Why can't I touch the sky ?

My six-year-old daughter Sophie and I were playing a rhyming game the other day and out of the blue she asked me, "Why can't I touch the sky?" I laughed inside and thought for a few moments. I tried to explain it from the Jack and the Beanstalk story, but she just looked at me funny. Then I tried the old earth space thing, but that was too technical. The more I tried, the clumsier it got when finally I realized I wasn't getting through.

Then I had a realization. What if my daughter had asked the same question to another six year old? What would the other child have said? Some six year olds think they know the answer to everything and its fun to listen to what they have to say. Something tells me her friend wouldn't have the slightest difficulty in explaining the answer. Chances are, they would have argued and discussed it until finally reaching agreement. I wished I could have turned the question over to an imaginary friend and then sit back and listen to the conversation.

That night while lying in bed, I kept thinking about her question and why I couldn't come up with a really cool answer. Was it because I had "grown up" and now used my imagination like an "adult"? As I grew, the maturation process obviously had boxed me in. And worse yet... I knew that someday, my little girl just might lose her pure and trusting imagination to adulthood and maybe stop asking these wonderfully creative questions.

I didn't feel like it was right that I progressed up the ladder of maturity only to lose what I feel is a very important concept: the ability to retain and possess a childlike quality to explore other possibilities. Where did my childlike imagination go? Why did it go? I thought I would ask Sophie this question to help me understand why some adults tend to lose sight of this magical way of thinking and why others make a living by it.

She looked at me with a puzzle on her face and then I knew. It never occurs to her that there's any other way. Why on earth would a six-year-old little girl dream she couldn't touch the sky unless somebody told her she couldn't?

I watch my little girl as she plays. She conducts an imaginary reading class and makes sure each doll pronounces the words correctly. She dresses her babies and gets them ready for they're day. Her imagination takes wing each and every day to places I'm not aware. Sometimes I can catch a glimpse of her inner world when we sit and talk about her day or what her plans are for tomorrow.

Remember when we were younger, when we used to talk about and imagine what we would become when we grew up? I wanted to be a policeman and my friends wanted to be fireman and race car drivers. We believed anything was possible and we could become whatever we wanted, never doubting the possibilities. As children, we dreamed big.

Children are visionaries, and it seems a little sad to think our childlike imagination seems to disappear as we grow older. As we age, the ever-increasing intrusions of the world on our minds seem to frighten that childlike imagination into full-blown retreat.

As we grew up, we learned why the sky really is blue, and why grass is green. Why flowers need sunlight and how birds really fly. We lose a little bit of the wonder of life around us as we schedule the next meeting or plan tomorrow's agenda.

I have my daughter to thank for asking her question. It connected me, once again, with my priorities. She made me think about my own potentiality and how I may be limiting myself. Maybe I need to reconnect with my childlike imagination and think more outside the box of adult creativity. If I do that, maybe I can explain in my own six-year-old way, why she can... touch the sky.

The Scorpion & The Turtle

A scorpion, being a very poor swimmer, asked a turtle to carry him on his back across a river. "Are you mad?" exclaimed the turtle. "You'll sting me while I'm swimming and I'll drown."

"My dear turtle," laughed the scorpion, "if I were to sting you, you would drown and I would go down with you. Now where is the logic in that?"

"You're right?" cried the turtle. "Hop on!" The scorpion climbed aboard and halfway across the river gave the turtle a mighty sting. As they both sank to the bottom, the turtle resignedly said:"Do you mind if I ask you something? You said there'd be no logic in your stinging me. Why did you do it?"

"It has nothing to do with logic," the drowning scorpion sadly replied."It's just in my nature."

In the last trembling moments of the turtle's existence, its life starts to play back like a movie in fast-forward. As the movie reaches its last frame, it freezes on the old adage "to try is to fail - not to try is to surrender" as the river swallows both of them in an inevitable act of nature and the soul of the turtle rejoins its creator.

This story reflects the destructive behaviour of living beings and illustrates how certain qualities can be very hard to change, if not impossible. Thus, if we are to succeed in life, we firstly must get to know ourselves - and be honest about our inclinations, preferences, and limitations. And, secondly, in working towards our goals should be considerate not hinder others in theirs.

He prayed that all your prayers be answered.

A voyaging ship was wrecked during a storm at sea and only two of the men on it were able to swim to a small, desert like island.

The two survivors, not knowing what else to do, agreed that they had no other recourse but to pray to God. However, to find out whose prayer was more powerful, they agreed to divide the territory between them and stay on opposite sides of the island.

The first thing they prayed for was food. The next morning, the first man saw a fruit-bearing tree on his side of the land, and he was able to eat its fruit. The other man’s parcel of land remained barren.

After a week, the first man was lonely and he decided to pray for a wife. The next day, another ship was wrecked, and the only survivor was a woman who swam to his side of the land. On the other side of the island, there was nothing.

Soon the first man prayed for a house, clothes, more food. The next day, like magic, all of these were given to him. However, the second man still had nothing.

Finally, the first man prayed for a ship, so that he and his wife could leave the island. In the morning, he found a ship docked at his side of the island. The first man boarded the ship with his wife and decided to leave the second man on the island.

He considered the other man unworthy to receive God’s blessings,since none of his prayers had been answered.

As the ship was about to leave, the first man heard a voice from heaven booming, “Why are you leaving your companion on the island?”

“My blessings are mine alone, since I was the one who prayed for them,” the first man answered. “His prayers were all unanswered and so he does not deserve anything.”

“You are mistaken!” the voice rebuked him. “He had only one prayer, which I answered. If not for that, you would not have received any of my blessings.”

“Tell me,” the first man asked the voice, “What did he pray for that I should owe him anything?” “He prayed that all your prayers be answered.”

For all we know, our blessings are not the fruits of our prayers alone, but those of another praying for us.

The Manager who could not write

What launched Amy Tan's career was not a big break, but a kick in the butt.

Before the million-copy sales of The Joy Luck Club, The Kitchen God's Wife and The Hundred Secret Senses, Amy Tan was a writer. A business writer. She and a partner ran a technical-writing business with lawyer-like "billable hours."

Her role with clients was largely that of account management -- but this daughter of immigrants wanted to do something more creative with words, English words.

So she made her pitch to her partner: "I want to do more writing." He declared her strength was doing estimates, going after contractors and collecting bills.

"It was horrible stuff." The very stuff Tan hated and knew she wasn't really good at. But her partner insisted that writing was her weakest skill.

"I thought, I can believe him and just keep doing this or make my demands." So she argued and stood up for her rights.

He would not give in.

Shocked, Tan said, "I quit."

And he said: "You can't quit. You're fired!" And added, "You'll never make a dime writing."

Tan set out to prove him wrong, taking on as many assignments as she could. Sometimes she worked 90 hours a week as a freelance technical writer. Being on her own was tough. But not letting others limit her or define her talents made it worthwhile. And on her own, she felt free to try fiction. And so The Joy Luck Club, featuring the bright, lonely daughter of Chinese immigrants, was born. And the manager who couldn't write became one of America's bestselling, best-loved authors.

How high can u jump ?

Flea trainers have observed a predictable and strange habit of fleas while training them.

Fleas are trained by putting them in a cardboard box with a top on it. The fleas will jump up and hit the top of the cardboard box over and over and over again.

As you watch them jump and hit the lid, something very interesting becomes obvious. The fleas continue to jump, but they are no longer jumping high enough to hit the top.

Apparently, Excedrin headache 1738 forces them to limit the height of their jump.

When you take off the lid, the fleas continue to jump, but they will not jump out of the box. They won't jump out because they can't jump out. Why? The reason is simple.

They have conditioned themselves to jump just so high. Once they have conditioned themselves to jump just so high, that's all they can do!

Many times, people do the same thing. They restrict themselves and never reach their potential. Just like the fleas, they fail to jump higher, thinking they are doing all they can do.

It was in your eyes

It was a bitter, cold evening in northern Virginia many years ago. The old man's beard was glazed by winter's frost while he waited for a ride across the river. The wait seemed endless. His body became numb and stiff from the frigid north wind.

He heard the faint, steady rhythm of approaching hooves galloping along the frozen path. Anxiously, he watched as several horsemen rounded the bend. He let the first one pass by without an effort to get his attention. Then another passed by, and another. Finally, the last rider neared the spot where the old man sat like a snow statue. As this one drew near, the old man caught the rider's eye and said, "Sir, would you mind giving an old man a ride to the other side? There doesn't appear to be a passageway by foot."

Reining his horse, the rider replied, "Sure thing. Hop aboard." Seeing the old man was unable to lift his half-frozen body from the ground, the horseman dismounted and helped the old man onto the horse. The horseman took the old man not just across the river, but to his destination, which was just a few miles away.

As they neared the tiny but cozy cottage, the horseman's curiosity caused him to inquire, "Sir, I notice that you let several other riders pass by without making an effort to secure a ride. Then I came up and you immediately asked me for a ride. I'm curious why, on such a bitter winter night, you would wait and ask the last rider. What if I had refused and left you there?"

The old man lowered himself slowly down from the horse, looked the rider straight in the eyes, and replied, "I've been around these here parts for some time. I reckon I know people pretty good." The old-timer continued, "I looked into the eyes of the other riders and immediately saw there was no concern for my situation. It would have been useless even to ask them for a ride. But when I looked into your eyes, kindness and compassion were evident. I knew, then and there, that your gentle spirit would welcome the opportunity to give me assistance in my time of need."

Those heartwarming comments touched the horseman deeply.

"I'm most grateful for what you have said," he told the old man. "May I never get too busy in my own affairs that I fail to respond to the needs of others with kindness and compassion."

With that, Thomas Jefferson turned his horse around and made his way back to the White House.

Your Permission

One day, if someone gets up on the right side of the bed and calls me and says,

"You are the greatest person on earth. You are doing a great job and I want you to know I am honored to call you a friend," I know he is sincere. How does it make me feel? Great.

But the next day, he gets up on the wrong side of the bed, picks up the phone and says, "You rascal, you cheat, you crook! You are the biggest fraud in town." How does it make me feel? Terrible.

So the first day when he says "you are the greatest guy," I feel great and the next day when he says "you rascal," I feel terrible. Who is controlling my life? Obviously, he is.

Is that the way I want to go through life? Not at all. That is being externally driven.

I want to be internally driven. When he calls me and says I am the greatest guy, it is good to hear those words. But even if he doesn't say those words, in my own estimation, I am still a good human being. And the next day when he rips me apart, he can't really, because in my own estimation, I am still a good human being. When people make statements like, "You make me angry," the focus of control is external. But if I say I am angry or I choose to be angry, the focus of control is internal.

No one can make you feel inferior without your permission.

Sparky

This story is told about a boy named Sparky. For Sparky school was all but impossible. He failed every subject in the eighth grade. He flunked physics in high school. Receiving a flat zero in the course, he distinguished himeself as the worst physics student in the school's history. Sparky also flunked Latin, algebra and English. He didn't do much better in sports. Although he did manage to make the school's golf team, he promptly lost the only important match of the season. There was a consolation match; he lost that, too.

Throughout his youth Sparky was awkward socially. He was not actually disliked by the other students; no one cared that much. He was astonished if a classmate ever said hello to him outside of school hours. There's no way to tell how he might have done at dating. Sparky never once asked a girl to go out in high school. He was too afraid of being turned down.

Sparky was a loser. He, his classmates... everyone knew it. So he rolled with it. Sparky had made up his mind early in life that if things were meant to work out, they would. Otherwise he would content himself with what appeared to be his inevitable mediocrity.

However, one thing was was important to Sparky - drawing. He was proud of his artwork. Of course, no one else appreciated it. In his senior year of high school, he submitted some cartoons to the editors of the yearbook. They were turned down. Despite this particularly painful rejection, Sparky was so convinced of his ability that he decided to become a professional artist.

Upon graduating from high school, he wrote a letter to Walt Disney Studios. He was told to send some samples of his artwork, and the subject matter for a cartoons was suggested. Sparky drew the proposed cartoon. He spent a great deal of time on it and on all the other drawings he submitted. Finally the reply came from Disney Studios, he had been rejected once again. Another loss for the loser.

So Sparky decided to write his own autobiography in cartoons. He described his childhood self - a little-boy loser and chronic underarchiever. The cartoon character would soon become famous worldwide. For Sparky, the boy who had failed every subject in the eight grade and whose work was rejected again and again, was Charles Schulz. He created the "Peanuts" comic strip and the little cartoons boy whose kite would never fly and who never succeeded in kicking the football.

Choose Happiness

What if you placed fewer conditions on your own happiness?

What if you didn't place destination markers on your own happiness? "I'll be happy when I get home" or "I'll be happy when I pay off my house" or "I'll be happy when I have a new car", etc...

What if you change the rules and make happiness a natural way of living?

Remember, nothing in life comes labeled, YOU are the labeler.

You can complain that roses have thorns or you can celebrate that thorns have roses. It's up to you!

Take some time to reflect on the power you possess to control your labels.

This universe is balanced. There is always something you can see as a positive in any situation.

Throughout history, some of the greatest messages have come out of the greatest messes.

Happiness is a gift just waiting to be unwrapped. It needs to be found. And finding happiness should not be seen as finding a needle in a haystack. Each day is a blessing that brings an abundance of happiness. Finding happiness should be like finding a gift in a stack of gifts.

Find your gift today. It's a new day!

Believe in yourself

Believing in ourselves is very important in our quest for athletic glory. Believing will help us to get through rough times and difficult situations. Don’t get me wrong, we all have doubts about ourselves at times. This is natural. However, we must understand that “believing” plays a vital role in our performance and advancement.

My favorite example of someone who had a strong belief in their self was Muhammed Ali in the 1974 World Heavyweight Boxing Championship, “Rumble in the Jungle.” Ali was challenging George Foreman, who was the reigning World Champion. Foreman was crushing all of his opponents. He knocked out most of all of the top contenders prior to this big event in Zaire, Africa. No one thought that Ali could beat Foreman. In fact, even Ali’s own trainers and coaches thought that Ali was going to get destroyed against the seemingly unstoppable Foreman.

As described in the documentary, “When We Were Kings,” before the fight, Ali’s dressing room was like a morgue. It was like Ali was going to his “last supper.” At one point Ali noticed that everyone was down and sad. Ali turned and said, “What is the matter with you people? Why is everybody so unhappy?”

They, his support team, believed that Ali was going to be defeated. And, they were terrified. They thought with his pride that he would take one of the world’s worst beatings ever and he would not give up. They thought that Ali would be destroyed in the ring. They thought he would possibly be killed. They were deeply frightened.

Then Ali looked to Drew “Bundini Brown (Ali’s trainer) and said, “We’re gonna dance, we’re gonna dance and dance!” Then he turned to them and said, “What are we gonna do?” And they said, “Your gonna dance, your gonna dance and dance!”

Ali chanted, “We’re gonna dance tonight, aren’t we…. and Foremand…. he is gonna be bewildered!”

Ali repeated this over and over until his dressing room of trainers and support team were crying. And with that, Ali built them up so as to make them “half” happy.

The atmosphere at the beginning of the fight was as intense as ever before a Championship bout. Ali was expected to dance, however at the start of the first round Ali did not dance. He came at Foreman with a different strategy. He threw 12 right hand leads in that first round trying to knock Foreman down or out. But instead of knocking Foreman down or out, Foreman went crazy. He started throwing powerful punches, over and over again, a lot of them connecting with Ali.

The bell rang ending the first round. Ali went to his corner. The nightmare that had awaited Ali finally came to visit. Ali was in the ring with a man that he could not dominate. He was in the right with a man who was stronger, not afraid, determined, and could punch harder and was unstoppable.

Ali had a look on his face that for the first time showed fear. Then as he stood there catching his breath, you could see him looking into himself and he seemed to be thinking, “This is the moment you’ve been waiting for. It is that hour.” He seemed to be thinking, “Do you have the guts, boy?” Then he nodded his head, seeming saying to himself, “You’ve gotta get it together. You ARE going to get it together. You WILL get it together.” And as he continued to nod and not to himself, as if he was looking into the eyes of his maker, he turned to the crowd and chanted “ALI BOMA YE!” which means, “Ali, kill him!”

The crowd went wild and started chanting, “Ali boma ye!, Ali boma ye!” and Ali went back out in the ring as if he had a new focus and energy. He picked up the pace…

The next four rounds George Foreman with his powerful punches continued to wallop and bash at Ali, as Ali went to the “rope-a-dope.” Again, and again Foreman pummeled Ali against the ropes.

Ali was bobbing and weaving taking most of the powerful punches and sliding a few. And as Foreman whacked ferociously at Ali, Ali kept talking to him, “George, you’re not hitting hard enough. I thought you hit harder. George, you are not even breaking popcorn.”

As Ali kept taunting him, George Foreman continued to slug at him. By the end of the fifth round Foreman had punched himself out. It took five rounds for George to exhaust himself.

Then in the eight round, Ali spun Foreman around in the ring and threw a combination of punches which, in a spectacular fashion, knocked Foreman down and out!

Ali was World Heavyweight Champion once again!

I think this is one of the ultimate examples of a man who had to believe in himself. When no one else did, he still believed.

It is not really important that Ali knocked out George Foreman to make his dream come true, what is important is that YOU can make your dream come

true. You can achieve anything you want in this life.

Have the attitude “Expect to Win.” Set your goals high and see yourself winning. Enjoy the battle and the journey along the way. Get tough and make it fun and you will get to the top in your sport and in life!

Big God

Two men went fishing. One was an experienced fisherman, the other wasn't.
Every time the experienced fisherman caught a big fish, he put it in his ice chest to keep it fresh.

Whenever the inexperienced fisherman caught a big fish, he threw it back.

The experienced fisherman watched this go on all day and finally got tired of seeing the man waste good fish. "Why do you keep throwing back all the big fish you catch?" he asked.

The inexperienced fisherman replied, "I only have a small frying pan."

Sometimes, like that fisherman, we throwback the big plans, big dreams, big
jobs, big opportunities that God gives us. Our faith is too small.

We laugh at that fisherman who didn't figure out that all he needed was a
bigger frying pan, yet how ready are we to increase the size of our faith?

Whether it's a problem or a possibility, God will never give you anything bigger than you can handle. That means we can confidently walk into anything God brings our way.

You can do all things through God. Nothing is too big for God.

REMEMBER:
Stop telling God you've got big problems. Tell your problems you've got a BIG GOD!

Buddha Story

It is said that on an occasion when the Buddha was teaching a group of people, he found himself on the receiving end of a fierce outburst of abuse from a bystander, who was for some reason very angry.

The Buddha listened patiently while the stranger vented his rage, and then the Buddha said to the group and to the stranger, "If someone gives a gift to another person, who then chooses to decline it, tell me, who would then own the gift? The giver or the person who refuses to accept the gift?"

"The giver," said the group after a little thought. "Any fool can see that," added the angry stranger.

"Then it follows, does it not," said the Buddha, "Whenever a person tries to abuse us, or to unload their anger on us, we can each choose to decline or to accept the abuse; whether to make it ours or not. By our personal response to the abuse from another, we can choose who owns and keeps the bad feelings."

Brownie

July 28, 2004 we moved from our old home of 28 years into two smaller homes with a pool in between. On the moving day, our daughters took our family pets to stay at the new homes while we went to the settlement. When they got to the new homes our dog, Brownie, was so excited that she jumped out of the SUV. Brownie is around 12 years old and the jump hurt her. But being an animal they don't always show that they're hurt. She walked all around the property with the girls and afterwards settled down in the main house.

After the settlement, my wife Bobbie and I drove to the new homes. I noticed that Brownie wasn't coming to greet us. When I called her, she just lay there and looked at me. With a little prompting she got up and went out with me on a leash. I noticed that she didn't want to go down the hill leading to the creek. This worried me so I went back to the girls and asked if anything had happened. They explained that Brownie had jumped out of the truck. They said she fell down but got right up. I told them that she had probably hurt her back.

Forward three days... Brownie had stopped eating and drinking. She had to be helped up to go outside. I had been getting up every morning to help her. On the third day, Bobbie decided to let me sleep and take Brownie out - only she didn't use the leash. Next thing Bobbie comes running into the house saying that Brownie had wandered off. I got up, dressed and we spent the next two hours looking for her. We didn't find her. My wife said that she had gone off to die. Bobbie knew how much I loved Brownie and wasn't looking forward to me having to take her to the vet to be put to sleep.

I wouldn't give up. I prayed that God would intercede and Brownie would come back. I went around to the neighbors and told them that my dog had wandered off and if they saw her to please call me. I went back home and started looking again. We have some dense underbrush leading down to the creek in some areas. The vines with thorns were all over the place. I started cutting away some of them and trying to look down towards the creek. That's when I spotted her. Brownie was lying on her side. I didn't know if she was alive or dead. I couldn't see if she was breathing. I called to her and she didn't move or make a sound.

This area of the woods dropped off about 15 to 20 feet. Fallen trees and thorns covered everything. I called for my wife to come. By the time Bobbie got there, I had worked myself down about 15 feet. I was standing on a fallen tree and the drop off from there was about another 10 feet, right into the thorns. Bobbie was worried that I'd fall and then there would be two of us in trouble. We stayed there looking and calling to Brownie for what seemed hours with no response from her.

I felt helpless beyond anything I'd ever felt. Perched on the fallen tree, I really didn't know if I would be able to get back up or go down to Brownie. All I could do was pray, cry and keep calling her. Two hours had passed and it was getting hot. Bobbie had gotten a chair and was keeping an eye on me. She didn't want me there and she didn't want me to go down farther and not be able to get back out. I was torn between not going and wondering if I could get back up from where I was. My legs were beginning to hurt from standing all that time and I tried to sit down. I started sliding off the tree and decided to go down.

Bobbie yelled to me as I disappeared down the hill. I dropped down about ten feet into the thorns and used my shirt to start tearing them away. I yelled back up to Bobbie that I was OK and that I thought I could get to Brownie if I tried. Bobbie was scared that now I was stuck too.

It took me another hour to finally get to Brownie. She was cover with flies. I kept swinging my shirt over her to chase them away but they kept coming back. All the time they were biting me. Brownie had gotten too close to the drop-off on the hill and fallen down there. I knew she had really hurt herself this time. I tried to get her up and moving but she laid there and didn't move. Her breathing was very shallow. I knew she was either dying or hurt too bad to move.

When I relayed this to Bobbie, we were both crying. Bobbie pleaded with me to come back up. Because I didn't know if I could, I told her that I didn't want Brownie to die alone and I would stay with her until the end. Through my tears I told Bobbie that because of where Brownie was I wouldn't even be able to bury her. Bobbie just kept praying for both of us.

An hour later, I'm trying to sit, bleeding from being cut by the thorns and thirsty. Again I'm using my shirt to pull the vines away from Brownie and myself so that I can sit down next to her. I'm finally able to sit. I'm petting her, trying to comfort her. Her breathing is stopping every now and then. I can't stop crying, thinking about all the love she has given us through out the years. And now I can't even help her or give her a decent burial.

Bobbie has gone back to the house and I feel all alone. Brownie is no longer looking at me and for the first time I realize that I might not be able to get her out. As I'm crying, I start working my way back up the hill. When I get to the fallen tree, I look back at Brownie and see that I can't get her back up with me. Before I start trying to climb up the tree Bobbie comes back. She has a blanket with her and asks if I can cover Brownie up so that the flies can't get to her. I'm at a spot where Bobbie can see the top of my head and I tell her to throw it and then get some bottled water and throw it down too.

After getting the blanket and water I return to Brownie. Only she doesn't want the water and because it was so hot I only used the blanket to place under her head. I tried to comfort her and get her up one more time. When I fail, I said goodbye to her and headed back up.

When I get to the house Bobbie hugs me and we cry together. I still felt all alone and went into my bedroom and prayed that somehow God would get her back for me. Meanwhile Bobbie comforts me telling me how good a life Brownie has had. She says that Brownie knew she was dying and went down there to die and she did this to save me from having to take her and have her put to sleep. Bobbies' words don't help.

I feel just as bad for not being able to help her. I have to sit down and drink something before I pass out from the heat and hunger. After eating something, I feel better and tell Bobbie I'm going back to see if Brownie is dead. She was not where I left her.

On my way back, one of our neighbors comes into the back yard and says that a dog is in their back yard and it might be Brownie. I say it can't be because of where she is. My neighbor tells me that the creek cycles every 9 hours and is almost dry. If Brownie was thirsty, she could have walked down to the creek and then wandered up into their yard.

My heart jumps and I'm off with the neighbor to get Brownie. When we get to their yard I see it's not Brownie. It's someone else's dog. I explain to them that where she is there are thousands of vines with thorns and that even if she tried I don't think she could get to the creek. The man tells me that if he walks down to where she is he'll bring a machete to cut the vines and bring her out. I asked if that was possible. He said they walk down the creek all the time at low tide. I told him I'd run back to the house and go down where Brownie was and call to him.

By the time I got back to the house he was already in the area in the creek. I yelled to him that Brownie had indeed moved. I don't see her. He said he knew where I was and would start cutting his way in. I quickly climbed back up and went down in an area where I could climb down into the creek. Bobbie brought out some boots for me and I quickly changed. I climbed into the creek and started walking down to where I thought he was. I couldn't see him but I could hear him cutting away.

Then he yelled that he had found her. He asked what her name was and if she would bite him. I told him that I didn't think she was in any shape to do anything. Next thing I know I see him carrying Brownie out of the thorns. I made my way over to him and took her. Trying to walk in creek mud isn't easy.

As I made my way to our back yard, I fell. I was covered from head to toe in mud. The man helped me back up and as I started up the bank I fell but managed to lift Brownie up to Bobbie. My daughters were there by then and helped carry her up to the house. Because of the creek mud we had to wash her off outside with the hose along with me.

We got Brownie into the house and tried to get her to drink and eat. She didn't want anything and it was too late to take her to the vet. I walked back down to the neighbors and thanked them.

The next day, along with my daughter, we used a blanket to carry Brownie out to my car. She was no longer walking. Once, at the vet, she acted like she was perking up. The vet checked her out and said she had indeed hurt her back. He said he'd give her a shot for the pain, pills and said if she didn't start coming around we should bring her back and maybe put her to sleep.

Over the next three days Brownie started improving. I'm happy to say that she is back to her old self and doing extremely well. I don't know what I'll do when she finally does die, but until then I'll love her with all my heart, just as she does, unconditionally.

Thinking back to my neighbor, I now realize that it was God that sent him. Angels don't all have wings; some walk this Earth and at some point in their lives are called into action. This was and is my neighbor. Thank you neighbor, you've earned your wings. And for those of you that pray, God DOES answer Prayer!

Can U Handle Success ?

Sometimes People Can't Handle Success

"I tried 1000 different ways to find a solution, but 1001st was the best solution" - Thomas Alva Edison, when asked about his experience in inventing the light bulb.

The first question is "What is Success?"

The dictionaries provide various definitions of success as 'an occurrence that accomplishes its intended purpose' or 'a state of prosperity or fame' or 'a realization that a person is successful', but success is broader than what we define. Achieving success means you became famous; you can have enough money to buy the luxuries you longed for so many years, you are being a darling of the masses.

Anybody can achieve success, however for that one has to have the self-belief within him that he can; this is the primary step towards success. If you do not believe in yourself, then creating that feeling is your first assignment. Secondly, we have to focus on what we are going to do to achieve success, something we already have and something we have to attain from others.

There are many factors that contribute to success or failure, the most important of which is a person's mindset. One cannot create and sustain success, if his thoughts, beliefs and emotions are not adjusted to success. If one believes in oneself, money or what success means for them are in dissimilarity to a successful life, he finds it difficult or impossible to create one.

Some of the key factors for people who want to be successful, are determination, decisiveness, continuous learning, constructive planning, hard-work, relentless practice (regain the mettle even when things are going against his wishes), have to have the ability to recover and learn from failures. One requires a strong vision of his future, planning and setting achievable goals - all can play important roles in becoming successful.

There is no need to worry if one does not have all the above characteristics, or thinks success is not a heavenly fruit, as if one can only dream of it. Everybody can achieve it with various techniques. One can set goals and objectives, which may be inherited qualities, however learning some advanced techniques for success can only be learned from schools/people. You have to develop mental strength to succeed, which will enable you to recover from setbacks more easily.

For some, success has an unexciting aspect but to others, it is an energizing factor to achieve more. We are surprised when we hear news about famous people who suffer from alcoholism, drug abuse and serious emotional problems. We see that success can bring different kinds of discomfort along with it.

Diego Maradona, Mike Tyson and Princess Diana are perfect examples of people who have faced serious problems as they became famous. It's as if people think they have everything, but they suffered at different levels and they felt they were alone in the midst of fame.

First example: Diego Maradona.
He is former captain of an Argentine football team. He played in four World Cups, won a World Cup in 1986, received FIFA Player of the Century and was voted in 2000 by FIFA the best football player of all time - surpassing the great footballer ever, PELE.

Since the 1990s, Maradona has been battling cocaine addiction, which included spells in Swiss and Cuban clinics. After retirement, Maradona spent most of his time in Cuba (can say in hospital) and after returning to Argentina, suddenly he suffered a major heart attack following a cocaine overdose and was admitted to intensive care in a Buenos Aires hospital. After he showed improvement, Maradona was taken off the respirator on April 23 and remained in intensive care for several days before being discharged.

Second example: Diana, Princes of Wales
From the time of her engagement to the Prince of Wales in 1981 until her death after a car accident in 1997, Diana was one of the most famous women in the world, a pre-eminent celebrity of her generation. During her lifetime, she was often described as the world's most photographed woman.

To her admirers, the Princess of Wales was a role model. After her death there were even calls for her to be nominated for sainthood, while her detractors consider her to have been suffering from a mental illness; it has been suggested that Diana was, according to one biographer, possibly suffering from borderline personality disorder. Diana herself admitted to struggling with depression and the eating disorder bulimia, which recurred throughout her adult life.

Third example: Mike Tyson
At the height of his fame and career in the late 1980s and throughout the '90s, Tyson was one of the most recognized sports personalities in the world. Apart from his many sporting accomplishments, his outrageous and controversial behavior in the ring and in his private life as well as the drug and alcoholic abuses has kept him in the public eye.

Tyson retired from competitive boxing in 2005. He has since engaged in a series of exhibition bouts in a tour across the US to pay his numerous debts. Despite receiving over US$30 million for several of his fights and $300 million over his career, Tyson declared bankruptcy in 2003. Now, Tyson appears in countless popular media in either cameo appearances or as a subject of parody or satire.

So why are these people addicted to drugs, alcohol and suffering from various disorders? And the answer is "Sometimes people can't handle success". The reasons may be that they fear success and self-sabotage their lives. That's what happened to Maradona, Mike Tyson and Princes Diana. They were throwing the fame away.

No one has been able to break through this massive self-sabotage. No wonder that people are afraid of success. To achieve success, one needs of a lot of self-examination along with changes in lifestyle and a facelift of behaviors.

We are NOT just talking about some personalities here; we are talking about every successful person, including you.

Success is like a hard rock, not everybody is able to crack or pull it down easily. Chances are that anybody who tasted success in any field can face such problems at any moment of time; it is not a fault of ours but a phenomenon people around the world face.

Satisfaction is an important ingredient of success. When becoming successful, you have to learn to be satisfied. This often means giving up wanting and longing, two feelings that don't go with satisfaction.

Let us hope we will not become addicted to drugs and alcohol like Maradona did, but almost everyone is limiting their lives because part of him is afraid of success. If it applies to us, then we should look back in retrospect about preceding factors and do some soul searching to know what pulled us back, so that we can rectify the wrongs and find the rights.

Success requires discipline, determination and a strong belief in oneself. It's a whole lot easier to stay where you are than to move into a new state of being.

Butterfly Mindset

A marvelous lesson appeared for me just now as I was exiting thru the garage, to come to this little playplace they call an office.

As I opened the garage door, I startled a large moth, which, upon spreading it's wings, displayed a bright red "tail" hidden by the motley brown wings, more a "butterfly" than a moth.

It flew immediately to its perceived escape, the circle-topped window where it frantically tried to exit thru the invisible wall of closed glass.

I raised the third-car garage door in hopes of aiding it's escape. That caused it to fly higher and higher and become entangled in a spider web. Fearful that it would remain entangled in the web, I selected a long-handled broom to assist him escaping the tangled threads.

At this, he returned to furiously pumping his wings and banging into the glass, which was, in his perspective, the pathway of escape, but remained his cage.

By simply turning his focus to one side, he would have easily exited his prison. Rather, due to his intent on one direction, he remained confined, captive.

Black & Gold Box

I have in my hands two boxes
Which God gave me to hold
He said, "Put all your sorrows in the black,
And all your joys in the gold."

I heeded his words, and in the two boxes
Both my joys and sorrows I store
But though the gold became heavier each day
The black was as light as before.

With curiosity, I opened the black
I wanted to find out why
And I saw, in the base of the box, a hole
Which my sorrows had fallen out by.

I showed the hole to God, and mused aloud,
"I wonder where my sorrows could be."
He smiled a gentle smile at me.
"My child, they're all here with me."

I asked, "God, why give me the boxes,
"Why the gold, and the black with the hole?"
"My child, the gold is for you to count your blessings,
the black is for you to let go."

Bird Story

It was easter holidays and I was on my way to my boyfriends place in the morning when I happened to see in the middle of the road a pukeko (native bird)

A truck zoomed past narrowly missing the frightened bird which flapped its wings furiously. Fortunately there was no other traffic around as I pulled over to the side of the road and went to rescue the dear bird. When I got to the bird I could see it was distressed and in shock and there was poop on the gravel.

It had a graze on its legs but otherwise was in good health with no broken limbs/wings. It let me pick it up and take it over to the reserve nearby.

I will never forget the warm tingling feeling I got from having taken the pukeko out of harms way for it would surely have met its demise if it had stayed in the middle of the road.

It was also an incredible feeling to hold a native bird as usually you cant get anywhere near them. They are exquisite birds with royal blue and jet black feathers, a red beak and stilt like legs.

It was a moment of courage for me and one I will always remember for sure - I think the bird knew I was trying to help or maybe it was shock - whatever it was it was truly a memorable moment that I will always remember.

3 Trees

Once there were three trees on a hill in the woods. They were discussing their hopes and dreams when the first tree said, "Someday I hope to be a treasure chest. I could be filled with gold, silver and precious gems. I could be decorated with intricate carving and everyone would see the beauty." 

Then the second tree said, "Someday I will be a mighty ship. I will take kings and queens across the waters and sail to the corners of the world. Everyone will feel safe in me because of the strength of my hull." 

Finally the third tree said, "I want to grow to be the tallest and straightest tree in the forest. People will see me on top of the hill and look up to my branches, and think of the heavens and God and how close to them I am reaching. I will be the greatest tree of all time and people will always remember me." 

After a few years of praying that their dreams would come true, a group of woodsmen came upon the trees. When one came to the first tree he said, "This looks like a strong tree, I think I should be able to sell the wood to a carpenter" ... and he began cutting it down. The tree was happy, because he knew that the carpenter would make him into a treasure chest. 

At the second tree a woodsman said, "This looks like a strong tree, I should be able to sell it to the shipyard." The second tree was happy because he knew he was on his way to becoming a mighty ship. 

When the woodsmen came upon the third tree, the tree was frightened because he knew that if they cut him down his dreams would not come true. One of the woodsmen said, "I don't need anything special from my tree so I'll take this one", and he cut it down. 

When the first tree arrived at the carpenters, he was made into a feed box for animals. He was then placed in a barn and filled with hay. This was not at all what he had prayed for. The second tree was cut and made into a small fishing boat. His dreams of being a mighty ship and carrying kings had come to an end. The third tree was cut into large pieces and left alone in the dark. The years went by, and the trees forgot about their dreams. 

Then one day, a man and woman came to the barn. She gave birth and they placed the baby in the hay in the feed box that was made from the first tree. The man wished that he could have made a crib for the baby, but this manger would have to do. The tree could feel the importance of this event and knew that it had held the greatest treasure of all time. 

Years later, a group of men got in the fishing boat made from the second tree. One of them was tired and went to sleep. While they were out on the water, a great storm arose and the tree didn't think it was strong enough to keep the men safe. The men woke the sleeping man, and he stood and said "Peace" and the storm stopped. At this time, the tree knew that it had carried the King of Kings in its boat. 

Finally, someone came and got the third tree. It was carried through the streets as the people mocked the man who was carrying it. When they came to a stop, the man was nailed to the tree and raised in the air to die at the top of a hill. When Sunday came, the tree came to realize that it was strong enough to stand at the top of the hill and be as close to God as was possible, because Jesus had been crucified on it. 

Moral of the story:

The moral of this story is that when things don't seem to be going your way, always know that God has a plan for you. If you place your trust in Him, He will give you great gifts. Each of the trees got what they wanted, just not in the way they had imagined. We don't always know what God's plans are for us. We just know that His ways are not our ways, but His ways are always best. 

Horse Ranch

I have a friend named Monty Roberts who owns a horse ranch in San Ysidro. He has let me use his house to put on fund-raising events to raise money for youth at risk programs. 

The last time I was there he introduced me by saying, "I want to tell you why I let Jack use my house. It all goes back to a story about a young man who was the son of an itinerant horse trainer who would go from stable to stable, race track to race track, farm to farm and ranch to ranch, training horses. As a result, the boy's high school career was continually interrupted. When he was a senior, he was asked to write a paper about what he wanted to be and do when he grew up. 

"That night he wrote a seven-page paper describing his goal of someday owning a horse ranch. He wrote about his dream in great detail and he even drew a diagram of a 200- acre ranch, showing the location of all the buildings, the stables and the track. Then he drew a detailed floor plan for a 4,000-square-foot house that would sit on a 200-acre dream ranch. 

"He put a great deal of his heart into the project and the next day he handed it in to his teacher. Two days later he received his paper back. On the front page was a large red F with a note that read, 'See me after class.' 

"The boy with the dream went to see the teacher after class and asked, 'Why did I receive an F?' 

"The teacher said, 'This is an unrealistic dream for a young boy like you. You have no money. You come from an itinerant family. You have no resources. Owning a horse ranch requires a lot of money. You have to buy the land. You have to pay for the original breeding stock and later you'll have to pay large stud fees. There's no way you could ever do it.' Then the teacher added, 'If you will rewrite this paper with a more realistic goal, I will reconsider your grade.' 

"The boy went home and thought about it long and hard. He asked his father what he should do. His father said, 'Look, son, you have to make up your own mind on this. However, I think it is a very important decision for you.' 

"Finally, after sitting with it for a week, the boy turned in the same paper, making no changes at all. He stated, 'You can keep the F and I'll keep my dream.'" 

Monty then turned to the assembled group and said, "I tell you this story because you are sitting in my 4,000- square-foot house in the middle of my 200-acre horse ranch. I still have that school paper framed over the fireplace." He added, "The best part of the story is that two summers ago that same schoolteacher brought 30 kids to camp out on my ranch for a week." When the teacher was leaving, he said, 'Look, Monty, I can tell you this now. When I was your teacher, I was something of a dream stealer. During those years I stole a lot of kids' dreams. Fortunately you had enough gumption not to give up on yours.'" 

Don't let anyone steal your dreams. Follow your heart, no matter what. 

The oldman & his shoes

One day an old man boarded a bus. As he was going up the steps, one of his shoes slipped off. The door closed and the bus moved off so he was unable to retrieve it. Theold man calmly took off his other shoe and threw it out of the window. 

A young man on the bus saw what happened, and could not help going up to the old man and asking, "I noticed what you did, sir. Why did you throw out your other shoe?" 

The old man promptly replied, "So that whoever finds them will be able to use them. " 

The old man in the story understood a fundamental philosophy for life - do not hold on to something simply for the sake of possessing it or because you do not wish others to have it. We lose things all the time. The loss may seem to us grievous and unjust initially, but loss only happens so that positive changes can occur in our lives. We should not always assume that losing something is bad, because if things do not shift, we'll never become better people or experience better things.

That's not to say of course that we only lose "bad" things; it simply means that in order for us to mature emotionally and spiritually, and for us to contribute to the world, the interchange between loss and gain is necessary.

Hoarding possessions does nothing to make the world better for us. We all have to decide constantly if some things or people have run their course in our lives or would be better off with others.

Cheerleader

In the computer world, the word GIGO means "garbage in, garbage out." Your mind works the same way.  What you talk to yourself about directly affects how you live your life.

Encouraging Words

Whenever you catch yourself engaging in negative self-talk, take a deep breath and break the cycle.

1. Choose one thing you are grateful for and talk to yourself about it for thirty seconds.  This blocks out your negative self-talk.

2. Choose one thing you like about yourself.  Describe it. How does it enhance the things you do?  How does it advance and enrich others?  What is its impact on your     community, your industry, the world?

3. What are you most proud of?  Make a strong mental picture of it, and tell yourself all about it.

4. What future event are you most looking forward to? Describe it to yourself in vivid detail.  Elaborate, expand, expound. Add Technicolor and stereo. Live it.

5. Keep an upbeat book or tape handy to reinforce your positive self talk, and use them whenever you feel negative. (When you are moving around, listen to the tape.  When you are settled in one place, read the words).

Being your own biggest booster doesn't mean you're immodest. How can others be motivated to promote you and give you a hand up if you're not positive about yourself?

Remember: five years from now, you'll be the same person you are today - except for the people and situations you've encountered and the thoughts you've thought. Keep your thoughts positive, upbeat, and future-oriented.  No one else is in a better position to be your biggest cheerleader than YOU.

Attitude is important

A startling story catches the audience by surprise. 

Here’s how special education teacher Cynthia Ann Broad, a Michigan Teacher of the Year, used a startling story to show that society can’t afford to ignore the educational needs of any children:

I’d like to tell you the story of two educationally handicapped children.

The parents of the first child were not considereds uccessful. His father was unemployed with no formal schooling. His mother was a teacher and there was probably tension in the family because of the mismatch.This child, born in Port Huron, Michigan, was estimated to have an IQ of 81. He was withdrawn from school after three months and was considered backward by school officials.Physically, the child enrolled two years late due to scarlet fever and respiratory infections. And he was going deaf. His emotional health was poor – stubborn, aloof, showing very little emotion.He liked mechanics. He liked to play with fire and burned down his father’s barn. He showed some manual dexterity, but used very poor grammar. But he did want to be a scientist of a railroad mechanic.

The second child showed not much more promise.

This child was born of an alcoholic father who worked as an itinerant – a mother who stayed at home.As a child, she was sickly, bedridden, and often hospitalized. She was considered erratic and withdrawn. She would bite her nails, and had numerous phobias. She wore a backbrace from a spinal defect and would constantly seek attention.She was a daydreamer with no vocational goals, although she expressed a desire to help the elderly and the poor.

Who were these children?

The boy from Port Huron became one of the world’s greatest inventors- Tomas A Edison.

And the awkward and sickly young girl, first lady of US, advocate for civil rights, international speaker etc – Eleanor Roosevelt.

Enjoy the Coffee

A group of Computer Engineers, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.

Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups, some ordinary looking, some expensive, some exquisite. He told them to help themselves to hot coffee.

When all the students had a cup of coffee in their hands, the professor said: "If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap looking ones.

"While it is but normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups and worse, you were eyeing each other's cups."

"Now if life is coffee , then the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, but the quality of Life doesn't change. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee in it. "

So the moral of this story is........don't let the cups drive you, enjoy the coffee instead.

THINK, BELIEVE, DREAM and DARE

An eight-year-old boy approached an old man in front of a wishing well, looked up into his eyes, and said: "I understand you're a very wise man. I'd like to know the secret of life."

The old man looked down at the youngster and replied: "I've thought a lot in my lifetime, and the secret can be summed up in four words.

"The first is THINK. Think about the values you wish to live your life by.

"The second is BELIEVE. Believe in yourself based on the thinking you've done about the values you're going to live your life by.

"The third is DREAM. Dream about the things that can be, based on your belief in yourself and the values you're going to live by.

"The last is DARE. Dare to make your dreams become reality, based on your belief in yourself and your values."

And with that, Walter E. Disney said to the little boy,

"THINK, BELIEVE, DREAM and DARE