Advice and Encouragement

Are You Lucky?

Are you lucky? If someone asked you that today, what would you use as a benchmark, to determine your own good fortune? What is going on with you that makes you feel lucky? Have you won a prize lately? Did you get the job you wanted? Have you always had a job that you love, or the man or woman of your choice?

Any one of those things could be considered very good luck. But there are so many benefits that we have that make us luckier than most, that we were born in this time, in this country.

It’s easy to forget how many basic things we have that would make others consider every one of us to be very lucky. We turn on the faucet and clean water comes out. Do you know how many people can only dream of that?

When you turn the lights out at night, you can reasonably expect that there will not be soldiers banging on your door, dragging someone away, never to be seen again.

We can learn and participate and speak out. As we hear complaints about our country, our government, our citizens, let’s remember that within all the chaos, we are still free and well fed and allowed to go about our business as we please.

We can go to church . . . or the mall . . . choose the shows we want to watch on TV or travel across state lines. We can hear what the opposition has to say, voice our concerns and seek justice.

How lucky are you? Lottery winner or not, chances are you are one lucky dude.

[#524]

Conflicting Advice

There are so many experts out there; people who think they know better than you, what is best for you. Listening to them all can seem like a cacophony of conflicting advice.

You follow the rules for overcoming this bad habit this week, and the next week, the rules are the reverse of what you’ve been doing. Today the advice is to turn left; tomorrow, you’re told to turn right.

Seems to me, the key is knowing your own mind, spirit and body and making your own decisions about what’s best for you.

I saw a news report recently about how Facebook is bad for your health because it is addictive. Of course we’ve all heard stories about people getting sucked into online chat rooms or dark places or social media to the exclusion of all else – job, family, friends. But we don’t shut down a tool that facilitates billions of communications because of the few who get lost.

One third of seniors will fall this year. But we don’t put old folks in football helmets to save them from this fate.

Maybe what’s needed is a large dose of caution and a little common sense, added to the advice of experts. Get more than one opinion. Check the accuracy of the facts. Consider the pros and the cons. Set up your own filters before following advice blindly.

That even applies to the advice just provided.

[#523]

How Early Did You Know Joy?

I was trying to think back to when I first understood the concept of JOY. I know for sure that it was there when my children were each born—incredible joy that not only their fingers and toes were intact, but their soul and spirit and brain as well—and all in my care to form and nurture.

But I was joyous before then. Every time I think of a joyous moment, an earlier one occurs to me too. There was the joy of graduation . . . of first love . . . of the first good reviews on the job. I remember the joy of pulling safely up to my parents’ house after driving a car alone for the first time.

But even before then, there was the joy of sounds of music in church . . . Christmas celebrations . . . finding out that a childhood friend was a REAL friend, willing to stand up for me and take rough hits.

I wonder if I felt joy as a baby . . . as an infant. I’ll bet I did. I’ll bet an infant cuddled in its mother’s arms knows unmitigated joy. It’s true for the mother, so it probably is for the child as well.

So it seems that joy has been with us our whole lives. All we have to do is recognize it, and bask in it. One thing for sure. Joy is not in things; it is in people and memories. Make sure your daily tendings include a search for joy.

Photo credit: Michael Petrick of Petrick Studios

[Show #430]

The Mirror

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest one of all? Remember that line from the fairy tale? The wicked queen sure didn’t like the response from her magic mirror.

I remember a story a friend tells of how he used a mirror. He was the supervisor of a cleaning crew. Tasks on their list were not getting as much attention as they should and he felt compelled to inspire his teams. He wanted them to take more personal responsibility for a good job.

When they arrived at their morning meeting, there was a mirror at each place around the conference table. He introduced the subject of improved results from their cleaning efforts and offered to show the solution to the problem. Then he invited each person to pick up the mirror in front of them and look into it. There, he said, is the person who can solve the problem!

He made his point. The group took suggestions all around the room; not on how OTHERS should do a better job, but how that particular person would improve his work that very day. Then they went out and did it.

The lesson applies to so many of life’s problems. Instead of turning to others to cure the ill, the solution can be effectively provided by the person you visit when you look in the mirror.

[Show #351]

The Christmas Pageant

It was our first Christmas in our first real house. The children were 7, 4 and 3—quite a handful, and so full of the Christmas spirit.

The oldest had learned in school about giving gifts from the heart. She wisely brought home the message that gifts need not be the biggest or the most expensive, to show love. She wanted to give her mom and dad a Christmas gift from the heart. She convinced her little sister and brother to put on a Christmas pageant for us, as our gift.

As the oldest, she played the key role of the Virgin Mary, dressed in one of my frilly white nightgowns. Her sister, complete with aluminum foil halo, was an angel holding a wooden spoon no doubt representing something angelic. Their toddler brother was a shepherd dressed in brown towel tied at the waist with a jump rope. A doll wrapped in white towels represented the baby Jesus in swaddling clothes.

They were so little; and yet they understood the true significance of the day and played it out so lovingly for their dad and me.

All grown up now, they have taught the true meaning of Christmas to their children as well. We all still sing “Happy Birthday Jesus” on Christmas Day, celebrating Him as the reason for the season.

What a joy are memories of significant Christmases past that still bring smiles to our lips and tears to our eyes.

Show #467

Can Girls Win?

I grew up in a time when women had a different place in life. We were expected to be the wife, home maker and mother. And when it came to competitions with boys, it was not wise to win if you were a girl. The boys . . . and later, the men . . . didn’t like the girls who won.

But there were women who disagreed. They said we should have the same options as men. We should be able to work if we want and also be a home body. We should be allowed to use our gifts and our talents.

Even as we were liberated to join in games and sports, it was somehow expected that when you played with other girls, you could do your best. But when you played with boys, it was so much wiser to let them win, with eyelash batting innocence when they topped us – yet again.

Today the very idea makes me laugh. Somewhere along the way, we figured out that it was OK to win.

With that allowance, we learned the thrill of victory, and never looked back. We can be the top analyst, the team leader as well as the soccer mom – or the soccer player.

I hope we show enough appreciation to those who led the way to this delicious freedom. It was not easy to buck the tide. But they did and they won for us, this freedom – The freedom to WIN, even when you are a girl.

Show #300

Photo credit: Co-ed Soccer by Michael Ireland via DollarPhotoClub

« Previous Page