I seek to understand the messages in my life.

John Kehoe

Most of us dream of the day when we won't have any more problems, when everything will be resolved, and our lives will be "complete." But problems are an important and valuable part of our lives, and instead of trying to eliminate them, we should strive to understand exactly what they are.

We are a part of a universe that is forever giving us definite messages and signals, often in the form of problems. It is not an accident or coincidence that a particular problem is happening to you at any given point in your life; our difficulties are signposts waiting to be read.

Ask yourself: What is the problem I'm experiencing telling me about myself? What is it telling me about my thoughts? Beliefs? Actions? Choices? Lifestyle? What is this problem trying to tell me? Look closely, and see if you can find the real cause. If you always feel sorry for yourself or helpless when a problem comes your way, you'll miss the important messages it brings you.

Waiting

Sarah Ban Breathnach

Whatever we are waiting for—peace of mind, contentment, grace, the inner awareness of simple abundance—it will surely come to us, but only when we are ready to receive it with an open and grateful heart.

Magic Purses

Author Unknown

Many of us have, at some time, dreamt of owning one of those magic purses that would never be empty. No matter how much money we would draw from it, it would remain full! As it turns out, we already have such a contraption in us, and this one's worth a lot more than a trillion enchanted wallets. Our heart can love 24 hours a day without ever running empty. As a matter of fact, the more love we pass to others, the more love we'll have!

Mommy, Why Are You So Fat?

Julie Nutter

My sister was overweight all her life. All through grade school, high school, and then college she has faced kids (and adults) looking down on her and even making fun of her because of her size.

When she was 32 years old, her six-year-old son, Cameron, innocently asked her, "Mommy, why are you so fat?" With tears in her eyes, she told him that she was going to change that. She had just realized that her only child was ashamed of her. He showed signs of embarrassment when she picked him up from school. After all, most of the other kids had mommies with beautiful bodies.

Her son did not have a daddy in his life so she knew she had to do something about her weight. She wanted her son to be proud of his mother since she was the only parent he had in his life. So just a few days before her 33rd birthday, she went into the hospital to have gastric bypass (weight loss) surgery.

Little Cameron's main concern was that she would be in the hospital on her birthday. "Don't worry," she told him, "you can have mommy a birthday party when I get out." Satisfied with that, he kissed his mommy one last time before going into surgery. The surgery went well, but the day after did not. My sister went into cardiac arrest (for an unknown reason) and died.

It was the hardest thing in the world for me to do, to tell my six-year-old nephew that his mommy was gone. He seemed numb and did not cry for a good while. Then he looked up at me with tears falling down his cheeks and said, "I wish Mommy didn't have that surgery; I liked her fat."

My heart sank.

It was then that I realized how much of an impact a person's words, remarks and comments can have on someone. She made the final decision to have that surgery, knowing there was a chance she would not make it, just because of what OTHER people thought of her.

To this day (four years later), Cameron still looks up into the sky before he goes to bed at night and says, "Good night mommy, you're a beautiful angel with a new body." And each year on her birthday, we go to the cemetery with helium-filled birthday balloons and sing "Happy Birthday" to mommy. Then we release the balloons and watch them go up to heaven where mommy saves them all.

Standing Still

Kate Nowak

There was a man that hated his footprints and his shadow, so one day he thought that if he ran fast enough, his footprints and shadow would not be able to follow him and then he would never have to look at them again. He ran and he ran as fast as he could, but the shadow and the footprints had no problems keeping up to him. And he ran even faster and all of a sudden he fell dead to the ground. But if he had been standing still there wouldn't have been any footprints and if he had been resting under a tree his shadow would have been swallowed by the tree's shadow. ~ Benjamin Hoff

Many times we hate our problems and do our best to run away from them, but no matter how fast we run or how far we go, our problems follow, scurrying behind us like footprints and shadows. Little do we realize that if we will just stand still and wait, breathing deep and relaxing both body and mind, the solution, in similar fashion to the shadow of the tree, will swallow up the problem whole and leave us free to celebrate.

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