The Support of a Hand

As I walked through the park the other day I noticed an elderly woman sitting quietly on one of the park benches next to the swing sets.


She was sitting very quietly with her head bowed, looking very intently at her hands.  She didn't move and I was concerned that something was wrong, so I approached her and sat down next to her and said,

"I didn't mean to disturb you, but you were just sitting here staring at your hands and I wanted to make sure you were OK."

"Have you ever looked at your hands," she asked. "I mean really looked at your hands?"
I slowly opened my hands and stared down at them. I turned them over, palms up and then palms down. No, I guess I had never really looked at my hands as I tried to figure out the point she was making.

The woman smiled and related this story:

"Stop and think for a moment about the hands you have, how they have served you well throughout your years. These hands, though wrinkled shriveled and weak have been the tools I have used all my life to reach out and grab and embrace life..."

"They braced and caught my fall when as a toddler I crashed upon the floor."

"They put food in my mouth and clothes on my back. As a child, my mother taught me to fold them in prayer. They tied my shoes and pulled on my boots. They held my husband and wiped my tears when he went off to war."

"They have been dirty, scraped and raw, swollen and bent. They were uneasy and clumsy when I tried to hold my newborn son. Decorated with my wedding band they showed the world that I was married and loved someone special."
"They wrote my letters to him and trembled and shook when I buried my parents and spouse."

"They have held my children and grandchildren, consoled neighbors, and shook in fists of anger when I didn't understand."
"They have covered my face, combed my hair, and washed and cleansed the rest of my body. They have been sticky and wet, bent and broken, dried and raw. And to this day when not much of anything else of me works real well these hands hold me up, lay me down, and again continue to fold in prayer."

These hands are the mark of where I've been and the ruggedness of life."


Have you looked at your hands and been thankful that they have supported many of your activities throughout life?  Are your hands something that you take for granted?  Even though you haven't paid much attention to them, they don't quit being supportive.


Be a hand in someone else's life, supportive, strong, soft, understanding, because many people hunger for understanding and support, they need strength but also a soft place to land.


Be that hand.


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Is The Ride Getting Bumpy?

We boarded the plane just like any other time.  Getting ready to "hurdle" through the air in a tin box with 1,000 other people, heading to the same town in Texas.

It takes forever to get those big jets loaded up and ready to take off.  We stored our stuff in the over head and sat down.  We were in the rear of the plane so we knew it would take a while.

Finally at last we were air born.

Little did we know that the air was pretty unstable that day.  There were storms a brewing all along the way.  We were in for a 4 hour roller coaster ride.

The first bumps started about 20 minutes after take off and I didn't take them very seriously because I knew we would move away from the area and things would smooth out right?

Wrong!  It just got worse.  Reading was impossible so it was a good thing there was a movie playing but even that got a little bit blurry.

As the ride got bumpier and bumpier I noticed that I was taking note of the emergency exits and their proximity to us.

You see I was thinking like many do in this day in age.  If the ride gets bumpy, Jump ship.........Okay, that would be a long "jump"

When things get a little bumpy in your life do you hang in there and know that it will pass?  Or are you looking for the nearest and easiest exit?

I got a hold of myself and decided that it didn't matter where the exits were because I was there for the entire ride and there was no way it was going to end early.

Take charge of the bumpy times and ride them out because what is on the other side is worth waiting for.  Truly successful people never let the bumps get in the way, heck they don't even let mountains get in their way.

Don't let your fear take control of your life, be the master of your fear because you don't want fear to be driving your life, business or emotions.

Take a deep breath and then another, face your fears straight on, and those little "bumps" well that's what they are just little bumps!

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How do you travel in your life?

Our recent trip to Mexico was very relaxing but also thought provoking at the same time. The people were all so happy there because they are happy to live each day. Sure every day they think of many of the same things that we do. What will we eat today? How will we make money to live on today? How will we get to work today?

These are many of the same questions that we ask ourself here in the States but I think that the answers come from a different place.

When we ask ourself what we will eat today we know there is a grocery store just around the corner with a variety of different foods that we can buy.

The people of Mexico ask that of them self as they go about their day. Money is tight so instead of heading to the store, they pick up a fishing line and go and catch their meal. There is plenty of fish so they know they will not go hungry. There are coconuts and bannanas to eat off the trees and many other fruits.

We ask ourself how we will make money today? Many of us have jobs that enable us to do that. Some of us are self employed, some of us are un-employed. It is a question that needs to be asked but sometimes there is not an answer.

The people of Mexico ask them self how they will make money on any day and I'm sure that some of them are not sure as they wake up in the morning but a plan formulates through out the day as they catch fish to sell or make crafts for the tourists to sell in the flea markets. Their economy is dependant on tourism as 85% of the people are involved with the industry. It is a family affair. Parents work the booths at the flea markets and the kids sell flowers or Chicklets.

We ask how we will get to work and we know that there is a bus or train that will take us there if we have no car. Most families have at least one vehicle.

Transportation came on two wheels.  The bikes I saw were well used and were very important for transportation. I couldn't help but notice that every kid I know  has a much nicer bike than the ones pictured above and the bikes the kids have are just for their own pleasure.

So when the day looks dim, maybe you look at your life as "half full", take a time out and be thankful for all of the blessings that have been bestowed upon you.  Be appreciative and be a better person for it.

Appreciation seems to be getting lost this day in age because there seems to be a larger amount of feelings of entitlement.  Entitled to get a hand out or live in this country.  There are no entitlements.  Not one person on this earth is mandated to do one single thing for you personally.  Therefore a deep appreciation should be felt for anything that is received no matter how small.

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Your Environment, Is It Stronger Than Your Willpower?

Take a look at your environment.

How is your environment serving you? We should always be looking for ways to improve and grow, to learn and excel.  Does your environment promote that growth or does it get into the way?

If you decide that you no longer want to drink alcohol and you remove all of it from you immediate environment and then you go with someone to dinner or something of that nature and they order a drink.  Is your willpower going to be stronger than your environment?  If alcohol was an actual problem then I would say that your environment will at that point be stronger than your willpower.

Let's say you have a Hamster in a cage, you notice that it is dirty so you take the hamster out of the cage and clean it up.  You then put it back into the same cage and the next time you look at it, it's dirty again.  So if you continue to put your self in the same situation again and again you will find that you will end up in the same place again and again.

What if you were to take the hamster out of the cage and put them in a new and clean cage?  The hamster would stay clean.

So let's get right down to the point, we aren't talking about a dirty cage and a hamster.  We are talking about whom you surround yourself with.  If the people in your environment do not serve you, if they are able to convince you to do something that you would prefer not to do, then they have taken your willpower from you and you have let them do that.

It is time to take responsibility and  remove your self from the environment that is not healthy or at the very least clean up the environment that you already have.

It isn't easy to change the "status quo" because people want you to stay the same, that is the way they know you.  In order to change you sometimes need to remove your self for a time or forever from the situation.  Make a clean start and draw a line in the sand.  It doesn't matter what others think, what matters is what is in your heart, being strong in your resolve and making sure you don't get off course in your life.  

You are the only one that can make that happen.

It is a choice to be made, when you make the change, change will happen

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