Living simply is the richest and deepest Life.
I have been asked,
“How exactly do you simplify Life?”
Well,
there are literally thousands of ways.
They range from the sublime
to the supercilious and the serious.
Some appear to me to be
rather frivolous and perhaps
ineffective.
But let’s explore a few,
before we get serious.
Let me keep THIS simple.
Uh-oh!
Now I’m in trouble.
Boxing champion George Foreman,
Olympic gold medalist and
world heavyweight title (twice) has FIVE boys.
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I kid you not,
they are ALL named George (and Edward):
George Edward II, George Edward III, George Edward IV, George Edward V, George Edward VI.
“I called them all George because
I was worried that when I was older
I might suffer from memory loss.
I would have called my five girls George, too,
but my wife said she thought that was overkill.
(STOP laughing!)
When one of them is naughty, I shout ‘George!’
and that one knows who I mean.
The only time it is awkward for me
is when a teacher calls up to say
we have a problem with George,
and I have to ask them,
which one?”
The first George in his coronation robes (I think he was another type of Foreman).
Now,
before we get all judgemental
and remove ourselves from the goal of simplification,
remember the House of Guelph
(Gulp!)
You know,
George I, 1660-1727
George II, 1683-1760
George III, 1738-1820
George IV, 1762-1830
George V, 1819-1878
all of an English bent.
Perhaps the inbreeding
created a biological necessity
to over-simplify.
It created other problems too!
I Love Boxing champion George Foreman.
But but not for reasons you may assume.
He was a feared street fighter
and rejected.
After mugging some people,
he crawled under a house to hide
from the pursuing police and their dogs:
“I realized that I had become a criminal.
I had dropped out of school
and didn’t know what to do with my life.”
That night woke him
up to the Truth about Life.
And he experienced
a profound religious conversion.
He felt as if he had Spiritually died
and needed to be reborn.
From that moment
he was born again.
He co-founded a church,
the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ,
in a poor area of Houston,
and became a traveling evangelical preacher.
“You see, I had disappeared.
I wasted a lot of time
not being nice.”
He founded the George Foreman
Youth and Community Development Center
in Houston to keep young people active
and away from crime and drugs.
Yes, in his early years
George was known for his mean expressions
and very, very tough demeanor.
Love is a simple thing.
By the way,
our George, the real Foreman,
notably said that the most important
piece of advice he wanted to pass on to people was:
“Learn to trust in yourself.
There’s not a better person
you’re going to meet
in this life,
and there’s not anyone
you’re going to know any better than you.
The best advice will come from within you.”
I LOVE you George.
You know,
the very first George Foreman.
Hey,
he keeps it simple.
You know what I mean?
But,
the most important reason
I Love George Foreman
is that
he simplified the Gift
of Life.
Foreman came to see God in his Life.
He become a preacher and retired from boxing.
He preached the word of God for 10 years
and then decided to return to the ring
to raise money for his church.
You cannot see if you do not open your eyes.
My Dear Friends,
discovering the beautiful
Divinity
within your precious Heart,
is the single thing
you can do
to simplify and Sanctify
your existence.
Your real purpose in Life
is very, very, very simple:
It is to Love,
and to be Loved.
And no one
will ever Love you
more than your Father
in Heaven above.
And He will show you
that True Love
is a truly simple thing,
and more powerful
than anything else
in Heaven
or on this Earth.
Take a philosophical bent.
Friends,
you cannot see
if you do not open your eyes.
You cannot know
if you do not open your mind.
You cannot Love
if you do not open your Heart.
You cannot know the Heart of your child
if you do not see your child at play.
You cannot know of the Love of God
if you do not open His Holy Bible
to see what He has to say.
A CHILD simplifies Life.
Yes,
THANK YOU George
for sharing your story.
I Love you too.
Do what you Love.
How will that simplify Life?
Well,
think about it!
When you are loving what you do
doesn’t time fly by?
By effectively compressing or compacting
time
life is simplified,
simply because
you have not effectively
spent as much time
doing whatever
it was that you were doing.
Research proves
that the Human brain
is a ONE way street.
It can only think
of ONE thing at a time.
Multi-tasking is a an illusion.
Your brain is simply
switching thoughts rapidly.
(Thank you Lord!)
So if you are thinking of
something you Love to do
or someone you Love,
your limited and fragile brain
simply cannot accommodate
another thought.
What a Blessing!
A garden path filled with beautiful memories.
Another approach to take
in simplifying our ridiculously complex existence,
is to take a philosophical bent.
Of what good is the English language
if we do not entwine syllables of utterance
with inescapable intent?
Learn to say NO.
This is difficult because
we love to please people.
But it is one of the key habits
for those trying to simplify their lives.
If you can’t say no,
you will take on too much.
Let’s truly keep it simple.
Mom …. and …. Dad,
When you say “NO”
let it be accompanied by
truly meaning NO.
Children are greatly confused
when NO means maybe
and then it
evolves into a manipulated YES.
And then the next time you say NO,
it means:
“Put on the boxing gloves!
This child’s voice will beat you
into submission”.
Save the debating
for a college class.
The argumentative attitude
is actually an attribute,
given the right circumstance.
Everything is.
Learn to trust in yourself.
Do your child a FAVOR.
When you say NO,
it means NO!
It truly simplifies Life.
And yes,
No may have been a mistake.
Hey, your human.
You BETTER make mistakes
or you will get kicked out
of the species.
It’s one of our birthrights.
I think it’s in the Constitution,
somewhere.
Why do you think it has amendments?
Yes,
we make mistakes.
Even our mistakes
can be mistakes.
Just look at that Constitution:
We made a mistake
and passed the 18th amendment
(to prohibit the sale of the bacterial excrement (YUK!),
called alcohol
along with the important FREEDOM to decide).
Then we made another mistake
and passed the 21st amendment
to correct what became the mistake of the
18th amendment.
What?
Does this sound like a conversation
with YOUR child?
Did you know that Alcohol
was such a powerful substance
that it changed the Constitution
of the United States of America
TWICE?
Think about it.
Alcohol abuse kills some 75,000 Americans
each year
and shortens the lives of these people
by an average of 30 years,
according to a U.S. government study.
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Alcohol really complicates existence.
There is nothing simple about
losing your job,
your driver’s license,
your freedom (hey, your in prison),
your loved ones,
your Life.
Trust me,
you have NO real idea
just how addictive
and destructive to your brain cells
alcohol is.
This excrement ALTERS
brain chemistry.
Drinking alcohol
is EXACTLY like
putting a long straw
into the SEPTIC TANK.
The difference is
that alcohol is flavored
or you could not drink it!
You would taste it
for what it really is.
ALL alcoholic drinks
are made by fermentation caused by bacteria
feeding on the yeast cells,
then defecating.
This bacterial excrement is called
alcohol.
Why do you think it
affects the body and brain
they way it does?
Your brain really does HURT,
your speech is slurred,
and your body is barely able
to move.
Your field of vision
is narrowed
and your view is blurred.
Come on Folks!
The results are exactly
what you would expect
after slurping down
excrement.
Let it guide you and simplify life.
Limit your communications.
Have you noticed that our lives
are filled with a vast flow of communications:
email, cell phones, paper mail, Skype, Twitter, forums,
and MUCH more.
You have limits.
And when you exceed the speed limit
of your brain,
you drive off the highway
of Life.
Truth is beauty. And so are you.
I once had several college professors
who wore the same tie
every single day.
This was a pretty good clue
that they did not earn much money
and truly knew
how to simplify life.
(everything has its advantages,
including poverty?)
Their choice each morning
was NOT difficult.
Simple?
Did you ever notice
that such teachers
typically passed every student
and usually with the same
letter grade.
Hey,
they kept it simple.
So do we.
When you pass with a 90% mastery
we give you credit
and an A.
It’s either an A
or keep working!
Simple!
If someone gets a B
what does it really mean?
Good?
If you are good
why didn’t you make an A?
The complexity of subjectivity
is literally killing us.
I read of one young Valedictorian
with a straight A report card
in grades K – 12,
who enrolled at an elite east coast University.
In her first semester she made her first “B”,
and then jumped off the tallest building
she could find.
Perfectionism
is a deadly disorder.
It is an induced psychological malady
that emanates from without,
not from within.
What does it really mean?
From the Charles E. Kubley Foundation,
A public charity devoted to improving the lives
of those afflicted by depression:
“Research supports the idea that
elevated standards,
which at worst may manifest as perfectionism,
may leave individuals vulnerable
to perceptions of failure and ultimately
to thoughts of hopelessness . . .”
read more
Folks,
MISTAKES
are the way we fallible and fragile
and very HUMAN beings
LEARN.
They are the natural
order of things.
They are essential to
Life,
Evolution,
Learning,
Laughter
and LOVE.
I encourage you to make at least ONE
mistake on purpose each day.
Discuss it at length with your young one.
See if he or she can guess which mistake
you made that day
on purpose.
Record your child’s response
and expect him or her to be on Comedy Central
later.
This will be
an entertaining conversation.
Our mistakes give Life
texture,
new direction,
meaning,
reflection
and a wonderful and Loving opportunity
for Forgiveness,
should we have the courage
to ask.
You are beautiful!
Research shows
over and over again,
grades in school are HIGHLY subjective.
And they are as outdated as
corporal punishment,
report cards
and permitting bullies
to stay on campus.
The same theme/term paper,
in study after study,
gets graded from an A,
to, you guessed it,
an F
from different teachers.
The same one.
Talk about meaningless,
stressful, confusing and complicated!
Bring home a so-called report card
decorated with a wide variety of letters
of the known alphabet
and thrust it into the direction of some
unsuspecting and victimized parent.
Note the shock on the face
coupled with almost incoherent
mumbling sounds between the two
Creators of the young Humanoid being,
who are then asked to sign it with letters
using the same alphabet.
Now,
two dimensions clash,
one incoherent in sound
the other just not making any sense
at all!
Report card of the future?
I know someone
who wears only black shoes,
black slacks and black socks.
Simple?
OK. I won’t mention any names.
But it simplifies Life.
My teacher was
Johnny Cash
(The Man in Black).
He simplified the problem
of what to wear.
And his music had a simple
powerful and beautiful
message.
Johnny Cash.
I think that’s how he got paid.
No bookkeeping!
Simple!
Beauty
is another broad avenue
toward simplification.
Let it guide you
and simplify life.
Have you noticed
that you instinctively migrate
toward all things beautiful?
Truth is beauty.
And so are you.
A CHILD simplifies Life.
Oh, you may think
it’s quite the opposite.
But a precious child
provides the simple reason
for living,
for Loving,
for being.
And when you think about it.
That is a simple Truth.
The great Truths
are simple.
Forgiveness simplifies Life.
No longer are you inundated with
thoughts of anguish and anger.
Relationships can become so complex
that they defy our ability to
resolve the dilemmas of
complexity of thought.
Such overwhelming mental disturbance
can evolve into a catastrophic and escalating
mental morass of a mind boggling mess.
Want to simplify?
Simply forgive
and do yourself a favor.
EAT ORGANIC
You will never believe
how complicated Life can get
if you get seriously ill
from eating the garbage
provided by heartless Corporations.
Organic food is available.
Look for it.
Devour it.
And if it cannot be found
with that label –
forget it!
“Living simply
is the richest and deepest Life
that I can imagine.”
Love is simple.
And loving
will turn a busy, congested, blocked up
six lane mental highway
into a stroll
down a garden path
filled with beautiful memories
and treasured dreams.
Love
is a simple thing.
If you are focused
upon Loving others,
there SIMPLY is
no time
for the complexities
and vagaries
of a life never really lived.
You are beautiful!
You are simply beautiful.
And God wants your precious Life
to be the same.
He Loves you.
He simply Loves you.
And so do I.
Now,
close your tired eyes
and rest assured
that God simply Loves
YOU
much, much more
than you are even capable
of knowing,
just like
you Love your child.
Good night.
Beauty is another broad avenue toward simplification.
Women who take acetaminophen during pregnancy
are more likely to have a hyperactive child,
according to a new study.
Acetaminophen relieves pain and fever
and is the active ingredient in Tylenol
and hundreds of over-the-counter
and prescription medicines,
including those used for colds, flu, allergies, and sleep,
says the Food and Drug Administration website.
On Sept. 6
We Hand Out The Launch Codes
But my great fear is that the lessons of love are too late for the learning. 
My friends, there is no work of art more beautiful or more powerful than the love you feel in your heart. But the canvass that is this earth may become barren, as if the beautiful brushstrokes of your love never caressed this earth. I know that the story of your life was read by someone, in the light of this day. And, that story need never end, if the brilliance of your love, sought so desperately by your children, is found reflected in loving eyes that search so longingly for your smile. Hope for mankind needs the warmth of your embrace at the end of each day saying, “I Love You”.
of the course and the calming fountains and waterfalls help players summon their zen.
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