Don’t be a dung beetle

“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”

This quote by, well, pretty much everybody by now, sums up why we humans are social creatures.

We get food and water and shelter. These things are all necessary; every life form needs them, even dung beetles.

We give love.
We give attention.
We give our help.
We give a smile.
We give hope.
We give trust.
We give…

Well, we give a lot of things.  This is what separates us from much more primitive creatures. Yes, that is what makes a life. Don’t just be a dung beetle.

Your report card has arrived

It turns out that Ralph Lauren is more than just a fashion designer; he is also a philosopher:

“We all get report cards in many different ways, but the real excitement of what you’re doing is in the doing of it. It’s not what you’re gonna get in the end – it’s not the final curtain – it’s really in the doing it, and loving what I’m doing.”

Being a parent, I get report cards from my kids all the time.  It is easy to get caught up in the marks.  But it is much more important to make sure my kids are:

 

A) Doing their best.

B) Excited about learning and improving.

These are two things I can easily monitor from home and I don’t even need to understand the subject matter to keep tabs on the progress.  And these are two things that will actually mean something as my kids grow up and have to focus on matters beyond school and on living their lives.

After all, the real report card is whether we are truly living our lives and not just passing through

Live Like You Were Dying

As a follow-up to yesterday’s blog post on dying to be happy, I thought I would share with you the lyrics from Tim McGraw’s song, “Live Like You Were Dying”, which just played on Y101 A few minutes ago.

He said I was in my early forties
with a lot of life before me
when a moment came that stopped me on a dime
and I spent most of the next days
looking at the x-rays
Talking bout the options
and talking bout sweet time
I asked him when it sank in
that this might really be the real end
how’s it hit you when you get that kinda news
man what’d you do

and he said
I went sky diving
I went Rocky Mountain climbing
I went 2.7 seconds on a bull named fumanchu
and I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter
and I gave forgiveness I’d been denying
and he said someday I hope you get the chance
to live like you were dying.

He said I was finally the husband
that most the time I wasn�t
and I became a friend a friend would like to have
and all the sudden going fishin
wasn’t such an imposition
and I went three times that year I lost my dad
well I finally read the good book
and I took a good long hard look
at what I’d do if I could do it all again

and then
I went sky diving
I went Rocky Mountain climbing
I went 2.7 seconds on a bull named fumanchu
and I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter
and I gave forgiveness I’d been denying
and he said someday I hope you get the chance
to live like you were dying.

Like tomorrow was a gift and you got eternity to think about
what’d you do with it what did you do with it
what did I do with it
what would I do with it?

Sky diving
I went Rocky Mountain climbing
I went 2.7 seconds on a bull named fumanchu
and then I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter
and I watched an eagle as it was flying
and he said someday I hope you get the chance
to live like you were dying.
To live like you were dying
To live like you were dying
To live like you were dying
To live like you were dying

Dying to be happy?

Short blog post today. This little message says it all…please don’t let this happen to you.