life lessons

Spring: The Chance To Start Over

This is a guest post about one of our Consider This episodes written by my friend, Elizabeth Cottrell, as it originally appeared on her blog at Heartspoken.com. If you want to read the full transcript of the show, CLICK HERE.

“What a gift spring is!”

Thus begins Annette Petrick in one of her wonderful “Consider This” radio spots. She zeroed in on what is most precious and powerful about the season of Spring: it is a time for awakening, for new growth, for renewal.

“Springs seems to be God’s way of assuring us that we can all start over,” she suggests.

And my heart whispers, “Yes!”

Yes to all the possibilities of new ideas to explore, new connections to make, new lives to touch.

Use the audio player above to listen to this 90-second radio spot and then answer this question: What’s waiting for a new start in your life?

Happily Annette has created a collection of these wonderful shows on her Consider This CD – Vol. I : A Heartwarming Collection About Life and Love. We’ve made it available at Heartspoken, either from this page or among our “Gifts That Inspire.”

The CD contains more than two dozen tracks with messages and lessons in short (less than two minutes long), easy-listening format. Track themes include Mothers, Friends, Coping with Life, Women, Spectrums of Love, Opportunity, and Lessons from Life. Whether you purchase the CD in its beautiful booklet case or in a deluxe boxed gift set, you’ll get the code to download a free 28-page bonus book with expanded writings on themes on the CD, photos, and the author’s personal story of life and love.

The CONSIDER THIS CD – VOL. 1 is the Perfect Gift:

to celebrate
to encourage
to comfort
to enjoy
to reward yourself
to show SOMEONE SPECIAL how much you care

0007 Consider This CD – Vol. I – $14.95 ($3.00 shipping for up to five.)

Call 540-436-3969 or email Elizabeth at e…@heartspoken.com if you need more than five)

CD in lovely booklet-style jacket and enclosed secret code to download free Bonus PDF Book

Consider This CD in gift box — Consider This CD Vol. I in Deluxe Boxed Gift Set

0008 Consider This CD – Vol. I in Deluxe Gift Box – $16.95 ($3.00 shipping for up to five)

Call 540-436-3969 or email Elizabeth at e…@heartspoken.com if you need more than five)

CD and its jacket nestled inside a deluxe red gift box, ribbon tie, with a personalized gift card and enclosed secret code to download the free Bonus PDF Book

This wonderful CD is the perfect stocking stuffer, teacher gift and gift swap gift. Order today and order in quantity.

If you have any ordering issues, email Elizabeth at e…@heartspoken.com or call her at 540-436-3969. Ask about special quantity pricing.

Decisions You Make

Today, you will have decisions to make: whether to get up now or sleep another hour. . . what to have for breakfast. . . what to wear. . . whether to take that phone call as you’re ready to walk out the door or not.

Each of those decisions seem inconsequential. You may make them by rote without even really thinking about them. But the chain of those decisions becomes your life.

How well you live that life depends on the decisions you make. Some people are very good at making decisions, and their life thrives. Others – not so much.

That’s when we hear the excuses about what went wrong: it was the economy. . . a bad start in life. . . not enough education. . . parents who did not care.

But the truth is . . . every one of us has the right – and obligation – to make good decisions to keep our lives running in the right direction. YOU have control, regardless of the economy or your schooling or your parents.

Making the right decision is not always easy. You may not have immediate gratification. It may take years to get where you want to be. You may have detours or false starts that need do-overs.

But It’s never too late to start making the right decisions. Something to think about.

[Show #451]

Sharing Something of Value

The Chinese have a saying – “When someone shares with you something of value, you have an obligation to share it with others.” You could apply that to many things – knowledge, money, gratitude, even smiles.

Imagine considering it an obligation to smile at someone else, every time someone smiles at you. The question is whether a smile is something of value. What do you think?

I remember hearing that a smile is an instant face lift. And indeed, a smiling face is so much more attractive than one with a frown drawn on it.

Watch attractive elderly women. They know the secret of the face-lifting smile. You will rarely see them without a smile on their lips. And you can’t help thinking how lovely they are.

What else do you receive of value that should be shared?

We Americans are generous with sharing our wealth; from donations to the Red Cross and Salvation Army, to funding of Wounded Warrior to individual help provided anonymously when we hear there is a need. To those who receive much, much is expected.

We seem to have learned the Chinese lesson well, although it never hurts to be reminded.

[Show #450]

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]

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]

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