ISSN 1492-6989

ARISE (formerly The Mirror)  is one of  Jim Rohn's favorite ezines!
The entire 3 year Mirror Archive is available here

Print This Page

 <<>>   VOLUME 3    <<>>   Issue 34  <<>>   November 25th, 2005    <<>>

A Heartfelt Welcome
ARISE and be FREE
Your ARISE Article
Can I Get ARISE Outa You?
Poignant Ponderings
Giving  Back
Will You ARISE & Help Me?



Dear Valued Subscriber,
 

Happy and Safe Thanksgiving to all our American subscribers! Canadians (I'm among them) celebrated their Thanksgiving last month and I plan on taking full advantage of the slowness of this weekend to catch up on some work and hopefully some rest.

I am writing this introduction in my car as I sit in snarled traffic on Highway 401. A nasty storm last evening produced 4 lanes of packed snow and ice. Not a great time to be low on windshield washer fluid and to have the intermittent wiper function stop working! This was my second visit home after relocating.

It was an intense move. After receiving some quotes from 'franchise' moving companies, I was shocked not only at the prices but to learn that none could guarantee a firm out-of-town delivery date. As I was about to call the lesser-of-evils to finalize at least a pick-up date, I decided to let my fingers do a little more walking and called an independent local company in the Yellow Pages. Coincidentally, it was the same movers that delivered my new furniture just over a year ago and I was very impressed then with their courtesy and care. Just happened they had an empty truck going to Montreal early the next week and we, of course, started talking "deal" at this point. I hadn't planned on moving for another month but I decided that I could rearrange my schedule and pack in a hurry.

Isn't it amazing how much "stuff" we accumulate over the years? I mean, this packrat had unopened boxes still in building storage from a move two and a half years ago not to mention a garage full of unused belongings. Someone had recently told me about the "one year rule" where if you haven't looked at something in that period of time, you don't need to hang on to it. Using that as my yardstick, I got busy and less than a week and a nearly-filled dumpster later, I was packed and ready to roll. I'm happy to report that last month, I, and my lighter load of belongings, landed safe and sound in Brantford, Ontario.

This move is one reason you haven't read an issue in over a month. The other is that once I landed here I had to begin work to launch my 5th Annual Internet Toy Drive. This is without a doubt my favorite project and each year as it grows we are able to help the U.S.  Marines get more toys to children who otherwise would not receive a single gift at Christmas. Please click here to see what some pretty amazing people have banded together to do to help families at this special time of year. Even a small donation will make a big difference and if you have a website and/or ezine or opt-in list you can become a Partner and help us spread the word as well as receive some valuable exposure. The official launch is this weekend and it's not too late to help!

This is the season of Giving and of Giving Thanks. I decided to feature an article I came across in an article directory from a writer and coach named Susan Dunn. I don't know Susan yet but I love how she addresses helping others and being grateful.  Please take a few minutes this holiday weekend and Reflect Upon Your Harvest at ThanksGiving. Thank you Susan.

Assuming you enjoy this publication can I ask you to do me a small, but at the same time, huge favor? Would you choose 3 people from your Address Book right now and send them this issue or the main page link to ARISE!: http://www.arise.themirrorezine.com - and suggest they subscribe. Thank you, I'd really appreciate that!

Now, please kick back and enjoy this issue of ARISE!

As always, my greatest wishes for your complete success,

Rick Beneteau

ARISE and be FREE

I'd love for you to take advantage of the following free gifts I've provided just to show my deep appreciation for your choosing to receive my publication:

Pearls of Success - My Free Inspirational eBook

Special Inspirational PDF Files

 Inspirational Screensavers

My 9/11 Tribute Song

--------<<>>----------<<>>----------<<>>----------<<>>--------

YOUR ARISE ARTICLE

Reflect Upon Your Harvest at Thanksgiving
by Susan Dunn

I don't know about you, but at this time of year I always think of work. It’s harvest time. Because of the years I spent in the MidWest, I was around people who were harvesting produce, bringing in the crop for the year. The quirks of nature notwithstanding, they would be reaping what they had sown. The result of their work was visible, and commensurate to the amount of effort and care they had put into it. They also had an ending. The crop that had been planted was now being harvested. Then it would all begin again.

We do not all have work like this.

My musings started the first of October this year, as I volunteered a lot of time working at the church's pumpkin patch, which raises $50,000 each year for local charities.

Most of the time I just sold pumpkins, but two Saturdays we unloaded huge trucks of pumpkins hauled in from a Navajo pumpkin farm in another state. We formed a chain of humans and passed the pumpkins down the line to eventually be arranged on the church lawn.

On one side of me were 2 parolees doing community service time. They talked about how much better this job was than the one they’d done earlier, and how nice it was to be out in the sunshine. Both of them expected to be “out” by Christmas. I didn’t ask them what they were “in” for.

On the other side of me were teenagers from the youth choir who complained a lot about how hard it was and had to be reminded to pay attention. I'm sure they couldn't imagine working at anything for 8 hours in a row, especially something so, like, boring, dude.

The pumpkins came down the line in various sizes and shapes, shiny and wet, some with dirt on them.

It was very primal.

I wondered if the Navajos on the other end of the process had formed a line to pitch them into the truck. And if they took pride in their work. If they even saw the marvel of the pumpkins any more.

One time there was a middle-aged woman standing next to me. “You’re a good worker,” she said. “You don’t complain.” If only she knew how much I was enjoying myself. “I was raised with the work ethic,” I said. It’s stood me in good stead. Having been taught that work was work and play was play somehow frees me from the “complaining” side and allows me to enjoy work. Most of the time anyway.

As the pumpkins passed by us we noted you couldn't tell how much one would weigh by looking. There were some surprises. It’s the density.

Such different shapes, too. “Squash” someone would yell and down would come a pumpkin that didn’t know it was a pumpkin. Sometimes nature errs. What is the line between “pumpkin” and “squash” anyway? One or the other must have been a mutant at some time. How exciting to discover one. There’s no such thing as a mistake, I’m reminded.

Twice a "perfect" pumpkin came down the line and work slowed as each person paused to admire it. No one reprimanded, "Move it along." We understood our mutual need to appreciate perfection when it comes our way. Once in a lifetime … twice on the pumpkin line … life is sweet indeed. We have the archetype of the perfect pumpkin, and the perfect woman, and the perfect love affair, and the perfect job. (Hope you've had yours!)

I enjoy that kind of work a lot. Touching things with my hands, physical labor. It's a nice change of pace for me. I work with my head, with people, with ideas, and with computers.

We were a human assembly-line and I thought of the people who do that kind of work for a living. Maybe you do. We were able to talk, and were outside on two beautiful, sunny, breezy days. And it was only for 3 hours. I wondered what it would be like 8 hours a day, 5 days a week.

Abruptly it was over. “No more,” they yelled, and we passed it on down the line. As we workers scattered, I gazed over the sunny scene. The pumpkins, which had grown on the ground were back there, only clean, and arranged orderly by size this time. Ashes to ashes, I thought, to the same place returneth, but then the scene became dynamic. The pumpkins had a lot in store for them. Already some were being used as backdrops for family photographs, while others were being carted off to become a jack-o-lantern, lawn pumpkin, or pumpkin pie.

My job, now completed, was part of a much larger scenario, yet from it I had harvested much.

At Thanksgiving time, a time of harvest and bounty, I invite you to reflect on your work and your life -- the mission and meaning side of it. The planting of the seed part of it. The reaping what you have sown part of it. Have you? Will you?

© Susan Dunn
All Rights Reserved

EQ coaching: Website: http://www.susandunn.cc
Email: sdunn@susandunn.cc Individual coaching, business programs,
EQ Alive! #1 rated program to increase your EQ – simple, no memorizing, it works. Email for information, and free ezine.

  --------<<>>----------<<>>----------<<>>----------<<>>--------

Can I Get ARISE Outa You?

Groaners

1. Two antennas met on a roof, fell in love and got married. The ceremony wasn't much, but the reception was excellent.

2. A jumper cable walks into a bar. The bartender says, "I'll serve you, but don't start anything."

3. Two peanuts walk into a bar, and one was a salted.

4. A dyslexic man walks into a bra.

5. A man walks into a bar with a slab of asphalt under his arm and says:  "A beer please, and one for the road."

6. Two cannibals are eating a clown. One says to the other: "Does this taste funny to you?"

7. "Doc, I can't stop singing 'The Green, Green Grass of Home.'" "That sounds like Tom Jones Syndrome." "Is it common?" Well, "It's Not Unusual."

8. Two cows are standing next to each other in a field. Daisy says to Dolly, "I was artificially inseminated this morning." "I don't believe you," says Dolly. "It's true, no bull!" exclaims Daisy.

9. An invisible man marries an invisible woman. The kids were nothing to look at either.

10. Deja Moo: The feeling that you've heard this bull before.

11. I went to buy some camouflage trousers the other day but I couldn't find any.

12. A man woke up in a hospital after a serious accident. He shouted, Doctor, doctor, I can't feel my legs!" The doctor replied, "I know you can't. I've cut off your arms!"

13. I went to a seafood disco last week...and pulled a mussel.

14. What do you call a fish with no eyes? A fsh.

15. Two fish swim into a concrete wall. The one turns to the other and says "Dam!".

--------<<>>----------<<>>----------<<>>----------<<>>--------

Poignant Ponderings

SNOWBOUND!
by Steve Goodier


Snowbound! The word describes our plight these past three days. A two-day spring snowstorm left the white stuff piled 30 inches deep - and deeper where wind had blown it into drifts. We've been stranded in our mountain cabin for over two days. But with schools and businesses all closed due to the blizzard, where would we go even if we could leave?

I shoveled heavy, wet snow for nine hours Wednesday. My back, arms and shoulders ached all night. I shoveled more yesterday. And while I shoveled I gave thanks.

Why? Because we always have two choices: to complain or to look for the good hidden in the problem. Difficulties often disguise blessings. And I realized some important facts yesterday about the snowstorm that encouraged me, even as I shoveled.

First, we finally received much-needed moisture. Sure, it came all at once, but after last summer's forest fires I knew I could never complain about rain or snow in Colorado Rockies again.

Second, I am thankful I am able to work. I have good health and the fresh air probably did me more good than a typical day with my computer.

I am also thankful that the snow was temporary! Problems may come, but it helps me to remember that they almost always pass, too. In June, the blizzard will be a distant memory.

Finally, I spent time yesterday working with neighbors to clear a road to our homes. Adversity brought us together. Too many weeks pass without much more contact than a nod or a wave -- and now we talked. I am thankful for the opportunity to do what I have not allowed enough time previously to do.

So I shoveled -- and I gave thanks. But let's see how I do today...it snowed again last night.

Steve Goodier is a professional speaker, consultant and author.
Purchase his books or sign up for his free e-newsletter here:
http://LifeSupportSystem.com  Or call 1-877-344-0989
 

--------<<>>----------<<>>----------<<>>----------<<>>--------

GIVING BACK

You might already support these or similar organizations, but it's the sad truth that we can never really do enough to help people, especially children. Here is what I support and encourage you to review:

The Internet Toy Drive  
Founded by Anne Marie Baugh and myself, and sponsored by Drew Bledsoe (#11, 2001 Super Bowl Champion quarterback), we are official corporate sponsors of the U.S. Marine's Toys for Tots program.

My WorldVision Children
This is the special group of children from around the world that I sponsor. WorldVision is a Christian organization that has been around for decades and almost every penny donated goes directly to these needy children and their families. Nothing beats receiving a handwritten letter, or even an email now, from "your child":-) You can even buy chickens or cows that get right to these families in dire need!

St. Jude Children's Hospital
My father was a lifelong musician and played piano in bands with Danny Thomas (founder of St. Jude and father of Marlo Thomas) among others during the depression, thirties and early World War II years. Understandably, this world famous research hospital is close to my heart:-)

Parenting with Dignity P
If you are a parent, expecting to be one in the future, or even believe you've done your parenting job, do yourself a great favor and check out this fabulous resource! Drew Bledsoe, his father and family members, my great friend Tom Heatherington and many more have established an absolutely wonderful foundation devoted to the betterment of children and families (Mac Bledsoe was interviewed on ABC's 20/20 this year).

Will You ARISE & Help Me?

I would greatly appreciate it if you would take a few seconds to tell just a few of your friends about ARISE. Simply Forward this URL to everyone in your Address Book.  All they need to do is enter their email address below (it will NEVER be shared or given away).

Thank You!!

   

©2005 TheMirrorEzine.com Brier Wood Village, 168F Dunsdon St., Brantford, Ontario, CANADA N3R 6T3 [Phone: 519-756-8885] Email: webmaster@interniche.net]  ©1997-2005 InterNiche.net™ All rights reserved.