December 14, 2012

This morning, after meeting with a friend for coffee, I heard the news coming from Connecticut over my car radio. I thought, "Wow, another shooting." No details were given at that time, as news was just breaking. I went inside and talked to my wife as she was making breakfast, and watched some of the morning talk shows which were still in prerecorded broadcast mode, so we were not aware of anything developing in real time. After my wife left for her job, I turned it over to one of the cable news stations and saw the live coverage. At that point, there were two fatalities and one was believed to be the gunman. My hope then was that the other victim was not a child. As bad as it was for an adult to perish, the thought of child dying was troubling and the thought of a parent losing a child was very disconcerting for me, being a father of two girls.

It became apparent that the other victim was a child, and my heart sank for the parents of that child. I thought how life would never be the same for those parents. I prayed for them and the others involved, and after a few minutes decided to go back to my room and lie down as I needed to stretch out my back, which was in a little bit of pain.

As I lay there, I began to doze off when my iPhone went off on my nightstand. I came to, and looked at the display from one of my news apps: "27 KILLED, INCLUDING 18 CHILDREN, IN CONNECTICUT SCHOOL SHOOTING." The news was devastating. I got up, turned the TV back on, and watched the television in sadness, and prayed throughout the day as things unfolded. After a few hours of watching the updates, I had enough and needed to take a break and went about the rest of my day, trying to do something productive, although it was difficult to do.

There are many questions, the most of which I hear is: "Why would God allow this?"

As a believer, and as one who has studied the Bible for many years, I know this: God is not the one who allows this. This happened because evil reared its ugly head and created havoc in a place of peace and security. Because we live in a fallen world, things like this are bound to happen.

What was God doing then? Keeping 500 other students from suffering the same fate.

In order for God to protect those He loves, He needs people like us to carry out His plan for safety. The 500 children who did survive had teachers who loved them and chose to be responsible for their safety, and knew what was coming. And I have absolutely no doubt that the adults who perished would have done even more to protect those children, on top of what they did already to try and save them.

In fact, God cherishes children so much, He has considered them a blessing to the world, and He puts that love of children in people. Some scriptures in the Bible illustrate this:

"He settles the childless woman in her home as a happy mother of children. Praise the Lord." - Psalm 113;9

"Children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward from him. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are children born in one’s youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. They will not be put to shame when they contend with their opponents in court." - Psalm 127:3-5

"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be." - Psalm 139:13-16

"A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world." - John 16:21

"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." - James 1:17

God loves the families of the Sandy Hook victims more than anyone can imagine, and I know that He will become very present in the lives of many over the next few weeks. May He bless them and keep them, may He make His face shine upon them and be gracious to them; may He lift up his countenance upon them and give them peace.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. - Romans 15:13

John

Crocodile DumDeeDum

In Australia, nearly thirty years ago, there was a man who entered a race, a long-distance foot race called the Westfield Sydney to Melbourne Ultra Marathon, which covered nearly 500 miles. This was a six-day event and nearly two hundred world-class runners had entered.

Including a 61-year-old man by the name of Cliff Young, and his racing attire consisted of overalls, work boots, and galoshes over his work boots.

Initially, he was not allowed to register for the race, so he explained himself to the officials. Throughout his life, he ran his 2000-acre family farm with thousands of sheep, and the method that he used to round up his sheep was his own two feet, running throughout the acreage and herding them himself. For years, his family was too poor to afford anything mobile such as a horse or pickup, so he would go about the task by foot, sometimes for two or three days at a time, and this continued on well into adulthood.

The officials relented, allowed him to register, and soon it was time for the start of the race.

The gun went off and the runners bolted from the starting line. Cliff was left in the dust, but he trotted on in his overalls and boots, in a "dum-de-dum" kind of way, while keeping on pace and not worrying about his position.

By the fifth day of the race, he had caught the other runners, passed them up, and eventually won the race, a few hours ahead of the second place finisher.

The key to winning was what Cliff didn't know. He didn't know that he was supposed to stop and sleep for the night. While the others slept, he kept trotting on and on…shuffling along…dum-de-dum...until the race was over.

He became a national hero in Australia and even had an ultra-marathon race named after him.

What was the key to his success?  In addition to his determination, persistence, perseverance, and tenacity, maybe a little bit of a "dum-de"dum" attitude helped too, to keep him from worrying about where he was in relation to his goal or the others around him.

By keeping his eye on the goal and not stopping in spite of the difficulties or obstacles, his goal was achieved!

Go out and make it a great day!

John

Landfill Harmonic

Today, there are no words that I can say that can explain what's on this video. It just shows that there is a purpose for everyone regardless of where they come from. It's about 12 minutes long.




If you have trouble viewing the embedded video, click directly to the link here.

Love Is All You Need

When my youngest brother Richard was 5 years old, he came home from kindergarten one day with something that he found on the street.

It was a tumbleweed.

My mother asked him why she brought that "nasty thing" home, and he said, "cause it's beautiful."

He loved that thing.  And even though he had to keep it outside, it sat outside in our front yard for a couple of weeks, until a wind blew it away, I think.

Beauty was in the eye of its beholder, my brother.

I received a picture today of a Christmas tree that was sitting in the middle of an Arizona hotel lobby.  What's unique about this tree is that it's comprised entirely of...you guessed it...tumbleweeds.

It's a great illustration of how anything (or anyone) can be beautiful and can serve a purpose with the application of loving attention.

It's difficult for many of us to look at a tumbleweed (or a person) and see what their potential is, because we're focused on that "nasty thing" in front of us.  What's even more difficult is making that effort to help transform it (or them) into the true potential within.

Love is not merely something we feel.  The feeling subsides.  True love is exhibited in the effort we produce, just as the love put into this tumbleweed was made for us to see.

We see this love manifested in people who were loved by their families as they were growing up.

We see this love manifested in people who were loved by others, when they had no family to love them.

We see this love manifested in people who were loved by no one, but somehow knew that God loves them.

Love is a powerful motivator.  When you start to take the time to do something because you love them, life starts becoming less burdensome.

Now that I wrote about it, I'm going to "turn my tumbleweed into a Christmas tree."  I'm going to go clean the kitchen before my wife gets home...

Go out and love someone today!

John

Zig (1926-2012)

My friend Zig Ziglar passed away today.  Even though I never knew him personally, I always considered him a friend because I felt I knew him through his books and tapes, listening and learning about a better way to live.  I saw him for the first time in person when I was 22 years old.  Even though I had already listened to a few motivational speakers, I had never seen or heard anyone like him before or since.  Over the years I've read and listened to many of his quotes, and I wanted to post a few that resonated with me then, and still do today.  

• "Of course motivation is not permanent. But then, neither is bathing; but it is something you should do on a regular basis.'
• “There are no traffic jams on the extra mile.”  
• “If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.” 
• “Failure is an event not a person” 
• “Attitude, not aptitude, determines altitude.” 
• “A narrow mind and a fat head invariably come on the same person.” 
• “Optimists are those who go after Moby Dick in a row boat with a bucket of tarter sauce.” 
• “Don’t become a wandering generality. Be a meaningful specific.” 
• “What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.” 
• “it's not how far you fall, but how high you bounce that counts.” 
• “If you can dream it, then you can achieve it."
• "You will get all you want in life if you help enough other people get what they want.” 
• "There has never been a statue erected to honor a critic.
• “If you go looking for a friend, you’re going to find they’re scarce. If you go out to be a friend, you’ll find them everywhere.”
• “A goal properly set is halfway reached.”

As I sat there that first time, it struck me that he obviously knew something I didn't, and at the end of his talk he shared what was different: his faith in Jesus Christ and how important it was to him.  It triggered a response within me to begin exploring what (rather, Who) he was so passionate about, which I discovered for myself a short time later.   

I'm glad he had the guts to share it...

Well done, good and faithful servant...

John

Go out and make it a great day!

Poke Us To Focus

One of my challenges is organization...

It's mainly trying to figure out what to do each day. I usually have a general idea of what needs to be done, but then I would squirrel.

Squirrel - that's something I learned from my dog, who would be focused on one thing and then then....SQUIRREL!

I'm not crazy about squirreling...it just creeps up on me and then...SQUIRREL!

Computers are great for squirreling. You turn on the screen at 8:00 a.m., sneeze, and then it's for lunch!

I'm no different. It's easy for me to get focused on one thing, and then get on my squirrel pursuit.

To give you an example of my battle between me and the squirrel, one morning, I needed to connect with administrators in the Manteca (CA) school district:

Me (thinking): I need to find out the number for Manteca's school district." (google, google). Manteca - hee hee - that's Spanish for lard...I used to eat it all the time in the tortillas my grandmother made for me.
Squirrel: What kind of lard did she use? (google, google)
Me:  Let's see...there is a picture of a lard container. I remember that! Armour Lard...I remember using that stuff! God bless my abuelita and her tortillas! Sigh, good times....
Squirrel: Armour...isn't that the first name of the guy who invented baking soda? (google, google)
Me:  No it's Arm and Hammer. That stuff works pretty good in my refrigerator...I guess.
Squirrel: Okay, so the baking soda is named after the guy, not the lard...(google, google)
Me: No, that's Armand Hammer. He was a rich guy. 
Squirrel:  So, what did he own? (google, google) 
Me:  Occidental Petroleum. 
Squirrel:  I thought Occidental was a college. (google, google)
Me:  I was right...it is!  I had a friend years ago who used to wear a shirt that had the letters O-X-Y on it.  
Squirrel: Where the heck is OXY? (google, google)
Me: Southern California....hey, their website says "oxy.edu."  That's cool. Hey, if I was a student there, I'd call it "Accidental College." Ha ha. I'm so funny.

Then it was dark outside.  Day over.  

So, I'm learning that mastering time, along with myself, is work, but it doesn't have to be a chore. Here is how I'm learning in 30 minutes a day.

1. I set aside 10 minutes to plan my day. I don't turn on my computer, but I do grab my coffee (very high priority) and I sit down with a notepad. I then review what I already have planned, and add to it what I feel will make my day successful. I sort them out, from the hardest and/or highest priority items to be done toward the beginning of the day, before even checking email, Facebook, Twitter, et cetera, and then working the list by order of priority. Since I need to use email, Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, I have to specifically make note of what productive thing I'm going to do while on my social networking media, rather than find out what kind of sushi Mildred posted while on her trip to Hawaii.

2. Every hour I refocus for a quick minute - how am I doing? I manage my day one hour at a time. That comes out to 8 minutes throughout the day.

3. At the end of the day I take another 10 minutes - to review and see how I did, and make note where I was most productive and most distracted and to make a preliminary plan for the next day.
Okay, so it's 28 minutes...but you get the point.

The power of a routine is it's inevitability. By doing the same thing in the same way over and over again, the outcome of a routine is inevitable as well. By choosing to focus with purpose and constantly remind myself of my being focused, I will remain focused.

By the way...did you know that there's an actor named Armie Hammer? Sigh...that just popped into my head....darn squirrel...(google,google)

Have a great day!

John

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Donkey Haughty

There is a saying in Spanish:  

"La cabra siempre tira al monte."  

It means that "the goat always heads for the mountains."

We are victims of our habits. Just like that goat who heads for the mountains when it's out of its comfort zone, the weak-minded man knows in his mind that he "knows" where he belongs and will always head "home" to where he believes he will be safest.  

The same rule can apply to donkeys.  

When my dad was about 7 years of age, he traveled from Texas to a small town in Mexico with his family.  There, he met his grandfather (my great-grandfather) for the first time. While there, he took my dad for a ride in a wagon, pulled by a donkey. It was a good mode of transportation, but the donkey had one bad habit: It didn't like to go anywhere. It was happy in its corral - eating, sleeping, and doing what donkeys do when they're not pushed to go anywhere. 

Fortunately, my great-grandfather was always able to get the donkey to move, but he had to motivate it by using a switch on its backside. After a couple of swats, the donkey would give in and begin its march away from home, much to its disdain. So, away they went, traveling down the dusty road, with my great-grandfather enjoying the rare company of his 7-year-old grandson, in a wagon pulled by a bummed-out donkey, which only was motivated by a whip instead of a dangling carrot.  

After reaching their destination and taking care of business there, the time came to turn the cart around and point the donkey toward home. Once realizing that he was pointed home, the donkey suddenly became energized and took off happily down the road, trotting, without a need for a switch and not needing any incentive, including carrots.  The donkey realized that it was finally able to go home, back to its corral, to once again eat, sleep, and do what it is that donkeys do.

Sometimes it's pain that motivates us to move out of our comfort zone instead of the potential of financial or physical reward.  

I can relate to that donkey.

Due to a back injury sustained last year, and working out of the home for the past few months, I developed a habit of staying up late and getting up late. It was getting to the point where I was just so unproductive, and decided to do something different. I started to change my routine and get up early in the morning (4:45 am) to hit the swimming pool at the gym and swim my laps, which is what I'm limited to right now. Getting up was horrible. It hurt. Once I got there, the water felt great, but afterward I had to drink a ton of coffee, and then I was suffering from sleep-deprivation and the shakes and couldn't fall asleep! Someone told me I looked like I could audition for one of those zombie apocalypse movies.  

Now, at this point in time, I wish I can say right at this moment that I overcame the sleep deprivation issue, but no. It's a process that I'm going to have to push through until I'm used to it.  

What the mountain was to the goat, and what the corral to the donkey, my bed was to me.  

So what I'm working on is focusing on my early morning thought process and focusing on remaining positive, consistently and persistently. A positive attitude is the foundation for achieving my definite purpose in life, which is being fit and successful in inspiring others. Yes, I will be challenged with circumstances out of my control, and what will get me through these tough times will be the choices I make regarding the way I handle it.  

With God's help, I'll make it. Robert Schuller always said that tough times never last but tough people do. I'll push on, with my conscious thoughts acting as the whip to push me forward.  

Our bad habits will cause us to return to the place where we're most comfortable. Unless we use our own version of a "switch" to prod us along in our personal development, we will take off trotting back toward the bad habits that keep us from moving forward. We will be the slave of bad habits until we make a conscious and sincere effort to replace them with good ones!

Have a great day!

John

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Six Things

Six things I'm grateful for today:

1.  I woke up.

2.  God loves me.

3.  My family loves me, and I love them more than anything.

4.  I live in a great country.

5.  I have great friends.

6.  Joy and success are just a decision away. 

If you're having a bummer day, and having trouble finding something to be grateful for, just stop and take a minute...take a deep breath...and start counting...

Have a great day!

John

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Appreciate the Small Blessings!

Last week, when the election results were in and President Obama was re-elected, there was an unbelievable amount of negative posting on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media, saying how this country was going downhill, that people were going to be destitute, that people were voting for free stuff, the death of a nation, et cetera. Judging by the voting numbers, I can confidently say the same thing would have happened by supporters of the president, had Mitt Romney won. While I may been happy with some election results and disappointed with some defeats this election (it's not all about the president - but local and state issues as well), I have learned over my lifetime that no one party in power has made a difference in my way of living. While the last four years were the most difficult that I can recall, life still went on. I made adjustments. However, I spent a lot of time wallowing in the problems and how they affected me, rather than take the more proactive approach, which was being grateful for what I did have. This enabled me to get out of the funk that was holding me back, and allowed me to become more focused on the positive, which is what I'm doing now!

That being said, this is the time of the year where we take the time to appreciate the blessings in our lives, big or small! Unfortunately, the holidays are a time where millions of people suffer their greatest periods of depression, something I can absolutely relate to. One of the greatest things that I've learned through my challenges is that gratitude gets me through a lot of difficult times and allows me to move from a destructive frame of mind to a creative and constructive frame of mind. If you struggle with depression or thoughts of negativity, take about ten minutes a day (or a few times a day as you are able - the TV can wait) to begin to activate your gratitude by acknowledging ten things to be thankful for. If you have difficult coming up with ten things, here are ten things for which we can all be appreciative:

• If you have relationship with God, you are blessed! (This is my personal belief and the most important to me). If not, be happy to know that God is very real and loves you and wants to have a relationship with you!    
• If you have friends and family, consider yourself blessed. 
• If you live in the United States or Canada, there are nineteen other people who live in other parts of the world. 
• If you have a job in these economic times, consider yourself blessed. If you’re underemployed or without a job, but are managing to make it in spite of your situation, consider yourself blessed that you’re not going under for now. It'll get better. This I know from experience! 
• If you have food in your refrigerator, clothes in your closet and a roof over your head, you are better off than 75 percent of the world’s population. 
• If you eat three meals a day, you are far better off than the one billion people on the planet who eat once a day at most. 
• If you have utilities that work regularly, such as clean water and dependable power, you are fortunate. 
• If you have a car that allows you to run errands or go to work, look at the guy at the bus stop sitting there when it's hot or cold. If you're the guy on the bus stop, be thankful that you have access to transportation or perhaps friends that can give you a lift in a pinch. 
• If you're healthy, you are indeed blessed! If you're not, are you able to do something about it? If you're able to exercise for weight or back problems, or if you can treat your ailments without having to go to the doctor, such as taking ibuprofen and aspirin, you have what would be a luxury in other parts of the world. Did you know that if you don't have insurance, there are ways to see a doctor for low cost or get medications for less than what people pay with their copays? 
• Are you able to read this? If so, that means that you have a computer and internet access to stay in touch with the world, or have access to education, or even perform work for which you are paid. This is a big one for me! 

If you can celebrate these simple blessings, it'll be easy to think of ten more things to be thankful for!

John

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