Life's Loving Memories

 SUGGESTION OR CRITICISM "Carry out a random act of kindness, with no expectation of reward, safe in the knowledge that one day someone might do the same for you" - Princess Diana. Ever since I was a child I have cringed at criticism directed towards me. From my Mom, to my teachers, to director's of the many plays I have been in, I was always in the mode of needing to fight back. I think I was needing to fight back. Today I realize that I can look at that criticism as helpful suggestions, and that I can agree with some of them or respond by saying, "Thank you for sharing your thoughts." Then I may consider whether the suggestion is helpful to me or not. I must say that I set a deadline to have something done by, but I have realized that I can make time to assure that what I am working on is polished enough to say it is complete. It is okay to ask for advice and share the the project with others, and ask for input. Many hands, quite often, make the job advance...

 DO WORLD PROBLEMS SEEM TOO BIG?  "We can do not great things, but we can do small things with great love." Mother Teresa With all that is happening around the world, wars, climate events, fires, hungry children, homelessness, is it extremely hard to wrap our brains about what the world is coming to? Yes there are problems, and sometimes it seems like we can't do anything about them, but we do have a choice. We can sit idly by and worry about the terrible things that are happening, or we can choose one of those many things and see how we can become involved in doing something about it. Do you like to sew? There are organizations that need volunteers to sew clothes for children, in our own nation and around the world, that can't afford clothes. Are you concerned that there isn't enough food for the many struggling people that don't have it? Volunteer at a homeless center that prepares meals for those who need it. The list goes on. We can't do everything, bu...

SLOW AND STEADY DOES WIN THE RACE Time and space are modes by which we think and not conditions in which we live.                                                             Albert Einstein If you have ever heard the Aesop  fable of, The Tortoise and the Hare, you probably know that the tortoise wins the race because he was slow and steady from start to finish. The hare, however, because of his over bloated ego, felt that he was so fast that he could nap for a bit before he finished the race. In real life the slow but steady turtle may live the longest of any animal on earth. Some have been recorded to have lives of up to 300 years. Compare that to human beings and their drive to get things done at a breakneck speed.  For me, there are many times when I have five or six things I am working on at the same time. Sometimes I just ha...

      WHAT TEASURES DO YOU HAVE RIGHT UNDER YOUR NOSE? "Your present mind is cause to your world of effects. Everything that happens to you happens because of you...Already in your mind are the right ideas seeking your right thinking to become cause to your inner and outer happiness." Raymond Charles Barker,          The Power of Decision Through the years, are there things you have collected? I have a curio closet that is filled with things that I have collected through the years. There are pill boxes that are shaped as Seattle's Space tower, a cottage, a teapot, to mention a few. I've collected All sorts of wooden and ceramic otters and dragonflies, and many more interesting things. They are there in the cabinet and how often do I look at them and remember when and where I collected them? Not often enough. My great niece came to visit, and she was drawn to the cabinet and looked at all the items with curiosity and wonder. In our daily lives the...

 WHY WORRY?                                          "Worry is the dark room where negatives are developed."                                                                 Raymond Charles Barker,      -- The Power of Decision Oh that hamster wheel late at night, just spinning with all of the things that happened yesterday, and the things on your calendar that you still need to accomplish. Will the wheel never stop? How do you dismount from the wheel?  I have discovered that worrying about the past is pointless. If it was an accident, I cannot undo what happened. I may think of it as a learning experience as to what I might do the next time to avoid an accident. As to the future, it hasn't happene...