***** Positive Thinking, Happy Living

On her 50th wedding anniversary, a woman revealed the secret of her long and happy marriage. She said, "On my wedding day, I decided to make a list of ten of my husband's faults which, for the sake of the marriage, I would overlook."

One of her guests asked her what some of the faults she chose to overlook were. "To tell you the truth," she replied, "I never did get around to making that list. But whenever my husband did something that made me hopping mad, I would say to myself, 'Lucky for him that's one of the ten!'"

According to a Greek legend, in ancient Athens a man noticed the great storyteller Aesop playing childish games with some little boys. He laughed and jeered at Aesop, asking him why he wasted his time in such frivolous activity.

Aesop responded by picking up a bow, loosening its string, and placing it on the ground. Then he said to the critical man, "Now, answer the riddle, if you can. Tell us what the unstrung bow implies."

One mother was jogging through the park, pushing two toddlers in a stroller. As they approached a hill, she said, "OK, now I need you to help me." And they did! As she started up the hill, they each said, "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can. . ."

Sometimes it just takes the desire to help and you can find a way.

There is a wonderful urban legend circulating about a man who is trying to land a job as an assistant professor in a university. His application was rejected and he writes the following response:

*"Herbert A. Millington
Chair - Search Committee
412 A Clarkson Hall, Whitson University
College Hill, MA 34109*
*
Dear Professor Millington,*
*
Thank you for your letter of March 16. After careful consideration, I regret to inform you that I am unable to accept your refusal to offer me an assistant professor position in your department.*
*

I am told that the muscles of the face are capable of over 250,000 different combinations of expressions. And one of the most useful is
a smile. And though I'm a fan of kissing, I appreciate that smiling is still one of the best things I can do with my lips.

Sometimes I hear or read something that is so true, I know I will never forget it. One of those gems is an observation from Fulton J. Sheen, who said, "A smile across the aisle of a bus in the morning could save a suicide later in the day." Over the years, I've come to

Someone said this about happiness:

To be happy for an hour -- take a nap.
To be happy for a day -- go shopping.
To be happy for a week -- take a vacation.
To be happy for a month -- get married.
To be happy for a year -- inherit a fortune.
To be happy for a lifetime -- help others.

You and I may argue with a couple of points on that list, but the author is exactly right about how to be happy for the rest of your life. Lasting contentment can always be found in helping others. It is truly a secret that many people have never discovered!

Three-year-old Jonathon is gifted. And precocious. I’m told that when his parents took him to a restaurant, he ordered a grilled cheese sandwich. “Jonathon, I’m sorry, we don’t serve grilled cheese sandwiches,” the server replied.

He asked playfully, “You have a grill, don’t you?”

She answered, “Yes.”

He continued, “You have cheese, don’t you?”

“Yes, we do.”

“You have bread, don’t you?”

“Yes.

“Well,” he said, “I’ll have a grilled cheese sandwich.”

I probably golf about as well as a slug wages war.... In fact, out of consideration for my friends (I embarrass them), I quit playing with
anybody I know. It was too hard for them to watch. But I can still appreciate what a golf enthusiast said about the game.

I have a friend who says he is going to change his telephone voice message greeting. He wants to say, "Thank you for calling. I've been making some changes in my life. Please leave a message. If I don't call you back soon, you're one of the changes."

I don't know if he ever got around to it. But I do know that making personal changes is often what life is all about. We'd better learn
how to welcome change if we want to live fully.

Thomas Aquinas once said, "No one can live without joy." But many people try. And the reason is often simply because they don't know how to be happy! They are so intent on the three P's - power, prosperity and prestige - that they miss out on joy.

Try to imagine this picture. It is a photograph taken by Henri Cartier-Bresson, who pioneered modern photography as an art form during the early decades of the 20th Century. He became known for his photographs of apparent contradictions: pictures that left mysteries unexplained.