INSTALLING LOVE

Author Unknown

Tech Support: Yes, ... how can I help you?

Customer: Well, after much consideration, I've decided to install Love. Can you guide me though the process?

Tech Support: Yes. I can help you. Are you ready to proceed?

Customer: Well, I'm not very technical, but I think I'm ready. What do I do first?

Tech Support: The first step is to open your Heart. Have you located your Heart?

Customer: Yes, but there are several other programs running now. Is it okay to install Love while they are running?

Tech Support: What programs are running?

Customer: Let's see, I have Past Hurt, Low Self-Esteem, Grudge, and Resentment running right now.

Tech Support: No problem, Love will gradually erase Past Hurt from your current operating system. It may remain in your permanent memory but it will no longerdisrupt other programs. Love will eventually override Low Self-Esteem with a module of its own called High Self-Esteem. However, you have to completely turn off Grudge and Resentment. Those programs prevent Love from being properly installed. Can you turn those off?

Customer: I don't know how to turn them off. Can you tell me how?

Tech Support: With pleasure. Go to your start menu and invoke Forgiveness. Do this as many times as necessary until Grudge and Resentment have been completely erased.

Customer: Okay, done! Love has started installing itself. Is thatnormal?

Tech Support: Yes, but remember that you have only the base program. You need to begin connecting to other Hearts in order to get the upgrades.

Customer: Oops! I have an error message already. It says, "Error - Program notrun on external components." What should I do?

Tech Support: Don't worry. It means that the Love program is set up to run on Internal Hearts, but has not yet been run on your Heart. In non-technical terms, it simply means you have to Love yourself before you can Love others.

Customer: So, what should I do? 

Tech Support: Pull down Self-Acceptance; then click on the following files: Forgive-Self; Realize Your Worth; and Acknowledge your Limitations.

Customer: Okay, done.

Tech Support: Now, copy them to the "My Heart" directory. The system willoverwrite any conflicting files and begin patching faulty programming. Also, you need to delete Verbose Self-Criticism from all directories and empty your Recycle Bin to make sure it is completely gone and never comes back.

Customer: Got it. Hey! My heart is filling up with new files. Smile is playing on my monitor and Peace and Contentment are copying themselves all overMy Heart.Is this normal?

Tech Support: Sometimes. For others it takes awhile, but eventually everything gets it at the proper time. So Love is installed and running. One more thing before we hang up. Love is Freeware. Be sure to give itand its various modules to everyone you meet. They will in turn share it with others and return some coolmodules back to you.

Points to Ponder

"This art of resting the mind and the power of 

dismissing from it all care and worry is probably 

one of the secrets of energy in our great men."

                                                                                                         — Captain J. A. Hadfield: Author

Think about......

I realized early on that success was tied to not giving up. Most people in this business gave up and went on to other things. If you simply didn't give up, you would outlast the people who came in on the bus with you.

~Harrison Ford

THE VIEW

by Tania Kinzinger

I write this with a cup of hot chocolate (+ a hint of Bailey's) by my side, the girls at school, my notebook resting on my lap and the challenge of sharing this last year before me. As I look out my living room window, heavily faded grays, browns, and whites, reflect back. Only the boldness of red from ribbons on Christmas wreathes and on the coats of Nutcracker soldiers' stands out. It looks arctic outside. The white that covers the ground is both ice and snow and the high today will be 10°.

If I believe what I see, there is little life. There is hardly movement. There is no warmth. The trees are bare, the lake frozen, and the wind still. It is quiet in my home and I am reminded of the barrenness of this season. Winter has come and I am in the middle of it. In these moments, my heart stirs. Sadness wants to come in. Quiet begins to engulf me. Worry tries to trickle into my thoughts. My eyes tell me coldness is all there is. It has conquered towering trees and froze expansive waters and land. My eyes tell me this is life or rather, this is how life is defeated.

So I close my eyes. My heart longs for more. My heart has always longed for more. "God, show me what I cannot see." With a richer desire, I openmy eyes. Some of the same images appear but my stirred heart now notices the sled trail on the lawn where just the night before I pulled Shaelah and Sofia up a small self-made hill. I can see the run over snow angels and places where Sofie picked icicles off and enjoyed nature's popsicles. I see Shaelah's boot prints and become aware that they are closer to my size than they are to a child's.

As I look further out, the frozen lake and shoreline remind me of this year's road trips and our mini vacations in search of the perfect pool or beach. Spring break took us to Arizona where the girls discovered the small flags attached to pool lounge chairs, pool side service, and Shirley Temple drinks. Memories of our days at Lake Holiday or North Avenue beach this summer return. These girls are fish in water and connoisseurs of sandcastle tools. I can clearly see in my mind the mounds of shells they have collected over time and realize they have saved a piece of every beach we have ever been to together.

It now begins to snow. I kid you not. God's timing is perfect. As snow begins to cover the ground more, I remember our road trip to Sparta, Missouri. Gratitude overwhelms me when I think of profound friendships that would take the girls and I so far. I smile at the memory of standing in untouched nature, watching a mare and her colt galloping through open acreages and feeling the earth move beneath us. Seeing a beautiful strong mare leading her own, captures the heart of a mother. It took my breath away.

Tears are welling up in my eyes now as my heart feels like the luckiest woman in the world. I realize that the life the girls and I live is a good one. We are healthy, happy, loved and love. When the girls crawl into bed with me, I know that I have everything I need right beside me. God has always taken care of us. Always.

My take away this year? "Do not believe solely in what the eyes see." There is great abundance in life and we are blessed beyond what the economy, our businesses, and our trials try to tell us. If we still ourselves long enough to close our eyes, our hearts tell us that there are only a few things in life that have meaning for eternity and bring lasting fulfillment. Look for those things and life becomes alive again and again and again!

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tania Kinzinger is a single mom of 2 joyful young girls ages 9 and 8. Myhusband and dad of the girls left about 3 years ago and it has been a journey back to finding purpose and life ever since. I write to feel whole again and in doing so, I find a strength I never knew I had. You can reach Tania at tania@strengthof10.com

The Green thing....

from a facebook post. author not named....




Checking out at the supermarket recently, the young cashier suggested I should bring my own bags because plastic bags weren’t good for the environment. I apologized and explained, “We didn’t have this green thing back in my earlier days“.


The clerk responded, “That’s our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations“.


She was right about one thing–our generation didn’t have the green thing in “Our” day. So what did we have back then? After some reflection and soul-searching on “Our” day, here’s what I remembered we did have….


Back then, we returned milk bottles, pop bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles repeatedly. So they really were recycled. But we didn’t have the green thing back in our day.


We walked up stairs, because we didn’t have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn’t climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks. But she was right. We didn’t have the green thing in our day.


Back then, we washed the baby’s nappies because we didn’t have the throw-away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 240 volts — wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that young lady is right. We didn’t have the green thing back in our day.


Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house — not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of Wales. In the kitchen, we blended & stirred by hand because we didn’t have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap.


Back then, we didn’t fire up an engine and burn petrol just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn’t need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. But she’s right. We didn’t have the green thing back then.


We drank from a water fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull. But we didn’t have the green thing back then.


Back then, people took the bus, and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their mums into a 24-hour taxi service. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn’t need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint.


But isn’t it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn’t have the green thing back then?

Some Days

Some days i want to live
some days i wish it’s over
some days i long to see
some days i wait to die;

some days i think i am fine
some days i believe i have a problem
some days i am strong
some days i am weak;

some days i am closer to truth
some days it seems far far away
some days i think i understand
some days i am just lost;

some days i just wish
everything would disappear
some days i just hope
you could be near;

some days i have a feeling
one day everything
will be alright
and that day is closer
than ever;

Great Goals Make You Stretch!

by Fran Briggs

I met my alternate self three months shy of my 40th birthday as I struggled with clinically-diagnosed depression. During this same period, I was challenged, immensely by the debilitating effects of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and being rendered permanently partially disabled as the result of being involved in two car accidents in six days (neither of which was I at fault).

I recall an incredible sense of emptiness and a daunting feeling of being completely overwhelmed; especially when trying to figure out which pills went with what "ills." I was unable to return to the vocation I loved. That hurt more than my pain. Most of my time was spent in bed where I eventually became 48 pounds "over-fat."

When dreams and reasons for living are wiped out by the greatest, of the least unexpected, most people priorities typically change. My priorities? Well, they just disappeared. I was defeated physically, emotionally, psychologically, spiritually and knocking on "Financially's" door. Making the bed was not a priority; it simply went unmade. And when it came down to paying the bills, many went unpaid.

One day I was moved enough to actually cultivate the emotion of being "fed up!" During this awakening, I made the decision to reclaim complete responsibility for my life. And I did. 37 months post accident's, I went to work on my mind, body, and spirit. I studied, and applied everything that would enhance these areas. It wasn't long before I was 51 pounds lighter, and at least 52 times brighter.

Following my "awakening" I set goals to become an author, speaker, consultant, and educator. I quickly established myself in each discipline and began to promote and practice life-altering strategies. My approach was innovative, strategic, fun, proven and desired-results focused. Paramount to enhancing my personal energy level was to identify, outline and writing down my physical goals.

Returning to playing competitive softball, being the team's starting short stop and winning the league championship were my top three goals. I promised myself I would return to play softball at a competitive level if it killed me. It almost did! Playing softball on several teams simultaneously left me limping around with a blue, pain-alleviating ointment. I had soreness in muscles I never even knew existed! Nevertheless, by season's end I had accomplished all of my goals. I figured, if I could overcome all of myphysical, spiritual and psychological ailments, discovered how to run faster; jump higher; throw farther; look younger, stay up longer - manifest twice as much energy than I did when I was a "starting" NCAA athlete half myage - anyone else can do the "undoable," too! Whatever the "undoable," may be.

As I continued following a disciplined program to attain goals in every area of my life, something just short of magical happened. My personality sparked with a resurgence of charisma, confidence and boldness. Mymuscles grew stronger, my energy increased and the fat melted off mybody. Taking part in an activity not only became easier, but quite enjoyable. Suddenly, I was living life as I had designed.

Great goals make you stretch. They absolutely can take you well beyond anything you could possibly imagine! The most important part of setting great goals is not the goals themselves, but the person you become in the stretch.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Fran Briggs is a motivational speaker, author, success coach, and founder of The Fran Briggs Companies, an organization which helps individuals and groups take their human potential beyond the max. She is also the creator of "Get Sponsored! e-Course and Teleseminars." Fran can be reached atfranbriggs@aol.com For additional information, please visithttp://franbriggs.com