Life Happens

“Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.” - John Lennon

We can spend tons of time to plan and plan even more on how we want life to be. Some of those plans become reality and others do not. But as we go about charting our future, life rolls along at its own pace adding excitement to our planning; adding adventure to the process. How you react and adapt to what life does will help determine the success or failure of your plans. All of this occurs in big ways and in smaller portions of your daily living.

It could be a major breakthrough or a large disaster that changes the course of everything around you.

It could be an important day at work and spilling your morning coffee on your clothes.

Big or little, it is just life rolling along.

You can choose to lay down in misery and wallow in self despair. Or you can choose to rise above it all, to learn and move on. Maybe you won a major lottery jackpot, how are you going to react. Many of us would naturally be jumping for joy. Yet what type of person are you going to be once the cheers of congratulation fade away?

Everything can change in an instant, everything can change in small ways, it is what life does to us.

Prepare yourself to adapt to those changes and to sense when changes begin to occur. Keep your attitude strong through both the good and the bad. The excitement of change awaits around every corner and behind every door. When change happens, movement occurs and so will you. Boldly accept the challenge of life and thrill at the moments which await you.

Stay inspired my friends!

Our Enthusiasm

"If you are not getting as much from life as you want to, then examine the state of your enthusiasm." - Norman Vincent Peale

Enthusiasm is what could be referred to as "that rare and wonderful fire in the chest feeling, which can be explained biologically." When we experience emotions, both negative and positive; there are neurotransmitters released by specific parts of our brain into the central nervous system.

Every emotion we are capable of and our reaction to any situation we may encounter, causes this release of chemicals specific to the stimuli encountered. Any previous experience we have had including instinctive reactions, add to the mix of what the brain eventually decides to release.

The brain can produce several mixes of both stress hormones and what could be termed "happy" ones. This combination can really excite cells within many of the areas affected, especially your stomach, heart, lungs, skin, (even intestines, at times) creating a wonderful feeling of a fire burning within.

So you may ask what this has to do with getting more out of life. When you are seemingly just not getting anywhere with your life. When you perceive that things just don't seem to be happening, it could mean it is time to charge up that biological enthusiasm.

How can you do that?

By making a change in your life of some kind. To stir those biological mixtures, bringing change will cause a range of emotions that can generate enthusiasm. About now you are wondering, "what the heck does he mean?"

If you are doing the same thing, over and over...the stimuli becomes common place. You just do not get any excitement from doing the same over and over again. But changing the pattern can cause a bit of excitement or 'danger' into the scheme. This causes the rush of chemicals that can get you moving again.

Maybe it is simple as rearranging your desk at work, a different route home or exercising instead of watching television. At the extreme end, maybe it is a new job, a different home or changing your goals.

The big thing about pulling yourself out of a lack of enthusiasm is that 'change' will have to happen. With change, a new range of emotions and feelings will occur. Within that cloud of new feelings, find the ones which motivate you towards something greater. In this new found enthusiasm you will reach out for more and find greater satisfaction in your life.

Stay inspired my friends!

Life Equals Risk

Reuters

"Only those who will risk going too far 

can possibly find out how far one can go." - T. S. Eliot

Life is full of risk.

We can sit idle in our chair, watching all of it pass by us.

Or we can stand up and start stepping towards something greater.

It is your choice.

Do not be defined by others.

Stay inspired my friends.

Friends Around Your Table

The friends around the table, St. Jacut

"Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival." - C. S. Lewis

As I sit writing this morning, there is a cool breeze through the open window. The sounds of the gathering day echo from the street below. It is my last morning in Curitiba, Brazil and those sounds are different but also quite familiar to the ear. While the language is Portuguese, the ebb and flow is very comforting.

A laborer power washing a building wall.

A woman shuffling her children into the car.

A plane in the distance approaching to land at the local airport.

The other is the sound of our families former neighbors and good friends Annie and Dave Spell. It is here to Brazil that they moved over a year ago. It is here that they now call home in Curitiba. It is amusing to me that I have flown 4691 miles in order to see my neighbors.

Yet friendship has that ability, to cross thousands of miles in separation or to simply cross the street. Friendship is a powerful part of our lives as humans.

In an article by Tarra Conte, she outlines five important values of having friendship with others.

Concern: a matter that engages a person's attention, interest, or care, or that affects a person's welfare or happiness.

Compassion: a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering.

Honesty: truthfulness, sincerity, or frankness. You may have heard that this is the best policy, even if the truth hurts.

Understanding: a state of cooperative or mutually tolerant relations between people. The word "tolerant" in this definition made me laugh.

Support: to sustain (a person, the mind, spirits, courage, etc.) under trial or affliction.

For my wife and I, friends matter. And whether they be friends found around the kitchen table, neighbors living around the corner from you or living thousands of miles away in Brazil; our connection to others is what makes living life great.

I hope the same for each of you. That life presents you with a large basket full of friends, near and far. For you not only have friends, but you are also a friend to them.

Stay friendly my friends!

SIDE NOTE: Our friends Dave and Annie Spell are doing great missions work in Brazil, working with Ps Ronald Berg and the C3 Church Curitiba. If you wish to support their efforts, a small (or large) donation is greatly appreciated. For those in the United States, your gift is tax deductible.

Yes Virginia

“Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before! What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas...perhaps...means a little bit more!” ― Dr. Seuss, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

I have always enjoyed the message in this story from New York's THE SUN newspaper and as such I share it with you.

Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus.

Eight-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of New York's Sun, and the quick response was printed as an unsigned editorial Sept. 21, 1897. The work of veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church has since become history's most reprinted newspaper editorial, appearing in part or whole in dozens of languages in books, movies, and other editorials, and on posters and stamps.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
DEAR EDITOR:
I am 8 years old.
Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.'
Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?

VIRGINIA O'HANLON.
115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET.

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VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

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Have a joyous Christmas and Holiday season full of life, love, generosity and devotion. Stay inspired my friends.

Our Lives Are Songs

By Thomas Gibbons

Our lives are songs:
God writes the words,
And we set them to music at leisure;
And the song is sad, or the song is glad,
As we choose to fashion the measure.

We must write the song
Whatever the words,
Whatever its rhyme or meter;
And if it is sad, we must make it glad,
And if sweet, we must make it sweeter.

Stay inspired my friends!

Watching Time

“Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.” ―William Penn

Time exists for everyone and everyone has a different perception of that time. For some it goes by very quickly with never enough of it. While others believe it drags on and on in slow movement.

I believe though that we should use the time we have to be of good nature. We should be positive in as much as we can. We should attempt to pass goodness onto others.

In all cases, time will pass and there will be none left.

Make your time count for the good things and not the bad. In the end, people will remember your goodness if the majority of that time was spent in goodness. Your goodness will carry on in the lives of others.

Watch the clock if you must, but enjoy each of those ticking moments of your life. And stay inspired my friends.

Building a Roof

"We are made to persist. That's how we find out who we are." -Tobias Wolff

I will be upfront and honest with you. What I am about to describe would not have been possible for me fifteen or twenty years ago. There would have been an attempt but I simply was not the same person back in those days. But I can also say that I had my moments this time as well. So please bear with me as I tell you my tale of success.

It all started a few weeks ago, the story I am about to tell you that is.

We are new, or at least newer, homeowners after eighteen years in a much older home. Our new home has a great yard and a great deck off the back of the house. the one thing we decided to do was look into building a roof over part of the large deck. This would provide us with an open area to sit even during the rain and still enjoy the outdoors.

Plans were discussed with a friend on how we could build this new and amazing roof to enhance the deck area. All that remained was to contact our homeowner's association for approval and then pull the proper county building permit. This was going to be a "piece of cake" especially after I had spoken with a very nice man named Joel with the planning department.

I had drawn up a reasonable set of plans that would show the simple nature of the roof, how it would blend in architecturally and no other complications should ensure. Then off to the county offices, papers in hand to meet with the correct people.

After a mistake, on my part of waiting in the wrong office, I met with Joel and we drew up a quick hand drawing of the lot showing house location, etc. This was so simple he said, it should be "piece of cake."

It seemed most everyone in our county of nearly one million residents were applying for a building permit this day. But I waited patiently for my turn with the "Development Plan Review" person. When my name was incorrectly pronounced as Jocelyn instead of Joseph, I didn't respond at first. When I realized it was my name being called, the lady was clearly not happy that I could not interpret what she was saying.

Hang on I said to myself, you are almost there.

Alas, the moment we sat down I knew this was not going well and she immediately didn't like the hand drawing. The same one that the very nice man named Joel in the Planning Department had drawn for me. To shorten my story, I would need a scale drawing, two copies to be exact. It seemed that her having a bad day was going to be mine as well. And I was nearly ready to let that happen. It was on the tip of my tongue, but I held it in check.

As I left the office, she said with what seemed a smirk, "...hope to see you again real soon." I responded "...hope that your day gets better and thank you for helping me."

Yes, there could have been a scene. I could have thrown a temper tantrum. I could have allowed whatever was possibly making her day a bad one, my problem. My attitude was going to stay above the line and it did. And maybe, just maybe by keeping my attitude in check, having a bit of grace for the woman with the red pen, I helped make her day slightly better.

The next day I returned with the paperwork requested. It was a new day, new perspective, and new optimism. I breezed through the "Development Plan Review" (different lady), the "Storm/Water/Sewer Plan Review" and with a slight bump in the actual "Building Permits" only one final stage remained. I would need to speak with the "Building Inspections" folks to clear up a small issue with the existing deck.

Well over an hour wait and closing time was nearing. I was sure inspectors were out and the very nice lady at the desk offered to contact one of the gentlemen over in the offices. There were only three minor questions, but I was determined not to leave until I was certain all was complete. In a few minutes, a man walked through the door to greet me.

We both smiled and laughed a little bit. My first response to him was, "the circle is now complete." the man greeting me was Joel, the very same person I had started my odyssey with. Life is good and we shared a few laughs, got my questions answered and left very happy in spite of any bumps.

We can choose to allow circumstance to get the better of us. We can choose to allow others to dictate how we feel.

Or we can choose to overcome circumstance. We can choose to determine how we are going to feel.

Persistence and attitude, they are for you to determine, not someone else. Build a great attitude over your life to shelter you and those around you from the storms of others. And stay inspired folks and have a great day.

Whats That In My Coffee

"I wake up some mornings and sit and have my coffee and look out at my beautiful garden, and I go, 'Remember how good this is. Because you can lose it." -Jim Carrey

Not long ago, I was sitting in the morning sun drinking that first cup of coffee. A wonderful Saturday with a slight fall coolness in the air and leaves turning bright red and orange in color. The warmness of coffee was soothing and tasted wonderful in the setting as the cacophony of the day began all around me.

As I neared the end of drinking my coffee, I noticed something in the bottom of the cup. It could have been a piece of coffee bean or possibly a tiny piece of a leaf may have floated into my cup. Worse yet, maybe it was a flying insect of some sort seeking out the warmth in the steaming coffee mist. Any which way you wanted to view it, all I could say was "whats that in my coffee"?

The discovery did not cause me great alarm as the object was still in the cup and not inside of me. It did sort of intrigue me for a very short amount of time until I rinsed the cup and filled it once again with more coffee.

One small "something" did not change the enjoyment I had in drinking that cup of coffee.

As we live our life, each day, each week, month and year, there will be "something" that ends up in the bottom of our cup. Circumstance and other stuff will occur. Will you let those things ruin the enjoyable moments of your life? Will you let those "somethings" dictate the day?

When you find that "something" in the bottom of your cup, never mind it. Wash out the cup and fill it full once again. Enjoy the taste of the coffee, enjoy life!

Stay inspired my friends.

Painting a Life

"Painting is silent poetry, and poetry is painting that speaks." -Plutarch

From time to time, I take time off from work as many of you do, to get some much needed maintenance done around our home. I grew up on a farm and have a hard time hiring others to come in and do this kind of work. Doing the work myself is a release from the normal kind of job I get paid to perform. So it is both 'therapy' and 'enjoyable' to perform this kind of work; plus it saves money...always a good thing.

One big project I completed not long ago was painting our previous house. There were tall and short ladders, lots of paint and dodging rainy weather kept me quite busy. Yet the work progressed and slowly became a work of art so to speak. Okay, so maybe it was not a Van Gogh or Picasso painting but I did have a canvas and used both brushes and paint. I like to think of it as a minimalist painting style. I would also like to think that Dali might have been amused by the bizarre connection between a painted work of art and a house painted.

Yet painting itself is not just the applying of color to a surface such as a house or canvas. Painting is also what each of us do in creating our life. The actions and thoughts we create each day paints the type of life we have.

The canvas is your life while the paint and brushes are your actions and thoughts. If negativity pervades your mind, then your life's picture will probably contain darkness and depressing images. A positive one will create a life full of color and wonder. The images created are yours and no one else can paint the picture for you.

No one but Leonardo da Vinci could paint the Mona Lisa.

No one but Monet could have painted Water Lilies.

And no one but you can paint your own life. Only you have the ability to make your life what you want it to be.

Paint a wonderful life for yourself and those around you. Even if the picture has already been started, you have the ability to repaint; to reshape the life that has already sprung forth from you. Grab your ladders, paint cans and brushes. Your canvas is awaiting you.

Stay inspired my friends!

21 Considerations

"What we plant in the soil of contemplation, we shall reap in the harvest of action." -Meister Eckhart

1. Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully.
2. Marry a man/woman you love to talk to. As you get older, their conversational skills will be as important as any other.
3. Don't believe all you hear, spend all you have or sleep all you want.
4. When you say, 'I love you,' mean it.
5. When you say, 'I'm sorry,' look the person in the eye.
6. Be engaged at least six months before you get married.
7. Believe in love at first sight.
8. Never laugh at any one's dreams. People who don't have dreams don't have much.
9. Love deeply and passionately. You might get hurt but it's the only way to live life completely.
10. In disagreements, fight fairly. No name calling.
11. Don't judge people by their relatives.
12. Talk slowly but think quickly.
13. When someone asks you a question you don't want to answer, smile and ask, 'Why do you want to know?'
14. Remember that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
15. Say 'bless you' when you hear someone sneeze.
16. When you lose, don't lose the lesson.
17. Remember the three R's: Respect for self; Respect for others; and Responsibility for all your actions.
18. Don't let a little dispute injure a great friendship.
19. When you realize you've made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
20. Smile when picking up the phone. The caller will hear it in your voice.
21. Spend some time alone.

Take time to adjust things in your life. Be of good cheer and attitude, life will reward you many times over and stay inspired my friends.

How Many Lifetimes

"The truth is, I need 10 lifetimes to scratch the surface of the things I'd love to do."
-Bear Grylls

It is a great quote that I came back across recently. I found the context of it in a Mens Journal article I had read a couple of years ago. The man, Bear Grylls is one of those ultimate adventure guys most men would like be. Bear writes about surviving life in one of his latest books called A Survival Guide For Life; a great read for anyone.

Knowing all that he has done and hearing he would need ten lifetimes to do even more, just how many lifetimes would it take me?

We only get one life to live and the point is to make the most of that one lifetime. It certainly is not a competition of who had the most adventures. It is about how you live the adventure which is your life.

Are you doing everything you can to live a great life? Are you making an impact on the lives of others? Are you doing things that make life better for others? Are you living or just waiting?

It doesn't mean that you have to climb Mt Everest at age 23 or climbing cliffs, parachuting from helicopters, paragliding, ice climbing, or a hundred other things.

But you could!

You could also become involved in a charity that assists disabled, disadvantaged, abused or neglected young people. Possibly help a friend get a job. You could then take that once-in-a-lifetime trip to Ireland and drive on the left-hand side of the road. You can be a family man filling your kids with a lifetime of memories. Anything you choose to do is an adventure. Just fill your life with many of them.

Stay inspired my friends.

Strategy for Life

"The reason most people never reach their goals is that they don't define them, or ever seriously consider them as believable or achievable. Winners can tell you where they are going, what they plan to do along the way, and who will be sharing the adventure with them." -Denis Watley

We dream of things to come and have visions of what we want to accomplish in our life. But these dreams and visions remain just that if no action occurs. The act of taking a step towards them puts us on a journey that will eventually capture our real goal.

Yet how do we go about planning or executing a path towards those goals. In much of my reading, many of the principles I've learned come from business. It comes from those that have achieved in life with very basic steps. In today's article, I want to list these steps. Not in the 'business' vernacular, but in a way that you can adopt them in your own personal life.

For any goal to be met, you need to have a coherent strategy and method of executing those steps. Each of these are crucial in working together for success in achieving a goal or set of goals. Much of what I have read revolves around six steps through which a plan for success in achieving a goal is accomplished.

1. Develop a strategy; it may seem a very basic step, but many people go head long into something without figuring out first how to get there. When considering your vision, think about the following;

- What is the mission or purpose you want of your life?
- How does the goal fulfill that purpose?
- What lies beyond the goal or what do you envision once the goal is achieved?

2. Plan the strategy; now that you have an idea of what the strategy will be, plan how you will implement it. Translate the objectives into specific targets or short term action plans. You can even create a one-page block diagram that gives you a visual idea of where you are. With small and short action plans, accomplishing lots of little steps gives you encouragement and shows progress.

3. Align your life with the strategy; are those around you supportive and willing to come along on this journey. Giving those around you a sense of ownership and benefit will be a supportive network. If you hang around negative people, it only draws you down and hinders your ability to accomplish your goal.

4. Conduct your life with the goal in mind; find ways that will improve and boost your ability to accomplish each of the targets. In ex; if you like to read and the goal is being debt free, then reading sporting magazines all of the time isn't helping you achieve that. Maybe change subscriptions and start reading financial magazines and the like.

5. Monitor and Learn; many strategies to accomplishing something never end up looking exactly as they did when first developed. As you move forward, evaluate what is or is not working to help you achieve the goal. There is no hard fast rule that says you can't change. Change is great when applied to strengthen and improve your strategy.

6. Adapt the strategy; as you monitor and learn from your journey, write down and revise the written strategy. A lot of folks simply adjust and forget to rewrite the strategy. Then when they reach a point of being lost in their journey, they go back to the written strategy for guidance. If it is the old and original one, you will retrace steps that you either don't need to and shouldn't. This can cause you to become disheartened or discouraged. So write down, adapt the written strategy for it is your road map to where you are going.

So performing these steps doesn't require fancy charts and graphs or forms. It only requires commitment from you to take a step. It requires you to change some of what you are doing in life now and being bold to step out of the comfortable.

Once you begin moving and start seeing small accomplishments, the goal becomes much clearer and achievable. Develop a strategy for your life and achieve the seemingly impossible.

Stay inspired my friends!

Life Enjoyed

"Simply enjoy life and the great pleasures that come with it." -Karolina Kurkova

I do believe that life is meant to be lived with enjoyment. Sometimes you just need to let loose a little bit. Life needs to be fun and enjoyed.

I have heard it said that "People should feel free to be expressive more often. If they did, life would be more fun."

Enjoy your life a little more and stay inspired my friends!

Ain't Life Grand

"Life is one grand, sweet song, so start the music." -Ronald Reagan

Each of us have a way of making the blues disappear after a hard time. In music, the lyrics can tend to lift us from those sad or tough times. Finding the right song can sometimes take a lot of searching through your song lists to find just the right one.

One of those songs I have found comes from a group called Widespread Panic. The song is titled "Ain't Life Grand" and it says to me that despite all else, life really is good.

The sun came out the other day
Through those dusty clouds
And in my mind I was a child
And it felt good!

And it does feel good today. Even with many of the circumstances that can bring us down, life really is a great thing.

Remind yourself that there really are many great things you have in this life. And after you allow yourself that bit goodness inside, it will have felt good because "ain't life grand?"

Doing Life Together

"To have common glories in the past, a common will in the present; to have done great things together; to wish to do greater; these are the essential conditions which make up a people." -Joseph Ernest

I am sure you have heard that phrase before, doing life together. It is a phrase that I was reminded of just recently. I was listening to a young couple talking about how their life together was so much more by being part of a larger group. That doing life together with others had changed their lives.

The phrase is most often used in biblical terms, meaning that God never intended for people to do life alone, but to do life together in community. In the medical world, it is said that "...even though research shows that people with strong social ties live longer than those who are isolated," says Shelley Taylor, a psychologist at the University of California in Los Angeles. "Making time for close relationships is as vital as many other things people do, perhaps more important," Taylor says.

I am not talking about living alone versus living in a coupled relationship. I am talking about keeping yourself connected to other people as opposed to living life as a hermit; alone in that respect.

But why stay connected with others?

For one, to live a long life we want the quality of that life to be great. The more contact we have with others as we age, the better we can be at retaining mental sharpness. This provides us with more ability to have that quality of life. A public-health study involving more than 116,000 participants found that people with strong relationships had less mental decline and lived more active, pain-free lives without physical limitations.

It is said that your brain needs you to get out and have 1,000 daily surprises. The stimulation of interacting with others and the new, exciting things that happen. Those are the 1,000 daily surprises. Staying socially connected at work, at home, at church or just in public down at the local coffee shop is important to your life. All of these things help provide those daily surprises.


So maybe you should stop in at the local diner, have a meal, strike up a conversation with others and just do life together and not be alone so much.

Stay inspired and connected my friends.

Life Too Fast

“Slow down and enjoy life. It's not only the scenery you miss by going to fast - you also miss the sense of where you are going and why.” -Eddie Cantor

Okay, I admit that I cut my ear while shaving. I'll have to go find my owners manual and relearn how to shave before I end up really hurting myself.

But just how in the world does one cut their ear while shaving their face? It is actually pretty easy from what I just recently found out. It requires a sharp razor, an early morning hour and just being in too big of a hurry.

To be in a hurry in life doesn't allow us to see all of the little things. We miss the fact that we have a razor in our hand swinging around our face. We 'race' down the road in our car, missing the little things along the way. We miss the small interactions with other people that add up to a lot of great things.

I know that one of my issues when traveling is that I move too fast. I jump in the car and the objective is to get from point 'A' to point 'B' as quickly as possible. So many times it results in missing great things which lie between those two points.

To slow down and experience life will result in fewer missed opportunities. Those are the ones that are there but we fail to see because we simply race on past without seeing them. Slow down and allow the details to become more clear in your life. Slow down and realize that the razor in your hand could possibly cut your ear.

Slow down and see so much more in life. Don't go through life like the Keystone Cops.

Love Is on this day

Today I bring back a favorite post of mine as it reminds me of the love my mother and father had for me, my family and for others. It reminds me that love is our life.

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January 18, 2012

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Love Is a Googly-Eyed Frog

"A loving heart is the beginning of all knowledge." -Thomas Carlyle

As I continue to promote my new book "Love Is", I thought I would share some insight into the googly-eyed frog from the book. The picture I use is not of the actual art creation I made back in Kindergarten. I certainly wish it was but alas, you will have to read the book to find out why I do not have the original in my possession.

You see over my many years, I have always had the urge to be an artist. Raphael, de Goya, Monet, and Dali to name a few. There are so many others that I have come to enjoy over the years. Even in my earliest years, I felt a connection to the art one could make. I believe it is because art gave me a window to other possibilities in life.

The physical act of producing art was to me, an extension of one's imagination. A window into one's heart and soul where that imagination is birthed. And my googly-eyed frog was the earliest form of my own imagination being revealed.

Alas, I never developed a decent talent for the arts although I have dabbled in it from time to time. Painting, acting, singing, architecture and design are the purview of others. Even so, I have always relished in being close to it. To watch and be amazed by those with artistic talents.

One might suppose that I didn't try hard enough or work on the craft enough. Yet I seemed to realize early on that the various arts tend to have a natural ability that flows from the individual. It is similar to athletic ability and the great athletes in history. No, I eventually accepted the fact that my talent lay elsewhere.

My mother helped me to understand where my talents were. My father helped to build my talents. And together they gave of themselves so that I could master what it is I do today. Each of them had a loving heart to guide me early on in life. It is a loving heart for others that matters quite a bit in life. That is what "Love Is".

I would appreciate if you pass along the word of my new book. I have it available both in paperback and in eBook formats. I feel it is important to understand what love is in order to have a great life. I believe that this book will change people lives for the better. I believe it will change your life for the better.

Love Is will take you on one man's journey to find out what love really is. It will explore his life, the stories of others, and take a close look at the greatest love story ever told. So open yourself to a different and very real way of understanding what love is. After reading this book, you will have found one of the greatest things in life, which is love.

And stay inspired my friends.

Spinning Your Life

What a wonderful picture to describe many of our lives. We are running around trying to accomplish so much, just barely staying ahead of the wobbling plates. In a quote from David Lassiter, in a book in which he talks about our lives at times, he says, "we all spin all those plates. We've got the work plate, the family plate, the health plate and the friends plate. We spin too many plates. We need to pick the most important plates and begin to slow down."

Our lives are so busy and I can not say it is any worse today then it was many, many years ago. What I tend to think is that it is the same as it has always been. In Dean Sweetman's teachings on the Wheel Of Life, we need to find balance in all parts of our lives. This wheel is not the cure all and end all to our life problems. It is a tool you can use to find out where you are and to identify those areas you may need to work on.

If you want to better your own life, you need to identify those areas most important and to strike a balance. Some plates may fall and the crashing may be painful. But know that your life can be greater. Spin the plates that matter.

Stay inspired my friends.

Positive Leadership

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing; the last of the human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.” -Viktor Frankl

There are times in your life when your attitude will be tested. It may be a family issue, problems at work and sometimes it occurs in your church life. How you respond to these tests of life will dictate many times the outcome of each. It will dictate the direction of your life. The point being is that your attitude can have a huge impact upon your life.

A few years back, a friend went through a couple of job changes. They were not of his doing and he simply was caught in the circumstances of the times. He and his wife also had various challenges with children, health and the death of relatives.

They were experiencing many of the things all of us go through. Yet to compound all of that with job loss seemed too much for anyone to carry on their shoulders. It seemed that they were carrying an unfair share of life's problems. Certainly they had every right to complain. But he kept an attitude of positive thought under the pressure.

My friend lost his first job due to company layoffs, but he had positioned himself to gain another job rather quickly. In this second job, it was a good one but after a short amount of time, a returning soldier was given his job back. The employer had promised to keep both but circumstances had changed and only one could be kept. There being no room, my friend was let go. The returning soldier deserved his old job back and so my friend left with a cheerful heart.

What happend to my friend? He kept looking, kept his attitude positive and landed a job to manage another, larger company. It was a bigger position with more responsibility and leadership. It was the job that was waiting to meet up with him at the right intersection and time in life. This man will know who he is and I'm proud to know him. He is a man of great character, great attitude and a leader among those he comes in contact with.

It is those qualities by which great leaders operate. Leaders who have learned and continue to learn how to 'rule' their attitudes. These people know how they want to feel and then chose to feel that way. Their mood and choices help create the end result. You too can be that kind of person, with the right kind of attitude.

Stay inspired my friends!