Some Notes

Thank You God

Thank You God for being my Comforter,
When my soul was weak
and the tears wouldn't stop,
When my heart was aching with pain
and I was searching for refuge,
When my spirit was broken beyond repair
and I felt lost and hopeless,
Thank You for Joy.
Thank You God for being my Teacher,
When I was ignorant to the Lessons of Life
and rebuked wisdom,
When I was rebellious against your principles
and rejected morality,
When I was hindered by obstacles
and blinded by self-doubt,
Thank You for Knowledge.
Thank You God for being my Spiritual Guide,
When I chose the wrong path to tread
and lost sight of my purpose,
When I didn't know the power of faith, prayer,
and forgiveness,
When I didn't know how to surrender all my
anger, fears, and temptations,
Thank You for your Guidance.
Thank You God for being my Counselor,
When I didn't know how to acknowledge nor
express my feelings,
When I chose Sin over Self-Love,
Thank You for Revelations, Awakenings, & Resolutions.
Thank You God

Living A Life That Matters

Ready or not, some day it will all come to an end. There will be no more sunrises, no minutes, hours or days. All the things you collected, whether treasured or forgotten will pass to someone else. Your wealth, fame and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance. It will not matter what you owned or what you were owed. Your grudges, resentments, frustrations and jealousies will finally disappear. So too, your hopes, ambitions, plans, and to-do lists will expire. The wins and losses that once seemed so important will fade away. It won´t matter where you came from or what side of the tracks you lived on at the end. It won´t matter whether you were beautiful or brilliant. Even your gender and skin color will be irrelevant. So what will matter? How will the value of your days be measured? What will matter is not what you bought but what you built, not what you got but what you gave. What will matter is not your success but your significance. What will matter is not what you learned but what you taught. What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage or sacrifice that enriched, empowered or encouraged others to emulate your example. What will matter is not your competence but your character. What will matter is not how many people you knew, but how many will feel a lasting loss when you´re gone. What will matter is not your memories but the memories that live in those who loved you. What will matter is how long you will be remembered, by whom and for what. Living a life that matters doesn´t happen by accident. It´s not a matter of circumstance but of choice. Choose to live a life that matters.

(Michael Josephson 2003)

TOMORROW IS NOT PROMISED

Sometimes people come into your life and you know right away that they were meant to be there, they serve some sort of purpose, teach you a lesson or help figure out who you are and who you want to become.

You never know who these people may be: your neighbor, child, long lost friend, lover, or even a complete stranger who, when you lock eyes with them, you know at that very moment that they will affect your life in some profound way.

And sometimes things happen to you and at the time they seem painful and unfair, but in reflection you realize that without overcoming those obstacles you would have never realized your potential strength, will power, or heart.

Everything happens for a reason. Nothing happens by chance or by means of good or bad luck. Illness, injury, love, lost moments of true greatness and sheer stupidity all occur to test the limits of your soul.

Without these small tests, whether they be events, illnesses or relationships, life would be like a smoothly paved straight flat road to nowhere, safe and comfortable, but dull and utterly pointless.

The people you meet who affect your life and the successes and downfalls you experience create who you are, and even the bad experiences can be learned from. In fact, they are probably the poignant and important ones.

If someone hurts you, betrays you or breaks your heart, forgive them, for they have helped you learn about trust and the importance of being cautious to whom you open your heart...

If someone loves you, love them back unconditionally, not only because they love you, but because they are teaching you to love and opening your heart and eyes to things you would have never seen or felt without them.

Make every day count. Appreciate every moment and take from it everything that you possibly can, for you may never be able to experience it again...

Talk to people you have never talked to before, and actually listen, let yourself fall in love, break free and set your sights high...

Hold your head up because you have every right too. Tell yourself you are a great individual and believe in yourself... for if you don't believe in yourself, no one else will believe in you either.

Create your own life and then go out and live in it! "Live Each Day As If It Were Your Last...Tomorrow is Not Promised"

.....Author Unknown

The Battle of Prayer

Prayer is both a gift of grace and a determined response on our part. It always presupposes effort. the great figures of prayer of the Old Covenant before Christ, as well as the Mother of God, the saints, and he himself, all teach us this: prayer is a battle. Against whom? Against ourselves and against the wiles of the tempter who does all he can to turn man away from prayer, away from union with God. We pray as we live, because we live as we pray. If we do not want to act habitually according to the Spirit of Christ, neither can we pray habitually in his name. the "spiritual battle" of the Christian's new life is inseparable from the battle of prayer.

- Catechism of the Catholic Church Part 4 Section 1 Chapter 3 Article 2

Rest and relaxation

Work is important. We need to eat and we need to take care of our family, but over-busyness can be a curse. Without sufficient rest and relaxation we will eventually lose our health and not be able to work efficiently. And without taking time to nurture and be nurtured in loving relationships, life becomes empty and meaningless.

We need to follow the advice of Jesus when he said to his disciples, "Come apart and rest a while." Or as somebody else put it, "Come apart and rest a while before you come apart."

True passion takes guts and courage

"To revive passion in hearts, one must first understand it. Passion signifies receiving or suffering something or submitting to something. From this, follow two indispensable conditions for passion: knowledge, and some organic or physical change in our sensible nature."

- Archbishop Fulton Sheen

Being politically correct is not charity!

"It is quite generally taken for granted that the way to be popular is to say things you do not mean, or to draw a veil between your mind and your lips, or divorce thoughts from actions. Their lips then carry honeyed speech; their hands carry stilettos are for others' backs."

- Archbishop Fulton Sheen

Just don't

If you have nothing nice to say don't say it.

When you don't matter anymore

When you don't matter anymore to anybody life starts to get so hard...

Do not...

Do not... undermine your worth by comparing yourself with others. It is because we are different that each of us is special.

Do not... set your goals by what other people deem important. Only you know what is best for you.

Do not... take for granted the things closest to your heart. Cling to them as you would your life, for without them, life is meaningless.

Do not... let your life slip through your fingers by living in the past nor for the future. By living your life one day at a time, you live all the days of your life.

Do not... give up when you still have something to give. Nothing is really over until the moment you stop trying. It is a fragile thread that binds us to each other.

Do not... be afraid to encounter risks. It is by taking chances that we learn how to be brave.

Do not... shut love out of your life by saying it is impossible to find. The quickest way to receive love is to give love; The fastest way to lose love is to hold it too tightly.

Do not... dismiss your dreams. To be without dreams is to be without hope; To be without hope is to be without purpose.

Do not... run through life so fast that you forget not only where you have been, but also where you are going.

Life is not a race, but a journey to be savored each step of the way.