What Will You Do With Your Extra Day? It’s LEAP YEAR! February 29, 2008 is our leap day.

It’s an opportunity that comes just once every four years. A gift that gives something we all need more of: time.

Daisy Says: An extra day to say I love you. Smile, celebrate life!

Ya—aah!

It’s a four letter word: F E A R

False Evidence Appears Real

Even Scooby Doo (one of our worlds’ greatest cartoon canine sleuth master), faced his fears, and yes there was a reward at the end …the scooby snack!

When we face our fears we too get a reward: a sense of growth, of accomplishment, and a silent satisfaction of knowing that we crossed another milestone.

Fear of rejection. Fear that others will not like you, not like what you have to say, not like your ideas, not like what you wear ..and the list goes on.

You keep dating Fear of Rejection and you will continue to abdicate your true self to others.

Fear of making decisions. Allow this paralyzer into your life and you will continue to miss opportunities.

It does not take much strength to decide what to do, but it requires great strength to do the things which you’ve decided upon. Be proud of your decisions.

Fear of change. This paralyzer is a great illusionist. He keeps you ‘content’, he keeps you ‘happy’, yet at the edge of truly living… everything is status-quo.

It’s not what you have done that you regret later, but its more… what you failed to do because you didn’t even try that really gnaws at you.

Fear of confrontation. So you’d rather not make an issue or argue a point… you think it is best to ‘brush it under the rug’? It’s still there isn’t it, you just don’t see it.

You are a person of worth… presenting your opinion in a sensible way with unsensible people is a normal part of communicating… Go for it! Do it…or it will creep up its nasty little paralyzing head later.

Fear in any shape or form will stop you from living the life you truly desire and are meant to live. It is enough challenge we receive from life itself without us adding more to the mix.

Daisy Says: Do what you fear the most and watch the light shine in.

Today I share with you a true story behind a well-known piece of art, a story of brotherly love, of hopes and dreams, but mostly of sacrifice.

The story as re-counted from Og Mandino’s ‘A Better Way to Live’:

Back in the fifteenth century, in a tiny village near Nuremberg, lived a family with eighteen children. Eighteen! In order merely to keep food on the table for this mob, the father and head of the household, a goldsmith by profession, worked almost eighteen hours a day at his trade and any other paying chore he could find in the neighborhood. Despite their seemingly hopeless condition, two of Albrecht Durer the Elder’s children had a dream. They both wanted to pursue their talent for art, but they knew full well that their father would never be financially able to send either of them to Nuremberg to study at the Academy.

After many long discussions at night in their crowded bed, the two boys finally worked out a pact. They would toss a coin. The loser would go down into the nearby mines and, with his earnings, support his brother while he attended the academy. Then, when that brother who won the toss completed his studies, in four years, he would support the other brother at the academy, either with sales of his artwork or, if necessary, also by laboring the mines.

They tossed a coin on a Sunday morning after church. Albrecht Durer won the toss and went off to Nuremberg. Albert went down into the dangerous mines and, for the next four years, financed his brother, whose work at the academy was almost an immediate sensation. Albrecht’s etchings, his woodcuts, and his oils were far better than those of most of his professors, and by the time he graduated, he was beginning to earn considerable fees for his commissioned works.

When the young artist returned to his village, the Durer family held a festive dinner on their lawn to celebrate Albrecht’s triumphant homecoming. After a long and memorable meal, punctuated with music and laughter, Albrecht rose from his honored position at the head of the table to drink a toast to his beloved brother for the years of sacrifice that had enabled Albrecht to fulfill his ambition. His closing words were, “And now, Albert, blessed brother of mine, now it is your turn. Now you can go to Nuremberg to pursue your dream, and I will take care of you.”

All heads turned in eager expectation to the far end of the table where Albert sat, tears streaming down his pale face, shaking his lowered head from side to side while he sobbed and repeated, over and over, “No …no …no …no.”

Finally, Albert rose and wiped the tears from his cheeks. He glanced down the long table at the faces he loved, and then, holding his hands close to his right cheek, he said softly, “No, brother. I cannot go to Nuremberg. It is too late for me. Look… look what four years in the mines has done to my hands! The bones in every finger have been smashed at least once, and lately I have been suffering from arthritis so badly in my right hand that I cannot even hold a glass to return your toast, much less make delicate lines on parchment or canvas with a pen or a brush. No, brother … for me it is too late.”

More than 450 years have passed. By now, Albrecht Durer’s hundreds of masterful portraits, pen and silver-point sketches, watercolors, charcoals, woodcuts, and copper engravings hang in every great museum, but the odds are great that you, like most people, are familiar with only one of Albrecht Durer’s works. More than merely being familiar with it, you very well may have a reproduction hanging in your home or office.

One day, to pay homage to Albert for all that he had sacrificed, Albrecht Durer painstakingly drew his brother’s abused hands with palms together and thin fingers stretched skyward. He called his powerful drawing simply “Hands,” but the entire world almost immediately opened their hearts to his great masterpiece and renamed his tribute of love “The Praying Hands.”

~~~~
Look at that art work… take a second look. Let it be your reminder, if you still need one, that no one ->no one ever makes it alone!

Look at your life, I’m sure there were times that you probably felt that you were (or are) all alone.

There were times you felt that no one was there to support you, to guide you to the next step, to show you the way.

Yet, if you look back, there was always someone there … believe me no-one ever makes it alone. Even when you came out of the womb you had your mother’s push… or the doctor’s/midwife’s hand to guide you.

Think hard and look at your life, you really haven’t done it on your own, someone has always been there directly or indirectly contributing to your journey. The decisions were yours to make, that much is true, yet when you look… when you really look, there was a voice, a kind word, a bill board, a book, a song, an article… someone added the magic that lit the light at the end of the tunnel allowing you to take that next step onward.

Daisy Says: As in the “Praying Hands”, it takes the right hand to unite with the left hand to bring the energy full circle.

“” GO TO WORK”"

… and you thought it would be too complicated, it’s quite simple really.

Unless you belong to the select elite who have had everything handed to them since birth, in my whole experience up to now, I must say that to pay for all the things you want wether its a roof over your head, a simple meal or wonderful vacations and toys, you will need to pay a price. Everything in life has a price and to obtain all those things that bring you the existence you wish you must exchange compensation with the work you do.

Life will always seek balance, the more you give IT, the more IT gives back to you.

What price are you willing to pay? Ordinary people will only do as much as they get paid to do, extra-ordinary people become people of value and go the extra mile.

Daisy Says: Don’t let others put a price tag on you… become Priceless!

Imagine that you wake up to find that life as you know it has changed.

You remember all the people in your life, but your mind is wiped clean of the knowledge of life itself. You are given a clean slate, you are as innocent as a newborn not knowing about life and living. Limiting beliefs, hang ups and pre-conceived notions are gone.

Everything is magical and amazing, all is new. The people around you now become your teachers, they are full of their life experiences. Each one will have a lesson to teach you, with each observation you have an opportunity to grow. It is up to you to choose what you want to learn to help you live the life you want.

What lessons do you choose to learn from your spouse, your children, your parents, your friends?

What lessons do you choose to learn from those that you come across in fleeting moments, in traffic, standing in line?

What lessons do you choose to learn from watching an older couple sitting on a park bench, or a mother of four juggling the three kids running around while one sits crying on her lap, a father watching his child at a game?

What lessons do you learn from nature, the clouds, the rain, the wind, the sun?

What lessons do you choose to learn today? Today, embrace the lessons, if at the end of your day you are not challenged, you’re not amazed, someone didn’t touch you, move you, inspire you… Then remember, you are not a TREE, move… do something to Disturb yourself.

Daisy Says: You’re not a tree, yet you may learn something if you hugged a tree!