This N That
Insights & What Not
Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a beggar.
Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured in plants.
Live with the 3 E's -- Energy, Enthusiasm and Empathy.
Make time to pray.
Play more games.
Read more books than you did in 2009.
Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day.
Sleep for 7 hours.
Take a 10-30 minute walk daily. And while you walk, smile.
Don't have negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment.
Don't over do. Keep your limits.
Dream more while you are awake.
Forget issues of the past.
Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
Make peace with your past so it won't spoil the present.
No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn.
Smile and laugh more.
You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
Each day give something good to others.
Forgive everyone for everything.
Spend time with people over the age of 70 & under the age of 6.
What other people think of you is none of your business.
Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.
However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
The best is yet to come..
Be Happy!
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The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.
The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous "YES."
The professor then produced with two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.
"Now," said the professor as the laughter subsided, "I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things.....your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favorite passions....and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full."
"The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car. The sand is everything else....the small stuff."
"If you put the sand into the jar first," he continued, "there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you."
"Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your spouse out to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal. Take care of the golf balls first...the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand".
One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee represented. The professor smiled. "I'm glad you asked."
"It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of cups of coffee with a friend."
Come to think of it, not much has changed in 40 years
It’s hard to believe it has been 38 years since Graduation Day, 1972. It’s hard to believe after this many years, we continue to say, “It’s hard to believe…” What did we think, that we were immune to the passage of time?
That we would remain forever in our 20s? That we were the first generation in history that would not wake up one day and discover we were now in our 50s, and our kids are older than we were when we graduated?
Yes, that’s exactly it. We never thought we’d ever get old. Or, at least, we never thought it would happen so darn quickly. There’s an old expression: The more things change, the more they stay the same. Well, there’s another old expression: The more things change, the more they REALLY change.
Here is a list that demonstrates how much things indeed have changed during the past 30 years.
Each couplet describes something we were doing back in 1972, followed by what we instead are doing now in 2010.
Sociology exam – Prostate exam.
Going to sleep at 4 a.m. – Waking up at 4 a.m.
Keg parties – Tupperware parties.
Long hair – No hair.
Hot babes – Hot flashes.
Hours of enjoyment with a $4 Frisbee – Hours of frustration with a $900 set of golf clubs.
Progressive politics – Progressive bifocals.
Getting high – Getting high blood pressure.
Beer kegs that flowed to the max – Bladders in desperate need of FLOMAX.
Lying to our parents about what we did in college – Lying to our children about what we did in college.
Starting Saturday night at 10 p.m. – Concluding Saturday night at 10 p.m.
Poli Sci – PoliGrip.
Studying ancient history – Remembering ancient history. Thinking people in their 30s were old timers – Thinking people in their 30s are young pups.
Hundreds of vinyl albums stored in a heavy wooden crate – Hundreds of digital albums stored in a 2-ounce iPod.
Hoping we wouldn’t have to move back in with our parents – Hoping our kids won’t move back in with us.
Greek fraternities – Grecian formula.
Wishing our parents would leave us alone – Wishing our kids would call once in a while.
Amazed at Bruce Springsteen’s endurance during a 3-hour concert – Amazed at Bruce Springsteen’s endurance during a 3-hour concert.
Bushy mustache – Bushy ear hair.
Deciding where to live – Deciding where to be buried.
Trying to discover the meaning of life – Trying to discover the meaning of death.
Focused on finding happiness – Realizing happiness comes when we stop focusing on it.
Now that the Class of ‘79 has acquired age and guile, we too understand that the experience gained during the past three decades far outweighs youth, innocence, and especially those hideous 1970s-style haircuts.
Which brings us to our final 1979-2009 couplet Thinking people in their 50s were ancient fossils – Knowing people in their 50s are just hitting their prime.
Well, at least that’s our story and we’re sticking to it. Have a great reunion!
Why Attend Your Reunion?
The following are excerpts from an essay by Edward Beardshear, from Newark, Ohio on why he still loves to attend his high school reunion...
His reunion featured an outdoor informal mixer and a country club dinner dance.
“I hit both. What a wonderful time. Best of all, I figured out some reasons why I love these people so extravagantly, and probably will forever, why the hell nobody seems to forget high school.
Yeah, there's college for some after high school, and maybe frats and sororities, and then there's service and job experiences and a hundred other groups but these all pale before the high school experience. We can join a lot of groups but none of them are as memorable as this one. High school's the mother lode of group memories. It's the imprint and paradigm because that's where the roots are; and for all time, that's the real connection. Face it, where we went to high school, well, that's home, the site of our coming of age and where adult life started. And the people? These are the indelible faces of those you started life with.
The joy of this whole reunion is to be there and celebrate life lived with those who still stand above turf rather than those below it. This is the time not to rebel but to savor.
There my classmates were in the flesh and it didn't matter any more who drove the big car and who had the big house or who had gathered titles or didn't; there was just this incredible love chattering back and forth and hit ratatattatted around you like a boxer hitting a speed bag. Nobody gave a damn about much except they were glad they and you survived and we got to see one another again. We swapped memories and pulled out pics of grandchildren..
It was great. One guy said, "I'm swimming in a sea of nostalgia" and so it was. People surged up into my face in waves remembering this and recalling that and everywhere that roiling sea was around us. We drowned in it, drinking down the fine salt taste like some damn magic potion. And we all got drugged because instead of seeing gray hair and fat and wrinkles we lived also in that world where we saw ourselves as sleek joyous boys and beautiful buxom maids because it was right there, too, it was living before us in our own memories and in the hundreds of memories in the minds running movies all around us. So we relived the good times with those we loved or lusted after 50 years ago, now before us, and glad to see us. And to be quite frank, back at that early age, there was real confusion as to what was lust and what was love and if there was or even could be a difference, or hell, even a separation.”
"So, lastly, why is my affection for all these people so extravagant, what are some reasons nobody forgets their high school years?
This was the place I grew up.
This is my spiritual home.
This was the place where I was safe.
This is the ground where the seeds of later life got sowed.
These were the people who were the anvils upon which I forged who I was and what I would become.
These people were the loving teachers of all the really important lessons of living and of life.
To forget your high school years is to amputate a major part of you. It isn't over, of course. The members of the Class of 1953, they teach me yet.
They teach me now of the importance of holding life in reverence.
They teach me the critical importance of enjoying the moment and living well in it.
They teach me the strength of humility, the futility of pride and the emptiness of achieving money and power and status at the price of soul.
And most of all, they teach me gratitude.
God Bless them all"
To read the whole essay click the link: Essay
If you are NOT coming to the reunion, you need a good excuse and a note from your Mom. The following reasons have been tried and are UNacceptable.
Excuse #1: I've gained a lot of weight!
Rebuttal: Look around!! I doubt any of us could get back into our bellbottoms from high school any more.
Excuse #2: I'm a different person than I was in high school
Rebuttal: Lucky for you, we ALL are. Let's face it: we could only have improved.
Excuse #3: I don't look as good as I'd like. I (choose one or more) am bald, have wrinkles, saddlebags, grey hair and no one will recognize me.
Rebuttal: Guess what! You won't recognize anyone else, either. We've all changed quite a bit since the old days!
Excuse #4: I'm not successful. I'm not (choose one or more) a lawyer, a doctor or rich.
Rebuttal: You'll be pleasantly surprised to find how much everyone has matured. We may be plump and wrinkled (see Excuse #3, above) but we're not stupid. Money is not success.
Excuse #5: I was not in a popular clique in school
Rebuttal: Now that we're old and smart, those cliques have dissolved just like the superficialities they were based on. The only cliques you'll notice at the reunion will be the sound of your joints as you walk around.
Excuse #6: I just don't feel like it.
Rebuttal: Life is full of things we don't feel like doing, but once you do them, it's not nearly as bad as you thought it would be!
C'mon...try it,you just might like it!
THINGS THAT IT TOOK ME 50 YEARS TO LEARN
By Dave Barry
Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.
If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be "meetings."
There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness."
You should never say anything to a woman that even remotely suggests that you think she's pregnant unless you can see an actual baby emerging from her at that moment.
There comes a time when you should stop expecting other people to make a big deal about your birthday. That time is age 11.
No matter what happens, somebody will find a way to take it too seriously.
People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want you to share yours with them.
When God, who created the entire universe with all of its glories, decides to deliver a message to humanity, He WILL NOT use, as His messenger, a person on cable TV with a bad hairstyle.
You should not confuse your career with your life.
When trouble arises and things look bad, there is always one individual who perceives a solution and is willing to take command. Very often, that individual is crazy.
Nobody cares if you cannot dance well. Just get up and dance.
Never lick a steak knife.
Take out the fortune before you eat the cookie.
The most powerful negative force in the universe is gossip.
You will never find anybody who can give you a clear and compelling reason why we observe daylight savings time.
A person who is nice to you but rude to the waiter, is not a nice person.
Your friends love you anyway.
The main accomplishment of almost all organized protests is to annoy people who are not in them.
"The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status or ethnic background, is that, deep down inside, we ALL believe that we are above average drivers.
An elderly gent was invited to his old friends' home for dinner one evening. He was impressed by the way his buddy preceded every request to his wife with endearing terms -- calling her Honey, My Love, Darling, Sweetheart, Pumpkin, etc.. The couple had been married almost 70 years, and they were still very clearly in love.
While the wife was off in the kitchen, the man leaned over and said to his buddy, "I think it's wonderful that after all the years you've been married, you still call your wife those loving pet names."
SUCCESS:
At age 4 success is . . . not peeing in your pants.
At age 12 success is . having friends.
At age 17 success is . . having a driver's license.
At age 35 success is . . having money.
At age 50 success is . . . having money.
At age 70 success is . .. . having a driver's license.
At age 75 success is . .. having friends.
At age 80 success is ... . . not peeing in your pants..
The following is written By Regina Brett, 90 years old, of The Plain Dealer, Cleveland , Ohio
"To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me. It is the most-requested column I've ever written... My odometer rolled over to 90 in August, so here is the column once more:"
1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.
2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.
3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
4. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and parents will. Stay in touch.
5. Pay off your credit cards every month.
6. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.
8. It's OK to get angry with God. He can take it.
9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.
10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.
12. It's OK to let your children see you cry.
13. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.
15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don't worry; God never blinks.
16. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.
17. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.
18. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.
19. It's never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.
20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.
21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don't save it for a special occasion. Today is special.
22. Over prepare, and then go with the flow.
23. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.
24. The most important sex organ is the brain.
25. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.
26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words 'In five years, will this matter?'
27. Always choose life.
28. Forgive everyone everything.
29. What other people think of you is none of your business.
30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.
31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
32. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
33. Believe in miracles.
35. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.
34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn't do.
36. Growing old beats the alternative -- dying young.
37. Your children get only one childhood.
38. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.
39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.
40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's,we'd grab ours back.
41. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
42. The best is yet to come.
43. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
44. Yield...
45. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift."
"Try to be the sort of person your dog thinks you are." ~Jerry Parkins
“I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”
~Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken~
“People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they’re not on your road doesn’t mean they’ve gotten lost.”
~H. Jackson Brown, Jr.~
THINGS MOM TAUGHT ME
1. My mother taught me TO APPRECIATE A JOB WELL DONE.
"If you're going to kill each other, do it outside. I just finished cleaning."
2. My mother taught me RELIGION.
"You better pray that will come out of the carpet."
3. My mother taught me about TIME TRAVEL.
"If you don't straighten up, I'm going to knock you into the middle of next week!"
4. My mother taught me LOGIC.
" Because I said so, that's why."
5. My mother taught me MORE LOGIC.
"If you fall out of that swing and break your neck, you're not going to the store with me."
6. My mother taught me FORESIGHT.
"Make sure you wear clean underwear, in case you're in an accident."
7. My mother taught me IRONY
"Keep crying, and I'll give you something to cry about."
8. My mother taught me about the science of OSMOSIS.
"Shut your mouth and eat your supper."
9. My mother taught me about CONTORTIONISM.
"Will you look at that dirt on the back of your neck!"
10. My mother taught me about STAMINA.
"You'll sit there until all that spinach is gone."
11. My mother taught me about WEATHER.
"This room of yours looks as if a tornado went through it."
12. My mother taught me about HYPOCRISY.
"If I told you once, I've told you a million times. Don't exaggerate!"
13. My mother taught me the CIRCLE OF LIFE
"I brought you into this world, and I can take you out."
14. My mother taught me about BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION.
"Stop acting like your father!"
15. My mother taught me about ENVY.
"There are millions of less fortunate children in this world who don't have wonderful parents like you do."
16. My mother taught me about ANTICIPATION
"Just wait until we get home"
17. My mother taught me about RECEIVING
"You are going to get it when you get home!"
18. My mother taught me MEDICAL SCIENCE.
"If you don't stop crossing your eyes, they are going to freeze that way."
19. My mother taught me ESP.
"Put your sweater on; don't you think I know when you are cold?"
20. My mother taught me HUMOR.
"When that lawn mower cuts off your toes, don't come running to me."
21. My mother taught me HOW TO BECOME AN ADULT.
"If you don't eat your vegetables, you'll never grow up."
22. My mother taught me GENETICS.
"You're just like your father."
23. My mother taught me about my ROOTS.
"Shut that door behind you. Do you think you were born in a barn?"
24. My mother taught me WISDOM.
"When you get to be my age, you'll understand."
25. And my favorite: - My mother taught me about JUSTICE.
"One day you'll have kids, and I hope they turn out just like you!"
DANCE LIKE NOBODY'S WATCHING
LOVE LIKE YOU HAVE NEVER BEEN HURT
SING LIKE NOBODY'S LISTENING
LIVE THE MOMENT FOR ALL IT'S WORTH
To Retun to the top
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