Christmas Cheer

"Christmas is the season for kindling the fire of hospitality in the hall, the genial flame of charity in the heart." - Washington Irving

The air fills with joy the closer we approach Christmas Day. It is an ever increasing sense of something greater. You see it in the faces of those at home and work. It radiates upon the faces of people you meet on the street or as you shop at the store. It is a developing glow of excitement.

Yes, Christmas cheer spreads like a dry summer wildfire, capturing the hearts of everyone.

In the famed Dickens story of Mr. Scrooge, his heart becomes filled with the spirit of Christmas. His heart gave out a cheer and covered everyone he met with it. In this time of giving both gifts and money, it is also a time of giving good cheer.

As Mr. Magoo sang in his adaptation of A Christmas Carol, "Ringle, ringle, coins when they jingle, make such a lovely sound. Give them away and nobody can rob you." Not only is Mr. Magoo speaking of money given to charity and those in need, but of heart and good will.

We each have so much inside us we can give to others which will brighten their day. We can not be robbed of these things, we can only give them away, freely, generously. By simply 'being in the season' and 'being of good cheer' becomes a gift that puts a smile on someones face.

It is a gift that you can give at any time of the year. We just happen to be more aware of if during this holiday season.

Spread cheer to those you encounter.

Spread cheer to brighten the day of others.

Spread cheer to warm your heart in this season of celebration.

And stay inspired my friends.

No Shoes

"I had the blues because I had no shoes until upon the street, I met a man who had no feet." ~ Ancient Persian Saying

How easy it is to feel sorry for ourselves. The thought that anyone could have it any worse then ourself. The drive home with miserable traffic and you really don't want to talk about what happened at work. It might be a headache you are nursing or not having enough money for a trip to the beach.

There are many things we might catch ourselves in complaint about.

We get ourselves into looking for signs that it will be a bad day. From the list below, there are plenty of us who have viewed one of these on one or more occasions as our "bad sign."

~ You watch the evening news and see they are showing emergency routes out of the city.
~ Your 4-year-old tells you it is almost impossible to flush a grapefruit down the toilet.
~ You have to sit down to brush your teeth in the morning.
~ The bird singing outside your window is a vulture.
~ Your kids begin treating you the same way you treated your parents.
~ Everyone is laughing but you.

Could it possibly be anyone is having a worse day than you?

Probably yes.

Look around you in the areas you generally don't look. The sections of town you conveniently bypass or ignore as you drive by. There he is, the disheveled man pushing a cart filled with his life. The car broken down along the side of a road with the single mom and two kids inside.

Yes, there are things much worse in life that could be happening to us.

When you think about it, life is pretty darn good if we simply take time to appreciate what we do have. I'm not here to say it can't get worse, nor am I here to say things couldn't be better. I am saying there are those that do have things a lot worse than you.

Knowing that to be the case, when you think your life is going bad, try helping someone else. No questions asked, asking nothing in return. See if that can turn your attitude about your own life around.

See if you can turn your life around by turning someone else's life around.

Stay inspired my friends!

Real Change

"Beauty is how you feel inside, and it reflects in your eyes. It is not something physical." ~ Sophia Loren

Some years ago, the city of Atlanta (Georgia, USA) had a problem on its hands. A busy street on the southeast side of downtown had become quite notorious for crime, prostitution and drugs. Such a shame because Stewart Avenue was a functional and friendly area many years prior to that.

As time progressed and attitudes changed, this once nice place to live became a haven of trouble. Things got so bad, the city of Atlanta made the decision to clean things up. Their first step was to take Stewart Avenue and rename it Metropolitan Parkway. The name was chosen to highlight wonderful institutions of higher education that held the street as their address (Atlanta Metropolitan College and Atlanta Technical College).

There you have it, change the name and all is better right?

Not hardly, change takes a lot more work and effort.

This stretch of road still has many issues and change that needs to occur. It is something very similar to what needs to happen inside each of us. When we make a decision to correct a behavior or obstacle in our life, change has to happen on the inside. We can not simply change our hair-do, clothing style or name; we have to change our attitude within. It takes determined work to make real change in our life.

Think of it as a house which has developed a termite issue. You can repaint the walls inside and out, but if you don't take care of the actual problem inside the wall, there will be continued destruction. Old habits and old destructive friends have a way of sneaking back into our lives very much like a termite inside the walls of a house.

When you decide to make change inside, the choices will be tough. You will need to leave old friends behind. Even the National Football League here in the United States provides lessons for new rookie football players to help them with these changes. Some of the lessons are to disassociate with some of your old friends that may try to hold you back.

The same can be said for anything you do in changing your life.  There are those that wish to remain behind and will instinctively try to keep you down with them or cling to you like termites in the foundation of your house.

Real change requires more than a name change, more than a new coat of paint.

Real change requires effort to change what is inside of you.

Once you find and create real beauty within, real change will occur on the outside.

Stay inspired my friends.

Don't Worry, Be ...

"Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow. It empties today of its strength."
- Corrie Ten Boom

As you go about your day, things will happen which causes worry to come upon you. It might be little things like 'did you leave a light on at home', 'should I have brought an umbrella along' or other small nuisance types of worry. These are the nagging little issues which fill the voids in our daily thoughts. There are other types of worries which impact us in much bigger ways.

Those are the types of worry that directly impact your ability to function on a daily basis. There are a hundred and one kinds of examples we could discuss. Many of you probably have one or two of those at this moment in time. It could be money, health, sex or job worries. Anything that affects your day, that impacts your ability to fully function to your best.

Yet when worry consumes your life, it can be a detriment to your quality of life. It is said in an article from NetDoctor, that "many people openly confess to being worriers. They usually make the announcement as if to suggest the world is divided into the virtuous, who fret over everything, and the feckless majority who are laid back to the point of decadence."

Much of this worry will lead to bouts of anxiety and when diagnosed is a very debilitating disorder. Anxiety can be treated and is not meant to be taken lightly. Treating anxiety is best left to professionals. What I can say is for constant everyday worry for worries sake is not productive.

The time comes when you need to apply energy consumed by worry to one of making change and improvement. Once you have identified the issue causing you worry, take a breath and look for solutions. Certainly there will be things out of your control but you do have control of you. Look for advice, look for information and look to change the situation.

Do not let worry steal your strength today. Make a change in your life and let tomorrow bring a new and brighter day.

Stay inspired my friends!