Kiddos brighten the day!

Dear Family and Friends,
Once again its late but with Barbie and Gerry in Hawaii I know I can write later without incident.  Barbie usually does not go to bed until she reads the blog but she is safely tucked away in Maui this week visiting Michael and Sandy.
Today started on the tred mill after an unusual night.  I was adjusting to a new mask and a new breathing machine.  The machine was set to 12 and my last machine ran at an output of 7.8 so I had a whole lot more air going into my lungs last night, enough that I woke frequently, not sure what was taking place.
This morning was spent in clearing my desk, writing checks, dealing with setting up new orders and at 12:45 I was ready to go pick up Keanna.  She was bursting with energy and did her homework in about 3 seconds and enjoyed her TV programs.  Later in the afternoon she started writing letters and then delivering them to me, we worked on the piano a bit and at 4:45 we picked up Kallie and brought her back to the house.  The girls played, munched and played some more until their mom came to collect them later.

After they left I turned off lights, cooked 2 cups of rice in the rice cooker, made pancakes and then relaxed watching NCIS LA and just now finished off an episode of CSI Las Vegas.

I came across something this afternoon that was printed in a recent Readers Digest and it reminded me so much of my special friend Steve Ahn who we lost to a heart attack about the same time as we lost Nan.  He was a very special person and I'm going to share what was written in the Digest, it makes me think of his special skills in quizzing and listening to people.  Here it is, " remember to be humble.  It's crucial to take a sense of humility into the world.  If your attitude is that only smarter people have something to teach you, your learning opportunities will be very limited.  But if you have a humble eagerness to learn something from everybody, your learning opportunities will be unlimited.  Generally you can be humble only if you feel really good about yourself and want to help those around you feel really good about themselves too.  When we see people acting in an abusive, arrogant, or demeaning manner toward others, their behavior almost always is a symptom of their lack of self-esteem.  They need to put someone else down to feel good about themselves." 1.  Friend Steve had this wonderful way of sitting in a room with a cross section of people, some educated, some not and yet bringing out what each person had to share.  Using questions and observations Steve would draw out interesting bits and pieces of information and in the process make the person he was focusing on really feel heard and understood.  I have seen him do it over and over and it was not an act.  Steve was very interested in learning all he could, no matter who or where, he wanted to know more and in the process he helped a lot of people.
I just wanted to share something that to me was a very special gift, this gift of active caring by listening to another person share their story.  Steve was a very good man and those of us who knew him still miss him, his humor, his quick wit, his boundless inventory of jokes and his deep love of people.

Tomorrow is yet another day, how will we help the human race?  How will I do my part?

Love

tim
1. The Bottom Line on Happiness, Clayton M Christensen, Harvard Business Review  Readers Digest Feb. pg 176