"What Will Be Will Be As Long As You Decide It Should be So"

Happiness is a Voyage
By: Author Unknown

We convince ourselves that life will be better once we are
married, have a baby, then another.

Then we get frustrated because our children are not old
enough, and that all will be well when they are older.

Then we are frustrated because they reach adolescence and
we must deal with them. Surely we'll be happier when they
grow out of the teen years.

We tell ourselves our life will be better when our spouse
gets his/her act together, when we have a nicer car, when
we can take a vacation, when we finally retire.

The truth is that there is no better time to be happy than
right now.

If not, then when?

Your life will always be full of challenges. It is better
to admit as much and to decide to be happy in spite of it
all.

For the longest time, it seemed that life was about to
start. Real life.

But there was always some obstacle along the way, an
ordeal to get through, some work to be finished, some time
to be given, a bill to be paid. Then life would start.

I finally came to understand that those obstacles were life.

That point of view helped me see that there isn't any road
to happiness.

Happiness IS the road.

So, enjoy every moment.

Stop waiting for school to end, for a return to school, to
lose ten pounds, to gain ten pounds, for work to begin, to
get married, for Friday evening, for Sunday morning,
waiting for a new car, for your mortgage to be paid off,
for spring, for summer, for fall, for winter, for the first
or the fifteenth of the month, for your song to be played
on the radio, to die, to be reborn… before deciding to be
happy.

Happiness is a voyage, not a destination.

There is no better time to be happy than… NOW!

Live and enjoy the moment.

What Are You Doing To Make The World A Better Place?"

The Acorn Planter
By: Brian Cavanaugh

In the 1930s, a young traveler was exploring the French
Alps. He came upon a vast stretch of barren land. It was
desolate. It was forbidding. It was ugly. It was the kind
of place you hurry away from.

Then, suddenly, the young traveler stopped dead in his
tracks. In the middle of this vast wasteland was a bent-
over old man. On his back was a sack of acorns. In his hand
was a four-foot length of iron pipe.

The man was using the iron pipe to punch holes in the
ground. Then from the sack he would take an acorn and put
it in the hole. Later, the old man told the traveler, "I've
planted over 100,000 acorns. Perhaps only one-tenth of them
will grow."

The old man's wife and son had died, and this was how he
chose to spend his final years. "I want to do something
useful," he said.

Twenty-five years later the now-not-as-young traveler
returned to the same desolate area. What he saw amazed him;
he could not believe his own eyes. The land was covered
with a beautiful forest two miles wide and five miles long.
Birds were singing, animals were playing, and wildflowers
perfumed the air.

The traveler stood there recalling the desolation that
once was. A beautiful oak forest stood there now - all
because someone cared.

What small thing can you do today to make the world a more
beautiful place?