Hugh MacLeod made me Think!

Hugh MacLeod 

Cartoons drawn on the back of Business Cards

The Trouble Tree; A Story that made me Think!

The Trouble Tree

The carpenter I hired to help me restore an old farmhouse had just finished a rough first day on the job.   A flat tire made him lose an hour of work, his electric saw quit, and now his ancient pickup truck refused to start.

While I drove him home, he sat in stony silence.  On arriving, he invited me in to meet the family.  As we walked toward the front door, he paused briefly at a small tree, touching the tips of the branches with both hands.

After opening the door, he underwent an amazing transformation.  His face was  wreathed in smiles, and he hugged his two small children and

then gave his wife a kiss.

Afterward, he walked me to my car.  We passed the tree, and my curiosity got the better of me.  I asked him about what I had seen him do earlier.

"Oh, that's my trouble tree," he replied. "I know I can't help having troubles on the job, but one thing for sure, troubles don't belong in the house with my wife and children.  So I just hang them up on the tree every night when I come home. Then in the morning, I pick them up again."

"Funny thing is," he smiled, "when I come out in the morning to pick them up, there aren't nearly as many as I remember hanging up the night before."

Author Unknown

A Blog that Nudges...

http://makesmethink.com/

Wishing you a most beautiful day, wherever this finds you!

From the Quote of the Week Files; May 13, 2013

Welcome Everybody to the Quote of the Week! We continue on with our Commencement Speech Wisdom series with a number of excerpts from Novelist David Foster's Speech to Kenyon College in 2005. 

His speech was eventually eventually adapted into a book titled This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life. Please note the link below to see an abridged version of the original audio recording of his speech set it to a series of images. Enjoy!
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"There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says "Morning, boys. How's the water?" And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes "What the hell is water?"
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"The most obvious, important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about."
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“The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day. That is real freedom. That is being educated, and understanding how to think. The alternative is unconsciousness, the default setting, the rat race, the constant gnawing sense of having had, and lost, some infinite thing.”__

... simple awareness; awareness of what is so real and essential, so hidden in plain sight all around us, all the time, that we have to keep reminding ourselves over and over:

"This is water."

"This is water."

David Foster Wallace, Kenyon College

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Wishing you a most beautiful day, wherever this may find you!

A Scene from a movie that Nudges!

"A lot of people enjoy being dead.  But they're not dead really.  

They're just backing away from life.  

Reach out.  Take a chance.  Get hurt even.  

Play as well as you can. 

Go team.  Go!

Give me an L.  Give me an I.  Give me a V. Give me an E.

L-I-V-E!   L-I-V-E!

 Otherwise, you got nothing to talk about in the locker room."

Maude 

From the movie, Harold and Maude

It is a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood!! Facts about Mr. Rogers I didn't Know about him!

1. He basically saved public television. In 1969 the government wanted to cut public television funds. Mister Rogers then went to Washington where he gave an amazing merely six minute speech. By the end of the speech not only did he charm the hostile Senators, he got them to double the budget they would have initially cut down. The whole thing can be found on youtube, a video called “Mister Rogers defending PBS to the US Senate.”

2. “Certain fundamentalist preachers hated him because, apparently not getting the “kindest man who ever lived” memo, they would ask him to denounce homosexuals. Mr. Rogers’s response? He’d pat the target on the shoulder and say, “God loves you just as you are.” Rogers even belonged to a “More Light” congregation in Pittsburgh, a part of the Presbyterian Church dedicated to welcoming LGBT persons to full participation in the church.”

3. According to a TV Guide piece on him, Fred Rogers drove a plain old Impala for years. One day, however, the car was stolen from the street near the TV station. When Rogers filed a police report, the story was picked up by every newspaper, radio and media outlet around town. Amazingly, within 48 hours the car was left in the exact spot where it was taken from, with an apology on the dashboard. It read, “If we’d known it was yours, we never would have taken it.”

4. Once, on a fancy trip up to a PBS exec’s house, he heard the limo driver was going to wait outside for 2 hours, so he insisted the driver come in and join them (which flustered the host). On the way back, Rogers sat up front, and when he learned that they were passing the driver’s home on the way, he asked if they could stop in to meet his family. According to the driver, it was one of the best nights of his life—the house supposedly lit up when Rogers arrived, and he played jazz piano and bantered with them late into the night. Further, like with the reporters, Rogers sent him notes and kept in touch with the driver for the rest of his life.

5. Most people have heard of Koko, the Stanford-educated gorilla who could speak about 1000 words in American Sign Language, and understand about 2000 in English. What most people don’t know, however, is that Koko was an avid Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood fan. As Esquire reported, when Fred Rogers took a trip out to meet Koko for his show, not only did she immediately wrap her arms around him and embrace him, she did what she’d always seen him do onscreen: she proceeded to take his shoes off!

6. Once while rushing to a New York meeting, there were no cabs available, so Rogers and one of his colleagues hopped on the subway. Esquire reported that the car was filled with people, and they assumed they wouldn’t be noticed. But when the crowd spotted Rogers, they all simultaneously burst into song, chanting "It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood." The result made Rogers smile wide.

Lessons from a Dog; A Nudge!

If a dog were your teacher, you would learn stuff like...

When loved ones come home, always run to greet them; Never pass up the opportunity to go for a joyride; Allow the experience of fresh air and the wind in your face to be pure ecstasy; When it's in your best interest practice obedience; Let others know when they've invaded your territory; Take naps and stretch before rising;  Run, romp, and play daily;  Thrive on attention and let people touch you;  Avoid biting, when a simple growl will do;  On warm days, stop to lie on your back on the grass;  On hot days, drink lots of water and lay under a shady tree;  When you're happy, dance around and wag your entire body;  No matter how often you're scolded, don't buy into the guilt thing and pout...run right back and make friends;  Delight in the simple joy of a long walk  Eat with gusto and enthusiasm;  Stop when you have had enough;  Be loyal;  Never pretend to be something you're not;  If what you want lies buried, dig until you find it  When someone is having a bad day, be silent, sit close by and nuzzle them gently.

Author known

The True Story about Kid President

A Zen Story that Inspires

Two monks were returning to the monastery in the evening. It had rained and there were puddles of water on the road sides. At one place a beautiful young woman was standing unable to walk across because of a puddle of water. The elder of the two monks went up to a her lifted her and left her on the other side of the road, and continued his way to the monastery.

In the evening the younger monk came to the elder monk and said, “Sir, as monks, we cannot touch a woman ?”

The elder monk answered “yes, brother”.

Then the younger monk asks again, “but then Sir, how is that you lifted that woman on the roadside ?”

The elder monk smiled at him and told him ” I left her on the other side of the road, but you are still carrying her.”

Wishing you a most beautiful day, wherever this may find you!

From the Quote of the Week Files; May 6, 2013

Welcome New and Old Souls to the Quote of the Week.

 
It’s that time of year again, the time when college graduations are taking place throughout the US and Canada and when guest speakers impart their wisdom on a fresh crop of graduating seniors. Today and for the next 4 weeks, the QoftheW will feature some of that wisdom from years past.  Enjoy!
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“The more I thought about myself, the weaker I became. The more I recognized that I was serving a purpose larger than myself, the stronger I became."

Eric Geitens; Former U. S. Navy Seal and founder of The Mission Continues; Tufts University 2012
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A link to the Video of the Commencement Speech...

http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/bestoftv/2012/05/25/sot-eric-greitens-tufts-commencement.tufts.html
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A Quote of the Week Classic....

"Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish."

 A Stewart Brand quote used by Steve Jobs; Stanford University Commencement Speech; 2005
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Wishing you a most beautiful day, wherever this may find you!

A Secret of Life Nudge by Stuart Wild

"Get out of any situation that endorses negativity, causing you imbalance. People come together in relationships for growth, not for life. If a relationship sustains you, that is, if you're both growing from it, and if it's beautiful and it has energy, you're together for good. If not, either fix it or ditch it. You don't need situations that don't support you or that lower your energy. You don't owe anything to anyone.

The only real responsibility you have is to work on yourself to raise your energy. That will become your gift to the world. Pull back from negative situations and negative people. You don't need to judge them or try to change them. Just allow them to follow their path. You may want to give them a little shove, but if they won't move, you move. Never mind security; preserve your soul".

Stuart Wild, The Secrets of Life

A Nudge from Tim DeTellis on Attitude!

Wishing you a most beautiful day, wherever this may find you!

A Nudge from the movie, The Breakfast Club!