HOW'S YOUR VISION IN LIFE?

Overexposed picture of papercraft smart phone - “It's good to overexpose yourself with work. But don't expose yourself too much with the press.”

One woman laughs about the time she took her 14-year-old daughter and
her daughter's best friend to a Peter, Paul and Mary concert. They
were all fans of "oldies" music from the 60's and 70's and felt lucky
to get front row seats. When they returned home, her daughter said,
"During the show, we looked back and saw hundreds of little lights
swaying to the music. At first we thought the people were holding up
cigarette lighters. Then we realized that the lights were the
reflections off all the eyeglasses in the audience." (Thanks to
"Reader's Digest")

My eyesight isn't what it used to be, either. But as Helen Keller (who
could neither hear nor see) said, "The greatest tragedy in life is
people who have sight but no vision." Maybe I should be more concerned
with my vision than with my eyesight.

There are numerous stories of people who lacked vision. A Hollywood
producer scrawled a curt rejection note on a manuscript that became
"Gone With The Wind." He had no vision for the success that movie
would enjoy.

Orville and Wilbur Wright felt excited. On December 17, 1903, they
had finally succeeded in keeping their homemade airplane in the air
for 59 seconds. Immediately, they rushed a telegram to their sister
in Dayton, Ohio, telling of this great accomplishment. The telegram
read, "First sustained flight today fifty-nine seconds. Hope to be
home by Christmas."

Upon receiving the news of the successful flight, their sister was so
excited that she rushed to the newspaper office and gave the telegram
to the editor. The next morning the newspaper headed the story:
"Popular Local Bicycle Merchants To Be Home For Holidays." The hapless
editor saw what was obvious, but missed the real story.

Vision is never about seeing the obvious. It's about looking ahead;
about seeing what is not there -- YET. It's often about seeing the
potential behind the obvious.

Like the potential in people. Spotting the potential for success in a
student who, as is obvious to everyone else, will likely fail.

Or recognizing the potential for something good to come from a
situation others are writing off as lost.

If we want to see what is really going on, we will need to learn to
spot what is not there, then act on it.

So... your eyesight may be perfect, but how's your vision?

From Lifesupport

Lifesigns Life Quotes

WE NEED EACH OTHER FOR LIFE

Paving cement road - “A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs. It's jolted by every pebble on the road.”

Many living things need each other to survive. I have lived for most
of my life near trees known as Colorado aspens. If you are familiar
with this tree, you may have noticed that it does not grow alone.
Aspens are found in clusters, or groves. We're told that the reason
for this is because aspens can multiply from the roots. They send up
lots of new shoots every year. These become saplings that grow quickly
and make new baby aspens of their own. In some groves, all of the
trees may actually be connected by their roots. It is as if they are
one tree.

Another tree, the giant California redwood, may tower 300 feet into
the sky. We've seen pictures of tunnels carved into massive trunks
wide enough to drive an automobile through. It seems they would
require the deepest of roots to anchor them against strong winds. But
instead their roots are actually shallow -- they spread out wide in
search of surface water. And they reach in all directions,
intertwining with roots of other redwoods. Locked together in this
way, all the trees support each other in wind and storms.

Aspens and redwoods never stand alone. They need one another to
survive.

People, too, are connected by a system of roots. We grow up in
families that nurture and guide us. We learn early to make friends who
support us in different ways. We are not meant to survive long without
others. And like the giant redwoods, we do best when we hold onto one
another and help each other to keep standing through life's storms. We
need others to hold us up, encourage us and to stand with us.

When I'm not doing well, it is often because I am going it alone. I
don't always let others in. I forget to ask for help; I keep my
problems to myself. And though I may not see it, others around me
might be doing the same thing.

It helps to remember how much like those trees we really are. It might
be time to let someone else help hold you up for awhile. Or perhaps
someone needs to hang on to you.

From Lifesupport

Lifesigns Life Quotes

SURPRISED BY JOY FOR LIFE

Bootleg Gundam Wing model kit - “We are each of us angels with only one wing, and we can only fly by embracing one another.”

Sometimes fact is more mysterious than fiction. I clipped a newspaper
article several years ago which tells a story that is strange... and
beautiful.

Stan heard in church about a Denver, Colorado (USA) family facing a
rather bleak Christmas holiday. Medical bills robbed them of any
extras; they would not even have a tree. Stan's pastor asked him if he
would get them that tree.

So Stan and his son Jay headed up into the Colorado Rockies in the
family pickup. However, the truck skidded off the icy road and hit a
boulder that shattered the windshield. Jay was showered by glass
slivers and suffered from shock and crash trauma. Stan was uninjured,
though somewhat shaken.

Cars sped past that day -- maybe 200 of them. Only two stopped to
help. A gentle, dark-haired woman took the boy into her car to comfort
him while her husband and another man helped Stan move his truck off
the road. Then this kind couple drove father and son to Stan's home
and quietly left without identifying themselves.

Stan was discouraged that he was unable to cut a tree for the family
that his church was trying to help. But later in the month, the pastor
asked if Stan might deliver a food basket to the same unfortunate
family. He found the house, but he could hardly find his speech when
the door opened. For standing there before him was the same couple who
had stopped to help him on the mountain road when so many others had
passed him by.

There is a strange power in love. Some folks may call it an amazing
coincidence. Others might say it was divine providence. But I choose
to think that love has its own power, and that sometimes these kinds
of mysteries are better left unanalyzed. Let them remain mysteries.
And enjoy the wonder of it all. For whenever we choose to be kind, we just might be surprised by joy.

From Lifesupport

Lifesigns Life Quotes

MILLENNIUM DREAM FOR LIFE

Stream at the beach - “In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins. Not through strength, but through persistence.”

The daughter of comedian Groucho Marx was once denied admittance to an
exclusive country club swimming pool with her friends because she and
her family were not members. Realizing what had happened, embarrassed
officials sent the Marx family an apology and an application to join.
Groucho declined the invitation with the comment, "I wouldn't want to
belong to any club that would have me as a member."

Someone still tried to smooth over the incident by persuading the
comedian to allow an application to be submitted for membership. The
country club was embarrassed further when the application was denied.
The reason? The Marx family was Jewish and the club was "restricted. "

True to form, Groucho wrote back: "My wife is not Jewish. Can she go
swimming and let our daughter wade up to her waist?"

I love his use of humor, but Groucho effectively shines a spotlight on
the prevalence and absurdity of prejudice. He must have felt, as did
Sir Isaac Newton so many years earlier, that we "build too many walls
and not enough bridges."

I yearn for a time when we courageously break down those walls that
divide and build wide bridges between one another. I long for a
super-highway of compassion and acceptance spanning our differences
that will unite us as one. As we ease into a new millennium, I dream
of an age when people will finally be connected heart to heart and
mind to mind.

My greatest desire is that we somehow learn what it means to be
family.

From Lifesupport

Lifesigns Life Quotes

HOW TO HAVE A LIFE OF JOY

Frozen hash browns for sale - “Friendship that flows from the heart cannot be frozen by adversity, as the water that flows from the spring cannot congeal in winter.”

Do you know how to have a life of joy?

A businessman on his deathbed called his friend and said, "Bill, I
want you to promise me that when I die you will have my remains
cremated." "And what," his friend asked, "do you want me to do with
your ashes?" The businessman said, "Just put them in an envelope and
mail them as taxes to the government and write on the envelope,
'NOW YOU HAVE EVERYTHING!' "

Paying taxes is not usually a joy. But GIVING can be joyful. We pay
the taxes because we have to. But when we choose to give time or
money, then giving can add to our overall happiness.

Mother Teresa teaches us an important lesson about happiness. She
was one of those people who emanated joy. Born in 1910 in Skopje,
Macedonia, she felt called as a teenager to move to Calcutta, India.
Some months later she saw a sight that completely revolutionized her
life.

Shortly after moving to Calcutta she spotted a homeless, dying woman
lying in the gutter, being eaten by rats. After seeing that,
compassion compelled her to beg an abandoned Hindu temple from the
government and convert it into a crude, make-shift hospital for the
dying. "Nobody should die alone" she would later say. Mother Teresa
went on to establish homes for the destitute dying in numerous cities.
But in spite of devoting her life to people in such dire straits, she
radiated joy and happiness.

This incredible woman was once interviewed by Malcolm Muggeridge from
the BBC News. He asked her an unusual question: "Mother Teresa, the
thing I noticed about you and the hundreds of sisters who now form
your team is that you all look so happy. Is that a put-on?"

Here was a woman who had none of the things we like to think of as
bringing happiness: a home, a family, prosperity. Rather, she lived in
near-poverty and spent her time wiping dirt and various body fluids
from half-dead cancer and leprosy victims -- and appeared to be
blissfully happy. "Is that a put-on" she was asked?

She replied, "Oh no, not at all. Nothing makes you happier than when
you really reach out in mercy to someone who is badly hurt."

She would agree that happiness does not come from acquiring, but is a
by-product of giving: time, money, love. Do you want a life of joy?
Start by giving.

From Lifesupport

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