Feliz Viernes … a todo el mundo!
Happy Friday, All!
Yes, yes . . . and T.G.l.F.! IT is another day you and me are trading in for our lives! And I think we’d better enjoy it! “Do the right thing!” Right about now, with this theme of “being your self”, so many quotes and anecdotes, so many authors and their sayings, so many moments of my life when I questioned my “self” swirl in my head. Those of you who know me and have some idea where I am coming from . . . not easy though . . . can hopefully embrace this notion of “being your self”. I am approaching a milestone in my own life with another birthday next month. Us humans like to “mark time” with different events as evidenced by the invention of the calendar, and only The Creator knows how far back that goes and who it was who thought it up.
All of the things we experience in life are indeed lessons. Each day is an opportunity to learn those new lessons, and, if possible, share it with others. Just a few days ago, there was a story in the news of a couple of young men in an obvious “home styled kitchen” restaurant here in Lauderhill or Ft. Lauderdale. The news story had a video of one of the youngsters stealing money from the tip jar that sat right on the counter where the patrons formed a line to place orders and receive their food. One of the young men must have reached in to the tip jar at least seven times, taking the money out, not noticing the camera over his head capturing each and every time he took bills from the jar! This character then paid for his food with the very same money he had stolen from the tip jar! Sad thing is, he thought it was funny … They are looking for this character, whose image was so clear on the video, to prosecute him. In the meantime, a viewer of Channel 7 News here saw the story and came to the restaurant with an envelope “full of money” to give to the waitress/counter clerk/mother who depended on those tips to get by!!! What an exceptional gesture of kindness this “suit and tie” clad gentleman displayed, which was also captured by the news staff at Channel 7, WSVN! He said, “I just wanted to help and wanted her to know that there are good people still left in the world!”
Back in my days at St. Paul’s School in New Hampshire, I was growing up like many a teen, and, no … I didn’t do EVERYTHING right. Yes, I made some mistakes in my youthful “ignorance”. Yet, upon my graduation, when asked to put a quote under my photograph to be placed in the yearbook, I wrote: “Be yourself, because you are you!” I was seventeen and had never heard of Oscar Wilde’s famous saying, “Be yourself, everyone else is taken!” Yet, after several short years on the planet, I came up with this quote to be placed underneath my prep school yearbook photo! Coincidence … or proof of who I was trying to become?! Now, today, I am not exactly sure of “who I am” nor exactly how I am going to “get there”, but I embrace every opportunity to “know myself” and share it with others. There are hundreds of quotes with this theme in it. This Sunday, “Meditation in Miami” presents an evening with bestselling author, Mike George, entitled “Free your self by being yourself.” It is being held at Unity on the Bay, 411 NE 21st Street, Miami on Sunday, June 22, 2014 from 5:30-7:30pm. The event is free! I plan to attend with my Brahma Kumaris friends after being invited by Roz Reich. I am excited to see my friends Marianne, Roz, Etta and Ella as well as Sister Veronica, who also spoke at last week’s “World Peace Meditation” in Hollywood’s Arts Park which I attended last Sunday. I look forward to hearing Mike George, too!
By all means, folks, give yourself a decent shot at life … after all, you deserve to be “you”!
Peace,
John I. Cook
Educational Excellence 