Posts from — March 2008

The blurb on the back of this book says it best:  In eighteen interlocking chapters, each devoted to a single aspect of kindness, Ferrucci reveals that the kindest people are the most likely to thrive, to enable others to thrive, and to slowly but steadily turn our world away from violence, self-centeredness and narcissim — and toward love.

Encouragement Always.

We all learn by experience but some of us must go to summer school.

Encouragement Always.

Yesterday I was waiting in line at the post office when a man hobbled in on a pair of crutches.  When he approached the clerk she asked, “How are you doing today?”

He responded by saying, “I’m hopping but I am not stopping!”

Encouragement Always.

Encouragement Always.

1.  The harder you fall, the higher you bounce.  (Horace)

2.  Every moment of your life is infinitely creative and the universe is endlessly bountiful.  Just put forth a clear enough request, and everything your heart desires must come to you.  (Mohandas S. Gandhi)

3.  What we call the beginning is often the end.  And to make an end is to make a beginning.  The end is where we start from.  (T.S. Eliot)

Encouragement Always.

Do not abandon yourselves to despair.  We are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song.  (Pope John Paul II)

Encouragement Always.

There is nothing wrong with you.  You are a whole lot better than you think you are.

Encouragement Always.

One:   You will receive a body.  You may like it or hate it, but it will be yours for the entire period this time around.                      

Two:   You will learn lessons.  You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called life.  Each day in this school you will have the opportunity to learn the lessons.  You may like the lessons or you may think them irrelevant and stupid. 

Three:   There are no mistakes, only lessons.  Growth is the process of trial and error, and experimentation.  The “failed” experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiment that ultimately “works.” 

Four:  A lesson is repeated until learned.  A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it.  When you have learned it, you can then move to the next lesson. 

Five:  Learning lessons does not end.  There is no part of life that does not contain its lessons.  If you are alive, there are lessons to be learned. 

Six:  “There” is not better “here.”  When your “there” has become a “here”, you will simply obtain another “there” that will again look better than “here.” 

Seven:  Others are merely a mirror of you.  You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects something that you love or hate about yourself. 

Eight:  What you make of your life is up to you.  You have all the tools and resources you need.  What you do with them is up to you. 

Nine:  Your answers lie inside of you.  The answer to life’s questions lie inside of you.  All you need to do is look, listen and trust. 

Ten:  You will forget all of this. (Source: Unknown)

Encouragement Always.

A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling.  It seemed as one problem was solved, a new one arose.Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to boil.

In the first she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil, without saying a word.In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners.  She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl.
Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her daughter, she asked, “Tell me what you see.”

“Carrots, eggs, and coffee,” she replied.

Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft.  The mother then asked the daughter to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard boiled egg. Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma. The daughter then asked, “What does it mean, mother?”

Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity .. boiling water. Each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior, but after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened. The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water.

“Which are you?” she asked her daughter. “When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond?  Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?”

Think of this: Which am I? Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength?

Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a financial hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff? Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and hardened heart?

Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor. If you are like the bean,when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you. When the hour is the darkest and trials are their greatest, do you
elevate yourself to another level? How do you handle adversity? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?

Encouragement Always

It is the paradox of life that the way to miss pleasure is to seek it first.  The very first condition of lasting happiness is that a life should be full of purpose, aiming at something outside itself.

Encouragement Always.