Get Off the Phone Song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfUD0WhE264#t=192

Marriage Isn’t For You

Seth Adam Smith / 15 hours ago

Kim and I

Having been married only a year and a half, I’ve recently come to the conclusion that marriage isn’t for me.

Now before you start making assumptions, keep reading.

I met my wife in high school when we were 15 years old. We were friends for ten years until…until we decided no longer wanted to be just friends. :) I strongly recommend that best friends fall in love. Good times will be had by all.

Nevertheless, falling in love with my best friend did not prevent me from having certain fears and anxieties about getting married. The nearer Kim and I approached the decision to marry, the more I was filled with a paralyzing fear. Was I ready? Was I making the right choice? Was Kim the right person to marry? Would she make me happy?

Then, one fateful night, I shared these thoughts and concerns with my dad.

Perhaps each of us have moments in our lives when it feels like time slows down or the air becomes still and everything around us seems to draw in, marking that moment as one we will never forget.

My dad giving his response to my concerns was such a moment for me. With a knowing smile he said, “Seth, you’re being totally selfish. So I’m going to make this really simple: marriage isn’t for you. You don’t marry to make yourself happy, you marry to make someone else happy. More than that, your marriage isn’t for yourself, you’re marrying for a family. Not just for the in-laws and all of that nonsense, but for your future children. Who do you want to help you raise them? Who do you want to influence them? Marriage isn’t for you. It’s not about you. Marriage is about the person you married.”

It was in that very moment that I knew that Kim was the right person to marry. I realized that I wanted to make her happy; to see her smile every day, to make her laugh every day. I wanted to be a part of her family, and my family wanted her to be a part of ours. And thinking back on all the times I had seen her play with my nieces, I knew that she was the one with whom I wanted to build our own family.

My father’s advice was both shocking and revelatory. It went against the grain of today’s “Walmart philosophy”, which is if it doesn’t make you happy, you can take it back and get a new one.

No, a true marriage (and true love) is never about you. It’s about the person you love—their wants, their needs, their hopes, and their dreams. Selfishness demands, “What’s in it for me?”, while Love asks, “What can I give?”

Some time ago, my wife showed me what it means to love selflessly. For many months, my heart had been hardening with a mixture of fear and resentment. Then, after the pressure had built up to where neither of us could stand it, emotions erupted. I was callous. I was selfish.

But instead of matching my selfishness, Kim did something beyond wonderful—she showed an outpouring of love. Laying aside all of the pain and aguish I had caused her, she lovingly took me in her arms and soothed my soul.

Marriage is about family.

I realized that I had forgotten my dad’s advice. While Kim’s side of the marriage had been to love me, my side of the marriage had become all about me. This awful realization brought me to tears, and I promised my wife that I would try to be better.

To all who are reading this article—married, almost married, single, or even the sworn bachelor or bachelorette—I want you to know that marriage isn’t for you. No true relationship of love is for you. Love is about the person you love.

And, paradoxically, the more you truly love that person, the more love you receive. And not just from your significant other, but from their friends and their family and thousands of others you never would have met had your love remained self-centered.

Truly, love and marriage isn’t for you. It’s for others.

http://sethadamsmith.com/2013/11/02/marriage-isnt-for-you/

Let down your guard

"There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle."

- Albert Einstein, E=MC2

"The appearance of things change according to the emotions and thus we see magic and beauty in them, while the magic and beauty are really in ourselves."

- Kahlil Gibran, was a great artist, writer & poet.

"If you are waiting for anything in order to live and love without holding back, then you suffer. Every moment is the most important moment of your life. No future time is better than now to let down your guard and love."

- David Deida, is a best-selling author and teacher.

Goals

"Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it." 

- Ralph Waldo Emerson, you know him as a transcendental man!

My Friend Carl

"The Earth is the only world known, so far, to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment, the Earth is where we make our stand. It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known." - Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space, 1997 reprint, pp. xv–xvi

Amigos

"You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you."

- Dale Carnegie

Troubles

"It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves." 

- Edmund Hillary, was a New Zealand mountaineer and explorer.

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.' 

- Ralph Waldo Emerson, was a Transcendental man!

"I have heard there are troubles of more than one kind.  
Some come from ahead and some come from behind.  
But I've bought a big bat.  I'm all ready you see.  
Now my troubles are going to have troubles with me!" 

- Dr. Seuss, iconic children's book author.

To Find Happiness

"Happiness is to be found along the way, not at the end of the road, for then the journey is over and it is too late. Today, this hour, this minute is the day, the hour, the minute for each of us to sense the fact that life is good, with all of its trials and troubles, and perhaps more interesting because of them."

 

- Robert R. Updegraff, business advisor.

Teddy, my man

“In any situation, the best thing you can do is the right thing; the next best thing you can do is the wrong thing; the worst thing you can do is nothing.”

- Theodore Roosevelt

Don't Take Anything Personally

"Life is a succession of lessons, which must be lived to be understood."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Don't Take Anything Personally. Nothings others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions of others, you won't be the victim of needless suffering."

- Don Miguel Ruiz

Teachers

"If you want to learn something, read about it. If you want to understand something, write about it. If you want to master something, teach it."

- Yogi Bhajan 

"The teacher who is indeed wise does not bid you to enter the house of his wisdom but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind."

-Khalil Gibran 

"The greatest sign of success for a teacher ... is to be able to say, 'The children are now working as if I did not exist.'"

-Maria Montessori

One Step

one step / one step
i stop / i take
one breath / one breath
warm sun / above
winter snow / below
i breathe / i take one step / one step
-Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, shared by Mary in Madison WI

What Most School's Dont Teach... - Coding

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKIu9yen5nc

http://www.code.org/

Lego Star Wars photos like you've never seen them before.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/avanaut/

Challenge

"Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps down new roads armed with nothing but their own vision."

-Ayn Rand, was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter.

"The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one." 

-Mark Twain, legendary author.

"Opposition is a natural part of life. Just as we develop our physical muscles through overcoming opposition - such as lifting weights - we develop our character muscles by overcoming challenges and adversity." 

-Stephen R. Covey, best-selling author and speaker.

"I do believe that when we face challenges in life that are far beyond our own power, it's an opportunity to build on our faith, inner strength, and courage. I've learned that how we face challenges plays a big role in the outcome of them." 

-Sasha Azevedo, actress.

Purpose

"The purpose of life is to discover your gift. The meaning of life is to give your gift away."

- David Viscott

Skills

“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.” ― Robert A. Heinlein

Kid President

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/l-gQLqv9f4o?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-gQLqv9f4o

How Badly Do You Want It

http://www.wimp.com/howbadly/

Hatred

Hatred and bitterness
can never cure the disease of fear;
only love can do that.
Hatred paralyzes life;
love releases it.
Hatred confuses life;
love harmonizes it.
Hatred darkens life;
love illuminates it.
-Martin Luther King, Jr.,

Disturb us

Disturb us, Lord, when

We are too well pleased with ourselves,

When our dreams have come true

Because we have dreamed too little,

When we arrived safely

Because we sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, Lord, when

With the abundance of things we possess

We have lost our thirst

For the waters of life;

Having fallen in love with life,

We have ceased to dream of eternity

And in our efforts to build a new earth,

We have allowed our vision

Of the new Heaven to dim.

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,

To venture on wider seas

Where storms will show your mastery;

Where losing sight of land,

We shall find the stars.

We ask You to push back

The horizons of our hopes;

And to push into the future

In strength, courage, hope, and love.

attributed - sir francis drake -1577

Letting Go

"By letting it go it all gets done. The world is won by those who let it go. But when you try and try. The world is beyond the winning."

- Lao Tzu

"Let go. Why do you cling to pain? There is nothing you can do about the wrongs of yesterday. It is not yours to judge. Why hold on to the very thing which keeps you from hope and love?"

- Leo Buscaglia

"We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the life that is waiting for us."

- Joseph Campbell

A New Dawn, A New Day

"Make New Year's goals. Dig within, and discover what you would like to have happen in your life this year. This helps you do your part. It is an affirmation that you're interested in fully living life in the year to come.

Goals give us direction. They put a powerful force into play on a universal, conscious, and subconscious level. Goals give our life direction.

What would you like to have happen in your life this year? What would you like to do, to accomplish? What good would you like to attract into your life? What particular areas of growth would you like to have happen to you? What blocks, or character defects, would you like to have removed?

What would you like to attain? Little things and big things? Where would you like to go? What would you like to have happen in friendship and love? What would you like to have happen in your family life?

What problems would you like to see solved? What decisions would you like to make? What would you like to happen in your career?

Write it down. Take a piece of paper, a few hours of your time, and write it all down - as an affirmation of you, your life, and your ability to choose. Then let it go.

The new year stands before us, like a chapter in a book, waiting to be written. We can help write that story by setting goals."

- Melody Beattie