I think the British should teach the rest of the world how to throw a party.
There is just not enough celebration of life itself.
We, as Americans, have a lot to be proud of and we must celebrate together more than we do.
I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of the constant flow of bad news.
This country has a long list of spectacular accomplishments worth celebrating.
If not today, when?
YOUR DECISIONS WILL DETERMINE THE COURSE OF YOUR LIFE!
Before you make an important decision, do you seek opinions?
And if you do seek opinions, how often do you act on other’s opinions?
Is there a pattern of usually going with others’ thoughts rather than your own?
If so, is it because you are not a good decision-maker or you just lack the confidence?
Some thoughts on decision-making:
Be careful when making decisions. They can have life-long consequences!
If not today, when?
A SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft — carrying four astronauts from three countries — took off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida Friday morning, beginning their six-month stay in space.
This launch marked the third-ever crewed flight for Elon Musk’s company and the first to make use of a previously flown rocket booster and spacecraft.
NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur will be joined by French astronaut Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency, and Akihiko Hoshide from Japan. They’re due to spend six months aboard the International Space Station after their Crew Dragon capsule docks early Saturday morning.
This launch marked the third-ever crewed flight for Elon Musk’s company and the first to make use of a previously flown rocket booster and spacecraft. (CNN)
The photo shows the four astronauts relaxing on a Florida beach yesterday prior to this morning’s flight.
AMERICA continues to show the world that AMERICAN INGENUITY IS ALIVE AND THRIVING!
Let’s raise a big cheer for AMERICA!
If not today, when?
We are talking past one another.
We feel so strongly about our own opinion on everything that we instantly tone out someone who disagrees.
I feel that our societal malaise will only be healed with REAL LISTENING!
The current political divide is the result of too much talk and not enough REAL LISTENING.
And how about really listening to your kids?
You, as a parent, won’t be able to reach them if you don’t know where their minds are.
And how about really listening to your spouse?
He or She is the most important relationship of your life.
REMEMBER, THERE IS ALWAYS ANOTHER POINT-OF-VIEW THAT IS AT ODDS WITH YOURS!
And if you don’t really listen, you’ll never really learn and you’ll never be as close as you want to be.
You will be more trusted by everyone in your life if they are convinced that you are REALLY LISTENING!
If not today, when?
I’m asking all of you to please pray for our daughter, Lynn.
She was a Vietnamese orphan we adopted in 1974.
When she landed at the airport, we realized she was very sick and we took her from the airport straight to the hospital.
The doctors, after a while, got her well.
We didn’t know she had Hepatitis-C until the birth of her second child.
She got a liver transplant that saved her life, but contracted lymphoma three years later.
That case of lymphoma was cured, but now the lymphoma has returned stronger than before.
So, she has to face another life or death episode all over again..
She has been a real blessing to our family!
Her courage and sense of humor are an example for us all.
Please add her to your prayers.
George W. Bush has written a new book entitled, “Out of Many, ONE.”
In it, he makes the case for the blessings of immigrants.
The faces seen on the book’s cover were painted by the ex-President himself!
Can you trace your family back to the original immigrants who came ashore on Ellis Island?
I can.
This is a nation of immigrants.
Our diversity is our strength.
Immigrants bring with them the wisdom obtained from societies that are thousands of years old.
Have you ever considered the courage required to leave everything familiar and travel huge distances to embrace everything unfamiliar.
America was built by these courageous people.
And they passed their courage down to us.
I had a partner in the real estate business who was from the Middle East.
He was quite older than me and I was the grateful recipient of his wisdom.
Some courageous relatives gave me the opportunity to live in America.
Thank you!
His name was Bob Payne.
Our earth’s ecosystem is deteriorating at a rapid pace because of the careless acts of the human race.
Definition: An ecosystem is a biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment.
He was a biologist who became very curious about why certain parts of the earth’s ecosystem flourish while others die.
He noticed that starfish were feeding on numerous waterborne organisms.
He removed the starfish from an area while thinking that the remaining organisms could thrive.
The opposite was true. Everything died!
There is a balance in nature that must not be violated.
He violated that balance by removing the starfish because the starfish were eating organisms that eventually killed all the algae and other foods.
He decided that the starfish were lifesavers that he called, “KEYSTONE SPECIES.”
1.4 million Wildebeests is the “KEYSTONE SPECIES” in the Serengeti National park in Tanzania, Africa.
Bob Payne shared his discoveries with biologists worldwide and those biologists are beginning to repair the balance necessary for earth to recover from all the man-made devastation.
When the world goes back to normal, Shanan Cale’s life won’t change much.
She’ll still work mostly from her home in California.
She’ll mother her two college-aged daughters. And she’ll continue to ponder intimacy and connection as a 54-year-old woman experiencing loneliness.
“Post-pandemic, even now that I’m vaccinated and everyone in my household is vaccinated — I don’t really have people outside my little pod,” she told CNN.
Cale is lonely but not alone.
In 2018, nearly half of Americans reported sometimes or always feeling alone.
Recent findings suggest that during the pandemic, over one in three Americans face “serious loneliness.”
The “loneliness epidemic,” as some experts call it, was a problem well before Covid-19. (CNN)
And now that more employers are telling their employees to work from home permanently, we’ll see an uptick in people living without much-needed socialization!
This trend is a threat to the cohesiveness of our communities.
WE ALL KNOW PEOPLE WHO ARE LONELY!
PLEASE ADOPT A LONELY PERSON!!
If not today, when?
The French parliament on Thursday adopted legislation that characterizes sex with a child under the age of 15 as rape and punishable by up to 20 years in jail, bringing its penal code closer in line with many other Western nations.
While the age of consent was previously 15, prosecutors in France used to be required to prove sex was non-consensual to obtain a rape conviction.
“This is an historic law for our children and our society,” Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti told the National Assembly.
“No adult aggressor will be able to claim the consent of a minor younger than 15 years old.” (Reuters)
HERE’S MY 1st QUESTION: Why wasn’t this law on the books 100 years ago?
HERE’S MY 2nd QUESTION: Shouldn’t the age be higher than 15?
Because it was a unanimous vote, the French parliamentarians are very proud of themselves.
REALLY?
What took them so long to act?
Every society must carry out its solemn responsibility to protect its children.
If not today, when?
My wife is in her car waiting in the line for drive-through ordering at BK.
A truck with trailer pulls up.
The driver parks it and runs to go inside the building, but the door is locked.
How is that truck driver going to get his truck and trailer into the drive-through line now that no customers are allowed inside?
My wife decides to let him go in front of her, but she’ll need to back up to make room for him.
So, the car behind her sees that he will also have to back up and he does.
The truck and trailer move into the line ahead of her.
When she orders and drives up to the window, her lunch bill was ALREADY PAID by the truck driver!
AND she pays the bill for the car behind her that backed up.
THIS IS THE AMERICA I KNOW!
ifnottodaywhen.blog 