Walking the Camino
well, I finally arrived in Santiago today after averaging 25-30 km a day!!

Creating Abundance In Your Life -

Two Choices

Two  Choices

What  would you do?....you make the choice. Don't look for a punch line, there  isn't one. Read it anyway. My question is: Would you have made the same  choice?



At a  fundraising dinner for a school that serves children with learning  disabilities, the father of one of the students delivered a speech that  would never be forgotten by all who attended. After extolling the school  and its

dedicated staff, he offered a question:

'When not interfered  with by outside influences, everything nature does, is done with  perfection.

Yet my son, Shay, cannot learn things as other children do.  He cannot understand things as other children do.

Where  is the natural order of things in my son?'



The  audience was stilled by the query.



The father continued... 'I believe  that when a child like Shay, who was mentally and physically disabled  comes into the world, an opportunity to realize true human nature presents  itself, and it comes in the way other people treat that child.'

Then he  told the following story:



Shay and I had walked past a park where  some boys Shay knew were playing baseball... Shay asked, 'Do you think  they'll let me play?' I knew that most of the boys would not want someone  like Shay on their team, but as a father Ialso understood that if  my son were allowed to play, it would give him a much-needed sense of  belonging and some confidence to be accepted by others in spite of his  handicaps.



I approached one of the boys on the field and asked (not  expecting much) if Shay could play. The boy looked around for guidance and  said, 'We're losing by six runs and the game is in the eighth inning. I  guess he can be on our team and we'll try to put him in to bat in the  ninth inning.'



Shay struggled over to the team's bench and, with a  broad smile, put on a team shirt. I watched with a small tear in my eye  and warmth in my heart. The boys saw my joy at my son being  accepted.

In the bottom of the eighth inning, Shay's team scored a few  runs but was still behind by three.

In the top of the ninth inning,  Shay put on a glove and played in the right field. Even though no hits  came his way, he was obviously ecstatic just to be in the game and on the  field, grinning from ear to ear as I waved to him from the stands.

In  the bottom of the ninth inning, Shay's team scored again.

Now, with two  outs and the bases loaded, the potential winning run was on base and Shay  was scheduled to be next at bat.



At this juncture, do they let Shay  bat and give away their chance to win the game?

Surprisingly, Shay was  given the bat. Everyone knew that a hit was all but impossible because  Shay didn't even know how to hold the bat properly, much less connect with  the ball.



However, as Shay stepped up to the

plate, the pitcher,  recognizing that the other team was putting winning aside for this moment  in Shay's life, moved in a few steps to lob the ball in softly so Shay  could at least make contact.

The first pitch came and Shay swung  clumsily and missed.

The pitcher again took a few steps forward to toss  the ball softly towards Shay.

As the pitch came in, Shay swung at the  ball and hit a slow ground ball right back to the pitcher.



The game  would now be over.

The pitcher picked up the soft grounder and could  have easily thrown the ball to the first baseman.

Shay would have been  out and that would have been the end of the game.



Instead, the  pitcher threw the ball right over the first baseman's head, out of reach  of all team mates.

Everyone from the stands and both teams started  yelling, 'Shay, run to first!

Run to first!'

Never in his life had  Shay ever run that far, but he made it to first base.

He scampered down  the baseline, wide-eyed and startled.



Everyone yelled, 'Run to  second, run to second!'

Catching his breath, Shay awkwardly ran towards  second, gleaming and struggling to make it to the base.

B y the time  Shay rounded towards second base, the right fielder had the ball . the  smallest guy on their team who now had his first chance to be the hero for  his team.

He could have thrown the ball to the second-baseman for the  tag, but he understood the pitcher's intentions so he, too, intentionally  threw the ball high and far over the third-baseman's head.

Shay ran  toward third base deliriously as the runners ahead of him circled the  bases toward home.



All were screaming, 'Shay, Shay, Shay, all the  Way Shay'



Shay reached third base because the opposing shortstop  ran to help him by turning him in the direction of third base, and  shouted, 'Run to third!

Shay, run to third!'



As Shay rounded  third, the boys from both teams, and the spectators, were on their feet  screaming, 'Shay, run home! Run home!'

Shay ran to home, stepped on the  plate, and was cheered as the hero who hit the grand slam and won the game  for his team



'That day', said the father softly with tears now  rolling down his face, 'the boys from both teams helped bring a piece of  true love and humanity into this world'.



Shay didn't make it to  another summer. He died that winter, having never forgotten being the hero  and making me so happy, and coming home and seeing his Mother tearfully  embrace her little hero of the day!



AND NOW A LITTLE FOOT NOTE TO  THIS STORY:

We all send thousands of jokes through the e-mail without a  second thought, but when it comes to sending messages about life choices,  people hesitate.

The crude, vulgar, and often obscene pass freely  through cyberspace, but public discussion about decency is too often  suppressed in our schools and workplaces.



If  you're thinking about forwarding this message, chances are that you're  probably sorting out the people in your address book who aren't the  'appropriate' ones to receive this type of message Well, the person who  sent you this believes that we all can make a  difference.

We  all have thousands of opportunities every single day to help realize the  'natural order of things.'

So many seemingly trivial interactions  between two people present us with a choice:

Do we pass along a little  spark of love and humanity or do we pass up those opportunities and leave  the world a little bit colder in the process?



A wise man once said  every society is judged by how it treats it's least fortunate amongst  them.



You now have two choices:

1. Delete

2.  Forward


May  your day, be a Shay Day. 

God 's Purpose in Creating Us

God 's Purpose in Creating Us

My purpose in creating you, My spiritual offspring, was for Me to know Myself as God. I have no way to do that save through you. Thus it can be said (and has been, many times) that My purpose for you is that you should know yourself as Me. This seems so amazingly simple, yet it becomes very complex -- because there is only one way for you to know yourself as Me -- and that is for you first to know yourself as not Me.

Conversations With God, Book 1 Neale Donald Walsch Page 26

Happiness Lessons from Around the World

Happiness Lessons from Around the World

 Happiness Is Taking Pride In Who You Are (Iceland)

If it is possible for language, mere words, to nurture happiness, to tickle the creative soul of an entire people, then surely that language is Icelandic. Icelanders love their language. Love it even more than their country, which is saying something. For Icelanders, language is the tabernacle of the country. That's what one person here told me. In any other country, I'd dismiss such a statement as nationalistic hyperbole. Not in Iceland.

Happiness Is Knowing Where You Come From (Switzerland)

The Swiss are deeply rooted in place. Their passports list the name of their ancestral town. Not their hometown but the town of their roots. Maybe they weren't born there. Maybe they've never even been there. But it is their home. It's been said that the Swiss only become Swiss upon leaving the country. Until then, they are Genevans or Zurichers, or otherwise defined by where they happen to come from. No wonder it was the Swiss who invented the modern concept of homesickness; they were the first to put a word, heimweh to that nagging feeling of dislocation, that feeling of loss we experience when uprooted from the place we call home.

Happiness Is Spreading the Wealth to Everyone (Qatar)

Water in Qatar is free. So is electricity and health care and education. The government even pays a small salary to Qatari college students. When a Qatari man gets married, the government gives him a plot of land to build a house, an interest-free mortgage, and, to boot, a monthly allowance of roughly seven thousand dollars. And unlike in European welfare states, Qataris aren't burdened with high taxes. No income tax. No sales tax. Nothing.

Happiness Is Taking Care of Yourself and Others (Bhutan)

In the last few decades, Bhutan has made tremendous strides in the kind of metrics that people who use words like "metrics" get excited about. Life expectancy has increased from forty-two to sixty-four years. The government now provides free health care and education for all of its citizens. Bhutan is the world's first nonsmoking nation; the sale of tobacco is banned. There are more monks than soldiers. Every trivia buff who visits the city loves to point out that it is the world's only capital city without a single stoplight.

Happiness Is Getting to Know You (United Kingdom)

Even in the inebriated atmosphere of a pub, the British remain very economical with their emotions. Personal information is doled out judiciously, like premium chocolate or fine wine. As any economist will tell you, scarcity creates value. So when a Brit opens up, exposes their wounds, where it hurts, this is more valuable, more meaningful, than when an American does it. For the first time since I arrived in Britain, I appreciate the value of reticence.

Happiness Is Other People (Thailand)

What the Thais know instinctively is that a smile, a real smile, is not located in the lips or any other part of the mouth. A real smile is in the eyes. To be precise, the orbicularis oculi muscles that surround each eye. We cannot fool these muscles. They spring to life only for a genuine smile. The Thais remind us that a smile is not private. Researches have found that people, sane people at least, rarely smile when alone. The smile is a social gesture more than a reflection of our inner state, though it can be that, too.

Happiness Is Realizing All Things Are Connected (India)

Hearing and feeling about one thousand people say "om" at the same time is something to behold. The whole room feels as if it is vibrating. I like this, I think, yes, I like this, and it dawns on me how much I associate India with sounds--the singsong call of a street hawking, the bleating horn of an auto-rickshaw, the chanting of a Hindu priest. Every sound, not just the holy ones, is a vibration. And a vibration is, of course, motion. Air pressing against air. Nothing more. Yet this simple act of physics can result in Mozart's piano concerto or a freeway at rush hour or a lover's whisper.

Happiness Is In Your Backyard (America)

My passport is tucked into my desk drawer again. I am relearning the pleasures of home. The simple joys of waking up in the same bed every morning. The pleasant realization that familiarity breeds contentment and not only contempt. I am more aware of the corrosive nature of envy and try to squelch it before it grows. I don't take my failures quite so hard anymore. I see beauty in a dark winter sky. I can appreciate a genuine smile from twenty yards.

Have I found happiness? I still own an obscene number of bags and am prone to debilitating bouts of hypochondria. But I do experience happy moments. I'm learning, as W.H. Auden counseled, to "dance while you can." He didn't say dance well, and for that I am grateful.

Movement

On this day of your life, dear friend, I believe God wants you to know...

.  ...that nothing is ever solved, or created, by standing still.

 

Movement is the process of the Universe. So move. Do something. Anything. But do not stand still. Do not remain"on the horns of a dilemma."  Do not fence sit.

 

 Put your foot down on one side or the other, swing the opposite leg over and start walking. You'll know before you take ten steps if you're going in the right direction. Not to decide is to decide. Try to not make choices by default. 

 

You know exactly why you received this message today.

Neale Donald Walsch

Here are the two best prayers I know:
Here are the two best prayers I know: 'Help me, help me, help me' and 'Thank you, thank you, thank you.'

-Anne Lamott

You are a child of the universe
You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you
have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt
the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be, and whatever your labours and
aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. With
all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world.
Desiderata - Max Ehrmann c.1920

salvation

God wants you to know...