Tag Archives: Life stories

Marion Jones Basketball Star

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Congratulations Marion Jones, making the cut for the Women’s National Basketball Associations Team roster for the Tulsa Shock!

Marion Jones, the former Olympic sprinter is now the oldest rookie ever in the WNBA. I hope Marion Jones succeeds, and proves to be a long awaited inspiration for young women the world over who I believe she is.

Sometimes to get to where we should be, we have to go through any number of trials and tribulations. In some cases these challenges prove to be almost too much for mere mortals. For those that survive their downfall, a new opportunity arises. I hope this is that opportunity for Marion Jones.

For all of us, life throws choices in our lives that we are not prepared for. Sometimes our choices, no matter how sincere and well meaning at the time, go awry and we are left with tiny pieces of what was our life dream. It is not an easy matter to pull yourself up, put your life back together, and start out from the beginning in yet another quest to finish the journey long ago started.

The world needs role models, and unfortunately not all role models are perfect in all areas of their lives. Most role models are merely human. A few role models have made  grave mistakes in their lives. Others have made mistakes which in the end have only hurt themselves. Some have done both. Not all survive their downfall, get their life back together, and begin to create their destiny one more time.

I think I have been one of the few who have thought even in the face of strong adversity, and a few less than stellar life choices, Marion Jones will someday show her real self and become all she was meant to be. I hope this is the start of what I hope will be true.

Good luck Marion Jones, I am cheering for you!

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Good sense or no cents?

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I do not know if you are a Craiglist watcher, or you happen to peruse any other boards where items are sold or traded. As people are being pressed for cash they are selling items they know they can live without. One poster on Craiglist recently placed an ad to sell a weight machine.

The seller was claiming they have three horses to feed and it is either sell the weight machine, or eat one of the horses. I thought that was a good motivator for a certain group of perspective buyers who may otherwise have no interest in buying a weight machine? They may feel compelled to save a horse from becoming Sunday dinner….

Back in the early-seventies, I lived in a very rural area. That part of the country and perhaps the whole country was experiencing hard times almost like now, though not quite as bad. I lived in farm country and one would think life was easier there, but it was not. Truck and farm machinery still broke, cows became ill, and other problems arose from time to time all draining most farmers cash reserves.

One neighboring farmer wanted to butcher a horse to eat. He could not afford to eat one of his own cows, but the horse added little to the income side of the balance sheet. His wife of course was dead set against eating horse meat. It just was not done, and no one could remember eating horse meat since World War II, when it was horse meat, or no meat.

Contrary to popular city beliefs, most farmers are pretty sharp. You have to be on your toes to compete with modern massive farms and not starve in the process. What was the farmer to do? He sold the horse to his friend – also a farmer who lived down the road. He did not get a lot for the horse, only $175.00, which is equal to about $500.00 in today’s dollars. The sale of the horse was hardly a major money windfall.

Lo and behold less than four hours after they loaded up the horse and moved it to its new home, the farmer received a phone call. Somehow the horse had managed to strangle itself, and the buyer wanted his money back. What a dismal position for both farmers’! One has a useless dead horse and the other sold a presumably stupid horse that killed itself, just when they needed money so badly.

There was only one thing to do in the seller’s eyes. To make everything right he took the dead horse back, and gave his farmer friend his money back. Of course there was a silver lining in this cloud hanging over their heads. The horse was dead of unnatural causes and was completely edible. Nothing left to do but make the best of a bad situation.

The farmer who sold the horse that was now dead, against his wife’s wishes, butchered the dead horse. The wife temporarily became a non meat eater, at least no horsemeat, and the kids had meat to eat as they were young and did not make the connection.

Going back to where I started talking about selling things when times are tough, use good sense about what you buy when times are good. When things get tough, that three hundred dollar driver is worth about thirty dollars. That one thousand dollar weight set will be lucky to bring hundred. If needy sellers of now used items now facing tough times made wise purchases which retain or increase in value during any economic situation, they would not be so financially strapped. It is easier to take a few dollar loss or maybe even make a profit on something that retains it’s value than it is to sell something that was not really worth the original price to start with.

Feeling a little hungry? Your neighbor may have a little extra meat standing around…just kidding.

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Melanie Roach, role model

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The surprising Beijing Olympian, thirty-three year old American woman weight lifter Melanie Roach (check out her video) was interviewed on one of the morning television talk shows this week. She was very impressive, not just for her Beijing Olympic weight lifting journey, but in having such a wonderful outlook of all other areas of her life. Melanie Roach uses her learnings and life skills to keep her life in balance.

Melanie Roach told a story that caught my attention over and above the highlighted Olympic Athlete portion of her very full life. It was very affirming for me, and honestly more of an earth shaking moment than Melanie Roach conveyed in the few seconds she had in front of the camera.

Melanie Roach related than when she learned her son has autism, that she went to see her Pastor. Melanie Roach told her Pastor that having a son with autism was not something that she thought she had signed up for [in her life]. The Pastor who is obviously very wise countered that Melanie Roach was getting exactly what she signed up for.

Melanie Roach is now making a very sweet lemonade of this opportunity once she understood this was something she needed in her life, and said that her son and his illness has enriched and fulfilled her in ways she had never imagined. My best wishes for Melanie Roach, and her Olympic trials. No matter what the outcome, Melanie Roach has vibrant full life, and the Olympic trials will be another gilded page in her scrap book of life.

What struck me about Melanie Roach sharing her simple story is the Pastor’s insight on what life is all really all about. Our individual life is not always about having one fantastic day after another. Our life is not even about having one fantastic weekend after a long hard work week. The Pastor understands this, and also knows that we never have anything occur in our life that is not perfect for us, and that we are not ready for.

Trails and tribulations in our life, no matter what form they take are in our life because we asked for them. When we asked for problems in our life, is a point of debate on when and how it happens, but the Pastor is correct, what happens in our life happens for a reason. Nothing in our life happens just because.

When any situation happens to us, no matter how terrible, it is not something outside of our control, brought into our lives from what appears to be an outside influence. When bad things happen in our lives it is because we need them to. We need to experience, what it is like waking each day and seeing no resolve to our situation. It does not matter if it is loneliness, loss of a job, family member, friend, or even our own impending death, we need whatever it is in our life. We need those unpleasant situations happening in our life at that exact moment.

As a friend and I were talking about breaking addictions, he told me, “there is no good time”. He is right, there is no good time, but the time when something bad happens in our life, is the perfect time, and the perfect situation for us.

When something bad happens, do not approach it as yet another obstacle to be overcome, or suffered through. When bad things in our lives are approached from this perspective, that is exactly what they become, another obstacle to overcome. When bad things enter into our lives they need to be seen as opportunities.

Not only opportunities, but opportunities that have arrived at exactly the right time and for all the right reasons. The way we approach what seems to be an insurmountable problem is a defect in our perspective. What is really happening no matter how terrible, unjust, or wrong, is happening for all the right reasons at exactly the right time. No more, no less. Turning problems into something to struggle through, is removing all possibility of personal growth and spiritual learning that should come out of the situation. That is, if we embrace and accept our life’s problems as being perfect, instead of fighting them.

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Reading fortunes or reading victims?

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I was at a county fair in an out of the way county. I was with some friends, and we had swung the mallet, won some trinkets, had a corn dog, the usual. We were getting ready to leave and walking to the end of the midway when I spotted a sign for a fortune teller. I had always been fascinated by fortune tellers but never put much stock in them. I thought it was some gimmick as no one could tell the future could they?

The woman who was the fortune teller came out and said she only charged five dollars. At that time five dollars was almost an hours work. I told her it was too steep of a price for me, but I would appreciate anything she would tell me. She took me aside to the door of her little tent. There was nothing special about the tent, only a little table in the middle with a table cloth/shawl thrown over it, and a small candle in the center.

She did not do anything special, she did not even ask me to go in, or sit down. She did not look at my palm, or stare into my eyes, or anything of the sort. She said to me, “Your father died two years ago, in November.” I almost fell over! How could she possibly know this about me? I had never seen her before, nor did I think she really could read fortunes. She made a believer out of me just like that! looked in my wallet and I took out half the money I had in it, five dollars, and handed it to her.

I told her I did not need any more of my fortune told, but I would like to ask her a few questions. She agreed to answer some questions instead of telling more about myself. I no longer remember the conversation, but she did tell me a few other things about myself. She said she was not able to read anyone’s future as they had not made it yet, but she knew of some fortune tellers that could. She followed that up reading the future was tricky, because the future was fluid and had not happened yet. She told me a few other things about reading fortunes too.

She told me to know more would cost me another five dollars. I told her I would love to know more, but as five dollars was all the money I had for the next few days, I could not afford to spend any more. I thanked her for what she shared with me, and I said I hoped her future was a good one, and she did the same for me.

On another topic, we humans tend to use pattern recognition to make sense of our lives. Savvy marketers understand this, and create products that fit a pattern that may or may not be obvious to us. After they gain our trust, they speak a few key sentences, and we see a pattern unfold just like they want us to see it.

The Bible’s chapter of revelations is a good example. No matter what period in time, or where you live, and what access you have to news, the description of the beginning of the end of the world is obvious when you read the book of revelations. It is the same with Indigo children. The pattern was written down over a century ago, and every other generation sees the pattern and think they discovered something new or the time has arrived. Newspaper, book, and gum-ball machine astrology rolls, and fortune cookies are the same thing. They are general enough to fit almost any pattern, and personality. On the criminal side of fortunes, confidence men do this to separate the gullible from their money.

I suppose there is no real way to tell what is real from what is not, but when money is involved in the process it is time to start being curious about someone’s real abilities. Are they who they say they are, and can do what they are telling you, or are they professionals at parting you from your money?

Now that that is out of the way, let me predict your future, heal your spirit, or cast a spell for you….

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Our Economy and Our Personal Spending

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Well over a century ago when things were not simpler, just different. One of my ancestors, most likely my great Grandfather, had some legal problems in Ireland that became serious enough he found his way into a courtroom. He was made a prisoner aboard an English ship, jumped ship in Canada and made his way into the United States, and settled in Michigan.

My great Grandfather saw a lot of things change in his time much like we do today. In his day, in a little town in Michigan, he worked, saved and had a successful life. This was still in the horse and buggy day, so the cost of living was quite low compared to today at the turn of the century. A lot has changed since that time. A few of the changes that took place were railroads and track, automobiles and roads, federal income tax, world wars, the great depression, and that is only the high level view.

For the individuals of their time, people just like like you and I were slowly drawn into a life of consumerism. Suddenly goods that people had been happy with for many years were suddenly old, faded, worn, or there were exciting new products out there that people just could not live without. People went from saving as much of their pay checks as they could, to spending their paychecks, and some spent faster than others.

For many of us learning from our parents and their good life in the fifties and sixties we have become a nation of debtors chasing instant gratification. Over half of us can not always pay our bills on time, nor can many of us afford what we owe. We have evolved not into just buying this we want, but replacing perfectly good items with newer items, primarily our cars. For many of us we do not need a new car, we want a new car.

Unfortunately, because we are creatures of habit, our car spending thinking trickles down to all aspects of our life. We could work our way out of debt, but we choose not to generally. The steps for getting out of debt are easy, while following those steps are not. It is much easier not to put ourselves in that position to start with.

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