Don't Leave Home Without It

What will you never leave home without?

Here are my guesses...

“I won’t leave home without my driver’s license.”

“I won’t leave home without my cellphone.”

“I won’t leave home without my handbag or wallet.”

“I won’t leave home without my AAA card.”

“I won’t leave home without my credit card.”

“I won’t leave home without my water bottle.”

Here are some ideas for what else you shouldn't leave home without...

Don’t leave home without your patience.

You will need patience on the road.

You will need patience for those who keep you waiting, or delay you.

You will need patience to deal with tailgaters.

You will need patience to deal with those who cut you off.

You will need patience to deal with those who drive too fast, or drive too slow.

You will need patience at work.

You will need patience to deal with those who delay you, or keep you waiting.

You never need patience to deal with mistakes, and mess-ups, and no-shows.

You will need patience to deal with unexpected hiccups.

You will need patience to deal with interruptions.

You will need patience to deal with people who are not like you, and people who test your patience, if you know what I mean.

Don't leave home without your patience.

Don’t leave home without your composure.

Stuff happens.

In any situation, people with composure have the edge.

Only, if you have composure, will you be able to think rationally,

Only if you have composure, will you not do or say things you will regret.

Only if you have composure, will you be able to avoid reacting when your hot buttons are pressed.

C.J. Redwine said, “Losing your head in a crisis is a good way to become the crisis.”

Do you have the same reaction to the same people doing the same things again and again?

Then you are a crisis in the making.

When you have no control over your irritation, anger, or other emotions, you will be in an infinite loop – where they do their thing, and then you do your freak out thing.

Stop that once and for all.

Don’t leave home without your composure.

Don’t leave home without your sense of humor.

Mahatma Gandhi said: “If I had no sense of humor, I would long ago have committed suicide”.

“I don’t trust anyone who doesn’t laugh” said Maya Angelou

Don’t take everything so damn seriously.

Don't take yourself so damn seriously.

You are not carrying the world on your shoulders.

If you were, your name would be Atlas.

Is your name Atlas?

I thought so.

If you do not laugh at something, at least one thing, every day, then your thought diet is lacking an essential nutrient.

Add the nutrient of humor to your diet by reading or watching funny material, and by trying to see the humor in every situation.

Someone I know, recently had a knee surgery.

Amongst all the serious communications which were exchanged, was this funny poem. It immediately brought a smile to everyone’s faces...

Eulogy to C's Knee 

I think that I shall never see

A joint as complex as Cs' knee

For years it helped her run and play

At many spots til she was gray .... (ish)

But then arthritis took its toll

She found it painful just to stroll

Before the day was halfway spent

Her knee complained ( "Are' Ram, Ram !") without relent

She had Johnnite surgeon look to see

What it would take to be pain-free

The X-ray and Rupees told him of her trial

Yes, her knee had walked its final mile

So nervously, her knee a wreck

Into a hospital she checked

The surgeon said ," Aare', kyaa hogaya madhi ?" and with his knife

Would give her back her pain-free life

It really gave my heart a twinge

To think her loyal little hinge

Would soon be severed from its home

So that her limp could long be "ghone ghone"

So ,Enuf said, go old faithful knee

For you I wrote this eulogy

No more painful bone on bone

C's knee now glides on cobalt chrome

         - with apologies to S. Williams and J. Smith

“A sense of humor is needed armor”, said Hugh Sidey.

Don’t leave home without your sense of humor.

Don’t leave home without gratitude

Don’t leave home without gratitude.

You have to remind yourself to be grateful every day.

This is because it is so easy to forget how blessed you are.

If you find yourself getting ready to whine and complain about the situation with your health, or your house, or your car, or your spouse, or your partner, or your child, or your sibling, immediately stop and think.

What do I have to be grateful for?

Epicurus said, “Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.”

What are the things you only hoped for, which have come to pass?

Be grateful for the problems that exist because of the blessings tied to them.

As Alphonse Karr wisely reminds us, “We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorns have roses.”

Be grateful.

Be grateful again and again and again.

“If you aren’t grateful for what you already have, what makes you think you would be happy with more.” said Roy T Bennett.

Don’t leave home without your gratitude.

Don’t leave home without your values.

And finally don’t leave home without your values.

The Paradoxical Commandments from Kent Keith are below.

I suggest you print The Paradoxical Commandments so you have them with you at all times.

Take them out and read them frequently.  They will help you do the right thing.

The Paradoxical Commandments

People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.

Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.

Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.

Succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.

Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.

Be honest and frank anyway.

The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.

Think big anyway.

People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.

Fight for a few underdogs anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.

Build anyway.

People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.

Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth.

Give the world the best you have anyway.”

― Kent M. Keith, The Silent Revolution: Dynamic Leadership in the Student Council

Don’t leave home without your values.

As always, thanks for sharing my Journey to Wisdom, Meaning and a Better Life.  Like you I am trying to find my way through this complex maze we call life, and I am honored to have you share my journey, as I continue to seek the wisdom hidden in plain sight.

Thanks to Ajay for his compliments on my last post, and thanks to the rest of you for your likes, pins, shares, tweets and votes…..much appreciated….M ……a Pearl Seeker like you. 

Happy Birthday to those with September birthdays.  Hope you use your birthday month to birth something new and wonderful in your life.  

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