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Be willing to meet the challenges of life with heartfelt prayer and trust that the Almighty, your Father and King, Creator and Sustainer of the universe, will lead you along the path that you wish to go (From the Talmud Makos 10b).
You choose the road to your life's mission and destination. Make a profound decision to choose a fulfilling and meaningful life. This decision will become your self-image.
Besides creating a great life for yourself, you will have a positive influence on many other children of the Almighty.
I have met people who are totally free from self-consciousness. They tell me that they always assume that others will like them and think positively of them. As one person told me, "I decided to be the opposite of someone who is paranoid. A person who is paranoid always thinks that others are against him. Unless I have reason to believe otherwise, I always think that others will like me. Of course, I am careful to protect myself and don't do anything stupid. But assuming that others will like me has worked wonders for me throughout my life."
Love Yehuda
Recently, President Obama announced that, over the next 90-days, he is going to work to cut 100-Million dollars of spending out of the Federal Budget.
In life one doesn't always get what he wants (he did get everything he wanted with the suit - though he agreed the single-breasted would be a better style for him).
I love watching kids. They generally are happy and smiling. They run from place to place; they don't walk. When do we lose that enthusiasm for life, the joy of life? Is it the responsibilities of life? The difficulties? The expectations and disappointments? Yet, there are adults who have that enthusiasm, the joy, the energy for life. What can we do to strengthen ourselves in this area - or get back the joy, energy and enthusiasm for life?
The key is being able to control one's emotional states. A key element in the quality of one's life is the mental and emotional states that he experiences.
Love Yehuda
We might think that we won't be able to do or accomplish something. But seeing that someone else can do it tells us, "If this person can accomplish that, I will be able to do it also."
The Sages (Pirkei Avos 4:1-ethics of the Fathers) define a wise person as someone who learns from every person. Develop the habit of interviewing people you meet to find out exactly how they learned to do what you would like to learn to do. What are the thoughts that go through their mind? What are the actions they take? What are their attitudes and mindsets? What are the mental pictures they see? What are the books they read? What are the classes and recordings they heard?
When I was a boy I used to soak up people that I would meet and mirror and copy them to learn what they knew. I then was able to apply it to real life. When I became a man and went into a new area of business or law, I would hire an older person with experience in the new area. I would learn the new area and sometimes do better than my teacher.
Now that I am an adult, I see new areas and I have confidence that I can use my past experience to learn the new area..An old dog can learn new tricks if the dog wants to.
Now in repayment to what others taught me, I now teach my new young assistants what I know so that continue to helping my clients and friends as I age and make sure that they will get the benefit of my experience and their youth.
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Imagine how wonderful our planet would be if each person on it would greet everyone with a smile. That means that wherever you go you would be met with a smile. Be part of the "Bring a smile to our planet" project. To become a member of this project, you don't need to spend any money or fill out any forms. All you need to do is smile. Then watch the faces of those at whom you smile. Reinforce the smiles of others by telling them, "I appreciate your smiles," or, "You look great when you smile." By reinforcing this person's smiling, you will set in motion a chain of smiles. The recipients of this person's smiles will smile to more people, and those people will smile to even more people. You will be increasing the total amount of smiles on our planet. And that's something we need a lot more of.
Think of someone who doesn't smile very often. Then sensitively think of a way to bring a smile to that person's face in a way that will be appreciated.
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Beautiful Snow Moose
You probably won't see this again in your life time! Be sure to show this to your children or grandchildren...
These animals were photographed just north of the Wisconsin border on a highway near Marenisco , MI ...
Once in awhile there is an opportunity to take in a piece of nature that you may never see. In these days of unrest and turmoil it is great to see that GOD still produces some wondrous beauty.
The odds of seeing an albino moose are astronomical and to see this in the upper peninsula of Michigan , near Wisconsin , is even greater than astronomical. To see two of them together is nearly impossible.
We wanted to share these photos with as many people as possible because you will probably never have a chance to see this rare sight again.
This is a really special treat, so enjoy the shots of a lifetime
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Too cute not to share!
It's ALWAYS the kids that suffer.
His name is Zonkey
When someone tells you about his suffering, never say things like, "Cheer up." "It's not so bad." Or, "That wouldn't bother me." Saying these will only cause him extra pain.
Love Yehuda
Each and every day you will have many opportunities to build yourself and your self-image. Every positive thought, word, and action builds you.
When you see that you have behaved in a positive way, you can say to yourself, "This, too, will build my self-image."
If you have not behaved the way you would have liked, you can think about how you wished to have thought, spoken, and acted. Thinking about what you want to be like conditions your mind to think, speak, and act more in that way. You can say about this pattern of thinking, "This, too, will build my self-image."
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Sadness has a value in that when we are sad, we can learn to appreciate the suffering of others. This will motivate us to help them. Our own emotional experience will motivate us more than if we merely have an "intellectual knowledge" of the obligation to help.
A) God is kind and just. Why should suffering be an issue in the first place? Perhaps there is suffering in the world because God is angry or has a bad disposition? Or has not been properly appeased? The only reason why we are bothered by suffering is because we believe in a kind and just God. If we didn't, we would have no expectations and there would be no question about suffering. Asking "why?" reveals that we are questioning the justice in it and that we cannot accept injustice. In a spiritual person's universe, there cannot be a God who is mean or cruel.
B) God runs the world. The question of suffering reveals that you acknowledge that God is actively running the world. If we didn't believe in God, we wouldn't ask the question; there would be no one to whom to pose the question. And if we believed in a God who created the world and then left it or has limited abilities, we also wouldn't ask the question because either God is not involved or He can't do anything about it. In either case, questioning God about suffering would be akin to holding a weatherman personally responsible for the weather. If we question the existence of suffering, it is only because we understand that there is a God to whom we can direct the question – one who is ultimately responsible for what occurs.
C) Everything He does has meaning. When we ask "why?" it implies that we are looking for an answer that provides an underlying reason. When we suffer personally, this aspect of the question takes on even greater significance. Asking "Why me?" confirms that a person believes that there must be a reason for what they are enduring. They understand that what is happening is not random but rather directed.
D) We were created for pleasure. When we question suffering, we are clearly stating, "This shouldn't be." The question confirms that we understand that life is good and that God created us to give us pleasure, and suffering seems to runs contrary to that understanding. We rarely ask "Why me?" when things are going well. It's almost as if we expect life to be good.
So the question of suffering reveals that we believe in a kind and just God who runs the world, that we believe what happens to us has meaning and life is meant to be good and pleasurable. With this awareness, bad things happening seem like a contradiction and we ask, "How could a loving God let this happen?"
Ground Rules
There are four essential points that we must understand in order to grasp any meaning behind suffering. Without these four, it can never make sense. They are:
When beginning to work on self-improvement, just try to go against a negative trait in one small way. Any positive change is already a beginning.
When you take that first step and make even a small change for the better, you have already begun transforming your entire makeup. You are taking control of yourself and your behavior.
With persistence, you will go very far toward your ultimate destination.
If you have negative traits, constantly work on acting in a manner that is diametrically opposed to them. This will make those negative traits foreign to you.
Take it slow, and keep in mind that this is a lifelong process!
Love Yehuda
Whether or not Freud actually said that is irrelevant. The very popularity of the anecdote testifies to one incontrovertible fact: A lot of men don't know the answer.
It is probably fair to say that a lot of women also don't know the answer. If they did, all they would have to do is tell men. That would solve the riddle -- and make most men and women very happy.
So, to the extent that this is a great riddle, it is so because most members of both sexes seem not to know the answer.
Adding support to the widespread belief that what women want is close to unknowable is the underlying presumption that just about everybody knows what men want.
The number of truly funny Internet jokes that describe what women want as complex and what men want as simple is a testament to how widespread these assumptions about the two sexes are. Three examples illustrate this:
The first example is the one that begins: "How To Impress a Woman."
Listed beneath that heading is this: "Compliment her, respect her, honor her, cuddle her, kiss her, caress her, love her, stroke her, tease her, comfort her, protect her, hug her, hold her, spend money on her, wine and dine her, buy things for her, listen to her, care for her, stand by her, support her, hold her, go to the ends of the Earth for her."
That long list is followed by: "How To Impress a Man."
And listed beneath is this: "Show up naked. Bring food."
The second Internet example:
"Q: What is the difference between men and women?
A: A woman wants one man to satisfy her every need. A man wants every woman to satisfy his one need."
And a third Internet example shows a box divided into two parts.
Under the part labeled "Women" are 40 dials and knobs.
Under the part labeled "Men" is one switch, marked "On-Off."
As with most generalizations, there is much truth to these.
Nevertheless, I take issue with both presumptions -- that what women want is a riddle that would stump the Sphinx and that what men want is so easy it could be written on the back of a postage stamp.
In fact, I believe that both are relatively simple to answer (though neither is simple to achieve).
What does a man most want?
Answer: He most wants to be admired by the woman he loves.
One proof is that the most devastating thing a woman can do to her man is to hold him in contempt. That is so devastating to a marriage that, over time, it is often more toxic than an affair. I am fairly certain that more marriages survive an affair, as difficult as that is, than contempt. Of course, this goes in both directions, but when a woman shows contempt toward her man, his very manhood is called into question.
My father and mother were married 69 years. As my brother and I have heard countless times, "She put me on a pedestal" was the quality my father most often cited in describing what a wonderful wife my mother was. She admired him, and to him, that was everything. On the other hand, in describing her love for my father over all those years, my mother never once said, "He put me on a pedestal" (despite the fact that he constantly praised her). Rather, she always spoke of what a "great man" he was, how "brilliant," etc. Of course, this is just one example, but I think it applies to the majority of men and women.
The obvious upshot of this thesis is that in order to gain a woman's love, a man must make -- and keep -- himself admirable.
Boys know this instinctively. Studies that have observed boys and young men reveal how much harder they work at anything -- sports comes immediately to mind -- when they know girls are watching them.
That is why many single men in our society (often erroneously but understandably) place so much emphasis on what car they drive: They want to impress women. Yet, men couldn't care less what car a woman drives. In fact, for most men, a woman arriving on a first date in a relatively inexpensive car renders her more desirable than if she showed up in an expensive luxury car -- unless the man is looking to be supported by a woman. But few women are attracted to a man they know in advance they will have to support.
So, although the Internet jokes are right about men wanting sex, it isn't sex men most want from their woman. They want to be admired -- and sex is one manifestation of a woman's admiration for her man. When a man is regularly denied sex, in his eyes that means that his wife does not hold him in high esteem. Worse, he actually feels humiliated as a man. That, not the sex per se, is why regular denial devastates a man.
So, then, if what a man most wants is to be admired by his woman, what is it that a woman most wants?
That is the subject of the next column.
But here's a hint. If we begin with the assumption that men and women are made to bond with one another, what she most wants must be in some way related to what he most wants.
As we shall see, it is.
When you worry that something unpleasant might happen, keep in mind that we quickly get used to new situations, even those that are extremely negative. People make a life, no matter how bad the situation. Even during the worst possible times, the healthy human being is given a gift from G-d, that they are able to cope One symptom of those with mental illnesses is they can't focus on the positive, so they over-focus on the bad.
Experience is an antidote for worry. Make a list of things you worried about in the past. See how many of those negative things turned out better than you thought they would. Also note how many situations turned out as you feared, but you were able to cope anyway.
By being aware of how frequently your worries are for nothing, you will eliminate a large amount of needless worry.
This is really a great story.Many things have never come to light until now .Especially, the part about Galveston.
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Even if someone has done something wrong to you, before getting into an argument about it, think of the outcome you are striving for. If there will be no practical benefit from your argument, avoid it.
"Outcome thinking" is wisdom. A wise person considers the outcome before speaking.
Be wise!
Subject: Fwd: Card from your lawyer