Lessons from the Great Barrier Reef

Don't worry if you have problems! Which is easy to say until you are in the midst of a really big one, I know. But the only people I am aware of who don't have troubles are gathered in little neighborhoods. Most communities have at least one. We call them cemeteries.

If you're breathing, you have difficulties. It's the way of life. And believe it or not, most of your problems may actually be good for you! Let me explain.

Maybe you have seen the Great Barrier Reef, stretching some 1,800 miles from New Guinea to Australia. Tour guides regularly take visitors to view the reef. On one tour, the guide was asked an interesting question. "I notice that the lagoon side of the reef looks pale and lifeless, while the ocean side is vibrant and colorful," a traveler observed. "Why is this?"

The guide gave an interesting answer: "The coral around the lagoon side is in still water, with no challenge for its survival. It dies early. The coral on the ocean side is constantly being tested by wind, waves, storms-surges of power. It has to fight for survival every day of its life. As it is challenged and tested it changes and adapts. It grows healthy. It grows strong. And it reproduces." Then he added this telling note: "That's the way it is with every living organism."

That's how it is with people. Challenged and tested, we come alive! Like coral pounded by the sea, we grow.

Physical demands can cause us to grow stronger. Mental and emotional stress can produce tough mindedness and resiliency. Spiritual testing can produce strength of character and faithfulness.

So, you have problems-no problem! Just tell yourself, "There I grow again!"

Photo by travellingred

Rocks, Pebbles and Sand

A philosophy professor stood before his class and had some items in front of him. When class began, wordlessly he picked up a large empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with rocks right to the top, rocks about 2" diameter.

He then asked the students if the jar was full? They agreed that it was.

So the professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles, of course, rolled into the open areas between the rocks. The students laughed.

He asked his students again if the jar was full? They agreed that yes, it was.

The professor then picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else.

"Now," said the professor, "I want you to recognize that this is your life. The rocks are the important things - your family, your partner, your health, your children - anything that is so important to you that if it were lost, you would be nearly destroyed.

The pebbles are the other things in life that matter, but on a smaller scale. The pebbles represent things like your job, your house, your car.

The sand is everything else. The small stuff.

If you put the sand or the pebbles into the jar first, there is no room for the rocks. The same goes for your life. If you spend all your energy and time on the small stuff, material things, you will never have room for the things that are truly most important.

Pay attention to the things that are critical in your life. Play with your children. Take your partner out dancing.

There will always be time to go to work, clean the house, give a dinner party and fix the disposal. Take care of the rocks first - the things that really matter.

Set your priorities. The rest are just pebbles and sand.

The Starfish

Photo by Dave Hayward

Amidst the morning mist of the swift returning tide I set out on my daily run, my walkman on my side. Lost within my private world apart from cares and woes I ran along the moistened shore, the sand between my toes.

In the distance, I saw a boy, as busy as can be. He was running, stooping, picking up, and tossing in the sea. Just what he threw, I couldn't tell, I looked as I drew near. It seemed to be a rock or shell - as I approached him I could hear:

"Back you go, where you belong. Your safe now hurry home. Your family's waiting for you little starfish, hurry on!" It seemed the evening tide had washed the starfish on the shore, And the swift receding water left a thousand there or more.

And this self-appointed savior, was trying one-by-one To toss them back into the sea, against the racing sun. I saw his plight was hopeless, that most of them would die. I called out from my private world, "Hey Kid, why even try?"

"Must be at least a thousand here, strewn along the beach, And even if you had the time, most you'll never reach. You really think it makes a difference, to waste your time this way?" And then I paused and waited, just to hear what he would say.

He stooped and took another, and looked me in the eye. "It makes a difference to this one sir, this starfish will not die!" With that, he tossed the little life, back where there was hope. He stooped to take another. I could tell this was no joke.

The words that he spoke to me cut like a surgeon's knife. Where I saw only numbers, he saw only life. He didn't see the multitude of starfish on the sand. He only saw the little life he held there in his hand.

He didn't stop to argue, to prove that he was right. He just kept tossing starfish in the sea with all his might. So I too stooped, and I picked up, and I tossed into the sea, And I thought, just what a difference, that this boy has made in me.

Count Your Marbles

Photo by cgines

The older I get, the more I enjoy Saturday mornings.
Perhaps it's the quiet solitude that comes with being the first to rise.
Or maybe it's the unbounded joy of not having to be at work.
Either way, the first few hours of a Saturday morning are most enjoyable.
Won't you agree ?

A few weeks ago, I was shuffling towards the kitchen with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and the morning paper in the other. What began as a typical Saturday morning turned into one of those lessons that life seems to hand you from time to time.

Let me tell you about it.

I turned the volume up on my radio in order to listen to a Saturday morning talk show.
I heard an older-sounding chap with a golden voice. You know the kind.
He sounded like he should be in the broadcasting business himself.

He was talking about " a thousand marbles " to someone named Tom.
I was intrigued, and sat down to listen to what he had to say.

" Well, Tom, it sure sounds like you're busy with your job. I'm sure they pay you well, but it's a shame you have to be away from home and your family so much. Hard to believe a young fellow should have to work sixty or seventy hours a week to make ends meet. Too bad you missed your daughter's dance recital. "

He continued, " Let me tell you something, Tom, something that has helped me keep a good perspective on my own priorities. "

And that's when he began to explain his theory of a " thousand marbles ."

"You see, I sat down one day and did a little arithmetic. The average person lives about seventy-five years. I know, some live more and some live less, but on average, folks live about seventy-five years. "

"Now then, I multiplied 75 times 52, and I came up with 3900 which is the number of Saturdays that the average person has in their entire lifetime.

Now stick with me, Tom, I'm getting to the important part. "

"It took me until I was fifty-five years old to think about all this in any detail ", he went on, " and by that time I had lived through over twenty-eight hundred Saturdays.

I got to thinking that if I lived to be seventy-five, I only had about a
thousand of them left to enjoy. "

"So I went to a toy store and bought every single marble they had. I ended up having to visit three toy stores to round-up 1000 marbles. I took them home and put them inside of a large, clear plastic container right here in my workshop next to the radio.

Every Saturday since then, I have taken one marble out and thrown it away.
I found that by watching the marbles diminish, I focused more on the really
important things in life.

There is nothing like watching your time here on this earth run out to help
get your priorities straight. "

"Now let me tell you one last thing before I sign off with you and take my lovely wife out for breakfast.

Photo by seeks2dream

This morning, I took the very last marble out of the container.

I figure that if I make it until next Saturday, then I have been given a little extra time. And the one thing we can all use is a little more time. "

" It was nice to talk to you Tom, I hope you'll spend more time with your loved ones, and I hope to meet you again someday. Have a good morning ! "

You could have heard a pin drop when he finished.
Even the show's moderator didn't have anything to say for a few moments.
I guess he gave us all a lot to think about.

I had planned to do some work that morning, then go to the gym. Instead, I went upstairs and woke my wife up with a kiss.

"C'mon, honey, I'm taking you and the kids to breakfast. "

" What brought this on ? " she asked with a smile. " Oh, nothing special, it's just been a long time since we spent a Saturday together with the kids.

Hey, can we stop at a toy store while we're out ? I need to buy some marbles. "

The Cocoon

Photo by hdw2007

A man found a cocoon of a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared, he sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress.

It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and it could go no farther. So the man decided to help the butterfly, he took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon.

The butterfly then emerged easily. But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time.

Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It never was able to fly. That the man in his kindness and haste did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were nature's way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its
wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.

Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If we went through our life without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be so strong as what we could have been. And we could never fly.

Photo by J Pod

So have a nice day and struggle a little. When you are under pressure and stress, remember that you are a better person after you have gone through it.

The key to happiness is not that you never get upset, irritated or frustrated. It's how quickly you snap out of it.

The Law of the Seed

Photo by Barbara L. Slavin

Take a look at an apple tree.

There might be five hundred apples on the tree, but each apple has just ten seeds.

That's a lot of seeds!

We might ask, "Why would you need so many seeds to grow just a few more apple trees?"
Nature has something to teach us here. It's telling us: "Not all seeds grow. In life, most seeds never grow.

So if you really want to make something happen, you had better try more than once."

This might mean:

You'll attend twenty interviews to get one job.
You'll interview forty people to find one good employee.
You'll talk to fifty people to sell one house, one car, one vacuum cleaner, one insurance policy, or a business idea.
And you might meet a hundred acquaintances just to find one specialfriend.

When we understand the "Law of the Seed", we don't get so disappointed.

Photo by Erik Charlton

We stop feeling like victims.
We learn how to deal with things that happen to us.

Laws of nature are not things to take personally. We just need to understand them - and work with them.

Photo by mikebaird

Successful people fail more often. But they plant more seeds.

Recommended reading : The Resiliency Advantage by Al Siebert

Don't Quit - Lessons from the Bamboo Plant

Photo by Jim Frazier

One day I decided to quit...I quit my job, my relationship, my spirituality...

I wanted to quit my life.

I went to the woods to have one last talk with God.

"God", I said. "Can you give me one good reason not to quit?" His answer surprised me...

"Look around", He said. "Do you see the fern and the bamboo?"

"Yes", I replied.

"When I planted the fern and the bamboo seeds, I took very good care of them. I gave them light. I gave them water. The fern quickly grew from the earth. Its brilliant green covered the floor. Yet nothing came from the bamboo seed.

But I did not quit on the bamboo.

In the second year the Fern grew more vibrant and plentiful. And again, nothing came from the bamboo seed.

"But I still did not quit on the bamboo", he said.

"In year three there was still nothing from the bamboo seed. But I would not quit. In year four, again, there was nothing from the bamboo seed. I would not quit." He said.

"Then in the fifth year a tiny sprout emerged from the earth. Compared to the fern it was seemingly small and insignificant...But just 6 months later the bamboo rose to over 100 feet tall. It had spent the five years growing roots. Those roots made it strong and gave it what it needed to survive.

I would not give any of my creations a challenge It could not handle."

He said to me. "Did you know, my child, that all this time you have been struggling, you have actually been growing roots?" "

I would not quit on the bamboo. I will never quit on you." "Don't compare yourself to others."

He said. "The bamboo had a different Purpose than the fern. Yet they both make the forest beautiful."

"Your time will come", God said to me. "You will rise high."

"How high should I rise?" I asked.

"How high will the bamboo rise?" He asked in return.

"As high as it can?" I questioned.

"Yes." He said, "Give me glory by rising as high as you can."

I left the forest and brought back this story. I hope these words can help you see that God will never give up on you. He will never give up on you.

Never regret a day in your life.

Good days give you happiness; bad days give you experiences; both are essential to life.