When one door closes......

A very wise concept to always keep in mind is....

"When one door closes.......another one opens"......

and the new door that opens might be even better than the one that closed.

Though we should remember too:
The grass is not always greener on the other side.....

A lot to think about!

Finding Your Inspiration

Had to share this...
Okay, so since I never really looked, I was thinking to myself last night, hmmm...I wonder what really defines inspiration? So, I went to the online sources, and this is the first thing I clicked on. I thought it was a really good read, and I think it all goes right back to knowing yourself, liking yourself, and trying to stay positive. I thought everyone might like the review it too. ENJOY!

Ten Ways to Find Your Inspiration

The word inspire comes from the Latin word for inspirare, which means to breath upon or into. When we inspire others, we're living from our higher selves. When we're being inspired, we expand beyond what we previously were, or know our selves to be. Our lives have new breath. Our soul and our actions are one.
1. Know what inspires you. Go back to your memories and recall when you felt most inspired. What was the common thread amongst the different times when you've been inspired? Was it a quality about another person or your self? Was there a theme to the times when you've been inspired, or have been inspiring? Was it an action that a person took - or that you took? Think about what's inspired you in the past. Look to see what's missing now.
2. Learn to live with ambivalence while striving for perfection. Inspiration lives between the two spaces of ambivalence and perfection. Inspiration speaks to the best within our selves - ambivalence is the messiness of our lives, the life process. Perfection is the ideal, while ambivalence is its application. Inspiration is what moves us forward in life - through the ambivalence and towards the ideal.
3. Take a break from your life. Go to a movie or hike a mountain to its highest vista. Surround yourself with the sound of the rhythm of water, while the warmth of the sun energizes your body. Move your body so you feel its life. Keep your focus on nothing other than your experience. Live in the present.
4. Inspiration isn't only what's done TO you. Being inspired requires an openness of heart and spirit. Create an environ- ment that supports an open heart, so that inspiration blossoms in your life. Just as a flower needs soil and water, so too does inspiration need openness of heart and spirit. Inspiration can't exist without this.
5. Sometimes we fall before we stand. Don't beat yourself up when you fall from grace. Life is a process and isn't static. When you fall, don't beat yourself up for falling. Acknowledge the fall and it's impact on your life. At some point, you'll take action and stand up. Trust the process.
6. Divert your attention. Forget about the joys that inspiration brings, and live from another domain. An inspired life isn't only about inspiration. It's also about exhilaration, about passion and living life fully. Do something completely different than you normally would. Strike up a conversation with someone you typically wouldn't, and approach the conversation with naivete, openness and depth. There's a good chance that inspiration will come to you when you're least looking for it.
7. Surround yourself with what inspires you. If a certain type of person inspires you, follow and nurture the attraction. Trust what inspires you, and let it guide your actions. If a Wagner opera inspires you, surround yourself with it's music so you feel completely at one with the music, and with what inspires you. Lose yourself in what you love and be inspired.
8. Get outside of yourself. Though you think you know what inspires you based on past experiences - this doesn't mean that you can't be inspired by something new that previously didn't effect you. Live in the present and pay attention to what tugs at your heart. This will give you a hint to newer sources of inspiration.
9. Grace + openness + life + soul = inspiration. Create a formula consisting of the ingredients that define inspiration for you. We all have different perceptions and experiences of inspiration. Define what it is for you.
10. Inspiration is a quality and a state of being. To be inspiring to others is to be self-generative and inspiring to our selves. How can you be more self-generative? One must live in a state of being that allows for inspiration to take root. How can you cause and create your own source of inspiration? Where are you self-generative in your life, and how can you be more self-generative?

Copyright © 2001 by Jan Gordon.
http://www.qualitycoaching.com/Articles/inspiration.html

Most Inspirational Video of The Year! -From CBS News

Okay, I watched this about 5 times already. I know it's not the best clear view, but you have to see it. Brought tears to my eyes, and sent chills all through me. This has got to be the BEST video I have seen in a very very long time. Talk about inspiration. This kid has to be so incredibly happy!!! How exciting. What a wonderful video.

A thought for today:

After watching some tv this morning, this thought came to me.......

"Jealousy gets you nowhere in life"

Not sure if this is quoted somewhere or not, but I totally believe that jealousy can only hurt your movement forward. Be true to yourself, be yourself. Never try so hard to be someone else because you will only lose your self.

"Inspiring Quotes"

"The reward of a thing well done is to have done it"
Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Too many people are thinking of security instead of opportunity
They seem more afraid of life than death"
James F Byrnes

"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

"To succeed you need to find something to hold on to, something to motivate you, something to inspire you"
Tony Dorsett

"Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and you’ll
help them to become what they are capable of becoming"
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

A Charming Little Love Story - "Alex & Emma"

I watched Alex & Emma a couple of times now. Okay, so I’m a hopeless romantic! I find it a charming little love story where two people meet, just by chance, become colleagues, friends, and then lovers. Alex (Luke Wilson) is a writer who has writer’s block and has a 30 day deadline to finish his next book or face some grueling consequences. He is in debt to the Cubans who have destroyed his computer, so he is forced to dictate an entire book to someone within the 30 days. Emma (Kate Hudson) answers his ad in the paper for the job of a stenographer and ends up at his door. After some amusing conversation, she eventually accepts the job as his stenographer, and agrees to be paid once he finishes the book since he is totally broke at the present time and cannot pay her a dime. They eventually produce a romantic story that in the end leaves some truths to be told. It becomes their true love story in a sense.
The plot is well written and keeps the audience in suspense until the very end of the movie. Just when you think you know what he will write next, he changes it. I like the way this story line moves in and out / back and forth, from fiction to reality is the way I see it. Kate Hudson & Luke Wilson seem to have a secret, non verbal ‘like’ for each other from the start. They continue to gain more respect for each other throughout the film. It is an enjoyable story if you like to mix a little business with pleasure!

"August Rush" - a MUST see movie

This makes two excellent movies in a row for me this week (Dan in Real Life posted 3/10/08 & August Rush today's post).

As the main character tells his audience –

“Music is all around us, all you have to do is listen”.

August Rush, aka Evan Taylor (played by Freddie Highmore) is an 11 year old orphan who discovers he has tremendous talents for playing and writing music. He skillfully moves from orphan on the street to prodigy at Juillard. Imagine that! To be so gifted and so talented that you compose your own music at age 11 is certainly a most remarkable gift. To even contemplate a child with such abilities, and such talent is just amazing. We need to produce more movies like this one.
WOW…WOW…WOW - this movie sent chills right through me at the end……what a wonderful movie with such an incredibly happy ending! I had such a big smile on my face at the end it was unbelievable!!! What a great story and acting. I love happy endings. I can’t stop thinking about it.
Freddie Highmore is quite an outstanding little actor. Absolutely brilliant might I add. Carrie Russell plays a very good role as well as the mother who had no idea she even had a son to begin with.
This move envelopes hope, love, family, talent, and so much more….
Inspiration at its best.

"Dan In Real Life"

There are some GREAT messages throughout the film “Dan in Real Life”. It’s a MUST see for everyone! It’s so much fun. It depicts family, LOVE, FUN, JOY, RESPECT, you name it, it’s there! I must note that this is by far the best performance I have ever seen from Steve Carell. He was incredibly great in his role as a widowed father of three girls striving day to day to get by as a single father remembering and seeing his wife in every waking moment. He ends with the following words:

“I want to talk to you about the subject of Plans.
Life plans and how we all make them.
And how we hope our kids make good smart safe plans of their own.
But If we’re really honest with ourselves most of our plans don’t work out as we hoped.
So, Instead of asking our young people, what are your plans and what do you plan to do with
your life, maybe we should tell them this
Plan to be surprised!!!”

"Keeping The Faith":

Keeping the Faith was the first movie that Edward Norton directed. He did a GREAT job, in my opinion. I love a good chick flick, a love story, display of innocence, and humor, all combined. This movie seemed to bring it all together and hold it together throughout the entire film. What makes this movie a good fun pick is the cast. Ed Norton plays a priest, and Ben Stiller plays a rabi. Just that statement alone made me laugh and I hadn’t even seen the movie yet. I was thinking hmm…Ben stiller as a rabi, oh and Ed Norton a priest, yeah right! Of course the story goes…..there is a girl (played by Jenna Elfman) that comes between them and almost ruins the bond of friendship they all three share. Jenna is fun, captivating, intelligent, and plays the role of her character very well. Jenna is an old school mate to both guys, and ends up really liking one of them. I don’t want to spoil it for you, so I’ll let you watch the film to see who she decides to “make it” with! All three actors were a ton of fun to watch throughout the entire film. Jenna’s expressions alone gave me the feeling that everything she was doing and thinking was very real. I never realized that she was such a good actress until I saw this film. Benn Stiller is always funny, and has great comic timing. Norton is just plain good as usual. The film is charming, funny, subtle at the harsh points, and the actors appear to really feel the emotions behind what is taking place. There seems to be a good connection between the three main actors that holds tight throughout the entire movie.

A bit of funny for today. Enjoy...

Okay, I wonder if this has ever happened to any of you???
Maybe it’s a sign. Hopefully a good sign
Maybe you will all get a little laugh today!
Inspired by true events…

What an artistic approach to redecorating my coat
Colorful like a parade float
Yucky like an old drooling billy goat

Slimy and wet
I’d venture to bet
Can’t even do anything with it yet

I’m stuck with it there
While I finish my walk in the cold air
So glad it’s not in my hair

Yup it was me
The pigeon poop fell on from up in the tree
Oh gee why me
At least it was free
Guess I need to go do the laundry

written by Laura Vanderwill

"Fierce People":

Key hitters / inspirational thoughts from this movie:
We are the sum of all the people we ever met
Out of bad comes good

Liz (Diane Lane) is a drug addicted mother who puts her son in the middle of a drug bust. Her son wishes to spend the summer with his father whom he has never met, but now is told he will instead be spending the summer with his mother’s friend and client Mr. Osborne (Donald Sutherland). Liz and her son had no idea what they were up against while living amongst one of the wealthiest class of people in town. When her son is attacked and sexually abused on the grounds of Osborne’s estate, their lives change. This is definitely the turning point in the movie and for their life as they knew it. It’s a very good movie.
I chose the movie “Fierce People” mainly because I really enjoy watching Diane Lane. She is one actress that I feel does an awesome job on screen with every diverse role she has been given. She is real, believable, loveable, and has this sense of charm and charisma that you just don’t see with most other actors or actresses. If you like Diane Lane, check out also “Under the Tuscan Sun”. This is one of my favorites. Diane Lane is just superb in this movie too.

“ How Do You Know”

Will you ever love me
Really really love me
Will you ever cherish me
Really really cherish me

Do you think I’m pretty
Or just plain and bitty
Do you think I’m smart
Or dumb as a shopping cart

Will you ever see me
Really really see me
Will you ever feel me
Really really feel me

Do you think I’m giddy
Or just plain and witty
Do you think I’m in your heart
Or am I here for a different part?
written by Laura Vanderwill

I wrote this last night - Just For Fun!

“A Penny a day”
I pick up pennies from the street
I find them down nearby my feet
Pennies pennies make me smile
I will soon have a big huge pile
Some make fun and laugh away
But I’m really gonna have a lot some day
It’s also fine to find a dime
I keep saying it’s all mine
So why not start small
While walking tall
Then make it big
And shock'em all

by Laura Vanderwill

Think about this one - I believe it!

‘The only true disability in life is a bad attitude’
SCOTT HAMILTON

Had to share this one too

Here is another I found on blogit site. We definitely need more people like this.
Was Posted by mariaki:

Angels without wings...
We all have someone in our lives; sometimes two or three
That are very special; we should count ourselves lucky
You know the ones I speak about here
The people you hold so close and dear

Always offering a shoulder to cry on without hesitation
Ready to discuss all things and offer some solution
Friends who are never too tired or busy to listen to you
Encourage your dreams and whatever you wish to do

Who tell you whenever you do wrong
As quickly as they would sing your song
Who praise you when the occasion arises
Chastise you without fear of reprisal

These are the people we need more of
Angels without wings sent from high above

I hope you all have a superb weekend my friends; many blessings from a chilly night in CY

Great Questions to Remember!

These were posted on blogit.com by leaderspeaker:

3 Questions to Ask Before Accepting a Big Responsibility
Before I commit to take a certain responsibility, I ask myself these questions:
(1) Can I add value or improve on it? If I can't answer this positively, I feel I have no right accepting any role because I will not be contributing to it. People want a leader who can make things better for them.
(2) Do I have enough resources to get the job done? The number one resource is people, the right people with the right attitude. Getting the right people lightens the load. When I delegate a task to the right person, it will get done properly.
(3) Will it be a priority? When we prioritize something, the minimum is we put time for it. However it is not enough- we must also find time for it. I don't like people who will always use family as an excuse for begging off from their responsibility. Yes, family is important and one should consider it before one accept a responsibility. If this will get in the way, then the responsibility should not be accepted in the first place-- rather than making it an excuse for non-fulfillment.