ugg0903

I was fifteen months old, a happy carefree kid until the day I fell. It was a bad fall. I landed on a glass rabbit which cut my eye badly enough to blind it. Trying to save the eye, the doctors stitched the eyeball together where it was cut, leaving a big ugly

scar in the middle of my eye. The attempt failed, but my mama, in all of her wisdom, found a doctor who knew that if the eye were removed entirely, my face would grow up badly distorted , so my scarred, sightless, cloudy and gray eye lived on with me.

And as I grew, this sightless eye in so many ways controlled me.

I walked with my face looking at the floor so people would not see the ugly me. Sometimes people, even strangers, asked me embarrassing questions or made hurtful remarks. When the kids played games, I was always the “monster.” I grew up imagining

that everyone looked at me with disdain , as if my appearance were my fault. I always felt like I was a freak.

Yet Mama would say to me, at every turn, “Hold your head up high and face the world.” It became a litany that I relied on. She had started when I was young. She would hold me in her arms and stroke my hair and say, “If you hold your head up high, it

will be okay, and people will see your beautiful soul.” She continued this message whenever I wanted to hide.

Those words have meant different things to me over the years. As a little child, I thought Mama meant, “Be careful or you will fall down or bump into something because you are not looking.” As an adolescent, even though I tended to look down to hide

my shame, I found that sometimes when I held my head up high and let people know me, they liked me. My mama’s words helped me begin to realize that by letting people look at my face, I let them recognize the intelligence and beauty behind both

eyes even if they couldn’t see it on the surface.

In high school I was successful both academically and socially. I was even elected class president, but on the inside I still felt like a freak. All I really wanted was to look like everyone else. When things got really bad, I would cry to my mama and she would

look at me with loving eyes and say, “Hold your head up high and face the world. Let them see the beauty that is inside.”

When I met the man who became my partner for life, we looked each other straight in the eye, and he told me I was beautiful inside and out . He meant it. My mama’s love and encouragement were the spark that gave me the confidence to overcome

my own doubt. I had faced adversity , encountered my problems head on, and learned not only to appreciate myself but to have deep compassion for others.

“Hold your head up high,” has been heard many times in my home. Each of my children has felt its invitation. The gift my mama gave me lives on in another generation.

It takes strength to do what must be done when the work is unpleasant and uncomfortable.

It takes strength to persist in the face of obstacles, when it would be much easier to simply give up.

It takes strength to be polite to someone when that person has been rude to you.

It takes strength to be truthful when a lie would be more convenient.

It takes strength to build for the future.

It takes strength to resist temptations and distractions.

It takes strength to do what is right.

It takes stength to do al these things. And all the while, these are the very things that build even more strength.

Be truthful, do what you know is right, put forth effort when it is called for, persist, and the more you do so, the more easily you’ll be able to do so. Exercise your strength, and you’ll surely grow stronger, more capable, and successful in each endeavor.

Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling some five balls in the air. You name them: Work, Family, Health, Friends, Spirit. And you re keeping all of these in the air. You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back.

But the other four balls-family, health, friends and spirit are made of glass. If you drop one of these, they will be irrevocably scuffed , marked, nicked , damaged or even shattered . They will never be the same. You must understand that and strive for

balance in your life.

How?

Don t undermine your worth by comparing yourself with others. It is because we are different that each of us is special.

Don t set your goals by what other people deem important. Only you know what is best for you.

Don t take for granted the things closest to your heart. Cling to them as you would cling to your life, for without them, life is meaningless.

Don t let your life slip through your fingers by living in the past or for the future. By living your life one day at a time, you live ALL the days of your life.

Don t give up when you still have something to give. Nothing is really over until the moment you stop trying.

Don t be afraid to admit that you are less than perfect. It is this fragile thread that binds us each together.

Don t be afraid to encounter risks. It is by taking chances that we learn how to be brave.

Don t shut love out of your life by saying it s impossible to find. The quickest way to receive love is to give; the fastest way to lose love is to hold it too tightly; and the best way to keep love is to give it wings.

Don t run through life so fast that you forget not only where you ve been, but also where you are going.

“We are reading the first verse of the first chapter of a book whose pages are infinite…”

I do not know who wrote those words, but I have always liked them as a reminder that the future can be anything we want to make it. We can take the mysterious, hazy future and carve out of it anything that we can imagine, just as a sculptor carves a

statue from a shapeless stone.

We are all in the position of the farmer. If we plant a good seed, we reap a good harvest. If our seed is poor and full of weeds, we reap a useless crop. If we plant nothing at all, we harvest nothing at all.

I want the future to be better than the past. I don’t want it contaminated by the mistakes and errors with which history is filled. We should all be concerned about the future because that is where we will spend the remainder of our lives.

The past is gone and static. Nothing we can do will change it. The future is before us and dynamic. Everything we do will affect it. Each day brings with it new frontiers, in our homes and in our business, if we only recognize them. We are just at the

beginning of the progress in every field of human endeavor.

as more and more short skirts,

bare legs cut out the total length of which need some interesting things to attracted the eye.
This season, if you intend to make purchases and ankle boots,

shoes and boots, or clogs, the following key points must be borne in mind.

First of all, do not listen to those who say these shoes are ugly people calumny,

even those who said this is yourself. I might reveal a little secret, a few years ago,

It’s still great advice. “A haircut can bring life back to hair by removing the very driest and most damaged area—the ends,” says Ritcey. “This gives it more lift and bounce,

and will usually make the hair feel thicker.”
Pick up a brush
Remember that old adage about giving your hair 100 strokes with a brush to keep it beautiful?

There’s some truth to that. Brushing brings hair’s natural oils from the roots to the ends,

acting as a natural moisturizer, and it’s also a great massage for the scalp, says Ritcey.

“Getting the blood circulating helps to provide a better environment for the hair follicle to live in,”

he says. “Healthy hair thrives in a healthy scalp situation

The pure.the bright,the beautiful,
That stirred our hearts in youth,
The impulses to wordless prayer,
The dreams of love and truth;
The longing after something’s lost,
The spirit’s yearning cry,
The striving after better hopes-
These things can never die.
The timid hand stretched forth to aid
A brother in his need,
A kindly word in grief’s dark hour
That proves a friend indeed ;
The plea for mercy softly breathed,
When justice threatens nigh,
The sorrow of a contrite heart-
These things shall never die.
Let nothing pass for every hand
Must find some work to do ;
Lose not a chance to waken love-
Be firm,and just ,and true;
So shall a light that cannot fade
Beam on thee from on high.
And angel voices say to thee
These things shall never die.

In the beginning, all things are hopeful. We prepare ourselves to start anew. Though we may be intent on the magnificent journey ahead, all things are contained in the first moment: our optimism, our faith, our resolution, our innocence.
In order to start, we must make a decision. The decision is a commitment to daily self-cultivation. We must make a strong connection to our inner selves. Outside matters are superfluous. Alone and naked, we negotiate all of life’s travails. Therefore, we

alone must make something of ourselves, transforming ourselves into the instruments for experiencing the deepest spiritual essence of life.
Once we make our decision, all things will come too us. Auspicious signs are not a superstition, but a confirmation. They are a response. It is said that if one chooses to pray to a rock with enough devotion, even that rock will come alive. In the same way,

once we choose to commit ourselves to spiritual practice, even the mountains and valleys will reverberate to the sound of our decision.

The More Loving One

–W.H.Auden/W.H.

 
Looking up at the stars, I know quite well

That, for all they care, I can go to hell,

But on earth indifference is the least

We have to dread from man or beast.

How should we like it were stars to burn

With a passion for us we could not return?

If equal affection cannot be,

Let the more loving one be me.

Admirer as I think I am

Of stars that do not give a damn,

I cannot, now I see them ,say

I missed one terribly all day.

Were all stars to disappear or die

I should learn to look at an empty sky

And feel its total dark sublime,

Though this might take me a little time.

It was New Year’s Night. An aged man was standing at a window. He raised his mournful eyes towards the deep blue sky, where the stars were floating like white lilies on the surface of a clear calm lake. Then he cast them on the earth, where few more hopeless people than himself now moved towards their certain goal——the tomb. He had already passed sixty of the stages leading to it, and he had brought from his journey nothing but errors and remorse. Now his health was poor, his mind vacant, his heart sorrowful, and his old age short of comforts.

The days of his youth appeared like dreams before him, and he recalled the serious moment when his father placed him at the entrance of the two roads——one leading to a peaceful, sunny place, covered with flowers, fruits and resounding with soft, sweet songs; the other leading to a deep, dark cave, which was endless, where poison flowed instead of water and where devils and poisonous snakes hissed and crawled.

He looked towards the sky and cried painfully, “O youth, return! O my father, place me once more at the entrance to life, and I’ll choose the better way!” But both his father and the days of his youth had passed away.

He was the lights flowing away in the darkness. These were the days of his wasted life; he saw a star fall from the sky and disappeared, and this was the symbol of himself. His remorse, which was like a sharp arrow, struck deeply into his heart. Then he remembered his friends in his childhood, who entered on life together with him. But they had made their way to success and were now honoured and happy on this New Year’s night.

The clock in the high church tower struck and the sound made him remember his parents’ early love for him. They had taught him and prayed to God for his good. But he chose the wrong way. With shame and grief he dared no longer look towards that heaven where his father live. His darkened eyes were full of tears, and with a despairing effort, he burst out a cry: “Come back, my early days! Come back!”

And his youth did return, for all this was only a dream which he had on New Year’s Night. He was still young though his faults were real; he had not yet entered the deep, dark cave, and he was still free to walk on the road which leads to the peaceful and sunny land.

Those who still linger on the entrance of life, hesitating to choose the bright road, remember that when years are passed and your feet stumble on the dark mountains, you will cry bitterly, but in vain: “O youth, return! Oh give me back my early days!”