How Do I love Thee

How Do I Love Thee? (Sonnet 43)
by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight For the ends of being and ideal grace. I love thee to the level of every day's Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light. I love thee freely, as men strive for right. I love thee purely, as they turn from praise. I love thee with the passion put to use In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith. I love thee with a love I seemed to lose With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath, Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death.

Working Together

Life is a compromise of what your ego wants to do, 

what experience tells you to do, 

and what your nerves let you do.  

~Bruce Crampton

Working Together
You are not isolated on an island which means you are going to have to work with people, sometimes lots of them, during your day.  Some people you may get along with great while others not so much because their opinions, beliefs or the way the go about something doesn't sit right with you.  Your ideals may be challenged and your emotions may get set off.  How do you handle this when it happens?  Do you dig your heels in the sand and remain unmovable or do you give a little to see where you can find some common ground?  Working together, finding commonality, and accomplishing a goal is a part of learning how to traverse through life.  If you get so stuck in your opinions just for the sake of being stubborn, it can have dire consequences.  Understand why you are feeling the way that you do and walk forward in a way that allows you to not give up your ideals but maybe changing the look of them for the betterment of the whole situation.  On the flip side, also understand when you are asking others to give up something too.  Working together takes compromise, on both ends, and everyone should be giving a little, not just one side of the situation.  You never know what you can learn from someone if your eyes and ears are shut and your arms are crossed.


Somewhere a lot of people disregarded the value of truly working together.  Somewhere it became okay to call each other names, disrespect each other and not listen to everyone's opinions.  We are currently watching that unfold in front of us at our highest level of government.  Maybe all of us need to model the way for those making these decisions.  Maybe it's time we start working on the art of compromise in our own lives to mirror what should be happening all around. Let's not forget the simple lessons we learned in the sandbox, the art of sharing and compromise, and hold ourselves and others up to a higher standard.  


Please check out the link to Gabrielle Giffords powerful return to congress:

http://news.yahoo.com/giffords-bipartisan-message-063300572.html

Passion

Don't ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive.  And then go and do that.  Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.  ~Attributed to Howard Thurman

Passion
We get so bogged down by our work, responsibilities and commitments that it's easy to push aside the passion we once felt for life.   Everything used to feel so new and exciting.  Our relationships gave us butterflies in our stomachs.  We were thrilled about the possibilities of our new jobs.  We were excited about where life was taking us.  Somewhere along the line though, we traded in that passion for complacency.  The more we took those special things in our lives for granted, the more the spark seemed to fizzle.  All that is left is the memory of the thrill and we feel stuck on how to change our lives for the better.   But this doesn't have to be.  It's a choice you are making every day and maybe today you will choose differently.  Maybe today you will choose to once again feel that passion that drove you in the past.  It's easy to remember and it's just as easy to bring those feelings back to the forefront of your heart and soul.  It's time we infused the spark back into our lives so that we are fully engaged with everyone and everything that is around us.  If you want a more exciting job, well create it!  If you want to feel that spark back in your relationship, grab the matches!  It's our responsibility to make sure we remain passionate about everything life has to offer.  That's what makes it so exciting and new ~ always.  Don't ever lose your spark for life!