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I'm Deborah, survivor of everything from multiple cancer battles to major business setbacks. Join my search for ways to move the mountains, big & small, that block your path to success.

Posts Tagged ‘support’

Quotes on love and friendship

Your are Loved

For many people in the world, this has been another disappointing year. No matter how the economists measure it, in practical terms, the global recession continues. Unemployment, war, poverty, disease, hunger, and homelessness remain universal issues. Divisiveness continues to impede solutions. It gives pause as we head toward America’s annual season of thanks.

If we’re not careful, we can get so caught up in our worries and woes that we forget our blessings. Lately life’s stresses have been weighing me down, but the other day a wise friend reminded me the constant through all my difficulties is that I’ve been loved. And that’s defnitely a reason to be thankful.

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How to help friends cope

Sinatra

It’s said that during his lifetime, singer Frank Sinatra raised more than a billion dollars for charity. He was known for giving benefit concerts to help a variety of worthy causes, once remarking that he was “an overprivileged adult who ought to help underprivileged children.”

Some of his most popular performances were the private ones he gave for friends and acquaintances who’d been admitted to the hospital. The more serious the illness, the more diligent he was about dropping by and singing a tune to make the patients—and anyone else who could hear—feel a little better.

Few of us are blessed with Sinatra’s extraordinary vocal stylings, but he set a good example of the best way to help people who need to be comforted: Give of whatever talents you have.

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Get your point across

AGGRAV8D

In 1999, Nevada resident William Junge bought a personalized license plate after purchasing his SUV. So in 2006 when the 59-year-old tried to renew the plate, he couldn’t understand why the DMV denied his application. He’d had that plate seven years. What suddenly made hoe offensive? Well, a DMV employee suddenly found the word listed in an online slang dictionary as a variation of “ho” … not to be confused with tally-ho, Westward Ho, or Ho! Ho! Ho!

Okay … but what did that have to do with Junge?

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Words in bloom

Tulip, Holland

In 1967, polygrapher Cleve Backster connected electrodes to a house plant to measure psychogalvanic reflex (PGR)—how quickly moisture increased in the plant after it was watered. During the experiment, he became curious about what else the equipment might measure. For instance, could it detect the plant’s stress levels?

He dunked a leaf in a cup of hot coffee. Nothing. He pondered what to try next. Aha! he thought. I’ll burn the leaf. The instant the thought leapt into his mind, the needle on the machine jumped—just as it would for a human experiencing sudden stress. The plant seemed to sense Backster’s diabolical plan … and it was afraid.

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Reacting to others’ screw-ups

Andy Griffith

Poor Virgil was a sweet young man saddled with total ineptitude. Whatever he touched, he broke. No matter how simple the job, he botched it. Finally, given the easy task of polishing a set of keys, he managed to wear away the grooves, rendering the keys useless and sealing the door they were supposed to unlock.

Faced with this latest example of his incompetence, his cousin Barney berated his stupidity, leaving Virgil hanging his head in shame and defeat.

Fans of The Andy Griffith Show recognize the plot from the episode “Cousin Virgil.” But most of us have witnessed similar interactions between managers and employees—or worse, between parents and children. People screw up and other people berate them. We may have been on the giving or receiving ends of similar experiences.

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Be a supportive friend

Be a True Friend

In May 1995, actor Christopher Reeve was in Virginia, on horseback, approaching the third of 18 jumps in the finals of dressage event. The triple-bar was about 42 inches high, but Reeve’s horse, Eastern Express, couldn’t seem to find the proper footing for the leap. The horse stopped abruptly and Reeve pitched forward over the horse’s neck, landing on his head on the other side of the jump.

The accident left 42-year-old Reeve, best known for his big-screen portrayals of Superman, paralyzed and unable to breathe without the help of a respirator. At a tribute dinner a few months later, he described the moment, five days after the accident, when a supportive friend gave him a spark of hope:

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