What Will Be Your Legacy At The Time Of Your Death?

This may sound like a very morbid subject, but it makes you think about what you have achieved and who you have touched just by being alive.

My reason for writing about this topic was because I was just talking to a very good friend of mine who’s just lost her sister. Her sister had battled breast cancer for many years but it finally got her.

Her sister was a very vibrant woman who lit up a room as soon as she walked in. She was also quite “mad” in a very uplifting way. If you were feeling a bit down you’d only have to spend a few minutes with her before she had you laughing your head off.

My friend found out at her sister’s funeral how well loved she was. The church was absolutely packed and at least a dozen people got up to tell the story of her life and how she had affected them. Apparently each person who stood up told a funny story about her and about how much she was going to be missed.

Even though she was in so much pain and struggling on a daily basis, she still knew how to make people laugh. Unfortunately there aren’t enough people around like her to spread joy and happiness.

My friend has found comfort in the fact that her sister was so well regarded, and came home from her funeral feeling a sense of peace and joy as she looks back at her sister’s incredible life and the people she had touched.

I’d like to think that when the end of my life comes, I can look back and say that I inspired people to laugh and to find the joy in their lives. Let’s face it, there’s enough misery and doom and gloom out there to keep the pessimists going for years!

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.

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!!”

Being Healthy, Wealthy and Happy!

Being a healthy functioning person can actually change the way you think, and can open up your mind to possibilities you’d never thought of previously. It can bring happiness you’ve never felt before, and bring abundance into your life. Once your mind is clear and you’re able think about what you really want, then your imagination takes over. "First comes thought; then organization of that thought, into ideas and plans; then transformation of those plans into reality. The beginning, as you will observe, is in your imagination".…Napoleon Hill, "Think and Grow Rich" We all need a plan of where we’re going and it all starts with a thought. You wouldn’t plan a road journey without a map, so why would you set out to achieve a goal without a plan in place. "Understand that "images" are mental pictures that are made from thoughts, and the magnificence of the mind lies in the fact that it can "think".  That is to say, it can tap into thought and create whatever image it chooses. Everything we do is preceded by an image. We think first in order to form an image, then we do the work"…Bob Proctor, "You Were Born Rich" Bob Proctor is my mentor and his writings are a result of many years researching the greatest philosophers of our time eg. Napoleon Hill, Dale Carnegie, Wallace D Wattles, to name a few. To find out more about Bob and his teachings, click HERE.

Do You Have A Pedophile Living In Your Neighborhood?

I’m sure that many of us have asked ourselves that question, especially when you hear of suburbs being raided and a number of pedophiles have been arrested.

It’s only through the diligence of people living in our street that these criminals can be arrested and locked up for many years for their crimes against innocent children.

Nowadays, we have access to services which can help us determine whether or not the person we are suspicious of, is a threat to society. We can go to sites and look through Public Records to:

• Conduct background checks
• See if the person has a criminal record
• See a directory of known pedophiles
• Locate recently released sex offenders
• Do checks on Child Care workers

We all want what’s best for our children, so having these resources made available to us, allows us to take care of our family and their well being.

If you’d like to find out how to access these Public Records, click HERE!