One hot afternoon a young child and his father set out for the market. Their donkey was with them. All three walked side by side. Near the river, they came across a group of women, who said, “See how tired the little child has become. Why don’t you put him on the donkey?” The father smiled and did exactly that.
After a few minutes, they crossed a hill. Here they met some of the village elders. They smirked at the young son and said to him, “How shameful! Your father is walking and you are comfortably sitting on the donkey. Get off! Let him be comfortable. You are a young lad now!” The child, embarrassed, slid off the donkey immediately and offered the seat to his father.
After walking a few miles, they met a few men from their village, who exclaimed, “What a fool you are! Riding all alone on the donkey – the donkey is strong enough to take the weight of your child and you, so why make your poor son walk?” The father sighed and took his son along with him upon the donkey.
When they were about to reach the market they ran into the village vet. With shock on his face, he screamed, “Do you have no sense? Look at the poor donkey! If you subject him to so much weight and such inhuman behavior, surely the helpless creature will fall ill. Don’t come to me then!” Saying this, he shook his head and walked away grumbling.
The father and the son looked at each other. They had tried all the different options, besides one. They counted one, two, and three, hoisted the donkey on their backs, and entered the market. Everyone in the market stopped doing what they were, stared at the strange sight, and burst out laughing.
Moral: Trying to please everyone never works.
I often attend business meetings where politics and positioning is something of a constant circus. Today there is a business gathering I will be attending where some will be jockeying for position and others will be vying to get noticed. I shall not be one of them. Instead I shall present myself clearly and honorable as I uniquely am. My presentation will be accepted or not. That won’t be of my choosing. My ideas are sound and worth merit and if none can see that, it will be their loss. I am grateful for this moment of clarity to put me in a good frame of mind for today.
Most people are other people.
Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions,
their lives a mimicry,
their passions a quotation.
Oscar Wilde
I will find a way in my everyday life to slow the world down and take away some of the pressures – moments when the demands of making a living take too much away from making a life. I will give myself time to smile and relax. To show how much I care. To share my love. To say what’s in my heart and on my mind. To stop and reflect on my goals.
Today’s finds me with gratitude for the little reminders life brings into my path. All I have to do is pay attention. The two reminders above come from a cool book (“Promises to Myself”) that came to me used complete with notes by the original owner that make it more meaningful. Eddie Cantor’s thought below popped up in an email sent by a friend.
(11:10pm) It’s been a good while since good morning gratitude became good evening gratitude, but that is my circumstance tonight. To not break my steady string of 621 daily posts, I have about an hour and a half till midnight.
While uncertain where the knowing comes from, my intuition is convinced 2013 will be a highly meaningful and eventful year for me; one filled with change, dreams moving closer and hopes coming true. One day in retrospect I will look back on this new year and realize what a pivotal time will have been.
Being the fifth car back from the traffic light I could not see her once my car came to a stop. But as I was pulling up into my position to wait for red to become green on the traffic light the woman’s handmade sign was easy to read except the bottom portion her hands holding it obscured: “Homeless Family, needs money for gas…”
From the holstee.com website: In the heat of the recession in May 2009, brothers Mike and Dave and their partner, Fabian started Holstee. Having just quit our jobs without a plan or idea of how we would spend our days, we were filled with a ton of raw energy, emotion, and ideas – a feeling that we never wanted to forget. So the first thing Holstee’s three founders did was sit together on the steps of Union Square and write down exactly what was on their minds and the tips of their tongues. It was a reminder of what we live for. The result became known as the “Holstee Manifesto”. A message that has since been shared over 500,000 times and viewed over 60 million times online. 
“Twenty Six Ways To Love Life” by Tess Marshall – Part One
TED is a favorite free website where I find content that moves me, causes me to think and marvel at the accomplishments some of the speakers. TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to “ideas worth spreading”. It started out in 1984 as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. The two annual TED conferences, in Long Beach/Palm Springs and Edinburgh, Scotland, bring together the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes or less). The main conferences are augmented today by a number of smaller conferences around the world that the organization holds.
Good Morning Gratitude 