| | Inspire
Me (February 2008)True stories, quotes and information
on inspiration, leadership and kindness to provide hope and direction in your
life.
Unconditional
Love A
story is told about a soldier who was finally coming home from the war. He called
his parents from San Francisco. Mom and Dad, I'm coming home, but I've a favor
to ask. I have a
friend I'd like to bring home with me."
"Sure,"
they replied, "we'd love to meet him."
"There's something
you should know the son continued, "he was hurt pretty badly in the fighting.
He stepped on a land mine and lost an arm and a leg. He has nowhere else to go,
and I want him to come live with us."
"I'm sorry to hear that,
son. Maybe we can help him find somewhere to live."
"No, Mom
and Dad, I want him to live with us."
"Son," said the father,
"you don't know what you're asking. Someone with such a handicap would be
a terrible burden on us. We have our own lives to live, and we can't let something
like this interfere with our lives. I think you should just come home and forget
about this guy. He'll find a way to live on his own."
At that point,
the son hung up the phone. The parents heard nothing more from him. A few days
later, however, they received a call from the San Francisco police. Their son
had died after falling from a building, they were told. The police believed it
was suicide. The grief-stricken parents flew to San Francisco and were taken to
the city morgue to identify the body of their son. They recognized him, but to
their horror they also discovered something they didn't know, their son had only
one arm and one leg.
The parents in this story are like many of us. We
find it easy to love those who are good-looking or fun to have around, but we
don't like people who inconvenience us or make us feel uncomfortable. We
would rather stay away from people who aren't as healthy, beautiful, or smart
as we are. Thankfully, there's someone who won't treat us that way. Someone who
loves us with an unconditional love that welcomes us into the forever family,
regardless of how messed up we
are.
Tonight, before you tuck yourself
in for the night, say a little prayer that God will give you the strength you
need to accept people as they are, and to help us all be more understanding of
those who are different from us!!!
THANK
YOU By
Oprah Winfrey I
live in the space of thankfulness - and I have been rewarded a million times over
for it. I started out giving thanks for small things, and the more thankful I
became, the more my bounty increased. That's because what you focus on expands,
and when you focus on the goodness in your life, you create more of it. Opportunities,
relationships, even money flowed my way when I learned to be grateful no matter
what happened in my life. "Say thank you!" Those words from my friend
and mentor Maya Angelou turned my life Around. One
day about ten years ago, I was sitting in my bathroom with the door closed and
the toilet lid down, booing and a hooing on the phone so uncontrollably that I
was incoherent. "Stop
it! Stop it right now and say thank you!" Maya chided. "But - you don't
understand," I sobbed. To
this day, I can't remember what it was that had me so far gone, which only proves
the point Maya was trying to make. "I do understand," she told me. "I
want to hear you say it now....Out loud." "Thank
you.'" Tentatively, I repeated it: "Thank you - but what am I saying
thank you for?" "You're
saying thank you," Maya said, "because your faith is so strong that
you don't doubt that whatever the problem, you'll get through it. You're saying
thank you because you know that even in the eye of the storm, God has put a rainbow
in the clouds. You're saying thank you because you know there's no problem created
that can compare to the Creator of all things. Say thank you!" So I did -
and still do. Only now I do it every day. I
kept a gratitude journal, as Sarah Ban Breathnach suggests in Simple Abundance,
list at least five things that I'm grateful for. My list includes small pleasures:
The
feel of Kentucky bluegrass under my feet (like damp silk); A walk in the w oods
with all nine of my dogs and my cocker spaniel Sophie trying to keep up; Cooking
fried green tomatoes with Stedman and eating them while they're hot; Reading a
good book and knowing another awaits. My
thank-you list also includes things too important to take for granted: An
"okay" mammogram, friends who love me, 25 years at the same job (and
loving it more than the first day I started), a chance to share my vision for
a better life, staying centered, having financial security. I
won't kid you, having money for all the things I want is a blessing. But as I
look back over my journals, which I've kept since I was 15 years old, 99 per cent
of what brought me real joy had nothing to do with money.(It had a lot to do with
food, however.) It's
not easy being grateful all the time. But it's when you feel least thankful that
you are most in need of what gratitude can give
you: PERSPECTIVE. And
as Meister Eckhart so eloquently stated: "If the only prayer you ever say
in your whole life is 'Thank you God', that would suffice."
If
I Only Had The Nerve
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Today's Empowering
Quote
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"For anyone on the downside
of advantage but filled with courage, it's possible."
--Russell Crowe
(accepting his Best Actor Oscar)
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Today's Empowering Question
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"What
can I think and do today that I have been too scared to even consider before?"
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Today's Fast Session
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In Italy, when my grandfather was only 6 years old, he had to go to work to
help support his family. He only went to school through the 7th grade. From there
on it was full time work for him. In 1926, at 18 years old he came to the New
World from the "Old Country" on a boat. He spoke not a
word of English
and had no money at all. Just a dream...
By the time he retired in 1969,
he had over $50,000 USD saved, interest from investments and from selling his
farm. The value of that money in today's dollars is over $240,000. Not bad for
a guy that had absolutely nothing going for him, huh?
Why did I tell you
this story?
Because it took courage to do all the things he did. And it
took hard work, but he was always the first one to tell you that without the hard
work and belief in his ability to get a job done, he couldn't have had the enormous
joy he got from living.
Hey... you can do anything you want to do in your
life if you'll enjoy right now for what you can, look forward with expectancy,
use the gifts and tools you've been given and accept whatever bad cards you've
been dealt. It's up to you to play them right.
So stop stewing and start
doing! You can do great things. Believe!!
When he got the farm, he had
to clear tree filled orchards so that he could grow corn and other crops. And
he didn't own any buzz saws.
It was the hard way... by hand.
And
the tree stumps?
Pulled out by huge horses and ropes. The same with the
giant boulders that dotted the fields.
It's a sad thing to watch people
become despondent with their lives. It's sad because there has never been a time
when the human race has had it so good, especially in industrialized countries.
Better tools, better education, better opportunities and better information to
help take advantage of those opportunities.
Imagine how much harder it
was to live decades ago and centuries ago. In many countries life is still the
same as it was centuries ago.
So please, keep these things in mind, consider
yourself lucky and start acting like you're lucky. Do what you fear enough and
you will have developed courage...
....Almost as if by magic.
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