real riches

Many young girls who dream of becoming a cheerleader will get turned away. But what if a group of these outsiders pulled together and made their own cheer squad?

A boat was docked in a tiny fishing village.

A tourist complimented the fisherman on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took him to catch them.

“Not very long,” answered the fisherman.

“But then, why didn’t you stay out longer and catch more?” asked the visitor.

The fisherman explained that his small catch was sufficient to meet the needs of his family.

The visitor asked, “But what do you do with the rest of your time?”

“I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, and take an afternoon nap. In the evenings, I go into the village to see my friends, have a drink, play the guitar, and sing a few songs… I have a full life.”

The visitor interrupted, “I have an MBA from a business university and I can help you! You should start by fishing longer every day. You can then sell the extra fish you catch. With the extra revenue, you can buy a bigger boat.”

“And after that?” asked the fisherman.
“With the extra money the larger boat will bring, you can buy a second one and a third one and so on, until you have an entire fleet of trawlers. Instead of selling your fish to a middleman, you can then negotiate directly with the processing plants, or maybe even open your own plant. You can then leave this little village and move to a larger town on the coast! From there you can direct your new enterprise.”

“How long would that take?” asked the fisherman.

“Perhaps twenty years,” replied the visitor.

“And after that?”

“Afterwards? Well, my Friend, that’s when it gets really interesting,” answered the visitor, laughing. “When your business gets really big, you can start selling stocks and make millions!”

“Millions? Really? And after that?” said the fisherman.

“After that you’ll be able to retire, live in a tiny village near the coast, sleep late, play with your children, catch a few fish, take an afternoon nap, and spend your evenings visiting and enjoying your friends.”

And the moral is:
Know where you’re going in life… You may already be there

We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others giving away the last piece of bread. They may have been few in number- but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken away from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.

~Victor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning

A good friend of mine once said “I am not responsible for the thoughts that come into my head. I am responsible for what I do with them”.

Both these statements are saying basically the same thing. They say that I am responsible for how I feel, what kind of attitude that I allow myself to have on a daily basis.

It is my choice to be happy or sad, to be lonly or not, to walk under a cloud or in the sunshine.

If you are going along in your day and see three butt holes, it is time to look in the mirror and see the fourth. This is because what we put out into the world comes back.

I cannot give out more than I receive. If I give out anger and resentment, I will get a lot more of that back. If I put out love and kindness, I will get a lot more of that back in return.

If your day starts off bad, you can always restart the day.

Life is as good as I allow it to be.

I was having a discussion with my son this morning and he asked me “what is serenity?”.

I have my own ideas but decided to look at the dictionary to see what Webster had to say. The definitions that I found are:

Serenity \Se*ren”i*ty\, n. [L. serenuas: cf. F. s[’e]r[’e]nit[’e].]
1. The quality or state of being serene; clearness and calmness; quietness; stillness; peace.

2. Calmness of mind; eveness of temper; undisturbed state; coolness; composure.

Some of may think that serenity is a state of bliss, a large amount of joy. But, from this definition, it looks as it is being alright with the world. It is knowing that “everything is alright already”.

This follows right along with the idea that “God is everything or God is nothing”. If he is everything, I am fine. If he is nothing, I am screwed. So, I choose to believe that he is everything and that he loves me works to my best in all ways at all times.

A friend of mine says that “if God is small enough for me to understand, he is not big enough to handle my problems”. If this is true, I must trust and believe that what he has in store for me is better than I could imagine or design on my own.

Wayne Dyer had a sister that was in a car accident and almost died. She tells him that while she was in surgery, she observed the discussion between the doctors trying to decide if they should put out the effort to save her life. She had an “NDE” (Near Death Experience).

He says that since she has recovered from her physical wounds from the accident, she can see the “big picture” and that nothing disturbs her. She can allow all the turmoil that may go on around to not disturb her serenity.

All of this goes into my definition of serenity. It is the ability to sit calmly and know that everything is fine as long as I get out of the way and let him do his work.

Life is as good as I allow it to be.

In the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, there is a line that has given me great comfort in my daily life. It is talking about the things that are put before us and how we handle them.

The line states that “nothing, absolutely nothing, happens in God’s world by mistake”.

To me, this says that there is a reason for everything that goes on in my life. I am told that there are lessons to learn from everything and that I have choices as to how I react to these “opportunities”.

I believe that there are lessons to learn from the things that at are placed in our lives. But, the lessons that are to be learned may not be for us to learn. Maybe, it is a lesson that is to be learned by someone else. It could be that by going thru something with grace, another person can believe that they can do the same thing.

I have a friend that lost his daughter in an auto accident coming home from college for Christmas. He did not go crazy with grief and go off on the world. No, this gentleman came into our group of friends and talked about his grief. He showed me, and others, that we can go thru grief without destroying others and creating more grief.

I have also been taught that my mind sometimes cannot tell the difference between a tragedy and a miracle. An incident that happened in my life 20 years ago is a great example of this fact.

Something happened that, at the time it happened, I knew that my life had changed totally. I was at a crossroads and, depending on which route I took, life would be different.

Thankfully, even though I did not think that it would be a good choice, I took the route that has helped create a fantastic life. A life that is full and provides much joy and happiness.

Looking back on that night, I did not know what was in store but was able to take a route that would help my family and families of many other people.

So, I know that nothing happens in my life by mistake. And that life is as good as I allow it to be.