Dear Reader:

I always loved listening to Wayne Dryer’s talk and stories….he was a self-made man growing up in orphans and foster homes. He walked the walk in his life to find his true self, his calling… and then stopped to reach back and pull the rest of us along our own paths.

If I caught him on PBS I would stop, grab my quotes journal and get ready to add his thoughts and quotes to it…he was that good. I found this quote by him the other day when my journal fell off a book shelf.

“Each experience in your life was absolutely necessary in order to have gotten you to the next place, and the next place, up to this very moment.”

I remember one thought that has stayed with me since hearing it…In today’s society where competition appears to dominate our societal culture…causing stress and disorder…there is another road we can travel.

“We don’t have to be better than anyone else in this world…we just have to be better than than we used to be.”

How many people go through life basing their idea of personal success or failure on how well they competed against someone else in business, wealth, or relationships….when the only competition that matters is how well we continuously grow inward and become a better person than we were the day before.

As I have said numerous times…cancer made me a better person. And it didn’t have to be cancer, per se,  it could have been anything…but when we are forced to confront our own mortality…we have two choices…pout and whine…playing the “Poor me…Why me” role seeking sympathy over all other things… or realize what an opportunity we have been given to changes ourselves for the better…to  appreciate life more and build our own deep well of gratitude for life.

So until tomorrow… “The state of your life is nothing more than a reflection of the state of your mind.” Wayne Dryer

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh