About Me

Moved from the heart of Chicago to Jacksonville, Florida - 13 years ago. Just living the Florida lifestyle with my wonderful family!!!

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Wednesday, January 12, 2011

REALIZE

The origin of this letter is unknown. I found it touching and thought-provoking.


To realize
The value of a sister/brother
Ask someone
Who doesn’t have one.

To realize
The value of ten years:
Ask a newly
Divorced couple.

To realize
The value of four years:
Ask a graduate.

To realize
The value of one year:
Ask a student who
Has failed a final exam.

To realize
The value of nine months:
Ask a mother who gave birth to a stillborn.

To realize
The value of one month:
Ask a mother
Who has given birth to a premature baby..

To realize
The value of one week:
Ask an editor of a weekly newspaper.

To realize
The value of one minute:
Ask a person
Who has missed the train, bus or plane.

To realize
The value of one-second:
Ask a person
Who has survived an accident.

Time waits for no one.
Treasure every moment you have.

You will treasure it even more when
You can share it with someone special.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Daily Inspirational thoughts

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Just Being There
Acting As A Guardian

One of the greatest gifts we can give another human being is to act as their
guardian, to hold space for them.

One of the greatest gifts we can give another human being is to act as their
guardian. Whether this gift is related to a specific situation or is
representative of an ongoing commitment, we each benefit from the association.
To protect someone is to walk with them in challenging times and see them
through safely to the other side. In doing this, we grow with them. And those
under our guardianship derive confidence from our support and assistance,
enabling them to persevere through almost any conditions.

There are many reasons we feel inspired to serve as guardians to those we care
for. Sometimes just holding the space for somebody allows them to do what is
necessary to grow or heal. We may simply want to see that our friend or loved
one is taken care of and equipped to prevail over difficult circumstances. We
may also sense that we are in possession of knowledge our loved ones are lacking
yet need in their current stage of development. Our offer to serve as a guardian
may also be both unsolicited and unrelated to any one situation. Instead of
helping someone we care about cope with a specific challenge, we may find
ourselves providing them with a more general form of emotional sustenance that
prepares and strengthens them for challenges yet to come.

Our ability to empathize with those under our guardianship is our greatest asset
because our comprehension of their needs allows us to determine how we can best
serve them. Even when this comprehension is limited, however, the loving
intentions with which we enter into our role as guardian ensure that our care
and protection help others grow as individuals while living their lives with
grace.

Just Being There
Acting As A Guardian

One of the greatest gifts we can give another human being is to act as their
guardian, to hold space for them.

One of the greatest gifts we can give another human being is to act as their
guardian. Whether this gift is related to a specific situation or is
representative of an ongoing commitment, we each benefit from the association.
To protect someone is to walk with them in challenging times and see them
through safely to the other side. In doing this, we grow with them. And those
under our guardianship derive confidence from our support and assistance,
enabling them to persevere through almost any conditions.

There are many reasons we feel inspired to serve as guardians to those we care
for. Sometimes just holding the space for somebody allows them to do what is
necessary to grow or heal. We may simply want to see that our friend or loved
one is taken care of and equipped to prevail over difficult circumstances. We
may also sense that we are in possession of knowledge our loved ones are lacking
yet need in their current stage of development. Our offer to serve as a guardian
may also be both unsolicited and unrelated to any one situation. Instead of
helping someone we care about cope with a specific challenge, we may find
ourselves providing them with a more general form of emotional sustenance that
prepares and strengthens them for challenges yet to come.

Our ability to empathize with those under our guardianship is our greatest asset
because our comprehension of their needs allows us to determine how we can best
serve them. Even when this comprehension is limited, however, the loving
intentions with which we enter into our role as guardian ensure that our care
and protection help others grow as individuals while living their lives with
grace.

Saturday, April 17, 2010

If you are 30, or older, you might think this is hilarious!

If you are 30, or older, you might think this is hilarious!

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were. When they were growing up; what with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning…. Uphill… Barefoot…or Through Blizzards… BOTH ways. yadda, yadda, yadda.

And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on my kids about how hard I had it and how easy they’ve got it!

But now that I’m over the ripe old age of thirty, I can’t help but look around and notice the youth of today. You’ve got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a damn Utopia! And I hate to say it, but you kids today, you don’t know how good you’ve got it!

I mean, when I was a kid we didn’t have the Internet. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the LIBRARY and look it up ourselves, in the card catalog!!

There was no email!! We had to actually write somebody a letter – with a pen! Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox, and it would take like a week to get there! Stamps were 10 cents!

Child Protective Services didn’t care if our parents beat us. As a matter of fact, the parents of all my friends also had permission to kick our ass! Nowhere was safe!

There were no MP3’s or Napsters or iTunes! If you wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the record store and shoplift it yourself!

Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio, and the DJ would usually talk over the beginning and @#*% it all up! There were no CD players! We had tape decks in our car.. We’d play our favorite tape and “eject” it when finished, and then the tape would come undone, rendering it useless. Cause, hey, that’s how we rolled, Baby! Dig?

We didn’t have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called, they got a busy signal; that’s it!

There weren’t any freakin’ cell phones either. If you left the house, you just didn’t make a damn call or receive one. You actually had to be out of touch with your “friends.” OH MY GOD!!! Think of the horror… not being in touch with someone 24/7!!! And then there’s TEXTING. Yeah, right. Please! You kids have no idea how annoying you are.

And we didn’t have fancy Caller ID either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your parents, your boss, your bookie, your drug dealer, the collection agent… you just didn’t know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!

We didn’t have any fancy PlayStation or Xbox video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! If we had anything, it was the Atari 2600! With games like ‘Space Invaders’ and ‘Asteroids’. Your screen guy was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination!!! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen… Forever! And you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE!

You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! You were screwed when it came to channel surfing! You had to get off your ass and walk over to the TV to change the channel!!! NO REMOTES!!! Oh, no, what’s the world coming to?!?!

There was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday Morning. Do you hear what I’m saying? We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little rat-finks!

And we didn’t have microwaves. If we wanted to heat something up, we had to use the stove! Imagine that!

And our parents told us to stay outside and play… all day long. Oh, no, no electronics to soothe and comfort. And if you came back inside… you were doing chores!

And car seats – oh, please! Mom threw you in the back seat and you hung on…just a lap belt “held” you in. If you were lucky, you got the “safety arm” across the chest at the last moment if she had to stop suddenly, and if your head hit the dashboard, well that was your fault for calling “shot gun” in the first place!

See! That’s exactly what I’m talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You’re spoiled rotten! You guys wouldn’t have lasted five minutes back in the 1980’s or any time before!
Regards,
The Over 30 Crowd
(Send this to someone you’d like to make smile)