man, "How long have you
been here?"

"Twenty six years," came the reply, "and I never grow tired of it."

As Einstein observed, those who will "pause to wonder and stand rapt
in awe" will TRULY LIVE. They will see what others miss. They will
feel what others cannot. Life will be for them both exquisite and
mysterious when they learn to say, "Awe."

From Lifesupport

Lifesigns Life Quotes

JOY IN THE JOURNEY FOR LIFE

Chai Shen Yeh: God of prosperity - “In prosperity, our friends know us; in adversity, we know our friends”

Anonymous did it again. Whoever this person is put it well: "Follow
your dream! Unless it's the one where you're at work in your underwear
during a fire drill." Yes – some dreams should be forgotten as soon as
possible.

But when it comes to life dreams, rather than sleep dreams, I am
coming to believe that it is less important whether you actually reach
a goal or achieve a beautiful dream than just to follow. Simply start
following and see where it leads.

Let me explain.

Two brothers decided to dig a deep hole behind their house. As they
were working, a couple of older boys stopped by to watch.

"What are you doing?" asked one of the visitors.

"We plan to dig a hole all the way through the earth!" one of the
brothers volunteered excitedly.

The older boys began to laugh, telling the younger ones that digging a
hole all the way through the earth was impossible. After a long
silence, one of the diggers picked up jar full shiny pebbles, worms
and a wide assortment of odd insects. He showed it to the scoffing
visitors and said quietly and confidently, "Even if we don't dig all
the way through the earth, look what we found along the way."

Maybe their goal was too ambitious, but it did get them to dig. And
that is what following a dream is about – our best dreams point us
where we want to go and then nudge us in that direction. In other
words, they set us to digging.

But you know how it goes – you just won't achieve everything you
attempt. You may shoot for the moon and only hit the neighbor's
window.

You may fully intend to be in love for a lifetime. But not every
relationship will endure. Not every hope will come to pass. Not every
endeavor will be completed. Not every dream will be realized.

But here is the wonder of it all …when you fall short of your aim,
perhaps you can say, "Yes, but look at what I found along the way.
Look at the wonderful things which have come into my life because I
tried to do something."

I think those boys got it right. It is in the digging that life is
lived. It's the joy in the journey that matters most.

From Lifesupport

Lifesigns Life Quotes

RESIDENTIAL ADDRESS PLAQUES FOR LIFE

Today is the eve of Chinese New Year. Most people would have finished with their spring cleaning to usher in the new year of the metal Rabbit. One of the areas that is usually overlooked is the state of the residential address plaques. In my case, I love bronze address plaques as they are more durable and require less cleaning to bring in fresh luck for the new year. Just now while driving around my neighborhood, I have seen some custom address plaques that need replacing.

Personalized address plaques are great if they are durable and long lasting. I must admit I am a sucker for anything that is low maintenance. I usually get mine on justaddressplaques.com as their prices are the lowest around. I would definitely recommend them to my neighbors as I know a couple of them are interested in getting whitehall address plaques and gaines address plaques for their homes.

GETTING UP WHEN YOU'RE FEELING DOWN IN LIFE

Large screen TV for video conferencing - “No grand idea was ever born in a conference, but a lot of foolish ideas have died there.”

Do you ever feel blah? Ever wish you had a permanent "picker-upper" ? If so, this may be for you.

In the 1920s, if you were looking for a little pick-me-up with your mid-afternoon snack, you might have reached for a cold, refreshing glass of 7-Up. Well, it wasn't called 7-Up back then, it was called "Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda." (Say THAT three times fast!)

Inventor C. L. Griggs' original recipe included the antidepressant lithium until the 1940s as a "picker-upper" (www.cadburyschwepp es.com). The original Coca-Cola formula also included a "picker-upper" -- cocaine.

Today, people not suffering from serious depression understand that they usually don't need mood-altering drugs to cope with daily life. But most folks struggle with bouts of mild depression, despondency or "the blahs" from time to time. How do you pick yourself up when you're feeling down, without the aid of Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda?

I hope I'm not telling you anything new when I say that talking about the reasons you're down, making needed changes, watching your diet, getting enough exercise and sleep, developing a positive mental outlook and utilizing spiritual resources are all important pieces of our emotional puzzles. But one important strategy for feeling better (and one that's LEAST used) is as important as the rest. It is helping others in need.

* Visit a shut-in neighbor.
* Write a letter.
* Call a friend who has been struggling.
* Volunteer at church, synagogue or the local food pantry.
* Rake someone's leaves.
* Bake homemade bread for a new neighbor.
* Wash your spouse's car.
* Volunteer to baby-sit for a young mother.
* Plan an unexpected act of kindness.
* Give a gift for no reason at all.

The needs are abundant, and those who put aside some regular time to do something kind for others will often forget they were feeling low. Why does is work? I don't know … it just does. Reach out and lift somebody else up and for some wondrous and magical reason, you lift yourself up, too.

Corrie Ten Boom beautifully said, "The measure of a life, after all, is not its duration, but its donation." And if you've been feeling low, the best time to donate a piece of yourself is now.

From Lifesupport

Lifesigns Life Quotes