“And as ridiculous as it may sound, sometimes all any of us needs in life is for someone to hold our hand and walk next to us.” ― James Frey, The Final Testament of the Holy Bible

It’s never too early to write something for Valentine’s Day, right?

Came across this quote and it reminded me of Valentine’s Day and all that is good about it.

This quote applies to all good relationships, not just the one you would call your Valentine, but it certainly reminded me of mine.

It’s amazing the amount of resilience and grit we can show when we know that someone else will be there waiting for us at the end.

Win or lose.

Failure or triumph.

Tail between our legs or walking tall.

Knowing they will be there through thick and thin creates such a powerful feeling.

If you’ve already found your special Valentine, thank them for this.

If you’ve already found your special Valentine, be there for them.

If you haven’t found your special Valentine, practice on your friends.

Make it a great day.

Jake

MS – Fortitude includes both kinds of courage – the kind that faces danger as well as the kind that ‘sticks it’ under pain. – C.S. Lewis

BAD – “Love is holy because it is like grace–the worthiness of its object is never really what matters.” – Marilyn Robinson

EB* – “My grandmother started walking five miles a day when she was sixty. She’s ninety-seven now, and we don’t know where the heck she is.” – Ellen DeGeneres

JW* – All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.- Charles M. Schulz

JD – If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day so I never have to live without you. – A. A. Milne

Winnie the Pooh has circled back onto the kids favorites list at our house.

There is something about such a simple and idealistic mind as Pooh’s that just makes you smile.

We can’t be that way all of the time, but a little simplemindedness is good for us sometimes.

Enjoy something simple today.

Make it a great day.

Jake

“It takes a lot of time to be a genius. You have to sit around so much, doing nothing, really doing nothing.” ― Gertrude Stein

When was the last time you did nothing? Really nothing.

In today’s world full of constant entertainment and constant opportunity to be stimulated in some way, it is difficult to just sit quietly.

But that’s why it is probably more important now than it was in Gertrude’s time.

Because of all the distractions we need to make time to sit and do nothing.

We need that break from a constantly having our attention on something.

When could you make a little do nothing time?

Make it a great day.

Jake

Below is a short story that most of us have probably heard before.

The story illustrates for us one of the most important choices we have in life.

How will we react when things don’t go our way?

Make it a great day.

Jake

Once upon a time a daughter complained to her father that her life was miserable and that she didn’t know how she was going to make it. She was tired of fighting and struggling all the time. It seemed just as one problem was solved, another one soon followed.

Her father, a chef, took her to the kitchen. He filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Once the three pots began to boil, he placed potatoes in one pot, eggs in the second pot, and ground coffee beans in the third pot.

He then let them sit and boil, without saying a word to his daughter. The daughter, moaned and impatiently waited, wondering what he was doing.

After twenty minutes he turned off the burners. He took the potatoes out of the pot and placed them in a bowl. He pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl.

He then ladled the coffee out and placed it in a cup. Turning to her he asked. “Daughter, what do you see?”

“Potatoes, eggs, and coffee,” she hastily replied.

“Look closer,” he said, “and touch the potatoes.” She did and noted that they were soft. He then asked her to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg. Finally, he asked her to sip the coffee. Its rich aroma brought a smile to her face.

“Father, what does this mean?” she asked.

He then explained that the potatoes, the eggs and coffee beans had each faced the same adversity– the boiling water.

However, each one reacted differently.

The potato went in strong, hard, and unrelenting, but in boiling water, it became soft and weak.

The egg was fragile, with the thin outer shell protecting its liquid interior until it was put in the boiling water. Then the inside of the egg became hard.

However, the ground coffee beans were unique. After they were exposed to the boiling water, they changed the water and created something new.

“Which are you,” he asked his daughter. “When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a potato, an egg, or a coffee bean? “

http://youtu.be/w5tWYmIOWGk

On top of the world.

We have so many reasons to be on top of the world.

Search today for your reasons to feel on top of the world.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Everything you want should be yours: the type of work you want; the relationships you need; the social, mental, and aesthetic stimulation that will make you happy and fulfilled; the money you require for the lifestyle that is appropriate to you; and any requirement that you may (or may not) have for achievement or service to others. If you don’t aim for it all, you’ll never get it all. To aim for it requires that you know what you want. – Richard Koch

What a great reminder of a simple concept.

You have to know what you want in order to get it.

We all have some idea on how to set goals and how to see them through to completion.

How to prioritize our time to get the important stuff done first.

But it all starts with what is important. What do we want.

We have the ability to have the life we design for ourselves, but we must design it.

Make it a great day.

Jake

In CS Lewis’s book The Great Divorce he tells the story of a bus ride from hell to heaven and the ensuing

BAD – Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace – Amelia Earhart

JW – I like a man who grins when he fights. – Prime Minister Winston Churchill

MS* – Temperance refers to all pleasures, and it means not abstaining, but going the right length and no further. – CS Lewis

EB* – I never said it would be easy, I only said it would be worth it. – Mae West

JD – Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything beautiful, for beauty is God’s handwriting. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Emerson quote above reminded me of how beautiful some of the sunrises have been lately.

I recently had a friend share how he was driving down the road and noticed the sunrise and realized what a miracle it was.

What struck me about talking with him and some others about this was how important it is to slow down enough to see it in the first place.

It’s hard to appreciate a sunrise or sunset if we are rushing from place to place, worried about the next to do on our list.

It’s much easier if we are sitting on the porch with a cup of coffee.

Make some time today to see the beauty around you.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Below is an excerpt from Band of Brothers. I recently read this book.

It is an amazing story about an amazing group of men.

This story stuck out to me because it shows how difficult battle and war can be for a person, but that hope and love can always win out.

Let’s be thankful for the service of others and spread hope and love wherever we can.

Make it a great day.

Jake

From Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose –

Sgt. Skinny Sisk also had a hard time shaking his war memories. In July 1991, he wrote Winters to explain. "My career after the war was trying to drink away the truckload of Krauts that I had stopped in Holland and the die-hard Nazi that I went up into the Bavarian Alps and killed. Old Moe Alley made a statement that all the killings that I did was going to jump into the bed with me one of these days and they surely did. I had a lot of flash backs after the war and started drinking. Ha! Ha!

Then my sister’s little daughter, four-years old, came into my bedroom (I was too unbearable to the rest of the family, either hung over or drunk) and she told me that Jesus loved me and she loved me and if I would repent God would forgive me for all the men I kept trying to kill all over again.

That little girl got to me. I put her out of my room, told her to go to her mommy. There and then I bowed my head on my mother’s old feather bed and repented and God forgave me for the war and all the other bad things I had done down through the years. I was ordained in the latter part of 1949 into the ministry and believe me, Dick, I haven’t whipped but one man since and he needed it. I have four children, nine grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

The Lord willing and Jesus tarrys and I hope to see you all at the next reunion. If not I’ll see you on the last jump. I know you won’t freeze in the door.

Groundhog Day. I can’t help but be reminded of the classic movie by the same name each February 2nd.

As I get older