Maria Duval - Flicker

Flicker
As I reluctantly stood atop the twenty steps I had to descend daily in order to catch the New York train that would bring me to my daily grind, I attempted to put one foot in front of the other and suddenly, I tripped! In the few agonizing minutes it took me to regain my composure and my footing, I realized, had I fallen, I probably would have plunged head first onto the hard linoleum flooring that awaited me at the bottom of the staircase. More importantly, I would have most assuredly suffered serious injuries, or worse, death. (As a result of my misstep, I sustained a bruised big toe that ached for a week due to my awkward attempts at avoiding this tumble). Few people know that my greatest fears are drowning in the coldest, brightest-blue, chaotic water, and of course, falling down a long flight of stairs. I endure dreams of my demise or being severely handicapped, even temporarily disabled, from either of the aforementioned situations quite frequently. I harbor such an acute consternation for these two circumstances that it has taken me weeks, months, years even, to sit down and construct a story that vaguely includes the topic of drowning or falling. I would imagine I've been unenthusiastic in including tumbling or sinking in any of my writings because as of late, I've begun to allow myself to partially believe if you talk about a topic, you inadvertedly give life to it. Hence, this script is my defiance and inability to absolutely believe the latter. Hopefully, admitting my premonitions and briefly jotting them down will help me prevail over my fears granting me restful slumbers in the future. As I was saying, I nervously retrieved my bearings after my stumble and I bid those who love me good-bye. While I moseyed in the direction of the train station, I became aware that I was strangely agitated. I guess I was troubled not so much by the fact of the act of falling, but rather, the end result of my plunge coupled with the disastrous effect that my injuries would have upon those who love me and persistently expect me to function as the full-of-zip, individual I've always been. As I strode, step-by-step, I started thinking of how precious life is and how in a in a jiffy, in a flash, with the bat of an eye, even a tiny flicker, the life you have at 9:00 a.m., won't be the same life at 9:01 a.m. All it takes is an accident or an injury and your life is altered, possibly forever! Isn't it funny how people rarely take the time to observe their own lives appreciating the blessings that have been bestowed upon them? I'm talking about the "things" that are constantly overlooked. However, if we were to have those "things" removed from our lives, our existence would be hindered or unfamiliar. "Things" like the loss of a limb or an eye. Imagine being told that you had to choose which one of those "things" you had to get rid of. How about waking up a few hours from now and being told you'd never walk again? What if you never woke up tomorrow and your loved ones were told you had a stroke and were in an irreversible coma? How devastating are those scenarios for ya? What about the fact that we wake up each day just plain ol' healthy and pain free? How blessed you are if you can admit to being healthy absent pain each day? What about the fact that your brain and thought processes are working properly allowing you the capability of making sound decisions to construct your life or the lives or your loved ones 24-7? See? We never think about these "things" do we? We take LIFE for granted! We often talk and think in terms of always being around to see another sunrise. When you leave your job at the end of the day you don't say to your co-workers, "Maybe I'll see you tomorrow because I might not wake up in the morning," do you? Of course you don't! What you do say is, "Good-night, I'll see you tomorrow." We bid goodnight to our co-workers in that manner because by design, we take for granted that we are going to be around for another tomorrow. It's unfortunate that our tomorrows are not promised to us, although most of us live each day mindless to that reality. Therefore, we should practice living each day conscious of our brief existence on earth. Make each second, each minute, each day, meaningful. Take the time to say I love you to your loved ones as you leave the house each morning. Otherwise, you might not have an opportunity to say it to them again, ever! Hug someone you think is deserving of some kindred spirit. Maybe you'll change that person's life in a positive way you'd otherwise believe unimaginable. Speak to someone as you pass him or her in the corridor. Greet someone who wouldn't normally part his or her lips to speak to you. Take the introductory step for a change and be the bigger person. Speak to them, even if they never speak to you first. Being kind should become infectious, because being mean certainly is. I know for a fact, I'm nice to people each day that I'd rather not tolerate for a microsecond if I weren't forced to work with them. Sure it's called professionalism and cordiality, but I'm a very compassionate person by nature. So it's easier for me to be nice than to be cold and cruel for 8-hours. Heck, it sure makes my workday end faster, I know that! Besides, being mean and grumpy takes too much energy. I don't know of anyone deserving of that much power over my way of thinking. Appreciate those you love by giving them your "time." Spread your wonderful self thin by surrounding yourself with people and friends who appreciate you and your company. If you have elder parents, GIVE THEM YOUR TIME!! Do it today!! Because in a flicker, the life you lead today could be drastically altered or, over in a flicker. Just in case you'd like to know what a flicker is? Blink your eyes right now. That's a FLICKER! Now think about that! And while you're thinking? Make sure you hold onto the railing from now on as you descend stairs. Even if you believe you're taking them gingerly. Cause your FLICKER could be just one step away. (c) 2006 by C. V. Harris. All rights reserved.

C. V. Harris pens about topics most others would rather forget. Ms. Harris recently completed writing her Memoir entitled, "Stubborn Stains," which is due for publication in October, 2006. Want to ask Ms. Harris a question or comment regarding Flicker? Send your inquiries to info@onewriterwriting@hotmail.com, or visit her Blog at onewriterwriting.blogspot.com to read other dynamic articles scripted by C. V. Harris.

Forget Spring HOUSE Cleaning. Clean Your Life!
There's no reason why only the trees and flowers should sprout new growth this time of year. But how often do we feel more ripe and rotten rather than green and growing? Chances are you started the year with some fresh ideas, only to become caught in the same-old rat race that defeats any feeling of newness and adventure.

SO stop! It's time to plug into something that YOU chose-something that can renew your batteries and refresh your interest in work AND life. Unlike the bobble-headed figures that nod "yes" at every touch, you DO get to declare "time out" and place yourself first.

Cleaning Tip #1: Nurture your nature. Bulbs get to nestle in the soil before bursting forth with vigor. We're no different. Create at least two days in which your focus is simply on removing yourself from the computer, the phone, the newspaper, the TV and anything else that takes your attention away from yourself. The challenge: we think the world will end if we don't respond immediately. It won't. Let folks around you know that you are involved in a very serious project and will attend to their needs in two days. (It IS a serious project. It's your life!)

Have your spouse take care of the children or if you're a single parent, look for someone who will trade-off time. They help you and you'll return the favor for them. If you can't take two full days, try and carve at least some time for hunkering down by yourself.

Now-with the warm blanket of time cushioning you spend time thinking just what you'd like to bring NEW into springtime. Is it a new skill? A new or improved relationship? A remodel of your surroundings? A project that excites you? What will help you feel green and growing?

Cleaning Tip #2: Clean out your mental closet. To nurture our nature, we also have to discard all the old notions and the negative beliefs that keep us from springing forth. Write positive affirmations that counter such beliefs and post such statements at places where you'll see them often. Don't worry if you don't yet truly believe such statements. Action often precedes belief. Identify what activity you will discard because it feels too tight and constraining. After all, you're getting ready to grow. You need some room to grow

Cleaning Tip #3: Throw out what you no longer need. This is a physical tossing away everything from clothes that only serve to make you feel dowdy to projects you KNOW you'll never complete or books you'll never read. How can you bring in something fresh if there's no room!

Cleaning Tip #4: Find a great housekeeper. Once you know what new YOU is bursting forth this spring, find someone who will serve as your advocate and accountability partner. Ask them to help you keep your new "house", this budding "garden" in order. Ask them to let you know when you've cluttered your life with emotional, mental, or physical junk.

And now-SPRING forth. Regardless of whatever you might have wintered, inside you is, as Camus wrote, "an invincible spring".

Share these tips with your team at work and discover all the "new growth" in ideas that will be created by some team "house cleaning".

(c) 2008, McDargh Communications. Publication rights granted to all venues so long as article and by-line are reprinted intact and all links are made live.

Professional speaker Eileen McDargh helps Fortune 100 companies, associations and individuals create connections that count and conversations that matter. She is the author of Gifts from the Mountain-Simple Truths for Life's Complexities, Talk Ain't Cheap...It's Priceless and Work for a Living and Still Be Free to Live (one of the first books work/life balance). Visit her blog, Plain Talk, at http://www.eileenmcdargh.com/blog.

WithInAsThru Gratitude
Gratitude is the key to creation. It is the most crucial element to your ability to be, do and have what you desire. When you focus your positive energy on something in your life; your family, your job, your health, you surround it with positive energy. And positive energy attracts more positive things withinasthru you. Imagine an energy field surrounding you. It is emitting right from your heart, and it pulls in all the energy, information, intelligence and emotion of this very moment, causing us to become it. But we've never not been it. We have never not been attracting to us what we feel and what we are - energy, information, intelligence. This is a key to apply the law of attraction. Because you are every moment you are. And as you are so too is your life, lived withinasthru you. This has always been so. Creation without gratitude is superficial and temporary. If you remember that your life has been created withinasthru you, that every moment, every day you have been, has been your own creation, then you are able to feel grateful for it exactly as it is. Because to judge any part of your life is to judge yourself. Such judgments keep you forever stuck in a cycle of judgment. Instead celebrate and enjoy all that you have created, withinasthru your life. Whatever is now occurring withinasthru you, own it, claim it, and thank it for what it has taught you! To reject any part of your life is to reject a part of yourself. Why would you reject any part of your Self? Now, for some of us, feeling consistent gratitude might take some practice. We live in a society where we have become conditioned to take for granted all that we have. We are so preoccupied with wanting more things, that what we have gets pushed to the side, all but forgotten and certainly not appreciated. However, that which you appreciate, appreciates. So, if you truly want to be and have more in your life, attracting what you want comes withinasthru your feelings of gratitude for what is and what is arriving. But what if you feel like there is nothing in your life for which to be grateful? Maybe you believe you have lost all that is important to you. Maybe you are facing a crisis that seems overwhelming. If that is the case for you now, I ask you to stop for a moment and take an inventory of what you do have. Right now, in this moment, do you have eyes that can read this message? Do you have a roof over your head? Are you healthy? Do you have a job or any kind of responsibility whereby your contributions are measurable to others, or your family? Don't think about what might happen in the future; concentrate on what is occurring withinasthru you right at this moment. Gratitude brings to you more of what you're grateful for. Begin right now by looking at the things in your life differently. Consider the many things in your life that are good. Encourage the limitless energy that is waiting withinasthru you by filling your spirit with appreciation. Know, truly know, that the more you practice gratitude as a way of life, the more your life becomes a work of art, an expression of joy and happiness. Isn't a life of happiness and joy really what you desire anyway? I would offer for your very real consideration that it is. The WithInAsThru yoU! Letters is a series of letters offering simple perceptual techniques to keep your thinking on track, as well as recordings and links to other sites that can help you get comfortable with new ideas and processes. There are individual phone sessions available, as well as inspiring thoughts and inspirations. To learn more about Scott Kiere and how you can create your life WithInAsThru you, visit http://www.withinasthru.com

Scott Kiere – Spiritual Wisdom & Direction, Social Entrepreneur, Visionary Strategist & Poet – (http://www.ScottKiere.com) is Co-founder of MECA Communications, Inc. and serves on the board of directors for Social Venture Network. Scott’s eZine, "WithInAsThru yoU! Letters" is available at http://www.WithInAsThru.com.

Changing The Way You Think
Changing The Way You Think Author Frank Gorka Word Count 456 Date 2-14-07 Have you ever heard someone say the glass is half empty, or the glass is half full, the first part of that statement is what I mean in changing the way you think about the things you are saying and believing? In your life you have choices, to think positive or to think negative; it’s your choice how your mind translates the info you are receiving. So why should I change the way I think you might ask? Remember when your mom and dad said I don’t want you to hang around that person any more. REMEMBER-well they saw something in that person that was not good for you, they wanted you to pick a better type of person to be around right? Or how about a person that worries about every thing that goes on around them, do you think this is healthy? Well Do You? Heck No, that person is going to have heart problems, strokes, and all kinds of health issues, because of the way he or she allows the brain to function. Your brain is a very powerful tool, and we only use about 10% of it. When confronting a problem, look at the problem as a life lesson, most problems come with an answer on how to fix that problem. Don’t give up or give in to the problem at hand, like I said most problems come with a way to fix them. Let me give you another example of this, you want to buy a home for your family, but you have NO CREDIT or MONEY to do this, MAJOR PROBLEM right? Not at all, here is how to fix that problem. The solution, 1. Find a distressed owner that wants to move and sell their property. A Motivated seller, it might be because of health reasons, taxes, can’t afford it any longer, divorce, moving out of state, or for what ever the reason is, it has motivated that seller to sell his or her property. 2. You will find this type of person on the net, or in your local news paper. Now see how easy that problem went away. There is a solution for every problem you face in life, you just need to change the way you think and then you can grow you dreams as big as you mind will allow you. And Finally If the mind can conceive it, then the mind can achieve it Much Success In Life Frank Gorka Learn The Affiliate Secrets That Make You A Pile Of Money, No Hype No BS Just Proven Results go See Chia Wha’s Secret Formula. He made $30,100 In 2 weeks. http://tinyurl.com/2gu47d

Frank Gorka can show you how to get paid with $1000.00 dollar checks, each time you get just 20 people to try The Greatest Vitamin In The World. http://www.dontforgettotakeyourvitamins.com/GORKA1167

A Source of Inspiration
A light was on in one office, even though most of the other offices had been dark for hours. The manager continued to work in the silence of the empty building, reviewing reports, studying numbers, responding to messages and emails that others would not read until the next morning. There was so much to do, so many responsibilities and so many decisions that would wait for the manager's guiding hand. The silence was broken as the manager was startled to see one of the employees standing at the door. The employee knocked hesitantly, one foot in the office and the other still in the hallway. "May I come in for a moment?" asked the employee. "Of course," smiled the manager, leaning back in the chair. "What are you doing here so late?" "I had a lot of work to do and I wanted to catch-up," said the employee. "If I get behind then it could impact our customers, and I don't want that to happen. It's my responsibility, and I want to take care of it. I know that's what you would do." "You're probably right," the manager said with a laugh. "So what made you stop in here?" The employee approached the desk, sat down in one of the chairs beside it and said, "I wanted to ask you a question." "Go ahead." The employee began, "You always work so hard, and you always take care of us. You come in early. You stay late. No matter how much you have to do, you always take time to talk to any one of us when we need you. You are so busy taking time for us during the day that you have to stay late at night to catch up on your own work. Yet, you never complain. You make us want to work harder and do better, and you give us every opportunity to be successful. You are an inspiration to the rest of us, so what inspires you?" The manager's eyes widened, "Wow, well that was quite a surprise. I appreciate the kind words and admit that you completely caught me off guard." "Well?" persisted the employee, "What is your source of inspiration?" The manager was silent for a moment, carefully contemplating the response. Then the manager stood up and said, "follow me." As the manager and the employee walked down a row of cubicles, the manager started to point into them one by one. The cubicles belonged to the colleagues of the employee. "This person is a single parent and comes to work each day to support two children. Those children need someone to look up to, someone to put food on the table and a roof over their heads. This person doesn't work for me, this person works for them." The manager paused at the next cubicle and said, "This person is a grandmother who is working days so she can pay for her college education at night. She doesn't need a degree and it won't make any difference for her career. She is already past retirement age and she could quit at any time. She wants that degree to make her children proud and to give her grandchildren someone to look up to. She doesn't work for me, she works for them." The manager moved to the next cubicle and said, "This person is overqualified for the job. It would be easy to leave for another company, probably get a promotion out of it and earn better pay. Why doesn't this person leave? After eleven years working with the same group of people, it is like a family. This person doesn't work for me, this person works here for all of you." The manager paused at the next cubicle and said, "This person has a family to support. Two kids in school, a mortgage, two car payments, and a whole host of obligations that comes with taking care of a family. Needless to say, you know that this person doesn't work for me." The manager pointed down the line of cubicles, "That young man is engaged to be married, and he is saving up to buy their first home. That next person has a daughter in college. The next one wants to build a career out of this experience. The one after that wants to be a musician and only does this job to earn enough money to pay the bills." Walking into the corridor, the manager paused and smiled as the custodian came around the corner. "This person barely speaks our language, but comes to work every day when everyone else has gone home. More than half of the money earned will go to family members who do not even live in our country, while this person keeps only enough to pay for food, shelter and transportation here every day. This person comes into my office and takes away my trash, not for me, but because it is what needs to be done to earn the money that goes to a family that lives hundreds of miles away." "And then there is you," said the manager with a big smile. "You have your own reasons for coming in here every day. When I need a source of inspiration, all I have to do is look around me. I am surrounded by it. Inspiration comes from recognizing what is important to the people around you and making it your own. If I can feel the dedication that these people feel for their children, for their families, for their hopes and dreams, then I have all the inspiration that I need. They are inspired by their own sense of purpose, and I am inspired by them. Just as you believe that you are inspired by me, I am inspired by you." ______________________________________________________ Words of Wisdom "Inspiration may be a form of superconsciousness, or perhaps of subconsciousness - I wouldn't know. But I am sure it is the antithesis of self- consciousness." - Aaron Copland "Leadership is based on inspiration, not domination; on cooperation, not intimidation." - William Arthur Wood "Keep your fears to yourself, but share your inspiration with others." - Robert Louis Stevenson ______________________________________________________ About the Author: John Mehrmann is a freelance writer and President of Executive Blueprints Inc., an organization devoted to improving business practices and developing human capital. www.ExecutiveBlueprints.com provides resource materials for trainers, sample Case Studies, educational articles and references to local affiliates for consulting and executive coaching. http://www.InstituteforAdvancedLeadership.com provides self-paced tutorials for personal development and tools for trainers. Presentation materials, reference guides and exercises are available for continuous development.

John Mehrmann is a freelance author, industry expert and President of Executive Blueprints Inc, an organization dedicated to developing human capital and personal growth.