Violinist in the Metro
               
               
               
                A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and
started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six
Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush
hour, it was calculated that thousand   of people went through the
station, most of them on their way to work.
               
                Three minutes went by and a middle aged man noticed
there was musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few
seconds and then hurried up to meet his schedule.
               
                A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar
tip: a woman threw the money in the till and without stopping continued
to walk.
               
                A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to
listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk
again. Clearly he was late for work.
               
                The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old
boy. His mother tagged him along, hurried but the kid stopped to look at
the violinist. Finally the mother pushed hard and the child continued to
walk turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several
other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move
on.
               
                In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people
stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money but continued to
walk their normal pace. He collected $32. When he finished playing and
silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there
any recognition.
               
                No one knew this but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one
of the best musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate
pieces ever written with a violin worth 3.5 million dollars.
               
                Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell
sold out at a theater in Boston and the seats average $100.
               
                 Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was
organized by the Washington Post as part of an social experiment about
perception, taste and priorities of people. The outlines were: in a
commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour: Do we perceive beauty?
Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected
context?
               
                One of the possible conclusions from this experience
could be:
               
                If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of
the best musicians in the world playing the best music ever written, how
many other things are we missing?

How about a little adjustment or so, to your “Normal” routine?

1.      Start your morning off in gratitude for what you do have-Make a
list if you need to!

2.    Instead of turning on some depressing news channel, turn on your
favorite, most motivating, enthusiastic music, and build your groove!
(You can dance, like no one is watching!

3.    Call your favorite, over the top happy people on your team, and
let them know how much you appreciate their joy! (If they don’t answer,
leave them a voice message!)

Thank you for the things I often don’t think of!

Thank you for all I have to do today.
Thanks for this sink of dirty dishes,
It shows we have plenty to eat.

Thanks for the pile of dirty, stinky, laundry,
It shows we have plenty of clothes to wear.

Thanks for those unmade beds in there,
They were warm and so comfortable last night
And I know there are many who have no beds.

Thanks for this bathroom complete with all the
Spattered mirror, soggy grimy towels and dirty commode,
They are so convenient.

Thanks for this finger-smudged refrigerator
That needs defrosting,
It is full of cold drinks and enough leftovers
For two or three meals.

Thanks for this oven
That absolutely must cleaned today,
It has baked so many things over the years.

The whole family is grateful for that grass that needs mowing,
The lawn that will need raking, we all enjoy the yard.

Thanks even for that slamming screen door,
Kids are healthy and able to run and play.

The presence of all these chores awaiting me
Says you have we are a richly blessed family.
I shall do them all cheerfully
And I shall do them gratefully.

MAXIMUM SUCCESS IS ACHIEVED IN STEPS

All progress begins one step at a time.
There is no sudden lead to greatness.
Good work, done little by little becomes great work.
The house of success is built brick by brick.

You can do what you want to do, achieve what you want to achieve,
attain any reasonable objective you may have in mind.
Not all of a sudden, nor in one sweeping act of achievement.
You will do it gradually, day by day and play by play.

If you want to do it, if you work to do it,
you will accomplish your goal over a sufficient period of time.

Your big accomplishments will be a series of little accomplishments.

It takes many strokes to overthrow the tallest oak.

We convince ourselves that life will be better after we get married,
have a baby, then another.  Then we are frustrated that the kids aren’t
old enough and we’ll be more content when they are.  After that we’re
frustrated that we have teenagers to deal with.  We will certainly be
happy when they are out of that stage.  We tell ourselves that our life
will be complete when our spouse gets his or her act together, when we
get a nicer car, are able to go on a nice vacation, when we retire. 

The truth is, there’s no better time to be happy than right now.  If not
now, when?  Your life will always be filled with challenges.  It’s best
to admit this to yourself and decide to be happy anyway.  One of my
favorite quotes comes from Alfred D Souza. 
He said, “For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to
begin - real life.  But there was always some obstacle in the way,
something to be gotten through first, some unfinished business, time
still to be served, a debt to be paid.   Then life would begin.  At last
it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life.” 
This perspective has helped me to see that there is no way to happiness.
Happiness is the way.  So, treasure every moment that you have.  And
treasure it more because you shared it with someone special, special
enough to spend your time…and remember that time waits for no one.
So stop waiting until you finish school, until you go back to school,
until you lose ten pounds, until you gain ten pounds, until you have
kids, until your kids leave the house, until you start work, until you
retire, until you get married, until you get divorced, until Friday
night, until Sunday morning, until you get a new car or home, until your
car or home is paid off, until spring, until summer, until fall, until
winter, until you are off welfare, until the first or fifteenth, until
your song comes on, until you’ve had a drink, until you’ve sobered up,
until you die, until you are born again to decide that there is no
better time than right now to be happy…

Happiness is a journey, not a destination.

Thought for the day: “Work like you don’t need money, Love like you’ve
never been hurt, And dance like no one’s watching.”

Author Unknown

You’ll experience personal growth on the road to success.
All growth means change and change involves risk.
You grow because you struggle, learn and overcome your obstacles.

What happens to you is not as important as how you react to what
happens.
Everything you’ll experience “good or bad” has value.

Difficulties in life are the things that show you what you are.
Trouble is the common denominator of living.
It’s the great equalizer of life.

Only when you are no longer afraid will you begin to live.

By Greg Vanden Berge

Why do people spend so much time and effort acting religious or even going as far as explaining themselves to other believers that they are religious people yet only go to church once a week and with that said spend less than two hours there.

Most people live their religion one day a week and these people know who they are and are perfectly fine with it.  Some of these people are extremely educated and successful individuals.  Most seem to be happy with the minimum requirements of one day a week in order to fulfill the basic requirements to arrive at the promised land upon their death.  Some of these believers don’t even spend the time at their religious outpost awake, I have seen many sleeping through the services.

Whenever I come in contact with one of these people and asked them about their commitment they respond with the standard answer of “Well That’s Fine”, “It’s Okay Don’t Worry about Me, Worry about Yourself”, they don’t seem to be too concerned about living a religious life, they’re just following the rules they seem to set for themselves.

Some organized religions have minimum requirements for entering heaven or the promised land.  I have found most of these people meet them on a weekly basis.  I guess it’s some sort of security for these people to believe they get to go somewhere special.  Is it a false security though.

By living their religion one day a week and believing faithfully in their religion this entitles them one free ticket to the promised land.  Some of these people on the outside pretend to be religious while on the inside are some of the most inconsiderate, uncompassionate, cruel and full of negative enthusiasm people I have ever met, but wait a minute these people go to church one day a week and that allows them total access to the ultimate kingdom of God or is there another reason why they follow this weekly ritual.

This seems to be confusing and always has been to me as I know people that are kind, considerate and compassionate individuals that live moral lives and choose not to believe in organized religions.  These people don’t get to go to the promised land yet live what I would consider a morally good life seven days a week, it just doesn’t make sense.

If you could possibly make some sense out of someone receiving the ultimate treasures upon death while living a dishonest life just for showing up one day each week to their religious outpost.  I’m a little bit confused and will continue to suffer with what I would consider religious unfairness.

If you’re one of those people living your religion one day a week I hope this gives you something to think about and if you’re one of those people living a morally fair life seven days a week keep up the good work.

ATTITUDE IS EVERYTHING

You determine your attitude.
You can respond positively or negatively to any situation.
Your attitude is not determined by circumstances,
but by how you respond to your circumstances.

Any challenge facing you is not as important as your attitude towards
it,
for that will determine your success or failure.

It’s how you react to events, not the events themselves,
that determines your attitude.

The Action Program for Moving beyond Death, Divorce and Other Losses.

The authors of this wonderful book.  John W.  James and Russell Friedman

I’m just going to read partially what the back book cover says:  Incomplete recovery from grief can have a lifelong negative affect on your capacity for happiness.  Drawing from their own histories, as well as from others, the authors illustrate what grief is and how it is possible to recover and regain energy and spontaneity.

Don’t let a tragic event in your life ruin it.  There are so many people out there just like you who have loved and lost and recovered, in the process learning to deal with life changes.

Me and my wife read this book and actually got to certain points and started crying realizing how many times we had been in situations and had no tools to deal with any forms of grief.  We were reading this book shortly after her best friend of over 20 years died of cancer.  She had read the book before and was familiar with it but I on the other hand was just beginning to understand grieving.

In the book you will learn about people that cling onto the past and suffer greatly from their choice not to let go. In the meantime these people seem to also hurt other people whom they are close to.  I have heard about people that will not move the furniture or any of the belongings out a loved one’s bedroom that they have lost years ago. I can’t even imagine the pain these people must be going through.

How do we get these people to move on and continue living their lives, we’re not asking them to forget about what has happened but at the same time we are asking them to remember the people that are still around them.

A few years ago my grandfather died and last year my grandmother passed away.  I knew both of them fairly well and suffered very little grief because I have accepted death as a part of the cycle of life.  This does not mean I didn’t get upset, at one time during the funeral I could not stop crying and my brother-in-law came over and wrapped his arms around me.  This made me feel really good inside.  It’s nice to be loved.

The grief recovery handbook is a wonderful book for dealing with all forms of life’s difficulties that we are not trained to deal with.  If you know anyone who is suffering from a divorce, death of a loved one or some sort of life hurdle they just can’t seem to get through.  I guarantee you one thing this book will shed some light on dealing with life’s difficulties.

Change is part of life and birth, death, divorce, and loss are all parts of our lives that seem to change when we least expect it.