Today is a beautiful day... author & illustrator unknown

I have read this email a while back. I received it again today, with some illustrations and additions. Again there's no author assigned to this email except for the sender, Kuyang Vitax. Also I've "retitled" as above, enjoy!

"A blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet. He held up a sign which said: "I am blind, please help." There were only a few coins in the hat.

A man was walking by. He took a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat. He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words. He put the sign back so that everyone who walked by would see the new words.

Soon the hat began to fill up. A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy. That afternoon the man who had changed the sign came to see how things were. The boy recognized his footsteps and asked, "Were you the one who changed my sign this morning? What did you write?"

The man said, "I only wrote the truth. I said what you said but in a different way."

What he had written was: "Today is a beautiful day and I cannot see it."

Do you think the first sign and the second sign were saying the same thing?

Of course both signs told people the boy was blind. But the first sign simply said the boy was blind. The second sign told people they were so lucky that they were not blind. Should we be surprised that the second sign was more effective?

Be thankful for what you have. Be creative. Be innovative. Think differently and positively.

Invite others towards good with wisdom. Live life with no excuse and love with no regrets. When life gives you a 100 reasons to cry, show life that you have 1000 reasons to smile. Face your past without regret. Handle your present with confidence. Prepare for the future without fear. Keep the faith and drop the fear.

Great men say, "Life has to be an incessant process of repair and reconstruction, of discarding evil and developing goodness! In the journey of life, if you want to travel without fear, you must have the ticket of a good conscience."

The most beautiful thing is to see a person smiling!
And even more beautiful is knowing that you are the reason behind!"

Dale Carnegie

“One of the most tragic things I know about human nature

is that all of us tend to put off living.

We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon

– instead of enjoying the roses blooming outside our windows today.”

Dale Carnegie

As a young teenager I remember reading his classic book: How to Win Friends and Influence People. I don't know why I did read it... maybe I was a voracious reader and somehow the title inspired me. Or maybe I was looking for friends and at the same influence my parents into giving me more allowance. It had made an indelible impression on me regarding the importance of interpersonal relationships, as well as the stature of the author; one of the firsts who wrote self-help books at the time. Thanks Mr Carnegie!

Some Financial Inspiration

Well, I guess everyone has money woes, even Bill Gates, who is tearing his hair to give away millions to charity. But for most of us, the problem is having the money much less giving it away.

Lifted below article verbatim from "Australian Men's Health" (Yahoo site). Looking at the flaws, I am a bit of everyone of them, but more on the benefactor and procrastinator. Now that I know which category/ies I belong, the healing begins -- or so I've been saying for the last couple of decades!

I feel all this financial obligations make me one of the "new slaves", we work for things in life and the lifestyle. As a co-worker and friend have been saying: "Needs, less wants"!

"Fix Your Money Woes
Sep 18 12:28pm
Bad financial habits reveal much about your emotional undercarriage. Here are five common flaws - and their cures:

The Bankrupt Benefactor
You're quick to brandish your credit card to please the people you love.

Diagnosis: you're trying to buy love or affection, most likely out of guilt from spending time away from home, says financial-advisor Richard Salmen.

Prescription: set up a Christmas or birthday savings account and squirrel away a little each week. When the date nears, your balance is your budget. Period. Then do as Salmen tells his clients: make up the difference with quality time at home.

The Spreadsheet Junkie
Your accounting statements receive more loving attention than your wife.

Diagnosis: you think you're simply controlling your money,but it's controlling you.

Prescription: ask yourself this, "If I had a day to live, how would I spend it?" Logging more time in Excel won't make the cut. "It'll remind you that loved ones - not money - are what's important," says George Kinder, founder of the California-based Kinder Institute of Life Planning. After your reality check, relinquish complete control by giving your wife financial responsibility in some areas.

The Show-Off
You have 30 new belts (and you don't take karate) and you habitually buy rounds for your friends and colleagues.

Diagnosis: people who try hard to impress or gain acceptance in a more affluent herd tend to overspend, reveals Dr Viviana Zelizer, a professor of sociology at Princeton University in the US.

Prescription: use peer pressure to do good. Sign on at wesabe.com, a supersafe, international-financial-support community that allows users to provide feedback to others on saving and spending wisely.

Australia-specific subjects can be found at: wesabe.com/groups/30-australia-wesabeans.

The Procrastinator
You catch up on bills in random bursts and you're afraid to look at your credit report.

Diagnosis: this is often a sign of rigid compartmentalisation, where you divide life into separate chunks. It's a survival tactic - an indication that you're merely existing and not actually living your life, says Kinder.

Prescription: set up auto BillPay, but link a savings goal with a passion - a display case for your spider collection or a surfing tour of Africa. It'll give you a reason to engage with your money regularly.

The Hoarder
You feel guilty about buying new shoes, but gleeful when adding to your sauce-packet stash.

Diagnosis: "These are hard workers who obsess about the future," Salmen says. Denying fun that comes with a price tag is a form of self-preservation.

Prescription: hire an accountant. "Seeing an objective analysis that the future is secure will set you free," says Kinder. "You need permission to spend and a reminder that it can add to your quality of life.""

Hope above helps... and it only does if we take action!

Stress and A Glass of Water (Author Unknown)

"A lecturer, when explaining stress management to an audience, raised a glass of water and asked, "How heavy is this glass of water?"

Answers called out ranged from 20g. to 500g. The lecturer replied, "The absolute weight doesn't matter. It depends on how long you try to hold it. If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my right arm. If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance."

In each case, it's the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes." He continued, "And that's the way it is with stress management. If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the burden becomes increasingly heavy, we won't be able to carry on. "

"As with the glass of water, you have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again. When we're refreshed, we can carry on with the burden." "So, before you return home tonight, put the burden of> work down. Don't carry it home. You can pick it up tomorrow. Whatever burdens you're carrying now,

So, my friend, put down anything that may be a burden to you right now. Don't pick it up again until after you've rested a while. Here are some great ways of dealing with the burdens of life:

* Accept that some days you're the pigeon, and some days you're the statue.

* Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them.

* Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.

* Drive carefully. It's not only cars that can be recalled by their Maker.

* If you can't be kind, at least have the decency to be vague.

* If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.

* It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply be kind to others.

* Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time, because then you won't have a leg to stand on.

* The second mouse gets the cheese.

* When everything's coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.

* Birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.

* You may be only one person in the world,> but you may also be the world to one person.

* Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once.

* We could learn a lot from crayons... Some are sharp, some are pretty and some are dull. Some have weird names and all are different colors, but they all have to live in the same box.

*A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour.

I have done this one many, many times. Have an awesome day and know that someone has thought about you today...I did."