8 Steps to Sure Success: Step Eight – Sacrifice

8 Steps to Sure Success: Step Eight – Sacrifice

“The most sublime act is to set another before you.” – William Blake   I recall a story that took place many years ago at a hospital in the Midwest. A little girl named “Liz” was suffering from a rare and deadly blood disease. The doctors had tried virtually everything to find a cure. Several years before Liz came down with the disease, her younger brother was stricken with the same disease and somehow survived even though his doctors had given up on his recovery and told his parents that death was imminent. After further research, her doctors realized that her only chance at recovery would be a blood transfusion from her younger brother, who had miraculously survived the same disease a few years previously. See, his blood carried the antibodies needed to combat the illness.   The doctors explained the situation to her little brother and then asked the little boy if he would be willing to provide blood for his sister. To the surprise of the doctors, he hesitated for a moment, took a deep breath, and replied, “yes, if it will save her, I will do it.” The doctors brought both of the children into the hospital room and laid them in beds adjacent to each other. As the transfusion progressed, he laid in his bed and smiled, as everyone in the room did seeing the color returning to his sister’s cheeks. But then, her little brothers color grew pale and his smile faded. He looked up at the doctor and with a trembling voice said, “Will I die right away or how soon?” See, the boy had misunderstood the doctors! He thought that he would have to give all of his blood and his life to save his sister….but he went ahead with the procedure anyway. Sacrifice.   So now that I have tugged on your heart strings, feel free to grab a kleenex and then continue reading!   While on your journey to success, if you’re not willing to forfeit your dreams in order to help someone reach theirs, you have not earned the success you desire. In the story above, Liz’s little brother was willing to forfeit his life in order to help save his sisters. This is a fine example of sacrifice. It doesn’t necessarily mean that you will have to forfeit them…but the fact that you’d be willing to is sufficient in my book.   Don’t confuse being successful with reaching your goals. I’m a goal-setter. I do not trust people who have no goals – they are accidents waiting to happen! They are typically drifters, loafers, wannabes and are often underdeveloped in all areas except laziness. A person without a goal is a person without a dream and is probably someone who is more or less dependent on others for their basic necessities in life. I set goals that require...

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A Brief History of Memorial Day

A Brief History of Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day 2014! In honor of those who gave all, here is a “Brief History of Memorial Day” from Time.com.   Memorial Day marks the unofficial start of summer, conjuring images of picnics, barbecues or just a lazy day off. But originally the holiday was charged with deeper meaning — and with controversy.   The exact origins of Memorial Day are disputed. At least five towns claimed to have given birth to the holiday sometime near the end of the Civil War. Yale University historian David Blight places the first Memorial Day in April 1865. At this time a group of former slaves gathered at a Charleston, S.C. horse track turned Confederate prison. More than 250 Union soldiers had died. Digging up the soldiers’ mass grave, they interred the bodies in individual graves. They built a 100-yd. fence around them and erected an archway over the entrance bearing the words “Martyrs of the Race Course.” On May 1, 1865, some 10,000 residents marched around the Planters’ Race Course. Both singing and carrying armfuls of roses. Gathering in the graveyard, the crowd watched five black preachers recite scripture. They also watched a children’s choir sing spirituals and “The Star-Spangled Banner”. While the story is largely forgotten today, some historians consider the gathering the first Memorial Day.   Despite scattered celebrations in small towns, it took three more years for the holiday to become widely observed. In a proclamation, General John A. Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic dubbed May 30, 1868, Decoration Day. It was “designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion”. On Decoration Day that year, General James Garfield gave a speech at Arlington National Cemetery. Afterward, 5,000 observers adorned the graves of the more than 20,000 Union and Confederate soldiers entombed at the cemetery.   At the outset, Memorial Day was so closely linked with the Union cause many Southern states refused to celebrate it. They acquiesced only after World War I. When the holiday was expanded beyond honoring fallen Civil War soldiers to recognizing Americans who died fighting in all wars. It was also renamed Memorial Day. Some critics say that by making the holiday more inclusive. However, the original focus, as Frederick Douglass put it, on the moral clash between “slavery and freedom, barbarism and civilization” has been lost. Most Southern states still recognize Confederate Memorial Day as an official holiday. Many celebrate it on the June birthday of Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederacy. But Texas, for one, observes the holiday on Robert E. Lee’s birthday, Jan. 19. Which also happens to be Martin Luther King Jr. Day.   The long-cherished Memorial Day tradition of wearing red poppies got its start in 1915. While reading Ladies’ Home Journal, an overseas war secretary...

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