Tag Archives: Dr Wilda

The 11/30/13 Joy Jar

29 Nov

Today is the Saturday of the Thanksgiving holiday. After yesterday or ‘Black Friday,’ today is ‘Small Business Saturday.’ MSN Money reported in the article, SBA Encourages Americans to Support Their Local Communities by Shopping Small On Small Business Saturday November 30:

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is encouraging Americans across the country to shop small this November 30 as part of Small Business Saturday, a day that is dedicated to supporting the small businesses that anchor our local communities and strengthen our economy.
“From the Main Street shops to the high-tech startups, small businesses are the backbone of our economy and the cornerstones of a diverse and thriving marketplace,” said Acting SBA Administrator Jeanne A. Hulit. “By shopping small and supporting local business, we all have a role to play in giving millions of families the opportunity to achieve the American dream.”
America’s 28 million small businesses create two out of every three net new private sector jobs and are the backbone of our economy, with half of working Americans either owning or working for a small business. Small Business Saturday is a nation-wide initiative that brings Americans together to support small businesses, with the money you spend going right back into your local economy.
Started in 2010, Small Business Saturday has boosted holiday sales for Main Street businesses around the country. Last year, nearly 70 million people shopped small in their communities for an estimated $5.5 billion in sales to independently-owned small businesses. This year, we can do even more.
Small Business Saturday falls on November 30 and there are a number of ways people can get involved. For more information on how to support Small Business Saturday in your area, or to get great Small Business Saturday marketing tips and resources, check out http://www.sba.gov/saturday or visit http://www.smallbusinesssaturday.com.
Release Number: 13-56
Contact: Caroline Ciccone (202) 205-6948
Internet Address: http://www.sba.gov/news
Follow us on Twitter, Facebook & Blogs
SOURCE U.S. Small Business Administration
http://money.msn.com/business-news/article.aspx?feed=PR&Date=20131126&ID=17147086&topic=TOPIC_ECONOMIC_INDICATORS&isub=3

No matter whether one is rich or poor, we all can choose how and where we spend our money. Today’s deposit into the ‘Joy Jar’ is small business.

Digital Sherpa has 15 Inspirational Quotes For Small Businesses and Marketers:
1. I didn’t get there by wishing for it or hoping for it, but by working for it.
Estee Lauder

2. Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. –
Steve Jobs

3. Inspiration exists, but it must find you working. –
Pablo Picasso

4. Forget all the reasons it won’t work and believe the one reason that it will.
Unknown

5. Give them QUALITY. That’s the best kind of advertising.
Milton Hershey

6. Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off the goal.
Henry Ford

7. Successful people are always looking for opportunities to help others. Unsuccessful people are always asking, “What’s in it for me?” –
Brian Tracy

8. Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.
Arthur Ashe

9. The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.
Walt Disney

10. In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure.
Bill Cosby

11. Tell a story. Make it true. Make it compelling. And make it relevant.
Rand Fishkin

12. The future of business is SOCIAL
Barry Libert

13. It is never too late to be what you might have been.
George Eliot

14. You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don’t try.
Beverly Sills

15. Don’t wait. The time will never be just right.
Napoleon Hill
http://digitalsherpa.com/15-inspirational-quotes-for-small-businesses/
Small businesses are the backbone of our local communities.

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The 11/29/13 Joy Jar

28 Nov

Today is the day after Thanksgiving or in the shopping world, ‘Black Friday.’ Ryan Goodrich of Tom’s Guide wrote in What Is Black Friday?

The origins of Black Friday
Historically, starting the holiday shopping season on the day after Thanksgiving is largely due to the Santa Claus parades of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Department stores like Macy’s sponsored such events, which they used as advertising vehicles. It then became a common practice to never advertise for holiday shopping prior to the conclusion of such parades.
While parades are no longer as commonly used as the herald to holiday shopping, they’ve succeeded in establishing the day after Thanksgiving as the first day for holiday shopping.
MORE: Amazon to Offer Black Friday Deals Every 10 Minutes
The use of the term “Black Friday” to describe this shopping holiday dates back to 1961 in Philadelphia. It was used to describe the crowded pedestrian and vehicle traffic that resulted the day after Thanksgiving. By 1975, the term gained traction and use outside of the city.
These days, retailers have a different explanation for the term. For many companies, Black Friday marks the point in the calendar year when companies go “in the black,” or finally begin to turn a profit for the year.
Outside of shopping, the use of Black Friday has a lengthy history. Traditionally, the term signaled that something had gone horribly wrong with the economy. “Black Friday” was first used to describe Sept. 24, 1869, when several financiers tried to corner the gold market and instead crashed the market and caused a depression. In 1873, another panic in the financial markets also began on a Friday.
The Great Depression began after the stock market collapsed on Oct. 29, 1929, but that was Black Tuesday. Another bad day for the stock market, Oct. 19, 1987, was called Black Monday.
The negative connotation of the phrase prompted several officials to try and rename the day to “Big Friday” as a description of the types of deals available. However, such attempts were unsuccessful and the name has stuck.
When Black Friday starts
For years, it was common for retailers to open their doors as early as 5 or 6 a.m. to kick off a lengthy day of extreme sales. Between 2005 and 2010, the opening time shifted earlier each year, until stores such as Target and Best Buy were opening their doors at midnight on Thanksgivingnight.
Several retail stores, such as Toys R Us and Walmart, have now taken things a step further to begin their Black Friday deals as early as 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving evening….
http://www.tomsguide.com/us/what-is-black-friday,review-1952.html

If the stores are open, that means that many employees will have the hours they can spend with their loved ones limited.

Karin Klein wrote in the L.A. Times article, Retailers abusing workers: Black Friday’s just the tip of the iceberg:
Retail stores commonly hire as many part-time employees as possible so they won’t have to give benefits as basic as a sick day off. They require employees to keep their time free for the days they’re scheduled to work the next week — but the store thinks nothing of calling them on slow sales days to tell them not to bother coming in. Or worse, after the sales clerks have dressed for work and spent the time and money to commute to the job, the store sends them home mid-shift because too few customers are showing up. Those aren’t hours of paid vacation, you can be sure. People who already earn low, low wages are suddenly stripped of work hours with no opportunity to arrange in advance for other ways to make money.
No one would remain employed very long if he or she called in to the boss minutes before the work day was to start, saying, “Someone else will pay me 50 cents more an hour today, so I’m not showing up.”
It’s basic courtesy, right? Maybe at the social level, people feel more comfortable canceling plans on one another at the last moment. But when it comes to business, time is money — and at these wages, money for basic sustenance. On both sides, schedules should be honored.
People have always worked holidays — gas station attendants, nurses, police, journalists — when they were needed. And with families so scattered and overwhelmed, I’m seeing more friends whose Thanksgiving gatherings are held the weekend before or two weeks after. What matters isn’t the formally declared holiday but the feasting time together in service of gratitude.
I’m no fan of the Thanksgiving shopping trend, but the outrage over holiday work hours seems like one of those easy hits, full of the symbolism that gets people posting on Facebook, talking boycott or calling for new work laws. Yes, the creep into this family and national tradition is a sad sign of greed, but it’s a smaller one than the really damaging effects of greed on low-wage retail workers all year long. Let’s not allow the easy outrage to distract us from the bigger picture.
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/opinion-la/la-ol-thanksgiving-shopping-20131127,0,2718184.story#ixzz2luxhtkON

Today’s deposit into the ‘Joy Jar’ is reflecting on our buying choices affect the lives of others.

Black Friday: Because only in America, people trample others for sales exactly one day after being thankful for what they already have.
Unknown

Sorry shoppers on Black Friday will block and tackle better than your football team on Thanksgiving.
Unknown

Let’s spend Thanksgiving spilling food on our clothes, and Black Friday buying new ones.
Unknown

Happy Thanksgiving to someone I’d have no problem stomping to death on Black Friday.
Unknown

Make sure the clothes you buy on Black Friday take into account how fat you got on Thanksgiving.
Unknown

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The 11/28/13 Joy Jar

27 Nov

Today is Thanksgiving. Christian Answers.net describes the history of Thanksgiving:

In 1789, following a proclamation issued by President George Washington, America celebrated its first Day of Thanksgiving to God under its new constitution. That same year, the Protestant Episcopal Church, of which President Washington was a member, announced that the first Thursday in November would become its regular day for giving thanks, “unless another day be appointed by the civil authorities.” Yet, despite these early national proclamations, official Thanksgiving observances usually occurred only at the State level.
Much of the credit for the adoption of a later ANNUAL national Thanksgiving Day may be attributed to Mrs. Sarah Joseph Hale, the editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book. For thirty years, she promoted the idea of a national Thanksgiving Day, contacting President after President until President Abraham Lincoln responded in 1863 by setting aside the last Thursday of November as a national Day of Thanksgiving. Over the next seventy-five years, Presidents followed Lincoln’s precedent, annually declaring a national Thanksgiving Day. Then, in 1941, Congress permanently established the fourth Thursday of each November as a national holiday.
Lincoln’s original 1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation came—spiritually speaking—at a pivotal point in his life. During the first week of July of that year, the Battle of Gettysburg occurred, resulting in the loss of some 60,000 American lives. Four months later in November, Lincoln delivered his famous “Gettsysburg Address.” It was while Lincoln was walking among the thousands of graves there at Gettysburg that he committed his life to Christ. As he explained to a friend:
When I left Springfield [to assume the Presidency], I asked the people to pray for me. I was not a Christian. When I buried my son, the severest trial of my life, I was not a Christian. But when I went to Gettysburg and saw the graves of thousands of our soldiers, I then and there consecrated myself to Christ.
As Americans celebrate Thanksgiving each year, we hope they will retain the original gratefulness to God displayed by the Pilgrims and many other founding fathers, and remember that it is to those early and courageous Pilgrims that they owe not only the traditional Thanksgiving holiday but also the concepts of self-government, the “hard-work” ethic, self-reliant communities, and devout religious faith… http://christiananswers.net/q-wall/wal-g007.html

Today’s deposit into the ‘Joy Jar’ is Thanksgiving;

“After a good dinner one can forgive anybody, even one’s own relations.”
Oscar Wilde, A Woman of No Importance

“Thanksgiving dinners take eighteen hours to prepare. They are consumed in twelve minutes. Half-times take twelve minutes. This is not coincidence.”
Erma Bombeck

Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of our thanksgiving.”
W.T. Purkiser

“I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual…O how I laugh when I think of my vague indefinite riches. No run on my bank can drain it, for my wealth is not possession but enjoyment.”
Henry David Thoreau

“Eucharisteo—thanksgiving—always precedes the miracle.”
Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are

“Thanksgiving-giving thanks in everything-prepares the way that God might show us His fullest salvation in Christ.”
Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are

“The Christian who walks with the Lord and keeps constant communion with Him will see many reason for rejoicing and thanksgiving all day long.”
Warren W. Wiersbe

“I always think it’s funny when Indians celebrate Thanksgiving. I mean, sure, the Indians and Pilgrims were best friends during the first Thanksgiving, but a few years later, the Pilgrims were shooting Indians.
So I’m never quite sure why we eat Turkey like everybody else. (101)”
Sherman Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

To give thanks in solitude is enough. Thanksgiving has wings and goes where it must go. Your prayer knows much more about it than you do.
Victor Hugo

The thankful receiver bears a plentiful harvest.
William Blake

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The 11/27/13 Joy Jar

27 Nov

This is the day before Thanksgiving which is a holiday to reflect upon life’s Blessings. Dictionary.com defines giving thanks:

thanks•giv•ing
noun
1.
the act of giving thanks; grateful acknowledgment of benefits or favors, especially to God.
2.
an expression of thanks, especially to God.
3.
a public celebration in acknowledgment of divine favor or kindness.
4.
a day set apart for giving thanks to God.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/thanks-giving

Today’s deposit into the ‘Joy Jar’ is the reflection before Thanksgiving.
Great Inspirational Quotes.com has a great selection of Thankful Quotes, Thank You Quotes , and Gratitude Quote:

A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all other virtues.
Cicero

At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.
Albert Schweitzer

Blessed are those that can give without remembering and receive without forgetting.
Unknown

Gratitude is something of which none of us can give too much. For on the smiles, the thanks we give, our little gestures of appreciation, our neighbors build their philosophy of life.
A. J. Cronin

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.
Melody Beattie

Develop an attitude of gratitude, and give thanks for everything that happens to you, knowing that every step forward is a step toward achieving something bigger and better than your current situation.
Brian Tracy

Every time we remember to say “thank you”, we experience nothing less than heaven on earth.
Sarah Ban Breathnach

He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.
Epictetus

If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough.
Meister Eckhardt

If you concentrate on finding whatever is good in every situation, you will discover that your life will suddenly be filled with gratitude, a feeling that nurtures the soul.
Rabbi Harold Kushner

In ordinary life we hardly realize that we receive a great deal more than we give, and that it is only with gratitude that life becomes rich.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer

It is impossible to feel grateful and depressed in the same moment.
Naomi Williams

Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn’t learn a little, at least we didn’t get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn’t die; so, let us all be thankful.
Buddha

No one who achieves success does so without the help of others. The wise and confident acknowledge this help with gratitude.
Alfred North Whitehead

None is more impoverished than the one who has no gratitude. Gratitude is a currency that we can mint for ourselves, and spend without fear of bankruptcy.
Fred De Witt Van Amburgh

People who live the most fulfilling lives are the ones who are always rejoicing at what they have.
Richard Carlson

There is a calmness to a life lived in Gratitude, a quiet joy.
Ralph H. Blum

Things turn out best for people who make the best of the way things turn out.
John Wooden

You simply will not be the same person two months from now after consciously giving thanks each day for the abundance that exists in your life. And you will have set in motion an ancient spiritual law: the more you have and are grateful for, the more will be given you.
Sarah Ban Breathnach

You won’t be happy with more until you’re happy with what you’ve got.
Viki King
http://www.great-inspirational-quotes.com/thankful-quotes.html

Practice an attitude of gratitude.

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The 11/25/13 Joy Jar

25 Nov

Thanksgiving should be the OFFICIAL start of the Holiday Season which includes Christmas and Hanukkah. If you have no faith, then just celebrate being alive. Florida’s Natural has an interesting discussion of holiday traditions in Holiday Traditions. Why We Do What We Do:

Ever wonder how fruitcake became a holiday tradition? Why standing under the mistletoe means pucker up? We’ve uncovered the origins of some of the holiday’s most popular traditions.
Issue: December 2009
Why fruitcake during the holidays?
In 18th-century England, fruitcake had become so prevalent, there were laws enacted to restrict its consumption to Christmas, Easter, weddings, christenings, and funerals. Over time, the popularity of the fruity cake waned at the other occasions, leaving Christmas to be the lone holiday it’s associated with.
What’s the story behind the dreidel game?
When the Syrian Greeks prohibited Jews from practicing their religion, Jewish parents painted Hebrew letters on four-sided spinning tops called dreidels (from the German word, drehen, which means to spin) as a way to preserve their faith. The Greeks thought the Jews were just playing an insignificant game. The Hebrew letters on the dreidel stand for the phrase “A great miracle happened there.” This refers to the miracle celebrated at Hanukkah.
Why do people kiss under the mistletoe?
According to Scandinavian folklore, Baldur, god of light, was killed by a dart made of mistletoe. The tears of Baldurs mother, Frigga, became the white berries of the plant. Frigga decreed that mistletoe would never again be used as a weapon and that she would, instead, kiss anyone who passed under it.
How did the tradition of the Christmas tree begin?
Legend has it that in the seventh century a monk went to Germany to spread the Word of God. He used the triangular shape of a fir tree to illustrate the Holy Trinity. The converted people in Germany then began to revere the evergreen fir. By the 12th century, firs were being hung upside down from ceilings at Christmas as a symbol of Christianity. The first decorated tree is said to have been in Latvia in 1510.
Why light a menorah during Hanukkah?
Hanukkah is the “Festival of Lights”. The Hanukkah Menorah commemorates the Jews’ miraculous victory over the Greek-Syrian army (thousands of years ago) and the one-days-worth of pure oil that miraculously lasted for eight days in the Temple. Jewish custom insists that every family should light the wicks of the Hanukkah Menorah each night for eight days of the festival. The Hanukkah menorah contains nine candleholders — eight for each of the eight nights of the celebrations and the ninth, called Shamash, used only for lighting the others.
Why do people kiss at midnight on New Year’s Eve?
A centuries-old legend claims that the first person you come in contact with when the clock strikes twelve sets the tone for your happiness and fortune in the New Year. A kiss with one you love equals good things, but kiss someone other than your true love, or no one at all, and misfortune is said to be heading your way….http://www.floridasnatural.com/lifestyle/household-advice/holiday-traditions-why-we-do-what-we-do

Today’s deposit into the ‘Joy Jar’ is the Holiday Season.

“In the old days, it was not called the Holiday Season; the Christians called it ‘Christmas’ and went to church; the Jews called it ‘Hanukkah’ and went to synagogue; the atheists went to parties and drank. People passing each other on the street would say ‘Merry Christmas!’ or ‘Happy Hanukkah!’ or (to the atheists) ‘Look out for the wall!”
Dave Barry

“Thanksgiving dinners take eighteen hours to prepare. They are consumed in twelve minutes. Half-times take twelve minutes. This is not coincidence.”
Erma Bombeck

“Humanity has always conquered the flux of natural time by means of a rhythm between active and passive time-spans. To reconquer his holidays, to establish a new and better time schedule for life, has been the great endeavour of man ever since the days of Noah.”
Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy, Out of Revolution: Autobiography of Western Man

“You know if the U.S. Government wanted to boost the economy there’s a simple solution make Black Friday the refund date for your state and federal taxes”
Stanley Victor Paskavich, Return to Stantasyland

I once wanted to become an atheist, but I gave up – they have no holidays.
Henny Youngman

Holidays are about experiences and people, and tuning into what you feel like doing at that moment. Enjoy not having to look at a watch.
Evelyn Glennie

I celebrate everyone’s religious holidays. if it’s good enough for the righteous, it’s good enough for the self-righteous, I always say.
Bette Midler

All holidays can be good times.
John Clayton

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The 11/24/13 Joy Jar

24 Nov

Moi is working on her review of Letters to Bill Clinton edited by Rabbi Menachem Genack. It is one of the deepest and most profound books moi has read in a while. On her way to the Seattle Public Library to work, moi stopped by Denny’s in the SODO District to have a big a$$ed breakfast. Seattle is sooo totally PC that most of the fast food restaurants and cheap eats like Denny’s have been driven out of the downtown core. There is a food ghetto in the SODO District where you can find fast food. You can tell that the city wanted to segregate these types of restaurants – on the way into Denny’s moi steeped over a hypodermic needle. Since the needle didn’t have an arm or leg attached, moi kept going. When Seattle outlaws breathing, moi will have to move. My bad a$$ed breakfast was Bilbao’s Feast based on some Hobbit character who loved to chow down. It came on a platter, and was hash browns, egg scramble, a sausage as big as moi’s head, and honey dripped French toast. Take that PC MORONS. Today’s deposit into the ‘Joy Jar’ is moi’s bad a$$ed breakfast at Denny’s.

It’s almost seems as though there’s a battle going on between the public and all the fast-food establishments, and, believe me, I think it’s very tasty food.
Regis Philbin

“At some point, they are going to have to knock a hole in the side of the wall and throw the rotisserie chicken out as you drive by.”
Harry Balzer

“People don’t want to get out of their cars to get dinner.”
Harry Balzer

“I don’t like to eat snails. I prefer fast food.”
Roger von Oech, ‘A Kick in the Seat of the Pants’ (1996)

“We think fast food is equivalent to pornography, nutritionally speaking.”
Steve Elbert

“In terms of fast food and deep understanding of the culture of fast food, I’m your man.”
Bill Gates

“The journey of a thousand pounds begins with a single burger.”
Chris O’Brien

“It requires a certain kind of mind to see beauty in a hamburger bun.”
Ray Kroc

“We live in an age when pizza gets to your home before the police.”
Jeff Arder

“Believe it or not, American eat 75 acres of pizza a day.”
Boyd Matson

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The 11/23/13 Joy Jar

23 Nov

The ‘Joy Jar’ is a year-long exercise in being grateful for living, being Blessed, and looking at each day with HOPE. The ‘Joy Jar’ will officially end on December 25 which is the day of HOPE for the world. Today’s deposit into the ‘Joy Jar’ is looking at looking at the finish line and seeing there is a bright future beyond that line.

You have got to decide, look, this is who I am; this is my best way to present myself, and I’m going to ride that horse to the finish line. Not everybody will like it, but that’s OK.
Phil McGraw

Being the first to cross the finish line makes you a winner in only one phase of life. It’s what you do after you cross the line that really counts.
Ralph Boston

But for each of us, isn’t life about determining your own finish line?
Diana Nyad

You just don’t have the time to worry about what others are doing. You just want to take care of your own business. You are focused on that tee shot on the 10th tee and making it to the finish line. It’s one of the most stressful moments in professional golf, but you have worked so hard to get to that point, that it really is fun.
Mike Weir

I should just stay composed and run to the finish line.
Asafa Powell

Motivation is important, but you need persistence and self discipline to get to the finish line.
Senora Roy

Failure is a learning tool, not a finish line.
Senora Roy

Life is one long, continuous race. It is only when you reach the finish line do you realize you were your only competition.
Frederick A Babb

A Scorpio understands there is no point in rushing to the finish line. Success will come in due time.
Unknown Zodiac quotes

To get to the finish line, you’ll have to try lots of different paths.
Amby Burfoot

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The 11/22/13 Joy Jar

22 Nov

There was a time in American history when WE as a nation felt we could do anything and chase any dream and catch it. President Kennedy was a metaphor for that time. WE can all hope a period of optimism and dreaming returns to a bruised and battered country. Today’s deposit into the ‘Joy Jar’ is the spirit typified by President Kennedy.

Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.
John F. Kennedy

Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future.
John F. Kennedy

My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.
John F. Kennedy

Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.
John F. Kennedy

Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men.
John F. Kennedy

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.
John F. Kennedy

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.
John F. Kennedy

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
John F. Kennedy

We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch – we are going back from whence we came.
John F. Kennedy

The best road to progress is freedom’s road.
John F. Kennedy

A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.
John F. Kennedy

Things do not happen. Things are made to happen.
John F. Kennedy

If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.
John F. Kennedy

Physical fitness is not only one of the most important keys to a healthy body, it is the basis of dynamic and creative intellectual activity.
John F. Kennedy

When written in Chinese, the word ‘crisis’ is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity.
John F. Kennedy

A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on.
John F. Kennedy

Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.
John F. Kennedy

Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind.
John F. Kennedy

Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.
John F. Kennedy

Tolerance implies no lack of commitment to one’s own beliefs. Rather it condemns the oppression or persecution of others.
John F. Kennedy

The cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender, or submission.
John F. Kennedy

Too often we… enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.
John F. Kennedy

The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all.
John F. Kennedy

Our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children’s future. And we are all mortal.
John F. Kennedy

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The 11/21/13 Joy Jar

22 Nov

We live in a very fractured world where politics just seems to be failing. It is helpful to step back and read the words of Thomas Paine. American History Central provides some facts:

Quick Facts About Thomas Paine
Born January 29, 1737, Thetford, Norfolk, England
Wrote, Case of the Officers of Excise, his earliest known prose composition and first important pamphlet, in 1772
Moved to Philadelphia in 1774
Became editor Pennsylvania Magazine in 1775
Wrote anti-slavery essay African Slavery in America in 1775
Published the pamphlet Common Sense in 1776
Enlisted in Continental Army in 1776
Published American Crisis I, the first of 16 American Crisis papers, in 1776. This work contains the famous line, “These are the times that try men’s souls.”
Congress appointed Paine its Secretary to Committee on Foreign Affairs in 1777
Resigned as Foreign Affairs Secretary in 1779, as result of Silas Deane affair
Returned to Europe in 1787, dividing his time between England and France
Published part one of the Rights of Man, his reply to Edmund Burke’s denunciation of the French Revolution, in 1791
Published part two of the Rights of Man in 1792
Condemned for his radical views, Paine was declared an outlaw and forced to leave England in 1792
Became a French citizen and was elected as a member of the National Assembly in France, in 1792
Helped write the Constitution of the Republic of France in 1792
Published part one of The Age of Reason in 1793
Imprisoned by Jacobins in 1793, during the Reign of Terror, for his moderate views regarding the treatment of Louis XVI
Released from eleven-month imprisonment in 1793, with the help of James Monroe, the U.S. Ambassador to France
Published part two of The Age of Reason in 1795…
http://www.americanhistorycentral.com/entry.php?rec=472&view=quick-facts

If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.
Thomas Paine

Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.
Thomas Paine

Arms discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property… Horrid mischief would ensue were the law-abiding deprived of the use of them.
Thomas Paine

I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.
Thomas Paine

The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.
Thomas Paine

The World is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.
Thomas Paine

The real man smiles in trouble, gathers strength from distress, and grows brave by reflection.
Thomas Paine

All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.
Thomas Paine

A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.
Thomas Paine

Reason obeys itself; and ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it.
Thomas Paine

I prefer peace. But if trouble must come, let it come in my time, so that my children can live in peace.
Thomas Paine

Character is much easier kept than recovered.
Thomas Paine

He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.
Thomas Paine

What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value.
Thomas Paine

Belief in a cruel God makes a cruel man.
Thomas Paine

We have it in our power to begin the world over again.
Thomas Paine

Reputation is what men and women think of us; character is what God and angels know of us.
Thomas Paine

Those who want to reap the benefits of this great nation must bear the fatigue of supporting it.
Thomas Paine

Society in every state is a blessing, but government, even in its best stage, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one.
Thomas Paine

A thing moderately good is not so good as it ought to be. Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice.
Thomas Paine

Lead, follow, or get out of the way.
Thomas Paine

An army of principles can penetrate where an army of soldiers cannot.
Thomas Paine

When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon.
Thomas Paine

These are the times that try men’s souls.
Thomas Paine
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/t/thomas_paine.html#LHxm5jWjqFFousJd.99

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The 11/20/13 Joy Jar

20 Nov

It is officially not winter in Seattle, but it is a cold clear day with some of the bluest skies around.

Seattle

The bluest skies you’ve ever seen are in Seattle
And the hills the greenest green, in Seattle
Like a beautiful child, growing up, free an’ wild
Full of hopes an’ full of fears, full of laughter, full of tears
Full of dreams to last the years, in Seattle
. . . in Seattle!

When it’s time to leave your home and your loved ones
It’s the hardest thing a boy can ever do
An’ you pray that you will find
someone warm an’ sweet an’ kind
But you’re not sure what’s waiting there for you!

The bluest skies you’ve ever seen are in Seattle
And the hills the greenest green, in Seattle
Like a beautiful child, growing up, free an’ wild
Full of hopes an’ full of fears, full of laughter, full of tears
Full of dreams to last the years, in Seattle
. . . in Seattle!
http://www.kokomo.ca/pop_standards/seattle_lyrics.htm

Today’s deposit into the ‘Joy Jar’ is the blue sky in Seattle.

“If the sight of the blue skies fills you with joy, if a blade of grass springing up in the fields has power to move you, if the simple things in nature have a message you understand, Rejoice, for your soul is alive.”
Eleanora Duse quotes (Italian Actress. 1858-1924)

“Somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue, and the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true”

Lyman Frank Baum

“I thank you God for this most amazing day, for the leaping greenly spirits of trees, and for the blue dream of sky and for everything which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes.”
E. E. Cummings

“Oh! `darkly, deeply, beautifully blue’, / As someone somewhere sings about the sky.”
Lord Byron

“People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don’t even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child — our own two eyes. All is a miracle.”
Thich Nhat Hanh

“In thinking of America, I sometimes find myself admiring her bright blue sky-her grand old woods-her fertile fields-her beautiful rivers-her mighty lakes and star-crowned mountains. But my rapture is soon checked when I remember that all is cursed with the infernal spirit of slave-holding and wrong; When I remember that with the waters of her noblest rivers, the tears of my brethren are borne to the ocean, disregarded and forgotten; That her most fertile fields drink daily of the warm blood of my outraged sisters, I am filled with unutterable loathing.”
Frederick Douglass

“Arithmetic is where the answer is right and everything is nice and you can look out of the window and see the blue sky – or the answer is wrong and you have to start over and try again and see how it comes out this time.”
Carl Sandburg

“Give me the clear blue sky above my head, and the green turf beneath my feet, a winding road before me, and a three hours’ march to dinner – and then to thinking! It is hard if I cannot start some game on these lone heaths.”
William Hazlitt

“Saints will aid if men will call: / For the blue sky bends over all!”
Samuel Taylor Coleridge

“By reading the scriptures I am so renewed that all nature seems renewed around me and with me. The sky seems to be a pure, a cooler blue, the trees a deeper green. The whole world is charged with the glory of God and I feel fire and music under my feet.”
Thomas Merton

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