Close the Account (post by Kirk Weisler)
April says, “Can I get an AMEN!!”
There have been and will be times in our lives when we just need to close the account with people that are toxic, negative, habitual deficit spenders. It may be in fact that by our allowing them to continue to borrow without consequence actually enables their self-destructive behavior and stops them from getting the help they need or having the wake up call so that they can. Running a deficit isn’t any better for us personally than it is for nationally…it causes uncertainty and stress.
If you need to close the account… then close it.
Kirk out
Will You Dance With Me? ~Author Unknown~
Too many people put off something that brings them joy just because they haven’t thought about it, don’t have it on their schedule, didn’t know it was coming or are too rigid to depart from their routine.
I got to thinking one day about all those women on the Titanic who passed up dessert at dinner that fateful night in an effort to cut back. From then on, I’ve tried to be a little more flexible.
How many women out there will eat at home because their husband didn’t suggest going out to dinner until after something had been thawed? Does the word ‘refrigeration’ mean nothing to you?
How often have your kids dropped in to talk and sat in silence while you watched ‘ Jeopardy ‘ on television?
I cannot count the times I called my sister and said, ‘How about going to lunch in a half hour?’ She would gas up and stammer, ‘I can’t. I have clothes on the line. My hair is dirty. I wish I had known yesterday, I had a late breakfast, It looks like rain.’ And my personal favorite: ‘It’s Monday.’ She died a few years ago. We never did have lunch together.
Because Canadians cram so much into their lives, we tend to schedule our headaches. We live on a sparse diet of promises we make to ourselves when all the conditions are perfect!
We’ll go back and visit the grandparents when we get Steve toilet-trained. We’ll entertain when we replace the living-room carpet… We’ll go on a second honeymoon when we get two more kids out of college.
Life has a way of accelerating as we get older. The days get shorter, and the list of promises to ourselves gets longer. One morning, we awaken, and all we have to show for our lives is a litany of ‘I’m going to,’ ‘I plan on,’ and ‘Someday, when things are settled down a bit.’
When anyone calls my ‘seize the moment’ friend, she is open to adventure and available for trips. She keeps an open mind on new ideas. Her enthusiasm for life is contagious. You talk with her for five minutes, and you’re ready to trade your bad feet for a pair of Roller blades and skip an elevator for a bungee cord
My lips have not touched ice cream in 10 years. I love ice cream. It’s just that I might as well apply it directly to my stomach with a spatula and eliminate the digestive process The other day, I stopped the car and bought a triple-Decker. If my car had hit an iceberg on the way home, I would have died happy.
Now…go on and have a nice day. Do something you WANT to……not something on your SHOULD DO list. If you were going to die soon and had only one phone call you could make, who would you call and what would you say? And why are you waiting?
Make sure you read this to the end; you will understand why I sent this to you.
Have you ever watched kids playing on a merry go round or listened to the rain lapping on the ground? Ever followed a butter fly’s erratic flight or gazed at the sun into the fading night? Do you run through each day on the fly? When you ask ‘ How are you?’ Do you hear the reply?
When the day is done, do you lie in your bed with the next hundred chores running through your head? Ever told your child, ‘We’ll do it tomorrow.’ And in your haste, not see his sorrow? Ever lost touch? Let a good friendship die? Just call to say ‘Hi?
When you worry and hurry through your day, it is like an unopened gift….Thrown away….. Life is not a race. Take it slower. Hear the music before the song is over.
‘Life may not be the party we hoped for.. but while we are here we might as well dance!
Courage!!
Courage is admitting you’re afraid but still doing it anyway! ~Author Unknown
Learning Through the Windshield
Imagine that you’re going on a trip in your car. You’re in the driver’s seat behind the wheel rolling down the road. So far everything is normal except that you’re looking through the rear view mirror to see the road behind you in order to predict what the road in front of you looks like. So, you’re looking back to move forward.
- Would you recommend driving like this?
- What would you say to someone driving like this?
If this sounds ridiculous and that it doesn’t apply to you – hold on for a moment. How often do you live your life or base your learning using this method (trying to move forward by focusing only on the past)?
The Road Changes too Fast to use the Rear View Mirror
If you keep driving forward using the rear view mirror, you’re going to:
- Drive off the road and get hurt
- Only drive on safe, straight known roadways
- Not drive at all
None of these scenarios are going to help you learn and make a better future. The past may feel comfortable or familiar but is it getting you where you want to go? Are you taking in new experiences through your windshield?
Opportunities are Endless Through the Windshield
The windshield is where the fun and learning takes place! If you don’t think this is true, have you ever brought a child from the back seat to the front seat so that they could see better? What was their expression? Usually amazed at this whole new world that didn’t exist. So much possibility. The same could probably be said for someone learning something new for the first time.
You Can Still Use the Rear View Mirror
Reflection is an important part of learning so there are times when you need to look back. Just don’t use the past as your primary means of moving forward.
Go clean off your windshield and see what’s out there!
Who Ate the Cake? – Little Things Add Up (post from Kirk Weisler)
When I was a kid I used to think I could sneak a piece of cake without my Mom knowing. My strategy was to cut a paper-thin slice…. too little to notice. The problem was that trying to eat a really thin slice of my Mom’s cake is like trying to eat one potatoes chip. So I would go back for “just one more”. As you might imagine soon half the cake was gone…and mysteriously “Mom could tell”.
I thought then that she has special Mom powers …but talking with her now and looking back … I realize how obvious my actions were, how self-deceived
I was… and how easy it was for Mom to catch me in nearly all of my foolish child hood foibles.
Little things do add up… a little less exercise (or none)… getting casual about what you eat for a day…or week, or month or year, or more…can really add up. You may not see it right away or even notice you are buying bigger sizes…and then one day your vision clears and you ask yourself …How did this happen?
Even less obvious and perhaps even harder to detect in ourselves is the cumulative effect of not reading, not learning, growing, and becoming. We just end up feeling over looked, undervalued, stagnant, not qualified for that next position, promotion or opportunity. If we are lucky/wise we might wake up at this point and take ownership for it…and get going and growing. If we are unwise we might choose to play victim and blame something or someone outside of ourselves for our circumstances…carefully denying that we had any indication that we are responsible.
Wonderfully if we look at how little things can add up in a positive context we see a whole new world of opportunity.
When I was growing up Mom would line us up against the doorway a couple of times a year, place a book on our heads and make a mark in the doorway denoting our height. I remember it was both exciting and surprising to see how much we had grown since the last mark. I also remember that Mom was also surprised to see how much we had grown. Now Rebecca and I do this same thing with our own children…and our just as surprised at how much they have grown – right before our eyes… When the growth is closest to you…or part of you it can be the hardest to perceive…yet it is undeniably happening.
We can see it in others easier than we can see it in ourselves. That’s why it’s important to let people around you know when you see them grow.
So we must stay on the grow! A little slice of growth each day… knowing and trusting that it will add up to a better self. If we start eating healthier right now, exercising 20 minutes a day (starting today by taking a walk during lunch), reading a chapter of an inspiring book or needful technical manual… reading to our kids, or taking them on our walk for a walk-ie talk-ie… . Then we repeat these small by healthy patterns each day. In so doing we can build traditions/habits into our lives that cause our strengths to grow instead of diminishing like the cake.
We may also find that our small but deliberate examples influences and inspires others to do like wise.
I may have been obvious in my trying to sneak cake… but I’m pretty sure to this day.. that my Mom and all Moms have super powers of discernment and an extra
set of eyes!!
The fun film above was made by my oldest son Jake who entered a contest where you had 24 hours to come up with a storyline, shoot, edit and submit a 4
minute film on the theme of “One is never enough”. You can see that it was inspired by true events. You can also see that what comes around goes around. You can also see all of Jake’s work at his Visler Studios Youtube Channel http://www.youtube.com/user/vislerstudios?feature=results_main I know he would love to have some more subscribers.
Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.
Kirk out
The Fish that the Turner Kidz caught
Remember the pictures of (The Fish) that the kids and daddy caught? Well even though Daddy is allergic to fish as far as eating it and cooking it, the fish was cleaned, scaled, head chopped off and gutted by Jeremy and Daddy. Now it was up to me to cook it. Um, yeah, I don’t like frying food especially fish because of the lovely scent it leaves for days and the cats knocking at my door. Besides it’s not good for Daddy so he suggested frying it outside. Okay, cool. I wasn’t ready to fry the fish this past weekend because I’ve been running around doing this and that. But that didn’t matter to Donovan and so for the 1,000th time he asked me to cook the fish, I told him the weekend after next. I packaged the fish and put in the freezer. That didn’t satisfied Donovan so instead of me knocking Donovan’s lips off, Robert said that he will supervise Jeremy from afar while frying the fish outside. See the pictures of the satisfied children especially Donovan :0)
Jeremy frying
All Done
Getting their grub on!
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