You may delay, but time will not.
— Benjamin Franklin —

IYou run into a friend you haven’t seen in a while at the grocery store. You’ve known each other for years and talk for nearly 15 minutes in the produce section without missing a beat. The brief conversation feels good, familiar. Both of you have been so busy, you’ve just lost touch. When you part, you both say, “Let’s get lunch soon.” Which is answered with affirmative enthusiasm, “I’ll call you!” You both have full intentions to make it happen, but it never does.

How often have we all lived out this scenario? How many friendship moments are we missing because we let opportunities like these slip by the wayside? I’ll tell you a story that happened to me recently.

I was walking into Lowe’s when I noticed a nice-looking, well-put-together, older woman—probably mid-70s— getting out of her car. I said hello while instinctively looking at her beautiful luxury car. I noticed her license plate—the letters were FAQ followed by three numbers. It wasn’t a vanity plate, just standard issue. I said, “Your license plate—frequently asked questions!” It took her a second to comprehend what I was saying, but she got it.

“Except no one asks me any questions anymore,” she said.

"The lesson is don’t confuse living out 'loud',
with just being ‘loud,’"
— Elizabeth Skenes Millen —

I believe those who live the “loudest” are not “loud” at all; the most impactful people are those who are kind, humble, loving, giving and understanding, even when others are not kind, humble, loving, giving or understanding to them. Do you get how mentally strong and secure one has to be to do this? How much grit and grace it takes for restraint? Especially in this pitiful day and age when throwing the middle finger up, or yelling obscenities, is the norm.

You’ve heard it a million times:
Don’t sweat the small stuff. It’s easy to say, but sometimes,
the small stuff feels like big stuff. The key is to keep things in perspective.

A traffic jam is small stuff—really. A traffic jam when you need to badly go tinkle, and traffic is at a standstill with no exit in sight is a bit more dire. A traffic jam where the interstate is completely stopped because of a terrible accident, and a helicopter is landing in the distance to life-flight YOU or YOUR loved-one to the hospital is no longer small stuff—now enter some well-deserved sweat. See how perspective changes everything?

"Positive thinking will let you do everything 
better than negative thinking will."
— Zig Ziglar —

Why wouldn’t someone want to look on the bright side, think positive and hope for the best? Research has proven time and again that those who think positive thoughts achieve better health, greater prosperity, and more happiness than those who dwell in the negative. However, there are many people who still approach life with a grim outlook—always expecting the worst and even downplaying good fortune. In fact, some people can’t see the silver lining in anything.