What Debts Do You Owe Society?

This is a time of year when many people take stock of all that they are grateful for -- or at least when we should do so. But this should also be a time when we take stock of all those people who contributed to those gifts -- especially the intangible ones. Those gifts such as our self-esteem or confidence, our love of sports or music, and our spine. What person or group do you owe the greatest debt? Was there a special person or group that really helped you become the person you are today? Was ...
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Smile!

Find out how a little smile on our face can make a big difference to our daily routines: Smile, as an act has much potential in it. It is not that everybody does not like to smile - but it is that they do not realize the value of a Smile. Either they are busy in their own world of worries that they can not smile or it is that it do not come in-built with their nature. Smile is a natural gift for people who keep smiling always. To have a smiling face means "no ill feelings". To maintain ...
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Why Do Bad Things Happen To Good People?

This is a question that most people grapple with from time to time and it has largely been on my mind this past week. You see one of the best people I know -- my Uncle Carl -- had a very bad accident this week. While working on the wood lot with his son, his hand got caught in a log splitter. In the end the damage was so severe that his left hand had to be amputated. Although no longer a young man, my uncle is very active and enjoys working with his hands. He is right handed but clearly the use ...
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How Do We Retrain Our Brain

It may seem like a very hard technique and you are probably right and the reason being, you are used to what you have always done and if you are like most humans you tend to be with the negative approach more than positive. Now don't get me wrong, you do at times act normal or thinking of the positives or just believe in yourself more than usual. Well this is how we are supposed to think all the time, not just part of the time. Yet we as thought beings are tending to lean toward the negative or ...
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Lessons We Can Learn From Jonah and the Whale

Our church has charged all parents of young children to read a Bible story each day to our children so reading from my son Noah's children's Bible has become a part of our regular bedtime routine. Sometimes I try to hit stories that relate to the current holiday in the Christian calendar and other times we simply pick stories that look interesting to him (there are pictures to help with the choice). There are also stories that he considers to be favorites--Noah and the Ark of course, Zacchaeus ...
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Your Personal Power

Keeping up with the Joneses. A seemingly "harmless" remark from a loved one. The workday that makes us wonder if we are still gainfully employed- all aspects of our daily lives that can send our personal power haywire- assuming it has already been sufficiently developed and nurtured. A solid "inner armor" is an important tool to have in our life arsenal so the challenges we face on a day-to-day basis do not do us in. Harriet Rubin's quote suggests an approach that make the cultivation of ...
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It's In the Can

A few weeks ago I wrote about a bike ride I'd completed and how a goal-setting process helped me accomplish something well beyond what I'd ever done before. One reader replied talking about setting goals for herself. That she needed to set specific goals, because she usually just tries to have it all, and she can't. I probably could have focused on the message about setting specific goals. Instead another word jumped out at me in that email. "Can't." Did you ever hear a quote to the effect of ...
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"The creation of a work of art, like an act of love..."

"The creation of a work of art, like an act of love, is our one small 'yes' at the center of a vast 'no.'" -- Gore Vidal, Novelists and Critics of the 1940's, New World Writing #4, 1953. Art, in its varied forms, is the essence of humanity. An examination of the music, sculpture, painting, and writings of any given time and society gives us perhaps the clearest insight into the lives, emotions, and ponderings of mankind. I am an avid student of history, wanting to know more and ...
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Worth and Humanitarianism

Worth And Humanitarianism By Punkerslut I will not live forever. All of the people around me will not live forever, either. There have been various groups to assert that there is eternal life, "eternal salvation," but such claims bring with them no evidence and often find themselves in mockery of reason and intellectual examination. However, the point of this essay is not to criticize religion, nor is it to criticize religionists. Whether or not there is an afterlife, there is the life: our ...
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A New Conversation About Dreams

While aspects of you encourage, 'Go for your dreams,' simultaneously other parts threaten, 'Don't you dare.' A cast of characters lives inside of you and at different times you may receive conflicting or contradictory messages. If you are want to be happy, successful, and fulfilled, consider putting your 'dreamer' in the director's chair. What are the voices inside of you saying? As you turn the volume up on the voice of your dreamer and down on the voice of your doubter, you can practice ...
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