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Kindness Daily: Marvin’s Prayer Book

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Marvin’s Prayer Book December 23, 2011 – Posted by hasifa

A while back I started a prayer book for a very sick friend called Marvin. This morning I was collecting prayers and a man wrote something in Marvin’s prayer book. Then he told me his story.

Like Marvin he too has cancer. He has been through chemotherapy three times. His cancer has returned after every chemo period and even a few surgeries. He is now stage 4 and terminal.

The reason I am sharing this is because he said all of this to me with a voice that was so hopeful. He seemed not concerned about his situation at all. Instead, he asked many questions about Marvin and even put his phone number in the prayer book for Marvin to call.

He said, "Tell Marvin, no matter what time of the day or night it is, he can call me. Tell him I want to hear from him in his darkest hour. You never know, I could need some inspiration from him as well in my darkest hours."

Before he left he assured me that he would pray for both himself and Marvin.

I was very touched by this man’s kind words and actions. Here he is at what seems to be like the end of the rope and still he wants to do the right thing.

I pray that he and Marvin find comfort in each other and that this is the beginning of a relationship that will allow them both to heal. I ask that you guys keep both of my friends in your prayers and will them well.

Love and blessings to all

Hasifa

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Video of the Week: The Good Life Parable

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Video of the Week

Dec 23, 2011

The Good Life Parable

What are you going to do with your lucky lottery ticket? That’s a question every MBA faces. A lot of time and money has been invested in you, and once you graduate you’re supposed to cash that ticket in for as much money and status as you can. Your parents and peers expect it. And you may feel that there’s really no other choice. You can’t risk wasting that expensive education. It’s the safe thing to do. Isn’t it? Mark Albion doesn’t think so. In “The Good Life”, a movie by FreeRange Graphics, Mark takes you to a chance meeting between an MBA and a fisherman on a small island. As the MBA tries to teach the fisherman about business, the fisherman teaches him about life.

A 13-yr-old Secret Santa

Give like a small sun: touch the world with shafts of your light, bring smiles into bloom like flowers. — DailyGood Editors

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Good News of the Day:
For the second straight Christmas, a philanthropist from Utah’s Capitol Hill has been warming the hearts of the homeless and brightening the smiles of hundreds of their children. The benefactor works year-round raising money, networking with businesses, buying and wrapping gifts, and encouraging random residents to pitch in with presents the underprivileged kids otherwise would never see. Jocelyn Hanrath, an adopted girl too humble to take any credit, is 13. So how did it all start? Jocelyn and her mom got a call from Bonnie Peters, executive director of Family Support Center, saying her Sub-for-Santa collection could use diapers for a single mom with a baby. “Jocelyn said, ‘Babies don’t get diapers for Christmas, they get toys,'” Jocelyn’s mother remembers. “She said, ‘You go buy diapers, I’m buying toys. Kids know what kids need.'”
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Be The Change:
Click on ‘more’ and write a note supporting / encouraging Jocelyn in the “Add New Comment” section (we’ll make sure she sees it).
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Dharma Quote from Snow Lion Publications

Dharma Quote of the Week

Speech that is not harmful is the meaning of “right speech.” It is wise speech. Wise people can still be quite firm and decisive when that is what is needed. It means finding generous and productive ways of saying things. There are times when we need to be strict, but we do not have to denigrate or harm the person or child who is out of line. Firm speech can also be wise speech.

Wise speech is another tool that can be practiced. We can begin by practicing wise speech to ourselves–replacing the inner voice of guilt that is putting us down and opening a space to listen to our deeper needs.

What can I say which will be helpful to someone? What tone of voice will I use? And when is it wise to say nothing? Imagine yourself actually saying something helpful and supportive. Imagine the difference it would make in your life if you could say just one helpful thing to one person. Imagine your life if your speech always came from wisdom.(p.136)

–from Enough! A Buddhist Approach to Finding Release from Addictive Patterns by Chonyi Taylor, published by Snow Lion Publications

Enough! • Now at 5O% off!
(Good until December 30th).

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The Neuropsychology of “Don’t Worry, Be Happy”

The true musician is to bring light into people’s hearts. — Bobby McFerrin

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Inspiration of the Day:
“In 1988, Bobby McFerrin wrote one of the most beloved anthems to happiness of all time. On September 24 that year, ‘Don’t Worry Be Happy’ became the first a cappella song to reach #1 on the Billboard Top 100 Chart. But more than a mere feel-good tune, the iconic song is brimming with neuroscience and psychology insights on happiness that McFerrin — whose fascinating musings on music and the brain you might recall from World Science Festival’s Notes & Neurons — embedded in its lyrics, whether consciously or not. To celebrate the anniversary of ‘Don’t Worry, Be Happy,’ I unpack the verses to explore the neuropsychology wisdom they contain in the context of several studies that offer lab-tested validation for McFerrin’s intuitive insight.” Cultural curator Maria Popova shares more on the truth behind the tune.
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Be The Change:
Give the “Don’t worry, be happy” credo a chance today 🙂

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Kindness Daily: Saga of a Blue Scarf

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Saga of a Blue Scarf December 21, 2011 – Posted by Paul Winter

Last December, following the Friday night performance of our Winter Solstice Celebration, my wife Chez had gone to the Cathedral parking lot to get some gear before taking a taxi to our hotel. When I finally got to the hotel a couple of hours later, Chez realized she was missing a small bag and was sure she’d left it on the ground outside the car. So I said I’d go back and look for it.

It was quite a dark and wintry night, and when I arrived back at the Cathedral around 1:30am, the whole area was deserted. I found the all-night security guard and asked him to unlock the gate to the parking lot for me. We walked back to Amsterdam Ave. and up past the front of the Cathedral to the north lot entrance. We were about 50 yards into the lot when we heard a woman’s voice calling to us: “Excuse me! Do you work here?” Both the guard and I were so surprised that at first neither of us responded, and then I called back, “Yes, I guess so.”

“I lost something after the concert tonight and I wanted to look for it where I had parked my car,” she said. “May I come in?”

“Yes, absolutely,” I said. “I’m looking for something too.”

I continued on to our car at the far end of the lot and saw no bag on the ground, so I opened the trunk and was happy to see the bag there, safely tucked inside.

I got the bag, and as I began walking back, I called across the lot to the woman: “Did you find what you were looking for?” And she replied, rather sadly, “No… and it was my favorite blue scarf.”

I expressed my sympathy and continued walking towards her. Then she said, “Wasn’t Paul Winter wonderful tonight! I’m from his home town.”

“You’re from Altoona?” I asked, and walked over to her, taking off my wool hat, so she might recognize me. When she saw my face, she just about fell over. “Oh my gosh, Paul! I can’t believe it’s you. I’m Dee Riley’s daughter, Marla, and I came to the concert tonight with some pictures I was hoping to show you.” (Marla’s late mother, Dee, was a great friend from Altoona who had collaborated with me in producing a big event celebrating the town’s sesquicentennial in 1999.)

We walked back out to Amsterdam Ave., marveling at the unlikely coincidence of both of us returning to this parking lot at the same time in the middle of the night. Under the streetlight, Marla showed me some wonderful photos from the Altoona event in ’99. Then we wished each other a happy solstice, and said goodnight, and I returned to the hotel with the wayward bag.

Chez was relieved to see me and the bag, and I proceeded to tell her this remarkable story of encountering someone from Altoona who had come back in search of her lost blue scarf. Chez immediately said, “Well, there’s a blue scarf over there on the table. Thea (our babysitter) found it on the front steps of the Cathedral as we were leaving, and I was going to take it to the lost-and-found tomorrow.”

I was undone. What are the chances of that? That from among the 2,000 people streaming out of the Cathedral after the concert, it would be Thea who happened to see the scarf and pick it up?

I had no doubt it was Marla’s scarf, and, when I mailed it to her, telling her the second chapter of this remarkable saga, she emailed back:

“Dear Paul. Today I will turn fifty, and I cannot think of a better gift than this fabulous story! It affirms my faith in the universe and makes me feel good all over!”

And there, in Marla’s warm words, was the beautiful message of winter solstice.

Happy New Year!

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The Three Building Blocks of Virtue

Just as treasures are uncovered from the earth, so virtue appears from good deeds, and wisdom appears from a pure and peaceful mind. To walk safely through the maze of human life, one needs the light of wisdom and the guidance of virtue. — Buddha

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Good News of the Day:
“Depending on what you paid attention to in school, you might remember Confucius by the Silver Rule (“Do not do to others…”), his exotic concepts (e.g., filial piety), or a series of grammar-challenged jokes (“Confucius say…”). Confucius did have a lot to say, but if there is one principle that runs through his philosophy, it’s that personal virtue is the way to the good life and the good society. He posed the cultivation of virtue as a superior alternative to the manipulation or coercion of behavior through policy. I’ll highlight three virtues from Confucius’s thought that I believe are the basic building blocks for all other virtues: One is benevolence or compassion. Another is self-control, which Confucius believed was enforced and nurtured by adhering to proper forms of behavior. And, the third is wise judgment about how to turn benevolent intention into action,” begins author Kentaro Toyama.
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Be The Change:
Explore virtue in action today: what does it mean to you to act with virtue?

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Quote of the Week | See What Is

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The Pema Chödrön Foundation

December 21, 2011

SEE WHAT IS

For us, as people sitting here meditating, as people wanting to live a good, full, unrestricted, adventurous, real kind of life, there is concrete instruction that we can follow, which is the one we have been following all along in meditation: see what is. Acknowledge it without judging it as right or wrong. See it clearly without judgment and let it go. Come back to the present moment.

From now until the moment of your death, you could do this. As a way of becoming more compassionate, as way of becoming less dogmatic, prejudiced, determined to have your own way, absolutely sure that youre right and the other person is wrong, as a way to develop a sense of humor, to lighten it up, open it up, you could do this.

EXCERPTED FROM

The Wisdom of No Escape: And the Path
of Loving-kindness,
page 36

Teachings by Pema Chödrön, taken from works published by Shambhala Publications. Photo by ©Andrea Roth. Forwarded from a friend? You can subscribe to this e-mail emailList, and be sure to include both your old and new addresses. If you no longer wish to receive the Heart Advice e-mails, click here. If you can’t see the images, click here.

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Coelho’s 1 Min Manual For Climbing Mountains

The Beauty of the Mountain is hidden for all those who try to discover it from the top, supposing that, one way or an other, one can reach this place directly. The Beauty of the Mountain reveals only to those who climbed it. — Antoine de Saint-Exupery

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Tip of the Day:
“A. Choose the mountain you want to climb: don’t pay attention to what other people say, such as ‘that one’s more beautiful’ or ‘this one’s easier.’ You’ll be spending lots of energy and enthusiasm to reach your objective, so you’re the only one responsible and you should be sure of what you’re doing.” Through 11 simple but profound guidelines, Paulo Coelho, bestselling author of “The Alchemist,” offers up a manual for taking on life’s highest purpose.
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Be The Change:
Take a moment to reflect on how Cohelo’s “manual” might help you in tackling your own mountains.

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