Some old reflections for the New Year.

The following is an item doing the e-mail rounds that I thought could be appropriate for us all to reflect on and perhaps even to put some of it into use during the Coming New Year.
It is claimed to be, “Written By Regina Brett, 90 years old, of The Plain Dealer, Cleveland, Ohio
"To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me.
It is the most-requested column I've ever written. My odometer rolled over to 90 in August, so here is the column once more:
1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.
2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.
3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone...
4. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and parents will. Stay in touch.
5. Pay off your credit cards every month.
6. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.
8. It's OK to get angry with God. He can take it.
9. Save for retirement starting with your first pay cheque.
10.When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.
12. It's OK to let your children see you cry.
13. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.
15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don't worry; God never blinks.
16.Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.
17. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.
18. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.
19. It's never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.
20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.
21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don't save it for a special occasion, Today is special.
22. Over prepare, then go with the flow.
23. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.
24. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.
25. Frame every so-called disaster with these words 'In five years, will this matter?'
26. Always choose life.
27. Forgive everyone and everything.
28. What other people think of you is none of your business.
30. Time heals almost everything. Give it time.
31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
32. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
33. Believe in miracles.
34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn't do.
35. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.
36. Growing old beats the alternative -- dying young.
37. Your children get only one childhood.
38. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.
39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.
40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we’d grab ours back.
41. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
42.The best is yet to come.
43. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
44. Yield.
45. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift."
Now I know that not all may be applicable to you, but I am also pretty sure that there are still plenty left that are so, now it is up to you to decide whether Life is a Gift or a burden, and what you can and should do about it.
So with that, I again wish one and all a fantastic and blessed 2010 and beyond.

Spider Solitaire.

Sometimes when working at the computer I get a little tired of concentrating so hard and so occasionally play a Computer game called “Spider Solitaire” to briefly relax. As it is to relax, I only play it at its easiest level. Which, amazingly, is usually easy!
However; there is the occasional game that never seems to want to work out no matter what I do. You know, you play it the way you always do, and then if that doesn’t work, you try all your normal tricks. But then it still never even looks like working out! So what do you do? Give it up completely. Leave it for a while and then try again later. Or try something different to what you always do or normally do?
I don’t know about you, but for me in this game, when it won’t work out doing any of the normal things I usually do, I have found that when I try the opposite to what I have been doing, it seems to both work itself out, and often so easily, that I wonder if it really was the same game that had me stumped for so long!
Now I know that not every thing in life is as simple as this game, but if you find yourself facing seemingly unresolvable obstacles and when you have unsuccessfully tried all your normal ways, instead of giving up completely, you may find it beneficial to take a little break, and then refreshed, try something completely different to what you are used to do doing, even if it is only as a one-off time for this occasion.
So as we all face another New Year, is there something that you have been trying to achieve unsuccessfully that you need to take a new and fresh approach to? Over to you now for your contemplation.

The 2010 Diary/ planner.

The wife and I and our two girls, took a cruise earlier this year and liked it so much that the wife and I are taking another one next year. In appreciation of us booking with a particular Cruise company, they sent me a lovely and impressive A3 size Diary planner, complete with a few maps of the main capital cities of Oz. A wonderful and seemingly useful little gift.
However I am a small size diary man myself. You know: the size that fits into my shirt pocket. So although very impressed with this diary, I could not really see myself ever properly using it. So when my son started to enthuse over it too, I offered it to him. However he refused, saying he already has a diary in the shape of his I-phone (Or whatever it is) and so didn’t need or wouldn’t be able to use my diary either. So here I am with a very impressive product that I have no real need of, and unlikely to actually ever use for its proper purpose either.
Which made me wonder how many otherwise wonderful and useful products or objects we might have that we really can’t or won’t use for their proper purposes, but neither can we find proper homes for them either, but are also reluctant to otherwise get rid off?
What about you now, what good things do you have that you can’t or won’t ever use, but you are still reluctant to do away with? Perhaps there is an Op-shop or some Charity shop near you that might benefit from your unusable Gifts that will otherwise be wasted if you continue to hang on to them now? What say you now?