Youth is when you’re allowed to stay up late on New Year’s Eve.  Middle age is when you’re forced to.  ~Bill Vaughn

An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in.  A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves.  ~Bill Vaughan

Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man.  ~Benjamin Franklin

The Old Year has gone.  Let the dead past bury its own dead.  The New Year has taken possession of the clock of time.  All hail the duties and possibilities of the coming twelve months!  ~Edward Payson Powell

Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right.  ~Oprah Winfrey

Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring, happy bells, across the snow: The year is going, let him go; Ring out the false, ring in the true. ~Alfred, Lord Tennyson, 1850

New Year’s Day:  Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions.  Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual.  ~Mark Twain

Glory to God in highest heaven, Who unto man His Son hath given; While angels sing with tender mirth, A glad new year to all the earth. ~Martin Luther

New Year’s Eve, where auld acquaintance be forgot.  Unless, of course, those tests come back positive.  ~Jay Leno

Of all sound of all bells… most solemn and touching is the peal which rings out the Old Year.  ~Charles Lamb

We spend January 1 walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched.  Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives… not looking for flaws, but for potential.  ~Ellen Goodman

The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year.  It is that we should have a new soul and a new nose; new feet, a new backbone, new ears, and new eyes.  Unless a particular man made New Year resolutions, he would make no resolutions.  Unless a man starts afresh about things, he will certainly do nothing effective.  ~G.K. Chesterton

For last year’s words belong to last year’s language And next year’s words await another voice. And to make an end is to make a beginning.– T.S. Eliot

v  Born in Boston, Massachusetts on January 17, 1706

v  Begins an apprenticeship in his brother James’ printing shop in Boston in 1718

v  At the age 17, leaves his family, running away to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

v  Then he moves to London, continuing his training as a printer in 1724

v  Returns to Philadelphia on 1726

v  In 1728 he opens his own Printing Office in Philadelphia

v  Becomes sole owner and publisher of the Pennsylvania Gazette in the year 1729

v  Marries Deborah Read Rogers in 1730

-          1731 Birth of Ben’s son William; Founds the first Circulating Library

-          1732      Birth of Ben’s son Francis

v  He publishes Poor Richard: An Almanack 1758    in 1732

v  Death of Ben’s young son Francis; Founds the Union Fire Company in Philadelphia in the year of 1736

v  (1737 )Appointed Postmaster of Philadelphia

v  (1742 )Proposes the idea for the University of Pennsylvania

v  Birth of Ben’s daughter Sarah, also known as “Sally” in 1743

v  Death of Ben’s father, Josiah Franklin, 1745

v  His first writings of electrical experimentation in 1747; organizes the first Militia

v  In 1751 his book Experiments and Observations on Electricity is published in London

v  In June 1752, performs famous kite experiment; Death of Ben’s mother, Abiah Folger Franklin; Founds first American fire insurance company

v  He travels in London in 1757 and returns to Philadelphia in 1762

v  Travels to France on 1767, and Elected president of the American Philosophical Society in

v  When the years pass by, The Hutchinson Letters Affair damages Franklin’s reputation; While in London, Ben receives word of his wife’s death on 1774.

v  At age 84, Benjamin Franklin dies in Philadelphia on April 17, 1790.

v  PRODUCTS :

                                 i.            Daylights saving time

                               ii.            Bifocal glasses

                              iii.            Three-wheel clock

                             iv.            Odometer

                               v.            Street lighting

                             vi.            Lightning rod

                            vii.            Wood burning stove

                          viii.            Extension arm

                             ix.            Library chair

                               x.            Swim fins

I think that the articles of confederation were a weak and ineffective form of government; they had no executive branch and little power to enforce laws on states, as well as tax them and regulate their trade. The articles where originally to tie the states together and to help run the revolutionary war, but those days where over and the articles no longer served Americas needs for a democratic government. They where written by a population widely proud of escaping the British Parliaments control and taxation, not wanting to go back; the articles designed a weak federal government on purpose. The articles were quickly proven ineffective at keeping order on this new nation as shays rebellion stirred up as well as other problems with taxes and war debt.

One of the main problems is there inability to control the states government. Congress had the ability to tax but states could deny congressional if they didn’t like it (A). This is a major disadvantage to the Articles of Confederation, the congress asked the states to fill there tax quota but could not enforce it and were lucky to even receive a fourth of the decided quota. . These over controlling state governments led to different forms of currency and trade problems. The states acted as individual countries instead of a united nation, with no strong central government to pull them together. The states with no real leadership developed differing laws, tariffs and trade laws from state to state. The states constitutions of each state even limited the power of central governments citizen’s rights. The difference in state constitutions, laws and currency led to major trade conflicts and inflation of individual currencies leading to major debts unplayable, eventually leading to Shay’s Rebellion.

Shay’s rebellion showed another major flaw in the articles; the almost worthless paper money of the nation, due to states ability to print there own currency, led to these men losing property and profit of any kind decided to enforce there own demands. This outburst showed that articles defective federal system with no power to put down this rebellion eventually ended by a state government funded by a few wealthy men.

The articles did create an army but with no money and desperately struggling in war debt with no good source of revenue the army was forced to endure little pay, congresses inability to pay there demands, and other injustices (C). they didn’t even have the authority to rid leftover British soldiers still “holed up” in old garrisons; made especially hard when still trying to fix trade problems with Brittan, including restrictions on our trade with them, and pay our massive debts (D). Our foreign problems don’t stop their Spain continued to pester us with conflict over the navigation of the Mississippi river (F), as well as the Frances continued frustration with our inability to pay back the debts we owed them.

Now though due to the troubles developed with Britain and their trade restrictions no matter how big our country gets we continue to make the same amount of money from trade (B). The navigation acts were still imposed on use by Britain who continued to hinder our trade and close ports of the West Indies to American merchants and traders weakening Americas industries and tax base further. The British still on American soil in the north continued to recruit Indians, to keep us out of Canada, and maintain the profitable fur trade taking further from our economy. Some colonists insisted on a revenge against Europe by imposing tariffs and quotas on our trade with them, but the article weakened congress had no control over the commerce of the states could do no such thing; this allowed easy going states to lower their trade barriers and make more of foreign industries. In these dismal times in the economy of early America George Washington said this about our relationships to foreign nations “Europe has a set of primary interests, which to us have none, or a very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence therefore it must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves, by artificial ties, in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics, or the ordinary combinations and collisions of her friendships, or enmities”.

These continuing problems tore the country apart with both factions fighting for a stronger or weaker federal government but, change was to come for the nation, which could no longer prosper under such a weak and ineffective form of government, but “the confederation was praiseworthy as confederations  went” the nation needed a tighter more formed and united form of government to lead and guide the people of this new nation, which is why the articles could never pull America from the spiraling disaster of foreign debt, relation, and continued disunity. 

“Learning to see life as full of possibilities instead of obstacles”.

That pretty much sums up the last three decades (plus) of my life. 

I have come up with a list of some important life lessons, which I want to share with you today.

I hope to inspire you to do the same. 

Doesn’t matter if you have 20 or 50 things, the point is to have something to look at and say “hey, at least this I know!”

So here we go;

I have discovered that;

1. This life is not a rehearsal. Live it to the full.

Life’s sweetness and innocence can ebb as we get older. We can become  cautious, develop a “been there done that” (and got burnt) kind of attitude. This “growing up” has a way of making us risk-averse, stops us from living life with full-blown sails.

2. You are actually better and smarter than you think you are.

Most of us underestimate ourselves, even go as far as calling it humility. If you take time to know and understand yourself, you will be pretty amazed at the kind of person you are and the kind of things you are capable of doing. It is okay to want to learn from someone but it is not okay to want to be them. You are unique and valuable, with an assortment of skills, gifts and passions that are unique to you. If you never realize that, you will never be of use to yourself, let alone to someone else.

3. Real wealth is not about money.

It’s about living a life of purpose, where all areas of your life (not just financial) are thriving. Its being healthy, enjoying life, having great relationships, doing your part in making your world a better. Money does not buy happiness. You can be pretty joyful without having a coin in your pocket. You get the opportunity to meet the real you when you have zero balance in your account, when walking in great levels of financial discomfort.

4. Life will be tough sometimes. 

I will admit that I do not like adversity. I like being in control, having plenty, being secure in all areas of my life. But I continue to learn how not to run from tough situations. To wait it out,to go through it.

5. You can be of help to someone else, no matter who you are.

You don’t need to be an expert, you only need to care enough and offer what you have. It’s not about what you can give on the outside, but how much you can give of yourself. A kind word, practical help. There are days when you feel like you have nothing, but a smile from you can make the day better for someone else.

6. Opportunity comes dressed real funny.

This has been a great discovery. Many things in my life have been “accidental” (I call them divine set-ups). Like meeting my husband, going into business, to name a few. Opportunity, when it shows us does not always look, smell or taste like it. You can miss it entirely. The answer is to cautiously step into it and begin to explore it, see where it leads. Even if it goes nowhere, atleast you tried it.

7. It is okay to fail. 

But it’s not okay to stay down. Especially mentally.

8. Tears are fine and friendly. 

It’s a girls thing I hear, but guys cry too, though sometimes their tears fall inward. I never really like to cry. But I was broke for long. I struggled to align my life to my purpose. I got married. My husband lost his job (I didn’t have an income either). My dad passed away. And a close friend too. Plenty of reasons to cry. It is okay to express emotion.

9. There is something like too much TV.

And other excesses. Live a fasted life. (It is not as hard as you think)

10. Enjoy the small things and moments of life.

Make conscious effort to live life slow. Be sensitive to the not-too-obvious. See the small things, the beautifull things. 

11. You cannot please everyone.

No matter what you do, how you do it, when you did it, somebody, at some point, will have a problem with it. So you must have tenacity, focus and a big wonderful heart that learns to love people, regardless of how they come packaged. 

12. The best way to correct is to appreciate first.

I am the kind that likes to go straight to the point..especially when offering correction. But I am discovering that there are more palatable ways to do it. For example instead of hammering out what someone has done wrong and how they can do it right,you can affirm what they have done right and suggest they do more of it. (I am signed up to this lesson for life!)

13. Singleness rocks.

I was hopeless in the kitchen, awful in housekeeping, survived on bread, tea and peanuts and the only advice I headed to (on a regular basis) was mine. I pursued career, ministry, fun, short courses, purpose  e.t.c full throttle. Such freedom! You get one shot at single-hood (hopefully). You just cannot mess it up.

14. Marriage will reveal who you really are.

I hear that being a parent brings you face to face with you. I am not there yet But marriage has been my ultimate teacher.

15. Not being in charge is freeing. 

I have been in leadership most of my life. Recently relocated to a new country, I am enjoying a little hiatus from leadership responsibilities. It’s a beautiful thing; to breath, to do some personal development of my own without followers/members peeking in. To enjoy a peaceful, nameless, blissful existence, reveling in “who you are” without “what you do” crowding in. Sabbaticals are good. Learn not to fight it when time comes. 

16. I am not an island

I need anchors – in form of mentors. I need friends. I need my family.

18. Having money is really great.

If you want to know the value of money, go try to borrow some - Benjamin Franklin. Money makes a great servant. It can bring family financial security. It can move mountains (try running a program that depends on donors).

19. Working on my strengths beats focusing on my weakness.

Acknowledge your weaknesses but work on your strengths. That is what gives you a powerful life. 

20. Life is really about giving, not receiving.

There is a a joy and fulfillment that comes from giving which cannot be experienced through any other thing. You don’t need to be an expert, the little you have often suffices.

21. Don’t judge people because you really don’t know what they are going through. 

You don’t know how you would react if you were walking in their shoes. I have discovered that people receive the fieriest trials in their area of calling/purpose. If you have been called to strengthen and build up business people, your own business will probably go through hard times. So don’t judge someone who is struggling in an area which you do not struggle in. You are probably being tested elsewhere.

22. Sometimes the devil is not to blame for the woes in your life. 

 Many times it’s about the choices we make. 

And other times it’s just a result of living in an imperfect world. I contracted chickenpox three days to my wedding. My whole body (including my face) broke out in painful sores, trembled in pain, fever and weakness. About a day to the wedding and as i sat with tears running down my face, I thought to myself, “So if this chickenpox didn’t happen to me, on which other bride would I wish it for?” It was my burden to carry. It helps to look at things in perspective. And carry your lot in life. Makes you stronger and gives you something to encourage others with. 

23. You will not always feel powerful. 

But that doesn’t mean you aren’t. 

It can be in your career, your business, your relationships – those times when are going through hard times and you wonder if all the dreams you had were just loony illusions. It is quite okay to take life one day at a time. 

So, there is my list!

I encourage you to take some time and write some of your life lessons/discoveries. Even if they are only two. Or fifty. 

The effort will be well worth it! You will be simply amazed at some of the things you know, the lessons you have learnt and how these lessons have shaped your life. 

Today was one of those days when I needed to hear #2, #19 and #23 all over again! (told you I was preaching to myself). So writing my life lessons has reminded about where I’ve come from and what I already know!

Some of you brain washed people out there has actually believed that you had rights. You actually believed that the conspiracy theroy protestors were crazy.

YOU ARE THE CRAZY ONES why? because you did not listen in school, you did not learn your lessons you failed our country. THANK GOD there was some people out there that had remembered studied and made this battle a difference

Here are some famous quotes that warned you but you the idiots did not listen

“The central bank is an institution of the most deadly hostility existing against the Principles and form of our Constitution. I am an Enemy to all banks discounting bills or notes for anything but Coin. If the American People allow private banks to control the issuance of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the People of all their Property until their Children will wake up homeless on the continent their Fathers conquered.”

Thomas Jefferson

“The money power preys upon the nation in time of peace and conspires against it in times of adversity. It is more despotic than monarchy, more insolent than autocracy, more selfish than bureaucracy. I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me, and causes me to tremble for the safety of our country. Corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people, until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands, and the republic is destroyed. “

Abraham Lincoln

“The Colonies would gladly have borne the little tax on tea and other matters had it not been the poverty caused by the bad influence of the English bankers on the Parliament, which has caused in the Colonies hatred of England and the Revolutionary War.”

Benjamin Franklin

We were taught this and I think most people wanted to be cool going to school wanted to be accepted as popular, Instead of learning what we needed to protect our families and our prosperity. Lucky for all of us that some of us actually paid attention.

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

Practicing Egoless state in life?

I am different but not different from you.

Image via Wikipedia

Benjamin Franklin asked,” you can bear your own faults, and why not a fault in your wife?” And, there is the answer. For a mistake committed by someone, will I treat and behave with the person the same way as I will treat myself for such a mistake? If the answer is “Yes” then I am not seeing the other as different from me but as a part of me. But if the answer is “No” then I am operating out of ego. Leftover food is offered to be servant maid but never to the esteemed guest, which means we are operating out of ego.

With ego, we treat others differently. Hence disharmony. In the absence of the ego, we treat other equally. Hence harmony.

Let salaries, positions, possessions and progress depend on individual responsibilities and capabilities, but let treatment and behavior of others be on the basis of equality. Didn’t every religion with different expressions say the same, ‘Do unto others what you want others to do unto you. Do not do unto others what you do not want to be done unto you.”

It is truly liberating to realize,” I am different but not different from you. We are different but not different from each other.” Loving you is loving the ‘Me” in you. Hating you is hating the “Me” in you.

Get more insight click the link below

POLITICAL OPINION

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1.  Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.

A.  George Washington          B.  Thomas Jefferson            C.  Benjamin Franklin

2.  Give me liberty or give me death.

A.  John Adams                      B.  Patrick Henry                   C.  Abraham Lincoln

3.  Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.

A.  General Omar Bradly        B.  Franklin D. Roosevelt       C.  John F. Kennedy

4.  Some people wonder all their lives if they’ve made a difference. The Marines don’t have that problem.

A.  Ronald Reagan                B.  General MacArthur           C.  George W. Bush

5.  It’s best to rise from life like a banquet, neither thirsty or drunken.

A.  Aristotle                          B.  Socrates                          C.  Albert Einstein

6.  Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something.

A.  Socrates                         B.  Plato                                C.  Henry David Thoreau

7.  I believe that everything happens for a reason.  People change so that you can learn to let go.  Things go wrong so that you appreciate them when they’re right.  you believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself, and sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.

A.  Marilyn Monroe               B.  Lauren Bacall                   C.  Lucille Ball

8.  The problem with the world is that everyone is a few drinks behind.

A.  W.C. Fields                      B.  Humphrey Bogart           C.  Johnny Carson

9.  When they call the roll in the Senate, the Senators do not know whether to answer ‘Present’ or ‘Not guilty.’

A.  Lyndon Johnson             B.  Bill Clinton                       C.  Theodore Roosevelt

10.  I don’t deserve this award, but I have arthritis and I don’t deserve that either.

A.  Jack Benny                     B.  Milton Berle                     C.  Danny Thomas

11.  Recommend to your children virtue; that alone can make them happy, not gold.

A.  George Carlin                B.  Ludwig van Beethovan    C.  John Wayne

12.  God has given us two hands, one to receive with and the other to give with.

A.  Mother Teresa               B.  Martin Luther King            C.  Billy Graham

13.  Opportunities are usually disguised as hard work, so most people don’t recognize them.

A.  Ann Landers                 B.  Tom Landry                       C.  Chuck Norris

14.  The price of greatness is responsibility.

A.  Richard Nixon               B.  Sir Winston Churchill         C.  Charles Dickens

15.  It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get up.

A.  Vince Lombardi            B.  Bear Bryant                       C.  Tony Dungy

ANSWERS:

1. C    2. B    3. C    4. A    5. A    6. B    7. A    8. B    9. C    10. A    11. B    12. C    13. A    14. B    15. A

Are we safer now? People are quick to point out how our rights are being violated by the Patriot Act, the groping in the airports, the lack of necessity for going into Iraq, because after all these things we haven’t been attacked since 9-11. The public likes to assume that these things are not necessary because we have not been attacked, instead of accepting that we have not been attacked because of the Patriot Act, TSA, and Iraq. 

George Bush in his book Decision Points writes that he knew regardless of his decision to enter Iraq he was going to be labeled badly. He says that if he had chosen not to enter Iraq the media would have blamed him for the outcome, just as much as his entering into that war. Either way he was in a lose lose situation. At least with entering the war that everyone now blames him for he saved lives over in the United States.

How quick we forget the bipartisan agreement that there was WMD’s in Iraq. How quick we forget Hillary Clinton, then a Senator from New York calling for Congress to go to war. It is easier to forget these things, in light of our safety now and turn our backs on the man who made sure we would be safe to begin with. 

It is easy to sit back now, having not been attacked in the last ten years and claim that all of this has been a waste of time. That going to Iraq and Afghanistan a waste of time, security measures at the airport a waste of time. Because we are safer now we tend to forget that there, is an effort being made by those on the front lines to ensure that safety? 

Benjamin Franklin would tell us “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” Therefore, we have given up some of our liberties, via the Patriot Act to receive the temporary safety of not being attacked by radicals who threaten our way of life. We are safer, and less grateful than ever before to those individuals who assure our safety. The Homeland Security agents who fight the battle on the frontlines here at home and the brave men and women who fight the battles on the front lines millions of miles away from home deserve more than us questioning the necessity of their existence. At a time of great horror we chose to limit or liberties in order to be safe again, now we have the option of getting or liberties back or accepting that sacrificing them for the safety we now have is necessary. Either way we need to acknowledge that we are safer now than we were prior to September 11th, that the war was and continues to be necessary to maintain that safety, and question which would we rather a war that will continue or the possibility of another attack because if we sacrifice the system set up post nine-eleven we aren’t going to be rewarded with the same safety we now have, we will be awarded with another attack the equivalent of 9-11 on our shores. 

They were both standing beside their cars and screaming at each other while waving their arms in a threatening manner. The argument eventually became a name-calling competition, with each trying to outdo the other. The sad thing was that the store wasn’t busy and there were plenty of empty spaces available. Their arguing became so heated that other shoppers began stopping to watch the spectacle. Meanwhile, the women’s children sat in their cars and witnessed the whole scene. How proud those kids must be!

The fact is that everybody gets angry. Whether it is at a family member, a co-worker or the stranger who took our parking spot, we all get angry. The problem with getting angry is that there is only a slim chance that it might solve the problem, but a much greater chance it’ll create new ones.

Anger is really us losing control and when we lose control bad things usually happen. At home it can mean a damaged relationship, in public it can mean a confrontation with a stranger, and at work it can mean getting fired or skipped over for promotion. Samaria Maxamus said, “Anger itself does more harm than the condition that caused it.” If you can’t remember that, try: Anger is only 1 letter away from danger!

Let’s be honest here, just like the two women in the parking lot, most of us can look and act pretty foolishly when we’re angry – usually saying and doing things we’ll later regret. Getting angry is a lot like being drunk, the intoxicated person is the only one who doesn’t realize he has a problem. 

What makes anger so dangerous is that it can occur so quickly we’ve lost control before we even realize it. The only way to minimize the damage is to gain back control.

Before we can begin to diminish our anger we first have to understand what causes anger. There is really only one reason why we get angry and that is because someone didn’t act the way we wanted them to. Interesting, isn’t it? Anger is not an action, but how we respond to another’s action. Getting angry is letting someone else control you.

When was the last time something good came out of you getting angry? Benjamin Franklin said, “Whatever is begun in anger ends in shame.” The next time you find yourself getting angry, try and take a moment to ask yourself these questions: Is winning this argument really worth ruining the relationship? How important will this be a year from now? A month from now? A day or even an hour from now? 

The moment you take back control you’ll lose the anger. Don’t let someone else control how you feel. 

Who really suffers when you get anger? The Buddha said, “Holding on to anger is like holding on to a red-hot coal, you’re the only one who’s going to get burned.” 

Why is it that when we hurt ourselves physically we learn not to do it again, but when we hurt ourselves emotionally we repeat the same action over and over? No one benefits from anger.

The best way to end an argument is to bite your tongue. That’s not admitting fault, it’s controlling the anger. Take back control. Besides, even if you win the argument, you still can’t enjoy the present if you’re angry about the past.