Who you are is what makes you special.  Do not change for anyone.

What lies ahead will always be a mystery.  Do not be afraid to explore.

When life pushes you over, you push back harder.

Where there are choices to make, make the one you won’t regret.

Why things happen will never be certain.  Take it in stride and move forward.

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“We tend to forget that happiness doesn’t come as a result of getting something we don’t have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have.” --- Frederick Keonig

So many of us take so much of our lives and all we have in it for granted. I would say that 99% of us do it and if you are the 1% who doesn't consider yourself blessed and write me and tell me about how you do it. We all get caught up in all the "issues" in life and everything else that we lose sight of what is most important to us and what is of real value.

What if you were told that you were going to die in 6 months? How would things you look at change? What would become important to you, (besides wanting to live, maybe now you'll enjoy your life) and what would you do differently?

Would you worry about whether your boss likes you or not? Would you remember to tell your kids, wife, husband or any of the people in your life how much you love and appreciate them? Would you spend more time doing what you've always wanted and would you start to smell the roses and see the wonder that surrounds us every day that we typically don't even notice? Would you feel bad because your ex left you high and dry to pick up the pieces of your life or would you realize that they are actually very insignificant in the big scheme of things?

More than likely you would have a new found appreciation for all the things you forgot about that REALLY matter in your life. And, you may have a better perspective about the things you once believed mattered, but are merely passing "issues" in life that you've given too much importance to and shouldn't have.

I wake up every day and I am thankful for my blessings. Sometimes maybe even a bit too perfunctorily but I try my best to keep things in perspective and it isn't always easy when you have "issues." I even blew work off on Tuesday to take my mother into the city to her favorite bread shop and food market. She said, "You should probably be working." I said, "When people are dying they never say, Oh I wish I would've worked more. They say, if only I had spent more time with the people I love!" I try not to be one of those people.

I hate to put it so bluntly, but screw work, I have more important things to attend to!!! Plus, we had a blast. We both enjoyed it so much and she must have told me 5 times how much fun she had. A friend of mine recently turned blue and was rushed to the hospital basically on her way out of this world and onto the next but she was lucky and didn't leave us yet. But what an impact that little scare has had on her life.

She said, "I was always the victim and I would dwell on situations and people who made me feel bad. I gave them so much power over how I lived and here; after all, they really mean nothing in the long run. Oh, how much precious time I have wasted on such inconsequential people who didn't have my best interest at heart."

Do you really have to almost die to make you realize how much of life you are missing? Do you have to be scared almost to death to start enjoying your life and begin to understand what to hold onto and what to let go of? Do you really need a wakeup call to see that you really have it all right here, right now?

Today is a second chance to open your heart to living a better life. Today is a second chance to get rid of all the insignificant garbage you are carrying around. Get rid of the heartache, the worry, the fears, the toxic people, and the toxic beliefs that make your life harder to live.

Stop the insanity of holding onto people who have hurt you, of past memories that haunt you and regrets that imprison you. You are one of the lucky ones who aren’t on their deathbed wishing they had done things differently. You have an entire life, today. Every day is a second chance to make it right, to make it a good life and to actually enjoy yourself. (What a concept)!

So don't wait to be happy. Don't wait to tell someone you love them and don't wait for tomorrow to start to really begin living because tomorrow may never come and all we really have is today. As corny as it sounds, if you would learn to live a little bit more in the "now" moment, the roses would smell better, the sun will shine brighter and you will have a clearer view of all that you DO have in your life to be thankful for and you can forget the rest.

Article courtesy of Susan Russo.

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Today, my heart feels heavy.  I woke up this morning thankful for another day.  Thankful for another breathe of life.  Thankful for my children, thankful for my friends and family.  God has abundantly blessed my life beyond measure.  No, not because I have a lot of money or life is easy – no, life is hard a lot of time, but I always feel like God is in my presence and his hand is guiding me, making sure that I am taken care of.  But I don’t express this enough.  I don’t say it enough.  My heart is heavy knowing that just the other day I was complaining to myself about how rough of a month it has been both financially and emotionally for me.  Asking “why me, why can’t I get a break?”  It is easy to do this.  It is so easy to find so many negative things to complain and gripe about.  It is easy to feel short-handed at times when things don’t go our way.  But, it is just as easy to find things to be thankful for.  Things to be positive about, live for, laugh at, and love.

It is important that we allow events in our lives to give us a moment of reflection.  A moment to stop and truly remember how lucky and blessed I am.  No, my life is nowhere near perfect and I deal with struggles almost daily, but in comparison to others, I feel like my blessings outweigh any struggles I may face.  Life is ever so fleeting.  Moments come and go.  Some are bad, some are good, some are great.  But it’s those cold, rainy days that help us to appreciate  when the warm, sunny days come.  Life is so precious.  It is a gift meant to be treasured at every moment.  Think about time… it is fully measured in seconds.  Seconds that add up to minutes, hours, days, months, and years.  And each of those seconds count.  Each of those seconds are a moment you can’t get back, a moment to do the right thing, a moment to tell someone how much they mean to you, a moment to take a chance and risk it all on love, a moment to do something you never thought you could do.  Life is filled with moments.  Sometimes we are so busy looking ahead trying to reach a destination that we completely forget to enjoy the journey along the way.

Today, I will take a moment and reflect on how blessed my life really is.  I will think about the simple, little things that most of the time I never think about.  Air to breathe, eyes to see, the ability to run, food to eat.  I will take each moment, and try to remember to be kind, to say thank you, to say I love you, to help someone.  I will do and say things that I hope will inspire others.  Each new day and each second, I am given a gift from God to have purpose during my time here.  I want my life to make a difference even if it is only minimally.  I want to use God’s gift as abundantly as I can.

Let us grasp and hold of life and seize every opportunity that comes our way.  Life is short, life is fleeting, and life comes and goes so quickly.  Capture each moment and make the most of it.  Choose to be grateful.  Choose to be kind.  Choose to accept your gift each day with happiness knowing that it was given to you for a reason.  Choose to use it well.

Article courtesy of the Pink Runner Girl.

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