[Home-on-the-range] Thanks and Giving

[Pila Mahoney]

THANK YOU ,AND YOU HAVE AN WONDERFUL THANKSGIVING ALSO. ALWAYS .PILA.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dianne Hemphill" <diannehemphill at cox.net>
To: "NFB of Kansas Internet Mailing List" <home-on-the-range at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, November 20, 2012 8:19 AM
Subject: [Home-on-the-range] Thanks and Giving


> Good morning federationists! The count down is on for putting the turkey 
> in the oven and and dreaming about all the delicious things we will have 
> on Thanksgiving day...
> One of my favorite shows is that of Dr. Oz. His focus  on health and 
> wellness, prevention on rethinking how to get healthy, helps me to  be 
> mindful of my lifestyle journey. As one of my former doc's said to me a 
> few years ago, "you are now at an age where you will have to work for good 
> health". (meany!) So what does this have to do with our 
> movement...probably more than I would have dreamed when I first became 
> aware of the organization...after all, I had already successfully 
> completed an under graduate degree, married a wonderful man and had three 
> beautiful and healthy daughters. None-the-less, in the back of my mind, I 
> wondered what contributions I could make to outside the home as a blind 
> woman...the NFB showed me endless possibilities.  I think the NFB gave me 
> inspiration to be "all that I could be" and to take the necessary steps, 
> including  a graduate degree, work, as well as volunteer work, etc,  and 
> to build courage to "go out into the world" and make a difference.
> Yesterday's Dr. Oz focus was on ensuring a strong brain and and how to 
> help  our memory. The wholistic approach of health and wellness leads me 
> to share the following four points noted as those that can lead to our 
> "pursuit of happiness". If a "happy life" can be defined, in a very simple 
> way, as a "balanced life", the following elements are what can help us 
> achieve the happy, balanced life:
> - love (pretty obvious but critical, none-the-less, to work on as we go 
> through our daily lives)
> - feeling useful - (I listed a few ideas on my last posting about how the 
> NFB needs you, your time and energy, if you wish to give back of yourself)
> - expecting something to happen from everything we put our efforts into- 
> we must have a reason to face the day... Though life will not always go 
> our way (surprise!), we must get over our disappointments and move 
> forward...
> - and, , having gratitude
>
> It's so easy to sometimes dwell on the negative, the slights we've felt, 
> the short comings we sometimes think life has dealt us. If you think back 
> on the different convention presentations, you can likely note that we may 
> not be where we want  to be but we're not where we used to be...the 
> federation has completely changed the future "pursuit of happiness" for us 
> as contemporary blind people. Within this organization, we can find all 
> the components  of a balanced life; friendship and love from our blind 
> brothers and sisters a reason to get up in the morning with a focus on 
> doing useful work for both ourselves and those that don't yet know us, 
> reevaluating our expectations  of ourselves and other blind folk and 
> raising the bar a bit, and feeling gratitude for the organization in its 
> relentless   tenatious forward movement "changing what it means to be 
> blind".
>
> So I give "thanks" to the National Federation of the Blind and how it has 
> changed my life in so many positive ways and look forward to "giving" back 
> in ways that might help others to move forward in their pursuit of 
> happiness. I wish each of you a wonderful Thanksgiving and a wonderful, 
> energetic  journey in this special experience we call life. Love, Dianne
> _______________________________________________
> Home-on-the-range mailing list
> Home-on-the-range at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/home-on-the-range_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for 
> Home-on-the-range:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/home-on-the-range_nfbnet.org/pilaam%40kc.rr.com
>