The above quote was taken from Christian Quotation of the Day at http://www.cqod.com/index-09-01-02.html  Check them out!

One of my interview questions, helping me discern what drives an individual and what speaks to his values, asks, “What, to you, is success and what is failure?”  The interviewed man responded without hesitation, “Success can be a deceptive mistress and failure can be your friend.” Astounded by his answer, I asked his meaning. He said, “Success can be the precurser to failure and seductively draw one into complacency and a pride leading to destruction. Failure will reveal lessons to be learned in attaining success.”  The interview ended and the sage was not hired. He was too good for the position.

Emotions are similar in how they can be calm and still in one moment, but an assault on our sensibilities can erupt a rage consuming our very being and overflowing to those around us. In a state of allowing emotions to reign, we react without consideration of the consequences. The alternative, responding in a directed fashion desiring to understand and be understood in wisdom and grace, brings an intimacy and fulfillment in relationships that heal and nurture instead of attack and destroy.

Take notice of those passing you by. Look in their eyes and pause to think of what they are thinking, feeling, and doing. Ask yourself how you can be present for them and move beyond your own limiting level of self absorption.

Take the risk and engage with those before you and those who will enter in to your presence. It will be an adventure with reward and risk for the both of you.

Imagine you have been accused of improperly touching someone or committing larceny. You are either invited for an interview or arrested and brought in to the interview room at the law enforcement station. You are sat down in a stark room with nothing much more than a small table and two or three chairs. The room is small and has a camera with a microphone positioned to clearly record your presence, your voice, and your body language. You are placed in the chair that is in direct line with the devices used to memorialize your actions and statements. Many times you are brought in to this room to sit by yourself for awhile to help you work yourself up in a fit of anxiety and, hopefully, panic. The officer or officers enter the room with their papers and pens. It is emphasized this is an interview and that sounds much nicer than what it really is, an interrogation. If you were not arrested, but ‘invited,’ usually an emphatic statement is made that you are not under arrest and you are free to go at any time. This allows for the officers to not have to give you your Miranda rights reminding you that you have the right to an attorney and that anything said by you will be used against you in a court of law. So, what do you do?

You say nothing and agree to nothing! You respectfully decline their inquiries and state you are seeking legal counsel. Why? Because the most innocent statements can be used against you. I have even seen where law enforcement and the prosecutor have used the response of a person, stating they are not guilty, as evidence they are guilty. It did not matter how calmly or how outrageously strong a response was made about not being guilty. Both types of responses were used to twist reality. If a person calmly stated they were not guilty, the person was accused of not having objected strongly enough to the accusation. If a person showed loud, vocal indignation at being accused, the person was shown to be covering up their guilt by over reacting. Statements are dangerous for the accused.

A member of the military is in a particularly unique situation when accused, because it has been ingrained in the very being of the service member to obey orders. What is most onerous is the chain of command is used as a hammer to try and beat the accused into talking and coughing up information. However, a service member has the same rights to not speak and to seek legal counsel.

Bottom line, do not say anything when accused, even when intimidated with threats. You will go a long way in defending and protecting yourself and in helping your attorney seek justice for you.

You’re lying there, listening to the enemy machine guns, and you know you’re not getting out. Your family is half way around the world—12,000 miles away—and you’ll never see them again. As the world starts to fade in and out, you know this is the day.

Then, over the machine gun noise, you faintly hear that sound of helicopter, and you look up to see an un-armed Huey, but it doesn’t seem real, because no Medi-Vac markings are on it.

Ed Freeman is coming for you. He’s not Medi-Vac, so it’s not his job, but he’s flying his Huey down into the machine gun fire, after the Medi-Vacs were ordered not to come.

He’s coming anyway.

And he drops it in, and sits there in the machine gun fire, as they load 2 or 3 of you on board.

Then he flies you up and out through the gunfire, to the doctors and nurses.

And, he kept coming back…13 more times…and took about 30 of you and your buddies out, who would never have gotten out.

Medal of Honor Recipient, Ed Freeman, died Wednesday, March 25th, 2009 at the age of 80, in Boise, ID…May God rest his soul.

Medal of Honor Winner

Ed Freeman!

Since the Media didn’t give him the coverage he deserves send this to every red blooded American you know.

THANKS AGAIN ED FOR WHAT YOU DID FOR OUR COUNTRY.

A small shift in our perception and handling of the task overload can bring a transformation in our state of mind. It is in the moment that we do excel. Taking one thing and making it our focus, just by the mere initiation of action, brings a sense of peace and fulfillment. We enter the zone, so to speak, where we fully embrace the task at hand investing our energy to complete what has been given us.

Ernest Hemingway wrote a little known history of bullfighting. He called it Death in the Afternoon, and rightly so, because most bullfighters, with great daring, entertained the crowds risking and, ultimately, giving up their lives. Hemingway stated the bullfighters had an expression describing the climactic moment as the bull charged. The bullfighters called it “ver llegar.” Translated it means to see and to arrive within the same moment in time. It was the defining moment when all awareness was centered in the engagement between man and beast. It was where the senses were at their peak. In the arena, each adversary discerning danger and responding to twinges of movement, the shift of the eyes, a change in breathing, even how the wisps of air and the light patterned itself against the enemy, played out their intense energy in to a microcosmic battle for life and death. It was being in the zone and the fulfillment and completion of the task at hand no matter the outcome. Be in the moment as you live life and engage that which is before you. It is, really, all you can control.

Keep in mind, I am here to discuss any questions or concerns at 972-922-5477.