Thought Well

"Positive mental thoughts are the cords that bind us to the future of our choosing."

It is not an US and THEM world. It is all US. As soon as people understand this fact, the world will be a better place.

The other thing I would tell people is that freedom comes with responsibility, and your life is a function of your choices. I agree with Dennis Waitley that we need a Statue of Responsibility to compliment the Statue of Liberty and love the inscription for it in his book: If you take good things for granted, you must earn them again. For every right you cherish, you have a duty to fulfill. For every hope you entertain, you have a task to perform. For every privilege you would preserve, you must sacrifice a comfort. Freedom will always carry the price of individual responsibility and the just rewards of your own choices."

Anything is possible and nothing is free. The price you pay is how you spend your life. There is no greater purpose than to discover what you are passionate about giving, and then dedicate your life to giving it. What is your passion? What is your legacy? How are you spending your life?

Faith is believing in what’s going to happen…
Knowledge is knowing how to deal with it.

You need to look for the good in people because the bad will always show through no matter how hard they may want to hide it.

What good comes from hate?

We are all different and many of us have very different beliefs and lifestyles

Just because you and I are different does not mean that we either cannot get along or that we can’t live apart peacefully

None of us agree on everything

Differences make us better as long as we learn from the differences

What’s wrong with tolerance?

Heaven awaits those of us who do not hate

Hate causes immense pain and suffering

Live in PEACE my brothers and sisters

We have spent millions of dollars trying to find answers to many of our social challenges when the answer has been within us all along. The solution to most of the challenges we face in society today is very simple- Pay It Forward. If everyone helped someone around them to a better life every day and just asked that person to Pay It Forward, most of our problems would soon vanish. Small acts grow into major accomplishments. If you want to have a wonderful and successful life, stop counting dollars. Start counting the number of times you help someone smile. If you help make a difference you will change a life. If you change one life you will usually change two lives with the second one being your own. Start today! Let your heart move your hands to action. Find a way to move the world one step on. Help someone smile, laugh, giggle or grin by helping them up the proverbial hill. As has often been said, 'If you help someone up the hill, you will find yourself closer to the top.'

Peace,

Tom Gerdy

In our lives, our communities, our nations, our governments, our world, and in ourselves we can find many mistakes, errors, misunderstandings and neglect. But we only find them when we look back at our past. But our past is over and done with. We must look to our future. And since our future has yet to arrive, we must usher it in with compassion, understanding, tolerance, humanity, and sensible action. Forget the wrongs that have been done before and start anew.

I lost a big sister and a big brother way too early in their lives. Before cancer took my brother we spent a LOT of time together and one thing he strongly encouraged me to do…as do I to the world….Live every day of life passionately, as if it were your last. It may be! Take time every day to laugh, to cry, to love. Spend time each day in deep thought. Using all of your emotions and all of your senses not only makes you aware of the world, but the world aware of you.

Dedicated to the life philosophy of my big brother and best friend, John C. Drennen.

We may be Christians, or Jews, or Muslims, or any other religion, or none, but The Golden Rule still always applies: Do ONLY unto others as you would have them do unto you.

If I had the world’s attention I would tell everyone that I am their brother and that we are all brothers.

Brothers do not hate, steal or fight each other.

Brothers do love, help, give and share with each other.

If the human family were to follow these simple rules the people of the world would suffer no hunger or poverty, wage no wars and enjoy basic human rights and the equal opportunities for self-improvement and prosperity.

Hold yourself accountable for the choices YOU make as well as love yourself as you want others to love you. With that there should be less to no time to hate or act upon hate.

The average person can muster enough courage to plod through the first six or seven innings of life’s trials. Real faith is trusting through to the “bottom of the ninth”. This is when our faith is proven and the game is won.

Close the door, I'm listening.

Have you looked into the eyes of a homeless person? What did you see?

Have you looked into the eyes of a child crying? What did you see?

Have you looked into the eyes of grinning, toothless, 90-year old? What did you see?

Have you come eye to eye with a wild animal? What did you see?

Have you looked eye to eye with a foe? What did you see?

Have you looked into the mirror lately? What did you see?

Everywhere we look, we see ourselves in the midst of humanity.

Don’t like what you are seeing? Look again in the mirror…this time with love.

I would tell the world the following: Remember to take a minute and appreciate your surroundings. Appreciate all that you have and all the blessing that have been bestowed upon you. All to often we all run around taking care of business and forget to appreciate the very thing that we are working so hard for. Take a minute, soak it up and enjoy the fruits of your labor. Isn’t that really what life is all about??

I would ask them to show Love and Gratitude to the One who designed you and sustains you and then show the same love to everyone designed and sustained as you are!

We wake up in the morning fully aware of “our personal world” with all of its worries, anxieties, thoughts and deadlines and we continue to practice our daily routines thinking how important our day is and all that it brings. What is it that we would change if we just stopped to realize that our time in so near? All we have to do is ask those that have gone before us but they aren’t here anymore are they?

Life is a precious commodity that can be here one day and gone the next. We must look at the things around us and truly grasp their meaning and understand the messages that they represent. All the millions in the world cannot change what is truly real to each of us, that which we have come to understand and build upon in the time we have spent on this earth, good friends and loved ones. It can have a negative impact on those around us and change our personal landscape, usually to to the better and not for the long term.

I would like to say…each individual is special and has so much to share, don't waste it. Be kind to everyone you meet even if their physical appearance may disgust you; their sole may be pure. Think positive and smile…it's contagious! And most of all learn from nature: I recently helped my grandaughter find a caterpillar to bring to kindergarten as they were learning about metamorphasis…(Kindergarten!)…we were able to find five so decided to use her bug box and and keep four of them at home. My grandaughter is only with me half of the week so I needed to care for the caterpillars on the days she was not there. I would daily go out in my yard and pick a few leaves off the milkweed to bring in for the caterpillars to eat. I realized pretty quickly, when I was checking on the caterpillars several times a day; this was an important job but I found it humbling. I would stand for long periods of time watching them eat until one day they transformed into their crysalises and hung from the screen cage. How amazing was that?! Then weeks later they were suddenly butterflies ready to fly away. We all transform, I decided, throughout our lives we learn and change until we are ready to fly on our own. It's amazing! Don't waste it!!

In life there are no excuses, only choices.

Change Yourself and the World Changes With You.

The earth is like a house. We all live together in it for a period of time. The goal should be to leave it better than we found it. When we have improved our own area, we are then free to lend a hand to help our neighbor. Those ripples that reach out to others begin in front of our own toes.

Peace begins at home within the heart,
Let there be peace on earth,
And let it begin with me.

It's like a flower that blooms
And permeates the entire atmosphere,
Creating an aura of goodwill
Which touches everyone, everywhere.

Ken Schlein

This is a creed I've tried to live by which contains a servant's spirit with an overcoming mental attitude: "Blameless and Harmless - Invincible and Unstoppable"

If I had the world's attention I would say, " At the same time every day we must all say the word love sixty times in a minute and simultaneously remember at least one time we experienced love. Perhaps, over time, our collective thoughts and feelings will manifest into a higher level of consciousness and create a different future than the world has ever seen. Start now...love, love, love....."

It is popular these days to point out here, there and everywhere about "our rights".

"I have the right to do this..... or that" or "It's our right..."

Just remember this; "With every right there's a responsibility!"

I would say this: "Life is a comparison of where we are, with where we would rather be. Where are you; standing, moving or arriving?"

Love is a verb, as well as a noun.

Every day is an anniversary. Celebrate it!

Great competitors compete best with themselves.

If I had the world's attention, I would tell them that although you may not always have or get what you want, but you always have what you need. God has laid the foundation. The rest is up to you. Be content with what you have. It's right in front of you. Be grateful if you have a job. I am 41 years old and I have worked all of my adult life and there are still weeks that I struggle to make ends meet. But it's more than that. If you have your wife, your children, a roof over your head, a car to drive, food on the table and your bills are paid, well, it just doesn't get any better than that. Be happy with a great life, being surrounded by the ones you love and loving the ones your around. Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what each day beholds, but enjoy it like it's your last.

The following are two thoughts that I tried to teach my kids as they were growing up. In addition, I have continued to use these thoughts over the years. With this in mind I figure the World could use them:

1. You only have one chance to make a first impression.

And

2. The is no such thing as reality, there is only someone's perception of reality. It is (your/my) job as a communicator to get this perception of reality and reality as close to the same as possible.

Follow your passion.

Listen more.

Be grateful.

Giving is receiving.

Forgiving others is not for the other person. It is for us, so we can move on.

And the hardest one of all: Be grateful for the people who still push our buttons. It just means we still have some growing and learning to do. They are here to teach us.

Find the right thing to do. Then do it right.

"I would say, 'Treat everyday as a gift. Money doesn't make you happy or smarter or more in tune with what's around you. Life is fleeting. We know the ultimate destination. It's a road we all must travel and the traveling is what matters. No one knows how long that road is. When you realize that death is your constant companion, everything that was once so important becomes so trivial, but then every blade of grass, every sunset becomes so important. Treat everyday as a gift!"

In relationships there are always differences and our need to be right in those differences can make or break a relationship. The difference is my need to be right vs. my need to make it right. One is out of pride and the other is out of humility. I learn much about myself when I chose the way of humility.

If I had the Worlds attention, I would say--We all need to be kinder to one another. Every person we meet on any given day is fighting their own battles, struggling with their own demons, trying to survive day-to-day, and living this wonderful ride we are all on--LIFE. It all goes back to the Golden Rule--All religions have the rule of being kind to others. Show others the same courtesy we would like to receive. Treat others like we would want to be treated. You hear it all the time, from the time we were small in preschool and now, today, in professional settings. We all just need to practice it--everyday.

There are 3 rules I have always taught my children to live by:

1. We all make mistakes and need to be forgiven, so we must be forgiving.

2. There is suffering in every life. We all need compassion, so we need to be compassionate.

3. If you live as if you lived in a glass house, never trying to hide anything or deceive, you can live free, without fear of being found out or caught.

What if I told you that your life now is a second chance to do it right, this time. You screwed up before, but you have been granted a second try. What might you be doing to live up to that chance, in terms of family, faith, kindness, honesty, and such?

I would quote the words of Mother Theresa "may you use those gifts that you have received and pass on the love that has been given to you.”

Ray