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Thoughts Over Coffee

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It's a brisk 37 degrees out and I'm sitting here in Starbucks thinking about a sad dream that I had last night.  I was at a big Christmas party and everybody was smiling, laughing, and having a great time giving gifts to each other.  Everything was fine until people started handing some gifts to me.  I then felt very sad that I did not have something to give in return. In fact I balled like a baby. Upon waking, I spoke with a dear friend of mine who said the sweetest of words.  He said, "maybe it's because you give of yourself the other 364 days of the year that you should not feel sad about accepting those gifts without having something to give in return".  That's an interesting way of looking at it.  I do give of myself in various ways throughout the year but I never really think of it as "giving gifts".  I'm definitely not the type that keeps a tally on what I do for others.  In fact I abhor those who do.  I give what I can a...
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Intuition

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The definition of intuition is the act or faculty of knowing or sensing without the use of rational processes; a perceptive insight. I refer to it as gut feelings or instinctive behavior.  An intuition can be a good or bad feeling or even an instantaneous response to something without knowing why. I dare to say that whenever I have acted (or not) on gut instinct I have rarely ever been steered wrong. So what's that all about and why don't we follow this more often? Well, for one thing, it isn't always seen as a rational act. It doesn't always make sense. But what I'm finding more and more as I get older and listen more to my innards, I trust that I have an innate ability to read situations and people with great accuracy. There have been times that I have been very compelled to do something for a reason that I couldn’t quite define that turned out to be a very smart move.  Honing in on this ability means being very in touch with yourself. Unfortunately there ...
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Reality

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Skyrocketing prices in goods and services, joblessness, political battles, wars, natural disasters.  Day by day we all go head-to-head with our own personal challenges big and small. These are trying times. But observing how the Japanese people have reacted in the aftermath of the recent earthquake and tsunami really made me sit up and take notice.  There has been little if any looting and no rioting.  People wait in orderly lines outside stores and gas stations. They see the workers at the Fukushima nuclear plant who are trying to keep the plant from melting down as doing their job not as heroes like we might because they are risking their lives.  I did a little research and found out that the difference between American and Japanese culture is that Japanese culture encourages cooperation and discourages self-interest. It is deeply ingrained in them from birth.  Americans value self-determination, individuality, independence, and a strong sens...
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