Showing posts with label courage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label courage. Show all posts

07 August 2014

Life Is Too Damn Short….



While designing the above image, I remembered a strand of Longfellow's "A Psalm Of Life". If you, too, are muddling your way through loss, grief, broken-heartedness, or end-of-life issues, it will be well worth your time to read the brief poem here.  I like HWL's turns of verse from dark-to-light and confusion-to-hope, every word a reflection of his own struggle to make sense of the unexpected death of his young wife and child.

Yesterday marks four calendar weeks since my beloved friend and confidante Beverly died; Saturday the ninth makes it a calendar month.  As the song says,



Life is short, my friends, very, very short.  One minute you're running downfield, making your play, and bang, out of nowhere, there's the Referee, waving a red card at you.

Bottom line:  You matter, your life matters.  Whoever you are, big or small, famous or unknown, YOU are beloved of God and no matter how successful or wasted your life has been, He can use you to encourage, inspire, and revive others.

Life IS short and your Red Card is coming.  Eat dessert first, laugh more, hug more, dare to love when you might lose the one you love.  Stop giving a damn about naysayers, whiney-babies, and other time-wasting folk who drain and distract your energy with "important" or "urgent" bullshit.  Do this instead:


Live your life high, wide, and handsome.


Yee-haw!

Mi querida amiga Beverly, te echo de menos profundamente.  Mi vida tiene un agujero en él y sólo él quien es Todo y Santo puede llenarlo.

26 March 2014

Welcome, Spring!

Bright yellow jasmine makes even a grey day sunny.
~ Click to enlarge image. ~
(You are welcome to use this image as a *personal* screensaver.)

Today was cold and grey and rainy and windswept.  Yet….

28 May 2013

Lost In The Dark...

A free screensaver, "Lost In The Dark", compliments
of Gitanajava Productions LLC.

For personal use only.  To use commercially,
contact us for written permission.

To download the full-sized version (1815 x 1443), go here.


Con profundo cariño y admiración de Beverly, mi amiga querida.


31 March 2013

Happy Easter to All Our Java Pals!

From darkness, Light.  From despair, Hope.  Do the Happy Dance, because we have a new beginning!



With both its somber rituals and its light-hearted frivolities, Easter refreshes me and reminds me again of my "life raft" scripture:

"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." (Jeremiah 29:11)

Rejoice!

21 November 2012

A Brief Tribute to Ambrose Thomas...


Last night, the courageous heart of our good friend, client, and business partner, Ambrose Thomas, owner of Gentle Bloke & co-founder of Carli Trading Group, gave out.

Only 26, Ambrose had survived Sierra Leone's civil war and much more.  He overcame Hodgkins Lymphoma, then created a line of skin products to help other cancer patients.  He and two business partners founded Carli Trading Group to shape a brighter future for his former homeland, Sierra Leone.

By some yardsticks, Ambrose had a short life, but he lived it with intensity, generosity and productivity.  A portion of Gentle Bloke's proceeds were donated to Operation Homefront, an organisation which had made it possible for his brother Joseph, serving overseas in the U.S. military, to come back to the states for a bone marrow transfusion critical to Ambrose's recovery.  A graduate of Texas A & M's Masters in Public Health program, Ambrose had been invited to the White House, and had recently learned he was accepted to Harvard to do his Ph.D. in Public Health.

Ambrose's brilliance and drive could occasionally swamp your boat.  His joie d'vivre, his wide-open smile, and his buoyant can-do attitude persuaded both competitors and colleagues. His mountain-top leaps from one idea to another meant you dare not doze off or let your mind wander.  But, if you challenged him, he listened.  Ambrose was the embodiment of Gitanajava Productions' company catchphrase, Get Javanated! -- he lived boldly and joyfully.  The occasional frustration or disappointment, in his hands, was transformed into finding a jet-fueled solution.

We are better for having known you, Ambrose. Your dazzling energy, your smile, your intensity, and your courage will live on in our hearts and minds.  We will work to fulfill your vision.



16 September 2011

Bring Down Your Wall!

Building the Berlin Wall, August 1961

Don't you hate it when you read an article, blogpost, or book you know you shoulda-coulda written (but didn't)?  Yeh, this is one of those times for me.  I hope you'll permit me a short ramble, fellow entrepreneurs.

Today, I came across a nifty CNET article by Dennis O'Reilly, How to Use Powerpoint Effectively I started kicking myself.