Saint Michael

The Rules of Being Human 
You will receive a body. You may like it or hate it, but it will be yours for as long as you live. How you take care of it or fail to take care of it can make an enormous difference in the quality of your life. 
You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time, informal school called Life. Each day, you will be presented with opportunities to learn what you need to know. The lessons presented are often completely different from those you think you need. 
There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of trial, error and experimentation. You can learn as much from failure as you can from success. Maybe more. 
A lesson is repeated until it is learned. A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it (as evidenced by a change in your attitude and ultimately your behavior) then you can go on to the next lesson. 
Learning lessons does not end. There is no stage of life that does not contain some lessons. As long as you live there will be something more to learn. 
“There” is no better than “here”. When your “there” has become a “here” you will simply discover another “there” that will again look better than your “here.” Don’t be fooled by believing that the unattainable is better than what you have. 
Others are merely mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects something you love or hate about yourself. When tempted to criticize others, ask yourself why you feel so strongly. 
What you make of your life is up to you. You have all the tools and resources you need. What you create with those tools and resources is up to you. Remember that through desire, goal setting and unflagging effort you can have anything you want. Persistence is the key to success. 
The answers lie inside of you. The solutions to all of life’s problems lie within your grasp. All you need to do is ask, look, listen and trust yourself.

Survivor

We planted this rose bush the year that my brother passed away. There has been years when I never thought it would go any further. Yet every year it seems to come up with its best attempt. This year it really came through. 

109 st trolley

I think it was December of 1967. I would hop on the bus in Wellington on a saturday night , transfer on 118 ave and 118 street to a trolley bus that ran down to Jasper and 101st, transfer to another trolley ride through the river valley over the 105 st bridge, climb the hill to 109 st and get off a block before white avenue. Many times on a saturday night I made this journey, if I had the night off from my part time job at the King George Hotel. I still remember George the chef sparing me odd tidbits of advice telling me to grab a slice of life and never let it go. Edna , the matronly maitre de, would always keep me focused. I remember this night vividly as the night was so peaceful with light snowflakes gently drifting to the ground against the light from the streetlamps. I would meet my bud at the stand up pizza bar just north of the Bank of Nova Scotia. We seemed to always have lots to talk about. But the night was never complete until we would end up in his basement rented room in one of those old houses Just south of 82 ave.  I never knew where Stan got his weed from, but I know this. It was always good stuff. It seemed like the Daydream Believer by the Monkeys was always playing on Stan's transistor  radio.

Alley oop

http://youtu.be/sz6IpmmYSXA

Now is all you have

See Above

Wow, its 2014.

Dr's Visit

So Grateful to so Many for that day.  http://youtu.be/qKAluRcanpk

Space

Victorias day

http://youtu.be/B4bPT7J15qw

Deutsche

http://youtu.be/ZKrGOJfb9po

The Lord,s Prayer

http://youtu.be/nyO-YZB81Ig

Daughters

#1 Forget Luck, Live by Intent

Sadhguru: A few things may happen by chance. But if you wait for the chance, good things will happen to you only when you are in your grave because things may take their time. Even quantum theory says that if you try, you can actually walk through a wall once in a “zillion” times because there is a pulsation of particles happening and you may walk through. It is just that before you reach that one zillionth time, you’ll have a cracked skull. When you live by chance, you also live in fear and anxiety. When you live by intent and capability, it does not matter what is happening or not happening, at least you are in control of what is happening to you. It is a more stable life.

#2 Stop Fixating on Failure

Sadhguru: For a committed man, there is no such thing as failure. If you fall down 100 times in the day, it is 100 lessons learnt. If you commit yourself like this to creating what you really care for, your mind gets organized. Once your mind gets organized, your emotions will get organized because the way you think is the way you feel. Once your thought and emotion are organized, your energies and your very body will get organized. Once all these four are organized in one direction, your ability to create and manifest what you want is phenomenal. You are the creator in many ways.

#3 Work with Clarity

Sadhguru: What a human being needs is clarity, not confidence. If you want to walk through a crowd of people, if your vision is clear and you can see where everybody is, you can just walk through the whole crowd without touching anyone. If your vision is not clear but you have confidence, you will walk over everybody. Because there is no clarity, people think that confidence is a good substitute. It just cannot be. Let’s say you make all the major decisions in your life like this: get yourself a coin, flip it. If it’s heads, it’s one way, tails the other. It works 50% of the time. If you are right only 50% of the time, there are only two professions that you can keep – either a weather man or an astrologer. You cannot keep any other job on this planet.

#4  Embrace the People and Things You Dislike

Sadhguru: To handle different kinds of situations in our lives, we need different kinds of identities. If you are fluid about it, if you can change from one to another gracefully, then you can play your role to the hilt and still have no problem with it. But for most people, their personality is like a rock. It sits on them all the time and makes them suffer anything that does not fit into its ambit.

If you have to break that, you have to do something in reverse. This is a simple thing you can do: team up with somebody that you do not like.Spend time with that person, very lovingly, joyfully. Learn to do things that you do not like, be with people that you do not like, and still live your life sensibly, lovingly and joyfully.

#5 Drop Your Calculations

Sadhguru: There is no need to aspire to greatness. If you make the focus and ambit of your life well beyond the concerns of who you are, you will anyway be a great human being. If you look at certain people, greatness happened to them not because they were seeking to be great, but because their way of looking at life was way beyond “what about me?”

If you just drop this one calculation, “What about me?” from your head, and function to the best of your ability, in some way you will be great because you will naturally be looking at, “What can I do about all the life around me?” So, you will naturally enhance your capabilities because there is so much to do!

http://youtu.be/nU615FaODCg

 I have been in many places, but I've never been in Cahoots. Apparently, you can't go alone. You have to be in Cahoots with someone. I've also never been in Cognito. I hear no one recognizes you there. I have, however, been in Sane. They don't have an airport; you have to be driven there. I have made several trips there, thanks to my friends, family and work. I live close so it's a short drive. I would like to go to Conclusions, but you have to jump, and I'm not too much on physical activity anymore.
I have also been in Doubt. That is a sad place to go and I try not to visit there too often. I've been in Flexible, but only when it was very important to stand firm. Sometimes I'm in Capable, and I go there more often as I'm getting older. One of my favourite places to be is in Suspense! It really gets the adrenaline flowing and pumps up the old heart! At my age I need all the stimuli I can get! And, sometimes I think I am in Vincible but life shows me I am not. People keep telling me I'm in Denial but I'm positive I've never been there before! I have though been in Deep Sh…..t many times; the older I get, the easier it is to get there. I actually kind of enjoy it there. So far, I haven't been in Continent, but my travel agent says I'll be going soon. 

The Back Nine

 THE BACK NINE
 I first started reading this email & was reading fast until I reached the third sentence. I stopped and started over reading slower and thinking about every word. This email is very thought provoking. Makes you stop and think. Read slowly!

And then it is winter. You know...time has a way of moving quickly and catching you unaware of the passing years. It seems just yesterday that I was young, just married and embarking on my new life with my mate. Yet in a way, it seems like eons ago, and I wonder where all the years went. I know that I lived them all. I have glimpses of how it was back then and of all my hopes and dreams. 

But, here it is, the "back nine" of my life and it catches me by surprise...How did I get here so fast? Where did the years go and where did my youth go? 

I remember well seeing older people through the years and thinking that those older people were years away from me and that" I was only on the first hole, and the "back nine" was so far off that I could not fathom it or imagine fully what it would be like. 

 But here it is...my friends are retired and getting gray...they move slower and I see an older person now. Some are in better and some worse shape than me...but, I see the great change...Not like the ones that I remember who were young and vibrant... but, like me, their age is beginning to show and we are now those older folks that we used to see and never thought we'd become. 

Each day now, I find that just getting a shower is a real target for the day! And taking a nap is not a treat anymore... it's mandatory! Cause, if I don't on my own free will...I just fall asleep where I sit! 

 And so...now I enter into this new season of my life unprepared for all the aches and pains and the loss of strength and ability to go and do things that I wish I had done but never did!! But, at least I know, that though I'm on the "back nine", and I'm not sure how long it will last...this I know, that when it's over on this earth...it's over. A new adventure will begin! Yes, I have regrets. There are things I wish I hadn't done...things I should have done, but indeed, there are many things I'm happy to have done. It's all in a lifetime. 

 So, if you're not on the "back nine" yet...let me remind you, that it will be here faster than you think. So, whatever you would like to accomplish in your life please do it quickly! Don't put things off too long!! Life goes by quickly. So, do what you can today, as you can never be sure whether you're on the "back nine" or not! 

 You have no promise that you will see all the seasons of your life...so, live for today and say all the things that you want your loved ones to remember... and hope that they appreciate and love you for all the things that you have done for them in all the years past!! 

 "Life" is a gift to you. The way you live your life is your gift to those who come after. Make it a fantastic one. LIVE IT WELL! ENJOY TODAY! DO SOMETHING FUN! BE HAPPY! HAVE A GREAT DAY. Remember "It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver. LIVE HAPPY IN 2014 

 LASTLY, CONSIDER THIS. ~Your kids are becoming you.....but your grandchildren are perfect! ~Going out is good. Coming home is better! ~You forget names...But it's OK because other people forgot they even knew you!!! ~You realize you're never going to be really good at anything...especially golf. ~The things you used to care to do, you no longer care to do, but you really do care that you don't care to do them anymore. ~You sleep better on a lounge chair with the TV blaring than in bed. It's called "pre-sleep". ~You miss the days when everything worked with just an "ON" and "OFF" switch.. ~You tend to use more 4 letter words... "what?"..."when?"...??? 

 Now that you can afford expensive jewelry, it's not safe to wear it anywhere. You notice everything they sell in stores is "sleeveless"?!!! ~What used to be freckles are now liver spots. ~Everybody whispers. ~You have 3 sizes of clothes in your closet... 2 of which you will never wear. ~~~But Old is good in some things: Old Songs, Old movies, and best of all, OLD FRIENDS!! 

 Stay well, "OLD FRIEND!"  It's Not What You Gather, But What You Scatter That Tells What Kind Of Life You Have Lived. 

 TODAY IS THE OLDEST YOU'VE EVER BEEN, YET THE YOUNGEST YOU'LL EVER BE, SO ENJOY THIS DAY WHILE IT LASTS.