Life is not always fair

Life is not always fair for if it is, it isn’t life at all.

Because life isn’t fair there lies the endless challenges and motivation that probably keep men and women reaching for the stars!

However, there is some consolation perhaps in the knowledge that the mass of men (and women too) actually lead lives of quiet desperation. Only that most of them are not telling.

You thought you’re damned but consider this: there are many people out there who are actually worse off or more damned than you.

So, when your chips are down don’t despair. Consider this: There is always someone somewhere in a more worrisome situation than you.

Someone once said, “We are born wet, naked, and hungry. Then things get worse.” Didn’t it?

Indeed that’s probably true for most of us but when the worse is over, there will always be something better to look forward to. As they say, there will be sunshine always after the rain!

The key to success in this life is you’ll have to chase after your dreams vigorously if not passionately, after all a man reaps what he sows.

That’s the way it is with life. The advice is: don’t stay permanently in the rut if ever you’re caught in one.

Consider what these wise men and women have said about life.

“Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.”
~Mark Twain

“My formula for living is quite simple. I get up in the morning and I go to bed at night. In between, I occupy myself as best I can.”
~Cary Grant

“There is much in life that doesn’t have to be done instantly. There are phone calls that don’t have to be returned immediately. There are many difficult problems and decisions that actually improve when they are left to simmer a little while. The rhythm of life is intricate but orderly, tenacious but fragile. To keep that in mind is to hold the key to survival.”
~Judge Shirley M. Hufstedler

“Life is not a 100-yard dash, but more a cross-country run. If we sprint all the time, we not only fail to win the race, but never even last long enough to reach the finish line.”
~Joseph A. Kennedy

“When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say,” “I used everything you gave me.”
~Erma Bombeck

It’s alright if we didn’t make it in life. In the end, it’s not how much we have but how well we have lived; not how long it is but how good it is, are what matters.

I conclude with this often quoted prayer that’s found from an inn in Lancaster, England:

“Give us Lord, a bit o' sun,
A bit o' work and a bit o' fun;
Give us all in the struggle and sputter
Our daily bread and a bit o' butter.”

Cheers and God bless.

Let's listen to this beautiful hymn entitled "Deeper In Love" sung by Don Moen, the music-video courtesy of "worthlee".

My 100th blog

This is my 100th blog to-date and that calls for a little celebration.

Whether the readership of my Blog has gone up or not since I started to blog in December 2008, it doesn’t matter.

All I wanted was some place where I could just litter my thoughts for whatever they are worth and I think I have found it in this Blog.

It has given me numerous hours of joy and fun in creating stories, selecting music-videos that I like and I must have sipped thru’ literally thousands of quotable quotes to find those appropriate ones that I wanted to mention. Wow, it was painstaking to say the least, at times even exhilarating but it was good.

I don’t know who else I must thank apart from my host, Google’s Blogspot.com for making all these possible. God forbid that I should miss any one out whose credit is due. If I did, please forgive me. I want you to know that it’s inadvertent and not deliberate.

A big Thank You goes to all you good readers too for your patience and support. I hope you have enjoyed reading my pieces as much as I have enjoyed putting them down in this Blog for all to see.

Some day this Blog will have to come to an end. I don’t know when but so long as I have my breath and pen and God helping I will continue writing for as long as my love for it has not waned.

Well, you could say I have been smitten by a love bug for some time; that bug which is “reading and writing” I hope will stay on strong for the rest of my years!

You know, William Makepeace Thackeray once said, “There are thousands of thoughts lying within a man that he does not know till he takes up the pen and writes.” Do you know that you could be one of them too?

“The act of putting pen to paper encourages pause for thought, this in turn makes us think more deeply about life, which helps us regain our equilibrium.” ~So said one Norbet Platt. This observation is very encouraging.

In conclusion allow me to echo what James Michener had said which is this, “I love writing. I love the swirl and swing of words as they tangle with human emotions.” Just imagine it! You could say I am in love with that too.

Did I say celebration somewhere well I am ready to go? So, I’m signing off but it’s just for now. I’ll be back.

Cheers!

Here's a lovely yet quite poignant oldie sung by Eddie Arnold entitled, "Yesterday, when I was young". Thanks to Khaled Seleem for sharing. Follow the lyrics and enjoy.

The 5 simple rules

This is a rather interesting piece taken from my Scrapbook, the author is not known but the wisdom is worth sharing. I shall post it here. It reads as follows:

Remember the 5 simple rules to be happy.

1. Free your heart from hatred.
2. Free your mind from worries.
3. Live simply.
4. Give more.
5. Expect less.

No one can go back and make a brand new start. Anyone can start now and make a brand new ending.

God didn’t promise days without pain, laughter without sorrow, sun without rain; But He did promise strength for the day, comfort for the tears, and light for the way.

Disappointments are like road humps, they slow you down a bit, but you enjoy the smooth road afterwards. Don’t stay on the humps too long. Move on!

When you feel down because you didn’t get what you want, just sit tight and be happy, because God is thinking of something better to give you.

When something happens to you, good or bad, consider what it means. There’s a purpose to life’s events, to teach you how to laugh more, or not to cry too hard.

You can’t make someone love you, all you can do is be someone who can be loved. The rest is up to the person to realize your worth. The measure of your love is when you love without measure.

In life there are very rare chances that you’ll meet the person you love and who loves you in return. So once you have it, don’t ever let go; the chance might never come your way again.

It’s better to lose your pride to the one you love, than to lose the one you love because of pride.

We spend too much time looking for the right person to love, or finding fault with those we already love, when instead we should be perfecting the love we give.

When you truly care for someone, you don’t look for faults, you don’t look for answers, you don’t look for mistakes. Instead, you fight the mistakes, you accept the faults, and you overlook the excuses.

Never abandon an old friend. You will never find one who can take his place. Friendship is like wine, it gets better as it grows older. Encourage others with a demonstration of your love for them.

Have a great and wonderful day, today!

Hi Dolly

Dolly Parton, pic courtesy of snarkerati.com

I love Dolly Parton, dubbed America’s Queen of Country Music. Who hasn’t heard of her?

Did you know that she was born in Sevierville, Tennessee USA on 19 January 1946, the fourth of twelve children? That makes her my contemporary by age but unlike me an unknown, she is a world-class celebrity.

She remains one of the most-successful female artistes in America with twenty-five number-one singles and a record forty-one top-10 country albums.

She is also a hugely successful songwriter, having written more than 3,000 songs and has been inducted (in 2001) into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

She is known for her distinctive soprano, sometimes bawdy humor, flamboyant dress sense and voluptuous figure.

Indeed, her unique natural voice and style is beyond compare. An excellent artiste I must say.

Listen to this selection which I have chosen and you’ll see what I mean. The title of the song is entitled "Letter to Heaven".

If God blogs

If God had a blog, I wonder what He would write or say.

Could it be about the glory of heaven (not yet revealed) or the follies of man? ~The triumphs of his creation and/or his disappointments perhaps?

But why should he be so telling? Who would be his intended audience? What is his purpose? Would it make any difference if he did? You would probably ask the same.

Didn’t he advise a long time ago that the whole duty of man is to “fear God and keep his commandments” (~Ecclesiastes 12:13); and expressed his desire that in the end, none should perish but that everyone would come to repentance and be saved (~2 Peter 3:9)?

But will God blog? Just a passing thought anyway.

Of course, there is no need for Almighty God to have a personal blog in order for his word to reach us.

He has already spoken thru’ his prophets and apostles of ancient times and his words are well documented in the Bible for all to read.

He is still speaking to us today thru’ his many servants and disciples whether on-line or off-line, in every which way that he knows how to reach us, but the problem is have you heard? Have I heard?

He’s is not the problem, I think we are.

If we haven’t heard what God has to say to us, isn’t it time we found out?

Don't wait for “six strong men” to take you to church!

God bless.

Don't miss seeing this video courtesy of "cathycat1023". It could change your life.

Bases for our belief

Beauty, they say is in the eyes of the beholder. So is “Truth”.

Everybody sees the same thing but in a different light. Some see it and surprisingly, some don’t.

Two people can look exactly at the same thing and see something totally different, agree?

Indeed, no one is quite the same.

Have you ever asked yourself why do you believe in the things that you believe in?

Is there such a thing as blind faith?

What then are the bases for your beliefs?

Buckminster Fuller (an American architect and a 21st century thinker) has this to say, “Belief is when someone else does the thinking.” And we don’t want to be like that, do we?

This brings to my mind what the Buddha said a long time ago, which is this. He had said:

“Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.”

There maybe a lot of truths in that but as I have said earlier truth much like beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.

The Buddha is of course entitled to his opinion but so are we.

“This is how humans are: we question all our beliefs, except for the ones we really believe, and those we never think to question.” ~So said one Orson Scott Card. Isn’t that paradoxical but true?

In the God-thing, Miguel de Unamuno puts it this way, “Those who believe that they believe in God, but without passion in their hearts, without anguish in mind, without uncertainty, without doubt, without an element of despair even in their consolation, believe in the God idea, not God himself.”

Consider what Catherine Marshall said in Christy (1967), which is this: “Those who never rebelled against God or at some point in their lives shaken their fists in the face of heaven, have never encountered God at all.” Really?

Well, what other people say or write especially those in authority have a lot of influence on us, don’t they? So my advice is to be careful in what you read or hear. Don’t just follow blindly as blind following could have disastrous consequences.

Keep an open mind and always digest what you have read or heard.

Don’t be afraid to ask our God for wisdom, a discerning mind and a righteous heart. Who knows Almighty God may well give you this like he did long time ago to King Solomon when the latter asked for wisdom above anything else.

If we take in everything that people write or say as the Gospel truth like for instance the way people generally follow from the reading of health books even respectable ones, we could die of a miss-print!

In the end, believe it or not (anything for that matter) is really up to us. Yes as Shakespeare had put it a long time ago, “To be or not to be, that’s the question,” isn’t it?

I think we cannot do away with decisions and beliefs in our everyday life. They are important like breathing and exercises but so are the bases for our beliefs. One justifies the other and vice versa and together they make us whole.

I guess in life, we have to apply our hearts and minds all the time and then choose wisely.

Take it this way life is interesting but not necessarily easy. It is fragile yet intricate, tenacious and challenging. To keep that in mind is to hold the key to survival. To me, indeed it is.

God bless.

Let's listen to Jim Reeves sing the beautiful song entitled "The Flowers, The Sunset, The Trees" brought to us courtesy of "164will".

An out-of-doors awakening

When your chips are down and life doesn’t seem worth living, take a trip out-of-doors.

Immerse yourself in Mother Nature. See, contemplate and marvel at her wonders.

Indeed, a breath of fresh air once in a while out-of-doors is good for you and you’ll be so glad that you did.

An Out-of-doors experience is not only useful to inspire poets but also beneficial to all man who longs for an awakening of his own soul.

Enjoy this poem while you’re contemplating your next visit out-of-doors.

A poem by Stromboli Smith.

“I climbed to the top of a mountain one day
To see the sun setting in glory,
And I thought, as I looked at his vanishing ray,
Of a perfectly splendid story.

'Twas about an old man and the ass he bestrode
Till the strength of the beast was o'ertested;
Then the man would carry him miles on the road
Till Neddy was pretty well rested.

The moon rising solemnly over the crest
Of the hills to the east of my station
Displayed her broad disk to the darkening west
Like a visible new creation.

And I thought of a joke (and I laughed till I cried)
Of an idle young woman who tarried
About a church-door for a look at the bride,
Although 'twas herself that was married.

To poets all Nature is pregnant with grand
Ideas--with thought and emotion.
I pity the dunces who don't understand
The speech of earth, heaven and ocean.”

God bless.

A recipe for wealth

Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko in their book “The Millionaire Next Door” have this to say and I quote:

“Most people have it all wrong about wealth in America. Wealth is not the same as income. If you make a good income each year and spend it all, you are not getting wealthier. You are just living high. Wealth is what you accumulate, not what you spend.”

“How do you become wealthy? Here, too, most people have it wrong. It is seldom luck or inheritance, or advanced degrees or even intelligence that enables people to amass fortunes. Wealth is more the result of a lifestyle of hard work, perseverance, planning and most of all, self-discipline.”

The above says it all, doesn’t it? And who says wealth cannot be earned? Until recently, executive pay and bonuses in America were out of this world!

If that happens in America, it can also happen anywhere else in the world.

To become rich, it seems that one has to be stingy with money, that’s the first rule. Indeed, I think the rich of today wouldn’t have gotten where they are if they had not been careful on how they use or manage their money.

Indeed, it has been said, “A penny saved is a penny gained.” And there is an old proverb which says, “A fool and his money are easily parted.” Isn’t that true, even today?

The second rule which is hard work, perseverance, planning and self-discipline are too much of a bother to many; and probably that’s why so few of us in the world are really rich today.

We shun hard work and planning; have no self-discipline and cannot persevere, don’t we?

I see a new generation now that wants to get rich quick but is not prepared to put in the kind of work and sacrifices that our fathers and fore-fathers had done.

It’s about time somebody comes out to say this. There are no short-cuts to success or to riches either. Money just doesn’t grow on trees!

If you want money, you’ll have to work hard for it and when you have it the advice is, do not squander it.

Invest your money wisely and you’ll see it grow, then you’ll be rich. It’s as simple as that. Try it but just don’t be disappointed if you don’t get there.

Now, is there anyone out there who doesn’t want to be rich?

Cheers!

Thanks to "guru006" for giving us this music-video, taken from the movie "Fiddler on the roof". Sit back, relax and enjoy.