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Donny Monthly Thought
November 2005
With the message that Debbie left last month about preparedness Donny felt this story was very meaningful.
A farmer needed an extra hand to help on his farm. One young man came to interview for the job. “What are your qualifications?” the farmer asked. “I can sleep when the wind blows, “ the young man said. This simple reply confused the farmer, but he was desperate for help and the young man was hired.
The young man was a diligent worker through the harvest season, but the farmer still questioned his answer.
Autumn ended and the first cold storm of winter came late one night. The farmer panicked as the winds began to blow. Calling the young man for help, the farmer grabbed his coat and pulled heavy boots on his feet. He was disappointed to find the young man asleep in bed at a time like this. Grudgingly he ventured out alone planning to shuffle all of the animals in the barn and then fix that last hole in the roof. He mumbled about the young man sleeping and was sure all the farm equipment was left standing in the field, collecting rust from the snow.
However, when the farmer reached the barn all the animals were tucked safely inside. In fact, clean hay had already been set out for the new day. Not a single hole could be found in the roof, and the tractor was parked perfectly in the shed.
“Who could have done it?” the farmer wondered. And then he realized what the young man’s answer meant, “I can sleep when the wind blows.”
June 2005
"Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get."
Dave Gardner
May 2005
"True compassion calls for appreciating not only what comforts us but what pierces us...it is why the sweetest people are often those who have been the most wounded by life. They know what it feels like and almost can't help but to care."
From The Compassionate Life by Marc Ian Barasch
April 2005
As we approach the Easter season, the example that Jesus Christ gave to us, found in the the story of the Crucifixion and the Resurrection is an inspiration to everyone. He gave of himself so that our burdens may be lighter. Whatever your particular beliefs may be, it is a universal principle that by sacrificing you time and talents for the benefit of others, all of a sudden, the world is not such a terrible place after all.
Try it. It works.
Donny
March 2005
"Having a friend is so important, but being a friend is more important than having a friend."
George Osmond Sr.
February 2005
We ought to treat everyone we meet as if they had a story that would
break your heart... because more often than not they do".
My friend, Kandis Gasdik
January 2005
When it comes to leaders we have, if anything, a
superabundancehundreds of Pied Pipers . . . ready and anxious to lead
the population. They are scurrying around, collecting consensus,
gathering as wide an acceptance as possible.
But what they are not doing, very notably, is standing still and
saying, 'This is what I believe. This I will do and that I will not do.
This is my code of behavior and that is outside it. This is excellent
and that is trash.' There is an abdication of moral leadership in the
sense of a general unwillingness to state standards."
She continued: "Of all the ills that our poor . . . society is heir to,
the focal one, it seems to me, from which so much of our uneasiness and
confusion derive, is the absence of standards. We are too unsure of
ourselves to assert them, to stick by them, if necessary in the case of
persons who occupy positions of authority, to impose them. We seem to
be afflicted by a widespread and eroding reluctance to take any stand
on any values, moral, behavioral or esthetic."
--Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, Barbara W. Tuchman
December 2004
We are children of a loving God and there is a plan for life. Despite what
is going on in the world, I hope that we can love others a little more, care
for others a little more, worship God a little more. Let's find time in our
lives to appreciate the beauties around us and be thankful for the things
that we do have versus the things we wish we had.
November 2004
"Man can not degrade woman without himself falling into degradation; he can not elevate her without at the same time elevating himself"
(Alexander Walker, in Elbert Hubbard's Scrap Book [1923], 204).
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