Victory in ......

Family In human context , a family (from Latin : familia ) is a group of people affiliated by consanguinity , affinity , or co-residence. In most societies it is the principal institution for the socialization of children. Anthropologists most generally classify family organization as matrilocal (a mother and her children); conjugal (a wife, husband, and children, also called nuclear family ; and consanguinal (also called an extended family) in which parents and children co-reside with other members of one parent's family. At Christmas, I was thinking about all of these statistics. How can society overcome so much negative? We can..... In 2010, 66 percent of children ages 0–17 lived with two married parents, down from 77 percent in 1980. We can.....promote marriage. In 2009, 41 percent of all births were to unmarried women. We can..... promote chastity. In 1960, only 9% of children in the United States lived with single parents. By 1995 that figure rose to 27%. We ca...

In life it is amazing how many people you come to know and meet along the way. It seems like you are always coming upon new aquaintances that can help you throughout your journey. However, it are those relationships that you remember and recall from time to time that make the difference. It are those people who you would call truly friends. The onces you trust, the ones you have shared stories and times with that no one else has. Its the people who are there when you need them or the once who just listen, laugh, and cry with you. Just like the picture says. They may not always be where you can see them, but you always know that when you do you can pick up right where you left off. A trail of memories, that when placed together, make a masterpiece of collection of greatest hits. Don't take them for granted or forget them. Good friends can  often shoot through the sky like a falling star, but true friends can keep you on your true North guiding you to a better you.

Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose," Mr. Jobs said in a commencement speech at Stanford University in June 2005, almost a year after he was diagnosed with cancer. Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304447804576410753210811910.html#ixzz1aFgB2LuE

An unexpected gift tonight has prompted me to write a quick note of thanks for my Aunt. She has an amazing gift in crafting beautiful stained glass structures, Tiffany's, and many other items. This one being the beautiful church I remember seeing for the first time a few years back. I forget exactly how it came about, but I distinctly remember seeing this piece and mentioning to take it back home to my place one day. Well the day has come, all the way from the east coast it arrived packaged in bubble wrap greeting an astounded nephew. I found it hard to even touch it for fear of harming such an awesome creation. So I am indebted to a visit out east after this, no doubt. I could never repay the wonderful gift she has given, let alone the time and effort it took to even learn the craft in the first place. I love you. While I sat and thought about it on the way home. I realized how ironic the term "stained glass" hit my logical mind. Normally somethin...

I appreciate this excerpt of a speech so much especially when faced with those slow to act and confrontationists. It's not the critic that counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errors and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat. -Theodore Roosevelt We watch movie after movie of entertaining lives of those who have dared to enter the arena in whatever form you want to talk about. I feel it is...

There are many pleading whoas and raging their gnashing teeth in the streets of America. It seems that everyone is either "fed" up or "given" in. As hard times ebb and flow like the waves on the ocean, it is our resolve to prepare for such barreling waves of trouble. Maybe you find yourself under a wave, rolling in what seems like an endless current. You might possibly feel like a Jonah, spit up on the beach in wonderment of how you got where you are. Somehow you have found yourself here, in this place, at this moment. Not hours before or years ahead, but here....NOW. Hard times can befall us all, but we don't end our journey in hard times. You might say, well this is going to be just another motivational post of getting up and dusting ourselves off. I don't reconcile that fact. Yes we must get up, but it is why we get up that lasts. Of all success that I have seen, no one can boost they did it alone, nor should they. We have all had the helping hand of on...

After reviewing the book Compassionate Samurai by Brian Klemmer, I felt the need to post his excerpt on choice. It seems that most in our nation are choosing to not choose. It seems as most are seemingly spiraling out of control to each whim and whirl of the next entertaining episode or media craze of the day. I truly wish for all to find true joy in their ability to choose their outcomes over time as they choose to serve as the samurai did. When we choose to not follow a crowd and decide to stand firm on principles, we indirectly influence the choice of others. A friend and colleague Chris Brady references the ability of a person to become the example of a more straightened line to influence others by showing them the line that you keep as a standard. We have a life to live, possibly a family to take care of, obligations, fears, and dreams. At some point, a choice is to be made. That choice will be to live on purpose or to keep going through the motions as the speeding hour glas...

IN REMEMBRANCE OF CHUCK BURKETT: I am still shocked to hear of a good friend meeting the end of his journey on the earth with us. I can't get out of my head the scripture in James that talks of how life is a vapor and that we are not meant to physically sustain this life. We are so fragile and we are just here temporarily. Chuck's family I am sure is in turmoil over the loss and will be stricken with great sorrow for some time. I can't imagine burying a son, brother, or sister at such a young age. However, I can't forget how blessed we have been to share this life with Chuck for 32 years, some of us longer and some of us not so long. Through it all his smile echoes the life he has left behind. He did it right. He would help anyone with anything and just smile in return. His craftsmanship with vehicles set him apart from many others. Not only could he light you up with a smile, but fix your broken down problems with those magic hands. I couldn't get these words o...

Once in a while, a person gets the urge to drift in their minds to a place of wonder and excitement. That place is a place that allows them to leave their "physical and emotional" baggage at the door of their sub concious and enter into a state of epiphany. For a person that is new to the experience, it is often hard to allow the process to be a regular occurance. The process almost becomes painful over time because all their logic seems to pull them away from getting their "hopes" up. It sometimes is even verbalized by dear friends and loved ones that one has entrusted their deep kept emotions to. You may not think it happens a lot. You may not even know too many. However, there are those that have made a discipline of recreating this process in their minds over and over until realized. There are those special groups of people out there that carry the torch of keeping this process alive. These are the world changers, the hope bringers, and the influencers that ...

I was humbled to be able to attend a conference on teaching people how money works this last weekend. I was awakened to common sense thinking about money and how it is used as leverage in ones life. Many have been sold traditional investing methods that have taken so much from many good people. Amount invested + time + rate of return = results doesn't work anymore. Average rates of return calculators that try to predict ones wealth have broken the backs of many of our families dreams. The public can awaken to this fact by just doing simple math. The fact of the matter is that rates of return do not matter anymore. The lost decade of return has netted 1-2%. Numbers tell us that we need 12.8% return before taxes to just stay ahead of the value of the dollar. As you can see, rates of return have become negligible due to inflation and taxing of the American dollar. The impact of the market has destroyed many hopes of retirement and yet they continue to count on th...

I wanted to write this message just to remind all of us to chase our dreams, rather than just live a life that we are “used to” or just getting by. It seems like over this last few months many have felt the pressure of time getting away from them, or the so called economic crisis crushing some hopes, or even totally forgetting what one has been put on the earth for. This is a reminder that these effects will not get better soon so it’s good to have the healthy insulation of a dream to protect you. The interactions with political views, television ads, sports teams, and entertaining pleasures continue to wear the winning garb of conversations in the air. These are the topics I encourage all of us to address. Fight back with great books, great association, and a great culture of mentorship. I hope this message find you and yours at a time where you can knock of the shackles and barnacles of everyday life. I encourage you to start the dream cycle of what could be. Your dream is like a r...