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Volume 18, # 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . May, 2003 |
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Volume 18, # 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . May, 2003 |
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Freedom to Dream . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ronald Regan
"The dreams of people may differ, but everyone wants their dreams to come true. Not everybody aspires to be a bank president or a nuclear scientist, but everybody wants to do something with one’s life that will give him or her pride and a sense of accomplishment. And America, above all places, gives us the freedom to do that, that freedom to reach out and make our dreams come true."
A Transforming Leader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Steven R. Covey
"I am personally convinced that one person can be a change catalyst, a ‘transformer’ in any situation, any organization. Such an individual is yeast that can leaven an entire loaf. It requires vision, initiative, patience, respect, persistence, courage and faith to be a transforming leader."
Meditation & Contemplation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Keith Egan
"First, we would do well to emphasize once again the need for meditation in the life of anyone who seeks to make progress in the journey to God. This need is for a meditation that is a prayerful reflection upon the Word of God and also for meditation that, in the centering tradition, brings one into the presence of God within."
Law of Replacement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jack Canfield & Mark V. Hanson,
The Aladdin Factor, p. 93"Use the law of replacement. There is a law of psychology that says you cannot get rid of one thing without replacing it with something else. Since nature abhors a vacuum, if we just try to eliminate the negative without replacing it with the positive, the vacuum created will eventually suck the negative back in. If we are not careful and conscious, we sometimes end up replacing one negative with another negative."
Begin Now! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bob Burg, via www. jimrohn.com
"Take that initial step. Begin now! Don’t promise yourself, ‘Well, I’ll begin tomorrow.’ The reason is that tomorrow never comes; it always turns into today, and you didn’t promise to begin today—you promised to begin tomorrow. Successful people do it now. Otherwise they know they could (if they are like I am) very well fall victim to what I call The Law of Diminishing Intent which states: ‘The longer you wait to do something that you know we should do now, the greater the chances are it will never actually get done.’"
The Optimist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . William Arthur Ward
"The optimist lives on the peninsula of infinite possibilities;
the pessimist is stranded on the island of perpetual indecision.""Optimism is a seed sown in the soil of faith;
pessimism is a seed hoarded in the vault of doubt.""Optimists enrich the present, enhance the future,
challenge the improbable and attain the impossible."
One Great Vision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Black Elk
"It is hard to follow one great vision in this world of darkness and of many shadows. Among these shadows men get lost."
For the Rest of my Life… . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Og Mandino,
The Return of the Ragpicker, p. 136"For the rest of my life, this very special day, God help me…to strive to fulfill the best that is within me, knowing that I have no obligation to attain great wealth or success, only the obligation to be true to the highest and best I can be.
…to never succumb to the fear of failing…to embrace adversity as a friend who will teach me more about myself than any joyful run of success and good fortune.
…to remember that failures, even when they occur, are only guides to success, since every discovery of what is false will lead me to seek after what is true, and every experience teaches me some form of error that shall afterward be carefully avoided.
…to rejoice over what I have, little though it may be, always recalling the oft-told tale of the man who was sobbing because he had no shoes until, one day, he met a man who had no feet."
Quiet Desperation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Henry David Thoreau
"The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them."
Change of Heart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . M. Scott Peck, People of the Lie
"The whole course of human history may depend on a change of heart in one solitary, and even humble, individual—for it is in the solitary mind and soul of the individual that the battle between good and evil is waged, and ultimately won or lost."
Self-Respect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A. Whitney Griswold
"Self-respect cannot be hunted. It cannot be purchased. It is never for sale. It cannot be fabricated out of public relations. It comes to us when we are alone, in quiet moments, in quiet places, when we suddenly realize that, knowing the good, we have done it; knowing the beautiful, we have served it; knowing the truth, we have spoken it."
A Few Awake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . "Joe vs. the Volcano"
The Right to Do . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . William Safire
"The right to do something does not mean that doing it is right."
Heights of Excellence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Anonymous
"Working together, ordinary people can perform extraordinary feats. They can lift things that come into their hands a little higher, a little further on toward the heights of excellence."
When God Interrupts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Anonymous
A woman was discussing with her spiritual director what God might be calling her to do with her life and what steps she should take next.
The director listened carefully and then asked her what were her immediate plans. The woman responded that she had no plans; she would simply wait on God to give her a sign.
The director asked her to reflect on some Bible passages and how God’s call was experienced by others. At their next meeting, the woman announced that she now had a part-time job, although she felt that God was calling her, ultimately, to something else.
"What made you decide to get a job?" the director inquired.
"Well," the woman replied, "I discovered that God interrupts. It seemed to me that every time God called somebody in the Bible to do something, they were already busy doing something else."
The Sneeze . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Anonymous
They walked in tandem, each of the ninety-three students filing into the already crowded auditorium. With maroon gowns flowing and the traditional caps, they looked almost as grown up as they felt. Dads swallowed hard behind broad smiles, and moms freely brushed away tears.
This class, however, would not be praying during commencement—not by choice but because of a recent court ruling prohibiting school prayer. The principal and student speakers were very careful to stay within the guidelines allowed by the ruling. They gave inspirational and challenging messages, but not one mentioned divine guidance, and no one asked for blessings from on High upon the graduates and their families. The speeches were nice, but they were routine…until the final speaker…
A solitary student walked proudly to the microphone, he stood still for just a moment, and then he delivered his speech—an astounding sneeze. The entire graduating class immediately rose to their feet, and shouted in unison, "God Bless You!"
The audience exploded in applause. That graduating class found a unique way to invoke God’s blessing on their future…with or without the court’s approval.
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