Emilie Richards's Blog, page 15
July 9, 2022
Sunday Inspiration: Do you believe in miracles?
The post Sunday Inspiration: Do you believe in miracles? appeared first on Emilie Richards.
June 24, 2022
Sunday Inspiration: Love is something you and I must have
“It is hard for me to understand a culture
that not only hates and fights his brothers
but even attacks Nature and abuses her.
Man must love all creation or he will love none of it.
Love is something you and I must have.
We must have it because our spirit feeds upon it.
Without love our self esteem weakens.
Without it our courage fails.
Without love we can no longer look out confidently
at the world.
Instead we turn inwardly and begin to feed
upon our own personalities
and little by little we destroy ourselves.”
– Chief Dan George
The post Sunday Inspiration: Love is something you and I must have appeared first on Emilie Richards.
June 18, 2022
Sunday Inspiration: Happy Father’s Day
turned by love into heroes,
adventurers,
storytellers,
and singers of song.”– Unknown
Happy Father’s Day to fathers and to the men who have been “fathers” to so many just by their kindness and willingness to help and mentor other people’s children all over the world.
The post Sunday Inspiration: Happy Father’s Day appeared first on Emilie Richards.
May 28, 2022
Sunday Inspiration: Prayers Are Not Enough.
“There is something deeply hypocritical about praying for a problem that you’re not willing to resolve.” -Miroslav Volf
The post Sunday Inspiration: Prayers Are Not Enough. appeared first on Emilie Richards.
May 21, 2022
Sunday Inspiration: Gandhi Said
GANDHI Said:
Keep your thoughts positive
because your thoughts become your
WORDS.
Keep your words positive
because your words become your
BEHAVIOR.
Keep your behavior positive
because your behavior becomes your
HABITS.
Keep your habits positive
because your habits become your
VALUES.
Keep your values positive
because your values become your
DESTINY.
The post Sunday Inspiration: Gandhi Said appeared first on Emilie Richards.
May 14, 2022
Sunday Inspiration: How to make good decisions
“It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped,” wrote Tony Robbins. But making good decisions can be one of the hardest tasks in life. And in these last few pandemic years it seems that there are so many more decisions to make, and they are so much more complicated and difficult.
When I happened across these three mental models by Dickie Bush (https://www.dickiebush.com/ I was so impressed I asked him for permission to include them in my post, and he generously agreed. In the future when I have difficult decisions to make, these are the models I will use. How about you?
The post Sunday Inspiration: How to make good decisions appeared first on Emilie Richards.
May 7, 2022
Sunday Inspiration: A Mother’s Day Prayer
Let us pray for:
The mothers too tired to enter or too busy to care.
This is for all the mothers who froze their buns off on metal bleachers at soccer games Friday night instead of watching from cars, so that when their kids asked, “Did you see my goal?” they could say, “Of course, wouldn’t have missed it for the world,” and mean it.
This is for all the mothers who have sat up all night with sick toddlers in their arms, wiping up barf laced with Oscar Mayer wieners and cherry Kool-Aid saying, “It’s OK honey, Mommy’s here.”
This is for all the mothers of Ukraine who fled in the night and can’t find their children. This is for the mothers who gave birth to babies they’ll never see. And the mothers who took those babies and made them homes.
For all the mothers of the victims of shootings, for the mothers of the survivors, and the mother who sat in front of their TVs in horror, hugging their child who just came home from school, safely.
For all the mothers who run carpools and make cookies and sew Halloween costumes. And all the mothers who DON’T.
What makes a good mother anyway? Is it patience? Compassion? Broad hips?
The ability to nurse a baby, cook dinner, and sew a button on a shirt, all at the same time?
Or is it heart?
Is it the ache you feel when you watch your son or daughter disappear down the street, walking to school alone for the very first time?
The jolt that takes you from sleep to dread, from bed to crib at 2 a.m. to put your hand on the back of a sleeping baby?
The need to flee from wherever you are and hug your child when you hear news of a school shooting, a fire, a car accident, a baby dying? I think so.
So this is for all the mothers who sat down with their children and explained all about making babies. And for all the mothers who wanted to but just couldn’t.
This is for reading “Goodnight, Moon” twice a night for a year. And then reading it again. ” Just one more time.”
This is for all the mothers who mess up. Who yell at their kids in the grocery store and swat them in despair and stomp their feet like a tired 2 year old who wants ice cream before dinner.
This is for all the mothers who taught their daughters to tie their shoelaces before they started school. And for all the mothers who opted for Velcro instead.
For all the mothers who bite their lips-sometimes until they bleed-when their 14 year olds dye their hair green.
Who lock themselves in the bathroom when babies keep crying and won’t stop.
This is for all the mothers who show up at work with spit-up in their hair and milk stains on their blouses and diapers in their purse.
This is for all the mothers who teach their sons to cook and their daughter to sink a jump shot.
This is for all mothers whose heads turn automatically when a little voice calls “Mom?” in a crowd, even though they know their own offspring are at home.
This is for mothers who put pinwheels and teddy bears on their children’s graves.
This is for mothers whose children have gone astray, who can’t find the words to reach them.
This is for all the mothers who sent their sons to school with stomachaches assuring them they’d be just FINE once they got there, only to get calls from the school nurse an hour later asking them to please pick them up. Right away.
This is for young mothers stumbling through diaper changes and sleep deprivation. And mature mothers learning to let go.
For working mothers and stay-at-home mothers. Single mothers and married mothers. Mothers with money, mothers without. This is for you all. So hang in there.
Please pass along to all the moms in your life.
-Author unknown (edited)
The post Sunday Inspiration: A Mother’s Day Prayer appeared first on Emilie Richards.
April 16, 2022
Sunday Inspiration: Welcome Spring!
The post Sunday Inspiration: Welcome Spring! appeared first on Emilie Richards.
April 9, 2022
Sunday Inspiration: Growing Good Corn
There once was a farmer who grew award-winning corn. Each year he entered his corn in the state fair where it won a blue ribbon.
One year a newspaper reporter interviewed him and learned something interesting about how he grew it. The reporter discovered that the farmer shared his seed corn with his neighbors.
“How can you afford to share your best seed corn with your neighbors when they are entering corn in competition with yours each year?” the reporter asked.
“Why sir,” said the farmer, “didn’t you know? The wind picks up pollen from the ripening corn and swirls it from field to field. If my neighbors grow inferior corn, cross-pollination will steadily degrade the quality of my corn. If I am to grow good corn, I must help my neighbors grow good corn.”
He is very much aware of the connectedness of life. His corn cannot improve unless his neighbor’s corn also improves.
So it is with our lives. Those who choose to live in peace must help their neighbors to live in peace. Those who choose to live well must help others to live well, for the value of a life is measured by the lives it touches. And those who choose to be happy must help others to find happiness, for the welfare of each is bound up with the welfare of all.
-Author Unknown
The post Sunday Inspiration: Growing Good Corn appeared first on Emilie Richards.
April 2, 2022
Sunday Inspiration: Beyond Van Gogh
I went to see the Beyond Van Gogh presentation last week with my husband and friends and found it amazing. The immersive show has been traveling around the country for the last several years, attracting many people to the opportunity to experience Van Gogh’s inspiring life and art. The photo is us, bathed in some of the colors of the exhibition.
There were many quotes by “Vincent,” but I especially liked the one above because it was such an essential part of his life. He looked for beauty everywhere and clearly found it. That’s why many of his paintings are of normal working people and their homes and gardens instead of the rich and famous.
I also believe that we are surrounded by beauty if we only open our eyes to it. I feel fortunate, in my own way and in a different medium, to try to share that beauty with the world.
I bet you share it in your way, too.
The post Sunday Inspiration: Beyond Van Gogh appeared first on Emilie Richards.
