Lean forward....

....I want to share a secret with you.  (Ummm, I wonder how many of you just leant forward.)

The secret of communication is relocation. If you want to understand someone, you had best begin by trying to put yourself into their shoes. How would the world look to you if you were in their position? What might you value? What might you fear?
And what if you don't want to understand someone? What if you just want them to understand you?

Then you just need to remember one thing. We all find it so much easier to understand someone else if we feel that they are at least making an effort to understand us.

Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to 

play with your hair. (Khalil Gibran)

Nobody likes....

....flattery but we all appreciate a compliment. If people say nice things to us, especially when it is clear that they have taken the trouble to recognise a quality that we ourselves are quite pleased with, we feel good. We feel good about ourselves and we feel good about the folk who are making such comments. And if they then go on to gently point out some less than satisfactory factor that we might want to address, we are at least half-inclined to hear them out.

Diplomacy will almost always be a key to success.

Our intentions become clear through the fruits of our actions, 

not through the seeds of our words.

What are we supposed to do....

....about the things that we don't approve of? Or the things we dislike? We may wish that they were different but how much power do we have to change them? If we feel we have no power, we can either grow resentful or become philosophical. Of those two less-than-ideal options, the latter is surely, by far, the healthier.

But better yet is to make a concerted, sincere, effort to set the world to rights. Until or unless you try, how can you say for certain that such an enterprise is beyond your ability?

Life is a song - sing it.  Life is a game - play it.  Life is a challenge - meet it.  

Life is a dream - realize it.  Life is a sacrifice - offer it.  Life is love - enjoy it.  (Sai Baba)

If you are....

....enjoying life, it hardly matters what trouble you face. If you are not enjoying your life, you can be surrounded by all the trappings of wealth and success yet they will not make a shred of difference to your inner experience. Happiness is not just 'a bit more important' than money or power - it is infinitely more important.

Also, if you do have happiness, you tend, automatically, to summon whatever power or money you truly need.

If you worry about yesterday's failures, then today's successes will be few.

A funny thing....

....happens to people in love. They find their capacity to care is seemingly limitless. Even if, prior to the experience, a person or situation hardly mattered, suddenly it matters more than anything. Love and concern are not the only emotions that can be 'self-replenishing'. 

Our reserves of compassion, patience, tolerance and kindness are inexhaustible if we only allow them to be.

There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being

superior to your former self. (Ernest Hemingway)

They say....

.....'Time and tide wait for no man.' That is so true, and these powerful natural forces wait for no woman, either. The reference books date this phrase to the 14th century, but it is hard to imagine that, prior to this, they either had no such saying or it didn't apply. If only we had a time machine, we could go back and check.

Meanwhile, with no such facility, the risk could be in expending too much energy dwelling on a past you cannot alter, is that you may miss the chance to seize your next big real chance.

Forever is composed of nows.    (Emily Dickinson)

Let's have a....

They say moment..... 

They say 'Life is what happens to you while you are busy making other plans.' So, if you want to enjoy life more, should you stop making plans? No. Experiences are usually richer when our days contain a little space for spontaneity. Plans, though, can be rewarding to make and enjoyable to stick to. We just have to remember that they won't always work out and that we need to be philosophical when they don't.

If your plans are unravelling a little. Don't worry. Just reweave the threads.

The hardest battle you are ever going to have to fight is the battle to be just you.   (Leo Buscaglia)