Shipwrecked

The only survivor of a shipwreck was washed up on a small, uninhabited island.
He prayed to be rescue, and every day he scanned the horizon for help, but none seemed forthcoming.
Exhausted, he eventually managed to build a little hut out of driftwood to protect himself from the elements, and to store his few possessions.

One day, after scavenging for food, he arrived home to find his little hut in flames, the smoke rolling up to the sky. The worst had happened and everything he had was lost.He was stunned with grief and anger. He cried out with anger not understanding how or why this terrible thing had again happened to him.

Early the next day, however, he was awakened by the sound of a ship that was approaching the island. It had come to rescue him. "How did you know I was here?" Asked the weary man of his rescuers. "We saw your smoke signal," they replied.

The lesson is that it is easy to get discouraged when things are going bad. But we need to hang in there and hold on through the tough times - there is usually something good on its way.

Being Happy

Being happy doesn't mean that everything is perfect. It means that you've decided to look beyond the imperfections.

~Author unknown but greatly appreciated

You Will Become

You will become as small as your controlling desire; as great as your dominant aspiration.

~James Allen

Genius

Genius is the ability to reduce the complicated to the simple.

~C.W. Ceran

The Bamboo Tree

One day a man planted a bamboo seedling. He cared for it and each day he watered it and tended to it, making sure it had the proper sunlight to grow. After a year's time, the man saw that the plant had not grown at all, but he continued to water it, tend to it, and make sure it was nourished by proper sunlight. 

Again, after the second year the plant had not grown. He watered and tended it through the third year and the fourth. Suddenly, as if by magic, in the fifth it began growing. In fact, it grew two and a half feet a day until in six weeks it was ninety feet tall.

The bamboo tree's growth is not magic. During its first five years, when it seems nothing is happening, it develops miles and miles of roots beneath the ground. Though no growth is visible, the foundation is being established and strengthened.

The lesson is that there are times where we feel our lives are stagnating, or nothing is changing or no dramatic events are happening.  In reality, those are the days we are building our own roots and growing strong for the days when growth hits us in spurts.  This way our lives remain balanced. 

I Firmly Believe

I firmly believe that if you follow a path that interests you, not to the exclusion of love, sensitivity, and cooperation with others, but with the strength of conviction that you can move others by your own efforts, and do not make success or failure the criteria by which you live, the chances are you'll be a person worthy of your own respect.

~Neil Simon

To Look

to look up and not down,
To look forward and not back,
To look out and not in, and
To lend a hand.

~ Edward Everett Hale

Ability

There is something that is much more scarce , something rarer than ability.  It is the ability to recognize ability.

~ Robert Half

Extra...

The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra.

~Author unknown but greatly appreciated

The Reward

The highest reward for a person's toil is not what they get for it, but what they become by it.

~John Ruskin

Happiness

Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort.

~Franklin Roosevelt

Greatness

The price of greatness is responsibility.

~ Winston Churchill

The Rate of the Pack

The speed of the leader determines the rate of the pack.

~Author unknown but greatly appreciated

Hustle...

Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.

~ Abraham Lincoln

All things

All things are difficult before they are easy.

~John Norley