I Love You

Author Unknown

They have been married for a long time. As usual they have their ups and downs. One day they had a big fight over his long working hours and things are falling apart. He was disappointed and she was angry.

After one week of silent treatment from his wife, he approached her with papers and pencils. He suggested that both of them sit down on the dining table and write down on paper what they are not happy about each other. They will then exchange the papers and discuss.

So the wife started to write without looking up because she has a lot to write about her frustration. The husband took a long look at the wife and he too started to write. After fifteen minutes of writing, they look at each other and exchange the papers.

The husband looked at the paper full of complaints. She was angry. When the wife looked at his paper, she was embarrassed and quickly tears away her own paper. On his paper, he wrote for two full pages:

"I love you, honey"

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Think Before You Speak

Author Unknown

Today before you think of saying an unkind word
Think of someone who can't speak

Before you complain about the taste of your food
Think of someone who has nothing to eat

Before you complain about your husband or wife
Think of someone who's crying out to God for companion

Today before you complain about life
Think of someone who went too early to heaven

Before you complain about your children
Think of someone who desires children but they're barren

Before you argue about your dirty house didn't clean or sweep
Think of the people who are living in the streets

Before whining about the distance you drive
Think of someone who walks the same distance with their feet

And when you are tired and complain about your job
Think of the unemployed, the disabled and those who wished they had your job

But before you think of pointing the finger or condemning another
Remember that not one of us are without sin and we all answer to one maker

And when depressing thoughts seem to get you down
Put a smile on your face and thank God you're alive and still around

Life is a gift Live it
Enjoy it
Celebrate it
And fulfill it.

And while you are at it give love to someone today
Love someone with what you do and the words you say
Love is not meant to be kept locked inside of us and hidden
So give it away "Give Love to someone today!"

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Great Expectations

3 Things You Must Expect, From Yourself
By Pandora Poikilos

Charles Dickens had one of the hardest childhoods any child would ever know. He worked long hours for very little money to help his family and very few people thought anything good would come from such a debt ridden family. And yet, centuries later, with his work still influencing so many of us, this is a fact one would find hard to believe. If anything, Great Expectations has taught us to believe that things aren't always what they seem and most times life will surely give you the expected in unexpected ways.

Hope
Years ago, when I had lost everything and left only with the clothes on my back because I had trusted the wrong people, a family member told me that once they had had a lot of hope for me. But crippled with so many failures, a rare medical condition which no one understood and not turning out the way they had wanted, I was now a failure. There was no more hope for me, she said. She then let out a series of dramatic sobs to the point one would have thought someone had died. I crumbled. Even if I hadn't felt like a failure before, her words crushed me to the point of insignificance. I sort solace with two of my oldest friends. Both have been around even before I was diagnosed with BIH, stayed on as the pieces fell apart and irrelevant of distance, time or issue, both offered hope. Every time we spoke, they would listen, they would comfort but two reminders were constantly drilled into my thick skull and depressed emotions. The first was "you do not give up on hope, ever". The second was "pick up a pen and write". Now, two days away from the launch of my very first novel, it still feels surreal and yet, it is happening.

Faith
I first wrote Excuse Me, My Brains Have Stepped Out as a blog post. The title seemed apt as I was on the brink of my shunt surgery. When I actually received comments, I thought, "impossible", people were actually reading my work and were asking for more, and so it bloomed. One article to my very first novel. I had been sending out Frequent Traveler (which will now be my second novel) for months and months, each time it was rejected with a politely worded letter that my work was suited for some other publishing house. Then I thought, instead of taking myself apart about the rejections, I would take the story apart and send out Excuse Me, My Brains Have Stepped Out, instead. A fellow writer said, keep writing out the chapters, someone would be bound to spot it. When my publisher first wrote in and indicated interest, I thought "no, I must be dreaming". I read the email at least three times, closed it and opened it again just to make sure I was reading it right. So, here's the second expectation you must have. Faith in God. Faith in yourself. You have a talent. If you haven't found it, keep searching but it's there and you're not that worthless, no matter what people say.

Love
After a night out with the guys and as he sat chomping KFC, Peas blurted out "will you be my girl?" I laughed. I thought it was hogwash. I didn't trust him. More to the point, I didn't trust myself. What if I screw this up? What if I do something later on and he'll hate for me it? As it is, he knew bits of me, everything others had hated about me this person was sitting and saying, he wanted more of me. I didn't believe that I was capable of receiving love. I was wrong. We all need love. Be it the love that mends the broken bits of you, the kind that takes you back no matter how silly you've acted or the kind that reaches out to you when you fall, we all need it. It may not come from the people you expect and it most certainly won't come when you want it, but it'll be there when you need it. God knows how much to give you, when to give you. Trust in this. Expect love.

So, if there is one thing I can pass on from my humbling experiences in life, thus far, I will tell you this, the next time someone tells you "the absence of expectations is the absence of disappointment, do not listen. Have expectations. Keep them great. It'll be a very bumpy ride. You'll even get bruised, sometimes very badly. Sometimes, you'll come to an abrupt halt or even fall off your ride. But you'll grow. And if you do not grow, you do not live. Love and light.

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Dancing Horses, Rocky Cliffs & Letting Go

By Paula Renaye

I spent some time in Peru a few months ago. I didn’t go there for a spiritual awakening, to “find myself" or as any form of a personal quest. No, I went there for my daughter’s wedding. However, messages come whether we go seeking them or not, and I definitely found plenty of opportunities for self-awareness and self-improvement—one on the back of a horse.

As a part of our Peruvian adventure, we all took a day long horseback ride through the Andes to see the sights. Now, I would never call myself an experienced horsewoman because that is laughable even to me, but I did have horses for many years and managed to ride around the mountains of Colorado near my home and not get killed, so I wasn’t a novice. However, it had been a few years since I’d been on a horse. Thus, I was alternately excited, scared and dreading the pain afterward—I hurt just thinking about it.

The first half of the day was pretty easy with only a few steep spots and two creek crossings—or, in my case, airborne leapings. As my new friend Machote and I got to know one another, we came to some general understandings about how things were going to be. For instance, while I might prefer to walk calmly on the inside of the trail against the mountain, Machote preferred to prance along the crumbling outer edge in a glorious dance of death. This made perfect sense, of course, since he’d been down this road before, and—as I learned later—it was really just a side job to his main career as a dancing horse. I learned this happy fact when we stopped for lunch at the old Spanish mission. I also learned that the rest of our trip was going to be downhill from there—down, down, down the other side of the mountain to the salt terraces—and it would get a “little" steep. Well, yay and double yay.

Machote, of course, didn’t share my concern about our plummeting to our deaths, and was more than eager to get to the end of the trail, dancing merrily over the cupped out places on the crumbling edge of the cliff. I was giving it my best to contain myself, but I was definitely being triggered by the whole thing, and not in a good way. I’d been on similar trails with one of my own horses, “Tuffy," who seriously wasn’t. He was a big, fast horse with clumsy feet, poor decision-making skills and the propensity to flee at the drop of a leaf—backward if necessary.

Granted, back then I rode him as my own form of defiance—to prove that I could control at least one uncontrollable thing in my life. I didn’t, of course, and our outings were more like potential assisted suicide missions than trail rides through the Rockies. I might have actively courted death then, but things had changed and I didn’t want my new lease on life to end at the bottom of a ravine in Peru, thank you very much.

Well, even though I was enjoying the ride, all of those underlying thoughts and fears and déjà vu moments were at play underneath—thoughts that had nothing at all to do with horses, really. I consciously willed myself to relax in the saddle—and felt that I was—but when I got off the horse at lunch, my body told a different story. My legs were shaking so badly from holding tension that I could hardly stand.

The good news is that once I realized what was going on, things got better. I was still a little scared in places—okay really scared in one—but I had fun and was really glad I did it. I tackled some fears I didn’t even realize I still had and let go of a lot of old stuff I’d brought with me.

By the end of the day, Machote decided I was okay and we came away friends. Not because I finally got him under control, but because I finally got myself under control. As any true horse person will tell you, your internal state is directly conveyed to the horse and affects his thinking. So it is with us and our world. Whether it is fear and pain, or inner peace and joy, what we radiate out is reflected back to us in our experiences.

What is your world reflecting to you? Do you have a dancing horse in your life that you’re trying to keep away from the cliff? If so, ask yourself what’s really going on. Make peace with it and enjoy the rest of the ride!

Live your joy!
Paula
 

Find more inspirational stories and learn how you can discover yourself at www.hardlineselfhelp.com

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You

Author Unknown

One day not too long ago the employees of a large company in St. Louis, Missouri returned from their lunch break and were greeted with a sign on the front door. The sign said: "Yesterday the person who has been hindering your growth in this company passed away. We invite you to join the funeral in the room that has been prepared in the gym."

At first everyone was sad to hear that one of their colleagues had died, but after a while they started getting curious about who this person might be. The excitement grew as the employees arrived at the gym to pay their last respects. Everyone wondered: "Who is this person who was hindering my progress? Well, at least he's no longer here!"

One by one the employees got closer to the coffin and when they looked inside it they suddenly became speechless. They stood over the coffin, shocked and in silence, as if someone had touched the deepest part of their soul.

There was a mirror inside the coffin: everyone who looked inside it could see himself.

There was also a sign next to the mirror that said:
"There is only one person who is capable to set limits to your growth: it is YOU."

You are the only person who can revolutionize your life.

You are the only person who can influence your happiness, your realization and your success.

You are the only person who can help yourself.

Your life does not change when your boss changes, when your friends change, when your parents change, when your partner changes, when your company changes.

Your life changes when YOU change, when you go beyond your limiting beliefs, when you realize that YOU ARE the only one responsible for your life.

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