LEGACY OF LOVE IN LIFE

Malaysa Airlines plane on the runway - If I were dropped out of a plane into the ocean and told the nearest land was a thousand miles away, I'd still swim. And I'd despise the one who gave up.

A friend once told me of a caring and much-loved school nurse who
died. She was well known by the faculty and students, as she had been
there 35 years. When the principal an­nounced her death to the
children, many of them began to cry.

To help ease their grief, the school coun­selor had a group of
children draw a picture of what the nurse meant to them. One child
filled in her pa­per with red. "This is her heart," she ex­plained.
"It's too big for the paper."

At her funeral her friends and family clapped and celebrated her life.
She left behind a great legacy of love.

How will you be remembered? What leg­acy will you leave behind?

Toward the end of his life, Elton Trueblood made this observation: "At
the age of 93, I am well aware that I do not have many years to live.
Conse­quently, I try very hard to live my remaining years in such a
manner that I really make a difference in as many lives as pos­sible.
How do I want to be re­membered? Not pri­marily as a Christian
scholar, but rather as a lov­ing person. This can be the goal of every
individ­ual. If I can be re­membered as a truly loving per­son, I
shall be satis­fied."

After you are gone, people may forget most of what you have done. But
they will remem­ber whether you loved them.

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Lifesigns Life Quotes

MAKE YOUR LIFE AN EXPERIMENT

View inside the cabin of the plane - There comes a time when the mind takes a higher plane of knowledge but can never prove how it got there.

Do you experiment with new attitudes and new behaviors? Do you
constantly try to improve your skills? Do you make your life an
"active science"? It is not hard to see what can happen when we
refuse to improve ourselves.

Do you know who set the standard for fine watch-making for most
of the 20th Century? If you answered, "The Swiss," you are
correct. Swiss wrist watches dominated world markets for at least
60 years and Swiss companies were committed to constant
refinement of their craft.

It was the Swiss who came forward with the minute hand and the
second hand. They led the world in discovering better ways to
manufacture the gears, bearings, and mainsprings of watches. They
even led the way in waterproofing techniques and self-winding
models. By 1968, the Swiss made 65 percent of all watches sold in
the world and laid claim to as much as 90 percent of the profits.

Now...which country sold the most wrist watches in the 1980s? The
answer is Japan. By 1980, Swiss companies had laid off thousands
of watch-makers and controlled less than 10 percent of the world
market. Their profit domination dropped to less than 20 percent.
Between 1979 and 1981, eighty percent of Swiss watchmakers
lost their jobs.

Why? The Swiss had refused to change the way they traditionally
designed watches and utilize the less expensive and more accurate
Quartz crystal. (Quartz movement, ironically, was invented by a
Swiss.) They did not seriously experiment with a radical new way
of designing timepieces.

Our lives are not so different. Without constant
experimentation -- daily growth and change to become the best we
can be -- our old attitudes, behaviors and skills will no longer
work for us. The old ways of thinking and doing will be about as
relevant as a grandfather clock on a space shuttle. We need to
experiment and improve. We need to turn our lives into an active
science.

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the
things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do," wrote
Mark Twain. "So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe
harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream.
Discover." Make your life an experiment...and something wonderful
can happen!

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Lifesigns Life Quotes

LEISURE GAME TRIP IN LIFE

Just the other day my uncle told me that he booked a cheap flight to Singapore to patronize the new Marina Bay Sands Casino. Now my uncle is known to be a leisure gambler with the intent of making some profit out of it. That said, he is no stranger when it comes to online casino gambling. A good tip from him is to pick one which has a live video feed of the dealer and the online roulette game table to minimize casino frauds and scams.

He also mentioned something about staying away from computerized online video poker machines as the odds are against the player. So whenever the local airline is throwing out cheap air fares, my uncle will check his personal schedule to slot in a trip or two to frequent a physical casino establishment to get his game on. Usually, his close friends will accompany him on his trip to keep each other in check as to stay within their budget limitations.

YOU'RE NOT ALONE IN LIFE

Economy seats on Malaysia Airlines - Even when opportunity knocks a man still has to get up off his seat and open the door

"The commonest and subtlest of all human diseases," a prominent
physician said, "is fear." Fear is an incapacitating, paralyzing
disease. We all fear at times, but many carry with them unnec­essary
and destructive fears.

We're afraid of the unknown.

We're afraid of old age; afraid of growing senile and dependent.

We're afraid of change; afraid to plunge into that new relationship,
job or way of life.

We're afraid of the future.

We're afraid to risk; afraid to fail or ap­pear as if we failed.

We're afraid to love; afraid to trust.

We're afraid of closeness; afraid we might get hurt.

We're afraid to die. Like Henry Van Dyke said, "Some people are so
afraid to die that they never begin to live."

Fear is the most devastating enemy of hu­man personality.

But here's the good news: unnecessary fears can be conquered! Courage
to meet fear head-on is actually at our fingertips.

An American slavery abolitionist, Wendell Phillips, made an
interesting observation. He noted that it is easy to be brave when all
are be­hind you and agree with you. But the difficulty comes when 99
percent of your friends think you are wrong. Then it is the brave soul
who stands up – one among 1,000 – remembering that one with God
makes a ma­jority!

You see, courage often comes from simply knowing you are not alone.

From Lifesupport

Lifesigns Life Quotes

GREAT TEACHERS FOR LIFE

Aerial photo of the mouth of the river - Unless your heart, your soul, and your whole being are behind every decision you make, the words from your mouth will be empty, and each action will be meaningless. Truth and confidence are the roots of happiness.

I met a great teacher. She lived in a small Costa Rican village where
my family vacationed. She was no formal educator, philosopher or
person of any renown. Actually, she made chocolate to sell to
tourists.

She took us into her small home. It consisted of a single, partitioned
room with a dirt floor and a wood-burning stove. Its paneless windows
were open to an encroaching jungle that surrounded the dwelling. This
house, by my North American standards, might not be considered more
than a shack or a hut. Yet it was home to a warm and happy family of
four.

She showed us how she picks the cocoa beans from her porch, crushes
them, boils them in a paste, adds sugar and other ingredients and
finally produces chocolate. We sampled chocolate candies, bananas and
other native fruit picked from the jungle.

She not only invited us into her home, but into her life. And for a
couple of hours, she
allowed these strangers a glimpse into her world.

Here was a person who had no TV, no computer, no washer and drier,
no microwave oven, no automobile...no floor!...and none of the
conveniences of my daily life. I saw no books or magazines and
presumed that only her children (two lovely teenaged girls, home that
day from school) could read and write. Yet this woman taught me so
much. And if I could have stayed longer, I would have learned more -
about her life, her world, her culture and her ideas.

Who are not teachers? Who are so humble or so uneducated, so young or
so old, or so deficient in some way - that we cannot learn from them?
If we only take time to listen, who cannot tell us of things we have
never imagined?

Someone advised, "Live each day as if it were your last; learn as if
you were to live forever." And it's so easy when we discover that, in
some way, everyone is a great teacher.

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Lifesigns Life Quotes

MOVING ON WITH LIFE

I got in touch with my good friend who was living in Florida last month. She was my travel buddy during my tour of Europe back in 2008. I was quite surprised when she told me she was moving to New York in a couple of weeks and was frantically looking for suitable Long Distance Movers to get the job done. When we talked on the phone I could feel that she was stressed out about the whole thing.

Naturally I told her to calm down and start off by getting a few Moving Estimates and Local Moving Quotes. She told me that she has already approached several Local Movers but was disappointed about the related charges incurred for obtaining quotes. I then told her not to worry as I know of a great information portal site that is perfect for her needs: movers.com

Within minutes she was feeling positive again about the big move as she found reliable movers to help her out. I am just glad that I can help out a friend in need.

A LAUGH A DAY FOR LIFE

Malaysian Airlines in flight meal - Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.

"She who laughs, lasts." At least that was Theresa of Avila's
philosophy. Theresa, a Spanish nun who founded the reformed order of
the Carmelites in 1562, used to look for novices who knew how to
laugh, eat and sleep. She believed that if they ate heartily, they
were healthy; if they slept well, they were more than likely free of
serious sin; and if they laughed, they had the necessary disposition
to survive a difficult life.

Abraham Lincoln must have also known that laughter is good medicine.
In writing about Lincoln's Civil War years, author Richard Hanser says
that on September 22, 1862, the War Cabinet was summoned to the White
House for a special session. Lincoln was reading a book as everyone
came in. Secretary of War Stanton later said this of the meeting:
"Finally the president turned to us and said, 'Gentlemen, did you ever
read anything of Artimus Ward? Let me read a chapter that is very
funny.'"

The president then read aloud a skit called "Highhanded Outrage at
Utica." Stanton was furious, but Lincoln read on and, at the end, he
laughed heartily. "Gentlemen," he asked, "why do you not laugh? With
the fearful strain that is upon me day and night, if I did not laugh,
I should die. And you need this medicine as much as I do." It was at
this same session that the president pulled a paper from his tall hat
and read aloud the now immortalized Emancipation Proclamation.

He's right -- we may likely die without frequent and sustained doses
of laughter. After all, they who laugh, last.

Have you had your belly laugh today?

From Lifesupport

Lifesigns Life Quotes

THE ROCKING CHAIR TEST IN LIFE

The MRT subway map found at Changi airport - Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising which tempt you to believe that your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires courage.

How are you at making decisions?

Years ago, a city family bought a cattle ranch and moved to the
wide-open country. After a month, friends visited the family in their
ranch house. "What did you decide to name your ranch?" they inquired.

"Well," the husband replied, "I wanted to call it the Flying W and my
wife wanted to name it the Suzy Q, but one of our sons liked the Bar J
and the other preferred the Lazy Y. So we compromised and call it the
Flying W/Suzy Q/Bar J/Lazy Y."

"I see," said the visitor. "And where are your cattle?"

"None of them survived the branding!" said the rancher.

You, no doubt, make better decisions than that. But what do you do
when you have a particularly tough decision to make? What do you do
when your options are not at all clear?

When faced with a difficult decision, one man relies on what he calls
the "rocking chair test." He imagines himself as an old man, nearing
the end of his life. As he sits and rocks on his porch and
contemplates his life, he asks himself if this decision will have any
meaning to him. Will he be proud or ashamed of his decision? How will
this decision have affected the course of his life?

The "rocking chair test" helps him take a long view of his options. If
any decision passes the test, then he knows that it was a good choice.

What decisions are you presently struggling with? Take the "rocking
chair test" today and make a better decision for tomorrow.

From Lifesupport

Lifesigns Life Quotes

THERMOMETERS AND THERMOSTATS IN LIFE

Scene on the MRT - However confused the scene of our life appears, however torn we may be who now do face that scene, it can be faced, and we can go on to be whole.

Do you know the difference between a ther­mometer and a thermostat? A
thermometer simply measures the temperature. It doesn't do anything
about it.

A thermostat measures the temperature and then responds. If the
temperature is too high, a thermostat may shut off the heat. If the
temperature is too low, a thermostat may trigger heat to turn on. It
measures temperature and it does something about it.

While a thermometer is a passive tool, a thermostat is an active tool.
They both experience the temperature, but a thermostat responds.

Some people are like thermometers - they passively allow what may harm
them to just hap­pen. They have problems and difficulties and they
believe there isn't anything that can be done about it. They feel
helpless as they watch life happen. They feel as
if they have no power.

Others are more like thermostats. When they are faced with difficulty,
they kick into action. They believe that something can be done; a
solution can be found; a hurt can be healed. They respond; they make
decisions; they go into motion.

Advice columnist Ann Landers said, "If I were asked to give what I
consider the single most useful bit of advice for all humanity, it
would be this: expect trouble as an inevitable part of life. When it
comes, hold your head high, look it squarely in the eye, and say, 'I
will be bigger than you. You cannot defeat me.'" In other words,
re­spond courageously and creatively.

Do you know that you can be bigger than any trouble that comes your
way? If you have be­come stuck because you feel frightened or
helpless, it is time to respond. It is time to go into motion. It is
time to activate your faith. When you become big­ger than your
problem, it cannot defeat you.

Today - will you be a thermometer or a thermostat?

From Lifesupport

Lifesigns Life Quotes

THE LOVELIEST WORD FOR LIFE

Queen sized bed in the hotel room - One of the secrets of a long and fruitful life is to forgive everybody everything before you go to bed

A funny story has it that in 1926 Thelma Goldstein from Chicago
treated herself to her first real vacation in Florida. Unfamiliar with
the area, she wandered into a "restricted" hotel in north Miami.

Getting the attention of the manager, she said, "Excuse me, but my
name is Mrs. Goldstein and I'd like a small room for two weeks."

"I'm awfully sorry," he replied, "but all our rooms are occupied."

Just then a man came down the stairs and checked out.

"What luck!" Mrs. Goldstein smiled. "Now there's a room."

"I'm sorry ma'am, but there are no rooms available. This hotel is
restricted. No Jews allowed."

"Jewish? Who's Jewish? I happen to be Catholic."

"I find that hard to believe, Mrs. Goldstein. Let me ask you, who was
the son of God?"

"Jesus," she answered.

"Where was he born?" he man continued.

"In a stable."

"And why was he born in a stable?"

"Because a schmuck like you wouldn't let a Jew rent a room in his
hotel!"

Poet Carl Sandburg was speaking in Hendersonville, North Carolina,
when he was asked an unusual question: "What is the ugliest word in
the English language?" How would you answer that question? Sandburg
struggled for a moment. "The ugliest, ugliest word?"

"The ugliest word," he finally answered, "is `exclusive.'"

I think he is right. A group that is exclusive includes some people
and shuts out others. Its doors are open only to a few. It separates
people into favorable and less favorable categories. It differentiates
between "our kind" and "those others."

If "exclusive" is the ugliest word in the language, would "inclusive"
be the loveliest? Is the loveliest thought one that shuts out nobody?
The loveliest act one that brings in everybody? The loveliest place
one where we all belong?

If so, then the loveliest world is one that includes all of us...
fully... no exceptions. And THAT...is a beautiful thought.

From Lifesupport

Lifesigns Life Quotes

YOU ARE ONE OF US IN LIFE

Sofa and table in the hotel room - The single most powerful tool for winning a negotiation is the ability to get up and walk away from the table without a deal

Salt Lake City, Utah, is a worldwide center for genealogical research.
Even the big department stores sell genealogy supplies.

One newcomer to Salt Lake City, and a non-researcher, got a job as a
clerk at one of those big department stores. She received her
introduction to genealogy one day when a customer came into the store
and asked, "Where do I find the family group sheets?"

The new clerk, with a shocked look on her face, answered, "Family
group sheets? All we carry are the king, queen, double and twin-size
sheets."

Maybe family sized bedding is taking closeness a bit far! But having
family or close friends is one of the essential needs of all people.
We long for emotional support and intimacy.

Most of us are familiar with studies that have shown that people
suffering from cancer or vascular problems have a higher survival rate
when they enjoy a strong support system of family and friends. People
need people.

Moreover, a supportive wider community can also be important. Not long
ago, scores of people gathered on a California beach, lighting candles
and lifting voices in song. Mostly strangers to one another, they came
there to grieve the loss of 88 persons who died when a jetliner
crashed into the ocean off their coast. They were not even family and
friends of the victims - simply concerned residents who cared.

"Your joy, your pain, your loss, your gain - are ours...for you are
one of us." That is the powerful message of family. At its best, even
an Internet family can help fill our need for closeness. Your joy,
your pain, your loss, your gain - can be shared. You belong. And
together, we'll celebrate it! Or, we will get through it.

From Lifesupport

Lifesigns Life Quotes

LIVING FULLY FOR LIFE

BBQ chicken rice set meal for dinner - 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.

Do you feel your life is all it can be? Do you yearn for life to be
fuller? A friend once re­cited this poem to me:

There once was a cautious gal,
who never romped or played;
She never drank, she never smoked,
from the path she never strayed.

So when she passed away
the insurance was denied;
For since she never really lived
they claimed she never died!

Of course, I don't think these behaviors de­scribe quality living, but
I do think most people want to experience life as fully as possible.
This has always been the case. Even two thousand years ago, Jesus,
that great lover of life, recog­nized our universal yearning for life
when he said, "I have come that they might have life and have it more
abundantly."

And, of course, "romping," "playing," and "straying from the path"
have little to do with how fully one experiences life. Abundant living
is more about how we love the other people on this planet, how we care
for ourselves and how well we honor our God. It has to do with joy and
laughter, kind­ness, forgiveness and peace. It means taking time for
what is truly necessary.

One man was asked if he believed in life after death. His wife spoke
first. "Life after death?" she said. "He doesn't even believe in life
after din­ner!"

I believe in life after death. But I also be­lieve in life before
death. Abundant and full and beginning today.

From Lifesupport

Lifesigns Life Quotes

ONE OF YOUR GREATEST ASSETS FOR LIFE

Passengers on the MRT subway - I don't want to be a passenger in my own life

One of your greatest assets is...your imagination!

In his book THE WINNER'S EDGE, writer Denis Waitley tells of high
school basketball players who were divided into three groups.
Group One was told not to practice shooting free throws for one
month. Group Two was told to practice shooting free throws in the
gym every afternoon for a month. Group Three was told to
"imagine" shooting free throws every afternoon for one hour for a
month.

The results? Group One slipped slightly in their percentage
free-throw average. Group Two increased about two percentage
points. Group Three also increased about two percentage points.

Do you want to excel at some endeavor? Or perhaps improve or
change something about yourself? Is there a skill you'd like to
perfect? Or maybe you want to replace your fear of
something, such as speaking in public or heading up a project,
with more confidence and courage. If so, then mental practice,
visioning success, is as important as physical practice. The time
you spend "seeing" in your mind what you are trying to accomplish
actually helps to bring it to pass.

Imagine your success. Visualize doing that thing you fear. Get it
in your mind. Then imagine your success in that area again and
again, like free throws going into the basket. In a short time,
you'll likely discover that things really did change for you!

Anatole France said, "To know is nothing at all; to imagine is
everything." Whatever you desire begins in the mind.
You can IMAGINE what will follow!

From Lifesupport

Lifesigns Life Quotes

STICK TOGETHER FOR LIFE

IT hardware equipment rack - Most people are unable to write because they are unable to think, and they are unable to think because they congenitally lack the equipment to do so, just as they congenitally lack the equipment to fly over the moon.

An old story is told of two men who went fishing in a small boat. The
day was uneventful until one of them hooked a huge fish, which, in the
strug­gle, pulled him overboard! He couldn't swim and began to panic.

"Help!" he yelled. "Save me!"

The friend reached over and grabbed the man by the hair to pull him
closer to the boat. But when he tugged, the man's toupee came off and
he slipped down under the water again.

He came up shouting, "Hey, help me! I can't swim!"

So the friend reached down again and this time latched onto the
struggling man's arm. But when he pulled, the arm came off! It was an
arti­fi­cial limb.

The drowning man continued to kick and thrash around and his friend
reached out a third time. This time he grabbed a leg and pulled. You
guessed it -- he pulled off a wooden leg!

The man continued splashing and sputter­ing and calling out, "Help
me!" and the friend fi­nally called back in disgust, "How can I help
you if you won't stick together?"

Similarly, how can people in marriages and families be helped when
they won't stick to­gether? How can churches, schools and businesses
get anywhere when they won't stick together? And how can a nation
function well when it can't stick together?

None of us lives in isolation. This life is a group outing. And some
conflict along the way is inevitable. But when we stick together,
beauti­ful things can hap­pen.

If you feel as if things in your life are fal­ling apart, maybe it is
because the people in your life are not sticking together!

From Lifesupport

Lifesigns Life Quotes

NOT "SKEERED OF DYIN'" IN LIFE

Gundam model kits on display - Make no display of your talents or attainments; for every one will clearly see, admire, and acknowledge them, so long as you cover them with the beautiful veil of modesty

Economist Jeremy Gluck speculated on US Federal Reserve Board Chairman
Alan Greenspan's epitaph. He decided it would probably read something
like this: "I am guardedly optimistic about the next world, but remain
cognizant of the downside risk."

Though many people feel at peace about their own eventual death,
others are concerned about the possible "downside risk." One of
humankind's greatest fears is around death and the process of dying.
Like the song "Old Man River" says:

"Ah gits weary an' sick of tryin'.
"Ah'm tired of liven' an' skeered of dyin'."

Some people believe that the most basic of human fears is the fear of
death. "Skeered of dyin'." Maybe you feel it, too.

In his later years, John Quincy Adams once remarked, "I inhabit a
weak, frail, decayed tenement battered by the winds and broken in on
by the storms, and from all I can learn, the landlord does not intend
to repair."

Though he may have held out no hope that he would not die, he
approached his own death with acceptance and a remarkable lack of
concern.

When the elderly statesman fast approached his 80th birthday, he
succinctly related his philosophy of death. The occasion happened as
he hobbled down the street one day in his favorite city of Boston,
leaning heavily on a cane, and a friend suddenly approached and
slapped him on the shoulder.

"Well, how's John Quincy Adams this morning?" the friend inquired.

The old man turned slowly, smiled and replied, "Fine, sir, fine! But
this old tenement that John Quincy lives in is not so good. The
underpinning is about to fall away. The thatch is all gone off the
roof, and the windows are so dim John Quincy can hardly see out
anymore. As a matter of fact, it wouldn't surprise me if, before the
winter's over, he had to move out. But as for John Quincy Adams, he
never was better...never was better!"

I have spent much of my life around death. I have sat with people as
they died. I have listened to others relate near-death experiences. I
have studied theology and am aware of what scriptures and religions
say about life and death. And I have come to the conclusion that death
is not to be feared. Moreover, when it is time for me to move out of
this tenement in which I am housed, I will to look forward to it
joyfully. I will say, "I never was better...never was better!"

Who is ready to live who is not ready to die?

From Lifesupport

AFFIRMATION FOR TODAY FOR LIFE

Professional Gundam modeling works on display - “I put all my genius into my life; I put only my talent into my works.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson has accurately said, "One of the illusions of life
is that the present hour is not the critical, decisive hour. Write it
on your heart that every day is the best day of the year."

Today is an important day. That problem you solve, that decision you
make, that time you enjoy can shape your whole life. The way you and I
ap­proach today, and each day, is crucial. Our lives are built by a
series of days like today.

I discovered an affirmation that can help in living each day fully:

Today I will live through the next 24 hours and not try to tackle
all of life's problems at once.

Today I will improve myself , body, mind and spirit.

Today I will refuse to spend time worrying about what might
happen if...

Today I will not imagine what I would do if things were
different. They are not dif­ferent. I will do my best with what
material I have.

Today I will find the grace to let go of resentments of others and
self-condemnation over past mistakes.

Today I will not try to change, or improve, anybody but me.

Today I will act toward others as though this will be my last day
on earth.

Today I will be unafraid. I will enjoy what is beauti­ful, and I
will be­lieve that as I give to the world, the world will give to
me.

Whether these are the best of times or the worst of times, these are
the only times we've got. Live each day fully and you will look back
on a life that made a difference.

From Lifesupport

Lifesigns Life Quotes