Editor: Richard (Dick) Innes
Published by: ACTS International
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Vol. 15 – No. 4613 November 16, 2013
Thought for the week: "You will become as small as your controlling desire; as great as your dominant aspiration." – James Allen
"We have committed the Golden Rule to memory; let us now commit it to life." – Edwin Markham
"Beware the barrenness of a busy life." – Socrates
"A man grows most tired when he is standing still." – Unknown
"The making of friends who are real friends is the best token we have of a man's success in life." – Edward Hale
"Wise sayings often fall on barren ground, but a kind word is never wasted." – Unknown
"Without God there is no virtue because there is no prompting of the conscience; without God there is a coarsening of the society; without God democracy will not and cannot long endure. If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a Nation gone under." – Ronald Reagan
A lawyer phoned the governor's mansion shortly after midnight. "I need to talk to the governor. It's an emergency!" exclaimed the lawyer.
After some cajoling, the governor's assistant agreed to wake him up. "So, what is it that's so important that it can't wait until morning?" grumbled the governor.
"Judge Jones just died, and I want to take his place," begged the attorney.
"Well, it's okay with me if it's okay with the funeral home," replied the governor.
"Our souls are not hungry for fame, comfort, wealth or power. Those rewards create almost as many problems as they resolve. Our souls are hungry for meaning, for the sense that we have figured out how to live, so that our lives matter, so that the world will be at least a little bit different for our having passed through it." – Harold Kushner
Freedom (the eagle) and I have been together 14 years this summer. She came in as a baby in 1998 with two broken wings. Her left wing doesn't open all the way even after surgery; it was broken in 4 places. She's my baby.
When Freedom came in she could not stand and both wings were broken. She was emaciated and covered in lice. We made the decision to give her a chance at life, so I took her to the vet's office. From then on, I was always around her. We had her in a huge dog carrier with the top off, and it was loaded up with shredded newspaper for her to lay in. I used to sit and talk to her, urging her to live, to fight; and she would lay there looking at me with those big brown eyes. We also had to tube feed her for weeks.
This went on for 4-6 weeks, and by then she still couldn't stand. It got to the point where the decision was made to euthanize her if she couldn't stand in a week. You know you don't want to cross that line between torture and rehab, and it looked like death was winning. She was going to be put down that Friday, and I was supposed to come in on that Thursday afternoon. I didn't want to go to the center that Thursday, because I couldn't bear the thought of her being euthanized; but I went anyway, and when I walked in everyone was grinning from ear to ear. I went immediately back to her cage; and there she was, standing on her own, a big beautiful eagle. She was ready to live. I was just about in tears by then. That was a very good day.
We knew she could never fly, so the director asked me to glove train her. I got her used to the glove, and then to jesses, and we started doing education programs for schools in western Washington. We wound up in the newspapers, radio (believe it or not) and some TV. Miracle Pets even
did a show about us.
In the spring of 2000, I was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. I had stage 3, which is not good (one major organ plus everywhere), so I wound up doing 8 months of chemo. Lost the hair—the whole bit. I missed a lot of work. When I felt good enough, I would go to Sarvey and take Freedom out for walks. Freedom would also come to me in my dreams and help me fight the cancer. This happened time and time again.
Fast forward to November 2000.
The day after Thanksgiving, I went in for my last checkup. I was told that if the cancer was not all gone after 8 rounds of chemo, then my last option was a stem cell transplant. Anyway, they did the tests; and I had to come back Monday for the results. I went in Monday, and I was told that all the cancer was gone.
So the first thing I did was get up to Sarvey and take the big girl out for a walk. It was misty and cold. I went to her flight and jessed her up, and we went out front to the top of the hill. I hadn't said a word to Freedom, but somehow she knew. She looked at me and wrapped both her wings around me to where I could feel them pressing in on my back (I was engulfed in eagle wings), and she touched my nose with her beak and stared into my eyes, and we just stood there like that for I don't know how long. That was a magic moment. We have been soul mates ever since she came in. This is a very special bird.
On a side note: I have had people who were sick come up to us when we are out, and Freedom has some kind of hold on them. I once had a guy who was terminal come up to us and I let him hold her. His knees just about buckled and he swore he could feel her power course through his body. I have so many stories like that.
I never forget the honor I have of being so close to such a magnificent spirit as Freedom.
Hope you enjoyed this!
A SMALL REQUEST...Just one line. All you are asked to do is keep this circulating, even if it's only to one more person. In memory of anyone you know who has been struck down by cancer, or is still living with it, or just someone who enjoys a GREAT STORY.
Source: Sent via an e-Mail.
Ed. Note: This story is a foretaste of what it will be like in the millennium when Jesus has returned to earth, and there will be a special connection with the animal world. As God's Word says: "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them" (Isaiah 11:6).
6. How to Succeed by Failing Forward — Turning Stumbling Blocks to Stepping Stones
By Michael Josephson of CHARACTER COUNTS (824.2)
The best way to teach our children to succeed is to teach them to fail.
After all, if getting everything you want on the first try is success, and everything else is failure, we all fail much more often than we succeed.
People who learn how to grow from unsuccessful efforts succeed more often and at higher levels because they become wiser and tougher.
Two great American inventors, Thomas Edison and Charles Kettering mastered the art of building success on a foundation of what others might call failure.
Edison liked to say he "failed his way to success," noting that every time he tried something that didn't work, he moved closer to what did. "Now I know one more thing that doesn't work," he would say.
The lesser known Kettering (head of research for General Motors from 1920-1947) talked about "failing forward," calling every wrong attempt a "practice shot."
The strength of both men was that their creativity and confidence was undiminished by setbacks and unsuccessful efforts. They accepted that trial and error is an essential strategy for breakthrough innovation, and simply rejected the notion of failure. Thomas Watson, the founder of IBM, cautioned his leaders from being so careful that they never failed. He went so far as to say, "The way to succeed is to double your failure rate."
Of course, failure is never desirable, but it is inevitable and, with a proper attitude, can be quite useful.
The only way to avoid failure is to avoid the risks and challenges, and that probably is a case of real failure. The great hockey player Wayne Gretzky used to say, "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take."
Whatever your goal, whether it's to get something, do something, or improve yourself as a person or professional, the secret of success is learning to transform unsuccessful experiences from stumbling blocks to stepping stones.
Three qualities can turn adversity into advantage: a positive perspective, reflection, and perseverance.
First, learn from the inventors. Don't allow yourself to think of any failure as final, and never allow unsuccessful efforts to discourage you or cause you to give up. Remember, failure is an event, not a person. Even failing repeatedly can't defeat you unless you start thinking of yourself as a failure. The way you think about your experiences shapes the experience in ways that either stimulate or stymie further efforts.
Second, don't waste the experience. Unsuccessful efforts are wasted and debilitating only if you don't learn from them. Reflect on your actions, attitudes and the results to discover the lesson within the experience and use that knowledge to guide future efforts.
Third, persevere. Try and try again. Just be smarter each time.
And finally, learn to enjoy the process. Simply being absorbed in the pursuit of any change that will improve your life or the lives of others is a blessing.
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
"Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness."1
Somebody has facetiously said, "Blessed be he who aimeth at nothing for he shall surely hit it!"
On the same theme, Bill Bernbach made the following insightful comment: "If you stand for something, you will always find some people for you and some against you. If you stand for nothing, you will find nobody against you and nobody for you!"
It is true, if we aim for and stand for right, for justice, for integrity, for truth, and are committed to doing the will of God, there will always be opposition. Chances are the more worthy our cause, the greater will be the opposition—and the temptation to discouragement.
However, when we get to the end of life's journey, how rewarding it will be to have the Savior welcome us to Heaven with the words, "Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord!"
What Jesus will say to us when we meet him face to face will totally depend on what we are doing and how we are living today. We have that opportunity now. As a favorite one-liner puts it, "It is choice, not chance, that determines our destiny."
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, grant that I will so live that when I meet you face to face, I will hear your wonderful words, 'Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord!' Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."
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