A REASON, A SEASON OR A LIFETIME

When someone is in your life for a REASON. It is usually to meet a need you have expressed. They have come to assist you through difficulty, to provide you with guidance and support, to aid you physically, emotionally or spiritually. They are there for the reason you need them to be. Then, without any wrong doing on your part, or at an incovenient time, this person will say or do something to bring the relationship to an end. Sometimes they die. Sometimes they walk away. Sometimes they act up and force you to take a stand. What we must realize is that our need has been met, our desire fulfilled, their work is done. And now, it is time to move on.

When people come into your life for a SEASON, it is because your turn has come to share, grow, or learn. They bring you an experience of peace, or make you laugh. They may teach you something you have never done. They usually give you an unbelievable amount of joy. Believe it. It is real. But, only for a season.

LIFETIME realationships teach you lifetime lessons; things you must build upon in order to have a solid emotional foundation. Your job is to accept the lesson, love the person, and put what you have learned to use in all other relationships and areas of your life. It is said that love is blind but friendship is clairvoyant.

to meet, to know, to love, then to part!but still, LIFE is beautiful!

GREATEST ADVICE

by Rick Warren -- Purpose Driven Life

Don't date because you are desperate.Don't marry because you are miserable.Don't have kids because you think your genes are superior. Don't philanderbecause you think you are irresistible.Don't associate with people you can't trust.

Don't cheat. Don't lie. Don't pretend.Don't dictate because you are smarter.Don't demand because you are stronger. Don't sleep around because you think you are oldenough and know better.Don't hurt your kids because loving them isharder. Don't sell yourself,your family, or your ideals.

Don't stagnate.!Don't regress. Don't live in the past. Time can't bring anythingor anyone back. Don't put your life on hold for possibly Mr/Mrs Right. Don't throw your life awayon absolutely Mr Wrong because your biologicalclock is ticking. Learn a new skill.Find a new friend.Start a new career.Sometimes, there is no race to be won.Only a price to be paid for some of life's morehasty decisions.

To terminate your loneliness, reach out to the homeless.To feed your nurturing instincts, care for the needy.To fulfill your parenting fantasies, get a puppy.Don't bring another life into this world for allthe wrong reasons.

To make yourself happy, pursue your passions and be the best of what you can be. Simplify yourlife. Take away the clutter. Get rid ofdestructive elements: abusive friends, nastyhabits, and dangerous liaisons. Don't abandon yourresponsibilities but don't overdose on duty.

Don't live life recklessly without thought andfeeling for your family. Betrue to yourself. Don't commit when you are notready. Don't keep otherswaiting needlessly.Go on that trip. Don't postpone it. Say those words. Don't let the moment pass.Do what you have to, even at society's scorn.

Write poetry.Love Deeply.Walk barefoot.Dance with wild abandon.Cry at the movies.Take care of yourself.

Don't wait for someone to take care of you. You light up your life. Youdrive yourself to your destination. No onecompletes you - except YOU.It is true that life does not get easier with age.It only gets more challenging.Don't be afraid. Don't lose your capacity to love.Pursue your passions.Live your dreams.Don't lose faith in your God.Don't grow old. Just grow YOU!When you give someone your time, you are giving them a portion of your life that you'll never get back. Your time is your life. That is why thegreatest gift you can give someone is your time.

Relationships take time and effort, and the bestway to spell love is T-I-M-E because the essence of love is not what we think or do or provide forothers, but how much we give of ourselves.

COMMITMENT

The most important, most critical component in successful loving is commitment. Not love. It's easy to love without commitment. People do it all the time. Easy to love, to give of oneself for a while. But commitment implies bonding in such a way that one promises to keep the fires of love burning indefinitely. It also means shutting one's heart to the possibility of loving another who might even be more attractive, even more lovable. Not easy. This is why solid commitments are not at all as common as we are led to believe. In fact, more often than not, I think that the commitment two lovers make are not equal. What I mean is that the commitment of one might be a whole lot more or a whole lot less than the partner's.

We see it all the time. One loves more than the other and is more committed than the other. It is false to believe that two lovers love each other to the same degree. We have often seen lopsided love relationships where one partner is giving so much more to the relationship than the other. But writers and poets seem to always indicate that love isn't just a two-way street, but an equal two-way street. That hardly ever happens.

It is impossible to determine exactly how much a man loves a woman or how much a woman cares for a man. Love cannot be measured and that can be a huge problem. You can love someone and tell him "I love you" and you're telling the truth. But how much do you love him? Enough to let him court you? Enough to marry him? Enough to die for him?

The greatest test of true love is commitment. And the greatest indicator of deep love is deep commitment. There can be no doubting this. I have heard people say all the right words, make all the right moves and pledge undying love, only to walk away weeks or months later. Were they in love? Sure they were. But not enough to allow them to hold strong in their love. Not enough to keep a commitment regardless of the pain. A lover gets this sinking feeling when there is a sense that one is more committed than the other. When one is giving a lot more than one is receiving. When one's love is a lot more solid than the creaky love of the partner. When a couple believe strongly that their commitment to each other is rock solid, there is a deep sense of security, a feeling that it's OK to give all because the gift of yourself is safe in the hands of the beloved.

If, however, there is doubt or, even worse, the conviction that one is engaged in one-way giving, in a one-way commitment that is lopsided, then there is a tendency to pull back and not give as much. And when that happens, love begins to fade. In the countless counseling sessions of troubled couples over the years, there has always been the problem of a failing commitment on the part of at least one of the partners. Unless there is the raising of the level of commitment, the relationship is doomed. It's finished. Sooner or later the stresses will take their toll and the relationship will begin to fall apart. On the other hand, look carefully at lovers who are still very much in love after 20, 25 years. Their commitment to each other cannot be shaken. Neither can their love.

THE POWER OF HOLDING HANDS

by: Rabbi Harold Kushner


I was sitting on a beach one summer day, watching two children, a boy and a girl, playing in the sand. They were hard at work building an elaborate sandcastle by the water's edge, with gates and towers and moats and internal passages. Just when they had nearly finished their project, a big wave came along and knocked it down, reducing it to a heap of wet sand. I expected the children to burst into tears, devastated by what had happened to all their hard work. But they surprised me. Instead, they ran up the shore away from the water, laughing and holding hands, and sat down to build another castle. I realized that they had taught me an important lesson. All the things in our lives, all the complicated structures we spent so much time and energy creating, are built on sand. Only our relationships to other people endure. Sooner or later, the wave will come along and knock down what we have worked so hard to build up. When that happens, only the person who has somebody's hand to hold will be able to laugh.

"When I lost you. I was the one who loved you most, but between us you lost more... For someday I can love someone the way I loved you... But you will never be loved again the way that I did."