Christ’s First Fruits – Resurrection Sunday message by Bishop Kalem Kengaa – April 8, 2012
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Christ’s First Fruits
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Questions
What do you do with the mismatched or one gold ear ring?
Or how about the class ring you haven’t worn since 1983?
Or the achievement ring from your old company?
How about the outdated rope necklace that no one wear’s anymore?
Or the jewelry and rings old boy- friends or ex-husband(s) gave you?
The answer
Host a GOLD PARTY and get paid top dollar, in cash, on the spot! As the host of a Gold Party you make 10% of all purchases during your party, plus bonuses! It’s too easy!! Invite your friends to come to your house with all that unwanted gold jewelry they no longer wear and I’ll come pay them CASH on the spot. Nothing to buy, no gimmicks, just cold CASH!
Earn top dollar for your old, outdated gold,silver and platinum jewelry. Already sold your gold, you can still cash in by hosting a party. See how easy it is to make money hanging out with your friends in the comfort of your home! And best of all, unlike all other home parties, instead of your party guests pulling cash or credit cards out of their wallets, The Gold Refinery associate is going to fill those wallets with cash. Everyone leaves with money!
The Gold Refinery provides a new business associate with all the online tools and all the sales materials and sales kit needed to promote a professional business opportunity. Besides the well designed personal website - http://gogoldrefinery.com/stevenwilson - the back office or Rep Center truly incorporates the Internet to better process and communicate the ‘paperwork’ with upline and home office.
The Gold Refinery expands globally by opening up the Philippines to the golden business opportunity. In the first days of March 2012, 50 Gold Parties were booked and 10 new Certified Gold Refinery Associates were recruited. Network Marketing is well received by Filipinos and The Gold Refinery’s proven turn-key system will attract thousands of business network marketers to the only party in town paying everyone cash.
“People Helping People” is The Gold Refinery company motto and that’s why the launch in the Philippines was so explosive. Instead of losing their hard earned gold jewelry to pawnshops lining the streets of many a Filipino neighborhood, returning workers have a distinct choice. The Gold Refinery pays top dollar for all used, unwanted, old and outdated gold jewelry.
Network Marketing is a popular business model in the Philippines and there is nothing else like The Gold Refinery. With its revolutionary gold buying, home party model, The Gold Refinery lead by Angel and Norm Lara is taking the Philippines to a “whole new level”
“Who wants to have fun? Who wants to help people make money and make money doing it? This is the opportunity of a lifetime that my fellow Filipinos have been waiting for and I am not going to let them wait anymore! Philippines, here we come!” – Angel Lara, Gold Refinery Independent Associate
Want to learn more? To register for the upcoming Opportunity Conference and learn more about becoming a Partner in Success….
Call the 24 hour income opportunity hotline at 760.708.0722 or contact Steve Wilson at http://gogoldrefinery.com/stevenwilson
The business opportunity offered by The Gold Refinery is like other business model I have see. It truly is a revolutionary business that’s changing lives and building fortunes. The sky is the limit. New associates getting started tap into a proven turnkey system with a complete business-in-a-box. Whether you want to start spare time, part-time or full-time, you choose the path that’s right for you.
Three aspects that set this income opportunity above all others is
1. As an associate, you’re using The Gold Refinery’s money to build your business
2. This is the home party where your guests are not obligated to make a purchase! Leave your wallets at home.
3. You pay yourself at the end of each party. This immediate income is great when you’re just getting started.
“People Helping People” is the very apt slogan for The Gold Refinery as one of the components is hosting a Gold Fundraiser for your school, hospital church or favorite charity.
Call the 24 hour income opportunity hotline at 760.708.0722 or contact Steve Wilson at http://gogoldrefinery.com/stevenwilson
The True Story of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer-Courtesy of Bob Proctor
A guy named Bob May, depressed and brokenhearted, stared out his drafty apartment window into the chilling December night. His 4-year-old daughter, Barbara, sat on his lap quietly sobbing. Bobs wife, Evelyn, was dying of cancer. Little Barbara couldn’t understand why her mommy could never come home. Barbara looked up into her dads eyes and asked, “Why isn’t Mommy just like everybody else’s Mommy?” Bob’s jaw tightened and his eyes welled with tears. Her question brought waves of grief, but also of anger. It had been the story of Bob’s life. Life always had to be different for Bob. Being small when he was a kid, Bob was often bullied by other boys. He was too little at the time to compete in sports. He was often called names he’d rather not remember.
From childhood, Bob was different and never seemed to fit in. Bob did complete college, married his loving wife and was grateful to get his job as a copywriter at Montgomery Ward during the Great Depression. Then he was blessed with his little girl. But it was all short-lived. Evelyn’s bout with cancer stripped them of all their savings and now Bob and his daughter were forced to live in a two-room apartment in the Chicago slums. Evelyn died just days before Christmas in 1938. Bob struggled to give hope to his child, for whom he couldn’t even afford to buy a Christmas gift. But if he couldn’t buy a gift, he was determined a make one – a storybook!
Bob had created an animal character in his own mind and told the animal’s story to little Barbara to give her comfort and hope. Again and again Bob told the story, embellishing it more with each telling. Who was the character? What was the story all about? The story Bob May created was his own autobiography in fable form. The character he created was a misfit outcast like he was. The name of the character? A little reindeer named Rudolph, with a big shiny nose.
Bob finished the book just in time to give it to his little girl on Christmas Day. But the story doesn’t end there. The general manager of Montgomery Ward caught wind of the little storybook and offered Bob May a nominal fee to purchase the rights to print the book. Wards went on to print Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and distribute it to children visiting Santa Claus in their stores. By 1946 Wards had printed and distributed more than six million copies of Rudolph. That same year, a major publisher wanted to purchase the rights from Wards to print an updated version of the book. In an unprecedented gesture of kindness, the CEO of Wards returned all rights back to Bob May. The book became a best seller. Many toy and marketing deals followed and Bob May, now remarried with a growing family, became wealthy from the story he created to comfort his grieving daughter.
But the story doesn’t end there either. Bob’s brother-in-law, Johnny Marks, made a song adaptation to Rudolph. Though the song was turned down by such popular vocalists as Bing Crosby and Dinah Shore, it was recorded by the singing cowboy, Gene Autry. “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” was released in 1949 and became a phenomenal success, selling more records than any other Christmas song, with the exception of “White Christmas.” The gift of love that Bob May created for his daughter so long ago kept on returning to bless him again and again. And Bob May learned the lesson, just like his dear friend Rudolph, that being different isn’t so bad. In fact, being different can be a blessing!
Commercial weight-loss programs such as Weight Watchers and Slimming World are more effective and cheaper than family doctor-based services led by specially trained staff, according to the findings of a study published on Friday.
With a global epidemic of obesity putting huge pressure on health budgets, researchers at Britain’s Birmingham University wanted to compare the effectiveness of doctor-led weight loss programs against several well-known commercial schemes.
The results suggest that while commercial schemes generally help people to lose weight, doctor-led programs do not.
After 12 weeks, people in all the schemes studied had achieved significant weight loss, but the average loss ranged from the highest at 4.4 kg (9.7 lb) with Weight Watchers down to 1.4 kg on a program led by primary care staff.
A control group who were not put on any specific diet program but were given vouchers for free access to a gym for 12 weeks lost just as much weight on average as those using health clinic-based based weight-loss programs.
After a year, statistically significant weight loss was recorded in all groups apart from the primary care programs, but Weight Watchers was the only program to achieve significantly greater weight loss than the control group.
Kate Jolly, a clinical senior lecturer in public health and epidemiology at Birmingham who led the research, said primary care-based weight loss services led by specially trained staff are “ineffective” while commercially provided services “are more effective and cheaper.”
Worldwide, around 1.5 billion adults are overweight and another 0.5 billion are obese, with 170 million children classified as overweight or obese. Obesity takes up between 2 to 6 percent of healthcare costs in many countries.
This latest research, published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), comes in the wake of the first gold-standard randomized controlled trial of Weight Watchers last month which showed that the program works far better than getting doctors to tell patients to lose weight.
Another study in the United States published in 2003 found that one year’s free access to Weight Watchers resulted in an average weight reduction of 3.5 kg after one year.
Few things feel more terrifying and random than a stroke, which can strike without warning. And fear of stroke — when a blood vessel in or leading to the brain bursts or is blocked by a blood clot, starving brain cells of oxygen and nutrients — is well founded. After all, stroke is the number-three killer in the U.S., affecting more than 700,000 people each year. Here are five foods that cause the damage that leads to stroke.
1. Crackers, chips, and store-bought pastries and baked goods
Muffins, doughnuts, chips, crackers, and many other baked goods are high in trans fats, which are hydrogenated oils popular with commercial bakeries because they stay solid at room temperature, so the products don’t require refrigeration.
2. Smoked and processed meats
Whether your weakness is pastrami, sausage, hot dogs, bacon, or a smoked turkey sandwich, the word from the experts is: Watch out.
3. Diet soda
Although replacing sugary drinks with diet soda seems like a smart solution for keeping weight down — a heart-healthy goal — it turns out diet soda is likely a major bad guy when it comes to stroke.
4. Red meat
This winter, when the respected journal Stroke published a study showing that women who consumed a large portion of red meat each day had a 42-percent higher incidence of stroke, it got nutrition experts talking. The information that red meat, with its high saturated fat content, isn’t healthy for those looking to prevent heart disease and stroke wasn’t exactly news. But the percentage increase (almost 50 percent!) was both startling and solid; the researchers arrived at their finding after following 35,000 Swedish women for ten years
5. Canned soup and prepared foods
Whether it’s canned soup, canned spaghetti, or healthy-sounding frozen dinners, prepared foods and mixes rely on sodium to increase flavor and make processed foods taste fresher. Canned soup is cited by nutritionists as the worst offender; one can of canned chicken noodle soup contains more than 1,100 mg of sodium, while many other varieties, from clam chowder to simple tomato, have between 450 and 800 mg per serving. Compare that to the American Heart and Stroke Association’s recommendation of less than1,500 mg of sodium daily and you’ll see the problem. In fact, a nutritionist-led campaign, the National Salt Reduction Initiative, calls on food companies to reduce the salt content in canned soup and other products by 20 percent in the next two years.
Here is your Friday story, A Fine Line Courtesy of Insight of the Day
Tears poured from her eyes as if there was no tomorrow, and in a sense, for her, there were no tomorrows. That was her reality. Her daughter was in the Shock Trauma Intensive Care Unit (STICU), having sustained a severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) as well as numerous other injuries. The 17-year-old patient, still in a coma, had been injured two months earlier and the mother had just been told, “You know, with this kind of injury, your daughter’s current condition might be the best she’ll ever be.”
The nurse who told the mother that night that terrible prognosis might have been 100% correct. But, no mother wants to hear words like that from a nurse. Mothers just want to hear, “Everything is going to be fine. Your daughter (or son) will one day be able to get married, go to school….One day this will merely be remembered as a terrible nightmare.”
However, we all know that “bad things happen to good people,” and sometimes unfortunately, there is no “happy Hollywood movie ending.” No matter how hard the staff tries, people pass away at hospitals all the time.
However, working in a hospital, I’ve seen first hand, patients who were given “absolutely no hope” to awaken from a coma, sometimes eventually “miraculously” improved. That is why I often tell people, “I love my job because I get to see ‘miracles’ happen all the time.”
I guess one can say I have a unique perspective as I was one of those patients of whom the doctors said, “There is absolutely no hope.” I sustained a traumatic brain injury. However, as I said, I’ve seen many patients suffering from strokes, heart attacks, internal bleeding, who were all given “no hope” diagnoses, but survived and many went on to live productive fulfilling lives.
Why do some patients with absolutely “no hope” diagnoses survive while others do not? I’m not sure whether there is a definite answer to that question. However, the statement made by the nurse to that mother keeps bothering me. Basically, I believe, that nurse was telling the mother not to have hope. (More altruistic people might say that the nurse was preparing the mother for the inevitable.)
On the other hand, good friends often try to help by saying things like, “Mary is going to be just fine, or “Johnny will be well in plenty of time for his senior prom.” However, what happens if that, or anything else, does not go the way it is “supposed to”?
I like to say, “Hope can be miraculous.” I always say, “I hope…,” as I believe that no human knows for sure the eventual outcome. Doctors know statistics. They know, for example, that there is a 98% chance or even a 99.999% chance of something happening. However, no human can say they know with 100% certainty that something will happen, because if one says that, that is when the “one in a million” will happen. It is like the election on TV. The news reporter says, “We predict that the next president will be____ with a 96% chance of certainty.” That means they are 96% sure of the winner; however they still leave a 4% possibility of the opponent winning. It happens. Just ask Harry Truman.
Some staff at the hospital might say that a family is in “denial.” However, I believe that sometimes denial can be an effective coping skill. I am glad that my family, when I was hurt, “was in a constant state of denial.”
I am not saying that the staff should tell families that “Everything is going to be okay.” No one can say that — just as no one can say the opposite. However, I believe that the staff should share a wide range of possible outcomes — from the worst to the best. When I do that, I always add as a postscript, “My hopes and prayers are with you and your son (or daughter).” Remember, hope can be miraculous. It was for me, as well as many other “hopeless patients.” Whether you are in the hospital room, a courtroom, or a board room; a person needs hope!
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By the way: concerning the patient who I spoke about in the beginning of this story, I was fortunate enough to be invited to her high school graduation a few years after her accident and she recently completed a 5K walk for charity. Yes, sometimes hope can be, and is, miraculous!
©2008 by Michael Segal; all rights reserved
Michael Jordan Segal, who defied all odds after being shot in the head, is a husband, father, social worker, freelance author (including a CD/Download of 12 stories, read with light background music, entitled POSSIBLE), and inspirational speaker, sharing his recipe for happiness, recovery and success before conferences and businesses. To contact Mike or to order his CD, please visit www.InspirationByMike.com
Also, please view Mike’s new video at www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZLkyz4KG7A
About 90% of heart attacks occur early in the morning and it can be minimized if one takes a glass or two of water — before retiring in the evening.
I know water is important but I never knew about the special times to drink it.
Drinking water at the correct time maximizes its effectiveness on the human body:
2 glasses of water after waking up – helps activate internal organs
1 glass of water 30 minutes before a meal – helps digestion
1 glass of water before taking a bath – helps lower blood pressure
1 glass of water before going to bed – avoids stroke or heart attack
A bbc report that whole sale chicken may indeed be injected with proteins from animals other than chicken (beef and pork)
Age-Activated Attention Deficit Disorder Video
| Your Bones Are Alive | They may feel like rocks, but bones are living things. In fact, a group of cells (called osteoblasts) are constantly churning out new bone, while a second set (called osteoclasts) destroys bone by gobbling it up like Pac-Man.This constant tug of war between creation and destruction is called bone remodeling.It’s the reason bones regenerate after a break, grow rapidly during youth, and, unfortunately, decline later in life when the balance tips toward destruction. |
| Booze Is Bad For Bones | Too much alcohol hurts your liver, brain, and other parts of your body, and alcohol can also be a big problem for bones. Heavy drinkers tend to lose bone density, and when these levels gets low enough, it’s called osteopenia. |
| Dentists can pick up on osteoporosis | Bone loss can strike anywhere in the body, and the jaw is not immune. If the jawbone deteriorates or loses density, the result may be loose (or lost) teeth, receding gums, or ill-fitting dentures |
| Excess weight may actually make bones stronger | Just as exercise and moving muscle can build stronger bones, your body may respond to extra weight by laying down more bone minerals to support that weightB |
| Belly fat is bad for bones | Belly fat produces all kinds of hormones that can increase inflammation in the body, and the end result of inflammation is increased bone dissolution |
Protocol for Nuclear Contamination: Iodine, Glutathione, Chelation, Clay, Baking Soda
Thursday, March 17, 2011 by: Mark Sircus., AC, OMD
The protocol: Iodine – Glutathione – Natural Chelation – Clay – Baking Soda. On Sunday, when I first released this protocol I said that it is too early to call everyone in North America to prepare for a radiation cloud streaming down radioactive particles from the accident in Japan. According to the media and government, America is not at risk due to radioactive fallout from the recent Japanese nuclear accidents and that is still officially the case.
In a new essay I am preparing today I am writing about how easy it is for health and medical officials to declare dangerous things safe when they are not. We are living in an age where the financial Ponzi schemes have been built on fantastic walls of lies that have been layered one after another and this is going to be our Achilles’ heel as world events and this nuclear disaster continue to unfold.
If there was ever a time to be preparing for worst-case scenarios, now is the time. The evolving protocol you will find in this presentation is effective for radiation as well as chemical and heavy metal contamination. Since we all live on a toxic planet that is getting more toxic each year, everyone who wants to survive the increasing challenges imposed upon our bodies should take note and start processes of detoxification and chelation of heavy metals and radioactive particles.
Here is your Friday story, Unleash The Superhero In You courtesy of Bob Proctor
Within every human being, exists an infinite supply of creativity, strength and wonder.
You are capable of more than you know.
Let me tell you about a real life Superhero I know. His name is Mike Berkson.
Mike Berkson was born a few minutes after his twin brother David, on February 4th, 1989. Shortly after birth, Mike was diagnosed with cerebral palsy. Doctors told his parents that he would not be able to talk and he would never be a student in a regular classroom. By the time Mike was 3, he was not only talking up a storm but had a thirst for vocabulary. Mike sets BIG goals. Mike excels in English and History, is creative in writing short stories and has ambitions in film making.
Mike lives in a Chicago suburb and now attends high school. He loves rap music, Seinfeld reruns, movies, girls, and many other things most teenagers are interested in. Mike is unique in that he has to work around some obstacles in his day to day life that you and I will never be faced with.
Because he is confined to a wheelchair, and has limited use of his arms and legs, he is paired with someone to help him through the day so he can attend school and get the quality of education he deserves. For a few years, my friend Tim was fortunate enough to be paired with Mike and serve as Mike’s aid and helper.
Ponder the things you do every day and imagine being physically unable to do them. Tim was responsible for taking notes for Mike, assisting him with eating, the bathroom, transportation and all the things that we do without thinking about.
As Tim and Mike grew closer and Tim became a member of Mike’s family, Tim felt a yearning to share with the world Mike’s awesome attitude, and how Mike deals with prejudices, ignorance and inconveniences despite his circumstances.
Tim was so inspired by the Superhero within Mike, that last year he set a goal to write a book about Mike and run 1,200 miles from Florida to Chicago to promote it.
Just one tiny problem…at the time, Tim could hardly run 30 minutes and in order to achieve his goals within 4 months, he would have to write the book at blazing speed AND get into the kind of physical condition to maintain a pace of running 40 miles per day for 31 straight days.
Impossible you might think? No. Remember I told you that you are more powerful than you think you are.
You see Tim had a unique source of motivation to fuel his goals. He had Mike. He had the examples from years of watching Mike display the traits of a real life Superhero. Tim had the inspiration of making a promise to an exceptional young man. Tim had the motivation of a purpose greater than himself.
Tim had the yearning to pursue a series of goals so much bigger than anything he had ever done before, that he just had to try. As a tribute to Mike, Tim had to push himself beyond anything he ever previously did, as Mike does every single day.
Some people in life believe you should only pursue goals you know you can achieve. Others believe the success lies in the growth that occurs from stretching beyond your previous wins, and that all growth is success.
How do you define success?
I interviewed Tim recently on my radio show. Tim explained how he found an endurance coach and transformed himself from a couch potato into an ultra endurance champion. Tim did not reach his goal of running 40 miles a day. You see, his plan was flawed. He made a lot of mistakes. His schedule for the run was so tight, that he did not allow himself any room for error, like weather, funding, or the hazards of running alongside traffic. His approach for raising money was limited. He had a skeleton crew of one to accompany him on the run.
He had to return home by a certain date, regardless of how far behind he was, so he had to drive the distances to catch up when he fell behind. Shortly after he started his journey, he realized he would not be able to achieve the 1,200 miles and still make it home on time. But he kept running anyways, he wanted to Keep On Keeping On. He would rather continue stretching himself than consider quitting.
Why is Tim’s journey considered a success by many? Because he dared to pursue it in the first place. Because he did finish his book about Mike in record time. Because he succeeded in transforming his body into an Ultra Endurance Machine for that time. Because he DID succeed in running an average of 24 miles per day for a total of 700 miles. Because he didn’t quit, even when he realized he could not reach every goal he set for himself. Because he touched the heart of a young man who looked up to him. Because he inspired a lot of people to go beyond what they previously thought they could do.
Because for a moment in time, he taped into the Superhero inside himself and unleashed more of his own potential.
Rising above circumstances like a champion inspires other people.
We must re-evaluate our perspective on what success really is.
Are you a success if you play it safe your whole life and never dare anything unless you are guaranteed victory?
When you set BIG Goals, it is important to set many smaller goals that coincide with it. Even if you fail to reach your deadline for one Goal, you will still succeed at many, and you will build your confidence to a much higher level. Give yourself empowering reasons for getting up when you feel down.
There is a Superhero inside YOU.
What Goals can you set that will inspire you to unleash it?
Keep On Keeping On.
Live Your Dreams.
Jill Koenig
Jill Koenig, the “Goal Guru” is a best selling author, coach and motivational speaker. She is an expert on the subjects of Goal Setting, Time Management and Business Success. Visit her website at: www.GoalGuru.com
Pollen at its worst in years in many areas. It’s on your car, in the air and especially in your sinuses.
From Florida to Texas to Colorado, 2010 is shaping up to be a monster of an allergy season. The words “pollen” and “allergy” are among the top 10 trending topics on Twitter in several U.S. cities. Everywhere, it seems, is covered in a fine yellow dust that irritates our lives. Experts say it’s the worst they’ve seen in years in many areas.
“It’s wicked bad this year,” said Dr. Mona Mangat, an allergy specialist in St. Petersburg, Fla., who can’t recall a worse year in the six she’s worked there. “We’re just overwhelmed with patients right now. We’re double- and triple-booked with new patients, trying to work people in because we know how much people are suffering.”
This year is especially bad in the Southeast, weather experts say, likely due to winter’s unseasonably cold weather.
“That may have helped delay some of the plants from blooming as early as they may have wanted to,” said John Feerick, senior meteorologist at AccuWeather. “It’s the fact that everything is coming out all at once.”
High winds in some areas also spread the misery.
“We had a perfect storm this year,” said Dr. William Storms, professor at University of Colorado and a clinician. “It’s the worst I’ve seen in 10 years.”
It’s enough to bring some to tears. Take 5-year-old Sam Wilson of St. Petersburg. His mom gives him Claritin in the morning, Nasonex and Benadryl at night, and he receives four allergy shots every week. The sidewalks of his hometown are covered in what look like piles of dried, brown worms — but they are mounds of oak tree pollen.
His mother said that when the pollen is at its worst, the boy’s eyes water and itch, he can’t breathe through his nose and his throat burns.
“His reaction yesterday was pretty bad,” said his mother, 34-year-old Joanna Wilson on Thursday. “He couldn’t breathe, he was completely congested, and crying.”
Press Release – CieAura Expands Product Distribution To Over 40 Countries
CieAura LLC, distributor of CieAura Transparent Holographic Chips™, will announce the official soft launch of over 40 countries they can deliver product into at their international convention on the weekend of October 8-10, 2010 in Los Angeles.
(PRWEB) September 20, 2010 — CieAura LLC, distributor of CieAura Transparent Holographic Chips™, will announce the official soft launch of over 40 countries they can deliver product into at their international convention on the weekend of October 8-10, 2010 in Los Angeles. CieAura launched in March 2010, experiencing unprecedented growth and sales and gaining enthusiastic endorsements of their products and business model by celebrity athletes such as WNBA All Star, Lisa Leslie, NBA Hall of Famer, Elvin Hayes, NBA Championship Coach, Rudy Tomjanovich, Former NFL player Brian Jones and a host of others.
Note: CieAura Holographic Chips – Pure Relief, Rest Quiet, Pure Energy Plus, CX2 andEMF – do not diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent any disease or illness.
Steven Wilson has joined with others to help reduce their dependence on medications for pain relief, sleep disorders and low energy. For a free sample call or emailsteven@stevenwilson.com
Here is your Friday story, What Special Someday Are We Saving For? courtesy of Bob Proctor
My brother-in-law opened the bottom drawer of my sister’s bureau and lifted out a tissue-wrapped package.
“This,” he said, “is not a slip. This is lingerie.”
He discarded the tissue and handed me the slip. It was exquisite: silk, handmade and trimmed with a cobweb of lace. The price tag with an astronomical figure on it was still attached.
“Jan bought this the first time we went to New York, at least eight or nine years ago. She never wore it. She was saving it for a special occasion. Well, I guess this is the occasion.”
He took the slip from me and put it on the bed with the other clothes we were taking to the mortician. His hands lingered on the soft material for a moment. Then he slammed the drawer shut and turned to me.
“Don’t ever save anything for a special occasion. Every day you’re alive is a special occasion.”
I remembered those words through the funeral and the days that followed when I helped him and my niece attend to all the sad chores that follow an unexpected death. I thought about them on the plane returning to California from the Midwestern town where my sister’s family lives. I thought about all the things that she hadn’t seen or heard or done. I thought about the things that she had done without realizing that they were special.
I’m still thinking about his words, and they’ve changed my life. I’m reading more and dusting less. I’m sitting on the deck and admiring the view without fussing about the weeds in the garden. I’m spending more time with my family and friends and less time in committee meetings.
Whenever possible, life should be a pattern of experiences to savor, not endure. I’m trying to recognize these moments now and cherish them.
I’m not “saving” anything; we use our good china and crystal for every special event–such as losing a pound, getting the sink unstopped, the first camellia blossom.
I wear my good blazer to the market if I feel like it. My theory is if I look prosperous, I can shell out $28.49 for a small bag of groceries without wincing.
I’m not saving my good perfume for special parties; clerks in hardware stores and tellers in banks have noses that function as well as my party-going friends.
“Someday” and “one of these days” are fighting a losing battle to stay in my vocabulary. If it’s worth seeing or hearing or doing, I want to see and hear and do it now.
I’m not sure what my sister would have done had she known that she wouldn’t be here for the tomorrow we all take for granted. I think she would have called family members and a few close friends. She might have called a few former friends to apologize and mend fences for past squabbles. I like to think she would have gone out for a Chinese dinner, her favorite food. I’m guessing–I’ll never know.
It’s those little things left undone that would make me angry if I knew that my hours were limited. Angry because I put off seeing good friends whom I was going to get in touch with–someday. Angry because I hadn’t written certain letters that I intended to write–one of these days. Angry and sorry that I didn’t tell my husband and daughter often enough how much I truly love them.
I’m trying very hard not to put off, hold back or save anything that would add laughter and luster to our lives.
And every morning when I open my eyes I tell myself that this is a special occasion.
Ann Wells
Ann Wells penned the column a couple of years after her sister unexpectedly died, and several years before she would lose her husband. Her work somehow made its way to the Internet, where it moves by email and chain letters, compliments of the forward button, and has been renamed “A Story to Live By.” Wells, a retired secretary and occasional freelancer, was stunned that the essay, first published in The Los Angeles Times in April 1985, has been zipping through cyberspace. She doesn’t even have email. “I’m as surprised as anyone,” Wells said.