*Tear*

The Paradoxical Commandments

I found this in a magazine a couple years ago. I am trying to incorporate these ideas into my life. There's a funny story about it too. This was written in 1968 by a man named Kent Keith. Then in 1997 he was at a Rotery Club meeting and one of the presenters wanted to read a poem by Mother Teresa (it was shortly after her death). He proceeded to read these commandments and Kent Keith was stunned. He looked through a bunch of books relating to Mother Teresa and then he found it, no author was listed, but the reference said 'from a sign on the wall of Shishu Bhavan, Mother Teresa's childrens home in Calcutta'. How strange to have something you wrote in college (for a student leadership manual no less) end up being credited to Mother Teresa. Anyway, they are great commandments to live by.

The Paradoxical Commandments

1. People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
LOVE THEM ANYWAY

2. If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
DO GOOD ANYWAY

3. If you are successful, you win false friends and true enemies.
SUCCEED ANYWAY

4. The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
DO GOOD ANYWAY

5. Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
BE HONEST AND FRANK ANYWAY

6. The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
THINK BIG ANYWAY

7. People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
FIGHT FOR A FEW UNDERDOGS ANYWAY

8. What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
BUILD ANYWAY

9. People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
HELP PEOPLE ANYWAY

10. Give the world the best you have and you'lll get kicked in the teeth.
GIVE THE WORLD THE BEST YOU HAVE ANYWAY.

Anna's Triathlon

Yesterday after less than 2 months of planning, we pulled off an AWESOME event where I work. A woman named Anna, who works at the hospital next door to us is battling her 3rd round of cancer. She wanted to do a triathlon and her coworker (who we know well), decided to make it happen. The only way for Anna to be able to complete one was if it was very modified, and there just wasn't one like that, so my boss and I offered up our facility to do it our way. We had almost 50 participants. We had people on all ends of the spectrum, healthy athletes, people on oxygen, a couple in their 90s, an 18 month old and everyone in between. And we had just as many volunteers as athletes, which made for a seamless event.
Here is Anna checking in:

This is Cole, our 18 month old, just after he crossed the finish line:

This is James, he was so great, he taught himself to swim for this event!

This is Jim. This was the award ceremony afterward. We had so many sponsors that everyone went home with armloads of stuff.

What's wrong with the world...

I am trying not to let things like this get to me, but they do. The other day my friend was telling us a story about a time when he was standing behind a man in line somewhere and the mans wallet, stuffed with bills, fell out of his pocket and he didn't notice. My friend picked it up and gave it back. The man said 'thanks' and went about his business. My friend was upset that this man didn't give him a reward, after all he could have just kept it.
I think that doing a good thing with the expectation that you will immediately get something in return negates the goodness of the act. He may as well have picked up the wallet, tapped the man on the shoulder and said 'I'll give you this back if you give me some of the money.' At least he would have been honest about his expectations.
There are so many factors in something like this. That may have been all the money that man had. He may have just lost his job. Maybe it's his kids christmas present. Maybe he just robbed a bank. But none of those things matter to me. Don't give expecting to get. You will always get something in return for doing a good thing, but you'll have to pay attention because it could happen any time, any place, in any form.
This same friend made the comment 'I'd be rich if I wasn't such a good honest person'. Not doing bad things does not make you a good person in and of itself. People who have these attitudes also seem to be the same ones who say yes to every favor anyone asks of them and then act as if it were a burden. Don't say yes to doing someone a favor if you don't want to do it. Saying no to something doesn't make you a jerk. Saying yes to something and then flaking out or making that person feel like a burden does make you a jerk.
I guess the bottom line here is, if you find yourself complaining about what a nice person you are, you're probably not.

More flowers!

I took some more flower pictures this past weekend! There are a lot of flowers here that I've never seen in Minnesota.


I've noticed that the gardens are very interesting in Portland. Many people have NO GRASS AT ALL because their yard is all garden. I really like the look of this type of gardening versus the little well-manicured strip alongside the house. Here is an example:


Here are a few pictures from our garden.

Flowers

I walked around and took pictures of flowers in the neighborhood yesterday.

This Weekend

Sophie had an Ovariohysterectomy on Friday. This of course is just a fancy way of saying I had her spayed. She is doing very well. In fact, I can't even tell she's had surgery, other than the cut. I'm just trying to keep her quiet, which means she's bored.
I made this Banana-Peanut Butter 'hummus' this morning, it was quite good. I'll be using this in a cooking demo later this month.
For lunch today I made Moroccan Turkey Stew served over couscous. This was very yummy!

This beautiful iris opened yesterday in front of our house. I don't think I've seen one this color before. The irises are in bloom all over Portland!

Dinner tonight was Chicken Asparagus Fajitas.