Through A Child’s Eyes

I’ve been looking after my 2 year old granddaughter today and as I watch her, I think about her innocence.

Here’s this perfect little human being who knows nothing about hate, prejudice, wealth, poverty etc.

One day a wealthy gentleman took his son to the country to show him how the poor lived.

Upon returning to his luxurious mansion the father asked the son if he learned anything.

"Well," the son began, "I saw we have one dog and they have four. We have a pool that reaches to the garden, and they have a creek that has no end. Our patio reaches to the front yard, and they have an endless horizon. We have lanterns in the garden and they have the stars at night. We have servants who care for our needs, and they serve others. We buy our food, they grow theirs. WE have walls to protect our property, and they have friends to protect them."

By this time the rich man was speechless.

"Thank you, father," the boy said, "for showing me how poor we are."

If only we as adults could think like a child. I wish I was like my granddaughter.

She lights up my world as soon as I see her, and she’s the biggest time waster ever. She’s funny, cute, adorable, beautiful and she has me wrapped around her little finger!

Children are such a gift and if we could learn one lesson from them it would be not to be judgemental of others. Live with each other in peace and harmony. Elizabeth Stone said: "Making the decision to have a child - it’s momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking outside your body".

Children learn from adults so we have to ensure that we’re the best teachers.

Creating Your Own Reality

Have you ever asked yourself what you really want? The article below comes from Self Confidence 101 under the heading The First Step To Achieving What You Want.

"The first step to achieving what you want in life is desiring it like nothing else.

You really, really must want what it is you are working towards to get it.

Now think about this. If you’re not exactly clear about what you want, then how can you truly desire it?

So here’s what you need to do:

Go away and work out exactly what it is that you want.

Don’t say something like “A million dollars” because money is just a means to get what you want.

What would that million dollars get you? What kind of lifestyle would it give you? What could you do if you had that money?

What kind of life do you truly desire?"

<<Go to www.selfconfidence101.com for more articles in the same vein.>>

There’s a few questions in there but they’re all relevant and the steps must be taken to reap the rewards. You don’t achieve anything just by "wishing".

To cement in your mind what you really want, write it down and then take action. Don’t just sit and wait for it to happen.

Jack Canfield (Chicken Soup For The Soul) once said: "The Universe rewards action!"

Swine Flu - Drug Companies Rejoice!

Isn’t it amazing how the first mention of a so-called epidemic, brings the drug companies to the fore literally rubbing their hands together, because they know that sales of their drugs are going to hit the roof?

One such company GlaxoSmithKline had a sharp rise of 5% in their shares once the World Health Organisation announced that there could be a Swine Flu Pandemic.

So the drug companies and investors will be making huge profits from a disaster which may or may not occur. If you’re a shrewd investor you would have got in and bought up as many shares as you could as soon as there was any hint of an epidemic.

It seems morally wrong to me that companies and investors can become rich because of the misfortunate people struck down with Swine Flu. In times of crisis, the costs of drugs should either be reduced significantly or given free to stop the epidemic from spreading.

The swine flu is a descendant of the infamous "Spanish flu" that caused a devastating pandemic in humans in 1918-1919. In less than a year, that pandemic killed more than 500,000 Americans and some 20 million people worldwide - the greatest number ever killed in so short a period by any natural or man-made catastrophe.

In times of need we want the major drug companies to step up and offer help with supplying the world with the proper medications to prevent the Swine Flu epidemic from spreading worldwide.

Success Or Failure Is Not Change, But Choice

There is one thing that we all have in common. That is…at some point in our life, we will face adversity. It’s not a matter of if but…when.

I have come to realize that the difference in our success or failure is not change, but choice. When adversity strikes, it’s not what happens that will determine our destiny; it’s how we react to what happens.

I’m reminded constantly about the human spirit and the determination to succeed. We’ve all seen many news stories about the courage of some people who literally come back from the dead and go on to be successful in all areas of their lives.

Now they could have given up their will to live, but instead there was something inside which was pushing them to survive.

One person who epitomises the courage and the will to survive is Lance Armstrong. He has survived testicular cancer, and a tumour that metastasized to his brain and lungs. His cancer treatments included brain and testicular surgery and extensive chemotherapy, and his prognosis was originally poor, yet he survived and went on to win the Tour de France 7 years in a row.

In the link below is a 3 minute inspirational movie which is about staying strong and not letting circumstances defeat you. So just sit back, turn up your speakers and enjoy.

Click here to watch and be inspired!

And don’t forget to pay it forward by sharing this email with friends, family and co-workers. They’ll thank you for it!

ANZAC Day 2009 Australia

This morning I attended a dawn service honouring the memory of those who lost their lives defending our country. This has special meaning for me because my uncle was lost on HMAS Sydney in 1941 at the age of 19. Far too young to die.

The story of HMAS Sydney is fascinating. One-third of the RAN’s officers and men lost during the war were lost on 19 November 1941 when the Sydney sank with all hands.

The German raider Kormoran, heavily disguised as the Dutch freighter Straat Malakaa, apparently lured the technologically superior warship Sydney into range of its guns and torpedoes. Both ships were critically damaged and sank after the action.  

The loss of the Sydney and of all 645 men - 635 RAN, six RAAF and four civilian canteen staff - on board has generated not only enormous grief but a lot of controversy in the years since. The sudden loss of the Australian cruiser with all her crew; the fruitless searches for both shipwrecks and our dependency on the German survivors for eyewitness accounts of the battle have made it very difficult for many families to accept their loss.

The first serious attempts to locate the cruiser were not organised until 24 November when Sydney was four days overdue. That same evening a British tanker crew reported they had rescued 25 German seamen from a raft. During subsequent land and sea searches off Carnarvon 315 more of the Kormoran’s crew of 393 officers and men were rescued.

A badly damaged RAN Carley float (life raft), now in the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, and two lifebelts are all that have definitely been recovered from the Sydney.

A permanent memorial has been set up at Geraldton WA in the shape of a dome. The dome of the HMAS Sydney Memorial incorporates 645 seagulls, a gull for each life lost.

Real Life Morals

A teacher gave her class of 11 year olds an assignment: To get their parent to tell them a story with a moral at the end of it.

The next day the kids came back and one by one began to tell their stories.

Ashley said, “My father’s a farmer and we have a lot of egg-laying hens. One time we were taking our eggs to market in a basket on the front seat of the car when we hit a big bump in the road and all the eggs got broken.

“What’s the moral of that story?” asked the teacher.

“Don’t put all your eggs in one basket!” “Very good,” said the teacher.

Next, little Sarah raised her hand and said, “Our family are Farmers too. But we raise chickens for the meat market. One day we had a dozen eggs, but when they hatched we only got ten live chicks, and the moral to this story is, ‘Don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched’.”

“That was a fine story Sarah.” said the teacher. “Michael, do you have a story to share?”

“Yes. My daddy told me this story about my Aunty Sharon. Aunty Sharon was a flight engineer on a plane in the Gulf War and her plane got hit.

She had to bail out over enemy territory and all she had was a bottle of whisky, a machine gun and a machete. She drank the whisky on the way down so it wouldn’t break and then she landed right in the middle of 100 enemy troops. She killed seventy of them with the machine gun until she ran out of bullets. Then she killed twenty more with the machete until the blade broke. And then she killed the last ten with her bare hands.”

“Good heavens,” said the horrified teacher, “What kind of moral did your daddy tell you from that horrible story?”

“Stay the heck away from Aunty Sharon when she’s been drinking!!”