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Articles from Sara Dillinger | Selfgrowth.com
- We All Fall Down - by Submitted on Sep 30, 2011 from Sara DillingerIt was a beautiful Fall day in the Ozarks. The trees were beginning to turn. The air was velvety, the sun was shining. My brothers and I were walking down the hill along the paved county highway beside our farm. At the bottom of the hill was a bridge over the river that formed the ...
Views: 1358(1 vote) - Teaching to Learn - by Submitted on Sep 26, 2011 from Sara DillingerIf you are interested in keeping your brain active and limber as you enter retirement, you can do so by constantly seeking out new learnings. Oddly enough, one of the best ways of doing this is by teaching. Most volunteer teachers will tell you that they learn more than their students. ...
Views: 1152 - Learning: Tiptoe Anticipation - by Submitted on Sep 23, 2011 from Sara DillingerDo you want to know how to stay young? One of the easiest ways is to never stop learning. There is increasing evidence that if you can keep an open mind and a lively curiosity, you might possibly live longer and enjoy it more. Open your mind's eye and remember the excitement you felt as a ...
Views: 1511 - Y Is For Yahweh - by Submitted on Sep 16, 2011 from Sara DillingerWhen I was serving four churches in and around Great Bend, Kansas, I frequently saw a car with a vanity license tag that read “Yahweh”. While I never met the owner of the car, I often wondered if it was intended as a touching tribute – along the lines of “God is my co-pilot” - or if it was ...
Views: 1185 - X Is For Excalibur - by Submitted on Sep 11, 2011 from Sara DillingerI know that "Excalibur" doesn't start with the letter X. But the only words that I could think of that start with an X are xenophobia and xylophone. Besides, I've always been a fan of the Arthurian legend and Excalibur figures large in that myth. Excalibur was, if you will remember, ...
Views: 1158 - W Is For Wisdom - by Submitted on Sep 11, 2011 from Sara DillingerI had an ah-ha! moment when I stumbled upon this quote from Marlene Dietrich: “I love quotations because it is a joy to find thoughts one might have, beautifully expressed with much authority by someone recognizably wiser than oneself." Gee, I wish I had said that. Then it occurred to me ...
Views: 1156(1 vote) - V Is For Vicissitude - by Submitted on Aug 29, 2011 from Sara DillingerRemember that old Negro spiritual: Oh, nobody knows the vicissitude I have seen, Nobody knows but Jesus. Nobody knows the vicissitude I have seen, Glory hallelujah! Oh. You don't remember it that way, huh? Well, you're right. The song actually goes 'Nobody knows the trouble I have ...
Views: 1303(1 vote) - U Is For Use - by Submitted on Aug 26, 2011 from Sara DillingerThere are times when we can only approach meaning in a round-about way, just as there are times when you can only really see something by not looking at it directly but catching it, as they say, out of the corner of your eye. In just that manner, we can only come to an understanding, at ...
Views: 1162 - T Is For Think - by Submitted on Aug 24, 2011 from Sara Dillinger“To be or not to be..., the melancholy Dane mused (the past tense of another word for think). He might just as well have asked himself “To think or not to think”because that was what he was doing: thinking. He thought (the past tense of the verb to think) that he had seen his father's ...
Views: 1213 - S Is For Subconscious - by Submitted on Aug 22, 2011 from Sara DillingerS is for Subconscious Early in this alphabetic progression, we encountered the conscious mind (C Is For Conscious). Let's review a little. Thought is the language of the conscious mind. It is the conscious mind that knows that it knows. It acts upon what it “knows”. Thus, the ...
Views: 1209 - R Is For Responsibility - by Submitted on Aug 18, 2011 from Sara DillingerI've heard the “R” word quite a bit of late as I have listened to NPR's reporting of the riots in Britain. This morning it was particularly ubiquitous as the government, the police, and the rioters talked about who was “reponsible”. Let's start off by making something abundantly clear: ...
Views: 1043 - Some Thoughts in a Time of Crisis - by Submitted on Aug 10, 2011 from Sara DillingerWe interrupt this regularly scheduled alphabet to bring you this special message: With our elected representatives in Congress fighting like kindergartners and the last-minute deal to increase the debt ceiling of the United State of America, with the subsequent down-grading of our credit ...
Views: 1047 - P Is For Patience - by Submitted on Aug 05, 2011 from Sara DillingerWipe that grimace off your face and don't whinge! I know that patience is probably just about the last thing you want to read about today (ranking just above your Aunt Mabel's hemorrhoids). I'm sitting here watching a cardinal in the tree outside my window. He's a frenetic fellow, hopping ...
Views: 1224 - O Is For Ownership - by Submitted on Aug 01, 2011 from Sara DillingerI am not talking about crass materialism or consumerism, nor am I talking about better living through greed. Rather, I am talking about a psychological stance that you take toward your “own” life. “Own”, used as a transitive verb means to have or hold a property or to have power or mastery ...
Views: 2043(2 votes) - N Is For No and Now - by Submitted on Jul 29, 2011 from Sara DillingerN is for No and Now If you are a parent, remember when your child was about two years old. What was his or her favorite word? Chances are, it was the word “No.” My youngest grandson is twenty-months old and already he has a clear grasp of the meaning of the word “No.” Not only can he ...
Views: 1234 - M Is For Mindset - by Submitted on Jul 25, 2011 from Sara DillingerThey say that it is the perogative of a woman to change her mind. I think that is sexist. I think that all of us need, from time to time, to change our minds. Certainly, we sometimes need to change our mindset. What's a mindset? Break the word down. Well, it might make more sense if you ...
Views: 1106 - L Is For _____________ - by Submitted on Jul 22, 2011 from Sara DillingerThat title looks funny, doesn't it. It looks like I've got this far into the alphabet and suddenly couldn't think of anything to say about L. I mean no offense to L. It is a perfectly useable letter. Easy to write, too. And it could stand for so many things, ideas, attitudes. Love comes ...
Views: 1085 - K Is For Kindness - by Submitted on Jul 22, 2011 from Sara DillingerWhen my brother died years ago, my husband and I packed our two children into the car and started from the center of Kansas go to Biloxi, Mississippi to attend his funeral. We got as far as Jackson, Mississippi when our car broke down. Having had it towed to a service station, we waited to ...
Views: 1179 - J Is For Joy - by Submitted on Jul 19, 2011 from Sara DillingerJ Is For Joy I don't know about you, but most of the time, joy seems to be the furtherest thing from my mind. I get so caught up in the stress, distress, and sadness of life that I have to ask myself, “Is that all there is?” It could be said that I am so en-tranced by the darker aspects ...
Views: 1125 - I Is For Imagine - by Submitted on Jul 19, 2011 from Sara DillingerI Is For Imagine Try to imagine what your life would be like if you could be whatever you wanted, do whatever you wanted, have whatever you wanted. When we are children, unfettered by the limiting bounds of reality, we dream bold dreams of what we will be when we grow up. We imagine ...
Views: 1341 - H Is For Humor - by Submitted on Jul 12, 2011 from Sara DillingerThe Welsh poet Dylan Thomas wrote: "Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rage at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light." With apologies to Thomas, I would like to paraphrase this opening stanza of the poem: Do not go quietly into that dark ...
Views: 1087 - G Is For Gratitude - by Submitted on Jul 08, 2011 from Sara DillingerAs you may have guessed by now, this is not one of those charming little abecedaries to teach children the alphabet. This list of alphabetized words is for adults with serious problems. That's why I've discussed avoidance, becoming, conscious, define, elephants (It'll make more sense if you ...
Views: 1115 - E Is For Elephant - by Submitted on Jul 04, 2011 from Sara DillingerDon’t think about that elephant in the room. Whatever you do, do not think about the elephant. Just ignore it. Maybe it will go away. Of course, when you are told NOT to think about something, that is about the only thing you can think of. Even though there is no actually elephant in ...
Views: 1773(1 vote) - D Is For Define - by Submitted on Jun 30, 2011 from Sara DillingerI heard a segment of a program about branding on NPR this morning when I drove over to feed my daughter’s cat. In this brief snippet, the host and his guest were talking about “sheeple”, that is, people who will follow the crowd, the style, the latest fad like sheep going to ...
Views: 1072 - C Is For Conscious - by Submitted on Jun 28, 2011 from Sara DillingerThe English word “conscious” originally derived from the Latin conscius (con- “together” + scire “to know”). It is interesting to note, though, that the Latin word did not have the same meaning as our word — it meant knowing with, in other words, having joint or common knowledge with ...
Views: 1378 - B Is For Becoming - by Submitted on Jun 28, 2011 from Sara DillingerB is for Becoming. This is important to remember: You are not what your parents, your teachers, or anyone else said about you when you were a child. You are not what your spouse, ex-spouse, boyfriend, girlfriend or anyone else thinks you are. You are not even what you think you are. You ...
Views: 1105 - A Is For Avoidance - by Submitted on Jun 26, 2011 from Sara DillingerI know what’s going on. I have at least become that self-aware in the last sixty-one years. I am practicing the art of avoidance. I know that I am going to have to write this sooner or later, but I am assiduously putting it off as long as possible. We all have that tendency, don’t we, when it ...
Views: 1316(1 vote) - Can Dexter™ Overcome His "Dark Passenger"? - by Submitted on Jun 26, 2011 from Sara DillingerCan we ever really be free of the past that haunts us, the voices in our heads that tell us lies and make us do things that we don’t want to do? Can we be free of our subconscious? The Showtime Entertainment™ series Dexter™ is a dramatic statement of those questions. Dexter Morgan is a genial ...
Views: 1562 - Moving On: Sorting Through the Lies - by Submitted on Jun 22, 2011 from Sara DillingerIf you’ve ever packed up and moved from one house to another, you know something of what the subconscious is like. I’m not talking about the kind of move where someone else comes in and packs up all your stuff, even down to the ashes in the ash trays. I’m talking about the kind of move where ...
Views: 1321(2 votes) - Subconcious Reasons Your Resolutions Failed - by Submitted on Jun 18, 2011 from Sara DillingerHappy New Year! Well, no. Unless you are following the fiscal calendars as some organizations and corporations do. But it is now a little over six months since the new year began which means – unless I got my math wrong, which is always a possibility – the year is half over. O, my gosh! ...
Views: 1038 - Living Without Regrets - by Submitted on Jun 13, 2011 from Sara DillingerBoomer 54 Mark of Baby Boomer Talk Online posted the following list of the Top 5 regrets people have on their deathbeds after attending the funeral of a favorite aunt. I’ve expanded each point with comments just to add a little more fuel for thought: The Top 5 Regrets People Have On Their ...
Views: 1372 - Sidney Poitier and The Measure of a Man - by Submitted on Jun 09, 2011 from Sara DillingerI have been reading Sidney Poitier’s book, The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Memoir (HarperCollins, 2000). It was my admiration for Sidney Poitier as an actor and a man that made me take a second look at the book in the store. It was that subtitle, A Spiritual Memoir, that made me buy it. I ...
Views: 2476 - Life Is a Bowlful of -- Jello? - by Submitted on Jun 09, 2011 from Sara DillingerI don’t want to seem to be pushing a name brand but I have been thinking a lot about Jello of late. You know, the sweet, fruity, wiggly stuff that used to be a fixture at everything from family meals to church dinners. I’ve been thinking about Jello because of the metaphors that surround it ...
Views: 1196(1 vote) - The Basics of Mindset Math - by Submitted on Jun 01, 2011 from Sara DillingerI used to say that I was numerically-challenged but I no longer say that because, although it is true, it is also negative. You see, I’m trying to eliminate the negative self-talk that limits me. Now, when I look at numbers or hear someone talk about numbers and feel my cranial cavity filling ...
Views: 2156(1 vote) - How Do You Define Yourself? - by Submitted on May 28, 2011 from Sara DillingerWouldn’t it be nice if you could go to any good dictionary – say the Merriam-Webster Online (http://www.merriam-webster.com/) – type in your own name and find out everything YOU needed to know about yourself? There you would find a definition of who you are, a guide to conjugating who you are in ...
Views: 1503 - A Beginner's Guide to Tapping for Fun and Profit - by Submitted on May 24, 2011 from Sara DillingerAs promised before it was pre-empted by the purported “End of the World”, here are the basics of tapping. If you really get “into” it, you will want to check out a couple of sites: http://www.attractingabundance.com/, Carol Look’s website, and ...
Views: 2075(2 votes) - Playing Games with Tapping - by Submitted on May 22, 2011 from Sara DillingerI wrote a humorous (I hope) piece yesterday about tapping to fall in love. I have also used tapping with some success, believe it or not, in playing the computer game Free Cell. Don’t get me wrong; I don’t play Free Cell all day long but it is, occasionally, necessary to lift your nose from ...
Views: 1522 - Go to Sleepy Already! - by Submitted on May 20, 2011 from Sara DillingerI just listened to a segment of Robin Young’s Here and Now on NPR. The segment was about an ebook that has gone viral even though it has not yet been published. The title of the book, by Adam Mansback, is Go the F**K to Sleep. NPR was being coy and giving the title as “Go the F*** to Sleep”, ...
Views: 1249 - Reach Out To Your Grandchildren - by Submitted on May 17, 2011 from Sara DillingerI just returned from a trip to Worlds of Fun with my grandson Thomas to find a blog posted in my email that proclaims “Grandparents and grandkids are connecting”. John Agno, who writes the “So Baby Boomer” blog had older grandkids in mind. He mentioned the use of Facebook and you have to be ...
Views: 1231 - Maintaining Balance Is Crucial As We Grow Older - by Submitted on May 13, 2011 from Sara DillingerHas anyone ever told you that you have rocks in your head? It was undoubtedly meant as an insult, but it’s true, you know. Or sort of true. Actually, the balance organ in the inner ear is lined with tiny hair-like cilia. There are also tiny calcium carbonate stones – the so-called rocks in ...
Views: 1307 - Dreams: Keep Hope Alive - by Submitted on May 13, 2011 from Sara DillingerWhoopee! I get to go to the circus tonight! I can hardly wait. Pardon my excitement. It’s not even a “real” circus – not a Ringling Bros. Barnum and Bailey type circus. But I’m excited anyway. My daughter called while we were having breakfast to tell me that Josh, my middle grandson, ...
Views: 1227 - Having a Bad Day? Try a Little Perspective - by Submitted on May 09, 2011 from Sara DillingerSomewhere in the dim reaches of my Baby Boomer memory I have a vague memory of a comedian whose gag line was, “I shoulda stood in bed.” I found myself repeating that line to myself – though I used the more grammatical but less funny version – this morning. I should have stayed in ...
Views: 1839 - Getting Organized: Making a List - by Submitted on May 12, 2011 from Sara DillingerI felt kind of silly. If anyone had seen me doing it, they probably would have thought that I was very silly. But there I sat last night, reading one of Arnold Lobel’s “Frog and Toad” books and gaining new insight into improving my organizational skills. Ostensibly, I was reading to my ...
Views: 859 - Online Business Opportunities: One Size Does Not Fit All - by Submitted on May 08, 2011 from Sara DillingerContrary to what the makers of cheap pantyhose and gloves would have you believe, one size does not fit all. If you’re a woman, you may have learned this hard fact of life when you hobbled yourself with a pair of pantyhose that wouldn’t pull up beyond your knees. If you’re a man, perhaps ...
Views: 1139(1 vote) - Settiing Goals and Getting Them Done - by Submitted on May 08, 2011 from Sara DillingerThere is a story told about Albert Einstein. It seems that Einstein was once traveling from Princeton on a train. The conductor came down the aisle, punching the tickets of every passenger. When he came to Einstein, the great scientist couldn’t find his ticket. He looked everywhere, turning out ...
Views: 1190 - We All Need Someone to Love - by Submitted on Apr 29, 2011 from Sara DillingerI came upon this statement the other day: “You cannot really become yourself by yourself.” It’s true. The third level of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is the need for love and belonging. Once we take care of our most basic needs and our safety issues, we need companionship, friendship, and ...
Views: 1209(1 vote) - Blaming: We Don't Have To Do It - by Submitted on Apr 28, 2011 from Sara DillingerOne of the things that I love about writing is that occasionally as you are writing about a character, you stumble upon an insight that applies not only to the character, but to yourself and to others, as well. This happened recently when I was writing a conversation between two characters. I ...
Views: 1202 - Life Has Its Ups and Downs: Don't Let It Get You Down - by Submitted on Apr 24, 2011 from Sara DillingerAh, the gentle pitter-patter of rain upon the roof of a mobile home! The sound can be so soothing that it lulls you to sleep. Who needs an expensive ambient sound machine? This is nature’s own. Just lie back, secure in your comfy nest of bed and blankets and let Mother Nature sing her watery ...
Views: 2043(1 vote) - Finding Romance Online: Suggestions For Keeping It Real - by Submitted on Apr 21, 2011 from Sara DillingerLooking for love in all the wrong places? (try Facebook or an online dating site) Okay, first, I’m assuming that you are single. If you are not, if you are married, engaged, or in what your partner assumes is a committed relationship STEP AWAY FROM THE COMPUTER! Shame on you! The only way to ...
Views: 1099 - A Rememdy for Toxic People - by Submitted on Apr 20, 2011 from Sara DillingerDo you remember the old skull and cross-bones? The last time I saw it was when I was watching The Pirates of the Caribbean. There was a time, though, when it was the universal symbol not just of pirates and their undead henchmen, but of poison. I just checked my box of 20 Mule Team Borax, ...
Views: 3028(1 vote)