One of the sports teams I follow is the Detroit Tigers. While they haven’t done much on the field recently to make me proud, they did something off the field that did. They fired their pitching coach for making an insensitive remark to a team employee. The Tigers have a “zero tolerance” policy for such…
A friend of mine posted a comment on Facebook that went something like, “Everyone gets to decide how happy they want to be because everyone gets to decide how grateful, kind and caring they’re willing to be.” I think this is right-on and it places the responsibility for our happiness squarely in our lap. If…
As I climbed into a bloodmobile to donate a pint of blood, I looked around to see what was going on. Here’s what I saw: everyone there was either about to be stuck with a large needle, in the process of being stuck, having blood withdrawn or having a needle removed from their arm.…
The Garden of Pensiveness posted a brief poem on its Facebook page by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow that uses a garden metaphor to capture the complete essence of kindness: Kind hearts are the gardens, Kind thoughts are the roots, Kind words are the flowers, Kind deeds are the fruits, Take care of your garden And keep…
Inspiration, that special stimulus that arouses our thinking, feeling and action is necessary before we can accomplish anything worthy of note. In the words of German Poet, Johann Von Herder, “Without inspiration the best powers of the mind remain dormant, they are a fuel in us which needs to be ignited with sparks.” Those sparks,…
Author and human behavior expert, Tom Rath, was asked this question asked by Jennifer Weigel in and article which was posted on chicagotribune.com. In other words, what can we do right now that will immediately improve how we feel about things? His answer was simple: “The single most important thing you can do is to focus on…
A Take On Success “The Garden of Pensiveness” posted the following Brian Tracy quote on Facebook: “Success is not necessarily determined by material possessions or accomplishments. You can enjoy success simply by reaching the point where you are perfectly content with your life in every respect and you feel no dissatisfaction or pressing need for…
A friend of mine made the following insightful post on Facebook: “When we start to question the meaning of life, there is only one viable answer—the role we play in positively impacting the lives of other people. Can I make someone smile? Can I make someone laugh? Can I lesson a burden? Can I…
A friend of mine found this story on a piece of western art. The lesson is so powerful that I felt compelled to share it with you: “One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said, ‘My son, the battle is between two ‘wolves’ inside us…
McKinley Corbley recently posted a heart-warming story on the Good News Network. Five years ago, Tiffany Hall was caught in a cycle of drug abuse and addiction. Today, she is about to become a college graduate and credits her success to the kindness of the police officer who arrested her. According to the article, “Hall…