Faith

Are you ready for the ball to fall into your glove? Sometimes the home run ball falls into our glove; sometimes it hits us in the head. Looking up makes all the difference. We must never lose faith that today or next game or next year, our luck will change and what we’ve been waiting for will finally be ours. The moment we stop looking up expectantly, we risk losing what we’ve waited for.

- Judy Mae

The most romantic Hollywood lines of all times

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The Meaning of Life

"Dreams are necessary to life"

- Anais Nin

I love reading inspiring stories and quotations from wise men for they remind me every now and then that the world world is bigger than we are. It makes my sense of purpose stronger and makes me evaluate the life I am living. It makes me more determined and more positive. Knowing that I have a purpose in life makes me more content from day to day and feel stronger to face life's challenges.

Compassion

Who is thy neighbor? He whom thou

Hast power to aid or bless;

Whose aching heart or burning brow

Thy soothing hand may press.

Thy neighbor? Pass no mourner by;

Perhaps thou canst redeem

A breaking heart from misery;

Go share thy lot with him.

AUTHOR UNKNOWN

Using Constructive Language

A person's languange not only reflects his behavior but also influences it. Therefore, to succeed in living a positive life, one must choose and use positive words and phrases. A person needs to be aware of the words and phrases he naturally use in order to constantly remind himself to choose and use a constructive language. Lao Tzu, a philosopher and known as the Father of Taoism, once said, "Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness".

Kindness

A good character is the best tombstone. Those who loved you and were helped by you will remember you when forget-me-nots have withered. Carve your name on hearts, not on marble.

- Charles H. Spurgeon

Keynote address at the international women’s summit: Women’s Leadership on HIV and AIDS
Nairobi, Kenya
5 July 2007

Women can turn the tide in HIV/AIDS epidemic

Dr Margaret Chan
Director-General of the World Health Organization

Your Excellency, President Kibaki, honourable representatives of the Government of Kenya, representatives of the YWCA, colleagues from the United Nations system, ladies and gentlemen,

First let me thank the World YWCA Council for organizing this event, and the government of Kenya for hosting it.

In December 2003, the 3 by 5 initiative was launched here in Kenya on World AIDS Day. The initiative was the vision of my predecessor, Dr JW Lee.

At that time, more than four million Africans were in need of antiretroviral treatment. Only 100,000 of these people were receiving treatment.

The initiative did not have a perfect strategy. There was no guarantee of success.

Not every problem of eligibility, logistics, implementation, and funding had been solved.

The sceptics were certain that something so complex as antiretroviral therapy could not work in resource-poor settings.

They said doctors could not prescribe. Patients could not comply. Governments could not pay.

But an engine was set in motion. The spirit – the force that drove that engine – was pure and simple: something must be done!

The 3 by 5 initiative was also an appeal to fairness. Is it fair to deny access to life-sustaining treatment for reasons of country of birth, income level, or social status?

That argument was compelling.

Research offered simplified treatment regimens. Commitment increased, as did funds. NGOs, activists, and civil society rallied.

Drug prices dropped. People were brought back to life by these “resurrection” drugs.

Last year we saw a very important milestone. The number of people in sub-Saharan Africa receiving these drugs passed the one million mark.

That is proof of principle. It can be done.

We have seen a second milestone: a commitment to universal access to prevention, treatment, care, and support for all who need it by 2010.

We must all work together to make sure this promise is kept.

We have seen considerable progress, but we are still running behind this devastating, unforgiving epidemic.

For every person starting treatment, another six people will become newly infected within a year.

How can we catch up?

I believe there are three critical pathways to follow.

First, we must steam ahead, full power, in the quest for universal access to treatment and care. It is the only fair and humane course to take.

Second, we must seize every opportunity for prevention. This is the only way to catch up.

We need to catch up on the prevention of HIV infections in infants. The principle of fairness dictates that we do so.

Half a million infants are born with HIV each year. Around 80% of them are born in sub-Saharan Africa.

In affluent countries, mother-to-child transmission of HIV has been virtually eliminated.

( To Continue Reading this, visit http://www.who.int/dg/speeches/2007/20070705_nairobi/en/index.html )

The Old Phone

When I was quite young, my father had one of the first telephones in our neighborhood. I remember the polished, old case fastened to the wall. The shiny receiver hung on the side of the box. I was too little to reach the telephone, but used to listen with fascination when my mother talked to it.

Then I discovered that somewhere inside the wonderful device lived an amazing person. Her name was "Information Please" and there was nothing she did not know. Information Please could supply anyone's number and the correct time.

My personal experience with the genie-in-a-bottle came one day while my mother was visiting a neighbor. Amusing myself at the tool bench in the basement, I whacked my finger with a hammer, the pain was terrible, but there seemed no point in crying because there was no one home to give sympathy.

I walked around the house sucking my throbbing finger, finally arriving at the stairway. The telephone! Quickly, I ran for the footstool in the parlor and dragged it to the landing Climbing up, I unhooked the receiver in the parlor and held it to my ear. "Information, please" I said into the mouthpiece just above my head.

A click or two and a small clear voice spoke into my ear.

"Information."

"I hurt my finger..." I wailed into the phone, the tears came readily enough now that I had an audience.

"Isn't your mother home?" came the question.

"Nobody's home but me," I blubbered.

"Are you bleeding?" the voice asked.

"No," I replied. "I hit my finger with the hammer and it hurts."

"Can you open the icebox?" she asked.

I said I could.

"Then chip off a little bit of ice and hold it to your finger," said the voice.

After that, I called "Information Please" for everything. I asked her for help with my geography, and she told me where Philadelphia was. She helped me with my math. She told me my pet chipmunk that I had caught in the park just the day before, would eat fruit and nuts.

Then, there was the time Petey, our pet canary, died. I called, Information Please," and told her the sad story. She listened, and then said things grown-ups say to soothe a child. But I was not consoled. I asked her, "Why is it that birds should sing so beautifully and bring joy to all families, only to end up as a heap of feathers on the bottom of a cage?"

She must have sensed my deep concern, for she said quietly, "Wayne always remember that there are other worlds to sing in."

Somehow I felt better.

Another day I was on the telephone, "Information Please."

"Information," said in the now familiar voice. "How do I spell fix?" I asked.

All this took place in a small town in the Pacific Northwest. When I was nine years old, we moved across the country to Boston. I missed my friend very much. "Information Please" belonged in that old wooden box back home and I somehow never thought of trying the shiny new phone that sat on the table in the hall. As I grew into my teens, the memories of those childhood conversations never really left me.

Often, in moments of doubt and perplexity I would recall the serene sense of security I had then. I appreciated now how patient, understanding, and kind she was to have spent her time on a little boy.

A few years later, on my way west to college, my plane put down in Seattle. I had about a half-hour or so between planes. I spent 15 minutes or so on the phone with my sister, who lived there now. Then without thinking what I was doing, I dialed my hometown Operator and said, "Information Please."

Miraculously, I heard the small, clear voice I knew so well.

"Information."

I hadn't planned this, but I heard myself saying, "Could you please tell me how to spell fix?"

There was a long pause. Then came the soft spoken answer, "I guess your finger must have healed by now."

I laughed, "So it's really you," I said. "I wonder if you have any idea how much you meant to me during that time?"

I wonder," she said, "if you know how much your call meant to me. I never had any children and I used to look forward to your calls."

I told her how often I had thought of her over the years and I asked if I could call her again when I came back to visit my sister.

"Please do", she said. "Just ask for Sally."

Three months later I was back in Seattle. A different voice answered "Information." I asked for Sally.

"Are you a friend?" she said.

"Yes, a very old friend," I answered.

"I'm sorry to have to tell you this," she said. "Sally had been working part-time the last few years because she was sick. She died five weeks ago."

Before I could hang up she said, "Wait a minute, did you say your name was Wayne?" "Yes." I answered.

"Well, Sally left a message for you. She wrote it down in case you called.

Let me read it to you."

The note said, "Tell him there are other worlds to sing in.

He'll know what I mean." I thanked her and hung up. I knew what Sally meant.

Never underestimate the impression you may make on others.

Whose life have you touched today?

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