®   Volume 23, # 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . February, 2008

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Plant these "seeds" well and water often. Enjoy!

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Human Communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John Carmody, The Progressive Pilgrim

    "All human communication is finally an extension of the self. If the self is warped, disordered, inauthentic, so will its language be. One teaches by what one is. One’s ‘language’ is finally the full-bodied symbolism of one’s person. Good words, then, are no substitute for solid virtue. How we act, whether we do what we say, becomes our teaching’s final exam. The crux of pedagogy is its impress on our choices."

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Wisdom Seeds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . William Arthur Ward

"When we shut people out, we wall ourselves in; When we stop building bridges, we start erecting fences."

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Share Your Joy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Anonymous

    "The genuinely happy person shares his joy and reaches out to those who are in distress. Show him that you care."

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Lincoln’s Wisdom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Abraham Lincoln

February 18, 2008

"You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot help small men by tearing down big men. You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage-payer. You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatreds. You cannot build character and courage by taking away a man’s initiative and independence. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves."

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4 C’s of Dreams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Walt Disney, Power Quotes, # 236

    "Somehow I can’t believe that there are any heights that can’t be scaled by a man who knows the secrets of making dreams come true. This special secret, it seems to me, can be summarized in four C’s. They are curiosity, confidence, courage and constancy, and the greatest of all is confidence, when you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionably."

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Well-Meaning "Opinions" . . . . . . . . . . . . Napoleon Hill, Think & Grow Rich, p. 158

    "Close friends and relatives, while not meaning to do so, often handicap one through ‘opinions’ and sometimes through ridicule, which is meant to be humorous. Thousands of men and women carry inferiority complexes with them all through life, because some well-meaning but ignorant person destroyed their confidence through ‘opinions’ or ridicule."

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One’s Spirituality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Fr. Ed Hays, A Pilgrim’s Almanac

    "Everyone has a spirituality, for spirituality is the lifestyle that flows out of what we believe. It is more than prayer or certain religious experiences, it is a entire way of thinking and acting."

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Greatest Successes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bits & Pieces, May 1984

    "Young people are often surprised to learn that they will be judged not so much on their technical knowledge as their potential for leadership. Studies over and over show that success is about 80% ability to lead and only 20% technical skill.

    Obviously, people must have knowledge in their field, but they greatest successes and rewards will go to the person who has more: the ability to express ideas, to assume leadership, to arouse enthusiasm and cooperation—in short, the ability to bring out the best in others."

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Teamwork . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Anonymous

    "Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishment toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results."

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Flood of Grace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sr. Mary Terese Donze, ASC, Living Faith, Jan.-Feb.-Mar. 1999

Behold, now is the acceptable time (2 Cor. 6:2).     "Lent…flows in on us with a flood of grace that is ours for accepting. But we may miss it if we fail to realize that grace is hidden in the now of our every day, the now of our ordinary days. ‘Now is the very acceptable time.’     Our good resolutions for Lent need to be concerned with that now. Tomorrow is not a good day to begin. None of us has a promise of tomorrow. Our lives do not exist in yesterday, nor in tomorrow. Now is the only time God gives us for doing anything, the only time we can call our own, the only time in which we really have to live our lives."

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Today for You . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jim Rohn

"Every day is the day that turns somebody’s life around for ever. Is today that day for you?"

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Takes Courage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Anne Morrow Lindbergh

"It takes as much courage to have tried and failed as it does to have tried and succeeded."

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"Examples" in Public Speaking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Source Unknown

    "Aristotle, in his Rhetoric (Book 1), discussed the nature and role, strengths and weaknesses of ‘examples’ in public speaking. He defended their use as both impressive and persuasive when carefully located and arranged in an address. By ‘examples’ he referred not only to persons but also events, places, relationships, things, etc."

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Voyage of Discovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Marcel Proust

"The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes."

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Formula For A Successful Marriage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Christophers, 3 Minutes a Day, Vol. 27

    A reporter, interviewing a couple who were nearing their 50th wedding anniversary, asked them the secret for their long and successful marriage. The husband said that he learned the secret from his father-in-law.

    A few weeks before the day of the wedding, the young man asked his future father-in-law what he could do to make his wife-to-be happy. He received his answer in a small package given to him by his father-in-law the morning of the wedding. "This," said the father-in-law, "is all you need to know to make your marriage work."

    Opening the package, the husband-to-be found a gold pocket watch. Inscribed across the cover of the watch where he would be sure to see it several times a day was the message: "Say something nice to Sarah."

    It seems simple enough to do, but from your own family life you are probably aware that compliments and praise are not always part of the daily routine. However, they very easily could be if we acted upon our intuitions more often. It’s just that family is generally, and too often, taken for granted. Consequently, little things are overlooked. Yet it’s those little things that make strong and lasting bonds.

    A daily compliment is a small enough thing. Let the encouragement of others spring to your lips freely and easily. St. Augustine gave some sage advice when he said, "You aspire to great things? Begin with little ones."

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Don’t Judge the Composer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Source Unknown

    When visiting in a parish neighborhood, a pastor stopped at a house and asked the man who lived there to visit his church the next Sunday, mentioning at the same time that the man’s neighbor went to that same church. On hearing this, the man said he would never go to that church because he wanted nothing to do with a religion that would have a man like his neighbor in it. In fact, he said, his neighbor was the worst neighbor he ever had.

    The pastor, seeing that the man had a piano, asked the man’s young daughter if she would play a piece by Beethoven that was on the piano. The man said that Beethoven’s music was far too advanced for his daughter. Still the pastor insisted, and the girl gave it a try. Needless to say, she butchered Beethoven.

    After the daughter was finished, the pastor said, "Boy, that Beethoven sure wasn’t much of a composer was he?"

    On hearing this, the man suddenly understood that he, too, had been judging the music of Christian living by the player rather than by the composer.

    Let us all try to be good players, but let us not judge the composer by the player.

 

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