A Letter to my Friends

Last week during one of my productive days I visited one of the op shops in town. I haven’t been in this shop for quite some time as it is generally extremely cramped and quite musty. However I popped in this time because it looked as if the volunteers who run the store had done a huge clean up and created a store that looked a little  classier and more inviting to enter, than it did previously. At first glance, I couldn’t understand where everything had gone and then I realised that at the back of the store, they had made a book/reading area that led through to a warehouse at the rear where all the clothing and furniture was now located.

As I was on a schedule (I had a couple of things to do whilst the GG had a haircut and I needed to be at the hairdresser myself in 20 minutes time) my visit was quite short.
I only had time for a quick browse.
As I was exiting the warehouse through the the book/reading area I glanced at the shelves of books and CDs (I confess – I can’t help it) and my eyes fell upon a book at the front of a shelf at eye level entitled “A Note to my Friends” by Anthony Robbins.
Now I’ve heard about Anthony Robbins before but I’ve never read (or listened) to any of his stuff so I grabbed the book ($1) , paid for it and hurried on to do the other things that I needed to do.
Last night I finished reading the book. Tonight I am going to begin reading it again and completing some of the exercises contained within it.
This small book was easy to digest and left me feeling excited and energised when I put it down.

Each chapter discusses ways to get your life on track and find happiness in what you are doing. The basic premise is dream big, take steps (even baby ones. Well he said small but I interpreted them as baby steps), change your mindset and give back to others.
I liked what he said in the book about helping and giving back to others. He stressed that no matter how bad we think our life is, there is always someone who has it worse than we do. When we help these people, we are not only assisting them, we are doing ourselves a big favour as well. You cannot give to others without it affecting you in some way.

I have been pondering ways in which we are able to help others. This morning I was reminded of one as I have been hunting for documentation to do our last two year’s taxes with our accountant later. (I know. I know. It’s not good to be two years behind but last year was not a good year for us and doing taxes was the furthest thing from my mind). As I was saying, I was hunting for the documentation and I have located the receipts from our regular donations to many different charities.
Whilst giving of cash is good, and it certainly helps, I’m thinking that this isn’t exactly what Anthony Robbins had in mind when he suggested helping others in order to put your life into perspecctive.
He used the example of a person who knocked on the door of his family home one Thanksgiving when he was a boy. This person delivered bags of groceries. When his father protested, the man replied “Hey. I’m just the delivery guy and I’m doing my job”. Anthony Robbins never forgot that someone had realised his family was struggling and went out of their way to ensure they had the means to celebrate Thanksgiving. Years later when he was able to, he did exactly the same thing for another person. Robbins claims the experience changed his life and put things into perspective for him.

There are many ways we can help others.
We can listen.
We can extend the hand of friendship or understanding.
Or we can do little things such as visiting a local nursing home and spending time with someone who doesn’t have family.
What about mowing an elderly neighbour’s lawn or doing odd jobs around the house for them?
Really the possibilities are endless.

Recently, I’ve been thinking about volunteering somewhere. I’m not sure where and I’m not sure in what capacity however it’s what I’ve been thinking about.
Maybe this book is the little kick that I need.
What I do know, is that I was meant to find this book on that shelf last week.
And tonight I am going to begin reading it again and taking the time this time around to absorb it’s words and put them to practice in my life.

What about you? Have you ever read a book that has touched you in some way? I’d love to hear about it. (And I’m always on the lookout for books to add to the pile waiting to be read 😉 ).
I hope you enjoy this photo of Mt Maroon (right) and Mt Barney (left) taken from the middle of my street one morning a couple of weeks ago just as the sun was coming up. Yes! I walked out into the street dressing in my pj’s and pink, fluffy dressing gown to photograph our view. 😀
There are always blessings to count right?

Have a blessed day.