Rules for Living

"Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and help them to become what they are capable of being." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

That is the simple message in which everyone is capable of applying to their life.

Stay inspired my friends.

Your Fishing Boat

The American television broadcaster Hugh Downs once said, "to say my fate is not tied to your fate is like saying, 'your end of the boat is sinking." When it comes to relationships and connections to other people, each of us have an impact on what happens to others and to each of us.

We do have an ability to influence our own destiny.

This is about the choices we make. It is about how we react to the ripple of events that occur each day. Every one of those events will affect and potentially change us in slight ways.

Sometimes major changes occur in our life due to others.

Know that you are connected to many others in this world. The knots in a fishing net closest to you are your family and friends. Further out across the web of knots, your connections are the people you work with, meet at the grocery store, or encounter while driving down the road.

Our net is cast far and wide, but with loose or torn knots we fail to keep those connections. We become a fisherman without any fish to sustain our life. Keeping the knots of your fishing net secure will ensure a bountiful life.

Your net will even reach others as yet unknown to you.

Enjoy how your life impacts others and how those connections impact your own life. It is an amazing network of human interaction which makes this a great life. Stop to reflect upon the fishing net in your life and secure all the knots which bind us together.

Stay inspired my friends.

Ride Of Your Life

"It makes no sense to worry about things you have no control over because there's nothing you can do about them, and why worry about things you do control? The activity of worrying keeps you immobilized." - Wayne Dyer

The news is full of chaos and trouble. There are problems reported in Iraq, oil prices up or down, violent storms, and a hundred other things cloud our minds. Sometimes it can certainly feel like the end times described by various religions is upon us.

Heck, it makes you wonder if the Mayans were being conservative in their dates!

Yes, tongue firmly planted in cheek at this point. But all of the mayhem can overload our senses and lives. It tends to pile up on top of what we are already going through in the normal part of our life. You can wonder endlessly about these things, spending the day in worry.

In the grand scheme of things, there isn't much you can do about these things outside of your control. You can't stop the fighting in Iraq, nor keep a cyclone from bearing down upon ac ountry. You can not stop those things anymore then people before us could prevent history from happening.

While it is overwhelming, life for you can not grind to a halt. You need to keep moving forward. You need to work on those things in your life that you do have control over. And what you have control over is your attitude.

Take the energy you are pouring into worry and direct it towards moving forward. Focus it on what you can do, on where you want to be, on your journey to a great life.

History is a roller coaster of events and occurrences.

Some parts are going to be thrilling, some parts scary, but it is the ride of your life.

Change your attitude and change your life.

And stay inspired my friends.

A Carpenter's Square

“This is part of what a family is about, not just love. It's knowing that your family will be there watching out for you. Nothing else will give you that. Not money. Not fame. Not work.” ― Mitch Albom, Tuesdays with Morrie

There is much to be said about family and what it can mean in our lives. They come in all kinds of shapes and sizes. Some are idyllic while others are not quite so good. The problem is that being a part of a family is so important to our human nature.

All of us want to belong and be part of a caring and nurturing environment. We want a strong and protective father as well as a loving caring mother to heal our wounds. We want siblings who share a common bond with us.

We want family.

Some people have a pretty good and normal family life. Some people had unspeakable families in which they grew up in. And we are both a reflection of those family environments, but we do not have to be victims of either kind.

Normal is a word that comes from the Latin word normālis or made according to a carpenter's square. Everything varies from the perfect ninety degrees of this carpenter's square. The modern day definition is conforming to the standard or the common type.

Family is not perfect.

Of course not and yes, some can be downright horrible. But we need to learn from the good and bad of growing up in a family, whatever form of family it was, and improve upon it. To generationally make life better.

We will never be the perfection of Pleasantville of movie fame. Nor can we expect all things to work out as they did in the television show called The Brady Bunch.

We make family the best we can.

Every step we take in gathering our family together; parents, siblings, friends and strangers; all can come together and bond as a family unit. For better not worse, we come together as a family to protect and nurture each other. To belong to something so that we can more easily face things together and not alone.

We make family the best we can. Make your family the best it can be. It may not end up being a carpenter's square, but it will be more right than wrong. Just believe in goodness being part of a family can bring into your life.

Stay inspired my friends!