MORNING COFFEE

[Guest guest]

Move Beyond the Fear of Making Mistakesby Jane

“A life without mistakes is lived without joy.â€

We fear mistakes more than anything else. Mistakes bring on ridicule. Mistakes expose the unsure, frail and diffident woman hiding within.

Can anyone brag of living a ‘mistake free’ life? Perhaps if they were to spend their days on an armchair by the fireside. A life doing this is half lived, wasted and incomplete.

Fear of making mistakes holds you back from doing many things. Ultimately too many joys go undiscovered. Regrets smother you and you become even more fearful. It’s a vicious cycle.

Remember that nobody sits above you. Others may know more, but they have also walked the same path before you. To get to where they are standing, you may have to make a mistake or two. So what, why not feel the joy you deserve and go for it?

THE GIFTS OF AGE

I love young people. I feel the same way as Archbishop Desmond Tutu who once said, "I have the highest regard for young people. Young people are idealistic. They dream dreams about a better world."

They not only dream dreams, they have the audacity to believe in those dreams and often enough enthusiasm to nurture them into something close to real life.

I love young people. What fun I could have "back in the day" - ridiculous fun. And what hope. I was changing so quickly and it seemed I could be limited only by my dreams. If I believed it might be possible, I felt I could make it so.

There are tremendous gifts that come with youth. Like optimism and the ability to change. When anything seems possible, more than a little of it becomes possible if one only believes enough and adapts quickly.

And then we age. Please don't hear a note of discouragement - it's just that aging is something I am only slowly coming to embrace. It creeps up on a person like silent fog in the night; we awaken one morning in the midst of it and wonder how it got there.

We age, whether we choose to or not. And some people dread it. Singer Doris Day once said, "The really frightening thing about middle age is that you know you'll grow out of it." That fear can be all too real.

Some people dread aging. And some people deny it. They try to avoid the fact that they are growing older and their bodies are in decline. One woman who had ignored her failing eyesight for too long was asked, "How long have you worn glasses?"

"Since yesterday," she replied. "As I was baking some tollhouse cookies I picked up the fly swatter and killed four chocolate chips." Some people deny aging and live as if nothing has changed.

And some people avoid it - or try to. They idealize youth and never become comfortable in their older, looser-fitting skin. One man quipped: "A few years ago my wife started to wear tight jeans. I went out and bought a convertible. Then she bleached her hair. I took a lot of multiple vitamin shots. Just a few months ago, she had a face lift and a "tummy tuck." I got an implant. And that's the way it's been for the two of us: side by side -- growing young together."

Since age can't really be avoided, there are those, also, who learn to laugh at it. Humor won't chase old age away, but laughter certainly makes it more bearable.

A parody of the musical hit "My Favorite Things" is making the rounds among oldsters. The song, inaccurately attributed to s, reminds us that it helps to laugh at what we can't change.

"Maalox and nose drops and needles for knitting,s and handrails and new dental fittings,Bundles of magazines tied up in string;These are a few of my favorite things."

You get the idea.

We may try to deny it or avoid it. We may dread it or learn to laugh at it. But unless an accident or illness robs us of the chance to grow old, we'll all experience it.

Which is okay. For if youth has its gifts, I believe age does, too. When aged well, the idealism of youth is tempered now with solid experience. Youth's enthusiasm is made more valuable when combined in old age with good judgment. And youth's ability to become anything they can imagine, in old age takes the form of character; trustworthy and reliable - character so rich only decades of living could ever grow and refine it.

These are the gifts of age. They are gifts found in those who live their lives intentionally and well. They take a lifetime to acquire and they are precious beyond belief.

Steve Goodier

Power of loveYou can transform your world in an instant by the way you choose to see it. You can change problems into opportunities, anxiety into enthusiasm, and despair into determination.

The quality of what you see depends on the perspective from which you see it. And that perspective is entirely up to you.

Instead of reacting again and again to the chaotic ups and downs of circumstance, you have a more powerful choice. You can choose to live from a constant and unassailable perspective of love.

Instead of fighting against most of what happens, you can choose to be lifted higher by all that happens. From a perspective of love you’ll see the positive possibilities in every situation.

The way to live from love is to be completely and wholly honest with yourself. In the pure truth of who you are and what you sincerely value, is the limitless power of that love.

Allow you to be truly you. And let the power of love color your world.

Ralph Marston

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