Be Happy....regardless! It is a choice!

The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance; the wise grows it under his feet.
- J. Robert Oppenheimer

A happy life consists not in the absence, but in the mastery of hardships.
- Helen Keller

Do yourself a favor!

Today try to focus on your blessings instead of your hardships.

It is so easy to get caught in a negative spiral of despair and anxiety, but choose to combat that urge by proactively focusing on what you have in your life today!  Write them down and re-read them as often as possible!! 

We can endure hardships, heartache, and any challenge if we practice this daily!

Have faith and believe that you are right where you are supposed to be at this moment and understand life is cyclical....this too shall pass!!!

Stay Strong!!

Will you be the spark for someone else today?

"At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us."
- Albert Schweitzer

Remember today and going forward that YOU already possess tremendous powers beyond what you really think you possess!

These powers hold in you the ability to change, influence, and increase the quality of other people's lives. You do it daily without knowing, sometimes negatively and other times positively, but you can be the spark that lights others burned out wick of life!!!

Think about the power you have to make such an impact!!

Others need you to spark them, to give them the vision, hope, encouragement and support to carry them through the day, the week, the month, etc.

Be sensitive of this power you possess and use it wantonly and unsparingly today.

No matter what is on the surface of what you see in the person across from you, everyone can use that spark!!!  Do not assume someone is not desperately, albeit quietly praying for one!

Wield it!!!!

Stay Strong!!

The importance and pervasiveness of love

"Love lays siege to each being and seeks to discover an opening, a path leading into the heart, by means of which love can permeate everywhere.

The difference between the sinner and the saint is that the sinner closes his heart to love while the saint opens himself to this same love.

In both cases the love is the same and the pressure is the same."

—Lev Gillet, The Burning Bush, (Springfield IL: Templegate, 1976), pp. 12-1

Seven Steps for Stress Free Living...

How to Live a Stress-Free Life: 7 Tips for Stress-Free Living
http://www.how-to-self.com/stress/stress-free-living.php

Stay Strong!

Strength

Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.
- Mohandas Gandhi

Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves.
- Marie Curie

Sage Advice from a Courageous man

A friend of mine, Jim Griffin, passed away Sunday at the tragically young age of 47, leaving behind two beautiful young daughters and a lovely wife.

He also left behind an amazing legacy as a High School Counselor and Coach over the past decades and more, positively effecting thousands of young lives with his attitude, lessons, and wisdom.

The Principal of Jim's High School wrote a wonderful letter to the community about Jim's rare character and his passing, and passed in some terrific advice that Jim had given him upon learning of his grim prognosis of pancreatic cancer.

I have copied the letter below for you to read. Please do.

Jim accomplished so much in his short 47 years through his dedication to so many young minds and he will truly be missed by all who were blessed to have known him.

Please pray for his family's peace, strength, and healing during this terrible time.

And please remember and take to heart his words to not waste a single minute of our lives, and to not take anything for granted as life can truly change in an instant!

Stay Strong and God Bless!

http://wayland.patch.com/articles/principal-tutwiler-comment-on-death-of-wayland-high-counselor

Principal Tutwiler: Comment on Death of Wayland High Counselor

Jim Griffin, longtime Wayland High School counselor, passed away Sunday after a battle with cancer. By Brooklyn Lowery | January 16, 2012

Wayland High School Principal Pat Tutwiler provided the note below.

It is with deep regret that I write to inform you that our dear friend and colleague, Jim Griffin, passed away on Sunday morning after his valiant battle with cancer. For his colleagues and friends here at Wayland High School, there are no words that can describe our profound sadness at hearing this news. Given the enormous impact Jim has had on the lives of students and the wonderful relationships he developed and nourished over the years with parents and other members in the Wayland community, I know this news will be equally as devastating to all who read this letter.

Please know that we have organized the appropriate resources for your children and we are prepared to support them in partnership with you. Wayland Public Schools counselors, Wayland Youth and Family Services, and Human Relations Services have all volunteered to help us support students and faculty through this difficult time. Given Jim's role in the WHS Guidance Department for so many years, members of that department may not be readily available over the next few days. Nonetheless, there will be plenty of support through our WPS colleagues and outside partners. We realize that, for many students, the best support vehicle is a normal school day. Accordingly, classes will be held as scheduled. Students who require support should report to the Guidance/Main Office suite.

I ask that you keep Jim's family foremost in your thoughts. I continue to have the deepest confidence that if there is a community that can come together in a time of loss such as this, to support those in need and to supporteach other, it is the Wayland community.

I am equally confident that Jim's legacy as an educator, mentor, and friend will live on through the countless achievements of our young people and through the Wayland community, which was so fortunate to have been the community to which Jim decided to contribute his talents and his time.

When Jim delivered the difficult news of his sickness to me back in the fall, even then, he was selfless enough to extend a piece of advice to me, not as a principal or an educator but as a man, as a father.

It was this: don't waste a minute; don't take anything in your life for granted because life can change in an instant. Even at his darkest moment, Jim never stopped giving guidance. I share this advice with you now because I know that Jim would have shared it with you all if he could.

As a community and family, let's honor Jim and live that advice.

Best, Pat

If you are interested in contributing to the Jim Griffin Family Support Trust, please send your donation to:

Jim Griffin Family Support Trust c/o Middlesex Savings Bank 150 Commonwealth Road Wayland, MA 01778

If your world is falling apart....

"The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best."
- Epictetus

What To Do When Your Whole World Is Falling Apart? 6 Support Ideas To Stop Anxiety and Give You Back Your Life

http://www.quotes-daily.com/2009/02/what-to-do-when-your-whole-world-is.html

Happy Birthday Ben Franklin and Gertrude Flaherty!!!

"Search others for their virtues, thyself for thy vices."
- Benjamin Franklin

Life....

"I bargained with Life for a penny, And Life would pay no more, However I begged at evening When I counted my scanty store.

For Life is a just employer, He gives you what you ask,
But once you have set the wages, Why, you must bear the task.

I worked for a menial's hire, Only to learn, dismayed,
That any wage I had asked of Life, Life would have willingly paid."

That's it... 14 lines, 72 words... it's just called "Life."

How many people go through life only to find at the end that they could have had it all... more time, more money, more health... more good things instead of so much struggle, stress and strife.*

Seize your day and take all the necessary risks to chase your dream!  Do not be afraid to go after and EXPECT to receive whatever it is that you desire!  It can all be yours if you BELIEVE it and expect results from your efforts!  Life is short and can be all you want it to be - if you have the FAITH!

Stay Strong!!

* courtesy of John Assaraf.

Helping others...Happy MLK Day

"Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'"
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

The whole picture...

"There are many windows through which we can look out into the world, searching for meaning …

…Most of us, when we ponder on the meaning of our existence, peer through but one of these windows onto the world. And even that one is often misted over by the breath of our finite humanity.

We clear a tiny peephole and stare through.

No wonder we are confused by the tiny fraction of a whole that we see.

It is, after all, like trying to comprehend the panorama of the desert or the sea through a rolled-up newspaper."

—Jane Goodall, Primatologist/Anthropologist (1924-).

Photo: DSF sunrise over Long Island, today 1/13/12

The Prayer of St. Teresa

Thanks,Lizzy! ;)

The Prayer of St. Teresa

May today there be peace within.

May you trust your highest power that you are exactly where you are meant to be.

May you not forget the infinity possibilities that are born of FAITH.

May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass
on the love that has been given to you.

May you be content knowing you are a child of God.

Let this presence settle into our bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love.

It is there for each and every one of you.

Stay Strong

Master your own self....

"We all go through life bristling at our external limitations, but the most difficult chains to break are inside us."
- Bradley Whitford

One's purpose in life....to be of benefit to others!

"If one sees that the purpose of one's life is to be of benefit to others, and from the depths of one's heart there is a real sense of dedication of one's entire life for the benefit of other sentient beings, and that kind of strong courage and principle – for that kind of person, then time doesn't seem to matter much.

Whether or not that person becomes enlightened, as far as he or she is concerned, it doesn't make any difference, because the purpose of existence is to be of benefit to others, and if the person is able to be of service to others, then that person is really able to fulfill his or her true purpose.

Such is the kind of courage and determination to altruistic principles that bodhisattvas should adopt."

—The Dalai Lama in a talk at UCLA in 1997 in reference to a passage in Nagarjuna's Precious Garland that deals with feeling discouraged over the length of time required to become "enlightened.

The Solution ....

Life's most urgent question is: what are you doing for others?
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

One thing I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve.
- Albert Schweitzer

What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult for each other?
- George Eliot

Overcome Fear

"Thinking will not overcome fear but action will."
- W. Clement Stone

Planting Seeds of Success...Persevere!!

"Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds that you plant."
  - Robert Louis Stevenson

"Gardening is all about optimism. I put a seed in the ground. I consistently tend it, confident I will see the results, in time, of the nurture I have provided."
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Start today and 2012 with a positive, invincible attitude of success, peace, joy and love!!! 

Because whatever you want to accomplish in 2012 and beyond..no matter what...it will be yours!!! 

Just believe, visualize it, and take action! The rest is sticking with your goals until you reach them!!!

Stay Strong!!!

Happy New Year!!!!

"In the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years."
- Abraham Lincoln

May the Lord grant all of us peace, love, joy and happiness for all of 2012 and beyond. Let us count our blessings and live each day as if it were our last! 

Stay Strong!!