WORTHY THOUGHTS

[MajestyJo]

The Meaning of Peace
=====================



There was once a king who offered a prize to the artist who
could paint the best picture of peace. Many artists tried.
The king looked at all the pictures, but there were only two
that he really liked, and he had to choose between them.

One picture was of a calm lake. The lake was a perfect mirror
for the peaceful towering mountains all around it. Overhead was
a blue sky with fluffy white clouds. All who saw this picture
thought that it was a perfect picture of peace.

The second picture had mountains, too. But these were rugged
and bare. Above was an angry sky from which rain fell, and in
which lightening played. Down the side of the mountain tumbled
a foaming waterfall. This did not look peaceful at all.

But when the king looked, he saw behind the waterfall a tiny
bush growing in a crack in the rock. In the bush a mother bird
had built her nest.... a perfect picture of peace.

Which of the pictures won the prize?

The king chose the second picture.

Do you know why?

"Because," explained the king, "peace does not mean to be in a
place where there is no noise, trouble or hard work.

Peace means to be in the midst of all those things and still be
calm in your heart. That is the real meaning of peace."

That is the REAL meaning of peace.

~Author Unknown~

[MajestyJo]

Time for Joy - Book - Quote

Today I am getting all the guidence I need to take care of myself.

I need not keep pushing beyond my limitations. I am learning to listen to my body and my mind, and rest when I get the message.


When I was sharing with my friend this morning, we talked on how we both needed to practice self care.

There is a big difference between selfish, self-centeredness of my disease and practicing self-care, learning to live each day to the best of our ability. Not abusing ourselves and others, but practicing a healthy life style and finding the balance needed in all things.

When I couldn't do the things I thought I should be doing, I beat myself up. I had to learn to listen to my body. I had to stop listening to old tapes.

In today part of that is reading labels and not eating processed foods. Eating fresh food or fast frozen, and not eating foods with additives, colouring, and substitutions which are full of chemicals. Even though I am diabetic, diet-pop is more harmful to me then regular pop because of the chemicals. I drink fruit juices or herbal teas with no sugar and plain. I have yet to learn to drink my coffee black, so don't drink coffee.

I had to look at my thinking behind my eating. When my body was swollen because of my arthritis, I would think fat and not want to eat or I would think, "What is the use, I am fat anyway," and not care about what I ate. I went to my doctor's a few weeks ago and I had gained 10 lbs and I realized I had been in an "I don't care" state of being and hadn't realized until I got on the scale. Ironically, I hadn't even noticed the change after I prayed and asked for help and turned it over to my Higher Power. When I went back, I had lost 8 lbs, and hadn't consciously tried to lose it. I had just ate healthy and it came away. For me, it is working my program.

[MajestyJo]

A woman came out of her house and saw 3 old men with long white beards sitting in her front yard. She did not recognize them. She said 'I don't think I know you, but you must be hungry. Please come in and have something to eat.'

'Is the man of the house home?', they asked.

'No', she replied. 'He's out.'

'Then we cannot come in', they replied.

In the evening when her husband came home, she told him what had happened.

'Go tell them I am home and invite them in!'

The woman went out and invited the men in ''We do not go into a House together,' they replied. 'Why is that?' she asked.

One of the old men explained: 'His name is Wealth,' he said pointing to one of his friends, and said pointing to another one, 'He is Success, and I am Love.' Then he added, 'Now go in and discuss with your husband which one of us you want in your home.'

The woman went in and told her husband what was said. her husband was overjoyed.

'How nice!!', he said. 'Since that is the case, let us invite Wealth. Let him come and fill our home with wealth!'

His wife disagreed. 'My dear, why don't we invite success?'

Their daughter-in-law was listening from the other corner of
the house. She jumped in with her own suggestion: 'Would it not be better to invite Love? Our home will then be filled with love!'

'Let us heed our daughter-in-law's advice,' said the husband
to his wife.

'Go out and invite Love to be our guest.'

The woman went out and asked the 3 old men, 'Which one of you is Love? Please come in and be our guest.'

Love got up and started walking toward the house. The
other 2 also got up and followed him. Surprised, the lady asked Wealth and Success: 'I only invited Love, why are you coming in?'

The old men replied together: 'If you had invited Wealth or Success, the other two of us would've stayed out, but since you invited Love, wherever He goes, we go with him.


Wherever there is Love, there is also Wealth and Success!!!!!!'

MY WISH FOR YOU...

Where there is pain, I wish you peace and mercy.

Where there is self-doubting, I wish you a renewed confidence in your ability to work through it.

Where there is tiredness, or exhaustion, I wish you understanding, patience, and renew-ed strength.

Where there is fear, I wish you love, and courage.

[MajestyJo]

To have faith is to defy logic.
It takes faith to think positively.
It takes faith to believe that there
is a loving God who cares deeply
about our pain.



To believe in life, the universe, or yourself
after numerous failures is to have courage.
Faith is an act of courage. It is choosing to
get up in the morning and face our fears and
believe that God will help us.



Faith is choosing to believe that even though
we may have failed one hundred times before
that we can succeed the next time.

Faith By Family Friend Poems / CC BY 3.0

[MajestyJo]

The following is a list of 110 self-nurturing ideas that have to do with "Esteem Needs." Do at least one of these activities every day.

Psysiological Needs:

Eat breakfast
Take a nap
Break a bad habit, if just for today
Get at least 7 hours sleep
Drink 8 glasses of water today
Eat a healthy snack

Safety Needs:

Repair something in your home
Learn how to protect your health
Wear a seat belt

Belonging and Love Needs:

Call your mother or father
Search out a long-lost friend
Open up to the person closest to you
Pay a compliment
Turn off the TV and talk
Get to know the neighbor's dog or cat
Listen to what you hear
Tell someone you love him or her
Hold a hand
Hug someone
Contact someone you've been thinking about
Admire a child
Get to know the neighbors
Kiss a friend
Tell someone how much you appreciate him or her

Esteem Needs:

Blow up a balloon and turn it loose
Make your own candles
Walk instead of ride
Give yourself a compliment
Read a poem aloud
Look at the stars
Use a new word
Frame a picture
Forget an old grudge
Take yourself to lunch
Go to the library
Try a new food
Listen to the rain on the roof
Feed the ducks
Jump in a pile of leaves
Appreciate trees
Sign up for a class
Study a dew-laden cobweb
Learn something new
Sing in the shower
List ten things you do well
Walk in the rain
Waste a little time
Curl up before an open fire
Buy a ticket to a special event
Return something you've borrowed
Organize some small corner of your life
Pop popcorn
Draw a picture, even if you can't draw
Keep a secret
Enjoy silence
Walk to the nearest park
Go wading
Light a candle and read by candlelight
Pick up some travel brochures and dream
Smell a flower
Clean out your wallet
Take an early morning walk
Look at old photos
Run down a hill
Write a poem
Start a new project
Walk barefoot
Tell a joke
Take a different road to get home
Build a sandcastle
Ask someone for help
Let someone do you a favor
Reread a favorite book
Listen to the dawn
Imagine being your favorite tree
Watch the sun set
Hide a love note where a loved one will find it
Make a surprise gift
Go to a fair
Lie on the grass
Go for a swim
Rearrange a room
Let someone love you
Drop a quarter where someone will find it
Hum
Bake bread

Self-Actualization Needs:

Visit a lonely person or a shut-in
Help a stranger
Be thankful
Take a risk
Do something you've always wanted to do
Say "yes"
Say "no"
Meditate
Throw away something you don't like
Try to feel another person's hurt (or joy)
Practice courage in one small way
Warm a heart
Laugh at yourself
Send a card to someone for no reason
Encourage a young person
Follow an impulse
Put yourself out for someone
Acknowledge when you are wrong
Volunteer some time to a good cause
Give yourself a present
Allow yourself to make a mistake
Allow yourself to make another mistake
Do something hard to do
Don't do something -- sit there
Take time to talk to neighborhood children

Source unknown to me

[MajestyJo]

Hugs to you all.

Steps To Happiness

Author Unknown


Everybody Knows:
You can't be all things to all people.
You can't do all things at once.
You can't do all things equally well.
You can't do all things better than everyone else.
Your humanity is showing just like everyone else's.

So:
You have to find out who you are, and be that.
You have to decide what comes first, and do that.
You have to discover your strengths, and use them.
You have to learn not to compete with others,
Because no one else is in the contest of *being you*.

Then:
You will have learned to accept your own uniqueness.
You will have learned to set priorities and make decisions.
You will have learned to live with your limitations.
You will have learned to give yourself the respect that is due.
And you'll be a most vital mortal.

Dare To Believe:
That you are a wonderful, unique person.
That you are a once-in-all-history event.
That it's more than a right, it's your duty, to be who you are.
That life is not a problem to solve, but a gift to cherish.
And you'll be able to stay one up on what used to get you down.



"People will forget what you said
People will forget what you did
But people will never forget how you made them feel"

[MajestyJo]

Greed according to Zen, is wanting to be other than where you are at the moment.

It just came to me how much this has been a truth in the last few weeks since my aunt passed away. How many times I have wished that she was still here because I miss her and have reached for the phone to call her. Yet this is a selfish self-centered action on my part, because to my knowledge, she is in a much better place and to want to keep her here for my own gratification and comfort would be purely selfish.

It is really difficult to let go of loved ones so that they may rest in peace. I don't have the right to keep them here by prayer and thought when they have an opportunity to pass onto greater and better things.

I need to hang onto the memories not the person.

The same applies to our addiction and our past life. We are free to move on to bigger and better things, yet we cling to the past, fear letting it go because it is the known.

May I continue to let go of my past, stop grieving the coulda, woulda, shouldas and get on with living my life in today. I believe those of us who make it to the rooms of recovery have been given a second chance at life because many of us 'missed' out on a great portion of our previous one.

Let us remember that each day is a new beginning and to have a good one, free from the past and giving praise and glorifying another new today.

Caressa going through the grieving period takes time. Don't think of wishing she were still here as being selfish. She was good to you and you loved her. Think of all the good memories. When I was in Nursing school I took a course on Death & Dying . It was all about the different stages that each person has to pass through to put their loss to rest. One of the books we used was written by Elisabeth Kubler Ross. It was called On Death & Dying. She has a web site at :-

www.elisabethkublerross.com/

Check the quote section. I hope you get a chance to read some of her work, it has helped me get through all the losses in my life.

Love you and God Bless
lildee

From 2004

Looked up this old post, and when I read it, I have realized that even though the person hasn't died, they are no longer the person, not the one they were.

I didn't realize the extent the addict in me changed over the years, and what I became. I knew it was bad, but I have had a new awakening.

Grief isn't just about the passing of a friend, it is about change, what is no more, the end of an era, the end of what is and is no more.

[MajestyJo]

Through the midst of some of the most trying adversity, you have to keep your head up, and your feet moving forward, while thinking to yourself, there is hope. Life may not be treating you the way that you want to be treated, things that you have expected to happen by now may not be happening for you. There may be relationships in your life that haven't developed the way that you wanted them to, or job offers that you expected but haven't received.



There is always hope. Even in times in which we feel that we will never arise from being down in such a horrible way. There is always hope. When you feel as if you have gone as far as you can go, and all forward progress is halted. There is always hope. When you have tried to get a loved one to see that what they are doing is not only hurting themselves but is hurting everyone around them. There is always hope.

[MajestyJo]

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