Your MORNING COFFEE

[Guest guest]

Hug's

Jan xox

How often have your kids dropped in to talk and sat in silence while you watched 'Jeopardy' on television?

I cannot count the times I called my sister and said, "How about going to lunch in a half hour?" She would gas up and stammer, "I can't. I have clothes on the line. My hair is dirty. I wish I had known yesterday, I had a late breakfast, It looks like rain." And my personal favorite: "It's Monday." She died a few years ago. We never did have lunch together.

Because Americans cram so much into their lives, we tend to schedule our headaches. We live on a sparse diet of promises we make to ourselves when all the conditions are perfect!

We'll go back and visit the grandparents when we get the kid toilet-trained. We'll entertain when we replace the living-room carpet. We'll go on a second honeymoon when we get two more kids out of college.

Life has a way of accelerating as we get older. The days get shorter, and the list of promises to ourselves gets longer. One morning, we awaken, and all we have to show for our lives is a litany of "I'm going to," "I plan on," and "Someday, when things are settled down a bit."

When anyone calls my 'seize the moment' friend, she is open to adventure and available for trips. She keeps an open mind on new ideas. Her enthusiasm for life is contagious . You talk with her for five minutes, and you're ready to trade your bad feet for a pair of Roller blades and skip an elevator for a bungee cord.

My lips have not touched ice cream in 10 years. I love ice cream. It's just that I might as well apply it directly to my stomach with a spatula and eliminate the digestive process. The other day, I stopped the car and bought a triple-Decker. If my car had hit an iceberg on the way home, I would have died happy.

Now...go on and have a nice day. Do something you WANT to...not something on your SHOULD DO list. If you were going to die soon and had only one phone call you could make, who would you call and what would you say? And why are you waiting?

Have you ever watched kids playing on a merry go round or listened to the rain lapping on the ground? Ever followed a butterfly's erratic flight or gazed at the sun into the fading night? Do you run through each day on the fly? When you ask, "How are you?" Do you hear the reply?

When the day is done, do you lie in your bed with the next hundred chores running through your head? Ever told your child, "We'll do it tomorrow." And in your haste, not see his sorrow? Ever lost touch? Let a good friendship die? Just call to say "Hi"?

When you worry and hurry through your day, it is like an unopened gift... Thrown away.... Life is not a race. Take it slower. Hear the music before the song is over.Thanks Blue eyed gal

Are you facing a difficult time in your life?

Give yourself the gift of patience. Patience is the main

Ingredient necessary to get through difficult times.

Yes, it is hard to be patient! But, without patience, you

Would have no hope. And, if the universe was created

So that your desires materialized instantly, that wouldn't

Serve you either.

Patience helps you grow. It nourishes both compassion

And empathy. So, embrace patience. Ultimately this

Makes you stronger.

Joy that is conditional is not joy at all. It is merely fleeting pleasure that will be gone the moment conditions change. Real joy is and will always be. Nothing can take it away. Real joy cannot be earned, attained or achieved. It is there when you accept it and allow it. Agreeable conditions and pleasurable circumstances are not the cause of joy. Rather, it's the other way around. When you live with joy, that joy infects the world around you. When you live each moment with joy, you see that joy reflected back to you from all directions. Let the joy of living flow forth from you, wherever you are, whatever you are doing. And see what a real, positive difference it can make. Ralph Marston

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