Filed under: mind, thoughts | Tags: Giving Back, LinkedIn, Mentoring, MentorWorks, Passion, Poetry, Resumes, Writing
From now on, any definition of a successful life must include serving others. George Bush
Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not. The Lorax from Dr. Suess.
If don’t know if its my age or having available time, but I have a strong desire to give back to my fellow human beings. It’s a burning passion in me. These two quotes summarize my passion quite well.
So what am I doing. Well first of all, I offer free mentoring and coaching though a service called MentorWorks. Along with the mentoring and coaching, I provide resume and LinkedIn profile reviews. To date, I have had many takers. For the most part I believe the service has been beneficial to the mentees. I know I have derived a lot of satisfaction for being a mentor to others.
Secondly, I am a volunteer member of the Board of Directors for the charitable organization Homeland Security Foundation of America. The “Price of Security” is one of the greatest challenges we face today. HSFA’s mission is to advance Homeland Security while protecting Americans’ civil liberties and ensuring freedom, safety and prosperity for all. I also serve as Chair of the Board Committee – Governance and Finance. Again, this is a very rewarding experience. I am getting to work with some of the most talented and skilled people who are very, very passionate about achieving HSFA’s mission. I am excited to be part of the effort, part of the team!
I also write and publish regularly. I have three blogs. This one on Life’s Thoughts, another on Poetry Thoughts and a third on Business Thoughts. Further, I write articles on life, business, scholarly topics, and publish them at two on-line sites and at three association newsletter. Further, I write and publish poetry. You can find the links to my works at my web page: http://jamesyoakum.synthasite.com
Writing is an easy way to share my many personal and business experiences. It is a way to challenge other to learn, to think, to grow. I get these same benefits in doing the writing/composing itself.
Lastly, I try to attend and engage in group and organizational meetings. I participate and many times I present.
So I feel I am giving back. It takes some time. But the rewards make the effort worthwhile.
Two questions for my readers:
(1) Do you have any suggestions on how I can enhance my give back experiences?
(2) What do you do to give back?
My thoughts . . . what’s on your mind?
Filed under: Food, Friends, humor, laugh, love | Tags: Food, Ketchup, Oddities, Recipes
We had some fun popcorn and usual recipes a couple a blogs ago. Now lets have some fun with ketchup. Let me begin by stating that ketchup is one of my favorite condiments. It is healthy and tasty and can be used on lots of items to add and/or change flavor. While I am not normally brand choosy, I am when it comes to ketchup. I only like Heinz ketchup. This is not an advertisement for Heinz; it merely is a statement of fact. Now here’s some odd uses of ketchup.
(1) My youngest daughter (she’s 23) won’t eat macaroni and cheese without ketchup. When I asked why, she explained that growing up she frequently ate hot dogs with ketchup along with macaroni and cheese. Somehow the ketchup always found its way into the macaroni and cheese. Now, as an adult she will not eat macaroni and cheese without ketchup.
(2) Growing up I can’t recall my Dad eating eggs without ketchup on them. He also would spread ketchup on saltine crackers; he did the same with mustard.
(3) As a youngster, I had a friend a who family used ketchup as their sauce on spaghetti. Her mother would cook the pasta and put it in a bowl on the dining table. Then the family just took bottles of ketchup and poured it over the spaghetti. When my friend learned of “real” sauce for spaghetti, she was surprised. She had grown up thinking spaghetti sauce was ketchup.
How about you? Any odd recipes or uses of ketchup?
Filed under: Friends, animals, friendship, stupidity | Tags: friendship, Memories, Morals. Scandals, thoughts
I grew up in Columbus, Ohio. When I was sixteen I took driver’s education during summer school. There were four students to each car and for five days weeks over a 3 month period we learned to drive. It really was a pleasant experience.
One of the exercises was that we each got to drive to Centerburg, Ohio. Centerberg is a small town with only a population of approximately 2000. It is famous for being the geographical center of Ohio. Centerberg is located about 25 miles North-Northeast of Columbus.
For four days in driver’s ed we each got to drive to Centerberg and back to Columbus. It was the longest drive we each had taken to date, so it was exciting. I have a memory of one of my fellow students going left of center while in Centerberg to avoid hitting a squirrel. Funny the things you remember. Fond memories.
Later in life, I developed a great friendship with an individual who grew up in Centerberg and migrated to Columbus to attend nursing school. She stayed in Columbus after that but often travels back to Centerberg. I have gone back with her a couple of times. Fond memories.
So imagine my dismay when I saw in the national press that Centerberg had to cancel its high school graduation this year. Apparently, a member of the senior class hacked into the high school’s computers and stole some tests and some teacher’s notes. Allegedly, the tests and notes were shared with over 50% of the graduating class. Amid investigations and lawsuits, the School Board decided to cancel the graduation ceremony. I guess now Centerberg is known for more than being geographical center of Ohio.
What a shame. What is happening to our ethics, morals and standards? Are we experiencing a moral decline?
What do you think?
Let’s have some tasty fun today. There are so many ways to make popcorn. Some unusual. How do you make popcorn? What’s the most unusual way you know of?
I’ll start out. Growing up as a kid we had a special “popcorn” pan. It was black from use. We would start with a stick of butter. Let it melt and then add plenty of white popcorn. If we wanted something different we would use bacon grease instead of butter. We cooked it until it was almost black and then doused it with milk to eat. I thought that was the only way to eat popcorn until I was a teenager and started getting kettle cooked popcorn at movie theaters and sporting events.
Can you top this in unusual ways to make popcorn?
Filed under: God, mind, spirituality | Tags: God, Patience, Prayer, Religion, spirituality, Virtue
To every sincere prayer an answer will come. It may not come just as you desire, or at the time you look for it; but it come in the way and at the time that will best meet your need. The prayers you offer in loneliness, in weariness, in trial, God answers, not always according to your expectations, but always for your good.
E.G. White
We live in a fast paced world. We want it all and we want it now. (This approach may be what got us into this recent economic spiral, but that’s for another day, another post.) But sometimes now is not the best time. Learn patience. Patience is a virtue as the old saying goes. Expecting too much too fast is a bad thing. It results in disappointment, unhappiness, grief, etc. So learn patience, learn that now is not always best. God is watching out for you.
Filed under: God, love, music, nature, politics, spirituality, weather | Tags: America, Beauty, Thought
We sang this song in Church Sunday to celebrate Memorial Day. Is America still beautiful? How is it beautiful? What do you think?
O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!
Life = The People You Meet + What You Create Together
This is a new colleague’s salutation in his notes, etc. I know I said no more quotes in my last blog (Thought 36), but I thought this quote was too genius, too telling, to pass up.
I asked this colleague for the source of the quote. He actually created it from another quote from a book on networking. The book stated:
“. . . [P]eople are just another name if you stop there . . .it is when you create something meaningful together that life has meaning.”
Beautiful!
I won’t say much other than I hope I am living life this way each and every day.
What about you?
I know, recently, I became hung up on quotes. They can just be so thought provoking and most often can’t be said better. Here’s so more and I promise . . . this is it.
To love oneself is the beginning of a life long romance. Oscar Wilde
Taxes and life insurance are just about the same thing. You pay out the money, and someone else has the fun of spending it. Unknown.
If you don’t say anything, you won’t be called on to repeat it.
Calvin Coolidge
When people agree with me, I always feel I must be wrong.
Oscar Wilde
We must adjust to changing times and still hold to the unchanging principles. Jimmy Carter Inaugural Address
Only a life lived for others is the life worth while. Albert Einstein
We are always getting ready to live, but never living. Ralph Waldo Emerson
With God, all things are possible. State Motto of Ohio
Time is the least thing we have of. Ernest Hemingway
Excellence is born of preparation, dedication, focus and tenacity; compromise on any of these and you become average. John Chatterton
Filed under: God, books, friendship, humor, love, mind, spirituality | Tags: life, People, Quotes, Words
One must be a wise reader to quote wisely and well.
A. Bronson Alcott
I often use quotes from famous and not so famous individuals in my writings. A question was posed recently on on another blog as to whether the utilization of quotes is symbolic of intelligence and wiseness, or is it a sign of the inability to express your own thoughts in your own words. I suppose this is a valid debate to which there is no end, nor answer. I personally enjoy reading others words, reading about others thoughts and lives. There is so much to learn from others’ experiences and words. Most of the time, I could have not said it better. So, as they say (a quote), why reinvent the wheel. I leave you with a dozen very common quotes used by many regularly in their day-to-day conversations. They are so common, we know their meanings and we don’t question the wisdom they embellish.
-Live and learn.
-Live and let live.
-What’s done is done.
-To each his own.
-The early bird gets the worm.
-Easy come, easy go.
-The end justifies the means.
-Enough is enough.
- Experience is the best teacher.
-God helps those that help themselves.
- Here today, gone tomorrow.
-With God all things are possible.
Can you add any?
What do you think?
Filed under: Friends, God, friendship, hello, love, mind, spirituality | Tags: Faith, family, Friends, love, spirituality
A not so famous quote:
You are accountable and responsible to make it happen . . . to that end, please do so and don’t let me down.
-Speaker to be identified late in this blog.
What does this quote mean?
You are accountable and responsible.
Each of us is accountable and responsible for our lives. No one else is! We often think or blame others, especially when things don’t seem to be going right. But despite what it may seem at times, we control our paths, our lives, our destiny. If you are stuck – its no one’s fault but your’s. Your right to chose is absolute. No one can stop you from doing what you really want. You only think they can. You and only you control your path.
To make it happen.
You and only you can make it happen. Just do what it takes. Sometimes that means thinking outside the box, perhaps leaving your comfort zone. We are not bound by handcuffs. You possess the intelligence, the strength the do whatever needs to be done. Just look inside yourself and you will find it. Courage, desire, drive to make it happen. It’s in everyone one of us. Find it and behave accordingly.
Please do so.
So do it! Please do it! It’s a God given right to do it. God gave us free will so we could do it. The only boundaries on action are our ethics and values. So live not to disappoint – You.
And don’t le me down.
Who should you not let down – you, yourself and no one else.
So whose quote is this? I am told it is mine from many years ago on I a project I ran. I embedded in it into the fabric of the project’s success.
Was it or is it real? Yes. I today, try to live my life accordingly. Do I always succeed? No. Sometimes I am down and out – stuck on a path, perhaps a comfortable path. I may even be stuck for a while. But with prayer, with God’s support, with support from family and friends, I find the courage to take the right path, regardless of how tough. Thank you God for free will.
What do you think?
