LOVE/RELATIONSHIPS:
The lover heals the world not by a vague and abstract love for everybody and everything, but by becoming passionate and vowing fidelity to concrete relationships, persons, institutions, and places. --Sam Keen

LEADERSHIP/SUCCESS:
The leader has a clear idea of what he wants to do -- professionally and personally -- and the strength to persist in the face of setbacks, even failures. --Warren G. Bennis

MOTIVATION/INSPIRATION:
Latent abilities are like clay. It can be mud on shoes, brick in a building or a statue that will inspire all who see it. The clay is the same. The result is dependent on how it is used. --James F. Lincoln

LOVE/RELATIONSHIPS:

Love is all we have, the only way that each can help the other. --Euripides, Orestes

LEADERSHIP/SUCCESS:

In all things, be willing to listen to people around you. None of us is really smart enough to go it alone. --John Clendenin

MOTIVATION/INSPIRATION:

One good wish changes nothing.One good decision changes everything.

LOVE/RELATIONSHIPS:

Resentment is like drinking poison and waiting forthe other person to die. -Carrie Fisher

LEADERSHIP/SUCCESS:

The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up. -Muhammad Ali

MOTIVATION/INSPIRATION:

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one'scourage. -Anais Nin

STAY POSITIVE!

LOVE/RELATIONSHIPS:

Nobody sees a flower--really--it is so small it takes time--we haven't time--and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time. --Georgia O'Keeffe

LEADERSHIP/SUCCESS:
Reason is like an open secret that can become known to anyone at any time; it is the quiet space into which everyone can enter through his own thought. --Karl Jaspers

MOTIVATION/INSPIRATION:

Men are like wine; some turn to vinegar, but the best improve with age. --Pope John XXII

LOVE/RELATIONSHIPS:

You have your pencil. You have your colors. You paint paradise and live there.

LEADERSHIP/SUCCESS:

THE BEST PART OF LIFE is not just surviving, but thriving-
With passion and compassion
And humor and style,
And generosity and kindness.
-Maya Angelou

MOTIVATION/INSPIRATION:

To gain access to the tremendous knowledge of your higher spirit,
You must quiet the mind that thinks, and go to the part that knows.

To My Friends
--Anonymous

I have a list of folks I know......all written in a book,
and every now and then......I go and take a look.

That is when I realize these names......they are a part,
not of the book they're written in......but taken from the heart.

For each name stands for someone......who has crossed my path sometime,
and in that meeting they have become......the reason and the rhyme.

Although it sounds fantastic......for me to make this claim,
I really am composed......of each remembered name.

Although you're not aware......of any special link,just knowing you,
has shaped my life......more than you could think.

So please don't think my greeting......as just a mere routine,
your name was not......forgotten in between.

For when I send a greeting......that is addressed to you,
it is because you're on the list......of folks I'm indebted to.

So whether I have known you......for many days or few,
in some ways you have a part......in shaping things I do.

I am but a total......of many folks I've met,
you are a friend I would prefer......never to forget.


Everything I need to know about life,
I learned from Noah's Ark...
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
1. Don't miss the boat.
2. Remember that we are all in the same boat.
3. Plan ahead. It wasn't raining when Noah built the Ark.
4. Stay fit. When you're 600 years old, someone may
ask you to do something really big.
5. Don't listen to critics; just get on with the job that
needs to be done.
6. Build your future on high ground.
7. For safety's sake, travel in pairs.
8. Speed isn't always an advantage.
The snails were on board with the cheetahs.
9. When you're stressed, float a while.
10.Remember, the Ark was built by amateurs;
the Titanic was built by professionals.

LOVE/RELATIONSHIPS:
A dream that I dream alone is but only a dream. But a dream that we dream together is reality. --Raul Seixas

LEADERSHIP/SUCCESS:
First you fuel the desire, then the desire will fuel you.--Napoleon Hill, Author "Think and Grow Rich"

MOTIVATION/INSPIRATION:

Develop an attitude of gratitude, and give thanks for everything that happens to you, knowing that every step forward is a step toward achieving something bigger and better than your current situation.--Brian Tracy

LOVE/RELATIONSHIPS:

If you can't return a favor, pass it on.--Louise Brown

LEADERSHIP/SUCCESS:

Keep company with those who make you better.--English Proverb

MOTIVATION/INSPIRATION:

How different our lives are when we really know what is deeply important to us, and, keeping that picture in mind, we manage ourselves each day to be and to know what really matters most.--Stephen Covey

LOVE/RELATIONSHIPS:

There's nothing more important in life, than the people you meet along the way.

LEADERSHIP/SUCCESS:

Leaders who walk their talk will never lack for resources to get the job done.

MOTIVATION/INSPIRATION:

In the end each of us will be judged by our standard of life, not our standard of living.

LOVE/RELATIONSHIPS:

You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

LEADERSHIP/SUCCESS:

Knowledge is of two kinds: we know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information on it. -Samuel Johnson

MOTIVATION/INSPIRATION:

Optimism is a kind of heart stimulus--the digitalis of failure. -Elbert Hubbard

LOVE/RELATIONSHIPS:

Life is the flower for which love is the honey. --Victor Hugo

LEADERSHIP/SUCCESS:

Defeat is not the worst of failures. Not to have tried is the true failure. --George E. Woodberry

MOTIVATION/INSPIRATION:

Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp. Or what's a heaven for? --Robert Browning

To a Child Love Is Spelled T~I~M~E
by Lance Wubbels


In the faint light of the attic, an old man, tall and stooped, bent his great frame and made his way to a stack of boxes that sat near one of the little half-windows. Brushing aside a wisp of cobwebs, he tilted the top box toward the light and began to carefully lift out one old photograph album after another. Eyes once bright but now dim searched longingly for the source that had drawn him here.It began with the fond recollection of the love of his life, long gone, and somewhere in these albums was a photo of her he hoped to rediscover. Silent as a mouse, he patiently opened the long-buried treasures and soon was lost in a sea of memories. Although his world had not stopped spinning when his wife left it, the past was more alive in his heart than his present aloneness.

Setting aside one of the dusty albums, he pulled from the box what appeared to be a journal from his grown son's childhood. He could not recall ever having seen it before, or that his son had ever kept a journal. Why did Elizabeth always save the children's old junk? he wondered, shaking his white head.Opening the yellowed pages, he glanced over a short entry, and his lips curved in an unconscious smile. Even his eyes brightened as he read the words that spoke clear and sweet to his soul. It was the voice of the little boy who had grown up far too fast in this very house, and whose voice had grown fainter and fainter over the years. In the utter silence of the attic, the words of a guileless six-year-old worked their magic and carried the old man back to a time almost totally forgotten.Entry after entry stirred a sentimental hunger in his heart like the longing a gardener feels in the winter for the fragrance of spring flowers. But it was accompanied by the painful memory that his son's simple recollections of those days were far different from his own. But how different?

Reminded that he had kept a daily journal of his business activities over the years, he closed his son's journal and turned to leave, having forgotten the cherished photo that originally triggered his search. Hunched over to keep from bumping his head on the rafters, the old man stepped to the wooden stairway and made his descent, then headed down a carpeted stairway that led to the den.Opening a glass cabinet door, he reached in and pulled out an old business journal. Turning, he sat down at his desk and placed the two journals beside each other. His was leather bound and engraved neatly with his name in gold, while his son's was tattered and the name "Jimmy" had been nearly scuffed from its surface. He ran a long skinny finger over the letters, as though he could restore what had been worn away with time and use.As he opened his journal, the old man's eyes fell upon an inscription that stood out because it was so brief in comparison to other days.

In his own neat handwriting were these words:Wasted the whole day fishing with Jimmy. Didn't catch a thing.With a deep sigh and a shaking hand, he took Jimmy's journal and found the boy's entry for the same day, June 4. Large scrawling letters pressed deeply in the paper read:Went fishing with my dad. Best day of my life.

"A hundred years from now it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove. But the world may be different, because I was important in the life of a child." --Forest

some positive thoughts june 2007

LOVE/RELATIONSHIPS:

All the beautiful sentiments in the world weigh less than a single lovely action. --James Russell Lowell

LEADERSHIP/SUCCESS:

You can increase your brain power three- to fivefold simply by laughing and having fun before working on a problem. --Doug Hall

MOTIVATION/INSPIRATION:

Cushion the painful effects of hard blows by keeping the enthusiasm going strong, even if doing so requires struggle. --Norman Vincent Peale

LOVE/RELATIONSHIPS:

I like not only to be loved, but to be told I am loved. --George Eliot

LEADERSHIP/SUCCESS:

One of the true tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an
emergency. --Arnold H. Glasow

MOTIVATION/INSPIRATION:

He who waits upon fortune is never sure of dinner. --Benjamin Franklin

LOVE/RELATIONSHIPS:

Rather than focusing on things and time, focus on preserving and enhancing relationships and on accomplishing results. --Stephen Covey

LEADERSHIP/SUCCESS:

Leadership is much more an art, a belief, a condition of the heart, than a set of things to do. The visible signs of artfulleadership are expressed, ultimately, in its practice. --Max DePree

MOTIVATION/INSPIRATION:

Striving for excellence motivates you; striving for perfection is demoralizing. --Harriet Braiker


LOVE/RELATIONSHIPS:
A hundred years from now it will not matter what my bank account was,
the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove.but, the world may
be different because I was important in the life of a child.

LEADERSHIP/SUCCESS:

I've never known anyone who, on their deathbed said.
I wish I had spent more time at the office.

MOTIVATION/INSPIRATION:

Tomorrow never comes and yesterday never comes back, so live today
to it's fullest so that your yesterdays will be remembered with happiness
and your tomorrows will be full of brightness and hope.- Nick Smith