Be aware every morning that you may not last the day
And every evening that you may not last the night.
--Engraved Plaque in the Catacombs of ParisI
I received a note from a good friend telling me she was helping to plan her 70th high school graduation party. Whoa!
Do you live each day to the fullest?
When you time comes can you say you live each day as it might be your last?
I try though I don’t always succeed. Some days I dwell too much on the past. Other days I worry too much about the future. My motto, my goal is to live in the now. Oh you can plan, you can relish in old memories. But don’t let those be your life. Let your life be today, be now! Live each day as it is your last and when you reach your 70th graduation party you won’t have any regrets and may be the youngest there.
Get It?
I have been reading the book A New Earth, Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose, by Eckhart Tolle. And I have been participating in the Oprah Winfrey web seminar on the book every week for the past seven weeks. I also just finished the book Way of the Peaceful Warrior, by Dan Millman. A New Earth is the textbook version, while The Peaceful Warrior is the everyday application of the teachings of being in the now or present. I thoroughly enjoyed both books and believe I am more at peace and happy than at anytime in my life. I commend both books to your reading. Interesting, A New Earth was published in 2006 and The Peaceful Warrior was published in 1980 and released as a movie in 2000.
. . . from Way of the Peaceful Warrior
A saintly woman was walking along the edge of a cliff. Several hundred feet below her, she saw a dead mother lion, surrounded by her crying cubs. Without hesitation, she leaped off the cliff so that they would have something to eat.
What do you think?
Today’s thought is dedicated to a dear friend on her 88th birthday. She’s a sharp as a bird and spry as a cat, as they say. If 80 is the new 60; she’s it! I came to know this individual about the time my father was diagnosed was a terminal, untreatable illness. Our friendship developed while I nursed my father. She taught me so much about life, how valuable it is, how to enjoy and to never give up. She made those trying times a little easier. Now that my Dad has passed on, our friendship continues; we have become family. Thank God for my friend. Happy Birthday!
from Walking With the Savior:
. . . Do what is right this week, whatever it is, whatever comes down the path, whatever problems and dilemmas you face — just do what’s right. Maybe no one else is doing what’s right, but you do what’s right. You be honest. You take a stand. You be true. . . .
Right on. I try to live my life by this though it is hard and I admit I doesn’t always live up to this expectation–Do the right thing. With our declining morals, ethics and values, this standard is hard to live up to. But we must! We should and must demand this as an absolute from our children, our family, our friends, our leaders, etc.. Otherwise we are on path of destruction. Or maybe we are on that path. . . just look at our three presidential candidates. Look at the performers, musicians, actors we idolize. Look at our press and what they publicize as important. Look at our music, our movies. I hope it is not too late.
What do you think?
from the Applause of Heaven:
Antonio Stradivari was a seventeenth-century violin maker whose name in its Latin form, Stradivarius, has become synonymous with excellence. He once said that to make a violin less than his best would be to rob God, who could not make Antonio Stradivari’s violins without Antonio.
He was right. God could not make Stradivarius violins without Antonio Stradivari. Certain gifts were given to that craftsman that no other violin maker possessed.
In the same vein, there are certain things you can do that no one else can. Perhaps it is parenting, or constructing houses, or encouraging the discouraged. There are things that only you can do, and you are alive to do them. In the great orchestra we call life, you have an instrument and a song, and you owe to God (and to yourself) to play them both sublimely.
Huh? What do you think? My thoughts soon!
I posted five new pictures of my cat Huey on his MySpace page this morning. See the link to Huey’s MySpace page. He is such a joy. And then I think how cruel we are to dogs and cats. Do you see the Oprah Winfrey show on puppy mills this past week. It was how we breed for profit. And the breeding is extremely cruel. Dogs never allowed out of cages. Overbreed to they are ill. No medical attention. And when they can no longer breed, they are shot and killed. What is wrong with us. Whether you like dogs or cats or not, how can we tolerate this cruelty? All for profit. What is wrong with America? With the world? Granted there are more pressing issues and concerns facing the world. But if we as a society can tolerate the inhumane treatment of animals. . .it says a lot about us as human beings. And it is not something to be proud of. Fixing this is simple. Outlaw puppy mills. Outlaw the killing of cats and dogs. (Killing is permitted on many states, so when the breeding ability ends, the dogs are just killed.) And stop buying pets from puppy mills. Cruelty to animals must stop. Step up! Don’t tolerate! It’s that simple! What do you think?
