Posted: under Advice & Tips.
Tags: ability, activity, advice, age, author, benefit, benefits, blessings, body, brain, burden, challenge, challenges, change, classic, computer, concentration, couple, cross, depression, dictionary, duty, earth, elegance, energy, English, era, exam, exercise, experience, eyes, facts, family, fiction, focus, force, friends, friendship, game, global, globe, health, heart, history, idea, ideas, imagination, inspiration, internet, job, knowledge, labor, land, language, learning, legs, life, lifestyle, lifetime, light, load, love, man, mental, might, mind, mirror, moment, morning, mountain, movement, muscle, muscles, music, novel, online, opportunity, others, pain, pencil, period, play, power, quiz, reading, reflection, relaxation, rest, reward, riches, short, skill, skills, sleep, soul, spirit, stress, style, success, task, television, test, thought, time, tips, trial, trials, truth, understanding, universe, voice, wealth, weight, woman, words, work, world, worries, worry
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Brain Exercise
===============
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Your brain needs exercise just like a muscle. If you use it
often and in the right ways, you will become a more skilled
thinker and increase your ability to focus. But if you never use
your brain, or abuse it with harmful chemicals, your ability to
think and learn will deteriorate.
.
Here are 5 simple ways anyone can squeeze a bit more
productivity out of the old gray matter.
.
1. Minimize Television Watching - This is a hard sell. People
love vegetating in front of the television, myself included more
often than I’d like. The problem is watching television doesn’t
use your mental capacity OR allow it to recharge. It’s like
having the energy sapped out of a muscle without the health
benefits of exercise.
.
Don’t you feel drained after a couple hours of TV? Your eyes are
sore and tired from being focused on the light box for so long.
You don’t even have the energy to read a book.
.
When you feel like relaxing, try reading a book instead. If
you’re too tired, listen to some music. When you’re with your
friends or family, leave the tube off and have a conversation.
All of these things use your mind more than television and allow
you to relax.
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2. Exercise - I used to think that I’d learn more by not
exercising and using the time to read a book instead. But I
realized that time spent exercising always leads to greater
learning because it improves productivity during the time
afterwards. Using your body clears your head and creates a wave
of energy. Afterwards, you feel invigorated and can concentrate
more easily.
.
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3. Read Challenging Books - Many people like to read popular
suspense fiction, but generally these books aren’t mentally
stimulating. If you want to improve your thinking and writing
ability you should read books that make you focus. Reading a
classic novel can change your view of the world and will make
you think in more precise, elegant English. Don’t be afraid to
look up a word if you don’t know it, and don’t be afraid of
dense passages. Take your time, re-read when necessary, and
you’ll soon grow accustomed to the author’s style.
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Once you get used to reading challenging books, I think you’ll
find that you aren’t tempted to go back to page-turners. The
challenge of learning new ideas is far more exciting than any
tacky suspense-thriller.
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4. Early to Bed, Early to Rise - Nothing makes it harder to
concentrate than sleep deprivation. You’ll be most rejuvenated
if you go to bed early and don’t sleep more than 8 hours. If you
Read More
Apr 19 2012
Posted: under "LOVE is LOVELY", Inspirationals.
Tags: age, agreement, aid, anxiety, assistance, bliss, bridge, burden, bus, car, care, cheer, choice, christmas, clinic, cold, companion, compassion, concern, couple, cross, depression, desire, doctor, duty, elderly, era, exam, experience, eyes, focus, goodness, gratitude, gynecologist, happiness, health, heart, highway, history, holiday, holidays, hospital, husband, ice, identification, inspiration, job, journey, joy, kindness, labor, legs, license, life, lifestyle, lifetime, load, love, man, medication, medicine, memory, mind, movement, music, nurse, ocean, offer, office, others, partner, passenger, path, period, physician, pill, pills, quiz, rivers, road, scripture, sea, seniors, sign, singer, size, smiles, space, specialist, spouse, stream, stress, struggles, surgeon, task, test, thankfulness, therapy, time, traffic, travel, treatment, trials, trip, vehicle, volunteer, water, weather, weight, wife, winter, woman, work, worries, worry
Doeth Good Like Medicine
<><><><><><><><><>
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“A Merry heart doeth good like medicine.”
– Prov. 17:22 (KJV)
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Hospital volunteers do no clinical work. Volunteers have no physically therapeutic treatment of offer. They dispense no medicine. But we cannot deny that they demonstrate the merry hearts as spoken of in Proverbs 17:22. At the core of volunteering is the fervent desire to “doeth good like medicine.” Because I am privileged to experience a daily confirmation of the good done by volunteers, it is very difficult to choose one vignette or narrow the choices of stories to one.
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It was Christmas time and our elderly visitor was back to see her husband in the Intensive Care Unit. We had watched her daily visits, and could tell she was becoming more distant and distraught with each day. She was rather frail and unsteady on her feet, but refused any offer of assistance.
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Volunteer John approached her on her way out, to offer her a ride back to her car in our shuttle as it was cold. She accepted reluctantly, almost as if in resignation. While helping her into the shuttle,
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Mar 25 2012
Posted: under "LOVE is LOVELY", Inspirationals.
Tags: age, anxiety, appreciation, bank, beauty, belief, blessings, bliss, blossom, blossoms, body, breakfast, bridge, burden, bus, cancer, care, check, children, clinic, color, colors, compassion, concern, courage, cross, delight, depression, dinner, doctor, duty, elderly, era, exam, example, exercise, eyes, faith, family, favor, feeling, feelings, fish, fishing, flowers, food, friends, funds, garden, gift, God, granny, gratitude, grown ups, gynecologist, happiness, health, heart, Heaven, highway, home, hospital, House, humanity, husband, imagination, inspiration, job, journey, joy, knowledge, labor, language, laughter, learning, letter, life, lifestyle, lifetime, love, mail, man, memories, mind, moment, money, morning, mountain, movement, neighbor, noise, nurse, office, others, pain, passenger, path, patient, perception, period, physician, plant, plants, present, quiz, relaxation, rest, road, role model, seniors, size, skin, sleep, smiles, snack, snacks, son-in-law, soul, sound, specialist, spirit, strength, stress, success, sugar, summer, sunshine, support, surgeon, surprise, task, test, thankfulness, thought, time, token, travel, treatment, trials, trip, vegetable, vegetables, veggie, veggies, vehicle, voice, weight, wife, woman, wonder, words, work, worries, worry
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The Rented Room
================
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Our house was directly across the street from the clinic
entrance of Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. We lived
downstairs and rented the upstairs rooms to outpatients at the
clinic.
.
One summer evening as I was fixing supper, there was a knock at
the door. I opened it to see a truly awful looking man.
.
“Why, he’s hardly taller than my eight-year-old,” I thought as I
stared at the stooped, shriveled body. But the appalling thing
was his face, lopsided from swelling, red and raw.
.
Yet his voice was pleasant as he said, “Good evening. I’ve come
to see if you’ve a room for just one night. I came for a
treatment this morning from the eastern shore, and there’s no
bus ’til morning.”
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He told me he’d been hunting for a room since noon but with no
success, no one seemed to have a room. “I guess it’s my face…
I know it looks terrible, but my doctor says with a few more
treatments…”
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For a moment I hesitated, but his next words convinced me,
“I could sleep in this rocking chair on the porch. My bus
leaves early in the morning.”
.
I told him we would find him a bed, but to rest on the porch.
I went inside and finished getting supper. When we were ready,
I asked the old man if he would join us. “No thank you.
I have plenty.” And he held up a brown paper bag.
.
When I had finished the dishes, I went out on the porch to talk
with him a few minutes. It didn’t take a long time to see that
this old man had an oversized heart crowded into that tiny body.
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He told me he fished for a living to support his daughter, her
five children, and her husband, who was hopelessly crippled from
a back injury.
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He didn’t tell it by way of complaint; in fact, every other
sentence was prefaced with a thanks to God for a blessing.
.
He was grateful that no pain accompanied his disease, which was
apparently a form of skin cancer. He thanked God for giving him
the strength to keep going.
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At bedtime, we put a camp cot in the children’s room for him.
When I got up in the morning, the bed linens were neatly folded
and the little man was out on the porch.
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He refused breakfast, but just before he left for his bus,
haltingly, as if asking a great favor, he said,
.
“Could I please come back and stay the next time I have a
treatment? I won’t put you out a bit. I can sleep fine in a
chair.” He paused a moment and then added, “Your children made
me feel at home. Grownups are bothered by my face, but children
don’t seem to mind.”
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I told him he was welcome to come again.
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And on his next trip he arrived a little after seven in the
morning. As a gift, he brought a big fish and a quart of the
largest oysters I had ever seen. He said he had shucked them
that morning before he left so that they’d be nice and fresh.
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I knew his bus left at 4:00 a.m., and I wondered what time he
had to get up in order to do this for us.
.
In the years he came to stay overnight with us, there was never
a time that he did not bring us fish or oysters or vegetables
from his garden.
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Other times we received packages in the mail, always by special
delivery; fish and oysters packed in a box of fresh young
spinach or kale, every leaf carefully washed.
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Knowing that he must walk three miles to mail these and knowing
how little money he had made the gifts doubly precious.
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When I received these little remembrances, I often thought of a
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Mar 25 2012
Posted: under Jamaican Jokes.
Tags: age, aid, anxiety, bank, belief, brain, bridge, burden, care, caring, check, community, compassion, contribution, cross, decision, depression, destination, dialect, donation, era, exam, example, exercise, eyes, faith, funds, funny, gift, God, heart, highway, hilarious, history, home, hope, House, humor, Jamaica, Jamaican, jokes, journey, language, laughter, legs, letter, listening, load, loan, love, mail, man, mind, model, money, neighbor, office, others, pain, path, patois, pencil, period, prayer, present, quiz, reading, road, robber, role model, sharing, smiles, spirit, stress, struggles, surprise, test, thief, thought, time, token, traffic, travel, trial, trials, trip, trust, vernacular, village, weight, woman, wonder, words, worries, worry
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A man became desperate after praying to God to help him. Not seeing any help coming to him he decided to write to God instead.
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He wrote, “Gad mi tiad fi pray an yuh nah ansa mi. Sumtime mi wanda if yuh caan hear mi. Suh mi tink it betta fi mi write yuh caa mi kno yuh wi read it.
Gad mi bruk an only a beg yuh 3 tousand dallas. Tanx!”
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He went to the post office and mailed his letter to
Heaven District, Heaven P.O.
The post mistress not knowing where to send the letter decided to read it.
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Moved by it, all the workers contributed money but could only arrive at 2500 dollars. Regardless,
they sent it to the man
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A few weeks later he picked up his mail at the post office, rushed home and was shocked to find only Read More
Mar 08 2012
Posted: under "YUMMY FOOD FOR THOUGHT".
Tags: actor, actress, advice, aid, angel, angels, anxiety, beacon, bliss, burden, candle, care, caring, cheer, comedian, comedy, concern, concert, cross, cure, dance, depression, feeling, fire, flame, flight, food, fun, funtime, game, goodness, happiness, healing, health, heart, humanity, humor, joy, laughter, learning, life, lifestyle, lifetime, light, load, love, man, medication, medicine, morning, movie, music, neighbor, neighborhood, others, pageant, pain, party, pencil, play, quotes, remedies, scripture, sharing, show, sign, smiles, sport, sports, storm, stress, struggles, sunshine, thought, tips, torch, weight, woman, worries
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Laugh a little and feel your heart lighten,
When life has you feeling weighed down.
—————-
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Read More
Feb 16 2012
Posted: under "A Slice Of Life", "LOVE is LOVELY", "Life is precious handle with PRAYER!", "When You're Down to Nothing God's UP to Something", Inspirationals.
Tags: age, aid, aim, air, anxiety, baby, bank, belief, blessings, bliss, care, career, caring, charity, check, child, college, comfort, community, companion, compassion, contribution, couple, dad, depression, difference, donation, duty, earth, era, eyes, faith, family, father, father-in-law, finger, fingers, friends, friendship, funds, gas, gift, global, globe, goal, God, granny, gratitude, hand, hands, happiness, heart, history, home, House, hug, hugs, husband, idea, ideas, inspiration, job, joy, labor, land, language, life, lifestyle, lifetime, listening, love, man, marriage, memory, moment, money, mood, mother, mother-in-law, mountain, need, needs, neighbor, neighborhood, others, parents, partner, period, power, prayer, pride, reason, rivers, school, sharing, smiles, sound, spouse, stream, stress, surprise, task, thankfulness, thought, time, token, trust, truth, universe, voice, water, wealth, wife, wind, woman, words, work, world
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Whirlwind
==========
.
I have no idea why I am sitting here about to tell the world
about my situation, but maybe it will help someone.
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A little over a year ago I found myself back home, working two
jobs, single, feeling alone and pregnant.
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Now the reason for me being back home was so that I could save
some money so that I might be able to buy my first home. I was
working two jobs so that I could pay my current bills off.
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I also wanted to start a new career. I was a nail tech and an
intake person. I was 28 years old, a single woman longing to be
married but finding myself alone and pregnant which I thought
would never happen.
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My mother and step-father gave me the option to move in for one
year so that I could save a little faster. Well my year had
come to a close and it was time to go, if you know what I mean.
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One day I felt like I was sitting in a chair in the middle of
the room and looking above only to see the whirlwind of my
problems going around me. I was like “wow if I get pulled up
into this mess I’d just keel over.” Well you know what happened
next. Our words do have power because all of a sudden it seems
as though I became trapped in this whirlwind.
.
I then began to give up until I remembered that God said that we
should cast all of our worries unto Him, so I began to pray a
prayer with all my heart. With faith I believed that He would
fix all of this, but I didn’t quite know how.
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The next day while working at the nail shop around 5 p.m.,
I began to tell a client of mine about my situation. After
crying all over myself at the end of her appointment, she gave
me a big hug and said that I was strong and everything would
work itself out. Now that was the last thing that I wanted to
hear. I was in trouble and needed major help.
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So by the end of my shift around 10 p.m. that client of mine who
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Jan 23 2012