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I
felt sorry for myself because I had no shoes until I met a man who had
no feet.
Food
For Thought
.
Different
Drums and Different Drummers
If I
do not want what you want, please try not to tell me that my want is wrong.
Or if
I believe other than you, at least pause before you correct my view.
Or if
my emotion is less than yours, or more, given the same circumstances, try
not to ask me to feel more strongly or weakly.
Or yet,
if I act, or fail to act, in the manner of your design for action, let
me be.
I do
not, for the moment, at least, ask you to understand me. That will come
only when you are willing to give up changing me into a copy of you.
I may
be your spouse, your parent, your offspring, your friend, or your colleague.
If you will allow me any of my own wants, or emotions, or beliefs, or actions,
then you open yourself, so that some day these ways of mine might not seem
so wrong and might finally appear to you as right -- for me.
To
put up with me is the first step in understanding me. Not that you embrace
my ways as right for you, but that you are no longer irritated or disappointed
with me for my seeming waywardness. And in understanding me you might come
to prize my differences from you, and, far from seeking to change me, preserve
and even nurture those differences.
.
Author Unknown
by Charles Swindol
The longer
I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to
me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than
education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes,
than what other people think or do. It is more important than appearance,
giftedness, or skill. It will make or break a company.....a church.....a
home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the
attitude we will embrace for the day. We cannot change the past.....we
cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot
change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string
we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what
happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so is with you. We are
in charge of our own ATTITUDES.
It's
Your Choice
Jerry
was the kind of guy you love to hate. He was always in a good mood and
always had something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he
was doing, he would reply, "If I were any better, I would be twins".
He was
a unique manager because he had several waiters who had followed him around
from restaurant to restaurant. The reason the waiters followed Jerry was
because of his attitude. He was a natural motivator. If an employee was
having a bad day, Jerry was there telling the employee how to look on the
positive side of the situation.
Seeing
this style really made me curious, so one day I went up to Jerry and asked
him, "I don't get it! You can't be a positive person all of the time. How
do you do it? Jerry replied, "Each morning I wake up and say to myself,
Jerry, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood
or you can choose to be in a bad mood. I choose to be in a good mood. Each
time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or I can choose
to learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to
me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or I can point
out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life."
"Yeah,
right, it's not that easy," I protested. "Yes it is ," Jerry said. "Life
is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is
a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people
will affect your mood. You choose to be in a good or bad mood. The bottom
line: It's your choice how you live life." I reflected on what Jerry said.
Soon
thereafter, I left the restaurant industry to start my own business. We
lost touch, but I often thought about him when I made a choice about life
instead of reacting to it. Several years later, I heard that Jerry did
something you area never supposed to do in a restaurant business: he left
the back door open one morning and was held up at gunpoint by three armed
robbers. While trying to open the safe, his hand, shaking from nervousness,
slipped off the combination. The robbers panicked and shot him.
Luckily,
Jerry was found relatively quickly and rushed to the local trauma center.
After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Jerry was released
from the hospital with fragments of the bullets still in his body.
I saw
Jerry about six months after the incident. When I asked him how he was,
he replied, "If I were any better, I'd be twins. Wanna see my scars?" I
declined to see his wounds, but did ask hem what had gone through his mind
as the robbery took place.
"The
first thing that went through my mind was that I should have locked the
back door, " Jerry replied. "Then, as I lay on the floor, I remembered
that I had tow choices: I could choose to live, or I could choose to die.
I chose to live."
"Weren't
you scared? Did you lose consciousness?" I asked. Jerry continued, "The
paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But
when they wheeled me into the emergency room and I saw the expressions
on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes,
I read, 'He's a dead man.' I knew I needed to take action."
"What
did you do? I asked.
"Well,
there was a big, burly nurse shouting questions at me," said Jerry. "She
asked If I was allergic to anything. 'Yes', I replied. I took a deep breath
and yelled, "Bullets!' Over their laughter, I told them, 'I am choosing
to LIVE. Operate on me as if I am ALIVE, no dead."
Jerry
lived thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing
attitude. I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live
fully.
Attitude,
after all, is everything.
Recipe
for Miracles
Ingredients:
a.)
1 part of knowing who you are
b.)
1 part of knowing who you aren't
c.)
1 part of knowing what you want
d.)
1 part of knowing who you wish to be
e.)
1 part of knowing what you already have before you
f.)
1 part of choosing wisely from what you have before you
G.)
1 part of loving & thanking God for ALL you have ("bad" included)
Instructions:
Combine
ingredients together gently and carefully, using faith and
vision.
Mix together with strong belief of the outcome until finely
blended.
Use thoughts, words and actions for best results.
Bake
until Blessed. Give thanks again.
Yield:
Unlimited servings
IT'S
UP TO YOU
.
ONE SONG CAN SPARK
A MONENT,
ONE FLOWER CAN WAKE
THE DREAM.
ONE TREE CAN START
A FOREST,
ONE BIRD CAN HERALD
SPRING.
ONE SMILE BEGINS A
FRIENDSHIP,
ONE HANDCLASP LIFTS
A SOUL.
ONE STAR CAN GUIDE
A SHIP AT SEA,
ONE WORD CAN FRAME
THE GOAL.
ONE VOTE CAN CHANGE
A NATION,
ONE SUNBEAM LIGHTS
A ROOM.
ONE CANDLE WIPES OUT
DARKNESS,
ONE LAUGH WILL CONQUER
GLOOM.
ONE STEP MUST SEACH
JOURNEY,
ONE WORD MUST START
EACH PRAYER.
ONE HOPE WILL RAISE
OUR SPIRITS,
ONE TOUCH CAN SHOW
YOU CARE.
ONE VOICE CAN SPEAK
WITH WISDOM,
ONE HEART CAN KNOW
WHAT'S TRUE,
ONE LIFE CAN MAKE
THE DIFFERENCE
YOU SEE, IT'S UP TO
YOU
Author Unknown
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