NAMASTE FOR LIFE

Polishing wet cement - “Our modern society is engaged in polishing and decorating the cage in which man is kept imprisoned.”

Has this ever happened to you?

The day after we moved to a small town in Colorado my wife Bev did grocery shopping. We moved few food items with us so she filled four grocery carts full. She asked if she could pay with an out of state check. "We just moved here," she explained, "and don't have local checks yet."

They said, "Yes, no problem." But when she began looking for her checkbook, she discovered that she had left it at home.

All of the groceries had been checked and sacked. "I'm so sorry," she said, "I thought I had it with me. If I could just leave the groceries here for a few minutes, I'll run home and get the checkbook."

"Don't worry about it," the cashier told her. "Take the groceries home. The next time you're in the store you can pay for them."

We had just moved from a large city and she couldn't believe what she was hearing! This clerk had never seen her before. But she treated her as if she were a VIP. She was somebody!

Don't you love it when you are treated like you are somebody? Because the truth is, we are all somebody. We are all important. And maybe most businesses cannot (and should not) let everybody pay with credit, but even strangers can be treated with honor and respect.

"Namaste" is a polite Indian gesture of greeting or farewell. From Hindi, the word literally means "bowing to you." Namaste has also been used to mean "I honor the sacred that is within you." What a remarkable thing it would be to actually honor the sacred that is within each person we meet! Even strangers. Nobody would go unnoticed and everybody would count.

Here is an exercise that may dramatically change your life: for one month treat everybody you meet as if he or she is the most important person in the world. The clerk in the grocery store, your spouse and children, a teenager from the church, strangers -- honor that which is sacred in all of them.

Give your undivided attention. By your words and actions, communicate to them all how important they are to you. Show them great respect and kindness. You may be amazed at what happens to your relationships!

You may not single-handedly solve the problem of world peace -- but in one small way at least, you will make a great difference.

Namaste.

From Lifesupport.

Lifesigns Life Quotes

WEB OF LOVE FOR LIFE

BBC News red container papercraft - “Life does not accommodate you, it shatters you. It is meant to, and it couldn't do it better. Every seed destroys its container or else there would be no fruition.”

Listen to how a simple ball of yarn became a web of love for one classroom of high school students.

Their teacher seated the students in a circle on the carpeted floor. One member of the group was instructed to toss a ball of yarn to someone across the circle, holding tightly to one end. The recipient took hold of the string and listened as the one who tossed it shared something that she especially liked about him. Keeping hold of the string, he then tossed the ball across the circle to someone else and affirmed something positive about her. The ball of yarn was tossed across and around the circle until everyone had both heard and shared encouragement...and thus the yarn became a woven web of love and good feelings....

Before they went their separate ways, the teacher took scissors and snipped through the web. Each person took a piece of yarn away as a remembrance of the special words they heard. Surprisingly, many of them wore cherished pieces of yarn around their wrists for days and weeks afterward.

Every year now, students ask their teacher to end the term with the Web of Love. It has become an annual tradition in their high school! Which goes to show how much encouragement means to most people.

Why wait? We can find opportunities to affirm others throughout the day. Few people grow weary of hearing sincere appreciation and praise. And each time you give it you help to create an invisible web of love that can last a lifetime.

From Lifesupport.

Lifesigns Life Quotes

LET IT SHINE FOR LIFE!

Broken antique ceramic plates - “Love is not written on paper, for paper can be erased. Nor is it etched on stone, for stone can be broken. But it is inscribed on a heart and there it shall remain forever.”

While attending a conference, I returned to my motel room late one evening. The overhead light outside my door was burned out and I had difficulty finding the keyhole. When I managed to open the door, I felt around the wall for a light switch. I found a plate where a switch was once installed...but no switch.

Not discouraged easily, I remembered spotting a lamp by the bed when I deposited my luggage earlier in the day. I found the bed in the dark and felt around until I found the lamp, but when I switched it on, nothing happened! Now what?

Though I knew that it was dark outside my window since the outdoor light was broken, I thought that perhaps if I opened the curtains I might be able to use the light from the street to find another lamp. So I made my way slowly across the room to the drapes and...no drawstring! (Have you ever had days like that?)

I finally stumbled around until I found a desk lamp that actually worked! That evening I discovered in a whole new way just how dark the world can be and how necessary light is.

But even more necessary than physical light is the light that shines from people -- that light which illumines these dark recesses of the spirit and warms the heart. The light of love and compassion and faith. Because, for many people, the world is a dark and lonely place.

One December I received a letter from a reader in Mexico City who said this about the darkness around her: "Yesterday I bought a Christmas decoration. It's a plastic star, maybe 18 inches across, strung with small white and gold Christmas lights. I hung it in my living room window last night. It looks so beautiful from outside -- even better than I had hoped! I live on the second floor of a five-story government housing project building. The building where I live is tucked away where few people go. Not a whole lot of folks see my lighted star. As long as I have it plugged in, that star shines bravely and brightly out into the cold night. It shines on regardless of whether anyone is around to see it or not. And I know that anyone who does see it must be heartened by it -- it's that lovely.

"I got to thinking, 'Isn't that the way we should be? Shouldn't our lives in some way shine out into the cold night -- regardless of whether or not anyone admires them? It's certainly nice when someone notices us and is encouraged or heartened. But, after all, isn't it the shining itself that is most important?'"

It is the shining that is important, whether or not you feel as if you are making a difference. For someone today just may be stumbling in discouragement or sadness or fear and in need of some light.

So let your light shine. Whatever light you offer may be a beacon of hope and encouragement in someone's darkness. And if you feel that your light is no more than a candle in a forest, remember this -- there isn't enough darkness in all the world to put out the light of one small candle.

Will you let your light shine?

From Lifesupport.

Lifesigns Life Quotes

A MATTER OF TRUST FOR LIFE

Peanut the cat looking sleepy - “Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.”

During a flight between New York and Chi­cago, the captain made this announcement over the plane's intercom: "Our number four engine has just been shut off because of mechanical trouble. There is nothing to worry about, however, and we can still fin­ish the flight with just three engines. Besides, you will be reassured to know that we have four bishops on board."

An 86-year-old woman called the flight at­tendant and said, "Would you please tell the captain that I would rather have four engines and three bish­ops!" Experience taught her to place her trust in the aircraft rather than passengers -- even if they're bishops!

Experience, likewise, has taught us to be careful of what and whom we trust. We learn to be careful trusting risky investments, offers to make easy money, people we don't know, and anything that seems "too good to be true." We are sometimes even afraid to trust ourselves!

Helen Keller learned a great deal about trust in her life as one who was both sightless and deaf. She learned to trust people, upon whom she was often dependent. She learned to trust herself and lived a highly productive life in spite of her handi­capping conditions. As a noted writer and thinker, she taught us that trust is vital to any happy life.

That great woman believed there are four great things to learn in life. They are:

To think clearly without hurry or confusion;
To love everyone sincerely;
To act in everything with the highest motives;
To trust God unhesitatingly.

Trust. It is a small word which can make a big difference.

From Lifesupport.

Lifesigns Life Quotes

THE BEAUTY WAY FOR LIFE

Towering urban trees - “We say we love flowers, yet we pluck them. We say we love trees, yet we cut them down. And people still wonder why some are afraid when told they are loved.”

I guess I'm likely to put anything in my body!

I love spicy foods and Mexican foods in particular. I've "treated" friends to my favorite homemade spicy dishes. A typical reaction to a dish bathed in my hot sauce goes like this: they smile and enthusiastically try a bite; their eyes open far too wide and they begin to sweat profusely and reach for the water to put out the flames in their stomachs; then, when voice and reason return, they nod and politely say, "Tasty." They often don't come back.

One person commented, "I've heard of people who preach hellfire, but you're the only one I know who hands out samples."

Well, maybe it's not quite that bad, but I'm likely to eat most any kind of food. And though I exercise regularly, my body is starting to tell me to be more selective in my diet. I like the woman who stepped off the scale and was asked by her husband what the verdict was. "According to the height table," she replied, "I should be about six inches taller."

But more important than the food we put into our bodies are thoughts we put into our minds. Thoughts of bitterness like, "I hate her!" Thoughts of despair like, "I'll never be happy again." Thoughts of fear like, "I could never do that!" And thoughts of worry, thoughts of greed and thoughts of self-loathing. A constant diet of these killer thoughts will destroy us long before cholesterol.

The Navajo people have an expression for this. They traditionally believe that how they fill their minds will shape their lives. So they want to fill their minds only with that which is good, harmonious and edifying. They speak of "thinking in the Beauty Way" -- ridding their minds of all that is destructive and filling them with that which is good and peaceful. The Beauty Way is the way of love and contentment, peace and kindness, patience and courage.

What are you putting into your mind? James Lane Allen has said, "You are today where your thoughts have brought you; you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you." Fill your mind with life-affirming thoughts and tomorrow will find you further along the Beauty Way.

From Lifesupport.

Lifesigns Life Quotes