Lessons Learned

"We are usually more successful when the goal is the reward than when the reward is the goal."

"The best teachers set their expectations high but not so high as to rule out being pleasantly surprised."

Remember, as you plan for the future, that the future does not announce its arrival with a grand trumpet call.  It presents itself, rather, in small segments which we call, "for the time being," and it is what we do in these segments, -- what we do "for the time being" -- that ends up as our future.  

It is not so much a "road to success" as an "exit ramp to success," the road itself a never-ending journey.

Idle Thoughts

The devil, on God:  "If you ask me, He does have a tendency to demonize His opponents."

It is possible, you sadly discover, to know every nuance and still lack the first clue.

To be happy, though poor, is not only possible but fast becoming one's patriotic duty.

I am not your dog, but if every time you saw me, you gave me a backrub, I would run to greet you, too.

The difference between instruction and education?  Parents instruct their children; children educate their parents.

If you spend all your days being someone else's messenger, blame the messenger.

Retirement Notes

 "One of the revelations of retirement is how long life can go on after you've completed your memoirs." 

"The older you get, the more you despair of the human race, possibly the result of llimiting your new acquaintanceships to people you meet in traffic.

"A continuing challenge in retirement is what to do when a police officer tells you to go about your business."

"I went to a seance the other day where we all sat around trying to resurrect ghosts from the past.  Wait, that was my class reunion."

Obits and Pieces

As a general rule, your life story is more interesting the longer you can postpone the living happily ever after. 

If winning were everything, wouldn't your obituary say whether you won or lost?

Obituary -- an account that sums up your life's work in one line and goes on and on about how you loved the beach, dancing and eating breakfast out.

We are all born for a reason, life being a list of things we have to attend to first.

Somewhere amid life's endless distractions lies its purpose, each of us deciding for ourselves which distraction it is.

The Mother's Day Collection

 

                                                                        ~~~~


"Mom -- the person most likely to write an autobiography and never mention herself."


"What is a mom but the sunshine of our days and the north star of our nights."


"If you have a mom, there is nowhere you are likely to go where a prayer has not already been."


"Ever wonder why someone would give up the leading role in her own life story to play the mom in yours?"


"There seems, early in life, to be countless reasons for happiness, and then you discover your mom is making them up."


                                Hide and Seek

                  A mother always counts to ten,
                      And never, never peeks,
                 But always knows just where you
                          hide,
                     And there she never seeks,
                Until the very nick of time,
                     Lest tears run down your cheeks.



"I guess I have never doubted that we are each born to our guardian angel."


"Sometimes, in a moral struggle, we remember a lesson our mother taught us, just as on a cold winter's day long ago, we discovered mittens pinned to our coat sleeves."


"Conscience is less an inner voice than the memory of a mother's glance."


"A mother forgives you all your faults, not to mention one or two you don't even have."


"Eventually you realize that your mom knows exactly who you are and has been trying to break it to you gently all your life."


"It occurs to you one day that the reason God didn't always answer your prayers is that He was answering your mom's prayers."


"Your mom reads you like a book, and everywhere she goes, people read you like a glowing book review."

                                         Those Times

                  

Those times you could not see her tears,

Do you think she didn't cry?

Those times you could not bear the truth,

Do you think she didn't lie?

Those times you wished she loved you less,

Do you think she didn't try?

Five For The Road

 A best friend is that rare person who can reveal to us our capacity for fun.

I'm not sure what the measure of truth is, although I'm reasonably sure it's not a comfort index,

The first place to look for meaning in life is in something you've always been meaning to do.

We are all human beings, fallible and misunderstood, which is to say, often guilty but seldom as charged.

Do you suppose that evil ever worries that its efforts are too little, too late?

Behind The Mask

Sometimes we don't win another person's trust because we can't tell the lie it would take.

Life is not fair, a frequent observation of those responsible.

Never put yourself in the position where you consider someone telling the truth a traitor.

You are not a true hypocrite if you merely preach one thing and do another; you must also, simultaneously, deplore hypocrisy. 

Not all marriages prove to be true love, but all marriages serve to identify it.

It is easier to engrave it on a monument than to live it.