©© You can usually tell by talking with them that they live and breathe what they are talking about. You can feel the energy shift when that type of person enters a room. They attract everyone to them and you feel you just want to be around them. On the other hand, there are some people that have charismatic personalities but they don’t carry the same heart-felt passion. They don’t attract people in the same way. They attract people the way a sales person might. What is the difference? What is genuine? In my opinion, I think it comes from one’s life experience and what has touched their heart. If they can express themselves from that place, they don’t have to prove anything. They are coming from a place of love and they’re genuine.

I want to share with you a video of such a person, Randy Pausch, a 47-year professor at Carnegie Melon University’s Entertainment and Technology Center. He talks about how he achieved most of his childhood dreams and gives realistic advice as to how we can also live our lives so we can make our dreams come true too. You’ll see passion and someone full of life and enthusiasm and yet he has been diagnosed with a terminal disease. Be inspired of someone with a positive and inspirational outlook on life. The video is over an hour long but it’s well worth the viewing if you want a lift for the day. It was entitled, 47-Year Old Professor Gives Exuberant ‘Last Lecture’

I believe we all have the potential to live our dreams as Randy and we all can be a light in our little corner of the world. In fact, this is what we’re supposed to do. Look for your passion – your genuine enthusiasm – from that place in your heart that’s truth. Then, go take it to the world.

“Love one another and help others to rise to the higher levels, simply by pouring out love. Love is infectious and the greatest healing energy.” – Sai Baba

End Note: Randy lost his battle with cancer on July 25, 2008. May you rest in peace, Randy, and may the angels be with you.

From the kitchen table – Pat
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Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2016 Pat Ruppel

Acknowledgements: "Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving more...

Is what you’re doing in your life a crap shoot? Do you feel that some things you do are hit and miss and you wonder how it’s all happening? You may wonder at times why things go the way they do – is it a random effort spinning around on a wheel with no direction until it hits a slot? It doesn’t work that way. There’s too much information out there telling us that this is an intelligent system we live and engage in and we need to learn how it operates. I’ll bet you’ve read some of these books and articles, too, or you wouldn’t be reading this.

We are incredible beings living in this system and in this day and age more and more information is being published on how we can tap into that potential and be successful. The key, however, is to be willing. How willing are you to do what you need to do to take action? Sometimes, because we don’t see results we hammer at ourselves and put ourselves down as being a failure. We are our biggest critic but in reality it may be something that we haven’t seen or been able to realize yet. It just wasn’t available to us before. The more we read and open up to the possibilities, the more we are led to see what we need. This intelligent system doesn’t beat down; it’s patient and gently guiding. Here’s an interview and a blog posting that may be of interest to you and if you’re open to it they may be of help: Dr. Wayne Dyer’s The Seven Secrets of a Joyful Life, where he talks from a spiritual context and Bill Harris of Centerpointe in Stuck About Money or Success where, with his Holosync program, he talks about some of things we can do to take action and take charge of our lives. Two different approaches and yet connected.

Our lives are precious and of great value and what we do is not a crap shoot. We can have purpose, learn direction and see the results but we need to pay attention and align ourselves with the energies that are available within and outside of us and use them. We can become anything we desire and live the lives we dream. Ask for guidance and then be willing to follow what appears before you.

Napoleon Hill said, “If you can’t do great things, do small things in a great way. Don’t wait for great opportunities. Seize common, everyday ones and make them great.”

From the kitchen table – Pat
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In 1989, a movie came out entitled, “Field of Dreams”, with Kevin Costner playing the lead role. You may remember a famous quote from that movie, “If you build it, he will come.” It was a powerful movie about a corn farmer in Iowa who loved baseball. He hears a voice one day and understood the message to mean for him to build a baseball field on his farm. When he builds the field, ghosts of baseball legend Shoeless Jackson and seven other players from the 1919 Chicago White Sox come to play. Since then, I’ve heard this quote used in a number of ways so I thought I’d use it for today’s posting – “If I build this blog, they will come.”

For several years now, I’ve been searching for a venue for Wisdom for the Ages, a gathering I created in the corporate world where everyone (management/non-management) can come and sit in a circle, similar to Native American tradition, and, using a talking stick, share their wisdom on a number of topics (go to one of my postings for a little story of what it was like when I started this: Truth and Beauty). For most of my life, I’ve had the desire to connect, not only for myself but I also enjoy when others do. So, I started the talking-stick meetings and it was successful until that door closed and the company relocated back east. I then took it out of the corporate environment into leads groups, business groups, chambers of commerce, etc. and it didn’t really have the presence or accomplish what I felt it could have. As most of you, I’ve had countless experiences and lessons I’ve learned and I yearned to share them and in turn listen to others. I’ve always believed that if you felt safe – when you are the most vulnerable – and can talk from the heart, they are the times when healing takes place. That’s what I felt growing up listening, late at night, to the grownups talk sitting around the kitchen table. See a previous post on Family and Going Home. It was a bonding time, a safe haven, where you can tell it like you feel it and you’re still accepted and loved. I’ve wanted to create that for others in all walks of life whether in the corporate world, communities, families, etc., except the time or place never seemed to be right – until now.

Here we are with my 15th post. You can’t physically sit around a kitchen table but you can be reached from all ends of the globe through the wonders of the internet and we can connect. It has started and you’re coming and I thank you. I trust you’ll enjoy what you read. As this progresses, in the future I look forward to creating a forum where we can exchange our stories, our experiences and together share our wisdom. So, keep on coming and keep on reading. I value and appreciate all of you.

From the kitchen table – Pat
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“Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” (The Holy Bible KJV- Heb 13:2)

There is a beautiful little publication called, Angels on Earth (click to read the weekly feature) that is a collection of stories of people from all over the world that have had life changing experiences entertaining strangers – angels. Have you had a situation in your life when you were in great need and someone showed up at the right place and the right time to help? I have and I thought I would share this story with you, especially at this holiday season.

(Photo by Dez Pain at www.sxc.hu.home)
It was a little over 30 years ago and a friend of mine and I went to the grocery store. At the time, our children were small. I had my baby, Stephanie, and 2-year old, Allison, with us and we got an empty grocery cart. I put Allison in the cart facing me with her legs through the top and held Stephanie, as we headed out to start our shopping.

My friend and I stopped at the end of one of the aisles to look at a spiral book rack – still without groceries. As we looked at the books, my daughter got restless and started to climb out of the grocery cart. I didn’t notice her but someone else did.

Because the cart was empty, it started to lift up and come over as she tried to climb out. A man came running in between me and the cart and caught her just 2 inches from the concrete floor. He was a young man with a child in his grocery cart and it all happened so fast with her only a foot away from me.

He set her down on her feet and handed her to me and never said a word. Our eyes met and I felt as if our souls knew each other. As I recovered and checked on Allison to be sure she was okay, I looked up to thank him but he was gone. We hurried through the store to catch him to express our heartfelt gratitude but he was no where to be found.

That day, I met Allison’s angel and she often jokes that she’s kept him busy throughout her life but we know he’s there with love and compassion looking out for her. They’re there in all forms whether it’s a young man with a little boy or an animal or bird. God is looking out for us and it’s comforting.

Be on the look out. You never know when you will have entertained a stranger – your angel.

From the kitchen table – Pat

Particularly, this time of year we are tuned into joy and peace with all the festivities going on: the office parties, the houses lit up, music playing in the malls. It’s a celebration of life! What does it feel like to you this year? Are you experiencing that blissful peace, maybe when everything around appears to be chaotic. Or, how about joy, what are the simple things calling out to you to take notice – a child’s laughter or bells ringing (angels getting their wings)? There’s a spirit of hope in the air, a willingness to cooperate, a holy time when we look to our faith and we’re renewed.

Every day we have a choice whether to look to joy and peace or the opposite. It’s a journey and it seems as we get older and our eyes get dim our hearts grow stronger and more and more we come to know that “All is well.” For some, it can be a reminder of what they don’t have or who they’ve lost the past year and it’s painful. But, it’s also a time when family and friends rally around those loved ones to help. There’s a mixture of spiritual and material and all the human emotions thrown in. It’s like nature and the stars and the universe all have a voice and join with us in this celebration. Where is your journey of joy and peace taking you this year?

This year, I want to slow down and soak in the love and the smells and sounds of the season. I want to go out when it’s snowing and feel the snowflakes drifting down and come alive with the life that is all around me and feel my part in it. Let’s celebrate this life together that has been given us with joy and peace.

From the kitchen table – Pat
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