A New Twist On New Year’s Resolutions

A new year is coming and there is so much to look forward to and so many things that one can do differently and change their lives forever.  It is easy to lose sight of the fact that we are important in this world.

 “You are not the momentary whim of a careless creator experimenting in the laboratory of life…You were made with a purpose.”

 Og Mandino

I like that quote…to believe that God created us for a reason..not just to exist but to do…to be….and to live. So, as I look to the new year, I have made some resolutions.

  First is to keep my faith in God and realize all the miracles He has created in this world….to wake up and see the miracle of the sunrise, to sit outside and see the miracle of nature….to look at people and see the miracle God created when He formed us. I do believe in miracles.

 

“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”

Albert Einstein

Second is to quit worrying about what people might think, to be spontaneous and to allow myself to feel.

 

 “You’ve gotta dance like there’s nobody watching,
Love like you’ll never be hurt,
Sing like there’s nobody listening,
And live like it’s heaven on earth.”

William W. Purkey

Third is to realize that I am important to someone…be it family, family of choice, friends, even my pet…

 “To the world you might be one person, but to one person, you might be the world.”  anonymous

 Fourth is to sing and sing often …..just because I can. Life can be filled with joy.

“A bird does not sing because it has an answer; it sings because it has a song.”

Chinese proverb

Fifth is to not drift in my life and lose my time. I want to live life to the fullest.

Some people drift through their entire life. They do it one day at a time, one week at a time, one month at a time. It happens so gradually they are unaware of how their lives are slipping away until it’s too late.

Mary Kay Ash

 Sixth is to be myself…to never compromise myself because of others…to always be true to myself.

“It is better to be hated for what you are than loved for what you are not.”

Andre Gide

“Above all, be true to yourself, and if you cannot put your heart in it, take yourself out of it.”

Hardy D. Jackson

 Seventh is to realize that I am a role model to someone whether I want to be or not.

“Whether or not you have children yourself, you are a parent to the next generation.
If we can only stop thinking of children as individual property and think of them
as the next generation, then we can realize we all have a role to play.”

Charlotte Davis-Kasl

Eighth is to accept and use the fact that I am in charge of me and my feelings and how I act. That my faith is up to me and no one else and to act in a way that people treat me like a person of worth.

“You are in charge of your feelings, beliefs, and actions. And you teach others
how to behave toward you.  While you cannot change other people, you can
influence them through your own behaviors and actions.  By being a living
role model of what you want to receive from others, you create more of
what you want in your life.”

Eric Allenbaugh

Ninth is to not waste my time on senseless anger. If I am upset…to talk about it and get it out and over.

 “For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Tenth is to quit searching and realize that happiness is inside me. It is not in my possessions, in other people, in my job, in my car..but within my heart. That I can be gloriously happy and have nothing.

“Being happy doesn’t mean that everything is perfect. It means that you’ve decided to look past the imperfections.”

 Unknown

Eleventh is to reach out in kindness to those around me. I believe we have an inherent responsibility to help those around us, be it with a kind word, helping them in a time of need, offering them comfort, whatever.

 “All of us are born for a reason, but all of us don’t discover why. Success in life has nothing to do with what you gain in life or accomplish for yourself. It’s what you do for others.”

Danny Thomas

Twelfth is to really take the time to look at people and pay attention to how they are feeling and center less on me and more on the feelings of others.

Never worry about numbers.  Help one person at a time, and always start with the person nearest you. 

Mother Teresa

And last is to LIVE…not just exist…to get out there and taste life one bite at a time.

 “To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.”

Oscar Wilde

 These resolutions are something I think I can incorporate into my life and make my life the fullest it has ever been.  And they are resolutions I believe I can keep through out the year and past. What resolutions do you have?

Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind.–Dr. Suess

♫♫Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me. ♫♫

video by  AngelLove831

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE.

Is The Morning After Christmas And All Through The House

Is the morning after Christmas, when all through the house

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.

Everyone was nestled all snug in their beds,

While memories of Christmas day danced in their heads.

Remnants of Christmas were scattered on the floor

while icy winds and snow were just outside the door

Jack was snuggled under his covers and his snores filled the air

While son was in his bed sleeping without even a care

I lay here in my bed with a smile on my face

Thanksgiving filled my heart for our new home …our new place

Christmas Day has come and is now out of sight

And the whole house is still filled with such glorious delight

The best gifts of Christmas didn’t come in a box wrapped in gold

It came in the memories of family both the young and the old

In the love and caring that abound throughout the land

Of people coming together in love,  joining together hand in hand

 My reason for the season still abounds with us here

Making life and those in it so very very dear

So, as you open your eyes on this wonderful “morning after” day

Let the songs of love and peace on earth still continue to play

As I roll over and snuggle under my covers without a care

I have one last wish that I would like to share

As I find myself drifting back off into that beautiful deep sleep

dreaming of a better world and realistic resolutions to keep

My wish is that we hold on to this peace, love and goodwill

and think of the less fortunate whose dreams no one came to fill

And open our hearts to the true meaning of this season

And if you are going to fight, make sure it’s for a good reason

And so as I drift off into sleep

I wish you a very happy new year  and send a bushel of love for you to keep.

Love from our house to yours

No Matter Where You Live

No matter where you live, someone will go to bed hungry tonight and will go to bed hungry Christmas Eve. No matter where you live, someone is homeless and the shocking statistic to me is that about a third of the homeless population is our veterans.  Our men mostly and women who have fought for our freedom…homeless.

For these people, the hourglass has all run to the bottom…but we can be the one that turns it over for them.

No matter where you live, there are children who are having no Christmas, going to bed hungry nightly and will wake up Christmas Day just like any other day for them and feeling like no one cares, while we are ripping through gift paper and eating big Christmas dinners. That is a stark contrast to me.

I imagine you are sitting here reading this thinking…oh great, she is going to tell us we should not have any Christmas. No, I am not. What is going through my mind is the appreciation I feel for all that I have been blessed with and a realization that we easily have become a greedy nation.  I think we have lost the true meaning of giving.

“To truly give, you have to give up something. It may be money. It may be time. It may be a possession. It may mean doing something you would never dream of normally doing. It is not always easy. I always tell them that giving away a toy that they never play with and no longer care about is not full and true giving because there is no sacrifice. It is too easy.“  Shane Bridges

I had never thought of the true meaning of “giving” until my sons exemplified to me what it was and then I realized how giving up something I really valued was the ultimate giving…whether it was in time, money, or possessions.

I watched my boys one year, give up half of their Christmas to help give three little boys a Christmas while their Mom was in treatment. I cried watching my young sons give so generously. They could have cleaned out what they no longer wanted but instead, they gave up half of the new they were getting for Christmas to kids who had none. They gave up half of what they had dreamed of and wanted so badly for months….to make other children happy. I was and still am so proud of my boys.

My piece of bread only belongs to me when I know that everyone else has a share, and that no one starves while I eat.  ~Leo Tolstoy

That is when we started sharing our home with others.  And thus the birth of the share your holidays with others was born for us. And son and I still share with others on holidays because we are  giving of our hearts and our love and sharing that with others. And you know what, the love is shared back. We are not just the givers….we are also the recipients. Having others share our holiday helps make our holiday even brighter because the more people with you on a holiday, the merrier it is.

Maybe my sons and I have been lucky in that we have never been rich and always struggled to make it, for it made us more aware of those around us that did not have or those that were alone. No matter where you are, there are elderly, poor, children and just plain adults…who will go to bed hungry. But, not only that…will go to bed feeling as if no one cares.

One must be poor to know the luxury of giving!  ~George Eliot

Giving is more than opening your wallet…it is opening your heart and giving of love and caring. When we lived back east, I used to deliver meals on Christmas and Thanksgiving day. And I would stop and visit with each person as I gave them their hot dinner. My reward for this gift was a dinner plate to take home but the biggest reward was seeing people smile who were home alone…shut in because they were sick and could not get out and seeing their smile at having someone come to their door. And as my health has declined, it has made me appreciate those who try now to make my world brighter even more. And I have been blessed with some very special angels who not only have brightened my life but brightened my home with their generousity.

Have you ever worked at a soup kitchen? When we lived on the other side of the mountain, I would volunteer to help. Yes, I was disabled but I would sit and peel potatoes, clean tables and whatever they needed me to do and then I would serve the desert table for them. There were people there who ranged from the homeless to those that were on fixed incomes or struggling that came in to eat. I served on Christmas Day, and loved every minute of it.  I could have sat at home and whined and cried because son was working and I was alone for the holidays…but I didn’t.  And when I came home and son and I ate our dinner late that nite or even the next day, it made me appreciate it all that much more.

Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat.
Mother Teresa

I have heard people say they were not giving or helping this person or that because they thought they should be out with a job or they didn’t like how they did this or that. And it has always made me sad to hear comments like that. I remember teaching and I had a little girl who came to school literally in rags. I asked my sister, who had a daughter that age, for hand me downs and when that little girl opened that box, the look on her face was as if someone had handed me a box of money. My sister sent the most beautiful clothes for this little girl. She was so thrilled over those dresses and she would hold the skirt and swirl it around as if she were a princess. Some of the teachers said “she will just have them dirty in a couple of months” and my reply was that I didn’t care for the joy she felt right now was worth it. And besides that…why should I punish the child because the parents did not keep her clean?

Charity sees the need, not the cause.  ~German Proverb

Don’t wait to be asked for help. We are capable of looking and seeing when others are in need. I realize I am more of an anticipator than most but we actually are capable of seeing when another is in need…seeing when someone is doing without…seeing if someone is in trouble and needs help (like some of you did for my trip to Colorado Springs to have the heart cath done and you helped us be able to get there and  back.Look beyond the surface…look into the eyes and the hearts of others and then act.

He who gives when he is asked has waited too long.  ~Sunshine Magazine

Son still likes to tease me about ♫♫I see the light♫♫ when Jack sat on the control to my hospital bed and made both ends go up at once when I was sleeping…and I thought God had come to get me. But, the truth is…we all have a duty to spread the light…the light of love and giving. And in doing so, we can either be the one giving the light or the one that is reflecting the light of those giving. Sometimes we are the ones that pave the way and sometimes we are the ones that follow…both help.

There are two ways of spreading light – to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.  ~Edith Wharton, Vesalius in Zante

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that if you can’t do great things and help a lot of people that you should do nothing. Mother Teresa said if you can’t help a hundred people….then help ONE.  Many people will fail to act…fail to do anything because they think only helping one or two is insignificant but it is not. Just think how many people would be helped if we each helped just one or two.

If you want a love message to be heard, it has got to be sent out. To keep a lamp burning, we have to keep putting oil in it.
Mother Teresa

Life is short and we need to do while we can. Love long and deeply, care about others, give that which we truly value..not what we no longer need and most of all, remember that as you pass through life, that much about you may not be remembered when you are gone but the what you do for others will carry on with them.

I expect to pass through life but once.  If therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not defer or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again.  ~William Penn