Food for Thought

THE GIFT

You hold in your hands a wonderful gift, the gift of NOW.

It is freely given to all of us, every moment of every day.

Many of us squander this precious gift by cluttering it up with guilt and regrets from the past.

But the past is over.

We cannot change it.

Some of us waste the precious gift of NOW by worrying about the future.

But we do not own the future.

We can take action NOW to make the future better than the present, but worrying will not make it better.

Some of us find NOW so unpleasant that we spend it looking forward to better things.

And so our lives pass us by, and we are still stuck in the same place.

NOW is the time to love your life joyfully, reaching for what your heart desires.

Today, at this moment, you have a choice.

How will YOU decide to use the precious gift of NOW?

Copyright Marry Harris 2001-Present

If we could shrink the earth's population to a village of precisely 100 people with
all the existing human ratios remaining the same, it would look something like the following:

There would be:
57 Asians, 21 Europeans,
14 from the Western Hemisphere,
both north and south, and 8 Africans.
52 would be female
48 would be male
70 would be non-white
30 would be white
70 would be non-Christian
30 would be Christian
89 would be heterosexual
11 would be homosexual
6 people would possess 59% of the entire world's wealth
and all 6 would be from the United States.
80 would live in substandard housing
70 would be unable to read
50 would suffer from malnutrition
1 would be near death; 1 would be near birth
1 (yes, only 1) would have a college education
1 would own a computer

When one considers our world from such a compressed perspective, the need for acceptance, understanding and education becomes glaringly apparent.

Points to Ponder

If you woke up this morning with more health than illness, you are more blessed than the million who will not survive this week.

If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation, you are ahead of 500 million people in the world.

If you can attend a church meeting without fear without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death, you are more blessed than 3 billion people in the world.

If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead, and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75% of the world.

If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace, you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy.

If you hold up your head with a smile on your face and are truly thankful, you are blessed because the majority can, but most do not.

If you can hold someone's hand, hug them or even touch them on the shoulder, you are blessed because you can offer healing touch.

If you can read this message, you just received a double blessing because someone was thinking of you, and you are more blessed than over 2 billion people in the world that cannot read at all.

Have a good day, count your blessings, and pass this along to remind everybody else how blessed we all are.

Anonymous

We are told that in the Babemba tribe of South Africa, when a person acts irresponsibly or unjustly, he/she is taken to the center of the village. All work ceases and every man, woman and child in the village gathers in a large circle around the accused. Then the tribe bombards the rejected person with affirmations! One at a time, friends and family enumerate all the good the individual has done. Every incident, every experience that can be recalled with some detail and accuracy is recounted. All their positive attributes, strengths and kindnesses are recited carefully and at length. Finally, the tribal circle is broken, a joyous celebration takes place, and the outcast is welcomed back into the tribe.

What a beautiful ritual of restoration! They replace hurt with happiness; pain with peace. Once again they are family. The rejected one is restored and the village is made whole. Paul Boese has said, "Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future."

Can you imagine working at the following company? It has a little over 500 employees with the following statistics:

    * 29 have been accused of spousal abuse
    *    7 have been arrested for fraud
    * 19 have been accused of writing bad checks
    *117 have bankrupted at least two businesses
    *   3 have been arrested for assault
    * 71 cannot get a credit card due to bad credit
    * 14 have been arrested on drug related charges
* 71 cannot get a credit card due to bad credit
    * 14 have been arrested on drug related charges
    *   8 have been arrested for shoplifting
    * 21 are current defendants in lawsuits
    * In 1998 alone, 84 were stopped for drunk driving

Can you guess which organization this is? Give up?

It's the 535 members of the United States Congress.
The same group that perpetually cranks out hundreds upon hundreds
of new laws ...how scary is that?

I believe the strongest force in the world is education. Once you gain knowledge, you cannot have it taken away by another. You realise that the world is full of fellow humans, all on the same planet, living day to day just like yourself. The ones we treasure, we say, are the children. Why then do we feel it is all right to allow children to die daily, starving to death, aching in sweatshops or killed in battle? Do you feel you can do nothing?

You can. Add your voice. See my Hot Links page and visit the Hunger Site and Child Labour Site. One voice added to another creates a chorus, and when increased becomes a song for all to herald.

Claire Hudson-McLean

Last Updated February 2002