Happiness — Page 82

DYER’D NEED

September 9, 2015 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

People die everyday. . .

Sometimes very famous, very influential people

Two such people died on August 31:

Oliver Sacks and Dr. Wayne Dyer.

I’ve read many of Wayne’s books and actually heard him speak once. . .

His message?

Be open

Be forgiving

Be loving

Be Compassionate

“Upon waking, let the words THANK YOU flow from your lips, for this will remind you to begin your day with gratitude and compassion. make it a practice to begin each day by thinking first of someone else and then making a decision to actively do something, anything, that will bring a smile to someone’s face. When you become conscious of wanting to do something kind for another human being, you move into a higher way of being. It takes your thoughts off of yourself and WHAT’s IN IT FOR ME? and puts them on HOW MAY I SERVE? which is precisely how the universal mind we call Tao or God is always operating. When you’re aligned with a compassionate outlook, your entire day will reflect that kind of awareness.

Some suggestions for getting you started: Email a note of appreciation, say a kind word, apologize to an individual you’ve needed to make amends with, pick a few wildflowers and hand them to someone, give away some personal items such as books or jewelry, or send a smile toward someone that might brighten their moment….

–Wayne Dyer in EXCUSES BEGONE!

It’s one thing to Teach the Lesson. . .

It’s quite another to Learn it. . .

and absolutely another to simply

LIVE IT

My personal, favorite take away:

“IF YOU HAVE CHOICE BETWEEN BEING RIGHT OR KIND. . .PICK KIND”

Maybe the best way a person who has impacted us, lives on not so much by remembering their words but by actually living them to our fullest abilities. . .

M A Y B E

OR. . . .

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.

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 ?

Just Because

January 21, 2015 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

We did it.

It was usually during Summer vacations when we were actually on vacation, too.

We’d let the kids eat DESSERT FOR BREAKFAST?

Sometimes it would be cake

Sometimes it would be pie

Sometimes it would be cookies

Sometimes it would be popcorn

Sometimes it would be ice-cream

Sometimes it would be a bag of candy

I noticed it without really trying to notice. . .

So did THEY

We all did.

Seriously, it was 7:30 A. M. Before School.

Among the French toast, easy over eggs, pancakes, sausage patties and links, bacon and hash browns…

THERE IT WAS:

A Huge Chocolate Fudge Sundae

His eyes were shiny and huge and very appreciative.

His Father?

Well, he seemed very pleased to appease.

Was it a reward?

A paid off bet?

A bribe?

An Equalizer?

The other two kids from a couple of tables down almost immediately stopped eating and couldn’t stop ogling that mountain of quickly disappearing fudge and dripping vanilla ice-cream with whipped frosting.

THEIR’S was not to know THAT pleasure at 7:44 that morning.

When I went to the register to pay for my cheesy eggs and side of bacon with a fountain of coffee, the mother of the two kids who couldn’t stop looking at the Sundae which had magically disappeared before their eyes, but not his face…

“What’s with the kid getting a Sundae before eight-o’clock in the morning?”

The waitress behind the register said, “You know, I asked they guy the same thing when the kid ordered it.”

“Well, what did he say,” the mom insistently wanted to know?

“He said, well He said, JUST BECAUSE…”

“JUST BECAUSE,” Mom bellowed probably louder than she thought so that everyone stopped stirring, scooping, slicing, cutting, slurping and eating and just looked up. “LIKE THAT’S A REASON?”

T H A T

happened about three weeks ago between that magical time…those beautiful moments…between Christmas and New Year’s before the Holiday glitter of glorious globed world settled down

AGAIN

It keeps bouncing around my head, well, actually more my heart…

Of THOSE TIMES

once lived but never forgotten and now remembered…

LIVED ALL OVER AGAIN!

I had to bring them to page for Peace and for even more RE-Memberings

It’s like I just discovered a beautiful, unknown Continent–

in just two words:

JUST BECAUSE

Hey, Sundae’s for ALL, on me, for the bestest reasons of all:

J U S T

B E C A U S E

A Necessary Heart Attack

December 22, 2014 By ChuckBehrens 2 Comments

So what is IT?

We’ve been bombarded almost constantly, some say since Christmas In July, with

C H R I S T M A S !

So what is your favorite Christmas movie or animation, because they’ve been on since Thanksgiving?

I think mine is the THE GRINCH WHO STOLE CHRISTMAS but it’s not a run-a-way winner by far. I like them all.

I think I choose the Grinch because of one particular scene that I loved from the book written in

1957. . . .

(SEE, EVEN IN 1957 THEY WERE TALKING ABOUT THE TRUE MEANING OF CHRISTMAS AND WHAT MAKES IT SO SIGNIFICANT TO SO MANY. . . .)

“. . .AND THE GRINCH, WITH HIS GRINCH-FEET ICE COLD IN THE SNOW, STOOD PUZZLING AND PUZZLING, HOW COULD IT BE SO? IT CAME WITHOUT RIBBONS. IT CAME WITHOUT TAGS. IT CAME WITHOUT PACKAGES, BOXES OR BAGS. AND HE PUZZLED AND PUZZLED ‘TILL HIS PUZZLER WAS SORE. THEN THE GRINCH THOUGHT OF SOMETHING HE HADN’T THOUGHT OF BEFORE. WHAT IF CHRISTMAS, HE THOUGHT, DOESN’T COME FROM A STORE? WHAT IF CHRISTMAS, PERHAPS, MEANS A LITTLE BIT MORE?”

Could be the greatest WHAT IT ever, huh?

or maybe. . .

WHAT IF…

Christmas is less about RELIGION and severely about what R E A L L Y

makes our Hearts grow Three times M O R E?

Well, now. . .

That’s a HEART ATTACK we all could afford…

Even…EVEN…

n e c e s s a r y.

The covers are turned down;

See you in the C. C. U.

S T A T !

Make JUST ONE Happy

December 1, 2014 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

Commercials have just one purpose and one purpose only, don’t they?

TO SELL. . .LOTS!

To be sure, it costs lots to advertise so there is much done to assure that the very highest returns are going to be about as guaranteed as possible.

Commercials during the Holidays have the same, purpose–to SELL–unless. . . .

I remember listening to Jimmy Durante in my grandparents home. We use to make fun of his album covers and his humongous “S C H N O Z.”

I remember, in particular this song, MAKE SOMEONE HAPPY

I remember, in particular being told that IT was the easiest thing to do–make someone happy.

I remember, in particular being SHOWN IT was the easiest thing to happen–being made happy.

We often get it wrong, don’t we? We think that it’s a huge World-wide project–it’s NOT.

It’s NOT about the World or a Country. . .

It’s NOT about a State or a Town. . .

It’s NOT about a neighborhood or even the street you live on. . .

IT is just about A Person!

Just ONE SINGLE PERSON. . .

The ONE closest to you,

The next ONE meet,

The next ONE you happen to run into wherever you might be.

NO ONE ELSE CAN DO FOR ANOTHER WHAT IT IS THAT YOU CAN DO!

(That should be enough to make your HAPPY SELF spill over and splash many who happen to be in YOUR Range)

Commercials have just one purpose and only one purpose. . .until they don’t. . .and then you don’t so much buy, but BUY IN.

Here’s to BUYING IN to what Amazon Prime never stocks and Coca-Cola will never quite quench–that which seems so very much enhanced this time of the year: HAPPINESS!

May it be that one PANDEMIC that we never recover–whatever the Season.

May it be that YOU are an infected carrier for which there is no antidotes, medications, interventions or cures.

MAKE SOMEONE HAPPY

And then try, defy yourself NOT to be Happy as well.

Now THAT’S a Ripple that’s endless–

Look at YOU!

Refrained

November 28, 2014 By ChuckBehrens 2 Comments

Come, have a seat with me.

W H E W. . .

we made it.

It’s OVER

and Beginning, isn’t it?

T H A N K S G I V I N G

Sometimes the best thing that can be said of it is:

WE SURVIVED IT.

We survived food–lots of it.

We survived family–lots of them.

We survived football–lots of it.

We survived early BLACK FRIDAY stampedes–lots of them.

WE SURVIVED the THANKSGIVING-TUDE

. . .barely.

There are the 3 6 4 other days we have to contend with us being reminded
why
how
that
we are a Thankful people.

So. . .

as you put the Feast coma behind you

as you begin that not-so-long journey deeper into Happy Holiday time,

How about a little REFRAINING?

No, not that kind of refraining from Something, but the Refrain of that Song that just won’t leave your mind now that you’ve heard a huge dose of it.

A simple Refrain of:

STILL THANKFUL.

Join me:

That we’ve yet to live a day where the Sun comes up and goes down. . .

STILL THANKFUL.

For Hands to hold and be Held. . .

STILL THANKFUL.

For Prayers answered and unanswered. . .

STILL THANKFUL.

For Hearts that beat and enhances the beating of other hearts. . .

STILL THANKFUL.

For Songs not yet written, still being Sung. . .

STILL THANKFUL.

For bodies that break and heal. . .

STILL THANKFUL.

For minds that don’t know everything but capable of learning anything. . .

STILL ThANKFUL

For pockets that aren’t always full but stomachs that mostly are. . .

STILL THANKFUL.

For houses that aren’t paid for, but shelter anyway. . .

STILL THANKFUL.

For jobs that might not always be fruitful, but pay the bills. . .

For clothes not always in style, but offering cover, comfort and warmth. . .

STILL THANKFUL.

For all that is and isn’t, was and wasn’t. . .

STILL THANKFUL.

For____________________________________________________. . .

STILL THANKFUL.

I call it my THANKSGIVING CHAIR. I don’t sit in it as often as I should–especially when I need to the most: WHEN I’M LEAST THANKFUL.

But. . .more and more over these past few weeks I have made my way to THAT place a little more often.

Do you have a THANKSGIVING CHAIR?

Is there a P L A C E

–In Good and Bad–

where you just go, just go and sit…

Just sit and experience, THANK YOU?

In many different ways, in many different places, with many different people,

we celebrated Thanksgiving, YESTERDAY.

For all that now remains. . .continues. . .begins. . .may the Refrain be constant:

STILL THANKFUL

Come. . .have a seat with me.

Flashes

August 25, 2014 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

Today is August 25, four months, or about 120 days away from Christmas.

Hey, I make no excuses or do little to hide that Christmas is my favorite day of the year…actually, my favorite Season and in many ways, it’s already begun. I’ve seen Christmas decorations in some department stores–even before Labor Day. To me, it’s a great reminder of not only WHAT IS COMING, but WHAT IS ACTUALLY HERE!

Now.

What’s your favorite time of the year? What’s your favorite Season? What’s that one time during the 364 days that you always yearn, look forward to–C E L E B R A T E?

Is it your Birthday?

Anniversary?

A landmark moment of good news?

We do, don’t we?

We get F L A S H E S of it other than at an actual moment, the time, or the day, don’t we.

When’s the last time a day has come up and Flashed it self on you; surprised you, made you sit up and realize that your favorite day isn’t a day at all, not a season, a moment or an event–but a lifestyle?

If you lived with an expectancy, or better still, an actual KNOWING, that everyday contains not just elements but the very ingredients of whatever makes YOUR DAY ordinary, EXTRAordinary…wouldn’t Life be a little different?

NO…I don’t think so.

Anyone can DECIDE to have a good day–few actually DO.

Don’t be the proverbial Frog, sitting on a log who DECIDES to jump off–Deciding will keep him on that log for an eternity–L E A P!

News F L A S H

Your Special Day isn’t on the calendar, a time coming or going….

It’s NOW!

If you’ll excuse me, Fa-la-la-la-la, La, La, La LAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

We Are Each of These

May 9, 2014 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

It’s the absolute Truest thing about any One person that any One person doesn’t actually believe.

. . .That we are MORE!

When someone asks us what we do, we usually have A answer for them, and seldom does it include more than just ONE thing.

Oh, we’ll shout it all day long and half of the night, that, “WE ARE THE SUM PARTS OF ALL OUR LIFE EXPERIENCES…”

“Do-Dah, Do-Dah,” right? We’ve sung the song, most of the verses, many times over haven’t we, and yet we still at our very core don’t actually believe that we are P L U R A L and not Singular?

Few of us would argue, debate or disagree with George Washington Carver when he tells us:

“HOW FAR YOU GO DEPENDS OF BEING TENDER TO THE YOUNG
COMPASSIONATE TO THE ELDERLY
SYMPATHETIC TO THE STRIVING
TOLERANT TO THE STRONG AND THE WEAK. . .
BECAUSE ONE DAY. . .ONE DAY. . .YOU WILL HAVE BEEN EACH OF THESE!”

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A Gift

February 10, 2014 By ChuckBehrens 2 Comments

Dare I take up the next 6:19 minutes of your Life?

Dare you squander it?

Dare you Miss It?

Michael Pollack. You certainly know the name, right?

I didn’t know of him…never heard of him before 10 minutes ago.

Billy Joel.

I’ve liked his music since his very first song, “Piano Man” in the early 70’s.

I remember one story, because of his busy concert schedule, he was going to miss his only child’s, his daughter’s Birthday and she was devastated by the news…he was more so.

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