“Be the reason someone smiles. Be the reason someone feels loved and believes in the goodness in people.” ~ Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart
NOTE: We are not powerless. We have an unlimited source of power that can change people’s lives for the better. Offer a warm smile to all you meet today. You’ll see frowns and worried expressions return your smile. For a moment, you’ll have made someone forget his/her worries. A simple act of kindness lets someone know he/she is loved. It lets a person know there is love in our world. In return you get a wonderful reward, someone’s smile, someone’s eyes saying thank you. Yes, we are power-filled. Use your power to light the world.
Avoiding eating temptations over the holidays can be challenging, especially when there are so many delicious options around. Here are some strategies that might help:
Remember, it’s okay to enjoy holiday treats in moderation. The key is to be mindful of your choices and maintain a balance.
Wislawa Symborska
My apologies to chance for calling it necessity.
My apologies to necessity if I’m mistaken, after all.
Please, don’t be angry, happiness, that I take you as my due.
May my dead be patient with the way my memories fade.
My apologies to time for all the world I overlook each second.
My apologies to past loves for thinking that the latest is the first.
Forgive me, open wounds, for pricking my finger.
I apologize for my record of minutes to those who cry from
the depths.
I apologize to those who wait in railway stations for being asleep
today at five a.m.
Pardon me, hounded hope, for laughing from time to time.
Pardon me, deserts, that I don’t rush to you bearing a spoonful
of water.
And you, falcon, unchanging year after year, always in the
same cage,
your gaze always fixed on the same point in space,
forgive me, even if it turns out you were stuffed.
My apologies to the felled tree for the table’s four legs.
My apologies to great questions for small answers.
Truth, please don’t pay me much attention.
Dignity, please be magnanimous.
Bear with me, O mystery of existence, as I pluck the occasional
thread from your train.
Soul, don’t take offense that I’ve only got you now and then.
My apologies to everything that I can’t be everywhere at once.
My apologies to everyone that I can’t be each woman and
each man.
I know I won’t be justfied as long as I live,
since I myself stand in my own way.
Don’t bear me ill will, speech, that I borrow weighty words,
then labor heavily so that they may seem light.
Today’s mind sharpening anagram is a two or three word phrase. Can you unscramble the anagram to discover the two or three word phrase? It’s time to exercise your brain!
Today’s Anagram:
“Promise Yourself
To be so strong that nothing
can disturb your peace of mind.
To talk health, happiness, and prosperity
to every person you meet.
To make all your friends feel
that there is something in them
To look at the sunny side of everything
and make your optimism come true.
To think only the best, to work only for the best,
and to expect only the best.
To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others
as you are about your own.
To forget the mistakes of the past
and press on to the greater achievements of the future.
To wear a cheerful countenance at all times
and give every living creature you meet a smile.
To give so much time to the improvement of yourself
that you have no time to criticize others.
To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear,
and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.
To think well of yourself and to proclaim this fact to the world,
not in loud words but great deeds.
To live in faith that the whole world is on your side
so long as you are true to the best that is in you.”
― Christian D. Larson, Your Forces and How to Use Them
NOTE: Think of the ways in which your life would change if you applied the optimism principles set forth by Christian Larsen. It all begins in how we see ourself. Are you able to love yourself with all of your flaws? Are you able to forgive yourself for past failures and disappointments? When we can love ourself unconditionally, we free ourself to love others and work to bring out the best in them. Become cognizant of your self talk. When you become aware of self talk that is criticizing or condemning, stop and replace the negative self talk with complimentary talk. Sure, we all make mistakes, instead of saying, “that was dumb” we can say, “What can I learn from that.” Or, one I like to use, “Thanks for the lesson.”
2023 is quickly coming to a close. How has the year been for you? It’s been a good year for me. Here are 6 things that went well for me.
Optimism is going to be the topic for the next couple of weeks. Optimism is a great way to close out the year and begin 2024 with confidence that it is going to the be year yet.
Learning to Appreciate. A look at appreciative inquiry. Excerpts are taken from, Appreciative Inquiry Handbook (2003) by David Cooperrider, Diana Whitney, and Jacqueline Stravros.
“Appreciative inquiry begins with three fundamental questions. One, can you describe a high point experience in your organization, a time when you were most alive and engaged. Two, without being modest what is it that you most valuable yourself your work and your organization? Three, what are the core factors that give life to your organization without which the organization would cease to exist?” P. 23
Note: We can apply these questions to our daily lives They take our attention away from the dark spot on the wall and allow us to focus on the good that exists. Have you, for example, let a single negative comment from a family member, friend, or colleague ruin your day? I think it’s happened everyone. I know it’s happened to me. While we give that one comment an inordinate amount of power there are many other god things happening simultaneously. When appreciative inquiry asks us to describe high point experiences when we felt most alive and engaged that not only happens at work, but it happens in our daily lives outside of work. And it happens every day. Tonight, when you’re sitting at dinner, why not ask each other to describe a high point experience that happened during the day when each of you felt totally engaged. I think that happens to each of us every single day. I’m writing this on Sunday morning after I returned home from mass. On the way into the church, I met a friend, and we had a most wonderful conversation. I left the conversation feeling uplifted. That was a high point experience. When we begin to think of our lives this way, our lives take on a new hue of optimism, hope, and affirmation.
