May 2007

“To follow, without halt, one aim:  There’s the secret of success.”  ~Anna Pavlova (Russian Ballerina)

I’ve read countless…literally, countless…quotes about success.  I’ve devoured books, articles, and magazines, I’ve sat through sermons, lectures and lecturing sermons that seemed to have misplaced their closing paragraph.  But, if I’m not mistaken, they’ve all been bested by an old quote by a Russian Ballerina. 

So, if sucess lies in the following of an aim, failure must surely lie in the halt.  It’s like a flashback to playing softball when I was growing up.  When I first started pitching (at 10), the coach told me, “Keep your eye on the cacher’s mitt - don’t look away.  Look the ball into her mitt…”  I also kept that philosophy whenever I played third base - I looked the ball into the glove of the first baseman.  If I looked at the runner or anything else, the ball might not reach it’s intended destination.  I can’t promise that it wouldn’t go into the stands, the dug out, over the fence….. But, as long as I looked at the girl or guy on first, SMACK, right in the glove.  Okay, maybe it wasn’t a SMACK, maybe it was more of a schmack - but you get the idea.

Great quote, Anna Pavlov!  I’m going to write it on my brain and, hopefully, tattoo it on my life.

Have you heard of The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)?  If you’re a blogger, or simply an individual interested in the rights of others, you’ll find their mission very interesting.  Their website, quite honestly, contains too much for me to tackle in one post.  So, I’m simply going to point you in their direction and let them take over from there.

>>>>>http://www.eff.org/  (One time it’s polite to point!)

“When we accept tough jobs as a challenge and wade through them with joy and enthusiasm, miracles can happen.”  ~Arland Gilbert

I remember a beautiful evening several years back.  My husband, our daughters, and I were walking along the beach on Santal Rosa Island (Florida).  It was dark, but the lights from area beach houses teamed together to cast a spotlight on the shoreline.  The waves made the most of it and crashed dramatically against the white sands.  There was a breeze that made a perfect moment even more so.

My thoughts tapped me on the shoulder and said, “This is the happiest moment of my life!”  At the moment, I’m not sure God, Himself, could have convinced me otherwise.  I realized pretty soon after that, when I arrived at my next “Happiest moment,” that it was just one of many.  Thanks be to a gracious God and a mad cool family, I’ve had billions of “Happiest moments.”  The best thing about them is that they generally arrived unannounced, unplanned, uncoaxed, and unexpected.

Funny how we think that a new car, a new house, a new outfit, new jewelry, a vacation…whatever our little heart wants most at the time….will be the invitation that’ll bring Happiness over to the party known as our life.  That’s just not the stuff that true happiness is made of.

Happiness is kind of like a dog I once had.  His name was Jinx, a beautiful black German Shepherd.  I loved him muchly, but he had a totally quirky personality.  Whenever anyone called for him, he’d never come. (It wasn’t his hearing, it was perfectly fine.)  He was just a wise guy.  His sister (Lucky, of course) would come running somewhere between the L and ucky.  But not Jinxy.

What he was fondest of doing was to hit me when I least expected it. He’d come bounding around the corner or from across the yard, tail wagging and eyes dancing.  He’d jump up, put his paws on my shoulders and leave no part of my face unlicked. 

Kind of like happiness.

We all have those little guilty pleasures in life - things that we’re totally into, but afraid that no one else will understand.  Ironically, not only do they understand - they probably watch One Life to Live or Dancing with the Stars, too!  Maybe both if they’re really saucy.

Something I have to own up to is a fascination with quirky t-shirts.  I came across some really cute ones while looking at office gadgets (for another blog) today.  They slapped a smile on my Sunday morning, so I thought I’d share - the shirts as well as the smile.

Guns Don’t Kill People, Magic Missles Do. (Random!)

Social Engineering Specialist….Because there is no patch for human stupidity.

The Geek T-Shirts are available in all shapes and sizes.

Usually I try to pick motivational and, hopefully inspirational, quotes for us to wrap our minds around. But, this time, it’s just an interesting quote that I overheard in Starbucks today….and, yes I swear I do go other places.  Right before or right after Starbucks.

Anyway, my youngest daughter and I were drinking our Green Tea Frappuccino (me) and soda (Steph), and nursing a Brownie Cookie.  We overheard a man telling a couple, “I live like a Republican but vote like a Democrat.”

He won my “quote of the day” award.  He doesn’t get anything, mind you, but he’s the title holder nonetheless.

Have a great weekend!

Joi

If you’ve read this, or any, of my blogs very often you know several things about me already:

• I’m all about my family and cats.
• I love to cook.
• I use an army of periods far too often.  It’s like my thoughts trail off and I can’t come up with any other way to deal with it, so I call in the troops…
• I can’t remember life before Starbucks.
• I love movies and movies love me.
• I’m a fan of the St. Louis Cardinal’s, UK Wildcats, and Denver Broncos, and by fan I mean a pillow throwing, jumping up and down, maniac who refers to themselves and the team as one:  We play today, We looked great last night, We won the series, They lost…

You may also know that one of my favorite websites is Prevention.com.  Every aspect of the website (and magazine, for that matter) is pure gold.  A lot of people, mistakenly, think that it’s only for people wanting to lose weight, but that’s far from the case.  It’s for people who want to live better and longer, and that’s pretty much all of us, eh?

Here’s a link to a great article on herbs and how they can help us to do both.  The study on Cinnamon’s fascinating.  I hope the hubby’s ready for cinnamon in his oatmeal.  Hmmm, I think I’ll have a bowl right now.

“Pain, you just have to ride it out, hope it goes away on its own, hope the wound that caused it heals. There are no solutions, no easy answers, you just breath deep and wait for it to subside. Most of the time pain can be managed but sometimes the pain gets you where you least expect it. Hits way below the belt and doesn’t let up. Pain, you just have to fight through, because the truth is you can’t outrun it and life always makes more. ” - Meredith, Grey’s Anatomy