From the Inbox

[Tina]

The Daffodil Principle

Several times my daughter had telephoned to say, "Mother, you must come to see the daffodils before they are over." I wanted to go, but it was a two-hour drive from Laguna to Lake Arrowhead "I will come next Tuesday", I promised a little reluctantly on her third call.

Next Tuesday dawned cold and rainy. Still, I had promised, and reluctantly I drove there. When I finally walked into Carolyn's house I was welcomed by the joyful sounds of happy children. I delightedly hugged and greeted my grandchildren.

"Forget the daffodils, Carolyn! The road is invisible in these clouds and fog, and there is nothing in the world except you and these children that I want to see badly enough to drive another inch!"

My daughter smiled calmly and said, "We drive in this all the time, Mother." "Well, you won't get me back on the road until it clears, and then I'm heading for home!" I assured her.

"But first we're going to see the daffodils. It's just a few blocks," Carolyn said. "I'll drive. I'm used to this."

"Carolyn," I said sternly, "Please turn around." "It's all right, Mother, I promise. You will never forgive yourself if you miss this experience."

After about twenty minutes, we turned onto a small gravel road and I saw a small church. On the far side of the church, I saw a hand lettered sign with an arrow that read, "Daffodil Garden." We got out of the car, each took a child's hand, and I followed Carolyn down the path. Then, as we turned a corner, I looked up and gasped. Before me lay the most glorious sight.


It looked as though someone had taken a great vat of gold and poured it over the mountain peak and its surrounding slopes. The flowers were planted in majestic, swirling patterns, great ribbons and swaths of deep orange, creamy white, lemon yellow, salmon pink, and saffron and butter yellow. Each different-colored variety was planted in large groups so that it swirled and flowed like its own river with its own unique hue. There were five acres of flowers.

"Who did this?" I asked Carolyn. "Just one woman," Carolyn answered. "She lives on the property. That's her home." Carolyn pointed to a well-kept A-frame house, small and modestly sitting in the midst of all that glory. We walked up to the house.

On the patio, we saw a poster. "Answers to the Questions I Know You Are Asking", was the headline. The first answer was a simple one. "50,000 bulbs," it read. The second answer was, "One at a time, by one woman. Two hands, two feet, and one brain." The third answer was, "Began in 1958."

For me, that moment was a life-changing experience. I thought of this woman whom I had never met, who, more than forty years before, had begun, one bulb at a time, to bring her vision of beauty and joy to an obscure mountaintop. Planting one bulb at a time, year after year, this unknown woman had forever changed the world in which she lived. One day at a time, she had created something of extraordinary magnificence, beauty, and inspiration. The principle her daffodil garden taught is one of the
greatest principles of celebration.


That is, learning to move toward our goals and desires one step at a time--often just one baby-step at time--and learning to love the doing, learning to use the accumulation of time. When we multiply tiny pieces of time with small increments of daily effort, we too will find we can accomplish magnificent things. We can change the world .

"It makes me sad in a way," I admitted to Carolyn. "What might I have accomplished if I had thought of a wonderful goal thirty-five or forty years ago and had worked away at it 'one bulb at a time' through all those years? Just think what I might have been able to achieve!"

My daughter summed up the message of the day in her usual direct way. "Start tomorrow," she said.

She was right. It's so pointless to think of the lost hours of yesterdays. The way to make learning a lesson of celebration instead of a cause for regret is to only ask, "How can I put this to use today?"

Use the Daffodil Principle.
Stop waiting.....
Until your car or home is paid off
Until you get a new car or home
Until your kids leave the house
Until you go back to school
Until you finish school
Until you clean the house
Until you organize the garage
Until you clean off your desk
Until you lose 10 lbs.
Until you gain 10 lbs.
Until you get married
Until you get a divorce
Until you have kids
Until the kids go to school
Until you retire
Until summer
Until spring
Until winter
Until fall
Until you die...

There is no better time than right now to be happy.

Happiness is a journey, not a destination.

So work like you don't need money.

Love like you've never been hurt, and, Dance like no one's watching.

[BoredOutOfMyMind]

I personally HATE emails like THIS

Abusive Cuteness


You...
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....have a GREAT Day!!!

Life is short! Break the rules! Forgive quickly! Kiss slowly!
Love truly, Laugh uncontrollably..
And never regret anything that made you smile.


Send to all the people you care about and don't want to lose

[rgcraig]

3900 Saturdays

Here is a story that will make you think…

The older I get, the more I enjoy Saturday mornings.
Perhaps it's the quiet solitude that comes with
being the first to rise, or maybe it's the unbounded
joy of not having to be at work. Either way, the
first few hours of a Saturday morning are most
enjoyable.

A few weeks ago, I was shuffling toward the garage
with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and the
morning paper in the other. What began as a typical
Saturday morning turned into one of those lessons
that life seems to hand you from time to time. Let
me tell you about it:

I turned the dial up into the phone portion of the
band on my ham radio in order to listen to a
Saturday morning swap net. Along the way, I came
across an older sounding chap, with a tremendous
signal and a golden voice. You know the kind; he
sounded like he should be in the broadcasting
business.. He was telling whom-ever he was talking
with something about "a thousand marbles." I was
intrigued and stopped to listen to what he had to
say.

"Well, Tom, it sure sounds like you're busy with
your job. I'm sure they pay you well but it's a
shame you have to be away from home and your family
so much. Hard to believe a young fellow should have
to work sixty or seventy hours a week to make ends
meet. It's too bad you missed your daughter's
"dance recital" he continued. "Let me tell you
something that has helped me keep my own priorities."
And that's when he began to explain his theory of a
"thousand marbles."

"You see, I sat down one day and did a little
arithmetic. The average person lives about
seventy-five years. I know, some live more and some
live less, but on average, folks live about
seventy-five years.

"Now then, I multiplied 75 times 52 and I came up
with 3900, which is the number of Saturdays that
the average person has in their entire lifetime.
Now, stick with me, Tom, I'm getting to the important
part.

It took me until I was fifty-five years old to think
about all this in any detail", he went on, "and by
that time I had lived through over twenty-eight
hundred Saturdays." "I got to thinking that if I
lived to be seventy-five, I only had about a
thousand of them left to enjoy. So I went to a toy
store and bought every single marble they had. I
ended up having to visit three toy stores to round
up 1000 marbles. I took them home and put them
inside a large, clear plastic container right here
in the shack next to my gear."

"Every Saturday since then, I have taken one marble
out and thrown it away. I found that by watching the
marbles diminish, I focused more on the really
important things in life.

There is nothing like watching your time here on
this earth run out to help get your priorities
straight."

"Now let me tell you one last thing before I
sign-off with you and take my lovely wife out for
breakfast. This morning, I took the very last marble
out of the container. I figure that if I make it
until next Saturday then I have been given a little
extra time. And the one thing we can all use is a
little more time."

"It was nice to meet you Tom, I hope you spend more
time with your family, and I hope to meet you again
here on the band. This is a 75 Year old Man, K9NZQ,
clear and going QRT, good morning!"

You could have heard a pin drop on the band when
this fellow signed off. I guess he gave us all a lot
to think about. I had planned to work on the antenna
that morning, and then I was going to meet up with a
few hams to work on the next club newsletter.

Instead, I went upstairs and woke my wife up with a
kiss. "C'mon honey, I'm taking you and the kids to
breakfast" "What brought this on?" she asked with a
smile. "Oh, nothing special, it's just been a long
time since we spent a Saturday together with the
kids. And hey, can we stop at a toy store while
we're out? I need to buy some marbles.

[berkeley]

Renda,

I have adult A.D.D. and couldn't read it all!! what's the moral of the story??

[rgcraig]

Originally Posted by Berkeley

Renda,

I have adult A.D.D. and couldn't read it all!! what's the moral of the story??

Don't waste your time working 24/7 - life is too short.

Take time to enjoy your family!

[tamor]

An honest man was being tailgated by a stressed out woman on a busy boulevard. Suddenly, the light turned yellow, just in front of him. He did the right thing, stopping at the crosswalk, even though he could have beaten the red light by accelerating through the intersection.

The tailgating woman hit the roof, and the horn, screaming in frustration as she missed her chance to get through the intersection, dropping her cell phone and makeup. As she was still in mid-rant, she heard a tap on her window and looked up into the face of a very serious police officer.

The officer ordered her to exit her car with her hands up. He took her to the police station where she was searched, finger printed, photographed, and placed in a holding cell.

After a couple of hours, a policeman approached the cell and opened the door. She was escorted back to the booking desk where the arresting officer was waiting with her personal effects.

He said, "I'm very sorry for this mistake. You see, I pulled up behind your car while you were blowing your horn, flipping off the guy in front of you, and cussing a blue streak at him. I noticed the 'Choose Life' license plate holder, the 'What Would Jesus Do' bumper sticker, the 'Follow Me to Sunday- School ' bumper sticker, and the chrome-plated Christian Fish emblem on the trunk. Naturally... I assumed you had stolen the car."

[tamor]

Little Zachary was doing very badly in math. His parents had tried everything...Tutors, Mentors, flash cards, and Special learning centers. In short, everything they could think of to help his math. Finally, in a last ditch effort, they took Zachary down and enrolled him in the local Catholic school.

After the first day, little Zachary came home with a very serious look on his face. He didn't even kiss his mother Hello. Instead, he went straight to his room and started studying. Books and papers were spread out all over the room and little Zachary was hard at work. His mother was amazed. She called him down to dinner. To her shock, the minute he was done, he marched back to his room without a word, and in no time, he was back hitting the books as hard as before.

This went on for some time, day after day, while the mother tried to understand what made all the difference.

Finally, little Zachary brought home his report card. He quietly laid it on the table, went up to his room and hit the books. With great trepidation, his Mom looked at it and to her great surprise, little Zachary got an "A" in math.

She could no longer hold her curiosity. She went to his room and said, "Son, what was it? Was it the nuns?"

Little Zachary looked at her and shook his head, no.

"Well, then," she replied, Was it the books, the discipline, the structure, the uniforms? "WHAT WAS IT ALREADY?"

Little Zachary looked at her and said, "Well, on the first day of school when I saw that guy nailed to the plus sign, I knew they weren't fooling around."

[tamor]

I was packing for my business trip and my three year old daughter was
having a wonderful time playing on the bed. At one point she said,
"Daddy, look at this," and stuck out two of her fingers.

Trying to keep her entertained, I reached out and stuck her tiny fingers
in my mouth and said, "Daddy's gonna eat your fingers," pretending to
eat them. I went back to packing, looked up again and my daughter was
standing on the bed staring at her fingers with a devastated look on
her face.

I said, "What's wrong, honey?"

She replied, "What happened to my booger?"

[tamor]

A middle aged woman had a heart attack and was taken to the hospital. While on the operating table, she had a near death experience. Seeing God, she asked, "Is my time up?"

God said, "No, you have another 43 years, 2 months and 8 days to live."

Upon recovery, the woman decided to stay in the hospital and have a face-lift, brow lift, lip enhancement, boob job, liposuction, and a tummy tuck. After her last operation, she was released from the hospital. While crossing the street on her way home, she was hit and killed by a car.

Arriving in front of God, she demanded, "I thought you said I had another 40 years? Why didn't you pull me out of the path of the car?"

God replied, "Giirrll, I didn't even recognize you."

[tamor]

Blonde's Year in Review

January - Took new scarf back to store because it was too tight.

February - Fired from pharmacy job for failing to print labels...Helloooo!!...bottles won't fit in printer!!

March - Got locked out of my car in rain storm...car swamped because soft-top was open.

April - Trapped on escalator for hours...power went out!!

May - Tried to make Kool-Aid.....wrong instructions...8 cups of water won't fit into those little packets!!

June - Tried to go water skiing...couldn't find a lake with a slope.

July - Lost breast stroke swimming competition...learned later that the other swimmers cheated--they used their arms!!

August - Got really excited...finished jigsaw puzzle in 6 months...box said "2-4 years!"

September - The capital of California is "C"...isn't it??

October - Hate M & M's...they are so hard to peel!

November - Baked turkey for 4 1/2 days...instructions said 1 hour per pound and I weigh 108!!

December - Couldn't call 9-11..."Duh"...there's no "eleven" button on the stupid phone!!

What a year!!