Stay Strong

Will you be the spark for someone else today?

2012-01-29T11:40:00.001-05:00

"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

2012-01-27T19:58:00.001-05:00

"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...

2012-01-26T06:46:00.001-05:00

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

2012-01-22T08:55:00.001-05:00

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

2012-01-19T12:21:00.001-05:00

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....

2012-01-18T07:41:00.001-05:00

"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!!!

2012-01-17T09:18:00.001-05:00

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

Life....

2012-01-16T17:47:00.001-05:00

"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

2012-01-16T09:04:00.001-05:00

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

The whole picture...

2012-01-13T08:02:00.001-05:00

"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

2012-01-12T10:43:00.000-05:00

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....

2012-01-12T06:42:00.001-05:00

"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!

2012-01-07T17:16:00.001-05:00

"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 ....

2012-01-06T08:11:00.001-05:00

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

2012-01-04T09:33:00.001-05:00

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

Planting Seeds of Success...Persevere!!

2012-01-03T08:41:00.001-05:00

"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!!!!

2012-01-01T09:57:00.001-05:00

"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!!

Happy New Year!

2011-12-31T12:07:00.001-05:00

Although this is not Thanksgiving, it is the perfect time of year to take stock in our lives, give thanks for all the many blessings we enjoy (hidden ones and the ones we take for granted especially) and pray for those in need of strength, healing, joy, peace and love this coming year!

Happy and Blessed New Year to all of you!

"We return thanks to our mother, the earth, which sustains us.
We return thanks to the rivers and streams which supply us with water.
We return thanks to all herbs, which furnish medicines for the cure of our diseases.
We return thanks to the corn, and to her sisters, the beans and squashes, which give us life. ...

We return thanks to the sun, that he has looked upon the earth with a beneficent eye.

Lastly, we return thanks to the Great Spirit, in whom is embodied all goodness, and who directs all things for the good of his children."

- Iroquois traditional

It all starts with a thought...

2011-12-30T07:46:00.000-05:00

"Watch your thoughts, for they become words.
Watch your words, for they become actions.
Watch your actions, for they become habits.
Watch your habits, for they become character.
Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.
- Anonymous

Perception

2011-12-29T15:24:00.001-05:00

"We can always choose to perceive things differently.

You can focus on what's wrong in your life, or you can focus on what's right."
- Marianne Williamson

Merry Christmas!!!

2011-12-25T09:10:00.001-05:00

May you have the gladness of Christmas which is hope;

The spirit of Christmas which is peace;

The heart of Christmas which is love.

- Ada V. Hendricks

Merry Christmas!!!

2011-12-25T08:49:00.001-05:00

Another Christmas is upon us and it is hard to believe!!

What a magnificent time of year on many different levels and what a terrific time for self-reflection!!

All of us, no matter our station in life, are burdened with our own issues, problems, challenges, crisis', and reasons to have a woe-is-me attitude.

I do not care who you are or where you are in your life, we all have our crosses to bear daily and we all find out own reasons to curse life and despair.

Despite this, we must and in fact owe it to ourselves take the time this weekend to really reflect and identify the many many blessings we have in our lives!!

And we are all beyond Blessed!!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Whatever you are doing today enjoy the gift of life, remember the true meaning of Christmas, and take a second to give thanks for all we have been given!

God Bless and Stay Strong!

I am with you still..

2011-12-21T15:10:00.001-05:00

I am with you still..

2011-12-21T15:05:00.001-05:00

Change

2011-12-17T11:45:00.001-05:00

"At all times and under all circumstances, we have the power to transform the quality of our lives."
- Werner Erhard

Kindness knocks

2011-12-14T08:22:00.001-05:00

"The holiday season promotes a heightened sense of community. It draws our chins up and helps us look above and over the limiting fence of our own events, activities and preoccupations. The opportunity for a heroic gesture can tap you quietly on the shoulder in the midst of a holiday bustle.

If you are attentive, you will notice the gentle touch and will be able to respond.

Remember... There are no small acts of kindness.

Every compassionate act makes large the world.

- Mary Anne Radmacher

Perspective....Seize today!

2011-12-13T13:57:00.001-05:00

"The question is not what you look at, but what you see."
- Henry David Thoreau

"Look at everything as though you were seeing it either for the first or last time. Then your time on earth will be filled with glory."
- Betty Smith

Happiness and Joy in our lives is truly in our control and a lot of it depends on our outlook, faith and perspective on our purpose here on earth.

The quotes above are such great reminders of this control.

The second quote really rings true to me.

I will always remember my Dad's last few weeks on earth and specifically taking my Dad, at that point in a wheelchair, around in the car to spots he loved on Cape Cod - the beach especially. He looked at these sights, for the last time as it turned out, that we take for granted with such perspective and value as he knew he may not see the ocean or sunset again.

We must look at each and every day as a GIFT because it is and we may never know when our time to move on is upon us until it is too late.

Put petty differences aside and love one another as though your time is at hand, it will certainly improve the quality of all of our lives regardless!

Stay Strong!

Do Not Surrender!!!

2011-12-12T08:05:00.001-05:00

"Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.

My optimism, then, does not rest on the absence of evil, but on a glad belief in the preponderance of good and a willing effort always to cooperate with the good, that it may prevail."
- Helen Keller

"Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome."
- Booker T. Washington

This too shall pass and make us stronger!!

2011-12-11T10:00:00.001-05:00

"We shall draw from the heart of suffering itself the means of inspiration and survival."

- Winston Churchill

"One who gains strength by overcoming obstacles possesses the ONLY strength which can overcome adversity."

- Albert Schweitzer

We are all works in progress... Be Patient!

2011-12-10T11:42:00.001-05:00

"Keep in mind that our community is not composed of those who are already saints, but of those who are trying to become saints. Therefore, let us be extremely patient with each other's faults and failures."

—Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Brendan and The Invitation

2011-12-09T07:25:00.001-05:00

I had seen this poem a few weeks back and it was very very moving but also, even back then before he passed from this earth, it reminded me so much of Brendan.

To me this hits on what B knew to be the true measure of a man, a man's true worth and soul, and also reminded me of any conversation I had with him. He really did want to know these things about our inner desires and character and scoffed at the other petty ridiculous things in life that people love to talk about.

To me the "see Beauty" line was penned with his very own hand..

I hope you can read it all and enjoy it.

If the spirit of Brendan does not lift you up and grab you during this I would be amazed. ;)

God bless and Stay Strong..

The Invitation by Oriah

It doesn't interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing.

It doesn't interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love for your dream for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon... I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow if you have been opened by life's betrayals or have become shrivelled and closed from fear of further pain.

I want to know if you can sit with pain,mine or your own, without moving to hide it or fade it or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own, if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful to be realistic to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself.

If you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul.

If you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see Beauty even when it is not pretty every day. And if you can source your own life from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure yours and mine and still stand at the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, "Yes."

It doesn't interest me to know where you live or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up after the night of grief and despair weary and bruised to the bone and do what needs to be done to feed the children.

It doesn't interest me who you know or how you came to be here. I want to know if you will stand in the centre of the fire with me and not shrink back.

It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.

Kindness is all that matters

2011-12-09T06:52:00.003-05:00

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

Immaculate Conception

2011-12-08T19:42:00.001-05:00

An amazing event celebrated today and an enduring and shining example of following the Lord's Will even when it does not make sense in our earthly world!

Say one Hail Mary.

God Bless and Stay Strong!

Lessons learned from Brendan O'Toole

2011-12-06T11:59:00.002-05:00

Sorry for such a long post, but you cannot write about someone like Brendan O'Toole in a few simple paragraphs. ;).

It may be best to read in installments if at all... Lol...

Wow!! What an emotional roller-coaster of a week to say the least.
Brendan's sudden and tragic departure from this earth hit me like a ton of bricks across the nose and although I loved and cared for Brendan, I could not lay claim to being as intimately close to him as obviously his immediate family and close friends were.

Still, the news of his death still reverberates into my very core. I am still besieged with feelings of profound sadness, regret, anger, confusion, helplessness, hopelessness, despair, hope, love, and inspiration!!

All at once at times, and independently during the day at other times. It is chaotic and surreal.

My feelings today are much like what having a deep conversation with Brendan brought forth in me, and many others it appears. It ran the gamut of emotions and as I believe his brother Tim remarked to the effect, a conversation with Brendan was so comprehensive, so intense, it left you exhausted but totally fulfilled. His energy could not be matched, his passion could not be surpassed! You never left a conversation with Bren wanting or needing more at that time.

But, sadly, we all surely want more now.

Spending time with Brendan was entertaining, amusing, and fun but above all, it was always educational.

His depth of knowledge on so many topics was dizzying and this encyclopedic intellect, combined with his raw passion and his pure love of living made for a rare, unique and tremendous human being and soul!

He touched so many lives, so many people, and truly helped people by saving lives.

He was trained as an EMT, but amazingly he saved more lives as a Pedicab transportation engineer and through his leadership and compassion displayed with his brethren at Midnight Madness, than he did in an ambulance.

He was truly doing God's work on the tough, mean streets of Manhattan on a daily basis and there are undoubtedly thousands of souls touched by his energy and compassion that we will never have the joy of hearing about.

And maybe that is for the best, at least it is the way Brendan would probably prefer it to be.

People who may or may not have even known his name but were surely, as all who met him were, swept up in the BTO vortex of positive energy and passion and inspiration as he yelled out their name, pumped his fist, stopped to chat and listen to them, or helped them with whatever they were doing.

The coffee or bagel guy, local shopkeepers, street vendors, politicians - no one was immune or escaped his humor, wit, and energy field! And no one forgot him!

Tireless, endless, passionate work helping others in need, not for the praise or glory, but because it was the right thing to do - and he just did it quietly, anonymously, and with nothing but the goal of making others' lives better.

Is there a better example of what my son Thomas said of his Uncle Brendan through sobs upon hearing how he was mistreated at the hospital when he crawled into the waiting room - "Brendan is like a modern day Jesus"... High praise from the mouth of babes.

And as we hear more and more from the people who worked and saw him on a daily basis, he truly was a modern day Jesus and Mother Teresa and Saint Theresa wrapped into one ball of love, passion, fury and energy!!!

He gave and gave and gave, helped ALL in need regardless of who they were or what they needed, all because of his tremendously huge heart and because he knew to do the right thing!

He could not do otherwise!!

As long as I knew him, Brendan was always a "blow in and blow out" type of guy. He was always heading somewhere or just coming from something and despite this lifestyle, as Tiffany said, you never questioned his presence and his place in the family. You always knew he stood ready to jump to your assistance at the drop of a hat! He had all of our backs...continuously!

As he displayed with our niece Fallon when he would either sneak in or talk his way into the hospital after a night of work to stay overnight with her and Lizzy in those darkest hours of her illness - a steady rock of support and love in the toughest times was what we all came to know and expect of Brendan.

You did not need to see him daily to have 100% confidence that when someone - anyone - needed help or assistance or defense that Brendan would be the first on the scene, throwing the full brunt of his passion and compassion into the solution and leading the charge!

This was a given and an irrefutable fact.

I consider myself blessed to have known Brendan and to be a part of his family. As with the entire family, just being around them makes you a better human being.

One cannot help but be shown what it means to be a caring, giving, and passionate soul by living near and with every member of the O'Toole family. It is a privilege and a wonderful gift to be anywhere near their love and support network.

Brendan led that charge as well. As we heard from his co-workers and friends this week, his capacity for kindness and compassion was boundless and he was truly his father's son.

Listening to the stories from the people he helped ("Brendan truly saved my life") it was like deja vu all over again from his Dad, Tom O'Toole's, wake and funeral.

Brendan, your Dad would have been bursting with pride if he lived to see what you accomplished with your life, the enormous impact you had on people's lives, the unconditional love you showered on your son, Jonah, and the tireless work ethic you displayed on a daily basis. All without losing sight of what truly matters in life.

Any dad would be thrilled to hear his son describe what their dad meant to them as eloquently as Jonah did about his father, Brendan. It was an amazing and accurate tribute to a great man and summed up what made B so special....no judgments and unconditional love.

So as I attempt to go back to a semblance of normalcy and fight through the fog of emotions that his passing has caused in all of us, I reflect on what lessons we can take from Brendan's way too short life here on earth.

1. Never give up on anyone. He never did and as Jonah said, he would see what was special in you and work with you, regardless of your shortfalls.

2. There are second chances for everyone. No matter what path you start down, or how far we stray from "normal", there are always second and third and fourth chances to get to where we are destined to be. Brendan had amazing courage, willpower, and guts to do all he did in his 55 years and as my daughter Teaghan quoted, he lived 5 lives in his 55 years on this planet. His last 12 years especially were an example for everyone as to the way a real man conducts himself, for his family, his beloved, and his fellow human beings!! Brendan nailed it and then some!!

3. None of the crap we use to measure our worth as humans matters at all! You hear it consistently but does it ever really sink in? Who can look past societal norms and not let themselves be caught up on the chase for material wealth? "What does it profit a man to gain the whole world yet lose his soul?" Brendan had the courage and heart to do just that!! He lived simply, with only a few material wants (his blue convertible) and understood exactly what should be valued, what the measure of a man truly is by the standards that really count, and showed us all how very off base we are in that regard! Few people including myself, even if I won the lottery, could ever be as rich as Brendan was and this lesson should be a wake up call to us all!

4. As his brother, Robert "Bruce" O'Toole sang so perfectly at the funeral, "Read, Read, Read, and help all those in need". Brendan did both of these things tirelessly and was brilliant! How often do we have the opportunity to help a fellow human and sadly do not do it for whatever reason and whatever excuse? B did not make excuses, he JUST DID IT! Each and every time. He WAS the Good Samaritan on this earth!! How much strength, courage and selflessness did this man possess? All in anonymity, all for the sole benefit of those who needed help. How can any of us ever measure up to Brendan's standard? To me, it is like the difference between a mole hill and Mt Everest!

5. Do not take anyone for granted. Life is so fleeting and short! If you have to say something to someone, SAY IT!! Show the love now, let them know you value them and this earth would not be the same without them! Do not wait!! Do not put it off until tomorrow. Do it today, because tonight it may be too late to say it!!

6. No regrets! There can be no regrets. We all screw up and make mistakes. Dwelling on regret gets us nowhere at all. Instead, learn from the mistakes and fix the problem. Teach others to do the same. Life is a bizarre trip, and the real rules of this game are questionable and up for debate. Follow your heart and soul and do the right thing, with others as the focal recipients of our actions, and you cannot go wrong! Brendan embodied this approach!

7. You never know what your actions, however small and seemingly insignificant, do to others. People derive such strength and inspiration from our words and actions, so do not be afraid to share your thoughts with others and lead by example above all!!

Brendan will live on in our hearts and I am certain he will be a guiding force for us all going forward from his perch in Heaven!

Listen for him, speak to him, and above all follow his lead and example as to what a successful life truly means!!!

To me, he was by far the richest and most successful man I have ever known and I would be lucky to be 1/100000th as successful as Uncle B!!!

We all would!!

And that is my goal now!!!

We miss you and love you, Brendan. Fortunately for us your energy level and passion cannot be held back even from Heaven and we feel it today!!

You did indeed fight the good fight and you were the Champion in all of our hearts!!

Rest well!!! I will miss the sight of you rolling up on your bike and hearing your stories, opinions, and feeling that blast of positive inspiration and energy that blew in like a hurricane whenever you appeared!!

We have a lot of work to do here until we meet again!!!

But meet again we certainly shall and I hope by then you can be proud of what we carried forward from your example!

If not, I am sure you will let me know!!!! ;)

Love ya, B!
Uncle Doug

Love will heal all that hurts right now.....

2011-12-06T08:28:00.003-05:00

"Love is a fruit in season at all times, and within reach of every hand."

- Mother Teresa

Brendan Thomas O'Toole 1956-2011

2011-12-01T22:01:00.001-05:00

"There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power.
They speak more eloquently than 10,000 tongues.
They are the messengers of overwhelming grief, of deep contrition, and of unspeakable love."

- Washington Irving

In Memory of Brendan Thomas O'Toole

2011-11-28T06:57:00.000-05:00

"Happiness doesn't depend on any external conditions, it is governed by our mental attitude."
- Dale Carnegie

http://mcmahonfh.frontrunnerpro.com/runtime/70664/runtime.php?SiteId=70664&NavigatorId=269034&ItemId=1041865&op=tributeObituary&viewOpt=dpaneOnly

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

2011-11-24T07:19:00.001-05:00

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more.

It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity.

It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.

Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow."
- Melody Beattie

Happy Thanksgiving to all!!!! Please take the time today to focus on all the blessings and good in our lives. Despite the trials and challenges all of us face, we all have so much to be grateful for today and should really, sincerely, give thanks for it all!!!

God Bless and Stay Strong!

Appreciation

2011-11-22T14:54:00.001-05:00

"Appreciate again and again, freshly and naively, the basic goods of life, with awe, pleasure, wonder and even ecstasy, however stale these experiences may have become to others."
- Abraham Maslow

We cannot do it alone.....

2011-11-21T17:51:00.001-05:00

"Just as the wave cannot exist for itself, but is ever a part of the heaving surface of the ocean, so must I never live my life for itself, but always in the experience which is going on around me."

- Albert Schweitzer

Happy Monday!!! Inner Peace ....preserve it!!

2011-11-21T08:11:00.001-05:00

"Never be in a hurry; do everything quietly and in a calm spirit.

Do not lose your inner peace for anything whatsoever, even if your whole world seems upset."

- Saint Francis de Sales

Do not let a rainy Monday get you down today!! We control our moods, not the cliche of days of the week!

It takes practice but it can be accomplished by ANYONE regardless of who we are....it is our mind that must be mastered, not the rest of the world!

Start today by focusing ONLY on your blessings and what you are striving to accomplish in this life!!!

Forget the past, focus on solutions to your current problems, put them in perspective to the rest of the world, and remember that no matter how alone you feel, you are NEVER ALONE!!!

Pray for guidance and strength! Help others as much as you can, especially when you don't feel like it.....this is the path to inner Peace!!!

Stay Strong!!!

Thomas O'Toole. 11/18/1996

2011-11-18T08:44:00.001-05:00

Today is the 15th death anniversary of a Great man, Thomas O'Toole.

Here was a man who truly lived life to its fullest, in service to others and constantly spending his time making others feel good, joyous and special!

He is truly missed by all who knew him or had the good fortune to have had him in their lives. I am sure his work is still being carried on in Heaven and that is a blessing for all of us!

God Bless and Rest in Peace Mr .OT.

No man is an Island - Thomas Merton

2011-11-17T12:34:00.001-05:00

Just now a friend of mine handed me a passage he thought I would appreciate, and I sure do. Enjoy and take it to heart as it carries much truth and food for thought!!

"Why do we spend our lives striving to be something that we would never want to be, if only we knew what we wanted?

Why do we waste our time doing things, which, if we only stopped to think about them, are just the opposite of what we are made for?

We cannot be ourselves until we know ourselves. But self-knowledge is impossible when thoughtless and automatic activity keeps our souls in confusion.

In order to know ourselves it is not necessary to cease all activity in order to think about ourselves. That would be useless, and would probably do most of us a great deal of harm.

But we have to cut down our activity to the point where we can think calmly and reasonably about our actions.

We cannot begin to know ourselves until we see the REAL reasons we do the things we do, and cannot be ourselves until our actions correspond to our intentions, and our intentions are appropriate to our own situation.

But that is enough.

It is not necessary that we succeed in everything.

A man can be perfect and still reap no fruit from his work, and it may happen that a man who is able to accomplish very little is much more of a person than another who seems to accomplish very much."

Keep up the good fight!!!

2011-11-16T12:28:00.001-05:00

For those of us in the midst of battles, challenges, trials and periods of doubt, despair or strife, perhaps this may help us today, to get back up and keep up the good fight for Peace and Joy:

Finding the Strength

"O, Mighty Lord, I pray that you will be my shield as I do battle against ignorance, cruelty and injustice.

Through your unending love, I pray that you will grant me goodness and steadfastness, so that I might lead others to do your will and glorify your name.

Amen"

Stay Strong!!!

For those in need of a little Strength today!!

2011-11-15T10:18:00.001-05:00

St Terese, the Little Flower, is always ready and willing to lend strength of Spirit and hope to all who seek it from her!

All you need to do is ask!!

Stay Strong!

All we need is within!!!

2011-11-14T08:11:00.001-05:00

"The resources we need to turn our dreams into reality are within us, merely waiting for the day when we decide to wake up and claim our birthright."
- Anthony Robbins

We all have a purpose and reason for being here on this earth and it is our DUTY to explore and search and discover exactly what that purpose is!!!

We all have gifts and talents given by God that the world needs to see so today, start BELIEVING in ourselves today and go after that dream!!

Do not second guess, do not hesitate, act as if what you seek and desire HAS ALREADY HAPPENED! and lo and behold it will occur!!!

Stay Strong!!

Happy Sunday!!

2011-11-13T14:14:00.001-05:00

Nothing like taking a quiet moment on a beautiful Sunday to reflect and seek guidance from a higher authority and give thanks for all of our many many blessings!

"We feel secure even in trials, knowing that trials produce patience, from patience comes merit, merit is the source of hope, and hope does not disappoint us because the Holy Spirit has been given to us, pouring into our hearts the love of God."

--Romans 5:3-5

Compassionate God.
Send the Power of yourHoly Spirit upon us.
Give us STRENGTH to walk in the footsteps of Jesus.
Let not the trials or difficulties of life discourage us from following His Gospel.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, Who lives and reigns with the Holy Spirit.
One God forever and ever.
Amen.

Stay Strong!!

Do What You Love and Love What You Do

2011-11-12T14:49:00.001-05:00

"Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful."
- Albert Schweitzer

"People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing."
- Dale Carnegie

"Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life." - Confucius

If you hate your job, you aren't going to please your boss or your customers, so you aren't going to succeed in the long run.

In a perfect world, each of us would have a job doing what we most enjoy doing - for example writing or testing video games if that is what you love.

At the very least, choose a career that matches your strongest preferences and abilities.

If you hate dealing with complaints, don't work in customer service. If you want some room to be innovative, choose a smaller company. If you love being outdoors and working with your hands, don't confine yourself with a desk job.

Be flexible, but remember that you won't be successful in a job you hate, and more important, you will have spent your life in unnecessary misery.

Great advice!!!! Act on it and Stay Strong!!!

Human nature but completely avoidable...

2011-11-11T22:02:00.000-05:00

"These roses under my window make no reference to former roses or to better ones; they are for what they are;

They exist with God today.

There is no time for them. There is simply the rose; it is perfect in every moment of its existence.

But man postpones or remembers;
he does not live in the present, but with reverted eye laments the past, or heedless of the riches that surround him, stands on tiptoe to forsee the future.

He cannot be happy and strong until he too lives with nature in the present, above time."

―Ralph Waldo Emerson: "Essays and Lectures"

Do not Quit!! Do not Surrender!!

2011-11-08T10:25:00.001-05:00

We all have our daily battles to fight in our lives.

No one escapes this fact, no matter your lot in life, your situation, or your circumstances.

From the very Richest people to the most impoverished, we all have our crosses to bear on a daily basis.

Granted, they are often different concerns and worries, but they are challenges, fears, unrest and loneliness nonetheless.

We all possess the POWER and STRENGTH inside of us to not only face these hourly battles, but to defeat and overcome anything life throws us!

A critical step in this is to put your challenge in perspective!!

To every one of us, our own problems are Mountainous!!! Often there does not appear to be anything more important going on in the world!!!

And sometimes we do have challenges and trials that large and overwhelming!

However, if we truly size up the trials and problems we struggle with daily and put them into a range of true urgency and importance, we will probably find that we are more often than not making a mountain out of a mole hill!

Try and look at the big picture when faced with a trial and place a level on it if that helps!

Rely on the faith you have in whomever you choose to put your faith in and reflect, pray and believe that a solution will surface - and it will.

Excessive worry and fear brought on by our ranking every issue we face as "critical" serves no purpose to anyone but to create more worry and fear, and distraction from the true solution and course of action!!

You are never alone in this world!

Even the birds and insects find a way to live and survive!!!

Ask for help! Ask for guidance!

You will be answered!

Replace Fear with Faith and Hope and Love!!!

There is no challenge we face that cannot be dealt with and a solution found if we believe and receive guidance!!

Pray for others who may be down on their knees with worry and fear, ask that they may find strength and hope and a solution to whatever ails them!

Stay Strong and never ever give up!!!

Sage Advice on becoming worry free!

2011-11-08T08:41:00.001-05:00

Laugh at yourself and at life.

Not in the spirit of derision or whining self-pity, but as a remedy, a miracle drug, that will ease your pain, cure your depression, and help you to put in perspective that 'seemingly terrible defeat and worry' with laughter at your predicaments, thus freeing your mind to think clearly toward the solution that is certain to come.

Never take yourself too seriously."

-Og Mandino

The Bright side of any situation...

2011-11-07T17:40:00.001-05:00

"There are people who make the worst of everything. I always see the good side of things, and even if my portion be suffering, without a glimmer of solace, well, I make it my joy."

--St Therese de Lisieux

Happy Sunday!! No matter the darkness, there is always Hope!

2011-11-06T09:34:00.000-05:00

"Become a possibilitarian.

No matter how dark things seem to be or actually are, raise your sights and see possibilities --
always see them, for they're always there."

~ Dr. Norman Vincent Peale

What will you shoot for today?

2011-11-05T09:34:00.001-04:00

"Let me today do something that shall take A little sadness from the world's vast store,

And may I be so favoured as to make Of joy's too scanty sum a little more

Let me not hurt, by any selfish deed
Or thoughtless word, the heart of foe or friend;

Nor would I pass, unseeing, worthy need, Or sin by silence when I should defend.

However meagre be my worldly wealth,Let me give something that shall aid my kind -

A word of courage, or a thought of health, Dropped as I pass for troubled hearts to find.

Let me to-night look back across the span'Twixt dawn and dark, and to my conscience say -

Because of some good act to beast or man -

"The world is better that I lived to-day."

- Ella Wheeler Wilcox
"Morning Prayer"

The Little Flower

2011-11-05T09:23:00.001-04:00

"I am a spring flower which the Divine Master culls for His pleasure.

We are all flowers, planted on this earth, and God will gather us in His own good time--some sooner, some later...

I, little flower of one day, am the first to be gathered! But we shall meet again in Paradise, where lasting joy will be our portion."

----Sister Teresa of the Child Jesus, using the words of the angelic martyr-- Theophane Venard

Perspective on life's trials and daily challenges

2011-11-04T09:17:00.001-04:00

"The souls that are most dear to My Father," Our Lord once said to Saint Teresa, "are those He tries the most, and the greatness of their trials is the measure of His love."

-The Story of a Soul (L'histoire d'une Ame): The Autobiography of Saint Therese de Lisieux, 1873-1897

Happy Friday All!!

2011-11-04T08:19:00.001-04:00

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

A poem worth reading in it's entirety...and with something for everybody today!

2011-11-03T08:50:00.001-04:00

"If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too:

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies, Or being hated don't give way to hating,

And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream, and not make dreams your master;

If you can think, and not make thoughts your aim,

If you can meet with triumph and disaster And treat those two impostors just the same:

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, And stoop and build'em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your loss:

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with kings, nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

If all men count with you, but none too much:

If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,

Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,

And—which is more—you'll be a Man, my son!"

-- "If"
Rudyard Kipling

Stay Strong

All Souls Day

2011-11-02T18:23:00.001-04:00

Today, remember all who have gone before us.

Stay Strong

Await and Receive Guidance

2011-11-02T08:37:00.001-04:00

"You can't live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you."

- John Wooden

What truly matters?

2011-10-29T15:19:00.001-04:00

"It doesn't interest me what you do for a living.

I want to know what you ache for and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing."

- Oriah

Feast of St. Jude today

2011-10-28T13:08:00.002-04:00

Please remember the Feast of St. Jude today.

There are so many in our very midst in need of spiritual hope and strength, some just to get out of bed in the morning.

Please offer a prayer to St. Jude today and every day for all of us in need of his holy intervention for our specific trials and challenges.

Especially pray for Jim Griffin to beat his challenge and for an unnamed gentleman in need of a job and facing foreclosure on his home - as well as any others in need of St. Jude's intervention in their desperate and hopeless cases!

His Novena has NEVER been known to fail!

Novena To St. Jude

Most holy Apostle, St. Jude, faithful servant and friend of Jesus, the Church honors and invokes you universally, as the patron of difficult cases, of things almost despaired of, Pray for me, I am so helpless and alone.

Intercede with God for me that He bring visible and speedy help where help is almost despaired of. Come to my assistance in this great need that I may receive the consolation and help of heaven in all my necessities, tribulations, and sufferings, particularly -

(make your request here)

- and that I may praise God with you and all the saints forever. I promise, O Blessed St. Jude, to be ever mindful of this great favor granted me by God and to always honor you as my special and powerful patron, and to gratefully encourage devotion to you.
Amen

PRAYER

May the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus be adored, and loved in all the tabernacles until the end of time. Amen.

May the most Sacred Heart of Jesus be praised and glorified now and forever. Amen

St. Jude pray for us and hear our prayers. Amen.

Blessed be the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Blessed be the Immaculate Heart of Mary

Blessed be St. Jude Thaddeus, in all the world and for all Eternity.

(say this prayer, followed by the Our Father and the Hail Mary)

Stay Strong and Thank you St Jude as always for your consideration and guidance daily.

Give Thanks for all that we take for granted!

2011-10-27T09:27:00.001-04:00

"The roots of all goodness lie in the soil of appreciation for goodness."

-Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

Where is Joy found?

2011-10-26T17:25:00.001-04:00

"I realised thoroughly that Joy is not found in the things which surround us , but joy lives in the soul.

One could possess it as well in an obscure prison as in the palace of a king.

And so now I am happier here at the Carmel, in the midst of trials within and without, than I was in the world where I had everything I wanted, and above all else, all the joys of a happy home."

- St. Therese de Lisieux, The Little Flower

Need help? Help others!!!!

2011-10-25T12:04:00.001-04:00

"As we work to create light for others, we naturally light our own way."

-Mary Anne Radmacher

At the impromptu suggestion of my wife on her Dad's death anniversary, I took up reading a book called The Story of a Soul -The autobiography of Saint Therese de Lisieux.

The book is a compilation of writings from Saint Therese to her "mother" from her early years and it is an amazing look into a life given over to Jesus, service, and charity from an amazingly early age.

In her writings, she recalls details of her childhood and revelations about her growth that are inspirational and leave no doubt as to her "calling".

She too put he needs of others first as a means to escape any trials in her early years, and she had many trials from age 4 to 14 to deal with indeed.

It is a great lesson for us all and one the continually endures!

Stay Strong

Arthur Prochnow. Rest in Peace

2011-10-25T09:34:00.001-04:00

Please set aside a few moments today to say a prayer of strength and faith for my good friend Eliane who lost her Dad in Brazil last night.

Arthur Prochnow fought a long and courageous battle with his illness and endured many trials in his later years. There is no question he has received his just reward in Heaven today and the suffering and pain has vanished. He is home now and in eternal peace.

Please pray for strength and faith for his family left here with us as they face the next challenging months of adjustment.

Elaine wrote this passage with her Dad in mind:

"The words of Jesus during His last days on earth vividly express His desire to go "back to the Father" (John 16:28). We, as His people, also have a vision of something far beyond the difficulties and disappointments of this life and are traveling toward fulfillment, completion, and an enriched life.

We too are going "to the Father".

Much of our new home is still unclear to us, but two things are certain: our "Father´s house" (John 14:2) is our home.

And it is in the presence of the Lord. As believers, we know and understand that we are all travelers and not permanent residents of this world."

--R. C. Gillie.

Stay Strong!

Count your Blessings!! And there are many!!

2011-10-24T17:51:00.001-04:00

I received this from my brother-in -law today. It came at the exact perfect time and it changed my day immediately and dramatically! Thanks, Tim!

Enjoy, please do yourself a favor and act on this, and Stay Strong!!!

"To realize The value of a sister/brother: Ask someone Who doesn't have one.

To realize The value of ten years: Ask a newly Divorced couple.

To realize The value of four years: Ask a graduate.

To realize The value of one year: Ask a student who Has failed a final exam.

To realize The value of nine months: Ask a mother who gave birth to a stillborn.

To realize The value of one month: Ask a mother Who has given birth to a premature baby

To realize The value of one week: Ask an editor of a weekly newspaper.

To realize The value of one minute: Ask a person Who has missed the train, bus or plane.

To realize The value of one second: Ask a person Who has survived an accident.

To realize the value of a friend or family member: LOSE ONE

Time waits for no one.

Treasure every moment you have.

You will treasure it even more when You can share it with someone special."

The origin of this letter is unknown, But it brings good luck to everyone who passes it on.

Remember.... Hold on tight to the ones you love!

Do not keep this letter. Send it to friends & family to whom you wish good fortune. And don't forget the one who sent it to you!

What will you leave behind???

2011-10-24T09:36:00.001-04:00

"Remember that when you leave this earth, you can take with you nothing that you have received --only what you have given:

a full heart enriched by honest service, love, sacrifice and courage."
~ St. Francis of Assisi

Give thanks today....for so much....

2011-10-23T13:44:00.001-04:00

"I thank you God for this most amazing day, for the leaping greenly spirits of trees and for the blue dream of sky and for everything which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes."
-e. e. cummings

Dare to Dream

2011-10-22T06:58:00.001-04:00

"Stand often in the company of dreamers. They believe you can achieve impossible things."

-Mary Anne Radmacher

Every day is a GIFT!!!

2011-10-21T12:15:00.001-04:00

"If, before going to bed every night, you will tear a page from the calendar, and remark, "there goes another day of my life, never to return," you will become time conscious."

~ A. B. Zu Tavern

Stay Enthusiastic!!! It is a lifetime gift we should not lose sight of!!

2011-10-20T08:25:00.001-04:00

"None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm."

-Henry David Thoreau

The Power of the Mind can change our lives!

2011-10-18T10:43:00.001-04:00

"There is great treasure there behind our skull and this is true about all of us. This little treasure has great, great powers, and I would say we only have learnt a very, very small part of what it can do."

~ Isaac Bashevis

I am reading a terrific book called simply Resurrection by Neville Goddard. It is truly a life altering book and one that everyone should read if they desire to obtain fulfillment, joy, and peace!!!

The power of our minds, attitudes, visualization and concept of self is extraordinary and we can tap into these powers to reach all of our goals!!

Order it today!

Also please keep the prayers coming for our good friend Jim!!!! He will beat this!!!

Stay Strong!!

Dream, Discover, Explore..No Regrets!!

2011-10-16T09:35:00.001-04:00

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do.
So throw off the bowlines.
Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

-Mark Twain

Hope and Faith

2011-10-15T11:49:00.001-04:00

"With every rising of the sun, Think of your life as just begun."

-Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Give Thanks, no matter your situation

2011-10-13T08:47:00.001-04:00

"If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, Thank you, that would suffice."

-Meister Eckhart

Too Big to Pray? Not really!

2011-10-11T13:52:00.001-04:00

"With realization of one's own potential and self-confidence in one's ability, one can build a better world."

-Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

2011-10-10T10:55:00.001-04:00

"Leaders aren't born, they are made. And they are made just like anything else, through hard work. And that's the price we'll have to pay to achieve that goal, or any goal."

~ Vince Lombardi

Amazing Life Advice

2011-10-07T10:59:00.000-04:00

As we all know, Steve Jobs the co-founder of Apple and what many are calling the "Father of the 21st Century" passed away this week.

The sheer volume of articles, insights, tributes and farewells on light of his death is just amazing and he clearly effected millions of people's lifestyles with his vision and execution.

Of these tributes, one stood out to me.

I was sincerely impressed and moved by the commencement address he had given to Stanford graduates after he thought he had beaten cancer.

It is a speech everyone should read or watch as it seems to really come from his heart and it is filled with such sage advice, insight, and is extremely thought provoking and inspiring to boot.

It is difficult to pick one piece of advice to highlight after reviewing and reading all the great comments and words of guidance Steve dropped over the last 3 decades, but one of them really struck me and if he did follow his own advice, I respect him even more!

It is so true, but takes amazing courage and bravery to carry it out.
I for one am guilty of not acting on this advice and pray that one day that will change!

I encourage you to read or watch this amazing address at the below link and I hope you gain as much from it as I certainly did!

He certainly left us with more than Ipads and Iphones, he left us with a lot to ponder.....

Stay Strong!

"When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself:

"If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something." -Steve Jobs

http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print/754153.aspx

Edward J. Flaherty 1923-1998

2011-10-02T20:17:00.001-04:00

October 1st marked the 13th year since my Dad passed and continued his eternal journey beyond this earth.

He was truly a great man and a great father!

He is missed every single day but I am certain he is watching over all of us!

Stay Strong!! Miss you and love you, Dad!!

Peace is in your control!

2011-09-29T09:15:00.001-04:00

"Nothing can bring you peace but yourself."

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Trust in Thee

2011-09-27T10:42:00.000-04:00

Thank you, Kristin!

I will not doubt though all my ships at sea

Come drifting home with broken masts and sails,

I shall believe the Hand that never fails,

From seeming evil worketh good for me.

And though I weep because those sails are battered,

Still will I cry, while my best hopes lie shattered,

I trust in Thee.

- Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Friend in need of prayers!!!

2011-09-25T13:06:00.001-04:00

I just got this note from my good friend Michael in Boston. Please dedicate some time to pray for Jim and his family today and going forward. Miracles happen!!

"Just a few weeks ago one of my close friends came over for a visit with his 9 year old daughter.

Jim and I share Patriots season tickets and run a road race together on Thanksgiving.

While he was visiting we chatted about the usual things; sports, the market and most important family.

His daughter Julia is a freshman in High School. She is an excellent student. He said that he would love to see her go to University of Notre Dame.

His youngest daughter Rachel is a fine hockey player. She often has practice at 5:30 a.m. and he says he loves taking her to the rink. His wife

He has a wonderful wife and mother who is a kindergarten teacher. Jim is a high school guidance counselor for the High School.

They both chose education to try to make a difference and ultimately help students towards a bright future.

Just this past week Jim wasn't feeling well. He had lost weight and had stomach pain. He went to the doctor and his liver enzymes were elevated.

He had a scan and it revealed that he has pancreatic cancer. It has spread to his liver.

I am sending you this note because you all have wonderful families and I truly value your friendship.

Please keep Jim's family as well as your own in your prayers."

Terrific advice and imagery..and truth on coping with challenges!

2011-09-23T08:24:00.001-04:00

The Guest House

This being human is a guest house.

Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!

Even if they're a crowd of sorrows, who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture, still, treat each guest honorably.

He may be clearing you out for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.

—Rumi

You are never alone in your struggles

2011-09-22T09:27:00.001-04:00

"May a thread of comfort be woven through your difficult days."

-Mary Anne Radmacher

No action of compassion or kindness is too little

2011-09-21T07:57:00.001-04:00

"If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one."

-Mother Teresa

Why you cannot lose

2011-09-18T12:47:00.001-04:00

You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

-Matthew 5:43-44

Future Greatness

2011-09-17T07:56:00.001-04:00

"Don't let the past bully the future. You own the future, the past owns itself, and you are greater than them both."

-Carly Cermak

Focus

2011-09-16T08:08:00.001-04:00

"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 do what really matters most."
- Stephen Covey

Seize it!

2011-09-15T11:40:00.001-04:00

"If you spend your whole life waiting for the storm, you'll never enjoy the sunshine."

-Morris West

The World You Desire!!!

2011-09-14T16:38:00.001-04:00

"In the name of the best within you, do not sacrifice this world to those who are its worst.

In the name of the values that keep you alive, do not let your vision of man be distorted by the ugly, the cowardly, the mindless in those who have never achieved his title.

Do not lose your knowledge that man's proper estate is an upright posture, an intransigent mind and a step that travels unlimited roads.

Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark, in the hopeless swamps of the approximate, the not-quite, the not-yet, the not-at-all.

Do not let the HERO in your soul perish, in lonely frustration for the life you deserved, but have never been able to reach.

Check your road and the nature of your battle.

The world you desired can be won, it exists, it is real, it is possible, it's yours."

-Ayn Rand

MUST READ!!! A Reporter at Large: The Real Heroes Are Dead : The New Yorker

2011-09-13T23:35:00.000-04:00

I know it is long, but you just have to trust me and please read this amazing piece. Simply spectacular, moving and inspiring! You will not regret it!

Stay Strong!

http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2002/02/11/020211fa_fact_stewart

Sent from my iPad

Hope and Dreams

2011-09-13T07:40:00.000-04:00

"When It's Darkest, Men See the Stars."

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Article: Even Harvard couldn't protect me

2011-09-12T18:13:00.000-04:00

For those of you out there struggling to secure a job, here is a tremendous article on the need to stay strong, persevere, keep the faith, and show courage! It is a lesson none of us should want to experience yet one we should all learn!

Stay Strong

Even Harvard couldn't protect me
http://www.salon.com/news/politics/feature/2011/09/12/harvardjobless

(Sent from Flipboard)

Remember those who are missed and the families who are suffering today

2011-09-11T13:26:00.001-04:00

"Our lives are not determined by what happens to us, but how we react to what happens;

not by what life brings us, but by the attitude we bring to life.

A positive attitude causes a chain reaction of positive thoughts, events and outcomes. It is a catalyst a spark that creates extraordinary results."

-UNKNOWN-

Remember those who are missed and the families who are suffering today

2011-09-11T13:04:00.001-04:00

"Our lives are not determined by what happens to us, but how we react to what happens;

not by what life brings us, but by the attitude we bring to life.

A positive attitude causes a chain reaction of positive thoughts, events and outcomes. It is a catalyst a spark that creates extraordinary results."

-UNKNOWN-

Inspirational!

2011-09-07T11:14:00.000-04:00

How blessed is this family to have the means to stage a fight for a cure? Inspirational story!

Mogul Using Own $100 Million in Race to Cure Daughter Prompts Novartis Aid
Q
By Robert Langreth and Alex Nussbaum - Sep 7, 2011 12:01 AM ET
Bloomberg Markets Magazine

Sept. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Dinakar Singh, chief executive officer of TPG-Axon Capital Management, discusses his daughter Arya's crippling genetic disease and how it led him to establish and fund the Spinal Muscular Atrophy Foundation. Singh is featured in the October issue of Bloomberg Markets magazine. (Source: Bloomberg)
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) partner Dinakar Singh discovered in 2001 that his 19-month-old daughter, Arya, had a crippling genetic disease called spinal muscular atrophy.
The malady makes the nerve cells that control muscles gradually deteriorate. There are no treatments, let alone a cure, Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its October issue. Worse still, while the gene causing the ailment had recently been discovered, nobody in the drug industry was doing much about it, he says.
"I was fearful and anxious that treatments would be developed, but far too late to save Arya," says Singh, 42, who founded and runs New York hedge fund TPG-Axon Capital Management LP, which has $8.1 billion in assets. "We didn't want to find out 25 years later that the science was really there but there isn't a drug because nobody focused on it."
Singh, who left Goldman in 2004, has spent almost $100 million of his own money to create and fund the Spinal Muscular Atrophy Foundation. He wants to discover and develop a drug that he hopes will help his daughter, who is one of 25,000 SMA patients in the U.S. Children with severe forms often die within a few years, while those with mild cases can live a normal life span with supportive care. Arya, 11, and starting sixth grade, uses a wheelchair.
'High-Speed Initiative'
Singh's foundation is making progress. It's collaborating with Novartis AG (NOVN), which may bring a drug into human tests as soon as 2013, says Mark Fishman, research chief for the Basel, Switzerland-based drugmaker.
The foundation has pumped $13 million into PTC Therapeutics Inc. in South Plainfield, New Jersey, which has produced a pill that increases the life span of mice with SMA. It also has funded a scientist whose research has led to an injectable drug developed by Isis Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ISIS) of Carlsbad, California. That treatment may enter human trials before year's end. Singh says he'll enroll Arya if that drug gets to the testing phase before others.
"The SMA Foundation has converted this from a slow-moving exercise to a high-speed initiative," says Darryl De Vivo, a pediatric neurologist at Columbia University Medical Center in New York, who has overseen Arya's care since her diagnosis.
Frustrated with the sluggishness, or nonexistence, of medical research, Singh and a small band of wealthy parents whose children have serious illnesses are spending millions of dollars to fund drug development.
'Change the System'
These benefactors include hedge-fund managers, private- equity investors and entrepreneurs, many of whom have made their fortunes on Wall Street. The principles they apply in their jobs -- managing complicated tasks, making investments and expecting positive results -- translate to their new endeavors, says Stacy Palmer, editor of the Chronicle of Philanthropy.
"Business executives have a better understanding of how markets work and have started to ask tougher questions," Palmer says. Their goal: "Change the system and whatever is slowing it down."
The new philanthropists are building on a foundation laid by well-known predecessors. John D. Rockefeller in 1901 formed the medical research institute that would become New York's Rockefeller University after his grandson died of scarlet fever. Billionaire Michael Milken, who pioneered junk bonds, founded the Prostate Cancer Foundation and FasterCures, a think tank to speed progress toward cures in all medical fields.
'Lots of Shovels'
Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates and his Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have focused on malaria, polio and other global health threats. James Simons, founder of hedge fund Renaissance Technologies LLC, and his wife, Marilyn, started the Simons Foundation. It's the second-biggest funder of autism research, after the U.S. National Institutes of Health, according to recent data.
Benefactors such as Singh are taking a direct role in early drug research. They want to make it easier for companies to produce a medicine or venture firms to fund it. They begin with basic research discoveries, often in obscure illnesses, and advance the work. Instead of handing money to scientists and getting out of the way, they stay involved, hire experts and push researchers to work together rather than compete.
"We have focused on having lots of shovels ready and having the maps ready and having all the supplies ready, so companies are willing to prospect for SMA drugs," Singh says. His idea: "Make it easy for companies, take the risk down for them so they can get a sense cheaply and easily whether there is something there."
Arya's Efforts
Even Arya is doing her bit. In her family's 11th-floor condominium that looks north over New York's Central Park, she says she's excited about holding a bake sale to raise money for SMA research. She has just returned from precautionary tests to make sure a respiratory infection didn't become serious. Her mother pats her back when she coughs weakly. Then Arya scoots off in her wheelchair to play with her younger brother and sister.
James O'Sullivan, director of foundation services for Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, says about half of his 25 medical philanthropy clients at any time are interested in the hands-on approach Singh's foundation is taking, up from a handful 15 years ago.
"There is a world of difference between 10 years ago and now," says O'Sullivan, whose New York-based organization advises wealthy patrons. "Today's donors are much more interested in seeing how their dollars make a difference in a disease."
New Breed
Victoria Jackson, a cosmetics entrepreneur whose husband, Bill Guthy, co-founded direct marketer Guthy-Renker LLC, is among the new breed. Her daughter, Ali, came down with a central nervous system disorder at age 14 called neuromyelitis optica, which can cause blindness.
Since then, Jackson has spent more than $15 million on her foundation to develop treatments. Ali, now 18, has avoided severe complications by taking immunosuppressants.
Jackson says scientists often work independently with their own agendas, wasting money.
"I manage where every dime goes and make sure there is complete disclosure and collaboration among the researchers," she says.
Private Investors
Private investors may become crucial as drugmakers cut research and close labs, O'Sullivan says. Pfizer Inc. (PFE), the world's largest drugmaker, will spend $6.5 billion to $7 billion on research in 2012, down from $9.4 billion in 2010. That makes working with a foundation that already has done some of the grunt work attractive.
"Drug companies want to come in later in the R&D process and provide backing for potential therapies that have more evidence behind them than in the past," O'Sullivan says.
Singh says his foundation can focus on the science because it doesn't have to invest huge amounts of time raising money. And with no need to impress donors, the organization can spend on the business of developing lab tests and building the pieces that make it easier for companies to discover SMA drugs.
The foundation's $16 million in research spending last year almost equals the $19 million the NIH spent on spinal muscular atrophy.
Novartis saved years by taking advantage of advances made by foundation-backed scientists and the laboratory techniques they developed to test compounds for SMA. The company was able to focus on screening for drugs rather than diverting staff to basic research, says Daniel Curtis, a research manager at Novartis.
Rich Donors
The SMA Foundation and its academic partners may reap a benefit if a Novartis drug reaches the market and sells well. Singh's foundation could get back a multiple of its spending on the collaboration, says Karen Chen, the organization's chief scientific officer, who declined to give specifics. Any money would allow the foundation to reinvest in science, she says.
As an incentive for Novartis to work quickly, an agreement allows the company to repay nothing if it completes clinical trials fast enough.
Rich donors with a personal stake in a disease, while well- meaning, can divert resources from illnesses that may be closer to a cure or afflict more people, says Arthur Caplan, a bioethicist at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
"There can be some kind of distortion of emphasis," he says.
SMA affects 25,000 Americans versus 5.4 million for Alzheimer's disease, according to the SMA Foundation and the Alzheimer's Association.
Head Start
Singh says spinal muscular atrophy is more likely to be treatable than common neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's, whose origin is uncertain. He says he wouldn't have spent as much money if he thought an SMA treatment was a long shot. Scientists already know what causes SMA, giving researchers a head start, he says.
Garen Staglin, a senior adviser at San Francisco-based private-equity firm FTV Capital, is tackling diseases that are more widespread, including schizophrenia. Staglin's International Mental Health Research Organization has raised $135 million for brain research during the past 17 years. It hosts an annual music concert at his Napa Valley, California, vineyard. Dionne Warwick was scheduled to headline a concert in September.
Staglin's son, Brandon, now 39, was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1990. Staglin was in France on business and got a call that police had pulled Brandon over as he drove erratically.
"He told me he felt like he had lost half his brain," Staglin recalls. "He just lost his ability to think coherently."
'Run Toward It'
Rather than hide Brandon's situation, Staglin acted.
"We decided we had two choices: We could either run away from the problem like too many families with these illnesses," he says. "We wanted to run toward it."
Another effort, Staglin's One Mind for Research, is working with former Rhode Island Congressman Patrick Kennedy to get drug companies and brain researchers to collaborate on treatments for Alzheimer's, autism, schizophrenia and other conditions. This effort is based on the joint-research approach that has long been used in the semiconductor industry.
For Alexander Silver, the motivation is his 4-year-old son, Jackson. Silver, a partner at New York-based private-investment firm P2 Capital Partners, LLC, started the Jackson Gabriel Silver Foundation in 2010 to find a treatment for a rare genetic condition called epidermolysis bullosa. In the disease, a protein that holds skin layers together is missing, and the skin blisters and shears off with any friction. Half of Jackson's body is covered in high-tech bandages that cost $6,000 a month.
Cutting Red Tape
Silver, 34, who has raised more than $400,000 since 2008 and aims for $10 million or more, predicts a good treatment will come if money flows without red tape to the right projects. His foundation -- along with one run by Paul Joseph, a private- wealth broker at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC whose 7-year- old son has the condition -- has backed work at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. The research has produced a potential drug.
The approach has garnered $26 million in venture capital from Boston-based Third Rock Ventures to form a company and move the therapy in human trials.
No Budget on Life
"The skills I developed professionally matter a lot for this," Silver says. "Just like investing, you are allocating capital to the projects that have the highest probability of success and the lowest probability of failure in the quickest time frame."
For Singh, the effort to save Arya is a family affair, and he promises to spend as much money as necessary. Singh's wife, Loren Eng, has a Master of Business Administration from Stanford University and works fulltime leading the foundation.
The eight-member staff includes former researchers from Roche Holding AG (ROG) and Pfizer.
While Arya has a mild form of SMA, she has gotten weaker. She has trouble lifting her arms above her head and needs fulltime nursing. Every cold is a threat because her frail lung muscles put her at risk for pneumonia.
"I don't think there is a budget on your daughter's life," Singh says. "As long as there is a chance of doing something and we have the ability to do it, we will do it."
'In Tears'
Singh, who won't disclose his compensation, says his fund returned 60 percent in the six-and-a-half years since he started it on Feb. 1, 2005. That's more than double the Standard & Poor's 500 Index's 25 percent return during the period.
Arya, the oldest of Singh and Eng's three children, was born in March 2000 and developed normally at first. She was slow to walk, however, taking her first wobbly steps at 15 months. Within months, she began regressing. A doctor friend saw Arya's stiff gait at a party in August 2001 and told them to get it checked out right away.
Eng had become pregnant again, and two days before her delivery date, she got an abrupt call from the neurologist confirming the worst about Arya.
"Loren called me in tears," Singh remembers. "I was saying: 'What does it mean? What does it mean?' She said the doctor didn't say anything. She has SMA. That's it." Singh and Eng spent the next days in a frantic race to figure out the prognosis -- and to discover whether their second child, Kiran, also had SMA. He didn't.
'Untreatable, Incurable, Fatal'
"When we found out about it, we were told it was untreatable, incurable and fatal," Singh says.
De Vivo, the Columbia University neurologist, met the couple and explained that children like Arya have defects in or are missing a gene called SMN, discovered only in 1995. It directs cells to make a protein necessary for neurons that control muscles.
He introduced them to Columbia colleague Thomas Jessell, a motor neuron biology expert. They also met Gerald Fischbach, a neuroscientist and then dean of Columbia's health sciences and medicine faculty. All three became key advisers to the SMA Foundation.
"I met them and decided that SMA was a perfect disorder to mount a major attack on," says Fischbach, who's now scientific director for the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative. "The science was ripe."
'Truly Solve It'
At first Singh and Eng had planned to back existing charities, such as Families of Spinal Muscular Atrophy. They gave $750,000 in May 2002 to fund a clinic at Columbia. In 2006, they agreed to give as much as $15 million to help fund a motor neuron research center at the university.
The more they learned, the more they became convinced that, unlike most neurological diseases, SMA might be conquered.
"What struck us as different about SMA was that there really seemed to be a chance to truly solve it -- and perhaps even in a time frame that could really help Arya," Singh says.
A quirk in the genetics of SMA increased their hope. In many inherited diseases, a crucial gene is missing or defective and the protein it makes is absent or doesn't work. In SMA, the body has a backup gene that produces small amounts of the SMN protein. That's why children with the disease live at all.
By the time Singh and Eng became involved, an idea with potential to help SMA sufferers was already being discussed in the medical literature: If someone could find a chemical that could safely boost the availability of the backup protein, that discovery could form the basis of a drug. Yet as far as they could tell, no large drug or biotech company was focused on SMA.
'Terrible Gap'
"You had this terrible gap," Singh says. "There was no one saying, let us take these interesting discoveries and come up with something that could be a drug."
The couple started the foundation in 2003. Equipped with PowerPoint presentations that showed why SMA was a lower research risk than most genetic diseases that could yield a drug with $1 billion in annual sales, they approached more than a dozen companies. It was a hard sell.
At the American Academy of Neurology conference in 2004, only three of seven biotech companies they invited showed up.
"There was never an outright no," Eng says. Instead, "polite conversations went nowhere or calls were not returned."
To her, it seemed drugmakers were focused on heart disease, cancer or diabetes and their significant commercial markets. The NIH alone spends $5.8 billion a year on cancer research.
'A Buzz'
Singh and Eng started paying small biotech companies to screen for chemicals that might increase the supply of the SMN protein. They, along with other SMA charities, also funded Adrian Krainer, a researcher at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on Long Island in New York. He was working on a technology that had shown some promise, even though the foundation's scientific advisers said the approach was a long shot.
"There was a buzz; there was this new couple, they are very wealthy, people thought they were in a position to make a difference," says Krainer, who met Arya in 2002 when she could still walk.
For the next few years, the foundation backed research testing dozens of existing drugs to see if any of them increased the SMN protein. The scientific advisers got together in 2008 for a meeting at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Half Moon Bay, California.
"It was the most-depressing meeting ever," Eng recalls. "It was clear we had nothing."
'Huge Implications'
By then, Arya was in a wheelchair. At this point, the SMA Foundation had captivated Novartis. In 2002, the company had appointed Fishman, a scientist and former Harvard Medical School professor, to direct research operations.
He says one idea was that success in treating rare genetic diseases might pave the way for dealing with more-common ones. Columbia's Jessell and Fischbach pitched him on SMA in 2005.
"It seemed tractable from a scientific point of view, with potentially huge implications on health," Fishman says. "Others weren't working on it, which is another good reason to do it."
Still, it wasn't until November 2007 that Novartis began its effort. It started with neurobiologist Rajeev Sivasankaran and a few assistants. Sivasankaran, 41, designed a quick way to test the more than 1 million compounds in Novartis's collection of chemicals to see if any had potential for SMA. A compound with some modest effect could become a starting point for a safe and effective medicine.
'Full-Court Press'
Novartis was lucky. By December 2009, the researchers had found a drug that improved motor function in mice with SMA.
"That got the whole group excited," Sivasankaran says. The SMA Foundation and Novartis scientists get together every three months to review progress. At a June 1 meeting, researchers from the foundation, Novartis, Columbia and Harvard crowded into a conference room to hear the latest results.
"It is a full-court press," Fishman says. "We are pushing as hard as we can."
Still, Novartis human trials are two years off at best, Fishman says.
Meantime, Repligen Corp. (RGEN), a Waltham, Massachusetts-based biotechnology company, in July began an initial safety test of its SMA drug on people. It licensed this drug from the charity Families of SMA, based in Elk Grove Village, Illinois.
More Efforts
Singh's foundation is closing in with two more efforts. PTC Therapeutics last year found compounds that boost the life span of mice with the disease. The company could begin human trials in late 2012, Chief Executive Officer Stuart Peltz says.
"It is absolutely incredible," he says. Mice that would otherwise barely be able to move look normal with PTC's drug, he says.
Singh and Eng say they're particularly excited by Isis Pharmaceuticals' progress, based on work by Krainer at Cold Spring Harbor. Isis published data in March showing that its drug could boost motor neuron levels -- and survival -- in mice with SMA. The medicine, which is injected into spaces around the spine, corrects the defect that causes the backup gene to produce too little protein.
"I have been doing drug development half of my life," says Roy Vagelos, former Merck & Co. CEO, who has followed the SMA Foundation's research. "This will be the first time if it works that a family had gotten behind a problem, a genetic defect in their own family, and come up with a solution."
Arya is very aware of her illness and the battles to conquer it, even though she doesn't like to talk about it, Singh says. She often asks her parents what her adult life will be like and why she has to be sick.
"Trying to understand what this all means is a big deal now," Singh says.
Arya's Homework
For a homework assignment last year on Egyptian mythology, Arya imagined a goddess of illness.
"She thinks of cures for sicknesses and puts hints for these cures in people's minds," Arya wrote. "She has a puppy face, puppy paws, human body and is always thinking of cures." Eng sent a copy of her daughter's essay to Novartis's Fishman.
"It hits you right where you live," he says. "That kind of innocent gratitude is the most wonderful reward you can get."
To contact the reporters responsible for this story: Robert Langreth in New York at rlangreth@bloomberg.net; Alex Nussbaum in New York anussbaum1@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Waldholz at mwaldholz@bloomberg.net

Goals

2011-09-07T05:32:00.001-04:00

"The tragedy of life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach."

-Benjamin Mays

Take Stock....

2011-09-06T22:07:00.001-04:00

A few weeks ago a legendary technology and cultural genius and visionary stepped down from his leadership role at Apple Computer due to his deteriorating health.

Steve Jobs, perhaps one of the most successful and lauded businessmen of our modern era has literally changed the way we conduct our lives via technology.

He has been so wildly successful in taking Apple from near bankruptcy to one of the largest firms on the world ..actually the largest for one day in fact!

We as humans look to his material success and accomplishments with awe and admiration and he certainly earned it! He achieved what many or most of us may not be able to in the business world and has reaped the rewards of his efforts.

Sadly, despite his unequivocal success in obtaining what we are all striving to obtain materially on this earth, he is very very ill and in bad shape. Prayers are clearly needed for him at this time.

It struck me hard that this poor guy, despite all his gobs of money, fame, material success, glory, etc would probably trade it all--everything he has earned and made for himself and his employees, shareholders, etc.-- All of it --- for his health.

Very sad.

What good are the material things we all believe we are after, if we do not have our health, or loved ones, or the ability to share them or the time to live them?

Say a prayer for Mr. Jobs today.

And let's do ourselves a favor and get down on our knees tonight and thank the Almighty God in Heaven for our health, our well being and our lives- First and foremost....

So often we lament about our lives and judge who and what we are on what we drive, how much we make, or our material lifestyles.

How petty and small all of that seems compared to the greatest net worth any of us can have - a healthy and peaceful life!

Well next time you do this exercise in self pity or envy or woe is me thinking, remember Mr. Jobs and all that he would trade today in his life to have what you and I have as a GIFT FROM GOD!

Do not take it lightly and always remember that you are blessed with all that matters in your life-- today and now! Search for happiness and gratitude no further, it is with you today!

Say a prayer for Mr. Jobs. And one of thank you for what you have today! May it last for all time!

Stay Strong!

Worry....do not let it in....

2011-09-04T09:03:00.001-04:00

"Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight."

-Benjamin Franklin