Category Archives: Monday Morning Inspiration

The Wise Sage . . .

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The Wise Sage
Author Unknown

There once was a wise sage who wandered the countryside. One day, as he passed near a village, he was approached by a woman who told him of a sick child nearby. She beseeched him to help this child.

So the sage came to the village, and a crowd gathered around him, for such a man was a rare sight. One woman brought the sick child to him, and he said a prayer over her.

“Do you really think your prayer will help her, when medicine has failed?” yelled a man from the crowd.

“You know nothing of such things! You are a stupid fool!” said the sage to the man.

The man became very angry with these words and his face grew hot and red. He was about to say something, or perhaps strike out, when the sage walked over to him and said: “If one word has such power as to make you so angry and hot, may not another have the power to heal?”

And thus, the sage healed two people that day.

Consider This: There is  power in our words!

A new beginning . . .

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Every morning is a fresh beginning. Every day is the world made new. Today is a new day. Today is my world made new. I have lived all my life up to this moment, to come to this day. This moment – this day – is as good as any moment in all eternity. I shall make of this day – each moment of this day – a heaven on earth. This is my day of opportunity.”

– Dan Custer

Consider This: Have a great day unless you have other plans.

Be Happy

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Be Happy (A True Story)
Davy Jones

Around twenty years ago I was living in Seattle and going through hard times. I could not find satisfying work and I found this especially difficult as I had a lot of experience and a Masters degree.

To my shame I was driving a school bus to make ends meet and living with friends. I had lost my apartment. I had been through five interviews with a company and one day between bus runs they called to say I did not get the job. I went to the bus barn like a zombie of disappointment.

Later that afternoon, while doing my rounds through a quiet suburban neighborhood I had an inner wave – like a primal scream – arise from deep inside me and I thought “Why has my life become so hard?” “Give me a sign, I asked… a physical sign – not some inner voice type of thing.”

Immediately after this internal scream I pulled the bus over to drop off a little girl and as she passed she handed me an earring saying I should keep it in case somebody claimed it. The earring was stamped metal, painted black and said ‘BE HAPPY’.

At first I got angry – yeah, yeah, I thought. Then it hit me. I had been putting all of my energies into what was wrong with my life rather than what was right! I decided then and there to make a list of 50 things I was grateful for.

At first it was hard, then it got easier. One day I decided to up it to 75. That night there was a phone call for me at my friend’s house from a lady who was a manager at a large hospital. About a year earlier I had submitted a syllabus to a community college to teach a course on stress management. (Yup, you heard me. 😉 She asked me if I would do a one-day seminar for 200 hospital workers. I said yes and got the job.

My day with the hospital workers went very well. I got a standing ovation and many more days of work. To this day I KNOW that it was because I changed my attitude to gratitude.

Incidentally, the day after I found the earring the girl asked me if anyone had claimed it. I told her no and she said “I guess it was meant for you then.”

I spent the next year conducting training workshops all around the Seattle area and then decided to risk everything and go back to Scotland where I had lived previously. I closed my one man business, bought a plane ticket and got a six month visa from immigration. One month later I met my wonderful English wife and best friend of 15 years now. We live in a small beautiful cottage, two miles from a paved road in the highlands of Scotland.

‘THE ONLY ATTITUDE IS GRATITUDE’ has been my motto for years now and yes, it completely changed my life.

Consider this: What’s your story during this season of gratitude?

What Will Matter . . .

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What Will Matter
Michael Josephson

Ready or not, some day it will all come to an end.

There will be no more sunrises, no minutes, hours or days. All the things you collected, whether treasured or forgotten will pass to someone else.

Your wealth, fame and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance. It will not matter what you owned or what you were owed.

Your grudges, resentments, frustrations and jealousies will finally disappear. So too, your hopes, ambitions, plans and to do lists will expire.

The wins and losses that once seemed so important will fade away.

It won’t matter where you came from or what side of the tracks you lived on at the end.

It won’t matter whether you were beautiful or brilliant. Even your gender and skin color will be irrelevant.

So what will matter? How will the value of your days be measured?

What will matter is not what you bought but what you built, not what you got but what you gave.

What will matter is not your success but your significance.

What will matter is not what you learned but what you taught.

What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage, or sacrifice that enriched, empowered or encouraged others to emulate your example.

What will matter is not your competence but your character.

What will matter is not how many people you knew, but how many will feel a lasting loss when you’re gone.

What will matter is not your memories but the memories that live in those who loved you.

What will matter is how long you will be remembered, by whom and for what.

Living a life that matters doesn’t happen by accident. It’s not a matter of circumstance but of choice.

Choose to live a life that matters.

Consider this: Make life matter

Better To Light Candles . . .

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Better To Light Candles
Merle Shain

It is better to light candles
than to curse the darkness.
It is better to plant seeds
than to accuse the earth.
The world needs all of our power
and love and energy,
and each of us has something that we can give.
The trick is to find it and use it,
to find it and give it away.
So there will always be more.
We can be lights for each other,
and through each other’s illumination
we will see the way.
Each of us is a seed,
a silent promise,
and it is always spring.

Consider this: Someone is depending on your light.

Keepers . . .

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Keepers
Author Unknown

I grew up in the ’50s with very practical parents. A mother, God love her,who washed aluminum foil after she cooked in it, then reused it. She was the original recycle queen, before they had a name for it.

My father was happier getting old shoes fixed than buying new ones. Their marriage was good, their dreams focused. Their best friends lived barely a wave away. I can see them now, Dad in trousers, tee shirt and a hat and Mom in a house dress, lawn mower in one hand, dishtowel in the other.

It was the time for fixing things. A curtain rod, the kitchen radio, screen door, the oven door, the hem in a dress. Things we keep. It was a way of life, and sometimes it made me crazy. All that re-fixing, eating, renewing, I wanted just once to be wasteful. Waste meant affluence. Throwing things away meant you knew there’d always be more.

But then my mother died, and on that clear summer’s night, in the warmth of the hospital room, I was struck with the pain of learning that sometimes there isn’t any more. Sometimes, what we care about most gets all used up and goes away…never to return. So, while we have it… it’s best we love it… and care for it… and fix it when it’s broken… and heal it when it’s sick.

This is true for marriage… and old cars… and children with bad report cards… and dogs with bad hips… and aging parents… and grandparents. We keep them because they are worth it, because we are worth it.

Consider this: Care for what you have before it is all used up. Happy Thanksgiving.

Conquering The World . . .

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Conquering The World
Author Unknown

There once lived a powerful king who undertook an expedition to conquer foreign lands. His wise counselor asked him, “Great king, to what purpose do you set out on this endeavor?”

“To become master of Asia”, the king replied.

“And then what?” asked the counselor.

“I shall invade Arabia”, said the king.

“And after that?”

“I shall conquer Europe and Africa; and finally, when the whole world is under me, I shall rest and live at ease.”

To this the wise counselor retorted, “But what keeps you from resting and living at ease here and now, if that is all you want? You could settle down this very day without the trouble and risks.”

Consider this: What keeps your from resting and living at ease here and now?

25 Ways to Revive Your Spirit . . .

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25 Ways to Revive Your Spirit

– Author Unknown, but greatly appreciated

  1. Count your blessings.
  2. Strive for progress, not perfection.
  3. At least once a day, sit and do nothing.
  4. Celebrate all birthdays, no matter how old you get.
  5. Don’t forget to say, “Thank you.”
  6. Diminish your wants instead of increasing your needs.
  7. Cry when you feel like it.
  8. Keep good company.
  9. Look into the eyes of the one you love when you are talking to them.
  10. Remember that one is a whole number.
  11. Do a kind deed for someone else.
  12. Be patient.
  13. Change what you can and leave the rest alone.
  14. Slow down and enjoy the present.
  15. Walk in other people’s shoes before judging them.
  16. Don’t let other people’s opinions shape who you are.
  17. Never attribute your accomplishments to LUCK.
  18. Know when to say NO.
  19. Look on the positive side of negative situations.
  20. Stand up for what you believe in.
  21. Respect the wishes of others when they say no.
  22. Give away anything that you haven’t used in the last 5 years as a gift.
  23. Take responsibility for what you think, feel and do.
  24. Never downgrade yourself.
  25. Pamper yourself.

Consider this: How will you revive your spirit today?

It’s your choice . . .

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Life is about laughing & living in good & bad times. Getting through whatever comes our way & looking back with a smile.

All men and women are born, live, suffer and die;
what distinguishes us one from another is our dreams,
whether they be dreams about worldly
or unworldly things,
and what we do to make them come about…
We do not choose to be born.
We do not choose our parents.
We do not choose our historical epoch,
the country of our birth, or the immediate circumstances of our upbringing.
We do not, most of us, choose to die;
nor do we choose the time and conditions of our death.
But within this realm of choicelessness,
we do choose how we live.”

 – Joseph Epstein

Consider this: How are you choosing to live?