Photo taken in the United Arab Emirates posted courtesy of Akhilesh Sharma
June 30, 2002
"One of the most appalling comments on our present way of life is that half of all the beds in our hospitals are reserved for patients with nervous and mental troubles, patients who have collapsed under the crushing burden of accumulated yesterdays and fearful tomorrows. Yet a vast majority of those people would be walking the streets today, leading happy, useful lives, if they had only heeded the words of Jesus: 'Have no anxiety about the morrow'; or the words of Sir William Osler; 'Live in day-tight compartments'"....Dale Carnegie.
This is very sad. However, as I created my own sad world a few years ago....I am learning now that MOST people have come through and overcome much more than I have....and most of their troubles were "real"....loss of loved ones, life-threatening illnesses....abusive family situations. I have had it easy. But I am seeing that we all adjust according to what happens to us. Obviously we all have some degree of anxiety about the morrow....however, it does seem to help to remember yesterday, how bad or good it was, and to think....I made it through that :-) And as I "age" I begin to see that it is sooo true....what brought us joys also brings us tears....and what brings us tears leads us to new joys.
The following is taken from Dale Carnegie's Scrapbook....
"All of our findings in psychiatric experience verify the general principles so widely known and so often forgotten, namely--the most desirable satisfactions in life cannot be bought with money....Constantly we must remind ourselves that in the final analysis, one simply cannot purchase sincerity, devotion, dedication or loyalty"....Dr. William C. Menninger.
And a little more about day compartments....
"Now each one of you is a much more marvelous organization than the great (ocean) liner, and bound on a longer voyage. What I urge is that you so learn to control the machinery as to live with 'day-tight compartments' as the most certain way to ensure safety on the voyage. Get on the bridge, and see that at least the great bulkheads are in working order. Touch a button and hear, at every level of your life, the iron doors shutting out the Past--the dead yesterdays. Touch another and shut off, with a metal curtain, the Future--the unborn tomorrows. Then you are safe--safe for today! Shut off the past! Let the dead past bury its dead....Shut out the yesterdays which have lighted fools the way to dusty death....The load of tomorrow, added to that of yesterday, carried today, makes the strongest falter. Shut off the future as tightly as the past....The future is today....There is no tomorrow....The day of man's salvation is now. Waste of energy, mental distress, nervous worries dog the steps of a man who is anxious about the future....Shut close, then, the great fore and aft bulkheads, and prepare to cultivate the habit of a life of 'day-tight compartments'"....Sir William Osler.
I will leave this month with my favorite quote by my favorite author....Leo Buscaglia...."The majority of us lead quiet, unheralded lives as we pass through this world. There will most likely be no ticker-tape parades for us, no monuments created in our honor. But that does not lessen our possible impact, for there are scores of people waiting for someone just like us to come along; people who will appreciate our compassion, our unique talents. Someone who will live a happier life merely because we took the time to share what we had to give. Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have a potential to turn a life around. It's overwhelming to consider the continuous opportunities there are to make our love felt."
song playing....Brand New Day