Stinkin' Thinkin'

I was watching Joyce Meyer this morning while I ate my breakfast, and she was talking about how important it is to have an attitude of hope. In my experience this makes such a difference in our day to day living and our overall health. The power of thought is just amazing, and we can be unaware of the impact of our thought process on our daily lives.

Joyce calls negative thought stinkin' thinkin', and I think she's right on. One point that was made in the airing I viewed this morning is that it is better to live a miserable life with the benefit of hope than it is to just live a miserable life while being miserable in it. What would be better: being broke and happy, or being broke and sad? Happy trumps misery all the time.

Unfortunately, we can get caught up in our stinkin' thinkin' very easily. Does your perspective need some tweaking? This is when we really need each other. It is important to surround ourselves with positive, hopeful people. Again, I find myself back to the idea of a support system. We all need a circle of friends that are uplifting and real. We need people to remind us of the good things in our lives when all we can see are the bad.

Today, if your focus is a little out, spend some time re-framing your thoughts. It may help to make a list of all the positive things in your life. If it is difficult at first, list a negative. Then, counter with related positive. There is ALWAYS a positive side to everything. Sometimes we just need to look a little more closely.

As suggested previously, don't forget to start your day with conversation with God. It pays great dividends to start out in the right direction. With God on our side, who can be against us?

Sea of Love by The Honeydrippers

Do you remember when we met
That's the day I knew you were my pet
I want to tell you how much I love you

Come with me, my love
To the sea, the sea of love
I want to tell you how much I love you

Come with me, to the sea

Do you remember when we met
That's the day I knew you were my pet
I want to tell you how much I love you

GUITAR SOLO

Come with me, to the sea

Come with me, my love
To the sea, the sea of love
I want to tell you how much I love you

Come with me to the sea

The First Guy that Ever Bought Me Flowers

It is times like these that I feel my dad's genes at work in my psyche. I just watched the movie, Juno, with my son. I am feeling very melancholy. You see, it's about this 16-year-old girl that has the greatest personality. She really is more wise than she realizes. Well, her and this guy, kind of the geek type, get busy in a chair. Needless to say, upon the wand appears a pink cross.

Juno handles the situation herself with a wonderful support network. In the end an unplanned baby gets a mother, and a young girl finds true love. The soundtrack for this movie is awesome and well worth owning. It is the soundtrack, however, that led me to my current mellow, melancholy state.

There once was a guy named Pete, and we had a song. He was amazing, funny, true, and kind. We both had braces, and we had so much fun together. One day we had a fight. I never saw him again. He died in a terrible car accident in which his sister was driving and narrowly escaped with her own life. Pete wasn't the only one that left us that day. There were others that passed in the same accident. It was so unbearably painful.

There was a school function. He was supposed to be there, but he never made it. I never got to say, "I'm sorry." Isn't it amazing how once we are gone life just keeps moving? It seems like time should stand still, but it doesn't. The grass grows. The sun rises and sets. The Sea of Love lives on in movies like, Juno. Yes, that was our song. Yes, I still think of him from time to time. And, yes, he was the first boy to ever give me flowers.

The Daily Groove

I have been receiving daily emails on parenting from Scott Noelle for well over a year. I just love his insite and guidance. I thought I would share his most recent email here. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do

THE DAILY GROOVE ~ by Scott Noelle

Do you ever feel like your child is "running your life"? This Tuesday at 7pm/PT (10pm/ET) members of my group coaching program are invited to join me for a conference call to discuss how to avoid coercive parenting without feeling coerced yourself. Details in the member forums.

Not a member yet?

See Group Coaching

The One-Body Principle

Suppose your right leg began twitching for no apparentreason. If it persisted, you'd do something about it.You might massage your leg or take some vitamins that support nerve functions.

But you wouldn't yell at your leg or threaten to hurt it! Nor would you ignore it and think, "It's the leg'sproblem, not mine." Such responses wouldn't make sense because your leg is a part of YOU.

Likewise, when your child's behavior seems unreasonable, you can overcome the temptation to react negatively by responding to your child as if s/he were a part of your body.

Like the parts of your body, your child functions well when you pay attention to his or her signals and, instead of resisting those signals, you do your best to honor and respond to them.

There's no blame; you just deal with it. Today, imagine you and your child are like one body and notice how that perspective affects your interactions.

Click Here to view article Online.

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Copyright (c) 2008 by Scott Noelle

Connecting Asia to Europe

Istanbul is located at Europe and Asia, the only city in the world that straddles two continents. An international team of engineers began the Marmaray Tunnel Project in the spring of 2004. This is a 3 billion dollar rail system that ties in 47 miles of commuter line with existing networks.

The main part of the project is a 1.2 mile tunnel that is being forged under the Bosporus Strait. Engineers discovered the remains of a Roman built harbor dating back to the 4th Century A.D. in Yenikaupa two miles away from the tunnel site in 2005.

This project involves a team of 750 people and thousands of artifacts. The discovery of the Roman harbor remains was a thrill to archaeologists. However, it has derailed the engineers bringing the project to a halt.

There are several theories as to the reason for the burial of the ancient Roman harbor. One theory is that it is merely covered in 700 years of river silt. The theory receiving more attention is that the covering of the harbor was due to a catastrophic natural disaster. Supporting this theory is the belief that the 15 ships discovered are thought to have sunk at the same time. The cause is believed to have been a tsunami resulting from an earth quake under the sea.

The idea that this area was so dramatically effected by a tsunami, and that it is located so closely to a fault line, has caused the engineers to rethink safety precautions. It is considered unlikely that the submerged tunnel would be effected by a tsunami, however there is concern about the seaside stations. They are being placed 15 feet above sea level and equipped with attached flood gates that operate automatically. History continues to inform engineers on crucial decisions involving this project.

Please visit National Geographic Explorer to view a video on this topic. For a blast from the past watch the video for Istanbul (not Constantinople) by They Might Be Giants.