Carrots, Eggs, and Coffee

A carrot, an egg, and a cup of coffee.  Each of these objects reacts differently when placed in boiling water.

• The carrot starts strong, hard, and rigid, but becomes soft and weak.
• The egg starts with a fragile shell and a liquid interior, but becomes solid and hard.
• The ground coffee beans start as a solid, and although they dissolve, they totally change the water.

So, when life gets difficult, how do you react — like a carrot, an egg or a ground coffee beans? 

Are you like a carrot that seems strong, but becomes soft and weak with pain and adversity? 

Are you like an egg that starts fluid and soft but becomes hard and solid behind a strong shell when life brings painful experiences? 

Or are you like ground coffee beans which have the power to endure the painful boiling water in which they're placed, the ability to release a fragrance and a flavor, and the strength to change their whole environment? 

 

May you have enough happiness to make you sweet,

enough trials to make you strong,

enough sorrow to keep you human and

enough hope to make you happy. 

The happiest of people don't necessarily have the best of everything — they just make the most of everything that comes along their way.

 

The brightest future will always be based on a forgotten past — you can't go forward in life until you let go of your past failures and heartaches.

 

 May we all be COFFEE and enjoy life now — it has an expiration date!

Committed to YOU

"Every achiever that I have ever met says, 'My life turned around when I began to believe in me.'"  — Dr. Robert H. Schuller

In order to make the best choices for yourself, you need to be committed to taking good care of yourself. Admit to yourself that you WANT to feel good instead of bad, that you want to be treated with respect and consideration by others, and that you want to enjoy your life. That does NOT mean you are against, gruel to, or inconsiderate of others — simply that you understand you can't love and help others without FIRST loving and taking care of yourself.

"It is never about how good your voice is; it is only about feeling the urge to sing, and then having the courage to do it with the voice you are given."  — Katie in 'True to Form' by Elizabeth Berg

Unfortunately, many reasons may prevent you from making those good choices for yourself — such as YOU don't think that your feelings and pain matter, that YOU don't deserve to be happy; that YOU can't stick up for yourself; that YOU can't do anything right; or that YOU don't care about being mistreated.

" ...what I focus on in life is what I get. And if I concentrate on how bad I am or how wrong I am or how inadequate I am, if I concentrate on what I can't do and how there's not enough time in which to do it, isn't that what I get every time? And when I think about how powerful I am, and when I think about what I have left to contribute, and when I think about the difference I can make on this planet, then that's what I get. You see, I recognize that it's not what happens to you; it's what you do about it."  — W. Mitchell

Adjust your commitment to yourself by asking yourself several times a day if you're acting in your own interest. This routine is especially beneficial when you feel bad, sad, hurt, ashamed, worried, mistreated, guilty, frustrated, stressed, irritated, or pressured.  Remember how you feel being with someone who loves you and being for someone you love [like a child, pet, or best friend]. Give those same feelings of care and support to yourself. Identify any feelings of resistance to that care and support for yourself — then mentally throw it away! You are just as important and have the same rights as everyone else, so take care of yourself first in order to then help others.

"We cannot achieve more in life than what we believe in our heart of hearts we deserve to have."  — James R. Ball

Enjoy life now — it has an expiration date!

Win or Loose

"Win as if you were used to it, lose as if you enjoyed it for a change".  —  Ralph Waldo Emerson

Everyone wins some and looses some, and the shift from one to the other can be swift and extreme.  Experience and maturity make learning from, accepting, and forgiving your mistakes easier and worthwhile. 

"That's what learning is, after all; not whether we lose the game, but how we lose and how we've changed because of it and what we take away from it that we never had before, to apply to other games. Losing, in a curious way, is winning."  — Richard Bach

Succeeding starts with visualizing yourself as capable and competent enough to reach your goal. It's very difficult to go somewhere without first knowing where you want to go. 

"Rebellion against your handicaps gets you nowhere. Self-pity gets you nowhere. One must have the adventurous daring to accept oneself as a bundle of possibilities and undertake the most interesting game in the world — making the most of one's best."  — Harry Emerson Fosdick

Life is a balancing act that becomes easier with age. You understand more and judge less.

"If you had a friend who talked to you like you sometimes talk to yourself, would you continue to hang around with that person?"  — Rob Bremer

 

Enjoy life now — it has an expiration date!

What is wisdom?

What exactly is wisdom and why would or should anyone strive to achieve it?  The significance is conveyed best through examining the deeper concepts of the "Serenity Prayer":

 

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change;

 

Relinquish your controlling nature to whatever higher (religious, universal, etc) power you believe in to accept the reality of the present conditions and circumstances - instead of fighting that reality with illusions of how things 'should' or 'should not' be.

Courage to change the things I can;

However, there's always the choice of making responsible decisions to take actions which we know are necessary, regardless of unknown outcomes or consequences. Our Life is determined by the decisions and actions that we take and the thoughts that we hold - by no other forces. We must in all cases live with the consequences of our decisions or our lack of decision. The only thing that we can change is our perspective as we view reality, learning to make wiser choices by better thinking each moment.

And wisdom to know the difference.

Wisdom is not how you think, but specific behavior [what you do] based on life's experiences: an acquired ability to remember and later recognize the things which do or do not coincide with reality; the things which are true and honest; the eventual success of numerous mistakes strung together; learning not to engage in more foolishness than what can be laughed at [instead of bringing tears].