“What you do speaks so loudly, I can’t hear what you’re saying,” was once noted by Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Emerson’s observation reminds us that influence is often communicated more by what we do than by what we say. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Ralph Waldo Emerson
New Mercies for a New Morning
“From sunrise to sundown, yesterday was not a particularly great day for many reasons,” posted my Facebook friend and Norma Jean’s second cousin, April Aiken. “If it could go wrong or be disastrous, it certainly did and was, and I was in no mood to socialize or smile.” Continue reading
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Philippians 4:8
Today is Wednesday. It’s the day of my Rotary Club meeting. Every week we begin by reciting the 4-way test which was written in the 1930’s by a businessman and Rotary International President, Herbert J. Taylor.
This 24 word test is designed to promote high ethical standards in the business and professional lives of its members. Continue reading
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Enjoy Today
On Wednesday evenings I’m teaching a Bible class on the book of Ecclesiastes. It’s been a while since I’ve taught this book, so I’m enjoying a fresh look into this marvelous revelation of wisdom.
Some see it as a negative, pessimistic, or cynical view of life. However, I think it’s a realistic view of life’s ups and downs. Challenges and triumphs. Good and bad. Happiness and sorrow. And many mysteries that even a wise man cannot anticipate or fathom. Continue reading
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Word of the Week: Work
“Thank you for working,” I said to the Cracker Barrel server on one of our recent trips.
She simply smiled and said nothing.
When she returned with our coffee, I asked her, “Do you know why I thanked you for working?”
“I guess you’re hungry,” she replied.
“Well, I am hungry,” I admitted. “But that wasn’t the reason.” Continue reading
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Word of the Week: Help
In Bits & Pieces, William C. Schultz tells about a time his 3-year-old daughter Laurie requested help in getting undressed and ready for bed.
Schultz said he was downstairs and she was upstairs, so he reminded her, “You know how to undress yourself,”
“Yes,” Laurie replied, ‘but sometimes people need people anyway, even if they do know how to do things by themselves.” Continue reading
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Word of the Week: Consistency
Oscar Wilde is credited with saying that “Consistency is the hallmark of the unimaginative.”
Wilde’s point was that consistent living can become a wearisome repetition of sameness day after day. Such consistency can degenerate into a life that is dull. Boring. Trite. Listless. Languid. And essentially lifeless.
In response, an unknown author issued this challenge to get out of the consistency rut. Continue reading
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Sunday Seed Thoughts: What Seeds Are You Sowing?
“When I keep my thoughts positive and my words affirmative, I create an environment that produces positive action. I become the fertile ground for abundant good to manifest,” wrote the authors of Daily Word.
“Into the matrix of spiritual substance, I plant seed thoughts… Seeds of light fill me with new insights…Seeds of love show up in my world as harmony and peace.” Continue reading
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Pay it Forward
“Pay it Forward” is an expression that describes the concept of repaying a good deed to others instead of the original benefactor.
Lily Hardy Hammond may have originally coined the phrase when she wrote in her 1916 book, “In the Garden of Delight,” “You don’t pay love back; you pay it forward.”
While the expression has been around for a while, it was made popular in the movie, based on Catherine Ryan Hyde’s book, “Pay it Forward,” starring Kevin Spacey, Helen Hunt, and Haley Joel Osment. Continue reading
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Word of the Week: Think
Ralph Waldo Emerson, the 19th century essayist, poet and philospher, wrote a great deal about the importance of thinking for one’s self. He once lamented that “the problem with men today is that they don’t think.”
The inventor,Thomas Edison, echoed this sentiment when he opined, “Five percent of the people think; ten percent of the people think they think; and the other eighty-five percent would rather die than think.” Continue reading
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