There's nothing to fear ---you're as good as the best,
As strong as the mightiest, too.
You can win in every battle or test;
For there's no one just like you.
There's only one you in the world today;
So nobody else, you see,
Can do your work in as fine a way:
You're the only you there'll be !
So face the world, and all life is yours
To conquer and love and live:
And you'll find the happiness that endures
In just the measure you give;
There's nothing too good for you to possess,
Nor heights where you cannot go:
Your power is more than belief or guess ---
It is something you have to know.
There is nothing to fear --- you can and you will.
For you are the invincible you.
Set your foot on the highest hill ---
There's nothing you cannot do.
-- Author Unknown
Friday, July 18, 2008
Thursday, July 17, 2008
The Most Important Self Help Principle
There are many important self help principles to learn and develop, which will aid you through your journey towards success. All successful people around the world utilize various self help principles to help get them where they are today. There is one chief principle however, that if understood and applied properly, will provide you with the most valuable intangible asset that you will ever acquire.
The principle is simply to associate with the kind of people that you want to become. If you want to be a great lawyer, hang out with great lawyers. You want to be a great business man or women, then make sure you associate and socialise with good business people. If excelling in your studies is your thing, you’ll profit greatly by socialising with the keener more switched on students. This may sound a little too simple and basic, but do not be mistaken, its effects are extraordinary.
Our friends and associates are the people we care most about, we spend most of our time with, we speak to the most and we genuinely care what they think of us. The amount of energy we invest in our friends and the energy that we absorb from them is huge. In time we begin to subconsciously act the way our friends do, speak as they speak, dress as they dress and think as they do.
Take a good look at the people you spend most of your time with. Do they motivate you to excel in life? Or do they bring you down? Do they live their lives in a manner that inspires you? Or are you doing all the inspiring? Are they people of quality and honest morals, or are they riff-raff? These are all important questions to ask yourself, because day after day, month after month, year after year these people's qualities and thoughts slowly become your own.
For these reasons, it is extremely important that you choose the environment you live in carefully as the environment you choose will shape you. Be careful of the friends you choose within your environment for gradually you will become like them.
Always remember to be careful of who you associate with, as your friends can affect your life more than you may realise. A good friendship is the most valuable intangible asset a person can have.
- By Mark Machaalani
The principle is simply to associate with the kind of people that you want to become. If you want to be a great lawyer, hang out with great lawyers. You want to be a great business man or women, then make sure you associate and socialise with good business people. If excelling in your studies is your thing, you’ll profit greatly by socialising with the keener more switched on students. This may sound a little too simple and basic, but do not be mistaken, its effects are extraordinary.
Our friends and associates are the people we care most about, we spend most of our time with, we speak to the most and we genuinely care what they think of us. The amount of energy we invest in our friends and the energy that we absorb from them is huge. In time we begin to subconsciously act the way our friends do, speak as they speak, dress as they dress and think as they do.
Take a good look at the people you spend most of your time with. Do they motivate you to excel in life? Or do they bring you down? Do they live their lives in a manner that inspires you? Or are you doing all the inspiring? Are they people of quality and honest morals, or are they riff-raff? These are all important questions to ask yourself, because day after day, month after month, year after year these people's qualities and thoughts slowly become your own.
For these reasons, it is extremely important that you choose the environment you live in carefully as the environment you choose will shape you. Be careful of the friends you choose within your environment for gradually you will become like them.
Always remember to be careful of who you associate with, as your friends can affect your life more than you may realise. A good friendship is the most valuable intangible asset a person can have.
- By Mark Machaalani
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Don't be Afraid of Pressure
An old legend says that God first created birds without wings. Sometime later, God made wings and said to the birds, "Come, take up these burdens and bear them."
The birds hesitated at first, but soon obeyed. They tried picking up the wings in their beaks, but found them too heavy. Then they tried picking them up with their claws, but found them too large. Finally one of the birds managed to get the wings hoisted onto its shoulders where it was possible to carry them. To the amazement of the birds, before long the wings began to grow and they soon had attached themselves to the bodies of the birds.
One of the birds began to flap his wings and others followed his example. Shortly afterwards, one of the birds took off and began to soar in the air above. What had once been a heavy burden now became the very thing that enabled the birds to go where they could never go before...and at the same time, truly fulfill the destiny of their creation.
The duties and responsibilities you count as burdens today may be part of God's destiny for your life, the means by which your soul is lifted up and prepared for eternity.
Don't be afraid of pressure. Remember that pressure is what turns a lump of coal into a diamond.
You know the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. James 1:3,4 (NIV)
Source : "God's Little Devotional Book for Everyone"
Shared by : "Lucy"
The birds hesitated at first, but soon obeyed. They tried picking up the wings in their beaks, but found them too heavy. Then they tried picking them up with their claws, but found them too large. Finally one of the birds managed to get the wings hoisted onto its shoulders where it was possible to carry them. To the amazement of the birds, before long the wings began to grow and they soon had attached themselves to the bodies of the birds.
One of the birds began to flap his wings and others followed his example. Shortly afterwards, one of the birds took off and began to soar in the air above. What had once been a heavy burden now became the very thing that enabled the birds to go where they could never go before...and at the same time, truly fulfill the destiny of their creation.
The duties and responsibilities you count as burdens today may be part of God's destiny for your life, the means by which your soul is lifted up and prepared for eternity.
Don't be afraid of pressure. Remember that pressure is what turns a lump of coal into a diamond.
You know the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. James 1:3,4 (NIV)
Source : "God's Little Devotional Book for Everyone"
Shared by : "Lucy"
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Motivating Yourself for Success
Are you creating your foundation of success? Are you motivated to take on challenges that others are not willing to do? The following is a story of someone who did and achieved great success in his life and how you can, too!
There once was a young man who grew up in Crawford, Mississippi. His father worked as a brick mason building home foundations. Everyday after school and during the summers, this young man would help his father build foundations. It's not the most glamorous job by any stretch of the imagination, but it's an honest, backbreaking, and low paying job that put food on the table and paid the bills. The father would start by throwing bricks towards the son in the area where they would build a housing foundation. Under the hot, sweltering Mississippi sun, his son would catch brick after brick with his hands, day after day. While most other kids were enjoying their summers or working in less strenuous jobs, this young man was motivated to work long and hard with his father, while catching those bricks and building a foundation for success in more ways than one.
You see, each time that young man caught bricks, he was not only making his hands stronger, he was building character and the foundation for success in his later years. With each brick he caught, he was even more determined to be successful in life. When he wasn’t helping his father and going to school, he was pushing himself through football workouts to be better than any other football player. You see the young man's name is Jerry Rice, and he went on to become the most successful NFL All-Pro wide receiver of all time with the San Francisco 49ers. Some of you
non-football fans may know him as a contestant from the television program, “Dancing with the Stars.”
The following are the six success secrets that Jerry Rice used that can easily motivate you to achieve success in any aspect of your business, career, and life:
1. Motivate Yourself to See Opportunities in Every Challenge –
Jerry could have looked at the job of catching bricks as a chore that was a waste of his time. But he saw the big picture and made the chore more enjoyable by developing games out of the activities. Many times in life, we are thrown bricks and complain and miss the opportunity it presents to us. The person who can find solutions in the challenges they are faced with can write their own ticket for success. When you take on a challenge, it’s preparing you for an opportunity in the future. You may not know when the opportunity is coming, how it is coming, or what the opportunity will look like, but it is coming; and will you be prepared? Embrace your challenges so you will be prepared.
2. Motivate Yourself to See That It’s Normal to Experience a Little Pain –
As Jerry was experiencing the pain of catching bricks each day, this pain was actually building him to becoming a stronger person. Each brick was fueling Jerry’s internal desire to be successful. Think of some situation at work, in business, or in life that was painful. Your pain may be an embarrassing moment, it may be a learning experience, and it may be a setback. How can you use this setback to motivate you to become more successful? We achieve success in our businesses, careers, and life when we develop the success tools of using our “pains” as a learning experience and a springboard to success.
3. Motivate Yourself to Take on Unpopular Tasks –
Catching bricks all day is not the most glamorous job in the world. Many times we are thrown bricks in life and avoid them like the plague. Volunteer to catch these bricks while others decline. This will allow people of influence to see your special skills and offer you opportunities for success. It is what I always say, “It’s not what you know, it’s not who you know, it’s who knows what you know.” When you volunteer to catch those bricks, you allow others to now know and see the special skills and talent you exhibit.
4. Motivate Yourself To Take Action –
Just the simple act of taking action will make you more successful than 98% of other people. Many times people are waiting for “just the right moment” or “more resources.” Motivate yourself to take action where you are at today and make the appropriate corrections as needed.
5. Motivate Yourself to Go the Extra Mile –
Jerry Rice’s off-season personal football workouts were legendary. He would train six days a week running five miles, along with running wind sprints up the steepest mountains in his community. He didn’t need to do this grueling workout, but he wanted to be in better physical shape than any other professional football player. He went the extra mile to be the best.
What are you doing to go the extra mile? Do you have a continuous learning program in place? Do you give of yourself to make your employees better? Do you give your clients something extra to show appreciation of their business? These are all opportunities to put you above the rest and to succeed in your business, in your career, and in your life.
6. Motivate Yourself to Create a Masterpiece –
Jerry Rice wanted to be the best professional wide receiver ever in football, and he achieved that title. He was motivated to pay the price to achieve that goal.
Are you motivated and ready to create a masterpiece? Do you have a vision of what your business, career, or life masterpiece looks, feels, or sounds like? Are you willing to sustain the quality effort, attitude, and determination to create your masterpiece? What are you willing to give up in order to achieve your masterpiece? Until you are ready to answer these questions, you can’t lay the foundation forachieving your masterpiece.
After you answer the above questions, create S-M-A-R-T-E-R goals as your roadmap for success. If it’s not on paper, your goals don’t exist. Be motivated to create, write, and act on your goals.
Follow these six success secrets and you, too, will be motivated to lay the foundation for your success.
- By Ed Sykes
There once was a young man who grew up in Crawford, Mississippi. His father worked as a brick mason building home foundations. Everyday after school and during the summers, this young man would help his father build foundations. It's not the most glamorous job by any stretch of the imagination, but it's an honest, backbreaking, and low paying job that put food on the table and paid the bills. The father would start by throwing bricks towards the son in the area where they would build a housing foundation. Under the hot, sweltering Mississippi sun, his son would catch brick after brick with his hands, day after day. While most other kids were enjoying their summers or working in less strenuous jobs, this young man was motivated to work long and hard with his father, while catching those bricks and building a foundation for success in more ways than one.
You see, each time that young man caught bricks, he was not only making his hands stronger, he was building character and the foundation for success in his later years. With each brick he caught, he was even more determined to be successful in life. When he wasn’t helping his father and going to school, he was pushing himself through football workouts to be better than any other football player. You see the young man's name is Jerry Rice, and he went on to become the most successful NFL All-Pro wide receiver of all time with the San Francisco 49ers. Some of you
non-football fans may know him as a contestant from the television program, “Dancing with the Stars.”
The following are the six success secrets that Jerry Rice used that can easily motivate you to achieve success in any aspect of your business, career, and life:
1. Motivate Yourself to See Opportunities in Every Challenge –
Jerry could have looked at the job of catching bricks as a chore that was a waste of his time. But he saw the big picture and made the chore more enjoyable by developing games out of the activities. Many times in life, we are thrown bricks and complain and miss the opportunity it presents to us. The person who can find solutions in the challenges they are faced with can write their own ticket for success. When you take on a challenge, it’s preparing you for an opportunity in the future. You may not know when the opportunity is coming, how it is coming, or what the opportunity will look like, but it is coming; and will you be prepared? Embrace your challenges so you will be prepared.
2. Motivate Yourself to See That It’s Normal to Experience a Little Pain –
As Jerry was experiencing the pain of catching bricks each day, this pain was actually building him to becoming a stronger person. Each brick was fueling Jerry’s internal desire to be successful. Think of some situation at work, in business, or in life that was painful. Your pain may be an embarrassing moment, it may be a learning experience, and it may be a setback. How can you use this setback to motivate you to become more successful? We achieve success in our businesses, careers, and life when we develop the success tools of using our “pains” as a learning experience and a springboard to success.
3. Motivate Yourself to Take on Unpopular Tasks –
Catching bricks all day is not the most glamorous job in the world. Many times we are thrown bricks in life and avoid them like the plague. Volunteer to catch these bricks while others decline. This will allow people of influence to see your special skills and offer you opportunities for success. It is what I always say, “It’s not what you know, it’s not who you know, it’s who knows what you know.” When you volunteer to catch those bricks, you allow others to now know and see the special skills and talent you exhibit.
4. Motivate Yourself To Take Action –
Just the simple act of taking action will make you more successful than 98% of other people. Many times people are waiting for “just the right moment” or “more resources.” Motivate yourself to take action where you are at today and make the appropriate corrections as needed.
5. Motivate Yourself to Go the Extra Mile –
Jerry Rice’s off-season personal football workouts were legendary. He would train six days a week running five miles, along with running wind sprints up the steepest mountains in his community. He didn’t need to do this grueling workout, but he wanted to be in better physical shape than any other professional football player. He went the extra mile to be the best.
What are you doing to go the extra mile? Do you have a continuous learning program in place? Do you give of yourself to make your employees better? Do you give your clients something extra to show appreciation of their business? These are all opportunities to put you above the rest and to succeed in your business, in your career, and in your life.
6. Motivate Yourself to Create a Masterpiece –
Jerry Rice wanted to be the best professional wide receiver ever in football, and he achieved that title. He was motivated to pay the price to achieve that goal.
Are you motivated and ready to create a masterpiece? Do you have a vision of what your business, career, or life masterpiece looks, feels, or sounds like? Are you willing to sustain the quality effort, attitude, and determination to create your masterpiece? What are you willing to give up in order to achieve your masterpiece? Until you are ready to answer these questions, you can’t lay the foundation forachieving your masterpiece.
After you answer the above questions, create S-M-A-R-T-E-R goals as your roadmap for success. If it’s not on paper, your goals don’t exist. Be motivated to create, write, and act on your goals.
Follow these six success secrets and you, too, will be motivated to lay the foundation for your success.
- By Ed Sykes
Monday, July 14, 2008
Great Message of Swami Vivekananda
When I Asked God for Strength
He Gave Me Difficult Situations to Face
When I Asked God for Brain & Brown
He Gave Me Puzzles in life to Solve
When I Asked God for Happiness
He Showed Me Some Unhappy People
When I Asked God for Wealth
He Showed Me How to Work Hard
When I Asked God for Favors
He Showed Me opportunities to Work Hard
When I Asked God for Peace
He Showed Me How to Help Others
God Gave Me Nothing I Wanted
He Gave Me Everything I Needed
- Swami Vivekananda
He Gave Me Difficult Situations to Face
When I Asked God for Brain & Brown
He Gave Me Puzzles in life to Solve
When I Asked God for Happiness
He Showed Me Some Unhappy People
When I Asked God for Wealth
He Showed Me How to Work Hard
When I Asked God for Favors
He Showed Me opportunities to Work Hard
When I Asked God for Peace
He Showed Me How to Help Others
God Gave Me Nothing I Wanted
He Gave Me Everything I Needed
- Swami Vivekananda
Saturday, July 12, 2008
How to Be New and Different
The year 1993 wasn't shaping up to be the best year of my life. I was into my eighth year as a single parent, had three kids in college, my unmarried daughter had just given birth to my first grandchild and I was about to break up with a very nice man I'd dated for over two years. Faced with all this, I was spending lots of time feeling sorry for myself.
That April, I was asked to interview and write about a woman who lived in a small town in Minnesota. So during Easter vacation, Andrew, my thirteen-year- old, and I drove across two states to meet Jan Turner.
Andrew dozed most of the way during the long drive, but every once in a while I'd start a conversation.
"She's handicapped, you know."
"So what's wrong with her? Does she have a disease?"
"I don't think so. But for some reason, she had to have both arms and legs amputated."
"Wow. How does she get around?"
"I'm not sure. We'll see when we get there."
"Does she have any kids?"
"Two boys - Tyler and Cody - both adopted. She's a single parent, too. Only she's never been married."
"So what happened to her?"
"Four years ago Jan was just like me, a busy single mother. She was a full-time music teacher at a grade school and taught all sorts of musical instruments. She was also the music director at her church."
Andrew fell asleep again before I could finish telling him what little I did know about what had happened to Jan. As I drove across Minnesota, I began to wonder how the woman I was about to meet could cope with such devastating news that all four limbs had to be amputated. How did she learn to survive? Did she have live-in help?
When we arrived in Willmar, Minnesota, I called Jan from our hotel to tell her that I could come to her house and pick her and the boys up, so they could swim at our hotel while we talked.
"That's okay, Pat, I can drive. The boys and I will be there in ten minutes. Would you like to go out to eat first? There's a Ponderosa close to your hotel."
"Sure, that'll be fine," I said haltingly, wondering what it would be like to eat in a public restaurant with a woman who had no arms or legs. And how on earth does she drive? I wondered.
Ten minutes later, Jan pulled up in front of the hotel. She got out of the car, walked over to me with perfect posture on legs and feet that looked every bit as real as mine, and extended her right arm with its shiny hook on the end to shake my hand. "Hello, Pat, I'm sure glad to meet you. And this must be Andrew."
I grabbed her hook, pumped it a bit and smiled sheepishly. "Uh, yes, this is Andrew." I looked in the back seat of her car and smiled at the two boys who grinned back. Cody, the younger one, was practically effervescent at the thought of going swimming in the hotel pool after dinner.
Jan bubbled as she slid back behind the driver's seat, "So hop in. Cody, move over and make room for Andrew."
We arrived at the restaurant, went through the line, paid for our food, and ate and talked amidst the chattering of our three sons. The only thing I had to do for Jan Turner that entire evening was unscrew the top on the ketchup bottle.
Later that night, as our three sons splashed in the pool, Jan and I sat on the side and she told me about life before her illness.
"We were a typical single-parent family. You know, busy all the time. Life was so good, in fact that I was seriously thinking about adopting a third child."
My conscience stung. I had to face it - the woman next to me was better at single parenting than I ever thought about being.
Jan continued. "One Sunday in November of 1989, I was playing my trumpet at the front of my church when I suddenly felt weak, dizzy and nauseous. I struggled down the aisle, motioned for the boys to follow me and drove home. I crawled into bed, but by evening I knew I had to get help."
Jan then explained that by the time she arrived at the hospital, she was comatose. Her blood pressure had dropped so much that her body was already shutting down. She had pneumococcal pneumonia, the same bacterial infection that took the life of Muppets creator Jim Henson. One of its disastrous side effects is an activation of the body's clotting system, which causes the blood vessels to plug up. Because there was suddenly no blood flow to her hands or feet, she quickly developed gangrene in all four extremities. Two weeks after being admitted to the hospital, Jan's arms had to be amputated at mid-forearm and her legs at mid-shin.
Just before the surgery, she said she cried out, "Oh God, no! How can I live without arms and legs, feet or hands? Never walk again? Never play the trumpet, guitar, piano or any of the instruments I teach? I'll never be able to hug my sons or take care of them. Oh God, don't let me depend on others for the rest of my life!"
Six weeks after the amputations as her dangling limbs healed, a doctor talked to Jan about prosthetics. She said Jan could learn to walk, drive a car, go back to school, even go back to teaching.
Jan found that hard to believe so she picked up her Bible. It fell open to Romans, chapter twelve, verse two: "Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but be a new and different person with a fresh newness in all you do and think. Then you will learn from your own experience how his ways will really satisfy you."
Jan thought about that - about being a new and different person - and she decided to give the prosthetics a try. With a walker strapped onto her forearms near the elbow and a therapist on either side, she could only wobble on her new legs for two to three minutes before she collapsed in exhaustion and pain. Take it slowly, Jan said to herself. Be a new person in all that you do and think, but take it one step at a time.
The next day she tried on the prosthetic arms, a crude system of cables, rubber bands and hooks operated by a harness across the shoulders. By moving her shoulder muscles she was soon able to open and close the hooks to pick up and hold objects, and dress and feed herself. Within a few months, Jan learned she could do almost everything she used to do - only in a new and different way.
"Still, when I finally got to go home after four months of physical and occupational therapy, I was so nervous about what life would be like with my boys and me alone in the house. But when I got there, I got out of the car, walked up the steps to our house, hugged my boys with all my might, and we haven't looked back since."
As Jan and I continued to talk, Cody, who'd climbed out of the hotel pool, stood close to his mom with his arm around her shoulders. As she told me about her newly improved cooking skills, Cody grinned. "Yup," he said, "she's a better mom now than before she got sick, because now she can even flip pancakes!" Jan laughed like a woman who is blessed with tremendous happiness, contentment and unswerving faith in God.
Since our visit, Jan has completed a second college degree, this one in communications, and she is now an announcer for the local radio station. She also studied theology and has been ordained as the children's pastor at her church, the Triumphant Life Church in Willmar. Simply put, Jan says, "I'm a new and different person, triumphant because of God's unending love and wisdom."
After meeting Jan, I was a new and different person as well. I learned to praise God for everything in my life that makes me new and different, whether it's struggling through one more part-time job to keep my kids in college, learning to be a grandmother for the first time or having the courage to end a relationship with a wonderful friend who just wasn't the right one for me.
Jan may not have real flesh-and-blood arms, legs, hands or feet, but that woman has more heart and soul than anyone I've ever met before or since. She taught me to grab on to every "new and different" thing that comes into my life with all the gusto I can muster . . . to live my life triumphantly.
That April, I was asked to interview and write about a woman who lived in a small town in Minnesota. So during Easter vacation, Andrew, my thirteen-year- old, and I drove across two states to meet Jan Turner.
Andrew dozed most of the way during the long drive, but every once in a while I'd start a conversation.
"She's handicapped, you know."
"So what's wrong with her? Does she have a disease?"
"I don't think so. But for some reason, she had to have both arms and legs amputated."
"Wow. How does she get around?"
"I'm not sure. We'll see when we get there."
"Does she have any kids?"
"Two boys - Tyler and Cody - both adopted. She's a single parent, too. Only she's never been married."
"So what happened to her?"
"Four years ago Jan was just like me, a busy single mother. She was a full-time music teacher at a grade school and taught all sorts of musical instruments. She was also the music director at her church."
Andrew fell asleep again before I could finish telling him what little I did know about what had happened to Jan. As I drove across Minnesota, I began to wonder how the woman I was about to meet could cope with such devastating news that all four limbs had to be amputated. How did she learn to survive? Did she have live-in help?
When we arrived in Willmar, Minnesota, I called Jan from our hotel to tell her that I could come to her house and pick her and the boys up, so they could swim at our hotel while we talked.
"That's okay, Pat, I can drive. The boys and I will be there in ten minutes. Would you like to go out to eat first? There's a Ponderosa close to your hotel."
"Sure, that'll be fine," I said haltingly, wondering what it would be like to eat in a public restaurant with a woman who had no arms or legs. And how on earth does she drive? I wondered.
Ten minutes later, Jan pulled up in front of the hotel. She got out of the car, walked over to me with perfect posture on legs and feet that looked every bit as real as mine, and extended her right arm with its shiny hook on the end to shake my hand. "Hello, Pat, I'm sure glad to meet you. And this must be Andrew."
I grabbed her hook, pumped it a bit and smiled sheepishly. "Uh, yes, this is Andrew." I looked in the back seat of her car and smiled at the two boys who grinned back. Cody, the younger one, was practically effervescent at the thought of going swimming in the hotel pool after dinner.
Jan bubbled as she slid back behind the driver's seat, "So hop in. Cody, move over and make room for Andrew."
We arrived at the restaurant, went through the line, paid for our food, and ate and talked amidst the chattering of our three sons. The only thing I had to do for Jan Turner that entire evening was unscrew the top on the ketchup bottle.
Later that night, as our three sons splashed in the pool, Jan and I sat on the side and she told me about life before her illness.
"We were a typical single-parent family. You know, busy all the time. Life was so good, in fact that I was seriously thinking about adopting a third child."
My conscience stung. I had to face it - the woman next to me was better at single parenting than I ever thought about being.
Jan continued. "One Sunday in November of 1989, I was playing my trumpet at the front of my church when I suddenly felt weak, dizzy and nauseous. I struggled down the aisle, motioned for the boys to follow me and drove home. I crawled into bed, but by evening I knew I had to get help."
Jan then explained that by the time she arrived at the hospital, she was comatose. Her blood pressure had dropped so much that her body was already shutting down. She had pneumococcal pneumonia, the same bacterial infection that took the life of Muppets creator Jim Henson. One of its disastrous side effects is an activation of the body's clotting system, which causes the blood vessels to plug up. Because there was suddenly no blood flow to her hands or feet, she quickly developed gangrene in all four extremities. Two weeks after being admitted to the hospital, Jan's arms had to be amputated at mid-forearm and her legs at mid-shin.
Just before the surgery, she said she cried out, "Oh God, no! How can I live without arms and legs, feet or hands? Never walk again? Never play the trumpet, guitar, piano or any of the instruments I teach? I'll never be able to hug my sons or take care of them. Oh God, don't let me depend on others for the rest of my life!"
Six weeks after the amputations as her dangling limbs healed, a doctor talked to Jan about prosthetics. She said Jan could learn to walk, drive a car, go back to school, even go back to teaching.
Jan found that hard to believe so she picked up her Bible. It fell open to Romans, chapter twelve, verse two: "Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but be a new and different person with a fresh newness in all you do and think. Then you will learn from your own experience how his ways will really satisfy you."
Jan thought about that - about being a new and different person - and she decided to give the prosthetics a try. With a walker strapped onto her forearms near the elbow and a therapist on either side, she could only wobble on her new legs for two to three minutes before she collapsed in exhaustion and pain. Take it slowly, Jan said to herself. Be a new person in all that you do and think, but take it one step at a time.
The next day she tried on the prosthetic arms, a crude system of cables, rubber bands and hooks operated by a harness across the shoulders. By moving her shoulder muscles she was soon able to open and close the hooks to pick up and hold objects, and dress and feed herself. Within a few months, Jan learned she could do almost everything she used to do - only in a new and different way.
"Still, when I finally got to go home after four months of physical and occupational therapy, I was so nervous about what life would be like with my boys and me alone in the house. But when I got there, I got out of the car, walked up the steps to our house, hugged my boys with all my might, and we haven't looked back since."
As Jan and I continued to talk, Cody, who'd climbed out of the hotel pool, stood close to his mom with his arm around her shoulders. As she told me about her newly improved cooking skills, Cody grinned. "Yup," he said, "she's a better mom now than before she got sick, because now she can even flip pancakes!" Jan laughed like a woman who is blessed with tremendous happiness, contentment and unswerving faith in God.
Since our visit, Jan has completed a second college degree, this one in communications, and she is now an announcer for the local radio station. She also studied theology and has been ordained as the children's pastor at her church, the Triumphant Life Church in Willmar. Simply put, Jan says, "I'm a new and different person, triumphant because of God's unending love and wisdom."
After meeting Jan, I was a new and different person as well. I learned to praise God for everything in my life that makes me new and different, whether it's struggling through one more part-time job to keep my kids in college, learning to be a grandmother for the first time or having the courage to end a relationship with a wonderful friend who just wasn't the right one for me.
Jan may not have real flesh-and-blood arms, legs, hands or feet, but that woman has more heart and soul than anyone I've ever met before or since. She taught me to grab on to every "new and different" thing that comes into my life with all the gusto I can muster . . . to live my life triumphantly.
- By Patricia Lorenz
Friday, July 11, 2008
Good Morning, I Love You!
When I speak, I tell my audiences, "As you get out of bed each morning and stumble into the bathroom, jump-start each day with a positive attitude. Look in the mirror and say, 'Good Morning. I love you. We're going to have a great day!'"
Jill implemented this plan at home when their Sunday scramble to church had become a war. It was a fight to get her family out of bed and dressed. Yet, despite all her raving and ranting, they always arrived late, surrounded by an angry cloud of silence.
One Sunday, she tried her new affirmation. She stood over her husband's side of the bed and whispered in his ear, "Good Morning. I love you! We're going to have a great day!"
Dan opened one eye and said, "What? Are you crazy?"
She just smiled and went across the hallway to their five-year-old son's bedroom. She opened the door and repeated the greeting. Jeff rolled over and said, "You're wrong, Mom. We're going to have a bad day!"
She smiled again and went across the hallway to check on Dan. She couldn't believe it. He was already up, dressing!
She trotted back to Jeff's room. To her surprise he too was out of bed, putting on his clothes!
That Sunday was the first in a month of Sundays they arrived at church on time and still liking one another.
So Jill turned this greeting into a morning ritual. She had been especially worried about her five-year-old' s negative attitude. Each morning, she woke Jeff with her new greeting, and each morning, he gave her some sort of a cynical retort.
Her worries ended when one morning, she opened his bedroom door and before she could speak, Jeff looked up at her with his big brown eyes and said, "Good Morning. I love you, Mom. We're going to have a great day!"
- By Margie Seyfer
Jill implemented this plan at home when their Sunday scramble to church had become a war. It was a fight to get her family out of bed and dressed. Yet, despite all her raving and ranting, they always arrived late, surrounded by an angry cloud of silence.
One Sunday, she tried her new affirmation. She stood over her husband's side of the bed and whispered in his ear, "Good Morning. I love you! We're going to have a great day!"
Dan opened one eye and said, "What? Are you crazy?"
She just smiled and went across the hallway to their five-year-old son's bedroom. She opened the door and repeated the greeting. Jeff rolled over and said, "You're wrong, Mom. We're going to have a bad day!"
She smiled again and went across the hallway to check on Dan. She couldn't believe it. He was already up, dressing!
She trotted back to Jeff's room. To her surprise he too was out of bed, putting on his clothes!
That Sunday was the first in a month of Sundays they arrived at church on time and still liking one another.
So Jill turned this greeting into a morning ritual. She had been especially worried about her five-year-old' s negative attitude. Each morning, she woke Jeff with her new greeting, and each morning, he gave her some sort of a cynical retort.
Her worries ended when one morning, she opened his bedroom door and before she could speak, Jeff looked up at her with his big brown eyes and said, "Good Morning. I love you, Mom. We're going to have a great day!"
- By Margie Seyfer
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