Up To You

It is easy to be miserable. It is just as easy to be happy.
Being miserable will nourish and support your ego. Being happy will bring peace and fulfillment to your spirit.

Being miserable can be very dramatic, complicated and sophisticated. It can make you appear quite impressive to other people.

Being happy, on the other hand, is an expression of simplicity and freedom and joy. Chances are, others could be suspicious or resentful.

Once you have chosen to be miserable, it will require a great deal of energy and effort to maintain that state of misery. By contrast, when you choose happiness, that happiness actually brings additional energy and positive passion to your life.

The choice between happiness and misery is one you make in each moment, over and over again, day after day. Whether you're happy or whether you're miserable is completely up to you.

- Ralph Marston

Judgment and Understanding

On occasion, it is useful and necessary to make judgments about what other people do and say. Much of the time, though, it can be a waste of your time and energy.

In fact, one of the biggest obstacles to effective listening is the habit of continually and immediately making judgments about what is being said. When the mind is so preoccupied with judging and criticizing, it has no space left for learning and understanding.

Different people have different approaches to life and different opinions. In that diversity there is much value.

Yet when you are too quick to pass judgment, you can miss much of that value. When you become too focused on showing how clever you are or proving your point, you can pass up the opportunity to gain real wisdom.

Certainly it is appropriate and wise that you exercise judgment to prevent others from harming you or taking advantage of you. Remember, though, to balance that judgment with understanding and acceptance.

Relax your judgment and you'll increase your awareness. The more often you practice acceptance, the more wisdom and understanding you'll gain.

- Ralph Marston

I am Thankful

For the teenager who is complaining about doing dishes--
Because that means he is at home not on the streets.

For the taxes that I pay--
Because it means I am employed.

For the mess to clean after a party--
Because it means that I have been surrounded by friends.

For the clothes that fit a little too snug--
Because it means I have enough to eat.

For my shadow that watches me work--
Because it means I am out in the sunshine.

For a lawn that needs mowing, windows that need cleaning, and gutters that need fixing--
Because it means I have a home.

For all the complaining I hear about the government--
Because it means we have freedom of speech.

For the parking spot I find at the far end of the parking lot--
Because it means I am capable of walking and that I have been blessed with transportation.

For my huge heating bill--
Because it means I am warm.

For the lady behind me in church who sings off key--
Because it means I can hear.

For the pile of laundry and ironing--
Because it means I have clothes to wear.

For weariness and aching muscles at the end of the day--
Because it means I have been capable of working hard.

For the alarm that goes of in the early morning hours--
Because it means I am alive.

And finally, for too much email--
Because it means I have friends who are thinking of me!

--Author unknown

Journey with Charity

Journey quietly on your pathway to forever with charity & a smile. When you depart it will be said by all that your legacy was a better world than the one you found.

Og Mandino in "The Gift of Acabar"

A Time for Everything

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 NIV


1 There is a time for everything, and
1 a season for every activity under heaven:

2 a time to be born and a time to die,
2 time to plant and a time to uproot,

3 a time to kill and a time to heal,
3 a time to tear down and a time to build,

4 a time to weep and a time to laugh,
4 a time to mourn and a time to dance,

5 a time to scatter stones and a time
5 to gather them, a time to embrace and
5 a time to refrain,

6 a time to search and a time to give up,
6 a time to keep and a time to throw away,

7 a time to tear and a time to mend,
7 a time to be silent and a time to speak,

8 a time to love and a time to hate,
8 a time for war and a time for peace.

Pure Faith

[The void] It's that place in our lives where what we've been hanging onto . . . clinging to for dear life . . . is stripped away. It's that place in us where we let go of what we know, what we think we know, and what we want and surrender to the unknown. It is the place of saying and meaning, 'I don't know.' It means standing there with our hands empty for a while, sometimes watching everything we wanted disappear; our self image, our definition of who we thought we should be, the clones we've created of ourselves, the people we thought we had to have, the things we thought were so important to collect and surround ourselves with, the job we were certain was ours, the place we thought we'd live in all our lives. . . Surrender control to the supreme wisdom and authority of God and to the Divine in your soul. Step into the void with courage. Learn to say, I don't know. That's not blind faith. It's pure faith that will allow God and your spirit to lead you wherever your soul wants and needs to go.

Melody Beattle, "Finding Your Way Home"

IF TOMORROW NEVER COMES

If I knew it would be the last time
that I'd see you fall asleep,
I would tuck you in more tightly and pray
The Lord, your soul to keep.

If I knew it would be the last time
that I see you walk out the door,
I would give you a hug and kiss
and call you back for one more.

If I knew it would be the last time
I'd hear your voice lifted up in praise,
I would video tape each action and word,
so I could play them back day after day.

If I knew it would be the last time
I could spare an extra minute or two to stop and say
"I love you,"
instead of assuming you KNOW I do.

If I knew it would be the last time I would be there to share your day,
I'd be sure it was your best, before it slipped away.

For surely there's always
tomorrow to make up for an oversight, and we
always get a second
chance to make everything right.

There will always be another day to say "I love you"
And certainly there's another chance to ask
"Anything I can do?"

But just in case I might be wrong, and
today is all I get,
I'd like to say how much I love you
and I hope we never forget

Tomorrow is not promised to
anyone, young or old alike,
And today may be the last chance you get to
hold your loved one tight.

So if you're waiting for tomorrow,
why not do it today?
For if tomorrow never comes,
you'll surely regret the day

that you didn't take that extra time
for a smile, a hug, or a kiss.
and you were too busy to grant someone,
what turned out to be their one last wish.

So hold your loved ones close today,
whisper in their ear,
Tell them how much you love them
and that you'll always hold them dear.

Take time to say "I'm sorry," "please forgive me,"
"thank you" or "it's okay."
And if tomorrow never comes, you'll have no
regrets about today.

Original Poem : by Norma Burnett, Steelton,PA