Who Do You Love

"The best love is the kind that awakens the soul; that makes us reach for more, that plants the fire in our hearts and brings peace to our minds. That’s what I hope to give you forever." –The Notebook

This week is a week full of love as Valentine's Day approaches on Thursday, February 14th. It is a week in which our focus turns to the ones we love. We are reminded of why we first fell in love, of whom we love, our children, our parents and our God. It is a week in which we want to be loved and love others.

And while we will send cards and flowers, cute candy sayings and all forms of love's expressions, do we really understand what love is?

In my book Love Is, I examine what the true meaning of what love is. Can we experience love by only receiving it? Does love represent taking or giving? What do we truly obtain by accepting the power of what love can do in our lives?

There is something great packed into the words written in that book and as you will find out, words that will change your life and the way you think about love. What remains of our lives when all else is gone? If we take away possessions, notoriety and all of the other distractions that consume our life, what is always left in our life?

And it all reminds me to ask, "who do you love?"



Stay inspired my friends!

Your New Year

“The chief beauty about time is that you cannot waste it in advance. The next year, the next day, the next hour are lying ready for you, as perfect, as unspoiled, as if you had never wasted or misapplied a single moment in all your life. You can turn over a new leaf every hour if you choose.” ― Arnold Bennett

The building blocks for the year 2013 are there in front of you. They are freely there for the taking and building of a great life. Let this be the year that you build a great life, your best life.

Stay inspired my friends!

Street Sweeper

I am reminded from time to time of the words that Martin Luther King, Jr. said in 1956 during a speech in Montgomery, Alabama. It is these words that I use to remind you today of the greatness you can be regardless of where you are in life. No matter what you do in life. Or even in spite of your current condition in life.

"If it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures, like Shakespeare wrote poetry, like Beethoven composed music; sweep streets so well that all the host of heaven and earth will have to pause and say, ‘Here lived a great street sweeper, who swept his job well."

Be the best at whatever it is you do.

Where The Wind

"Go West, young man, and grow up with the country." ~John B. L. Soule

While Horace Greeley often times gets the credit for saying this famous quote, it was actually first made by John B. L. Soule. It appeared as the title to an 1851 Terre Haute Express editorial written by Mr. Soule. The quote by Horace Greeley was, "Go West, young man, Go West" and became a part of the American lexicon.

And why would I really talk about this particular quote? It was the first thing I thought of when I learned a friend was moving west with his wife. A new job that will invigorate his soul awaits him in Stillwater, OK. Gary and Marion are on a new journey of excitement; a new journey of change.

As the song from the musical Oklahoma goes;

OOOO-klahoma, where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain
And the wavin' wheat can sure smell sweet
When the wind comes right behind the rain.
Oklahoma, Ev'ry night my honey lamb and I
Sit alone and talk and watch a hawk
Makin' lazy circles in the sky.

What a great change for a man that has kept faith in his beliefs and abilities. He has certainly had to overcome the depths of self-doubt but his journey has always been an inspiration to me. So many times we teeter on the brink of allowing life to overcome us. We come perilously close to simply giving up. Yet we keep ourselves inspired and push forward.

There's never been a better time to start in life-
It ain't too early and it aint too late!
Starting as a farmer with a brand new wife-
Still be living in a brand-new state!
Brand new state-
gonna treat you great!
Gonna buy you barley, carrots and pertaters,
Pasture for the cattle, spinich and termaters,
Flowers on the prarie where the June bugs zoom,
Plen'y of air and plen'y of room,
Plen'y of room to swing a rope!
Plen'y of heart and plen'y of hope.

And no, not a new wife....but together they can change the lyric to say, "starting as a farmer with a brand new life-" Together they are planting the seeds of great new friendships. They are certainly going to be missed here in Atlanta, yet we know we haven't lost them. Once you have sown the seeds of friendship, it remains for a life time.

We also know that change happens all around us. The scenery will look different when we redirect the path of our life.

We know we belong to this life
And the life we belong to is grand!
And when we say
Yeeow! Aye-yip-aye-yo-ee-ay!
We're only sayin'
You're doin' fine, Everyone!
Yeeow!

I'm proud to know Gary and Marion; happy to see them on this new adventure. And as the song goes, "We're only sayin' - You're doin' fine." In fact, "we're all doin' fine."

Embrace the changes that can take place in your life, your best life.