Streaks_of_Sunshine's Blog

I wish you light in your darkest hours. When life seems to be confusing or empty, and when your path seems to be hidden in the shadows of pain, doubt, despair, or unrest, may you find the light inside of you that will help you to see things as they truly are, for every night comes to an end, every storm runs its course, and light and peace always return to us.

I wish you the power of a perspective that allows you to see the beauty of the darkness, no matter how threatening your current situation, or how uneasy you may feel. There always is light for us to access, whether it be the light of God or the light of a close friend, or even the light within ourselves that is the power and the strength with which we've all been blessed to one extent or another.

I wish you the ability to develop the light that is within you, to strengthen your spiritual faith, to help your faith in yourself to grow and thrive. You have the gift of self-sufficiency, and the possibility of growing into a person who is strong and able. But may you not grow too strong, though, so that you reject the help and love and caring of others who wish to be there for you. Balance your strength with your needs and the needs of others to be helpful and to show their caring.

I wish you friends and friendship, the ability to be a friend, and the openness to allow others to be your friends. It isn't always easy to open ourselves up and allow others to see our needs and our faults, but this journey of life on which we all find ourselves is much more fulfilling when we don't try to travel every path alone. Making and keeping friends is not always an easy task, but it's one that's well worth the trouble and the risks.

I wish you the ability to discern, the ability to recognize your true friends and to see the differences between them and those people who only pretend to be friends. May you develop the diplomacy necessary to deal with all people fairly and justly, no matter their relationship to you, for in this way you will maintain your peace of mind and others will find their dealings with you to be pleasant and fulfilling.

I wish you the ability to enjoy truly the company of those who are dear to you. May your relationships be deep and fulfilling, and may you enjoy fully each moment that you are able to share with them. May you be able to share your intimate and important thoughts and feelings--your faith, your doubts, your joys, your difficulties, your accomplishments and achievements, your failures and your discouragement. Sharing these aspects of ourselves allows us to be fulfilled and complete; allowing others to share these parts of themselves allows them to be fulfilled and complete.

I wish you peace--peace of mind and peace of heart that will allow you to experience life with an equanimity that others simply do not know, an inner peace that others will see and feel, and that will help them to find their own peace on their own terms.

I wish you the ability to access your peacefulness even in the most trying of situations, so that the trials of life will not overwhelm you with their complexities and complications. May the peace within you always be a source of comfort and security, always there to help you to maintain a healthy perspective on life. Many people go through their entire lives never looking for peace, and thus never feeling it inside of themselves, but I hope that you're able not only to search it out, but to find it and allow it to be a part of yourself.

I wish you the peace that passes all understanding, the peace that comes from a faith in something much greater than ourselves, a God who is loving and kind and gentle. Millions of people have come across this peace, from the monks who spend day after day in prayer to the people who have passed through the program of Alcoholics Anonymous in order to clean up their lives and stop allowing their lack of inner peace to destroy them. A lack of peace in our lives can be one of the most destructive forces in the world, and I hope that you never feel the loss of peace in your life.

I wish you a sense of gratitude, thankfulness for all that you've been blessed with in this life, all the things that you have, all the people you know, the food that you eat, the possibilities that you have.

I wish you a thankful heart, one that sees the importance of each aspect of your life and that doesn't take the important things for granted, without appreciation for the beauty and the harmony of our lives. May you always find the reasons for which thankfulness is appropriate, and be able to voice your gratitude to others, to yourself, to your God, for it it only with gratitude that we can open the many doors of life that are available to us, the doors that lay closed to those who live life without gratitude.

Most of us live in an era of unprecedented possibilities and potential, and one factor that can help to determine our success is our level of gratitude. Those who proceed through life without recognizing the blessings that have been bestowed upon them through no effort of their own live empty lives, always wondering why their own efforts do not result in happiness or fulfillment, while those who feel gratitude for the sunsets, the cool breezes, the times spent with friends, the smiles and laughter of children, the kind words of others, the touches of rain and of sun--these are the people who see life as an on-going procession of miracles that we truly are blessed to be able to experience.

I wish you forgiveness, both the power to forgive and the wisdom and strength to seek forgiveness. One of the most powerful forces in the world, forgiveness frees us from anger, resentment, and the lack of peace that results from these emotions.

Forgiveness allows us to move on with our lives, leaving the mistakes of the past where they belong--in our pasts rather than in our present. I wish you the ability to see clearly when it's important for you to ask forgiveness for the hurts that you might have caused others. Often, we don't clearly see the results of our own actions, and others suffer needlessly, wondering why we've done what we've done. We often can clear the air and clear our lives and ease our minds with a simple apology, but we need to know when such an apology is necessary, and when one will be helpful.

I wish you the graciousness and the grace to accept apologies when they are offered sincerely. Such forgiveness is important both for yourself and the person who is apologizing; refusal to accept an apology affects you more than it affects the person who is apologizing. Accepting apologies is another way of saying "I am ready to move on with my life, and I am ready to put behind me the things that belong there." Forgiveness is one of the strongest healing forces in the world, and it must not be asked for or accepted lightly or without sincerity; it must also not be rejected when offered sincerely.

I wish you the ability to let go, the ability to allow yourself to allow life to do its thing without you attempting to control the outcomes of everything that goes on around you. I hope that you always will be able to recognize the situations over which you truly have no control, and try to let them be, accepting the outcomes as they are, and not judging them based on what you wanted them to be.

Many people go through lives trying to control people and situations, though they're rarely aware of just what they're doing. For many, this behavior is the result of some sort of childhood drama, such as a parent's alcoholism, a family's poverty, or an absent parent, among many other things. They don't realize that they're trying to control others, making others feel uncomfortable, and they don't realize that so much of their own unhappiness results from their consistent failure to control situations on their own terms.

I wish you the ability to see when attempts to control are appropriate, and when things are best left alone. I wish you the ability to allow things to occur without your input; sometimes our most important contribution is simply to observe. We can support and love without telling others what to do, without trying to help them in every facet of their lives; we must let others learn in their own ways and make their own mistakes if they're to become the people that God meant them to be. Just as we don't accompany our children to every single class in school that they attend, we don't need to be there to guide them through every one of life's lessons.

I wish you the ability and the openness to learn always, all through life. We are fortunate to be a part of a world that is full of lessons, minute after minute, day after day, and if we can learn from these lessons, we can become people of love and hope and peace. As long as we always remember that there is much to learn and that we cannot predict who will be our most important teachers, we will continue to learn.

May you always find the important lessons that are in each occurrence in our lives, the lessons that help us to grow into the people we were meant to be. Nothing happens to us or with us that doesn't have some sort of lesson to take from it, even if that lesson is sometimes just reassurance that we're moving in the right direction. Many people choose to ignore the lessons, feeling that they already know what they need to know, or they don't even see them to begin with, for their eyes and minds and hearts are closed to growth and change.

I wish you the willingness to change, for many of life's lessons call on us to change a way of doing or thinking that we've been holding on to for a very long time, and that may be more destructive to us than helpful. Learning is not very useful if we don't allow the lessons to have an effect on us, and we can allow that to happen only if we're open to the possibility that a change is necessary. How often have we seen people who have held on to their way of doing things even when it's very clear to us that they're hurting themselves and others by doing so? Just having the willingness to consider change is one of the greatest blessings that I can wish you.

I wish you patience. I hope that you are able to wait for things and people around you, and not try to hurry life or hurry people to do things according to your wishes and not theirs. Many things in life take time to develop if they're going to be as valuable as they can be, and it's up to us to wait for them.

A lack of patience can lead to disaster, as the man who "helped" the butterfly out of its cocoon found out--the long, slow process of escape was necessary for the insect's survival, and the man's help killed it (see below). How many times have we all lost out on great opportunities because we jumped too soon, thinking that we would lose out if we waited for something to happen? I wish you the patience that comes of peace of mind, the ability to recognize when it's better to wait than to leap, better to bide your time than to hurry.

I wish you patience with other people and their mistakes and problems, and I wish you the realization that we all learn different lessons at different paces, and we cannot expect everyone to advance at the same speeds as each other. Be patient with the people who show immaturity, ignorance, intolerance, even prejudice, for these behaviors merely show where the people are at this moment, not where they will be when they grow and learn. May you be able to separate the people from their attitudes or actions, showing patience for the children of God, but working to educate so that their ignorance or prejudice may be overcome.

I wish you plenty of obstacles in your road, for obstacles help us to learn more than anything else. May the obstacles never be too overwhelming for you, and may you always find the strength to deal with them inside yourself. As the saying goes, "Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors," and we would do well to learn more life skills in order to improve our own lives and to be able to help others to overcome some of the obstacles that they encounter.

I wish you the ability to recognize obstacles for what they are: either impenetrable barriers that should cause us to choose another path, or hindrances that can be overcome with patience and perseverance. Too often, people confuse the two and end up wasting time, energy, and spirit trying to attain something that truly is unattainable, or giving up at the first sign of resistance that they encounter in their paths. But may you not be too quick to jump to a judgment as to which is which--very often, things that we think at the outset are one, end up being the other.

I wish you plenty of company and companionship with people who will be able to help you to overcome the obstacles in your way, for only through accepting help from others can we learn truly to help others. The giving heart must be able and willing to take, and if we don't allow others the chance to help us, we're robbing them of the opportunity to grow and to change through giving. We're taking away from them the sense of satisfaction and fulfillment that comes from having helped a fellow human being in need. May you never allow pride to keep you from letting others give you help, no matter how slight the help may be.

I wish you clarity--clarity in your vision of who you want to be, clarity in your vision of what you want out of life, and clarity in your vision of how you can contribute to this world. With a clear sense of who you are and what you're doing, you can contribute truly wonderful things to your community and to the world as a whole, as long as you're willing to put yourself out there and take the risks necessary to do so.

With a clear vision, there's no limit to the amount that you can accomplish for the good of all people, as well as for your own good. Clarity gives us the advantage of knowing exactly what our goals are, and allowing us to work towards them in ways that will ensure that we attain them. Clarity allows us to avoid the confusion of uncertainty, and it helps us to make decisions that are realistic, practical, and helpful. I wish you the ability to see clearly in all aspects of your life--in your relationships, in your profession, in your hobbies, in the ways that you can help other people to see clearly in their lives.

I wish you clarity in your vision of right and wrong, of proper and improper, of helpful and harmful, so that you may make decisions and take actions that will be a tribute to who you are and that will help others to see through your example just how positive life can be when we care about how our actions affect others. When you can walk through life and sleep at night with a clear conscience, then life has a quality that it does not have when we are agonizing over something that we've done or something that we must do. May your clarity of vision also extend always to a clear view of just how valuable you are as a human being who is sharing this planet with so many other human beings, and just how important you are to so many of us.

Author Unknown

You have been created as a completely unique individual. While your thoughts and ideas may be similar to those of other human beings, no one possesses exactly the same combination of gifts and dreams and hopes and ambitions that you carry within you. You are a marvelous, miraculous combination of potential and character, personality and ability.

When you look at other people and all that they've accomplished and all that they have, there's no need to compare yourself with them. Quite simply put, their lives are different. They are where they are, and you are where you are. Your goal as a unique individual should not be to have and do the things that other people do, but to find your own path, your own way of being, your own way to accomplish your goals and reach your own dreams.

Remember always that there are people who would have you believe that you would be better off rejecting your uniqueness and acting just like everyone else. There are people who would like to see you have the same wants as everyone else so that you'll be interested in buying their products or services. You are not here, though, to conform to what others want you to be--you are here to be yourself, to share your unique and special gifts with the people who are a part of your life. Do not distress yourself with imaginings of "what you should be" or "where you should be" or "what you should be accomplishing." Instead, look at your life and look for the opportunities that are there for you to share your gifts and your unique perspective on life with others.

If you haven't yet found the people who appreciate your uniqueness and your individuality, perhaps you haven't been looking in the right places. There are many people who will appreciate you fully, but if you try to find "acceptance" among people who want you to change who you are in order to "fit in," you'll find that their acceptance is fleeting, and their loyalty to you depends upon your willingness to conform. Be you--always be you--and be with the people who will accept you for exactly what and who you are. You may not see these people now if you're looking in the wrong places, but keep your eyes and your heart open, and listen to your intuition and your instincts.

The beauty that is you is indescribable, for how can we put into words something that defies explanation, description, and definition? Most people, unfortunately, bury their beauty beneath layers of disbelief in themselves, rejection of themselves, or condemnation of themselves and their supposed shortcomings. Beauty must be recognized and allowed to grow and develop and mature, yet if we deny our own beauty, we're keeping it locked in a cage inside of our selves and not allowing it to become everything it has the potential to be.

Perhaps your beauty isn't completely of the physical kind--that's fine. Once you accept that fact and allow your inner beauty to shine through, your physical appearance becomes much less important. When we judge ourselves harshly, though, just because we don't look like someone we admire, that harsh judgment takes away from our looks, turning our beauty into something else. The cheetah's greatest beauty shines through when it's in motion, but when it's kept in a cage in a zoo, that motion never happens, and the animal becomes something much less than it has the potential to be.

What aspects of your own beauty do you keep hidden away? What are you keeping from the rest of the world, rather than sharing with the world? When the cheetah does run, its running grows better every time it does so. When we allow our beauty to shine through, it grows stronger every time we allow it to do so. You are a beautiful person--make no mistake about that, for if you do make that mistake, you'll find that you are doing yourself a great deal of harm.

Accept your beauty. Be beautiful. Allow your beauty to shine out to the rest of the world, and let it grow and prosper. Take care of yourself, but pay no heed to the people who tell you what you should look like or what you should wear or how you should cut your hair--they're only trying to make you conform to their idea of what beauty should be, and they are not looking at your own inherent beauty and allowing that to be enough.

Usually we think of treasure as something that's been hidden and that people have to search for. Story after story tells us of characters who are searching for a hidden treasure, only to discover that the treasure inside is much more important than any sort of material wealth. Why don't we listen to those stories and accept their message? You are a treasure. You are love and caring and potential, and what you have to give to others is much more important than anything they can get in a paycheck or in a store. Perhaps you haven't yet reached a point at which you're comfortable with giving of yourself; that's okay--just be patient. Perhaps you haven't yet uncovered the most important elements of your unique treasure; that's okay--just keep searching and being true to yourself.

Treasures that are buried in the ground or hidden in a cave do no good for anyone. They just sit there, unused and unknown. Treasures that are brought out into the light and then used for the common good are the most special treasures there are, and the amazing thing about them is that even though we give freely of them, they continue to grow larger and stronger and more valuable. We will have times when we feel exhausted from giving of our treasure, but we will be replenished, either through rest or through other people sharing their treasure with us. We just have to be aware and awake so that we can accept what they have to give.

You are a treasure yourself, and you are full of treasures that can be helpful to many, many people. Be patient, and know that the people who will recognize the treasure that you are and that is in you are out there, but that not everyone will recognize it. Be you, be kind to yourself, and know that the treasure that you are is more valuable than any sort of material goods.

You are a wonder. You have abilities that you barely recognize, and you have potential that is virtually unlimited. You are a person who can love, give, encourage, motivate, inspire, and help others to get through life in positive, peaceful ways. You are able to see things that other people can't see, and you feel things in ways that others don't.

You have come through difficult trials, and you've not only endured, but thrived. You continue to seek the best for you and for those you love, and you keep your eyes and heart open for new possibilities and opportunities for growth and learning. In spite of your own needs, you continue to seek out ways to give to others, hoping to make their journeys more pleasant and less painful. When you make mistakes, you bounce back and learn from them, not allowing them to keep you down and not allowing despair to keep its hold on you. Your resilience is a model for others to follow.

Our bodies are wonders themselves. The incredible combination of muscles, blood vessels, bones, brains, lungs, eyes, heart, and so much more are miracles of nature, functioning in ways that often defy explanation. With a simple thought, we can cause our fingers to bend or our toes to wiggle, or we can balance on a fence or shoot a basket from twenty feet away. We all have different gifts of things that we're able to accomplish by using our bodies, you no less than anyone else. Notice and appreciate the wonder of your body and the many things it allows you to do, and you'll start to feel the incredible sense of wonder that comes with the realization that your body truly accomplishes wonderful things every day that you're alive.

Do not doubt that you are a wonder. Do not doubt that the gifts you possess are wonderful, and are only waiting to be developed into their full potential. Do not doubt that your gifts are wonderful to someone, no matter how small or insignificant they may seem to you. Do not doubt that the wonder of you is a special gift to the world that makes us all a bit richer. Doubt cannot tarnish the wonder of anything, but it can create a filter through which wonder is hard to see. Recognize, accept, and appreciate the true wonder of you!

We are beings of love, and you are no different from the rest of us--you are able to feel loved and to be loved, and that love is the only power that is true power on this planet. We must always be willing to share our love, to spread it as far and as wide as we possibly can, for love is something that we get more of the more we give it away. It's not like food that disappears as we eat it, or fuel that is burned as it is used; instead, love grows ever stronger and ever fuller as we give more away to the people who are part of our lives, and even those who aren't.

One of the amazing "secrets" of life is that we all have within us an unlimited supply of love; somehow, though, we shy away from sharing this love because we think that our supply will dissipate. Too few of us have learned that we first must share our love with ourselves in order to release its full potential--we must love ourselves fully and unconditionally if we're to be able to love others truly and freely. You have within you more love than you ever can share on this planet, but you must turn it inward first to prime the pump, to allow it to flow freely to wherever it is needed.

You are lovable. You are worthy of love, of being loved. You are a valuable member of the family of human beings that lives on this planet right now, and you can help to make the world a better place by showing your love, to yourself and to others. Your small acts of love can help to make people feel safe, consoled, helped, cared for and about. Love grows as it is spread, and your acts of love today will be multiplied into many acts more tomorrow. Ask yourself always, "Am I contributing to the love on this planet?", and act accordingly. The love that you are will become a very special part of who you are, and what other people who come in contact with you feel about life.

Your love is within you always, and the best thing that you can do for it is to fight the fear that keeps you from spreading it. Learn to recognize when and how it's most appropriate to share the love you have. Help others to learn how to share their love, too, and watch how they grow stronger and more confident, just as you will as you see how others receive your love. Help them to love themselves, and make sure that you give yourself the love that you deserve. When all is said and done, love is everything.

You have been given an incredible gift: that of potential. Potential is the idea of things that can be, things that can happen in the future, depending on what's done today. In order to reach potential, we set goals and we learn and we try to improve ourselves, all for the sake of growing and trying to reach our own potential. You have the potential to make your life something truly special, a life that will affect others in very positive ways.

It's been said that you can count the seeds in the apple, but you can't count the apples in the seed. That's because the apple is limited, already in its final form, but the seed is pure potential, ready to burst forth and become a tree that will in turn create countless apples that will give forth countless seeds. We have to choose, though, what we're going to do with our potential--are we going to find situations in which it can bear fruit and grow, or will we hide it, neglect it, and keep it out of sight so that it will never feel the touch of the sun or the nourishment of the soil and water?

Your potential belongs to you, but the fulfillment of your potential is a great gift to the people who shall witness and benefit from that fulfillment. You must believe that your potential is real, that it is not a figment of your imagination or just something that other people try to convince you that you have. You have the potential to be great, even if the scale of that greatness may not be as broad as you might hope for. It's clear that the person who has the potential to affect the lives of a few, and who fulfills that potential in a very positive way, contributes much more than the person who has the potential to affect many, but who squanders that potential and never allows it to reach fruition. Acknowledge your potential, then work to fulfill it, then watch the beautiful effects that you will have on your own life and the lives of those who share this world with you.

You are growing each day that you're alive. You are right now in the process of becoming a different human being than you were yesterday, all because you've been given the ability and desire to grow and develop. Tomorrow you will know things that you didn't know yesterday, and your view of the world and your opinions will shift with your new knowledge. Tomorrow you will have as part of your past today's experiences, something that you didn't have yesterday. Tomorrow you will believe things and believe in things that yesterday you still hadn't known or thought of.

You can choose to reject growth, to try to stay the same as you are without changing at all, but human beings were not meant to live that way. You can choose to embrace growth, to do your best to allow yourself to use new knowledge and ideas to become someone new and vital and alive. Sometimes as we grow we must cast off old beliefs and behaviors, and that can be painful at times. Sometimes as we grow we find that others are threatened by the way we're developing while they're doing their best to stand still, and when they criticize us, that can be painful, too.

But the only true obstacle to growth is ourselves. If we allow the possibility of pain to keep us from learning new things, then we're doing ourselves a great disservice. If we allow the fear of the unknown to keep us from exploring new places or ideas, then we're not allowing ourselves to reach our full potential of growth. We are our own obstacles to growth, and the best thing that we can do for ourselves is not to let our fears stand in the way of our growth, for too much depends on us growing and developing. Too many other people can be affected in positive ways when we learn new ideas that help us to see the world in a positive light.

We must not confuse growth with the adoption of other people's creeds or ideas or beliefs. We are not growing if we simply adopt the thoughts of others as our own, and we're well on the road to destroying our individuality if we do so. Each tree grows with different numbers of branches, different shapes, more or fewer leaves, or to different heights. No one expects trees to grow in the exact same ways as the other trees do, and it's rather silly to believe that human beings can or should grow into the same beliefs as everyone else. Trust yourself to grow into the being you're supposed to become, and allow yourself to grow fully. Prune yourself when you need to, and cast off those branches that are hindering your growth, and always make sure that you have the nutrients--physical and spiritual and emotional--that will allow you to grow in the most healthy way possible. Be good to yourself, and you will grow.

You have vision, though many are hesitant to trust that vision of life, of living, of who we are and what we're meant to be as human beings. Sometimes your vision runs contrary to the visions of others who somehow have "authority," so you relegate your vision to the basement of your mind, going down sometimes to visit it and dust it off, but never bringing it out into the light where it may grow into the astonishing view of life that it was meant to be.

The uniqueness of your vision makes it all that much more important to others who are caught up in their own visions, who see the world in their own limited way. We all have limits to what we can see, and it's important that we learn from the vision of others if we're to see this world as fully as possible. Vision gives us a view of all that affects us and teaches us ways to deal with the trials of life, and a broader sense of appreciation for the gifts and pleasures of life.

Trust your vision--allow it to be an important part of who you are. But do not hesitate to change your vision as times demand. As you learn more about life and your self, you will find that your vision shifts, that you see different things and that you see them in different ways. Holding on to yesterday's vision for fear of letting your vision go somewhere that you may not want it to go is simply trying to control your life to make it what you want it to be, rather than allowing life to teach you and help you to grow into something that you simply cannot imagine right now.

May peace be with you, and may peace grow in you. One of the greatest gifts that life has to offer is peace: peace of mind, peace of heart, peace in spirit, and a peaceful environment. In peace we can grow, and we can keep our peace even in the most difficult of times if we learn how to let peace grow and live within us. Peace is possibly the most important element of our lives, as necessary as water is for plants, as important as the ocean is for the fish who live there.

We lose our peace when we allow outside forces to compromise it. In other words, when something outside our control happens, we let go of our peace--we let it slip away and we lose our ability to slip into it and take care of problems from a place of peace. But how much more effective in crisis situations are the people who are able to hold on to their peace? The people who are able to stay calm are those who accomplish the most when life gets hectic or crazy, and that calmness always is a result of the inner peace that those people accept, nurture, and hold onto.

Peace allows us to accept people and their actions without being judgmental. Peace allows us to make our way through crises without the fear that they will overwhelm us. Peace gives us low blood pressure and lower stress levels, improving our physical and emotional health. Peace allows us to relate to other people without the need to control. Peace allows us to get our work done without wishing we were elsewhere. Peace helps to keep in check such destructive emotions as anger, resentment, jealousy, envy, fear, and many others that are born of a lack of inner peace.

May your peace stay with you always, and may you share your peace with the other people who are in your life, be it for years or for minutes. When you share your peace, it's like a breath of fresh air to someone else who may be caught up in the hectic moment or in the rat race that keeps them from slowing down and relaxing. When you share your peace, you give others a glimpse of what it's like to live in peace, and you give them an idea of what it must be like to have peace, and eventually they may realize that it's important for them to search out their own peace, to work at developing the peaceful side of them that can make life a blessing rather than a trial.

You have been created as a completely unique individual. While your thoughts and ideas may be similar to those of other human beings, no one possesses exactly the same combination of gifts and abilities and dreams and hopes and ambitions that you carry within you. Your uniqueness is beautiful, and only waiting for you to embrace it so that it can reach its full potential of beauty, peace, and love.

Somehow, being "different" has come to carry negative connotations in many cultures, so many people shy away from celebrating their uniqueness. Rather, they try to "fit in," to do things as other people do things so that they don't attract attention in a negative way. The loss to the world when people do this is not measurable--we have millions of people who could be contributing wonderfully unique ideas to the world, walking around trying to be like everyone else. Rather than contribute their unique ideas and thoughts and ways, they help to perpetuate the status quo, helping to keep things the same in order to keep things "safe." But the world needs you just as you are! You were created to be a truly unique individual so that you could pass on your special gifts to those who might need them, yet if you don't allow those gifts to flourish, no one will benefit from your unique vision, your unique self. What you have to give from deep inside of yourself is your gift and yours alone, the only such precise combination of knowledge and thoughts and insights that exists on this planet.

Allow your uniqueness to grow. Nurture it, explore it, love it, keep it in a special place in your heart. Let the light of your differences shine out for all to see, so that others may benefit from all that you've learned and all that you've seen. You have much to give that no one else can give, much to be that no one else ever will be. Allow yourself to be exactly who you are, and don't allow the world to squelch your way of being. If you can do this, you can help others to let their own uniqueness develop and turn into something that will make them proud to be exactly who they are--beautifully unique creatures on a planet that thrives on the differences between things and the cooperation that results when unique individuals allow each other to be who they are.

Author Unknown

Twas the night before Christmas, he lived all alone
in a one-bedroom house made of plaster & stone.
I had come down the chimney, with presents to give
And to see just who in this home did live

As I looked all about, a strange sight I did see.
No tinsel, no presents, not even a tree.
No stocking by the fire, just boots filled with sand.
And on the wall hung pictures of a far-distant land.

With medals and badges, awards of all kind,
A sobering thought soon came to my mind.
For this house was different, unlike any I'd seen.
This was the home of a U.S. Marine.

I'd heard stories about them; I had to see more.
So I walked down the hall and pushed open the door.
And there he lay sleeping, silent, alone,
Curled up on the floor in his one-bedroom home.

He seemed so gentle, his face so serene.
Not how I pictured a U.S. Marine.
Was this the hero, of whom I'd just read?
Curled up in his poncho, a floor for his bed?

His head was clean-shaven, his weathered face tan.
I soon understood, this was more than a man.
For I realized the families that I saw that night
Owed their lives to these men who were willing to fight.

Soon around the Nation, the children would play
And grown-ups would celebrate on a bright Christmas day.
They all enjoyed freedom, each month and all year,
Because of Marines like this one lying here.

I couldn't help wonder how many lay alone
On a cold Christmas Eve, in a land far from home.
Just the very thought brought a tear to my eye.
I dropped to my knees and I started to cry.

He must have awoken, for I heard a rough voice,
"Santa, don't cry, this life is my choice
I fight for freedom, I don't ask for more.
My life is my God, my country, my Corps."

With that he rolled over, drifted off into sleep.
I couldn't control it, I continued to weep.

I watched him for hours, so silent and still.
I noticed he shivered from the cold night's chill.
So I took off my jacket, the one made of red,
And covered this Marine from his toes to his head.

Then I put on his T-shirt of scarlet and gold
With an eagle, globe and anchor emblazoned so bold.
And although it barely fit me, I began to swell with pride,
And for one shining moment, I was Marine Corps deep inside.

I didn't want to leave him so quiet in the night,
This guardian of honor so willing to fight.
But half asleep he rolled over, and in a voice clean and pure,
Said "Carry on, Santa, it's Christmas Day, all secure."

One look at my watch and I knew he was right,
Merry Christmas my friend, Semper Fi and goodnight.

James M. Schmidt
 

"Quit! Give up! You're beaten!"
They shout at me and plead.
"There's just too much against you now;
This time you can't succeed!"

And as I start to hang my head
In front of failure's face,
My downward fall is broken by
The memory of a race.

And hope refills my weakened will
As I recall that scene;
For just the thought of that short race
Rejuventates my being.

A children's race- young boy, young men,
How I remember well.
Excitement, sure! But also fear;
It wasn't hard to tell.

They all lined up so full of hope
Each thought to win that race.
Or tie for first, or if not that,
At least take second place.

And fathers watched from off the side
Each cheering for his son.
And each boy hoped to show his dad
That he would be the one.

The whistle blew and off they went
Young hearts and hopes afire.
To win and be the hero there
Was each young boy's desire.

And one boy in particular,
Whose dad was in the crowd,
Was running near the lead and thought:
"My dad will be so proud!"

But as he speeded down the field
Across a shallow dip.
The little boy who thought to win
Lost his step and slipped.

Trying hard to catch himself
His hands flew out to brace,
And 'mid the laughter of the crowd
He fell flat on his face.

So down he fell and with him hope--
He couldn't win it now--
Embarrassed, sad, he only wished
To disappear somehow.

But as he fell his dad stood up
And showed his anxious face,
Which to the boy so clearly said:
"Get up and win the race!"

He quickly rose, no damage done
-Behind a bit, that's all-
And ran with all his mind and might
To make up for his fall.

So anxious to restore himself
-To catch up and to win-
His mind went faster than his legs;
He slipped and fell again!

He wished then he had quit before
With only one disgrace
"I'm hopeless as a runner now;
I shouldn't try to race."

But in the laughing crowd he searched
And found his father's face;
That steady look which said again:
"Get up and win the race!"

So he jumped up to try again
-Ten yards behind the last-
"If I'm to gain those yards," he thought,
"I've got to move real fast."

Exerting everything he had
He gained eight or ten,
But trying so hard to catch the lead
He slipped and fell again!

Defeat! He lied there silently
-A tear dropped from his eye-
"There's no sense in running anymore:
Three strikes: I'm out! Why try?"

The will to rise had disappeared;
All hope had fled away;
So far behind, so error-prone:
A loser all the way.

"I've lost, so what's the use," he thought
"I'll live with my disgrace."
But then he thought about his dad
Who soon he'd have to face.

"Get up," an echo sounded low.
"Get up and take your place;
You were not meant for failure here.
Get up and win the race."

"With borrowed will get up," it said,
You haven't lost at all.
For winning is no more than this:
To rise each time you fall."

So up he rose to run once more,
And with new commit
He resolved that win or lose
At least he wouldn't quit!

So far behind the others now,
-The most he'd ever been-
Still he gave it all he had
And ran as though to win.

Three times he'd fallen, stumbling;
Three times he rose again:
Too far behind to hope to win
He still ran to the end.

They cheered the winning runner
As he crossed the line first place.
Head high, and proud, and happy;
No falling, no disgrace.

But when the fallen youngster
Crossed the line last place,
The crowd gave him the greater cheer,
For finishing the race.

And even though he came in last
With head bowed low, unproud,
You would have thought he'd won the race
To listen to the crowd.

And to his dad he sadly said,
"I didn't do too well."
"To me, you won," his father said.
"You rose each time you fell."

And when things seem dark and hard
And difficult to face,
The memory of that little boy
Helps me in my race.

For all of life is like that race.
With ups and downs and all.
And all you have to do to win,
Is rise each time you fall.

"Quit! Give up, you're beaten!"
They still shout in my face.
But another voice within me says:
"GET UP AND WIN THE RACE!"

D.H. Groberg
 

It was a rainy night in New Orleans
At a bus station in the town,
I watched a young girl weeping
As her baggage was taken down.

It seems she'd lost her ticket
Changing buses in the night.
She begged them not to leave her there
With no sign of help in sight.

The bus driver had a face of stone
And his heart was surely the same.
"Losing your ticket's like losing cash money" he said,
And left her in the rain.

Then an old Indian man stood up
And blocked the driver's way
And would not let him pass before
He said what he had to say.
"How can you leave that girl out there?
Have you no God to fear?
You know she had a ticket.
You can't just leave her here.

You can't put her out in a city
Where she doesn't have a friend.
You will meet your schedule,
But she might meet her end."

The driver showed no sign
That he'd heard or even cared
About the young girl's problem
Or how her travels fared.

So the old gentleman said,
"For her fare I'll pay.
I'll give her a little money
To help her on her way."

He went and bought the ticket
And helped her to her place
And helped her put her baggage
In the overhead luggage space.

"How can I repay," she said,
"the kindness you've shown tonight?
We're strangers who won't meet again
A mere ' 'thank you ' doesn't seem right."

He said, "What goes around comes around.
This I've learned with time -
What you give, you always get back;
What you sow, you reap in kind.

Always be helpful to others
And give what you can spare;
For by being kind to strangers,
We help angels unaware."

Author Unknown

God decided in Heaven one day-
that you should be born in a wonderful way.
He chose your parents- their elements right-
to create a special 'You'. What a beautiful sight.

There's no one on earth exactly like you-
a miracle of life in all that you do.
Sometimes we lose sight of the beauty we have.
We don't see any good- only the bad.

We start out our lives with the world in our hands,
but, as we grow older, forget what's been planned.
We feel lost and confused- unloved and alone
and sometimes our hearts feel hardened- like stone.

We almost get blinded by our saddened thoughts-
'till we no longer see what we've really got.
We get numb to the love of our family and friends-
we can't see the hope, the future- just the end.

These words said to you in the hope you'll achieve-
fall upon ears that no longer believe-
that YOU are so special- a star in the night-
who shines in His glory, your own special light.

You feel so unworthy, but you don't know why
and you search for the answers which just makes you cry.
Sometimes you need someone to help sort it out-
someone who will listen- to whom you can shout:

"I feel disconnected, sad and unsure.
I just don't know what to do anymore.
I know deep inside that there's got to be hope,
but right now I just feel at the end of my rope."

"Help me find the answers. Help me find my way.
Plant my feet on the road of happiness today.
Help me learn how to deal with feeling so lost-
that there's no price for love- there isn't a cost."

And though you feel frightened, scared and alone-
it's just like you've called your friend God on the phone.
He'll lean into your ear and He'll whisper these words-
forever in truth- the most wonderful heard:

"You need to believe that you're worth more than this-
and I'll help you climb out of your dark abyss.
With time and with love you will figure it out-
and I'll always be there, loving you- have no doubt."

"The love of your family and friends just for you-
will mean so much more when you know I am True.
But, first you must learn how to love who you are.
Believe as I do- you're a bright, shining star.

Author Unknown

The park bench was deserted as I sat down to read.
Beneath the long, straggly branches of an old willow tree.

Disillusioned by life with good reason to frown,
For the world was intent on dragging me down.

And if that weren't enough to ruin my day,
A young boy out of breath approached me, all tired from play.
He stood right before me with his head tilted down
And said with great excitement, "Look what I found!"

In his hand was a flower, and what a pitiful sight,
With its petals all worn-not enough rain, or too little light.

Wanting him to take his dead flower and go off to play,
I faked a small smile and then shifted away.

But instead of retreating he sat next to my side
And placed the flower to his nose
And declared with overacted surprise,

"It sure smells pretty and it's beautiful, too.
That's why I picked it; here, it's for you."

The weed before me was dying or dead.
Not vibrant of colors, orange, yellow or red.

But I knew I must take it, or he might never leave.
So I reached for the flower, and replied, "Just what I need."

But instead of him placing the flower in my hand,
He held it midair without reason or plan.

It was then that I noticed for the very first time
That weed-toting boy could not see: he was blind.

I heard my voice quiver, tears shone like the sun
As I thanked him for picking the very best one.

"You're welcome," he smiled, and then ran off to play,
Unaware of the impact he'd had on my day.

I sat there and wondered how he managed to see
A self-pitying woman beneath an old willow tree.

How did he know of my self-indulged plight?
Perhaps from his heart, he'd been blessed with true sight.

Through the eyes of a blind child, at last I could see
The problem was not with the world; the problem was me.

And for all of those times I myself had been blind,
I vowed to see the beauty in life,
And appreciate every second that's mine.

And then I held that wilted flower up to my nose
And breathed in the fragrance of a beautiful rose

And smiled as I watched that young boy, another weed in his hand
About to change the life of an unsuspecting old man.

Author Unknown

You may not have the best of everything you can possible imagine and desire, but you are given all the opportunities to earn them for yourself, if you just let go of envy, bitterness, and loss of hope; anything is possible and attainable. As you make it happen, learn to value and be contented of what you have for you are still better and blessed more than you'll ever know. How fortunate you are on this side of the world! Follow your dreams, create direction, be inspired, believe and always have faith in God.

James Padilla

I am a garderner, I know
plants grow at the bottom first,
root before stem,
stem before flower.
The soil must be rich, dark, I must water until it's soaked

so thirsty roots
will go deep to drink
not fan out on the surface
to wither in the heat...

go down first,
trust depths and darkness,
then flower.

Author Unknown