I'm against animal cruelty

Story - Sex & Drugs

Sex & Drugs

Danelle

04 Jun, 2013 05:49 PM

Silently, I walked in the pouring rain, towards that old abandoned bus station, running away from Daddy again. He was drunk again, and the sting from the smack across my face began to burn with every rain drop that spilled on it. My jaw ached and I could feel my sweater rubbing against my back, against the open wounds from Daddy's belt. He loved adding to the scars. He always had a fascination with making me cry. Then he'd spit on me, and laugh at me. 
"Crying is for the weak, stupid little bitch! Cry a river if you want. No one cares!"
"Daddy, I'm sorry.. I love you.. Please, stop.." I would beg and plead for hours sometimes. That only edged him on more. 

I sat on the only bench that wasn't drenched in water and buried my head in my hands. I could still feel the burn from the cigar on my arm. He laughed, cynically. He enjoyed watching me feel pain. Is this how Daddy's show love? This happened regularly for months, a couple years even. Mama never said nothing. She worked three jobs & was always high off her Vicoden & Tramadol. I saw my Mother twice a week if I was lucky enough. The kids at school bullied me. Laughing at my weight & my scars. I used to be deathly skinny, fragile. That all seems like a far away memory now. Back when the only things I thought of were cigarettes, weed, pills, cutting, throwing up & suicide. 

Suicide was always one of my options, one I considered a lot. I remember talking about it once, and the girl I considered my best friend, dared me. She bet me sixty dollars I wouldn't. I didn't take the bet. I didn't really wanna die, but I felt like I didn't want to live, either. What do you do when you're so mentally fucked that you can't seem to decide whether or not you should be alive? You have all the opportunities to take your own life, yet you still contemplate whether to act on them or not. I've sat in my bed all night long sometimes, thinking about how or when. Who it would affect.. Who it wouldn't.

Drugs became a huge part in my life a few years ago. I'd do anything to get a nice high. I partied. Skipped school. My Dad had ran away with my Ma's lifes earnings and blew it all on booze and strippers, then took off without saying a word. Mama worked all the time now. She didn't seem to care what I did. I didn't get attention unless I was doing bad things, so why not continue doing them? No one could stop me all the way. Sure, cops could put a damper on my party for a little bit at a time, but they couldn't tell me whether or not to party. & I did. I became famous in my town for out drinking full grown men & out smoking anyone who said they could do it better. I made a lot of "friends". Basically, drug dealers. Who I tended to smoke a lot or drink a lot with. I never smoked alone. Only drank alone a couple times. When you're the Queen of Partying, you don't usually stay home. I'd go nights without coming home, only thinking of what my Ma would say. But it's funny, cause' she never said a damn thing. I always wished she would've though. She would've made an effort to be my Mother. She seemed like a distant roommate. She'd leave me money and she'd go to work. I wouldn't see her for days at a time and I became accustomed to that. That feeling of being alone is one of the hardest to overcome. The only time I felt good was when I was high or drunk. Of course, drugs led to sex. Sex was another amazing escape. I was never fully satisfied. 

It was always the same routine with the man I had sex with by choice. Nate, about 23 years old, total druggie & alcoholic. He collected SSI for his Bipolar Disorder and was a full time drug dealer. He'd sell you anything from marijuana to heroin. But, he liked me. He was into everything I was into. So we'd smoke some weed, smoke a cigarette, drink until we were drunk if we had any alcohol available to us, then we'd go into his bedroom, and he'd rip my clothes off.. You can finish there. Afterwards, we'd smoke again. & then I'd go somewhere else. I used to think he loved me. He didn't though. He loved the sex & drugs. & That's all he cared about. He didn't care where I went after he was done with me. It wasn't until a few months of him being on Ambian & lots of crack that he became someone else. Someone I didn't want to be around. He'd hit me. He'd burn me and cut me. He grabbed me by my hair, and forced me to give him oral sex, after that, he raped me. He raped me senseless, everything was torn, everything was bleeding & he smiled, that evil smile that once reminded me of a demon, sexy but evil. Dragging me by my hair he threw me into his bathtub, filling the excruicating hot water with rubbing alcohol and bleach, where he proceeded to shove a broom handle covered with a washcloth up inside me. Cleaning any proof I had of his rape. He punched me when I cried. Right in my jaw. My jaw still clicks from it, all the time. I tried not to cry, just like my Dad had instilled in me, but I couldn't help it. The pain was too great and he would just beat me harder and harder. Eventually, I must've passed out from the pain because I woke up in a ditch, naked, in freezing cold weather. Humiliated & hung over, I covered myself with what I could & limped down the long country road, praying someone would find me. Then laughing at the thought of a God who could allow something like this to happen. 

After about sixty cars passed, honking and some even laughing, a nice man pulled over, smoking a blunt. He asked if I needed a ride somewhere, and of course I did. Getting in his car, he grabbed a blanket from the back seat and laid it on me, he passed me the blunt and smiled, I nodded thankfully & inhaled. Turns out it was laced with cocaine. That trip didn't end until the next day, I slept with the guy who picked me up & didn't even ask his name, and he dropped me off at my only friend in the worlds house. James. James was the only one who stood by my side through everything. I loved him. He was the only man I could stand being around anymore. James made me feel safe. Walking up to his door, in nothing but a towel that guy had let me have, I shivered and cried as he let me in. Crying into his chest, I lost it, and broke down. I cried and cried until it began to hurt to breathe. James sat me down and brought me a pair of his boxers and a baggy tshirt to wear. I told him everything that happened, and cried and cried, he held me. He just held me and let me cry. I fell asleep on his chest. I woke up to him, looking down at me. He told me I talked in my sleep. He told me that he knows how I feel and that he is always there for me. But how do I know that? But how couldn't I know? He'd always been there. Since the day I met him we became best friends. James and I smoked a cigarette together, cuddled up in a blanket and he looked at me and I remember him asking if I was alright. I nodded, but inside I felt like I was dying. I looked at him and told him I was going to kill myself. 

After hours of talking through it, I decided against killing myself, but I begged to take a shower. I showered for an hour and a half. Scrubbing at my skin, scrubbing til' it was raw but I still felt dirty. To this day, I still feel dirty. I let those men do the things they did to me, all for drugs, all for a jolt of an emotion other than pain.. 

Today I am 17 months sober off of everything but marijuana and cigarettes. If you need someone to talk to, don't let it go on too late. Kik me : Fuck_Youuh_Barbie 
You're never as alone as you think you are.

http://www.loverofsadness.net/sad_story.php?id=2256&t=sex&o=0

Jesus

Jesus    Read at least the first two lines....Never thought of it!    Jesus died over 2000 years ago. Nobody has ever referred to HIM as the late Jesus, Not even the heathens. Nowhere in history. Nowhere has HE ever been referred to in the past tense HE 'is' the Living God!    97% OF YOU WON'T SHARE THIS MESSAGE.   When Jesus died on the cross HE was thinking of you! If you are one of the 3% who will stand up for HIM, forward this. "May God Smile on You Today."

AN EAGLE KISS

AN EAGLE KISS  

This is the kind of story you need,

When it seems like the world is spiraling out of control…

 

Not many people get a picture of this proud bird,
Snuggled up next to them!

FREEDOM AND JEFF

Freedom and I have been together 11 years this summer.
She came in as a baby in 1998 with two broken wings.
Her left wing doesn't open all the way even after surgery;
It was broken in 4 places. She's my baby.

When Freedom came in she could not stand
and both wings were broken.

She was emaciated and covered in lice.

We made the decision to give her a chance at life,

So I took her to the vet's office.

From then on, I was always around her.

We had her in a huge dog carrier with the top off,

and it was loaded up with shredded newspaper,  for her to lay in.

I used to sit and talk to her; Urging her to live, to fight;

and she would lay there looking at me, with those big brown eyes.
We also had to tube feed her for weeks.

This went on for 4-6 weeks, and by then she still couldn't stand.

It got to the point where the decision was made,

to euthanize her, if she couldn't stand in a week.

You know you don't want to cross that line;

Between torture and rehab, and it looked like death was winning.

She was going to be put down that Friday,

and I was supposed to come in on that Thursday afternoon.

I didn't want to go to the center that Thursday;

Because I couldn't bear the thought of her being euthanized;
But, I went anyway,and when I walked in,

everyone was grinning from ear to ear.

I went immediately back to her cage; and there she was,
standing on her own, a big beautiful eagle.

She was ready to live. I was just about in tears by then.

That was a very good day. We knew she could never fly;

So the director asked me to glove train her.
I got her used to the glove, and then to jesses,

and we started doing education programs, 

for schools in western Washington .
We wound up in the newspapers,
radio (believe it or not) and some TV.

'Miracle Pets' even did a show about us.
In the spring of 2000, I was diagnosed

with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

I had stage 3; Which is not good

(one major organ plus everywhere);

So I wound up doing 8 months of chemo.

Lost the hair - the whole bit. I missed a lot of work.

When I felt good enough,

I would go to Sarvey and take Freedom out for walks.

Freedom would also come to me in my dreams,

and help me fight the cancer.

This happened time and time again.
Fast forward to November 2000.
The day after Thanksgiving, I went in for my last checkup.
I was told that if the cancer was not all gone,

after 8 rounds of chemo;

Then my last option was a stem cell transplant.

Anyway, they did the tests;

and I had to come back Monday for the results.

I went in Monday, and I was told that,

ALL THE CANCER WAS GONE.

                                                   So the first thing I did was get up to Sarvey,

and take the big girl out for a walk.

It was misty and cold.

I went to her flight and jessed her up,

and we went out front to the top of the hill.

I hadn't said a word to Freedom;

But somehow she knew.

She looked at me and wrapped both her wings around me,

to where I could feel them pressing in on my back,
(I was engulfed in eagle wings),

and she touched my nose with her beak,

and stared into my eyes,

and we just stood there like that for I don't know how long.

That was a magic moment.

We have been soul mates ever since she came in.

This is a very special bird.On a side note:

I have had people who were sick,

come up to us when we are out,

and Freedom has some kind of hold on them.

I once had a guy who was terminal come up to us,

and I let him hold her.
His knees just about buckled,

and he swore he could feel her power course through his body.

I have so many stories like that...
I never forget the honor I have of being so close
to such a magnificent spirit as Freedom.
Hope you enjoyed this!

A SMALL REQUEST..

93% won't forward; But I'm Sure You Will.
A small request.. Just one line...

All you are asked to do is keep this circulating.
Even if it's only to one more person.
In memory of anyone you know,

Who has been struck down by cancer,

Or is still living with it,

Or just someone who enjoys a GREAT STORY!

Make Your Friendship Last

Make Your Friendship Last

Learn to forgive. If you want your friendship to last, then you should be able to forgive your friend and to move forward. If you hold a grudge and let your bitterness and resentment build up, then you won't be able to move forward. Recognize that nobody's perfect and that if your friend is sincerely sorry and that if he or she didn't do something too horrible, that you should move past it.

• If your friend really did do something so unforgivable that you just can't get past it, then it's better to move on than to try to save the friendship when it's doomed. But this should happen very rarely.
• If you're angry at your friend but haven't told him or her why, you'll never be able to forgive him if you don't talk about it.

Accept your friend for who he or she is. To make your friendship thrive, you shouldn't try to change your friend or make your friend see the world from your perspective. If you're conservative and your friend is liberal, then accept that instead of trying to argue about it all the time. You should appreciate the fresh perspective your friend can bring to your experiences instead of wanting your friend to see everything from your perspective.

The more you are with one another, the less you idealize each other and the more you accept one another for who you really are. This is what being a truly good friend is really about –- caring deeply for each other, even if you know you're both full of flaws.

Go beyond the call of duty. A friend will wait while you do your homework. A great friend stays up all night helping. Remember that if you are a good friend, people want to be a good friend to you. Recognize the moments when you need to go above and beyond to help your friend and know that this will make your friendship grow, and that your friend will do the same for you in return.

 If your friend really needs you and keeps saying, "No, you don't have to do that..." learn to read between the lines and know that your friend really does need you.

 Stay in touch no matter what. As the years pass, people tend to grow apart. Maybe you and a friend will move to different places and only see each other every once in awhile. Sometimes years may elapse without much contact. If you never stop caring about your friend, speak up. He or she will be happy to hear from you. You were friends for a reason in the past, and you may find the same bond still ties you together.

• Don't let your location determine the strength of your bond. If your friendship is meaningful, then it should keep growing even if you're an ocean apart.
• Make a goal of having monthly phone or Skype dates with your friend even if you're in a completely different time zone. If keeping up with your friend becomes a routine, your relationship will continue to thrive.

 Let your friendship evolve. If you want to be a good friend, then you have to understand that your friendship won't be the same in high school, college, or in the adult world. Sure, when you were fourteen, you might have spent all of your time with your best friend, but by the time you went off to separate colleges or started your serious relationships, you naturally spent less time talking. This doesn't mean that your friendship isn't as strong; it just means that your lives are evolving, and your friendship is taking on a different shape over the years.

• Don't try to make your friendship be exactly the same as it was ten years ago. Think of it as elastic, not solid.
• If your friend is married with two kids or even just in a serious relationship and you're not, be respectful of the fact that, while your friend really cares for you, she won't be on call 24/7 like she used to be.
• Appreciate the changes your friendship has made over the years, and learn to grow along with your relationship.

 http://www.wikihow.com/Be-a-Good-Friend

golden words

"Champions aren't made in the gyms.
Champions are made from something they have
Deep inside them - a desire, a dream, a vision."
~Muhammad Ali~

"Every day offers you 10,000 reasons to cry, but if you can find
Just one reason to laugh then you will be all right." ~Maya Angelou~
Some people are making such thorough preparation
For rainy days that they aren't enjoying today's sunshine. ~William Feather~
"It's so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to
Say and then don't say it." ~Sam Levenson~

Never bear more than one trouble at a time. Some people bear
Three kinds---

All they have had, all they have now, and all they expect to have.
 ~Edward Everett Hale~

"If you wait to do everything until you're sure it's right,
You'll probably never do much of anything."
 ~Win Borden~

 

"What I am looking for is not out there, it is in me."
 ~Helen Keller~
 
"Think wrongly, if you please, but in all cases think for yourself." ~Doris Lessing~

Life is a glass given to us to fill;
A busy life is filling it with as much as it can hold;
A hurried life has had more poured into it than it can contain. 
   ~William Adams Brown~

"The road of life twists and turns and no two directions are ever the same.
 Yet our lessons come from the journey, not the destination."~Unknown~

Never give way to anger - otherwise in one moment you could
 Burn up the joy that you collected over a long period.  
 ~unknown~
 The most difficult thing I have ever had to do is follow the guidance I prayed for.~Albert Schweitzer~

"There are some people who live in a dream world, and there are some who
Face reality; and then there are those who turn one into the other."~Douglas H. Everett

Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life,
 The whole aim and end of human existence.~Aristotle~

Japanese Dolls

The Real Lessons of the Zimmerman Verdict

• By John McWhorter
• 
  

  

  Following George Zimmerman’s exoneration, I find myself on the other side of the line from the good-thinking crowd that sees the decision as evidence that America doesn't care about black lives. Just last night, I was at dinner with perfectly sensible people who thought that Zimmerman should fry. "Contrarian" though I apparently am, I am always looking for something that I might have overlooked in my thinking. But this time, I'm not sure what I'm missing. 

  It’s not that I can’t see that Zimmerman “started it.” I am well aware that Zimmerman set in motion the chain of events that led to Martin’s death, and for a reprehensible reason. The case clearly speaks to how black lives are routinely undervalued by law enforcement, as well as by other figures of authority such as schoolteachers — and even self-appointed neighborhood “watchmen." I was repulsed by the way the media treated Martin’s friend Rachel Jeantel.

  Charles Blow puts it well in his decreeing upon Zimmerman – and this was before last night’s verdict — a cosmic kind of “righteous conviction,” declaring that “Martin will never be free from the grave, and Zimmerman will never be free from his role in assigning that fate.” Yes. Amen, even. 

  But there is a difference between these broader moral issues and jurisprudence, and I’m not sure the people who took to the streets last night – and will take to the columns all week now claiming that racism has proven its eternal vitality – are taking that into account.

  It comes down to this. Yes, if Zimmerman had stayed in his damned car – and hadn’t been packing heat – Martin would be alive. To many, this alone is supposed to mean Zimmerman belongs behind bars for 30 years. But the reason the law is complex is because sandbox logic like this isn’t always justice. It doesn’t even always feel like justice.

  Suppose Zimmerman had been a black man patrolling his mostly black neighborhood, and white teens from a couple of towns over had been coming through lately pulling off petty thefts. Suppose the exact same sequence of events had panned out, ending with a 30-ish black guy held down by a white teen good with his fists. Scared he’s about to be either killed or gravely injured, the black guy desperately fires his gun, and the white guy dies.

  I can’t help thinking that the people calling for Zimmerman’s head would not think this black man deserved to be sentenced to decades in prison – especially if the facts were as murky as they are in this real case. 

  More to the point, I suspect these same people would defend this black man because of a sense that the case had resonances for black-white relations in the larger sense – the black man would be seen as having tried to stick up for his people in the face of an age-old oppression. That would make it “different” – “you’re not seeing the context” would be a common objection. And let’s not even think about if the white boy had somewhere along the line called the black man an offensive name – or used that word in one of his tweets some months prior.

  Here, then, people perfectly capable of seeing how the law makes Zimmerman’s exoneration technically plausible are up in arms because of a deep sense that the verdict was supposed to be a statement about Amadou Diallo, Patrick Dorismond, Sean Bell, Ramarley Graham, Kimani Gray, and Oscar Grant, shot dead while handcuffed in San Francisco and now the subject of the filmFruitvale Station, so widely discussed in part because of how aggrieved so many people are over the frequency of murders like the ones of those men.

  But criminal verdicts are not theater – we’re not in a movie like Fruitvale Station (and even that film offers no easy conclusions). When verdicts do become dramatic, the results tend to serve little purpose. The exoneration of O.J. Simpson was dramatic, the jury making a “statement” about the LAPD’s racism. But what kind of teaching moment is it when no one learns anything?

  The Trayvon Martin story is not a sign that racism never dies. Just twenty years ago, there wouldn’t have been enough public outcry around his death even to get Zimmerman arrested, much less bring together crowds of Trayvon supporters full of white people as well as black ones. Anyone who doubts that wasn’t there or wasn’t paying attention.

  Zimmerman’s exoneration, rather, is a call to revise the Stand Your Ground law, and is also as resonant an indication as the Newtown shootings that it’s too easy for people to get guns in their hands in this land. 

  Protest and indignation are well in order – but of a less ad hominem stripe than the kind that tars Zimmerman as a bigot, assails the jurors for coming to their decision because they aren’t black, and magnifies the whole episode into pretending Martin Luther King died for nothing. America is hardly perfect on race, but it has changed.

  Progress is getting ahead, not getting back at white people. This is one time when the usual suspects must acknowledge this, if Trayvon Martin’s death is to create anything but histrionics soon to be forgotten.
  http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/07/real-lessons-of-the-zimmerman-verdict.html?test=true
   

Beware, when take photos from mobile phones

"Warning" If you, your kids or
        grand kids take pics from your phone---WATCH THIS! This is truly
        alarming - please take the time to watch. At the end they'll tell you
        how to set your phone so you don't run this risk!

PLEASE PASS THIS INFO
        TO ANYONE YOU KNOW WHO TAKES PICTURES WITH THEIR CELL OR SMART PHONE AND
        POSTS THEM ONLINE.

 

 I want everyone of you to watch this and then be sure
        to share with all your family and friends. It's REALLY important
        info, about what your posting things on your cell phones can do TO
        YOU!!! Too much technology out there these days so
        beware...........

 

PLEASE TAKE THE TIME TO WATCH THIS VIDEO, AND TAKE THE
        RECOMMENDED PRECAUTIONS.

 

If you have children or grandchildren you NEED
        to watch this.

 

I had no idea this could happen from taking pictures on the blackberry or cell phone. It's scary."

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/embed/N2vARzvWxwY?rel=0"

Ridiculous laws in USA

In Missouri, It is Illegal To Drive With An Uncaged Bear (Caged Bears Are OK)

 In Maine, It's Illegal To Have Christmas Decorations Up After Jan. 14

 In New Jersey, It is Illegal To Wear A Bulletproof Vest While Committing A Murder

 

In Nevada, It Is Illegal For A Man To Buy Drinks For More Than Three People At A Time

In Wisconsin, It Is Illegal To Serve Butter Substitues In State Prisons

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/02/17-ridiculous-laws-still_n_481379.html#s71631&title=In_Wisconsin_It

10 Tips to Manage Criticism

by Guest Author

 

Oh sure, you think you nailed that site architecture and that home page reads like pure poetry, right? After all, you wrote it. But that’s the problem. You wrote it. You designed the graphics. You created the keyword list based on those finely-honed intuitive instincts so it must be perfect. It’s your baby.
Fact: you aren’t always right. Fact: some of your ideas just aren’t practical. Fact: a second, third and even a fourth opinion improves even the best-thought-out plan – if you’re willing to listen and learn.

1. Just because you fall short doesn’t mean you failed.
Easy to say, but not necessarily easy to live with. No one likes criticism. No one likes to admit that there’s a better solution, but the fact is, there are always better solutions. Criticism is a tool. It provides different perspectives. It identifies steps that you missed during the first round.
Learn from others. Just because you get push-back from a new client doesn’t mean the client got it right and you got it wrong. It simply means the client has a different point of view – one from which you just might learn a thing or two.

2. Open mind, closed mouth.
This is going to come as a shock but you won’t get it right every time. Ok you’re good, but you aren’t perfect.
You also aren’t a mind reader. Be prepared to revise your thinking and to look at your professional and personal life from a different point of view. Keep an open mind when listening to criticism. And don’t defend your baby. There are a lot of ways to get it right. Acquiring knowledge from others is the best way to learn. It’s real-world, real-time learning, not something you picked up in a school classroom 10 years ago.

3. Become a stakeholder but don’t drive your stake through the heart.
You know, the only way to kill a vampire is to drive a wooden stake through the undead monster’s heart. And you may occasionally run in to a client or colleague that tries your patience to the point where driving a stake through the “idiot’s” heart sounds like a reasonable solution.
Okay, first, it’s not a solution. In fact, your negative reaction to criticism, regardless of the source, will only make a problem worse. It’s important to remember that things like site design, graphics and site text are 100% subjective and sometimes you won’t be 100% spot on.
Take a position. Become a stakeholder in any project or undertaking but don’t cling to your POV with your last breath. There are a million ways to get it right and listening to some constructive criticism from a client, a co-worker, family member or friend may actually move that undertaking in another direction. A better direction.

4. Consider the source.
Who’s criticizing? Does that person have authority? Is she better versed in the topic? Is he the one with the checkbook?
Clients want things done a certain way – even if you know they’re dead wrong in their approach. As a knowledgeable professional, you have an obligation to point out flaws in the client’s thinking. However, once you’ve pointed out the flaw and the client still wants it done his way, you’ve done your job. You provided the best consultation you could, you provided the road map to success, but if the guy with the checkbook wants black text against a black background – even after you’ve explained why that’s a problem – you’ve done your job.

5. Learn from anyone and everyone.

There will always be someone who disagrees with your point of view, your suggestions, your designs and your expertise. No problem.
Confident people learn from anyone simply by listening. You don’t have to accept the point of view. Your free will remains in tact. Your opinions remain unchanged.
The key is to have confidence in your abilities, professional and otherwise. With self-confidence, criticism isn’t a threat. It’s a useful tool.
Learn by listening. The more perspectives you see, the better equipped you become when similar circumstances come up next month or 10 years from now.

6. How’s your self-image doing?
Don’t take it personally.
Development is a process, a strategy, a goal or objective, but it’s not about you. Keep your self-image strong and you’ll keep you self-esteem in place.
Emotional intelligence (EQ) is an asset that’s often more important than intellectual intelligence (IQ). Accept criticism and learn from it. The result is a collaboration that delivers the positive outcomes from which all stakeholders benefit.

7. Not all criticism is constructive.
We’ve all met people, or have dealt with clients, who are mean-spirited – men and women who actually enjoy tearing your concepts to shreds. So be it.
Consider the source of the criticism. Consider the value of the criticism. Consider the benefits derived from the criticism. Never stop learning, even from those who are totally clueless. There may be a pearl of wisdom in what these mean-spirited people have to say.
Find those pearls and use them. Learn from them – even if the intent of their criticism is to undermine your efforts. Keeping silent in the face of criticism isn’t easy but it is beneficial to you, the client, the project, the objective.
Accept what you can’t change. It’ll save a lot of sleepless nights, hassles and headaches – especially when you realize that the source of the criticism doesn’t have the experience and knowledge you have.

8. Learn to let go.
You have an idea or concept, a design or strategy that you know is perfect. Okay, maybe it is, but don’t marry yourself to any one way of doing things. Learn to let go. Learn to keep an open mind.
You’ll be a better person for your efforts. Even better, you’ll learn to be a quality service provider when you can let go of that perfect concept and follow a different path. There are lots of ways to achieve success.

9. Recognize your own limitations.
Each of us has different strengths. Each of us has different limitations (weaknesses). Take pride in your strengths and use them to your advantage and to the advantage of your clients, your family and friends.
Accept your limitations and learn from others to lessen the negative impact personal limitations have on your professional career or the growth of your client base.

10. A closed mind never welcomes criticism.
Too bad. If you close your mind to new ideas, differing opinions or points of view, you don’t grow. You don’t get better. You don’t learn.

Criticism is about managing your emotions. It’s also about learning how people think, determining their needs and meeting those needs. Always put the needs of others before your own needs. It makes you a better human being and a better business owner, whether you’re a one-man company working out of a spare room at home or the CEO of a multi-national conglomerate.

Welcome criticism. Even mean-spirited criticism. In the end, you’ll learn. You’ll become a better human being and a better service provider. Think of criticism as a lesson from which you can become better at whatever it is you do.

The development of emotional intelligence isn’t something that’s taught in school. It’s something we learn by living, working with a variety of personalities and adapting to the needs of others.
To grow your business or to grow as a human being, recognize criticism as a positive, not a negative, in your daily routine.

In the end, you come out ahead.
In the end, your business prospers.
In the end, you win.

http://www.dailyblogtips.com/10-tips-to-manage-criticism/

Top 25 Quotes of Margaret Thatcher

by JT, December 21, 2007

When Margaret Thatcher came to power in 1979, Britain was a dump, “the sick man of Europe” and on the brink of total economic collapse. When she left power in 1990, it was the one of the financial capitals of the world. She is associated with her political philosophy of Thatcherism, based on low taxation, low public spending, free markets and mass privatization. I, personally, love Margaret Thatcher for her honesty, bluntness, strength of character and her radicalism. Many others hate her, though, mainly on the left of politics who believed that she destroyed workers rights and slashed public spending. During her tenure she had to deal with mass unemployment, out of control inflation, endless strikes, a war with the Falklands and an attempted assassination by the IRA. In February 2007, she became the first British Prime Minister to be honoured with a statue in the House of Commons while still alive; a testament to her incredible legacy.

Quotes 1 – 5

1. Pennies don’t fall from heaven – they have to be earned here on earth.
2. No one would remember the Good Samaritan if he’d only had good intentions; he had money as well.
3. Economics are the method; the object is to change the heart and soul.
4. My policies are based not on some economics theory, but on things I and millions like me were brought up with: an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay; live within your means; put by a nest egg for a rainy day; pay your bills on time; support the police.
5. Defeat? I do not recognise the meaning of the word.
Quotes 6 – 10

6. I, personally, have always voted for the death penalty because I believe that people who go out prepared to take the lives of other people forfeit their own right to live. I believe that the death penalty should be used only very rarely, but I believe that no-one should go out certain that no matter how cruel, how vicious, how hideous their murder, they themselves will not suffer the death penalty.
7. Socialists cry “Power to the people”, and raise the clenched fist as they say it. We all know what they really mean—power over people, power to the State.
8. There’s no such thing as society.
9. A man may climb Everest for himself, but at the summit he plants his country’s flag.
10. (to Conservative backbench MP John Whittingdale) The trouble with you, John, is that your spine does not reach your brain.
Quotes 11 – 15

11. For every idealistic peacemaker willing to renounce his self-defence in favour of a weapons-free world, there is at least one warmaker anxious to exploit the other’s good intentions.
12. Constitutions have to be written on hearts, not just paper.
13. If you want something said, ask a man. If you want something done, ask a woman.

14. To me, consensus seems to be the process of abandoning all beliefs, principles, values and policies. So it is something in which no one believes and to which no one objects.

15. To wear your heart on your sleeve isn’t a very good plan; you should wear it inside, where it functions best.
Quotes 16 – 20

16. Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren’t.
17. I am extraordinarily patient, provided I get my own way in the end.
18. If you want to cut your own throat, don’t come to me for a bandage.
19. There can be no liberty unless there is economic liberty.
20. I usually make up my mind about a man in ten seconds, and I very rarely change it.
Quotes 21 – 25

21. It pays to know the enemy – not least because at some time you may have the opportunity to turn him into a friend.
22. It is not the creation of wealth that is wrong, but the love of money for its own sake.
23. I always cheer up immensely if an attack is particularly wounding because I think, well, if they attack one personally, it means they have not a single political argument left.
24. Popular capitalism is nothing less than a crusade to enfranchise the many in the economic life of the nation.
25. Imagine a Labour canvasser talking on the doorstep to those East German families when they settle in on freedom’s side of the wall. “You want to keep more of the money you earn? I’m afraid that’s very selfish. We shall want to tax that away. You want to own shares in your firm? We can’t have that. The state has to own your firm. You want to choose where to send your children to school? That’s very divisive. You’ll send your child where we tell you.”
Bonus: I don’t think there will be a woman Prime Minister in my lifetime. – BBC interview, 1973

http://listverse.com/2007/12/21/top-25-quotes-of-margaret-thatcher/

A tale of Two Seas

A tale of Two Seas

> Sitting in the Geography class in school, I remember how fascinated I
> was when we were being taught all about the Dead Sea. As you probably
> recall, the Dead Sea is really a Lake, not a sea. Its so high in salt
> content that the human body can float easily. You
> can almost lie down and read a book! The salt in the Dead Sea is as
> high as 35% - almost 10 times the normal ocean water. And all that
> saltiness has meant that there is no life at all in the Dead Sea. No
> fish. No vegetation. No sea animals. Nothing lives in the Dead sea.
>
>
> And hence the name: Dead Sea.
>
>
> While the Dead Sea has remained etched in my memory, I don't seem to
> recall learning about the Sea of Galilee in my school Geography
> lesson. So when I heard about the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea and
> the tale of the two seas - I was intrigued. Turns out that the Sea of
> Galilee is just north of the Dead Sea. Both the Sea of Galilee and the
> Dead Sea receive their water from river Jordan. And yet, they are
> very, very different.
>
>
> Unlike the Dead Sea, the Sea of Galilee is pretty, resplendent with
> rich, colorful marine life. There are lots of plants. And lots of fish
> too. In fact, the sea of Galilee is home to over twenty different
> types of fishes.
>
>
> Same region, same source of water, and yet while one sea is full of
> life, the other is dead. How come?
>
>
> Here apparently is why. The River Jordan flows into the Sea of Galilee
> and then flows out. The water simply passes through the Sea of Galilee
> in and then out - and that keeps the Sea healthy and vibrant, teeming
> with marine life.
>
>
> But the Dead Sea is so far below the mean sea level, that it has no
> outlet. The water flows in from the river Jordan, but does not flow
> out. There are no outlet streams. It is estimated that over a million
> tons of water evaporate from the Dead Sea every day. Leaving it salty.
> Too full of minerals. And unfit for any marine life.
>
>
> The Dead Sea takes water from the River Jordan, and holds it. It does
> not give. Result? No life at all.
>
> Think about it.
>
> Life is not just about getting. Its about giving. We all need to be a
> bit like the Sea of Galilee.
>
> We are fortunate to get wealth, knowledge, love and respect. But if we
> don't learn to give, we could all end up like the Dead Sea. The love
> and the respect, the wealth and the knowledge could all evaporate.
> Like the water in the Dead Sea.
>
>
> If we get the Dead Sea mentality of merely taking in more water, more
> money, more everything the results can be disastrous. Good idea to
> make sure that in the sea of your own life, you have outlets. Many
> outlets. For love and wealth - and everything else that you get in
> your life. Make sure you don't just get, you give too. Open the taps.
> And you'll open the floodgates to happiness.
>
>
> Make that a habit. To share. To give.
>
> And experience life. *