Compassion At Any Price

Things happen in life to all different people, with different backgrounds and different income levels. It is all relative to where you are in life. Take for example what happened to billionaire Steve Wynn. A great and valuable Picasso painting being shown to friends is accidentally punctured...by the owner himself!

A lot of value gone in an instant. You may think why feel bad for someone with so much money. Why not feel a bit of sorrow? A beautiful original painting that can be repaired but also it meant a lot to a person. That person may have more then you or I, but still they are a person.

There is a limit of course to the compassion, Mr. Wynn will be just fine in his loss. But when it comes to the misfortune of others, your instinct should not be to immediately 'pile on'. Find it in yourself to have a reasonable amount of sympathy. It may just be you next time having lost something of importance.

"Make no judgments where you have no compassion." - Anne McCaffrey

Make A Difference Day

"Make A Difference Day is the most encompassing national day of helping others -- a celebration of neighbors helping neighbors. Everyone can participate. Created by USA WEEKEND Magazine, Make A Difference Day is an annual event that takes place on the fourth Saturday of every October. The next event is Saturday, October 28, 2006."

Have you ever considered taking a bit of time or even a lot of your time to help someone else? Doing something for another that can use your support.

The "Make A Difference Day" is a great opportunity for people just like you around the world to do just that. So you ask what can you do? Fill a need somewhere, do something nice for someone, paint a porch, get people together and clean up that small park.

When you click on the link, you will find an Idea Generator. Something that will help spark that inner you. Just do something, get up and put away your needs for a short time. You will be amazed at the difference you can make. You will be amazed at the difference it makes in you.

“The best way to do ourselves good is to be doing good to others; the best way to gather is to scatter.” - Thomas Brooks

Cheerfulness In Life

The Swedish text is translated to say;


Cheerfulness prolongs life.
Politeness delights company.
Industriousness brings prosperity.
- Carl Damm [1828-1884], a writing tutor in Wirestad [Virestad/G], Sweden

It is said by Thomas Carlyle that "wondrous is the strength of cheerfulness, and its power of endurance - the cheerful man will do more in the same time, will do it ;better, will preserve it longer, than the sad or sullen." How often we go through life with a frown upon our lives wishing for a change that could bring happiness. For many people it is an elusive quest, this thing called happiness. Yet most fail to see that it resides within oneself, that ability to be cheerful.

Some have scoffed at my idea of happiness and cheerfulness. They say that it is easy to talk of this when things are going well. I understand the thought process they are using when saying wait until things go bad. I am here to state that things have gone bad in my life. I have suffered pain at times and understand sullenness of the heart.

My years though have taught me that to remain in a state of being glum solves nothing. It provides no opportunity for others to come into my life and lift me. Without the hope of gladness, of sunshine to once more cascade over your spirit is a terrible way to live.

Be of cheerfulness as I told a friend once. "Suffer", it was said by Aristotle, "becomes beautiful when any one bears great calamities with cheerfulness, not through insensibility, but through greatness of mind." A glad and happy heart is there if you look for it.

Choose The Beauty In Life

“There are things known and there are things unknown, and in between are the doors of perception.” - Aldous Huxley


This is one of Thomas Kuhn's Paradigm Shift examples. A whole lot of scientific theory and thought goes into that which he is famous for.

I choose to leave that to those better suited for the scientific discussion and use the example to wonder about our perception of what is before us.

The picture is two images in one. Can you see both and if so, which one do you choose? Will beauty and grace win out over somberness and seeming despair?

Both have a place in your vision and exist in most every decision you are faced with. There will be your reaction to that which is happening to you. How you choose will determine and say much about your character and ability to overcome obstacles in life.

To choose the goodness that prevails in life, to choose the best that life is all about. Do not wallow in pain and despair but rejoice in what life has for you. Embrace your life in even the worst of times and choose to see the beauty in everything.