TURTLES CAN'T FLY IN LIFE

Mix vegetables and sausages with rice for lunch - “An onion can make people cry but there's never been a vegetable that can make people laugh.”

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 FOR LIFE

Participants seated waiting for lunch to be served - “May the love hidden deep inside your heart find the love waiting in your dreams. May the laughter that you find in your tomorrow wipe away the pain you find in your yesterdays.”

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 FOR LIFE?

Business broadband products and services promotional booth - “The art of winning in business is in working hard - not taking things too seriously”

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" IN LIFE?

Office in a box service promotion booth - “It is high time that the ideal of success should be replaced by the ideal of service”

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 IN LIFE

Product promotion seminar - “Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it”

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

GETTING UP WHEN YOU'RE FEELING DOWN FOR LIFE

Toll free phone service promotion booth - “Procrastination is one of the most common and deadliest of diseases and its toll on success and happiness is heavy.”

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

NO ROOM IN THE BANK FOR LIFE

Wheat grass drink - “See how nature - trees, flowers, grass - grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence...we need silence to be able to touch souls.”

Is your life full and busy? If you're like me, maybe it is TOO busy.
Sometimes I fill my life so full doing things I think I SHOULD do, I don't have time for the things I WANT to do, even if some of those things are important. It seems that I have a thousand deadlines to meet, and too often I can't find enough time to write, I skip my exercise routine, or I neglect uninterrupted time spent solitude and meditation.

But it helps to remember a story about a young girl and her bank.
The little girl's father had just given her a silver dollar to put into her bank. She excitedly ran off to her room to "deposit" the coin. However, in afew minutes she returned and handed the silver coin back to her father.

"Daddy," she said sadly, "here's your dollar back. I can't get it into my bank."

"Why not?" her concerned father asked.

"It's too full," she said, obviously disappointed.

Her father accompanied her back to her room and, sure enough, her bank was too full to accept even one more coin. It was stuffed with pennies.

If your life ever like that bank? So full of errands, obligations and
activities of no lasting value, that there simply is no room left for what is truly important - the silver dollars?

Author Grenville Kleiser once said, "To live at this time is an inestimable privilege, and a sacred obligation devolves upon you to make right use of your opportunities. Today is the day in which to attempt and achieve something worthwhile."

Have you made room for a few large coins in your bank; for something you believe to be worthwhile? If not, you may have to take out a few pennies, but I suspect you will never know they are gone.

From Lifesupport

Lifesigns Life Quotes

WHEN OTHERS GRIEVE FOR LIFE

Informational brochures and pamphlets to give away - “Software suppliers are trying to make their software packages more 'user-friendly' Their best approach, so far, has been to take all the old brochures, and stamp the words, 'user-friendly' on the cover”

People should never have to suffer loss alone. Yet, how do you comfort
those who hurt? I think that offering genuine comfort to another is
one of the most important things we can do for others. And sometimes
one of the most difficult.

Experts tell us, among other things, to simply say, "I'm sorry" or "I
love you." They warn us against trying explain away the death or loss;
against theologizing or philosophizing about it. Often, the less said,
the better, so long as you are present, you care and you listen.

American poet Edgar Guest told of a neighbor by the name of Jim
Potter. Mr. Potter ran the drug store in the neighborhood where Edgar
Guest lived. Their relationship was cordial, if not deep. Mostly they
smiled and exchanged greetings when they happened to see one another.

One tragic night the poet's first-born child died. He felt crushed and
overcome with grief. Several days after the death, Guest had reason to
go to the drug store run by his neighbor. When he entered, Jim Potter
motioned for him to come behind the counter.

"Eddie," he said, "I really can't express to you the great sympathy
that I have for you at this time. All I can say is that I am terribly
sorry, and if you need for me to do anything, you can count on me."

Many years later Edgar Guest reflected on that encounter. He said,
"Just a person across the way -- a passing acquaintance. Jim Potter
may have long since forgotten that moment when he extended his hand to
me in sympathy, but I shall never forget it -- never in all my life.
To me it stands out like the silhouette of a lonely tree against a
crimson sunset."

As the poet thought back to that unhappy time, one vivid memory of a
brief and genuine moment of comfort still lingered years later. It was
a moment that meant everything to a grieving father.

Those who comfort others bring no less than a piece of heaven to
earth.

From Lifesupport

Lifesigns Life Quotes

NO ONE TO PHONE FOR LIFE

Papercraft convenience store - “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”

One afternoon after the death of her grandfather, Carol lay huddled on
her bed, sobbing forlornly. Her mother sat beside her and asked,
"What's
the matter, honey?"

"I miss my grandpa, and I miss talking to him about my problems," the
girl said.

"I know, dear," sympathized her mother. "I miss him too. But can't you
talk to me?" Carol shook her head vehemently.

"Why not?" her mother persisted.

"Because you're what we talked about," sobbed Carol.

Children may not always confide in their parents. And adults may
choose not to confide in many of their friends and family. But it is
important to have someone with whom we can be emotionally intimate.

Tragically, it has been estimated that the majority of men, and many
women, have nobody they could phone at 2:00 in the morning if their
lives fall apart. They believe there is nobody who really wants to
hear from them in a crisis. Too many of us are utterly without close
and intimate friends.

The philosopher Goethe once observed, "The world is so empty if one
thinks only of mountains, rivers and cities; but to know someone here
and there who thinks and feels with us, and who, though distant, is
close to us in spirit, this makes the earth an inhabited garden."

Who can you be vulnerable with? Is the earth, for you, more like a
lonely desert or an inhabited garden? The difference may simply be in
whom you feel free to call at your most wounded moments. Do you have
such a person? And are you such a person for someone else?

As it has been said, "A friend is someone who knows the song in your
heart and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words."
If we are to find the kind of friend who knows the song in our hearts,
we must also BE that kind of friend. And since good friends take time
to grow, today is a good day to work on those friendships.

From Lifesupport

Lifesigns Life Quotes