If I Could

“To hurt is as human as to breathe.” ― J.K. Rowling

If I could, but I have no words for my words feel weak.

There is pain and sadness filling the voids of time. So many hurting from emotion, from disease, from finances, from life taking a toll. My words feel powerless to heal those that hurt.

If I could comfort more wholly those that I know, I would.

If I could comfort with deeper ability to help, I would.

Many around us hurt as we walk through life. We hurt, we comfort, we live life with all that it presents to us. Will I be able to ease your pain as you have done for me in the past? Will we be able to chase hurt completely from our lives if we try hard enough?

With the pain of hurt I know the joy of laughter, I do.

With the pain of hurt I know I am alive with hope, I do.

For those hurting from finance, from relationship, from injuries, from cancer, from the pain life inflicts; if I could, my words would heal. But my words only provide a ray of hope, a chance to know you will get beyond the hurt.

If I could, there will be words of joy in your life.

Stay inspired my friends.

What is Your Life Worth

"Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact." -William James

So the question is, "what is your life worth?"

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"A well-known speaker started off his seminar by holding up a $20.00 bill. In the room of 200, he asked, "Who would like this $20 bill?" Hands started going up. He said, "I am going to give this $20 to one of you but first, let me do this.

He proceeded to crumple up the $20 dollar bill. He then asked, "Who still wants it?" Still the hands were up in the air. Well, he replied, "What if I do this?" And he dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe. He picked it up, now crumpled and dirty. "Now, who still wants it?" Still the hands went into the air.

My friends, we have all learned a very valuable lesson. No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value. It was still worth $20.

Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled and ground into the dirt by the decisions we make and the circumstances that come our way. We feel as though we are worthless. But no matter what has happened or what will happen, you will never lose your value. Dirty or clean, crumpled or finely creased, you are still priceless to those who DO LOVE you.

The worth of our lives comes not in what we do or who we know, but by WHO WE ARE. You are special - don't EVER forget it."

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Remember this story when you are having a difficult time. Use it to encourage others and you will see the "lives it touches, the hurting hearts it speaks to or the hope that it can bring." Look at the countless good things in your life that we tend to forget. Do not wallow in the negative things that we give way too much attention to. Change and concentrate on the positive.

So the answer to "what is your life worth?"

The answer is "everything."

Keep moving forward and stay inspired my friends.

Denial Hurts

“The thing about denial is that it doesn't feel like denial when it's going on.” ―Georgina Kleege

When does denial become harmful? It does so at the point when the denial is found out to be untrue. Such is the case of Lance Armstrong and his denials of drug doping during his perceived stellar cycling career. It becomes harmful to the many that believed in his success. It becomes harmful to those that were attacked by his denials. It becomes harmful to the individual, the one making the denials.

Denial itself is simply a person's inability or unwillingness to recognize that they are unable or unwilling to face a painful reality. Denial (of reality) exists, but why?

The question is how we as intelligent humans with the ability to analyze complex information ignore facts that clearly lay in front of us? This ability to refuse seeing those facts even when ignoring them might have disastrous results.

Part of the problem is that many things are simply neither just true or false. People experience a wide range of powerful and very complex emotions. There is desire, greed, pride, revenge, need for status, shame, humiliation, and others. Each of these will command a strong influence over that person's ability to interpret facts.

Yes, we have to learn how to control those emotions and make wise decisions based upon facts. But fact-based decision-making is really in short supply because we continue to see bad decisions made based upon emotions. Researchers indicate that you can also attribute other dynamics such as ideology (substitution of belief for facts), inertia (taking the easy way out), momentum (willing obstacles out of our way), impulsiveness (now) and stubbornness (no one will change my mind). As one researcher put it, "we can easily push facts off to a far corner behind several pieces of heavy mental furniture."

Reality Bites

To admit to the reality means basically that we are potentially admitting to the limitations we may have in our life. And that can be a very restrictive feeling, so deny the facts and live in denial. The problem is that denial is not a long-term answer.

Reality will always catch up with you. You will either spend yourself into debt, eat to an unhealthy weight, destroy a relationship or found to have actually used performance enhancing drugs.

What usually follows is blame. Blame of something or someone else as the reason for your denials. It only lengthens the road to foregiveness and renewal. But blame is a subject for a different time.

My Advice

All of us will likely fall prey to denial at some point or another. The best thing you can do is learn how to control emotion over fact. Learn how to distinguish between the two. Learn how to recognize denial early on. Yes, not to go into denial is the best course you can take. But if you do, recognize it quickly, admit it quickly and seek the reality quickly.

Stay inspired my friends.