Saturday, April 16, 2011

Real optimism is...

Real optimism is aware of problems but recognizes solutions; knows about difficulties but believes they can be overcome; sees the negatives, but accentuates the positives; is exposed to the worst but expects the best; has reason to complain, but chooses to smile. – William Arthur Ward

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Riding Out Life's Tsunamis

Riding Out Life's Tsunamis

It has been over a month now since a powerful magnitude-9.0 earthquake and tsunami devastated Japan. The confirmed death toll is over 13,000 and continues to rise. In the midst of all the horror stories are occasional heroic tales of survival and rescue. One of the most fascinating is that of Susumu Sugawara.

The 64-year-old Sugawara is the owner-operator of a small boat named "Sunflower." After the massive earthquake and in view of the tsunami warnings being broadcast, he had to make a quick decision. Should he head for high ground on his island of Oshima? Should he put his boat to sea and try to ride out the fury? His chose to launch his boat and head for deep water offshore.


"I knew if I didn't save my boat," he told a CNN reporter, "my island would be isolated and in trouble." So he ran to his 42-year-old craft that can hold about 20 people at a time and went full-throttle toward the deadly waves that would kill people whose names and faces he knew. Then he saw the wall of water.

Accustomed to waves ten to twelve feet high, this one was fully 50 to 60 feet high. Sugawara knew that he and his boat could easily wind up at the bottom of the sea. He drove straight for it - "climbing the wave like a mountain," as he put it. And the mountain seemed only to grow bigger and bigger. There was a huge crash of water over him. Only then could he see the horizon. He had survived!

Sugawara made his way back to his now-devastated Oshima. For the month since, he has been a lifeline by making hourly trips to the mainland to ferry people and supplies. If people can help pay for gasoline, he accepts money. If they have lost everything and can pay nothing, he still welcomes them aboard.

I'm no sailor or boat captain. I don't know if the Japanese captain made the reasonable and right decision on that fateful day. I can only report and rejoice at the outcome. He lived through the ordeal and is helping others with a sense of sensitivity to their suffering the rest of us can only admire from a distance.

Here is the lesson from this story for me: Against my hesitation and fear, it makes more sense to ride into the teeth of life's challenges than to run away.

There is a cash-flow crisis. There is an unexpected problem with a product. A major supplier has failed, or a major customer has bailed. Some executives kick into denial mode or ball up in a fetal position. Their companies fail. Leaders steer right into the problem and act with integrity to name and face the problem.

Or maybe the problem is far more serious. A spouse says the marriage is over. The police or hospital calls with a parent's worst nightmare about an arrest or accident. Maybe you get a diagnosis that sounds like a death sentence. Do you run and hide? Self-medicate with drugs or alcohol? Or do you steer into the teeth of the storm and pray for courage you have never had to display before?

"You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you stop to look fear in the face," said Eleanor Roosevelt. "You are able to say to yourself, 'I lived through this horror. I can take the next one that comes along.' You must do the thing you think you cannot do."

Rubel Shelly

Rubel Shelly is a Preacher and Professor of Religion and Philosophy located in Rochester Hills, Michigan. In addition to church and academic responsibilities, he has worked actively with such community projects as Habitat for Humanity, American Red Cross, From Nashville With Love, Metro (Nashville) Public Schools, Faith Family Medical Clinic, and Operation Andrew Ministries. To learn more about Rubel please go to: www.RubelShelly.com

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Character is ...

Character is what you are in the dark. – D. L. Moody

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...if you don't see things happening the way you want...

"My father instilled in me that if you don't see things happening the way you want them to, you get out there and make them happen."

Susan Powter
Author

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Planning, preparing, participating and receiving

The message is clear:

Plan with attitude

Prepare with aptitude

Participate with servitude

Receive with gratitude, and this should be enough to separate you from the multitudes. Krish Dhanam

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If I accept you as you are...

"If I accept you as you are, I will make you worse; however, if I treat you as though you are what you are capable of becoming, I help you become that."

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
1749-1832, Author and Philosopher

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Ten Words

Ten Words:

The most selfish one-letter word: “I” - Avoid it

The most satisfying two-letter word: “We” - Use it

The most poisonous three-letter word: “Ego” - Overcome it

The most used four-letter word: “Love” - Value it

The most pleasing five-letter word: “Smile” - Keep it

The fastest spreading six-letter word: “Rumour” - Ignore it

The hardest working seven-letter word: “Success” - Achieve it

The most enviable eight-letter word: “Jealousy” - Distance yourself from it

The most powerful nine-letter word: “Knowledge” - Acquire it

The most valued ten-letter word: “Friendship” - Maintain it

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Set your sights high...

"Set your sights high, the higher the better. Expect the most wonderful things to happen, not in the future but right now. Realize that nothing is too good. Allow absolutely nothing to hamper you or hold you up in any way."

Eileen Caddy
Author

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Repetition is the...

Repetition is the mother of learning, the father of action, which makes it the architect of accomplishment. –Zig Ziglar

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He that cannot forgive others...

He that cannot forgive others breaks the bridge over which he, himself, must pass. –Lord Herbert

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What you get by achieving your goals is...

What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals. –Zig Ziglar

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Decision is the spark that...

Decision is the spark that ingites action. Until a decision is made nothing happens. –Wilfred A. Peterson

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You can have everything in life you want if...

You can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want. –Zig Ziglar

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Faith is taking the first step...

Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase. –Martin Luther King

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Your lot in life

Regardless of your lot in life, you can build something beautiful on it. –Zig Ziglar

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There are two ways of spreading light...

There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror what reflects it. –Edith Wharton

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Our words reveal...

Our words reveal our thoughts; our manners mirror our self-esteem; our actions reflect our character; our habits predict the future. –William Arthur Ward

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The doors of wisdom are...

The doors of wisdom are never shut. –Ben Franklin

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It's not where you start...

It’s not where you start – it’s where you finish that counts. –Zig Ziglar

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Do what you can with...

Do what you can with what you have where you are. –Theordore Roosevelt

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If you don't think every day is a good day...

If you don’t think every day is a good day, just try missing one. –Cavett Robert

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Learning is not compulsory...

Learning is not compulsory…neither is survival. –W. Edwards Deming

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Time flies...

Times flies. It’s up to you to be the navigator. –Robert Orben

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Every great dream begins with a...

"Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world."

Harriet Tubman
1822-1913, Abolitionist

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Saturday, April 9, 2011

Be careful about your ego

Our ego is our silent partner – too often with a controlling interest. – Cullen Hightower

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Character Counts

The Woodsman and the Leprechaun

Long ago, a woodsman saved the life of a leprechaun and was given one wish. The woodsman thought for a long time and finally wished that each of his three daughters find a good husband.

But the leprechaun was full of games. "How am I to know what's good in your mind? I'll give them husbands, but you can name only one quality and it's got to be the same for all. What'll you have? I can make them clever, strong, beautiful, rich - you name it."

The woodsman said, "Then give me men of good character."

The leprechaun wasn't done playing. "And how am I to know what good character is?"

"Do you have children?" asked the woodsman.

"I do," said the leprechaun.

"And do you love them?"

"More than life itself."

"Then give my girls the kind of men you want for your children."

"Ah," the leprechaun said, "then you shall have honorable men with kind and loving hearts. And I'll throw in a strong conscience too."

The woodsman was a shrewd man and a good father. He knew the well-being and happiness of his children depends on the quality of their relationships. The quality of their relationships depends on the quality of the people they are with.

But what if the woodsman was asked what one quality he wants in his own daughters? As a wise father he would again ask for good character. Whether it's in one's spouse or oneself, cleverness, good looks, and money are nice, but in the end the most essential quality of a good life is good character.

This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.

Michael Josephson
www.charactercounts.org

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Use your education and success in life to help...

You have been given citizenship in a country like none other on earth, with opportunities available to you like nowhere else on earth. What will be asked of you is hard work; nothing will be handed to you… Use your education and success in life to help those still trapped in cycles of poverty and violence. Above all, never lose faith in America . Its faults are yours to fix, not to curse – General Colin Powell

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The thing always happens that you really believe in...

"The thing always happens that you really believe in; and the belief in a thing makes it happen."

Frank Lloyd Wright
1867-1959, Architect, Writer and Educator

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Hope never dies where faith is strong...

Hope never dies where faith is strong, and faith grows strong in the presence of hope. Chad Witmeyer

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When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you...

"When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hold on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn."

Harriet Beecher Stowe
1811-1896, Writer

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Do, Give, Try, Aim, and Give Thanks

Do a little more than you’re paid to. Give a little more than you have to. Try a little harder than you want to. Aim a little higher than you think possible, and give a lot of thanks to God for health, family, and friends. – Art Linkletter

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Choices

"The choices I make today will determine the rest of my life!"

Ginny Dye
Founder of The Ultimate Life Company

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The courage to succeed

If you could get up the courage to begin, you have the courage to succeed. -- David Viscott

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Happy are those who...

"Happy are those who dream dreams and are ready to pay the price to make them come true."

Leon Suenens
1904-1996, Clergyman

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Saturday, April 2, 2011

If you would hit the mark, you must ...

If you would hit the mark, you must aim a little above it; every arrow that flies feels the attraction of the earth. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

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Conquering the Stairs

Conquering the Stairs

Have you ever let fear conquer you? Well today, you're going to read about an amazing dog who helped me overcome mine.

Caspian was a new addition to my household. He had shown up in the front yard of my 100 year old Virginia farmhouse one early morning. He was skin and bones, covered with ticks, fleas and sores, and had been shot - his skinny body riddled with buckshot. I took one look at this pathetic animal and told him he was home.

It took weeks of vet treatments, baths and many bowls of food, but he finally began to look like a dog that was going to make it. His bones began to disappear, his coat took on a shine, and he became my constant shadow to show his appreciation for me saving his life. He was always with me - except when I went upstairs to my office.

My home had a wide expanse of wooden stairs that led to the 2nd floor. Caspian was terrified of them. It didn't matter what I did to build his confidence, or what wonderful tidbit of food I tempted him with, he refused to climb those stairs. He would just cower at the bottom stair and shake all over whenever I got him near them. Yet when I went up to my office, he was overcome with despair at being separated from me and laid at the bottom whimpering and whining.

I had no idea what had created this fear, and I had even less of an idea of how to conquer it. After two weeks of daily attempts, I finally gave up. If he didn't want to climb the stairs - so be it. But my only defense from his pitiful whining was to turn the music up any time I needed to be in my office. When I would leave my office and come downstairs, Caspian would erupt with frantic joy to be reunited once again.

About a month into this pattern, I was awakened one morning by a noise. I lay in bed trying to identify what it was.

Click, click, click. Silence. Click, click, click. Silence.

It kept on for close to fifteen minutes before my curiosity finally overwhelmed my desire to stay under the warm covers. I threw aside my quilt, grabbed a robe and went out to investigate. When I identified the source of the noise, I just stood there with my mouth wide open.

I watched as Caspian carefully climbed the stairs. Click, click, click. He got to the top, turned around, and then started back down. Click, click, click.

When he got to the bottom, he turned and gazed at me as if to say, It's really no big deal. I can do this!

And then he did it again, and again, and again. at least 25 more times - after already having done it for 15 minutes before I finally came to investigate.

I watched his confidence grow with each ascent and descent of the "dreaded stairs." His tongue hung out in joy and at the end his tail was wagging is triumph over his fears. He knew he would never again have to be separated from me because of the stairs.

I already loved him, but that day I gained an incredible respect for his courage and resilience. I was also challenged about what I was willing to do to overcome my fears. Was I willing to stare my fears in the face and then take the steps to overcome that fear? Was I willing to feel the fear, and then do it anyway? Was I willing to attack my fears, for as long as it took to overcome them? I made a lot of decisions that day that have given me a much richer life - and I have Caspian to thank for it!

So now I pose the same questions to you: Are you willing to stare your fears in the face and then take the steps to overcome them? Are you willing to feel the fear, and then do it anyway? Are you willing to attack your fears for as long as it takes to overcome them?

Every time you are faced with a fear, try to remember a courageous dog that was able to conquer his fears with love and determination - and then follow his lead. All of us are afraid of something in our lives. There is no shame in being afraid. The key to victory, however, is to face your fear head on and do whatever it takes to overcome it. You can let your fears stop you from achieving all you want in life, or you can follow Caspian's lead and conquer the stairs!

Ginny Dye

Ginny Dye is the Founder and CEO of The Ultimate Life Company - created to empower you to live your ultimate life! Learn from your favorite speakers, claim FREE bonuses, GET PAID, and make a difference in the world every day!

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Why were ships built?

A ship in port is safe, but that’s not what ships are built for.
Grace Hopper

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Don't hang on to resentment

"Hanging onto resentment is letting someone you despise live rent-free in your head."

Esther Lederer, a.k.a. Ann Landers
1918-2002, Syndicated Advice Columnist

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What are obstacles?

Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goals. – Sydney Smith

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Thoughts about the future

You can’t have rosy thoughts about the future when your mind is full of blues about the past. - Tidbits

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What is the difference between an obstacle and an opportunity?

"What is the difference between an obstacle and an opportunity? Our attitude toward it. Every opportunity has a difficulty, and every difficulty has an opportunity."

J. Sidlow Baxter
1903-1999, Author and Theologian

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You must see your goals clearly and specifically...

"You must see your goals clearly and specifically before you can set out for them. Hold them in your mind until they become second nature."

Les Brown
Speaker

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Building a reputation

You can’t build a reputation on what you’re going to do. Henry Ford

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How is your mind furnished?

"A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner, so if one's life is cold and bare he can blame none but himself."

Louis L'Amour
1908-1988, Novelist

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Each of us will one day be judged...

Each of us will one day be judged by our standard of life, not by our standard of living; by our measure of giving, not by our measure of wealth; by our simple goodness, not by our seeming greatness. William A. Ward

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The Daffodil Principle

The Daffodil Principle

Several times my daughter had telephoned to say, "Mother, you must come and see the daffodils before they are over." I wanted to go, but it was a two-hour drive from Laguna to Lake Arrowhead. Going and coming took most of a day - and I honestly did not have a free day until the following week.

"I will come next Tuesday," I promised, a little reluctantly, on her third call. Next Tuesday dawned cold and rainy. Still, I had promised, and so I drove the length of Route 91, continued on I-215, and finally turned onto Route 18 and began to drive up the mountain highway. The tops of the mountains were sheathed in clouds, and I had gone only a few miles when the road was completely covered with a wet, gray blanket of fog. I slowed to a crawl, my heart pounding. The road becomes narrow and winding toward the top of the mountain.

As I executed the hazardous turns at a snail's pace, I was praying to reach the turnoff at Blue Jay that would signify I had arrived. When I finally walked into Carolyn's house and hugged and greeted my grandchildren I said, "Forget the daffodils, Carolyn! The road is invisible in the clouds and fog, and there is nothing in the world except you and these darling children that I want to see bad enough to drive another inch!"

My daughter smiled calmly, "We drive in this all the time, Mother."

"Well, you won't get me back on the road until it clears - and then I'm heading for home!" I assured her.

"I was hoping you'd take me over to the garage to pick up my car. The mechanic just called, and they've finished repairing the engine," she answered.

"How far will we have to drive?" I asked cautiously.

"Just a few blocks,"Carolyn said cheerfully.

So we buckled up the children and went out to my car. "I'll drive," Carolyn offered. "I'm used to this." We got into the car, and she began driving.

In a few minutes I was aware that we were back on the Rim-of-the-World Road heading over the top of the mountain. "Where are we going?" I exclaimed, distressed to be back on the mountain road in the fog. "This isn't the way to the garage!"

"We're going to my garage the long way," Carolyn smiled, "by way of the daffodils."

"Carolyn, I said sternly, trying to sound as if I was still the mother and in charge of the situation, "please turn around. There is nothing in the world that I want to see enough to drive on this road in this weather."

"It's all right, Mother," She replied with a knowing grin. "I know what I'm doing. I promise, you will never forgive yourself if you miss this experience."

And so my sweet, darling daughter who had never given me a minute of difficulty in her whole life was suddenly in charge - and she was kidnapping me! I couldn't believe it. Like it or not, I was on the way to see some ridiculous daffodils - driving through the thick, gray silence of the mist-wrapped mountaintop at what I thought was risk to life and limb.

I muttered all the way. After about twenty minutes we turned onto a small gravel road that branched down into an oak-filled hollow on the side of the mountain. The fog had lifted a little, but the sky was lowering, gray and heavy with clouds.

We parked in a small parking lot adjoining a little stone church. From our vantage point at the top of the mountain we could see beyond us, in the mist, the crests of the San Bernardino range like the dark, humped backs of a herd of elephants. Far below us the fog-shrouded valleys, hills, and flatlands stretched away to the desert.

On the far side of the church I saw a pine-needle-covered path, with towering evergreens and manzanita bushes and an inconspicuous, lettered sign "Daffodil Garden."

We each took a child's hand, and I followed Carolyn down the path as it wound through the trees. The mountain sloped away from the side of the path in irregular dips, folds, and valleys, like a deeply creased skirt.

Live oaks, mountain laurel, shrubs, and bushes clustered in the folds, and in the gray, drizzling air, the green foliage looked dark and monochromatic. I shivered. Then we turned a corner of the path, and I looked up and gasped. Before me lay the most glorious sight, unexpectedly and completely splendid. It looked as though someone had taken a great vat of gold and poured it down over the mountain peak and slopes where it had run into every crevice and over every rise. Even in the mist-filled air, the mountainside was radiant, clothed in massive drifts and waterfalls of daffodils. The flowers were planted in majestic, swirling patterns, great ribbons and swaths of deep orange, white, lemon yellow, salmon pink, saffron, and butter yellow.

Each different-colored variety (I learned later that there were more than thirty-five varieties of daffodils in the vast display) was planted as a group so that it swirled and flowed like its own river with its own unique hue.

In the center of this incredible and dazzling display of gold, a great cascade of purple grape hyacinth flowed down like a waterfall of blossoms framed in its own rock-lined basin, weaving through the brilliant daffodils. A charming path wound throughout the garden. There were several resting stations, paved with stone and furnished with Victorian wooden benches and great tubs of coral and carmine tulips. As though this were not magnificent enough, Mother Nature had to add her own grace note - above the daffodils, a bevy of western bluebirds flitted and darted, flashing their brilliance. These charming little birds are the color of sapphires with breasts of magenta red. As they dance in the air, their colors are truly like jewels above the blowing, glowing daffodils. The effect was spectacular.

It did not matter that the sun was not shining. The brilliance of the daffodils was like the glow of the brightest sunlit day. Words, wonderful as they are, simply cannot describe the incredible beauty of that flower-bedecked mountain top.

Five acres of flowers! (This too I discovered later when some of my questions were answered.) "But who has done this?" I asked Carolyn. I was overflowing with gratitude that she brought me - even against my will. This was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

"Who?" I asked again, almost speechless with wonder, "And how, and why, and when?"

"It's just one woman," Carolyn answered. "She lives on the property. That's her home." Carolyn pointed to a well-kept A-frame house that looked small and modest in the midst of all that glory.

We walked up to the house, my mind buzzing with questions. On the patio we saw a poster. "Answers to the Questions I Know You Are Asking" was the headline. The first answer was a simple one. "50,000 bulbs," it read. The second answer was, "One at a time, by one woman, two hands, two feet, and very little brain." The third answer was, "Began in 1958."

There it was. The Daffodil Principle.

For me that moment was a life-changing experience. I thought of this woman whom I had never met, who, more than thirty-five years before, had begun - one bulb at a time - to bring her vision of beauty and joy to an obscure mountain top. One bulb at a time.

There was no other way to do it. One bulb at a time. No shortcuts - simply loving the slow process of planting. Loving the work as it unfolded.

Loving an achievement that grew so slowly and that bloomed for only three weeks of each year. Still, just planting one bulb at a time, year after year, had changed the world.

This unknown woman had forever changed the world in which she lived. She had created something of ineffable magnificence, beauty, and inspiration.

The principle her daffodil garden taught is one of the greatest principles of celebration: learning to move toward our goals and desires one step at a time - often just one baby-step at a time - learning to love the doing, learning to use the accumulation of time.

When we multiply tiny pieces of time with small increments of daily effort, we too will find we can accomplish magnificent things. We can change the world.

"Carolyn," I said that morning on the top of the mountain as we left the haven of daffodils, our minds and hearts still bathed and bemused by the splendors we had seen, "it's as though that remarkable woman has needle-pointed the earth! Decorated it. Just think of it, she planted every single bulb for more than thirty years. One bulb at a time! And that's the only way this garden could be created. Every individual bulb had to be planted. There was no way of short-circuiting that process. Five acres of blooms. That magnificent cascade of hyacinth! All, just one bulb at a time."

The thought of it filled my mind. I was suddenly overwhelmed with the implications of what I had seen. "It makes me sad in a way," I admitted to Carolyn. "What might I have accomplished if I had thought of a wonderful goal thirty-five years ago and had worked away at it 'one bulb at a time' through all those years. Just think what I might have been able to achieve!"

My wise daughter put the car into gear and summed up the message of the day in her direct way. "Start tomorrow," she said with the same knowing smile she had worn for most of the morning. Oh, profound wisdom!

It is pointless to think of the lost hours of yesterdays. The way to make learning a lesson a celebration instead of a cause for regret is to only ask, "How can I put this to use tomorrow?"

Jaroldeen Asplund Edwards

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Just don't give up trying to do what you really want to do...

"Just don't give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there's love and inspiration, I don't think you can go wrong."

Ella Fitzgerald
1917-1996, Jazz Singer

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Thinking and Performance

The way you see your future determines your thinking today. Your thinking today determines your performance today. Your performance in the todays of your life determines your future – Zig Ziglar

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Pressure, tension and discipline

"You will never be the person you can be if pressure, tension and discipline are taken out of your life."

James G. Bilkey
Author

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What is the starting point of today?

The highest point of achievement yesterday is the starting point of today – Motto of Paulist Fathers

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It's the little things...

"It's the little things that make the big things possible. Only close attention to the fine details of any operation makes the operation first class."

John Willard Marriott
1900-1985, Entrepreneur and Founder of Marriott Corporation

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Do you make the best of everything?

"The happiest people don't have the best of everything...they just make the best of everything."

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Count your joys!

"Man is fond of counting his troubles, be he does not count his joys. If he counted them up as he ought to, he would see that every lot has enough happiness provided for it." Fyodor Dostoevsky 1821-1881, Writer

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