Yesterday, I was watching CBS News in the morning and caught a story that was done on college students who are homeless. Individuals who came from varied backgrounds, many that had never had a family member that went to college, getting what assistance they could to make a better life for themselves. These were students who had no place to put their head at night, yet they persevered through their studies, sometimes making the deans list in their pursuit of a better life.

One of the stories was about a young lady who had fitted her van with the comforts of home. She slept in the school library parking lot and showered in a woman’s locker room every morning before she went about her studies. This was her home throughout her college career until she just recently graduated. Another story was of a young man who slept on park benches and in the woods on nights when he had no where else to go until he was finally able to secure a place in a shelter that was built just for students who were homeless. Their waiting list is in the hundreds.

As I watched the story I wondered just what was inside of these individuals that drove them to be successful in their endeavors despite the adversity that they were facing. They had not come from the best backgrounds to prepare them for these hardships that they would face, but they were willing to put in the work necessary to accomplish that which they so desperately desired. I believe these two individuals are destined to be extraordinary, as are the many who are out there like them.

Finally, it also caused me to think about the last three years with this program. The early days were difficult. Finding the money, cards, decorators and donors to make this program real was hard. Doing it while also keeping up with a full time job was even more difficult. Yet every time we ran out of money, cards or supplies, another source would appear and 7,719 cards became 18,810 and finally last year 40,515. Those hard times helped prepare us for an extraordinary destiny. Not me, us as our success is only possible because of the power of we.

Overcoming hardships opens doors that we never thought imaginable. They put us on a path to extraordinary things if we only persevere and push on. I am thankful to have all you extraordinary people on this journey with us.

Have a great day and remember to be the reason someone smiles.

Ron

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Our minds are clever things. They are the one thing in our life that will always listen when we speak to it. It is always on, always receiving and willing to take in what ever we want to feed it. What it gets fed is totally up to us. It is that food that shapes who we are, how we act and ultimately the person that we become.

We can never underestimate the power of our thoughts. Our minds tend to believe what ever we tell it. If we choose to feed it with negativity then ultimately we are going to be a negative person. If we feed it only positive things, then that is likely the person that we will portray to others. While we have an obligation to nourish our mind on a regular basis, the most important thing that we can feed it is truth.

They say that truth always wins and I truly believe that. We have this innate ability to con ourselves into believing things that are sometimes not even reality. Pathological liars are best at this. The more lies they tell, the more they become reality in their own mind. Unfortunately, this weakens the very foundation of their lives. People who feed their mind with truthfulness and actual reality are the people that become well rounded people, living a life that is full and complete.

As important as truth is, love is also equally important. There is no greater gift we can give ourselves than self love. Each and every one of us is important, has purpose and are here on this earth for a reason. Our ability to love ourselves gives us the tools that we need to love others in return. Love is one of the true requirements for happiness and fulfillment.

Take a moment today and think about what you have been feeding your mind. Are you only nourishing it with negative and bad thoughts? Or are you giving it the truth and love that it needs to help you live the kind of life that you want to live? Our minds will believe whatever we tell it, that puts a great responsibility on us to ensure that we are feeding it those things that contribute to a nourished soul.

Have a great weekend and remember to be the reason someone smiles.

Ron

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No one is harder on us than ourselves when it comes to making mistakes. Over and over we beat ourselves up for making errors and not doing things right the first time. Whether we have had instilled in us a need to be perfect through our upbringing or we have just learned on our own to be hard on ourself, we often are our own worst enemy. We see mistakes in the negative instead of seeing them for what they are meant to be.

As we go through life there are many paths we can choose when we are making decisions. Some are the right ones and some are not as we travel on what I like to call the succeed and fail rollercoaster of life. Mistakes and failures are important tools to help strengthen our resolve, enhance our life and nourish our soul as we strive to live a good productive life.

One would suspect that people that rarely make mistakes are likely people who never try in the first place. They are so afraid of making a mistake and failing. They live a mundane existence, just going through the motions. If that is right for their soul, there is nothing wrong with it. However, people who try and live a full life with all the excitement and adventure it has to offer are going to make mistakes. We will be faced with a myriad of decisions that are not always going to go well and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that either.

Mistakes are proof that you are trying. It means you are getting outside of your box, broadening your horizons and making an effort to ensure that your life is full and complete. If you are using those mistakes to better yourself and as tool to keep from making the mistakes over and over, then you are truly living. Isn’t that what it is all about? Extracting every minute that life has to offer to ensure that when we get to the end we can look back, smile and say to ourselves, “job well done”.

Mistakes are a natural part of living and they will be with us throughout our life path. Embrace them, learn from them and let them be the tool that guides you to a better and more productive life. Never use them as a tool of self flagellation. Use them as the learning tool that they were meant to be.

Have a great day and remember to be the reason someone smiles today.

Ron

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There are times in our life that no matter how hard we try to be truly happy, it seems to constantly elude us and we never seem to quite get there. That happiness that we so desire seems truly out of reach and we continue to stay in our mire because it all seems just too hard. It is at those moments that we have to take a look at our efforts and question just whose definition of happiness we are trying to live up to.

Happiness is many things to many people. There are people that will tell you that money is happiness. Others will tell you its health, family, or other specific things that contribute to their happiness. However, the ultimate question is what our definition of happiness is. Attempting to live up to others definitions of happiness is a sure way to ensure that we never truly achieve happiness ourselves.

There are many people that will tell you that achieving a full level of happiness is impossible. To them I say hogwash. No one has more control over our ability to be happy than we. If we let them, it is those very people that believe in the impossibility that will hinder our own ability to achieve the level of happiness that we desire.

One thing that helps in achieving happiness is sitting down and making a list of the things that make use feel good. Identifying the areas that are complete and those areas where there are deficits that we need to focus on. Then take those focus areas and analyze them to determine which ones are really important and which ones will have no impact on our ability to be happy. Once you have weeded the garden, you are left with those things that truly matter and you now have identified the gaps on your path to true happiness.

Before we can achieve the level of happiness we desire, we have to give ourselves the permission to do so. We need to ensure that we aren’t sabotaging our efforts and are truly focusing on those areas that are important. Most of all we have to simply decide to be happy and go for it.

Have a great day and remember to be the reason someone smiles today.

Ron

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As we go through life we start to build a cache of memories from the time we are born. The things we do, the people we meet and the situations we encounter all start to form a memory box in our mind that we often access in times of need and sadness. We create good memories, bad memories, memories that have significance and sometimes memories that we would rather forget. Often, we allow those memories to override each other. When we need to feel good, we allow the bad memories to sabotage our effort to do so. When we feel bad we sometimes use our good memories to bring us out of bad place. Memories serve a host of purposes in our every day lives.

As we well know, our ability to remember ebbs and flows as we get older. Some things stay bright and in the forefront of our minds. Others fade away and are almost impossible to find even when we try to access them. Some slip away to make room for new ones and others are quickly discarded as soon as they happen. This is all a natural part of life and aging. Where it becomes difficult is when one has to deal with Alzheimer’s or Dementia and their cognitive thoughts are affected by their biology.

Those of us who have directly dealt with patients with Alzheimer’s or Dementia, such as my grandmother had, know first hand the effect those terrible diseases have on an individuals ability to share their memories. Although in their mind their memories may be intact, their ability to verbalize and share them becomes more and more impossible. Unfortunately, what results is lost familial history that we wish we had. This is why it is incredibly important to gain knowledge that interests us in relation to family history while we have the opportunity.

We never expect our loved ones to come down with memory stealing diseases, but it unfortunately affects more people than it should. We sometimes don’t even realize that the disease is starting to take hold until it is too late to extract the knowledge that we seek. It is why we have an obligation to stay close to and care for our older loved ones throughout their lives and not just when they are sick and need us most.

When my grandmother was in her early stages of her dementia, I fortunately had many opportunities to sit with her and ask her family questions. She also took the opportunity to share things with me that I never knew. It was her way of clearing her soul as she prepared for that last phase of her life.

If we give them the opportunity they will talk to us, if only we will listen. Use those opportunities to learn all that you can, when you can. When the memories are gone they are gone for ever and unfortunately some memories can never be replaced.

Have a great day, listen and remember to be the reason someone smiles.

Ron

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There is nothing more beautiful in this world than doing something that changes someone’s life. We never know when that opportunity is going to present itself, which makes it incredibly important that we are always on the lookout for the opportunity when we encounter other people.

Years ago, when I was first starting out in the work force, I worked in a call center for a pharmacy benefits management company. We took calls from people who were inquiring about their mail order prescriptions and would talk to many people during our eight to ten hour shifts. One one particular day I received a call from an elderly woman that lived on the opposite coast than where I lived in Florida. She was beside herself for not having received her prescriptions. After calming her down, we proceeded on a plan to help her out.

Her prescriptions were truly lost in the mail, so I told her that we would call her doctor and get new prescriptions over the phone. I would personally have them walked through the pharmacy and we would send them overnight to her. As I talked with her more, I could tell that she was really lonely and through some probing had also learned that she had not eaten because she was not well and not able to get out of her apartment to shop. My parents lived about an hour from her and often went over to her area shopping. I quickly enlisted them to go and check on her and they were able to take her out to get some food and make sure that she as OK. They delivered much needed help just in time.

I also made a trip over to the other coast to meet her in person and we eventually became best of friends, writing and calling until her family moved her to a nursing home. Since I had no relationship with them I had to work hard find out where she was and started to write her. My letters went unanswered until finally one day I called the facility to try and speak to her. One of her family members was put on the phone and I inquired about her health. Their response to me was that she could not talk to me and they did not understand why I was calling because she had no money. I of course informed them that I was not interested in her money and politely ended the call.

You see, it was never about money for me. It was about my ability to change one life and make it a little better at a time when someone needed it most. What the family felt was of no consequence to me, because I knew my intentions and I was right with my soul. I supposed that she never got my letters that I sent, but I knew in my heart that in her heart she knew I still cared.

Always be on the lookout for opportunities to make a difference in someone’s life. Take advantage when they present themself as you never know the lasting impact that you are going to have on someone.

Have a great day and remember to be the reason someone smiles.

Ron

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We get one chance at a minute or a day. There are no do overs. When we get to the end of a day, can we look back and say that we made a difference? Can we look in the mirror and be happy with what we see? Do we know that the time spent in those minutes resulted in something good, even if we only planted seeds that still need to grow and mature?

There are 1,440 minutes in a day. If you subtract eight hours of those minutes for sleeping then you have 960 minutes left to do something amazing. Sometimes those amazing things come from the tasks you are doing to nourish your own soul. My work in the Bring Smiles to Seniors program reminds me of that every day. In my quest to ensure that my heart is full, you, all of my volunteers and I touch many lives each and every day. Our cards become blessings, friendships, words of encouragement and proof that we care for each other. That is a beautiful thing.

The thing about days are that we don’t ever get to experience them twice. We may do the same activity over and over, but those 1,440 minutes are unique and unrepeatable. I don’t believe that anyone wants to get to the end of those 1,440 minutes and have regret that they were wasted. Although in reality that is often just what happens. Then, before we know it, 1,440 minutes have turned into 43,200 and eventually 525,600. We are left questioning where the time went and what do we have to show for it?

Doing good work and good deeds nourishes our soul. It leaves us with a feeling of satisfaction that we made the most of the minutes we have been given. One of the beautiful things in life is when we can do for others after ensuring our own well being. Making a difference in the life of someone else is one of the reasons that we are here. When we embrace that fact and make every minute count, it is only then that we know and understand the purpose of our being granted every minute that we live.

Have a great weekend and remember to be the reason someone smiles.

Ron

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Do you ever have that morning where you are facing a daunting day and you find it difficult to roll over and get out of bed? You know that you have to, but that work or personal situation is weighing on you so heavily that it almost makes it impossible to lift your head off the pillow. Yet, somehow you muster the strength to pull yourself together and set off to deal with whatever the day is going to bring. How and why? Because in all things there is a purpose.

Every gift of another life minute is ours for a reason. Although we don’t always know exactly what it is at the time, there is a purpose for us getting that next minute and therefore we have the responsibility to make the most of what it has to offer. Not all things that we endure are going to be easy. But when you think about it, it is those difficult times that we deal with that give us the life lessons that we need to move on to the next chapter. Heaven knows that they are not always pleasant and often downright awful. Yet, we endure them and carry on because we know that we are alive for a reason.

It is the point when we give up that renders it all meaningless. It is the perseverance to get through the ordeal that builds the strength that we need to carry on. In doing so, we gain knowledge through life’s lessons that help make us stronger, while enriching the life that we have been given. When we have purpose and commitment, our soul is nourished and we have the resolve to make our life even better than it was intended.

One of my favorite things at work and in my personal life is to take “no” and find a way to make it “yes”. During that search for life’s purpose I tried to never let walls block my way without finding a way around them. I strived to never let people be the reason that I didn’t succeed simply because they told me I couldn’t. I knew in my heart that I was alive for a reason and it was because of that reason that I chose to never give up. When I go to sleep at night I often place my hand near my heart as a reminder that there is much to do as long as those beats keep going on.

Have a great day and remember to be the reason someone smiles today.

Ron

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When faced with adversity in life, it is amazing the strength we discover that we never knew we even had. They say that life will never give us more than we can handle at any one time, but we all know that there are situations where that doesn’t seem true. We are often overburdened with so much that we feel like there is no way out and definitely no light at the end of the tunnel. It is then that we have to remind ourselves that no matter what, the situation or the person is never going to break us as we will find that strength that we need to endure.

Think back over your life. How many times in the past have you been faced with a situation where it just seemed like the end? There was no way that you were going to be able to go on and certainly no way that the situation was ever going to resolve it self. Now, look in the mirror. You are still here, those situations are in the past and you are left to face another day and any of life’s challenges that it may throw your way. The only way people or things are going to break us is if we let them and we have the ultimate power.

They say that diamonds are the hardest substances on earth. Well, when we have true resolve and commitment, I would say those two things match the strength of any diamond that comes out of the ground. True commitment is formidable and when we are on the path to getting what we truly want and desire, woe is the person or thing that tries to get in our way.

People break our spirits and souls because we let them. Without that permission it is impossible for them to have an effect. Sometimes, all we need to do is give them that small opening and they begin to tear at the fabric of our soul until it is shredded. However, once we take that permission away and build the required barriers to keep their negativity out, the strength of that shell is as strong as a diamond and there is no doubt that they will not be able to break you. Your light will be as bright as any diamond.

Have a great day and remember to be the reason someone smiles today.

Ron

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In my writing, I often talk about nourishing the soul. It is one of the most important things we can do. Why? Because, when our soul is right and fulfilled almost everything else falls in place. When we are living the life we desire and making the most of what has been given us, we are free to focus on other things that only enhance the beautiful life that we have created for ourselves. If our soul isn’t right we spend so much time trying to get it right that we have no time for anything else.

Throughout life’s journey, we have opportunities along the way to do what I call “weeding the garden”. We have people that sap our soul rather than feed it that we find a way to cut loose. There are bad habits that we learn to overcome that open new paths for soul feeding. We open ourselves up to allow new people and new experiences that enrich our lives feed those pruned gardens. As a result, they replace the holes that were left. It is a constant evolution to becoming a better and brighter you.

That weeding that I mention is incredibly important. Just like a garden, when untended weeds begin to grow and before we know it those weeds have taken over and snuffed out all that is good. Once they become so strong and powerful, it becomes overwhelming and seemingly impossible to get rid of them. However, if we start with the low hanging fruit and tackle them one by one, before we know it they are gone and we have a whole lot of room for new growth to take hold. So is the growth with our soul.

Tending our soul is one of the most important things we can do. There is no one that can do it for us and it has to come before the soul of anyone else. Granted we are all a part of each others soul growth, but our ultimate responsibility is to ensure that our soul has the nourishment that it needs and that in the end it is happy and content. It is only then that it gives us the strength we need to help others achieve the same.

Have a great day and remember to be the reason someone smiles today.

Ron

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