Awareness — Page 102

BULLY

August 31, 2015 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

Sometimes. . .

The Bully gets

B U L L I E D

Most of the time, we’d stand up and cheer when we actually see or hear of this happening.

It is, actually, what makes this video so viral. . .

WE LOVE CHEERING FOR THE BULLIED. . .

The Underdog.

Here might be the question of the year. . .maybe even the decade. . .maybe this Century and

CENTURIES PAST:

What if the BULLY and the BULLIED

are one and the same. . .

What if

The Bully and the Bullied are actually

Y O U ?

The worst Bully you might ever encounter is the one that stares you down in the mirror

. . .there just might not be any more of a Brutal Bully.

I’m Fat. . .

I’m a Loser. . .

I’m Lazy. . .

I suck. . .

I’ll never get this right. . .

I’m not meant to be in a relationship. . .

I’ll never kick this habit. . .

I_________________________________. . . .

Whatever you believe about negative Self-Talk

YOU BETTER NOT BELIEVE THAT IT’s JUST IN YOUR HEAD !

The Research shows that HAPPY people have a way. . .a habit. . .of putting bad days behind them and LEAVING them there. . .

Head-butting the over matched, huge, big, bad Bully and not only standing up against that Bully

but actually

BACKING IT DOWN

Knock THAT TRAIN off it’s tracks.

We all do Self-Talk

We all do NEGATIVE Self -Talk

We all have the capability of doing POSITIVE Self-Talk

HOW?

Three Words:

C O N F I D A N T

S M A R T

E F F E C T I V E

Go ahead, Bullied,

Test it out. . .

The next time the Bully starts the trashing of YOU

Get YOUR BULLY on

See YOURSELF as Bullying the bully by being

Confident. . .Smart. . .Effective.

Hmmmmmmm of the The Day:

I bet that’ll get your Goat!

The ROUGH Side of the Sheets

August 21, 2015 By ChuckBehrens 8 Comments

It’s this simple:

The Other Side of The Sheets are always Rougher, Scratchy, More Abrasive. . .

N O T C O M F O R T A B L E

There’s no such thing as a perfect day, but this one came close to it.

Do near perfect days scare you?

Are near perfect days, the big

B E W A R E:

SOMETHING BAD IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN ?

Honestly. . .that thought didn’t cross my mind

THIS TIME!

After a very busy morning, we spent the rest of the day together.

We traveled two-and-a-half-hours to go visit and take my parents out to dinner. We spent over three hours together at a restaurant with them that felt more like less than thirty minutes.

We traveled the two-and-a-half-hour ride back home, much like we did there, talking, dreaming, scheming, singing songs from my LOVER PLAYLIST

We laughed, even got a little misty a couple of times when we talked about things of the past, the specialness of

THE NOW

and spoke of the great Look Ahead and how we saw ourselves

T H E R E

How many times do we say or heard it said:

GRAB THE MOMENT AND MAKE IT COUNT

NEVER PASS UP AN OPPORTUNITY TO SAY OR BETTER STILL, SHOW

I L OVE YOU.

. . .because ‘YOU NEVER KNOW’

We did THAT!

We knew it was GOOD

and we really embraced it for just THAT

We saw exactly how good Life was and then, it wasn’t. . .

We finally got home, but we really weren’t tired from a day of traveling;

Nearly perfect days REFRESH not REPRESS

We watched the end of a show on TV and then the 10:00 p.m. news and went to bed;

slept great.

We woke up early, just like always, ready to make the new day OUR’S like the day before

and before I could blink,

Erin had a seizure and then another one and then another one in the back of the ambulance and then another two in the emergency room. . . .

Before I could take a deep breath or several short gasped ones

We found ourselves on

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE SHEETS

We found the other side of the sheets

are much ROUGHER than any other side we’ve ever felt

RAZOR BLADE-LIKE. . . .

Myth of the Day:
Just because we have a Near-Perfect Day,

and Know it,

and Act Like it,

Experience it fully,

EMBRACE IT COMPLETELY. . .

WE STILL WANT MORE. . .always a just a little more. . . .

(For the next several Friday’s I will be posting about the ROUGH experiences from the other side of the sheets, and mostly. . .the lessons experienced, learned and now, hopefully, shared. I hope you enjoy the journey’s and more, take the opportunity to share a few of yours so that we can all learn a little more about those razor blade laden sheets…and in the sharing, soften them a little)

Paint Your Picture

August 17, 2015 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

It’s one thing to paint a

M A S T E R P I E C E

. . .And it’s quite another to just realize

YOU are a MASTERPIECE

John Bramblitt

went blind and only then began to really see. . .amazing that he felt going blind was actually the BEGINNING, the Prerequisite of him becoming an artist?

Have you ever gotten the feeling that there just might be something else you no way, no how, ever can do?

John Bramblitt is a blind artist from Texas who not only had sight, but is now blind, but

NOW AN ARTIST WHEN HE ONCE WAS NONE!

John paints the most amazing, colorful paintings–and he can’t see them, but to paint them he just doesn’t

i m a g i n e

he actually feels them and maybe best of all. . .

makes you experience them!

Obviously the inspirational point is apparent. . .

or. . .or is it?

Need we become so blind to

g e t i t ?

Y O U

are the Masterpiece the YOU need to BE

Y O U

are the Masterpiece the World needs to SEE

Y O U

are the Masterpiece that needs set Free

S E E, B E, F R E E

that magnificent Masterpiece in you

(o f t e n)

Get SHARED

The World is your Canvas. . .

waiting for your

C O L O R S

Deprive your Audience no longer!

The Drop

July 31, 2015 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

Has it ever happened to You. . .?

Over the past twenty-five years of running, I’ve found lots of things on the road, books, love letters, liquor, cigars, packs of cigarettes, money from $5.00 all the way up to $5o.00. In fact, the last time, I found about $30.00 that two girls had dropped after coming from the drug store. . .when I saw them retracting their steps and crying, literally crying about how much trouble they were about to get into for losing their mother’s money, I stopped them and asked,

“Did you lose any money?”

They both looked at me as if I had just dropped out of the sky from another planet.

“How much?”

They both said in unison, “Thirty dollars.”

“This looks like it might be yours,” I told them as I handed them the money.

I was shocked. . .when they both gave my sweaty body a big hug.

Now. . .it wasn’t quite as dramatic but it was as equally as powerful.

She was in line at Giant Eagle and she had already had paid for her groceries.

And then. . .then it happened.

She tossed her purse over her shoulder and out came her wallet and a nice wad of money.

She didn’t notice. . .

but me and a couple of guys in front of me D I D. . . .

They both looked back at me and one of them said, what we probably all three could have said:

“Dude. . .it sure is tempting, huh?”

And then he bent down and picked up the money and ran after the lady and gave it back to her.

Would you?

Have you?

Everyone would yell, “Y E S

But I just had a good friend, who runs a Landscaping Business, who had one of his employees be arrested after seeing someone drop their wallet and he picked it up and walked off with it–surveillance cameras

A R E E V E R Y W H E R E,

though. . .and they don’t blink.

Would you?

Have you?

I think of all of the things people have dropped. . .mistakenly. . .unnoticeably. . .

that haven’t been picked up

KEPT or RETURNED

as easy as a wad of money. . .

but. . . EVEN much more valuable. . . .

Look. . .literally SEE

Exactly what has been dropped right in front of you, you most likely never RECOGNIZED:

L O V E

K I N D N E S S

C O M P A S S I O N

H O P E

S T R E N G T H

____________________________. . . .

The Drop

happens everyday. . .

It’s the

Pick up we have the most trouble. . .

or determining what’s

TRASH or TREASURE

Team Begins With “I”

July 13, 2015 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

T E A M BEGINS WITH ” I “

Now THAT’S a headline grabber, isnt’ it?

In fact, it’s everything we have not been taught, isn’t it:

THERE IS NO ” I ” TEAM !

. . .and sure enough, according the the Dictionary you most likely no longer possess in ‘book-form’ there’s no question–absolutely, undeniably, unequivocally no “I” in Team–literally and figuratively–NO I

Uhhhh, yeah, I kind of beg to differ on a not so small technicality:

It is “I” that joins a Team. . .

It is “I” that a Team invites or accepts. . .

It is “I” that weakens or strengthens a Team. . .

It is “I” that chooses to be Team-Less. . .

It is “I” that really determines if the Team Soars or Sinks. . .

o r

is it

Y O U ?

There’s only one thing worse than getting your feathers ruffled. . .

L O S I N G T H E M

“I” will See you on the Hire-Wire, Team. . . .

What Year Your Heart Beats

July 10, 2015 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

Forget about Candles on a Cake. . .

They can never really determine how old your Heart Beats

How old does your Heart Beat?

I know it was a Youth For Christ weeklong event, somewhere in Pennsylvania. . .I was 15 or 16.

It was better than any Church Camp I ever attended or Directed.

It was filled with lots of memories, but none any more powerful than the last night.

It was a Girls vs. Boys Flamingo Football game, on a muddy field and it was intense.

Flamingo Football is when the guys have to do everything by hopping around on one leg while holding the other one by the ankle–like a Flamingo.

The girls had all the advantages and even though they were slipping and sliding all over the place, they at least had two feet to do it; I don’t think they scored all that much, but WE DIDN’T SCORE AT ALL. And they tackled and blocked HARD.

Everyone was covered with mud. . .some bloodied, most covered with bruises we couldn’t see because of the caked mud. It was 60 or so teenagers who became first or second graders not afraid to get dirty.

Muddy. . .all of us. . .we, without getting washed off or changed, were all marched into the cafeteria hall to hear about the lesson of the Mud Sessions. . . .

THE LESSON

actually took place as we were going into the Hall. . . .

The caretaker/owner of the property was holding the door for us as we were walking in. . .with the biggest smile on his face.

He was just as muddy as all of us. . .he was the referee. . .who couldn’t quite keep his feet under him

“Looks like you had a good time, sir. . .”

“The best time ever. . .you kids made me feel young again. . .

and it was better than actually being young the first time around. . . .”

I wish I could tell you that I made a pact with my muddy self right then and there; that promised I would never let the days of my youth slip/slide away into old age. . . .

But. . .but I did RE-Member. . .

And I just put it all back together again recently when I was out playing with my grand-nephew’s and a couple of my granddaughters.

My Heart beat young again

forgetting my Osteoarthritic Knees, my lack of range of motion, my A G E

I remember well how my heart beat that Friday night as a 16 year old mud-caked kid. . .

I remember well how that mud-caked old man smiled young as we walked past him into the dining hall. . .

I remember well how I wanted that moment to be more of a lifestyle than just an idle instant. . .

I remember well how I’ve tried to not only make my heart beat young, but help other hearts to beat just as young AGAIN. . . .

When was the last time you remember your heart beating young?

Q U I C K

Throw me the ball

or better still. . .catch it. . .

and run

or chase

someone to remember again.

And The Answer I S . . .

July 8, 2015 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

I really think it’s Time Magazine’s answer to Sport’s Illustrated, “The Swimsuit Issue,”

THE ANSWERS ISSUE

Outstanding. . .some 53 pages of A N S W E R S

But wait. . .is that really what we need more of: Data, Information, Content, Subject Matter. . . ?

TIME

Covered:

Who is Exceptional

Questions We Should Be Asking

Questions We Didn’t Know We Had

Questions Wd Didn’t Know We Had Answers

What’s This All About?

Do You Vote Your Lifestyle

And my personal favorite:

WHAT DEFINES US ?

HOLD ON. . .SEAT BELTS MIGHT BE REQUIRED AND USED:

82% of U.S. College Alumni who said they cheated during their undergraduate careers. . .

16% of American Kids who attend a school that provides every student at tablet or laptop. . .

30% of Tinder (An online dating app) users are married. . .

5% of Americans who are married or in a committed relationship met their partner online. . .

45% of U.S. federal prisoners report having a mental-health issue. . .

Around the World there are now 3,317 da Vinci surgery robots used for complex minimally evasive procedures…

71% of U.S. Catholics say Pope Francis represents a major change in direction for the Catholic Church. . .

There are over 700 million people in China who are religiously unafilliated; the most of any Country. . .

73% is the estimated growth rate of the global Muslim population from 2010 to 2050, making Islam the only major religious group projected to grow faster than the world’s overall population. . .

Seriously. . .out of all the data, all the world’s content, all of the information, all of the subject matter, there really is none greater, none more important than

This Question; This Answer:

WHAT DEFINES YOU ?

Is it what you believe?

Is it how you learn?

Is it how you police yourself?

Is it how you heal?

Well, ONE Thing is for sure. . .

It’s a much more important question than what came first, the Chicken or the Egg?

(Yeah. . .it’s THE EGG, Most Scientists say)

What say you?

What Defines You?

50% who just read this thought it was a question about the egg. . .

10% who read this actually might think about what actually defines them. . .

40% are wondering exactly what a definition is. . .

Thank you TIME

for the annual ANSWERS ISSUE

Merry-go-Rounds

July 3, 2015 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

The 4th of July Brings it out in all of us, doens’t it?

Our Childhoods. . . .

DO YOU REMEMBER:

What it was like. . .to be 8. . . ?

Let’s go to McDonald’s and think that it’s a five-star restaurant. Let’s sail sticks across fresh mud puddles and make different size ripples with different size rocks. . .

Let’s make M&M’s better than money–just because you can eat them; lets play dodge ball and be really messy when we paint with watercolors. . .

Let’s lie under a big oak tree and run a lemonade stand. . .

Let’s return to a time when life was severely simple; when all we knew were colors, multiplication tables, nursery rhymes, but it made no matter because we didn’t know and didn’t care all that much, either. . .

All we were at 8 were happy because we were mostly unaware of all the things that could ever make us upset or worried. . .

For maybe just a quick moment during this 4th of July, lets remember when we thought that the world was mostly fair and that everyone was honest and that are imaginations were vividly real and even so much more possible. . .

When. . .when did it happen. . .this thing of growing up. . .maturing? Now there’s Isis, and Wall Street, weapons and prejudice and abused children; there’s lies and unhappy marriages and the questions of who should marry; there’s pain, illness. . .there’s death. . .

What happened to that time when we thought that everyone would live forever because only plants and maybe sometimes a goldfish or a pet died; remember when the worst thing that ever happened was when we lost our only baseball or someone lost the jump rope or, heaven forbid, we were actually picked last for the kickball game?

Let’s go back to those days when we were addicted to hide-and-go-seek instead of our smart phones and apps. . .

Let’s go back to those days when we actually thought that everyone was happy, just because we were. . .

Let’s go back to those afternoons where we climbed trees and fences and rode bikes; where time, bills, or where we were going to get the money to fix__________________; where we wondered what we would be when we grew up and never worried about a Plan B if it didn’t work out. . .

Let’s have day without computer crashes and paperwork, depressing news, doctor bills, gossip, sickness and loss of loved ones; where the power of smiles, hugs, a kind word, truth, justice, peace, dreams, the imagination and snowball fights really heal and mean something. . .

Let’s Remember the only problem we ever had about the Merry-g0-Round wasn’t ever getting on, but having to get off?

Yeah. . .the 4th of July takes me back there

Hmmmmmmm. . .sometimes the 5th, 18th and 30th does, too. . .

Y O U ?

The Green Apron

May 29, 2015 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

Do you remember?

When was the first time that you were given a responsibility that you thought was just a little bit above you; just a frog’s hair out of your reach?

Has it happened more than just one time?

Was it at a new job or an old one with new duties?

When I walked in that early morning, she greeted me at the door. That was her job–to be a Greeter–and she always did it well. I always joked with her about how she was the sweetest person who ever told me where to go so nicely.

. . .but, but not that morning. . .that morning she was a bundle of nerves and not to be consoled all that easily. She, that day, was told because they had two call-off’s, she now had to be a waitress for the first time.

I wanted to volunteer to be her first customer but I wasn’t lucky enough. . .her section was already filled and she had to get to work.

Do you remember?

Do you remember the first time that you choked on what you bit off more than you could chew and didn’t think you could swallow or even spit it out?

Do you remember when you didn’t choke. . .in fact, that you really liked the taste and then couldn’t get enough of the same?

When was your Green Apron Moment?

We’ve all had those Green Apron moments before and most likely, if you have a pulse–you’ll have more to come; in fact, the best Green Apron moments just might be those you’ve yet to experience?

It was about a week later, I went back in very early morning and there was a Greeter who met me at the door who had a big smile on her face and quite a different look in her eye.

“What? No Green Apron today?”

“No,” she said smiling back. “They just need me to be a Greeter today.”

“How was it?”

“It was great. I never thought I could do it, but thinking back on it, I’m glad I didn’t have the choice or the time to even think about it. They just said, here’s the apron, go do it. . .oh yeah the tip money was awesome. People actually liked me.”

Isn’t that our biggest fear about our own Green Apron Moments. . .not so much that we may botch it up and fail miserably, but that, that maybe someone just may not like us?

Maybe the older we get the less opportunities for us to have our own Green Apron Moments–but they do exist, most especially where and when we least expect them.

THAT’S the Adventure of Living.

But if there’s one sure-fire guarantee in that living, it is that we most definitely are assured to be in the very presence of those who may be having their Green Apron Moments. . .

Forget about remembering your’s at that moment. . .

Make it your personal responsibility that they will never forget T H E I R S !

A Story With No Additional Words

May 4, 2015 By ChuckBehrens 2 Comments

Some stories are so good. . .

No additional words or commentary are ever necessary. . .

Except to be heard and then shared and shared and shared and shared until

The Story

is in everyone’s book–un-edited

and becomes so very, very, very familiar that everyone,

Not only does everybody KNOW IT

but it is so HO-HUM Mundanely EVERYDAY NORMAL that chewing gum on the bottom of an old-never-worn-again discarded pair of shoes becomes the biggest news of the day.

I bend my knee for THAT day!

SITE MAP