Are you really open to God's blessings?

The answers to our prayers are always right in front of us, yet we miss them many times because we are not focused on the day we are in with openess to what God offers us this very day. Let us all pray today that our hearts will be open, with the peace of the Holy Spirit, to see all of the things that God has already provided for us. This is a wonderful daily habit to develop.

Declaration of Independence - Text

“Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.” – Benjamin Franklin


When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. –Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the state remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.

He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.

He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature.

He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states:

For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing taxes on us without our consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury:

For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses:

For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule in these colonies:

For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments:

For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow citizens taken captive on the high seas to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare, is undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends.

We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.

New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts: John Hancock, Samual Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut: Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York: William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey: Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania: Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware: Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland: Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia: George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina: William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina: Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton



Read more: Declaration of Independence Text | 4th of July Quotes | Independence Day Quotes | The Daily Inquirer http://www.thedailyinquirer.net/declaration-of-independence-text-4th-of-july-quotes-independence-day-quotes/0717119#ixzz0sj6dq1fq
Via: The Daily Inquirer

Love is patient, Love is kind

Standing beside you I took an oath to make your life simpler by complicating mine, and what I always thought would happen did. I was lifted up in joy!

Summer Solstice Celebration: Yoga in Times Square - Happening LIVE today!

http://www.earthcam.com/usa/newyork/timessquare/?cam=lennon_hd

The Summer Solstice is the longest day of the year, and occurs on June 21st in the Northern Hemisphere. After the Summer Solstice the days begin to get imperceptibly shorter each day, until the Fall Equinox, when day and night are of equal length. The Winter Solstice is the shortest day of the year, and the Spring Equinox finds the days and nights equal once again. Then the days begin to get longer until another Summer Solstice occurs. These changes in the orientation of the earth and its orbit are what create seasons.

The Summer Solstice occurs on June 20-21 each year. It is considered the official first day of summer in the Northern Hemisphere and of Winter in the Southern Hemisphere. As the earth spins on its axis, it tilts either toward or away from the sun. When it tilts towards the sun, between June and September, it creates summer in the northern hemisphere; from December to March, it tilts away from the sun, creating winter in the Northern Hemisphere.

Many cultures celebrate the solstices and the equinoxes, and many holidays have emerged to commemorate them. Christmas's pagan origins arose out of the Winter Solstice celebration. Other holidays such as Yalda, Saturnalia, Karachun, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and Yule are also celebrated around this time.

Recognition

Without a doubt, providing recognition is one of the best ways (if not the best way) to build and maintain superior performance. The reason for that is quite simple: reinforced behavior gets repeated.

~ Eric Harvey

Say Grace

On the surface, gratitude appears to arise from a sense that you're indebted to another person for taking care of you in some way, but looking deeper, you'll see that the feeling is actually a heightened awareness of your connection to everything else.

Gratitude flows when you break out of the small, self-centered point of view with its ferocious expectations and demands and appreciate that through the labors and intentions and even the simple existence of an inconceivably large number of people, weather patterns, chemical reactions, and the like, you have been given the miracle of your life, with all the goodness in it today.

When you awaken to the truth of this incredible interconnectedness, you are spontaneously filled with joy and appreciation. It is for this reason that one of the most transformative practices you can engage in is the cultivation of gratitude. Contentment, or appreciation for what you have, leads to unexcelled joy, while other yogic texts say that this sense of appreciation is the "supreme joy" that naturally leads to the realization of the Absolute. Thankfully, gratitude can be cultivated. It simply takes practice.

~From YogaJournal.com
http://www.yogajournal.com/practice/2424?utm_source=Wisdom&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=Wisdom

Loving Life

The minute you begin to do what you really want to do, it's really a different kind of life.

-R. Buckminster Fuller

Insulin Maker Cuts Off Supply to Greece

Insulin Maker Cuts Off Supply to Greece

UPI Business News - May. 29, 2010
Danish drug maker Novo Nordisk says it has cut off the supply of insulin to Greece over a government order that all medicine prices be slashed 25 percent.

Novo Nordisk, the world’s leading supplier of the diabetes drug insulin, is pulling the drug from the Greek market because the mandated price cut would force the company’s Greek division to operate at a loss, a spokesman for the company told the BBC. The company said it also worried other countries could look to Greece’s example when setting drug prices.

More than 50,000 Greek diabetics rely on Novo Nordisk’s insulin, which is injected with a device that resembles a pen.

Novo Nordisk’s move drew condemnation in Greece, the where the Greek Diabetes Association called it brutal blackmail" and "a violation of corporate social responsibility."

Greece said it imposed the price cut as part of an effort to cut medical costs as the country struggles to reduce its debt.

Pavlos Panayotacos, whose 10-year-old daughter, Nephele, has diabetes, criticized Novo Nordisk in a letter to its chairman.

"As an economist I realize the importance of making a profit, but healthcare is more than just the bottom line," he wrote.

"As you well may know, Greece is presently in dire economic and social straits, and you could not have acted in a more insensitive manner at a more inopportune time."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Why should you be concerned about this? Because pharmaceutical drug prices and production are impacted on a global scale. Should the US government begin to impose these kind of price cuts here in the US that Greece is imposing, we will begin to see a reduction in the drugs offered here in the states. For example, instead of having 5 different kinds of Type 2 diabetes medications to choose from, we may only have one which may or may not work for you. We live in a world where we have freedom of CHOICE. We are slowly seeing this choice taken away by government. Watch carefully what is happeing internationally. Our government behavior is behaving similarly to that of Europe, Greece, Mexico, and Venezuela in many ways. Be informed. Read. Watch. Listen. Do not be a passive participant and take what you hear at face value. Trust but validate.

Robot Doctors?

Gienna Shaw, for HealthLeaders Media, May 18, 2010

Telehealth and remote medicine are hot topics these days, widely regarded as fields that are about to explode—from remote radiology readings to ICU monitoring by off-site intensivists, to e-visits during which the patient and physician consult via video. But perhaps the most futuristic use of these technologies is the doctor robot: a device that allows the doctor to "walk" (or, perhaps more accurately, roll) into a room and examine his or her patient.

One such device is the five-foot tall RP-7® Robot, manufactured by InTouch Health® in Santa Barbara, CA. A physician, using a control station and a joystick, can maneuver through the hospital halls, interacting with patients, family members, other clinicians, and staff via a live video feed. The doctor's face is visible on a monitor that serves as the robot's "head." A camera, speaker, and microphone allow real-time, two-way audio and video communication.

Clinicians use the remote presence devices in a variety of different applications, from time-sensitive stroke treatment, emergency room call, critical care coverage, hospital capacity management, and specialty training and collaboration.

Early adopters include California's UCLA Medical Center, St. Joseph Mercy Oakland in Pontiac, MI, and the North Shore LIJ Health System in New York.

In addition to improved efficiency for doctors, who can conduct night and weekend rounds from their home, clinic, or office, the robots can also improve patient and family satisfaction. In a study led by Louis Kavoussi, MD, chairman of urology at North Shore-LIJ, and the nation's first user of the remote rounding robot, half the patients preferred a "tele-rounding" visit by their own doctor to a "real" visit by another physician. More than 80% of the patients felt that the robot increased physician accessibility.

"Patients have been extraordinarily receptive and enthusiastic about the robot," Kavoussi, who is using one of the three robots at LIJ to check on his patients after hours and on weekends, said in a release. LIJ is also using two robots in its ICU. The hospital's intensivists use the robots from their homes and offices to provide additional patient monitoring.

Although there are benefits—especially in rural and other areas where access to specialists is limited and as a Band-Aid for the physician shortage in general—there are some critics who say some robotic-controlled procedures are gimmicks, that the price of the technology is to steep for many hospitals, and it could limit the human contact that's important to the patient-physician relationship, notes an article in the Ventura County Star in Camarillo, CA ("Robots' place in diagnostics, surgeries debated").

An anecdote I heard recently suggests the latter argument is not always true, however. An elderly woman had been seeing her physician via robot over the course of several visits. At the time of one scheduled visit the physician was in the area and decided to meet with her in person. "What are you doing here?" she asked when he walked in the exam room. "And where is my robot?"

http://www.healthleadersmedia.com/print/TEC-251199/Domo-Arigato-Doctor-Roboto

Drink This to Help Undo a Heavy Meal

By Real Age

When you overdo it and down a day's calories in one sitting, your body's inflammatory processes go into overdrive. But here's a way you might counter it: Drink orange juice.

In a recent study, people who had eaten a supersized fast-food breakfast experienced a much milder inflammatory response in their bodies when they drank OJ with the meal.

High-Calorie Catastrophe
Whatever you do, don't pair that overindulgence with a soda. When researchers compared the effects that three different beverages had on the way bodies process big, fatty, inflammation-triggering foods, sugar water was the worst of the bunch. It seemed to exacerbate the inflammatory response. Plain water faired somewhere in between orange juice and sugar water. But it has the added benefit of being calorie-free.

The Flavonoid Fix ~
What makes orange juice so good at helping clamp down on the inflammation and oxidation that big, fatty meals cause? The heroes are likely two important flavonoids found in oranges -- naringenin and hesperidin. These powerful antioxidants help tamp down body processes that can damage blood vessels and lay the groundwork for big health problems, like atherosclerosis and heart disease.

Reference Published on 05/03/2010:
Orange juice neutralizes the proinflammatory effect of a high-fat, high-carbohydrate meal and prevents endotoxin increase and Toll-like receptor expression. Ghanim, H. et al., American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2010 Apr;91(4):940-949.

Excerpt from 'Getting Good at Getting Along'

Many people say that the best relationships are those that are 50-50. It’s a nice idea, but it often falls short in real life. People hold onto resentments – waiting for the other person to “see the light.” People insist that others take their share of responsibility when an issue comes up: “I’ve done my part; now it’s their turn.” The problem is, you might be waiting a very long time if you always insist that relationships (and their problems) be 50-50 propositions.

If you’re really serious about getting good at getting along with others, here’s an idea that can transform your life: Instead of expecting people to meet you 50-50, try making it 100-0. You take on the entire responsibility for making the relationship work, and don’t worry about whether the other person is doing their part!

Yes, it’s a somewhat radical idea. But if you’re up to really having amazing relationships at work – and in your personal life – this will do it. You’ll never again feel that you’re at the mercy of someone else. You’ll never feel like a victim of another’s actions or inactions.

Here’s how it works …
• Assume that the other person is a given. “He is who he is.” “This is her personality – she isn’t going to change.” Just accept the person exactly as they are – and exactly as they aren’t. This is who you’ve got to work with.
• Ask yourself, How can I change my words or actions when I deal with this person? You don’t have to change your whole personality – you’re just going to use different language and behaviors when dealing with this person.
• Try out new behaviors and new ways of conversing with your “problem person.” See what works and do more of it. If something doesn’t work, stop doing it.
• Learn from others. Watch others who have excellent interpersonal relationships and learn from them. If you want good relationships like those, mimic them.
• When there’s a problem, take ownership of it. As long as someone else is the problem, you’re powerless. But if YOU own the problem, then YOU can own and control the solution.

A Mother's Love

A mother’s love is as big as a house, deep as an ocean, constant as the stars. A mother’s love is all encompassing, all knowing, and all forgiving. It is home. And yet, as big as it is, a mother’s love remembers all the details and knows the littlest things can be the most important—like how much chocolate in the milk, when to offer advice and when to be still, and just the right squeezing that makes the perfect hug. From the biggest moments down to the sweetest nothings, a mother’s heart stands at the ready to comfort, encourage, inspire, protect and, most of all, love.

Mother’s LOVE shows us the way.
Mother’s COURAGE can move mountains.
Mother’s WISDOM holds you close.

“It is not until you become a mother that your judgment slowly turns to compassion and understanding.”
~Erma Bombeck

You Belong to God

Consider this. You have a master that you serve. You belong to this master. You are made to follow and worship such a master. This is your design, your nature; this is what you do. Call it other things—choosing your own destiny, doing things your way—but you serve. You can believe that you are independent, that you are in control, that you are on top and in charge, but you follow and you worship. In great wonder and beauty and glory, this is how you are made. You are made to belong to someone. You are made to belong.

Now, if you belong to someone, all of who you are belongs to that master. If you belong to God, your past and your present and your future belong to Him. He bought them. Did you hear that? He owns your past, you don’t. He has purchased you, and your past is His to redeem. So you can let go of it and give it to Him. He also possesses your future, so you don’t need to worry about tomorrow. And He owns your present moment, your “right now” so that you can release it to Him as well. He can handle all of this quite well; far, far better than any other master you can choose.
Life in Him is meant to be this simple and good.

PRAY
Lord, thank you that You have saved me and purchased me with your death. I belong to You. May I find all my deepest desires for belonging, peace-filled surrender, freedom to follow someone I can fully trust, serving well and doing things of great lasting value, worshiping in celebration and wonder and free-flowing praise. May I find all of these things of my heart met in You. May I accept no substitutes or alternatives. Please deliver me from all deception and grant to me a heart filled with You and focused on You alone. Amen.

READ
1 PETER 2:9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

Am I Worthy?

REFLECT
We can make the mistake of thinking that prayer requires heroic efforts, a certain lifestyle or a mindset that is clear and unconfused. We can think ourselves out of praying. There are, of course, times when we pray out of some terror that has surrounded us. We know we are desperate for God’s immediate aid, if we are to continue breathing the breath of life. At times like those, our prayer is often little more than one word, Help. Yet, apart from those times of desperation, we can shy away from developing a regular and steady prayer practice because we think God has certain criteria that will either be difficult or impossible to meet. Instead, we continue chugging out our days and nights, struggling alone with our trials and temptations, our hurts and questions, our stress and anxiety, with only a casual communication with the loving Creator.

This is the surprise; there are no criteria. There are no expectations. We do not have to become perfect before we pray. We do not have to achieve holiness before heaven will stoop to hear our poor and paltry voice. It takes only a glance, an intention, a sliver of desire, a moment of acknowledgement, and suddenly, the gap that seemed as wide as a valley becomes as close as a whisper, out of a recognition that God has come near.

PRAY
Lord, help me to no longer be overly concerned as to the whens or whys or hows when it comes to prayer and just simply remember that it is the Who that I am praying to that matter. You receive all of our prayers in the same way you love us—unconditionally. Thank You. Amen.

READ
James 4:8 Come near to God and he will come near to you…

Recognizing a Stroke

Remember the '3' steps, STR (first 3 letters of the word STROKE)

Sometimes symptoms of a stroke are difficult to identify. Unfortunately, the lack of awareness spells disaster. The stroke victim may suffer severe brain damage when people nearby fail to recognize the symptoms of a stroke.

The first 3 hours are critical to reverse the effects of a stroke. Now doctors say a bystander can recognize a stroke by asking three simple questions:

1. S - Ask the individual to SMILE.
2. T - Ask the person to TALK and speak a simple sentence coherently. (i.e. It is sunny out today.)
3. R - Ask them to RAISE both arms.

New Sign of a Stroke -------- Stick out Your Tongue
NOTE: Another 'sign' of a stroke is this: Ask the person to 'stick' out his tongue. If the tongue is 'crooked', if it goes to one side or the other, that is also an indication of a stroke.

If he or she has trouble with ANY ONE of these tasks, call emergency number immediately and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher.

Body of Christ

REFLECT
As part of Christ’s body, we each have been given a special role to play. Each member of the body is important and belongs to every other member of the body. We need one another, and we each have a work to do. When every member of the body does its work, the body is healthy and grows to be all God wants it to be. Your part is needed. The Word says if you are not doing your part, you are actually missed.

Did you know that each and every member of the body has received gifts and talents to be used? Yes that’s right…you! God has gifted you. You know what? He has done so not for your benefit but for the benefit of others! Our gifts are to be used build up others and to build up His church! We were created to be in community with one another. To do life together, not as individuals, but as fellow journeyers seeking to grow closer to God and to one another, one relational opportunity at a time.

Reflect upon how you are using the gifts that God has given you. How are they being shared with others around you? Are you seeing the opportunities, the intersections along the way, where God has placed someone or something that needs what God has given you to share?

PRAY
Lord, please reveal to me the gifts You have given me. Show me the special function You have for me within the Body of Christ. Please enable all believers to use their gifts for Your glory. Allow us to help build your church one relationship at a time. Amen.

READ
Romans 12:6-8 We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.

PURPOSE

REFLECT
Ever thought that you were strategically placed? Where you live, work, or go to school—all of it is for a purpose. God chose the exact time and place where you would be living right now! You are part of a bigger plan, His plan. You were placed here for a purpose.

Sometimes it is hard to see God’s plan when you are in the middle of the practical duties of everyday life. It can all become so routine and sometimes burdensome. Trust Him; He has a purpose for you right here. Pray and ask Him to show you. Some of us just may need a little reminder.

PRAYER
Lord, show me what my part is. How am I strategically placed? Use me for Your Kingdom work. Empower me to do things I never thought I could do. Amen.

READ ON YOUR OWN
Acts 17:26-28 From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’

Take Responsibility for Your Health - Now!

Today is an historic day. With all of the debate and voting taking place in Washington tonight, I step back and wonder how we ever got to this point - the point at which we must rely on the government to provide mandated health coverage for everyone. At what point do we, as individuals, accept responsibility for our individual choices?

My mother was a smoker - 2 packs of cigarettes a day, since the age of 16. She ate reasonably well, but was not obsessive about it. Kept her weight within reasonable range - however, she ended up having a massive stroke at the age of 41 and died from it.

We all must do a better job of eating well, exercising regularly (3x/week or more), avoid excessive alcohol consumption, don't smoke and make healthy decisions that will help you and your family live a better quality of life. It is that simple. But, it is a lifelong commitment. There are times when it will be hard. Know that now. Anyone who tells you otherwise is not being realistic and truthful. You will have chocolate cravings, ice cream cravings, sugar cravings, potato chip cravings - it is ok. Have a small portion to satisfy the craving then walk away. In fact, go for a walk to take your mind off of the food.

We have lived in a society where we allowed people to eat excessive amounts of fried or fast food, smoke cigarettes and sit around the house omitting exercise from any part of daily living. Now that we, as a country, are paying for each of our lifestyle habits and behaviors through a government run health care program, don't expect your neighbors around you to be silent observers. Get ready for the comments, suggestions and (yes) offers of help and encouragement. We all are now in this together. Especially financially. We will be paying for this coverage for generations to come.

My hope is that there will be programs in place to help with behavior change - encouraging those with chronic conditions (or close to getting a chronic condition) to learn how to eat well, select healthy food options in the grocery story, learn how to prepare foods that are low fat. This is CHANGE we all can count on. It must be learned. There must be support and encouragement from those who have the knowledge, time and resources to teach others. This behavior change is what will positively impact our generation and those that follow. Having a program to pay for our health is simply too simple. There must be more of an incentive - we must change our lifestyle to that of a healthier one. Our future,and our grand children's future, depends on it!

21 Suggestions for Success

-By H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
1. Marry the right person. This one decision will determine 90% of your happiness or misery.
2. Work at something you enjoy and that’s worthy of your time and talent.
3. Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully.
4. Become the most positive and enthusiastic person you know.
5. Be forgiving of yourself and others.
6. Be generous.
7. Have a grateful heart.
8. Persistence, persistence, persistence.
9. Discipline yourself to save money on even the most modest salary.
10. Treat everyone you meet like you want to be treated.
11. Commit yourself to constant improvement.
12. Commit yourself to quality.
13. Understand that happiness is not based on possessions, power or prestige, but on relationships with people you love and respect.
14. Be loyal.
15. Be honest.
16. Be a self-starter.
17. Be decisive even if it means you’ll sometimes be wrong.
18. Stop blaming others. Take responsibility for every area of your life.
19. Be bold and courageous. When you look back on your life, you’ll regret the things you didn’t do more than the ones you did.
20. Take good care of those you love.
21. Don’t do anything that wouldn’t make your Mom proud.

You Say. . . God Says

“It's impossible.” ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE. (Luke 18:27)
“I'm too tired”. I WILL GIVE YOU REST. (Matthew 11:28-30)
“Nobody really loves me.” I LOVE YOU. (John 3:16, John 3:34)
“I can't go on.” MY GRACE IS SUFFICIENT. (II Corinthians 12:9 & Psalm 91:15)
“I can't figure things out.” I WILL DIRECT YOUR STEPS. (Proverbs 3:5- 6)
“I can't do it.” YOU CAN DO ALL THINGS. (Philippians 4:13)
“I'm not able.” I AM ABLE. (II Corinthians 9:8)
“It's not worth it.” IT WILL BE WORTH IT. (Roman 8:28)
“I can't forgive myself.” I FORGIVE YOU. (I John 1:9 & Romans 8:1)
“I can't manage.” I WILL SUPPLY ALL YOUR NEEDS. (Philippians 4:19)
“I'm afraid.” I HAVE NOT GIVEN YOU A SPIRIT OF FEAR. (II Timothy 1:7)
“I'm always worried & frustrated.” CAST ALL YOUR CARES ON ME. (I Peter 5:7)
“I'm not smart enough.” I GIVE YOU WISDOM. (I Corinthians 1:30)
“I feel all alone.” I WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU OR FORSAKE YOU. (Hebrews 13:5)