Your mother and I recently lost a very good friend of ours.  She died of cancer and she was only 39 years old.  Sad.  But as sad as it is, we can all learn some very valuable lessons from our friend Suzy (who by the way was a great engineer).

There is a philosophy which says, “Live everyday like it is your last.”  This essentially means live life to the fullest because you never know what is going to happen from one day to the next and you could lose anyone at any minute.

Suzy did this.  She worked hard at work, she played sports, she skied, hiked, and also was also a great mother who was raising two young kids.

When your mother and I went to Suzy’s funeral, the church was filled with people saying amazing things about her, because she cared for people and took the time get to know people.  She made people feel special. [Read more…]

Recently I became angry at people, but since the anger bothered me so much, I started reading from one of my favorite books: The Dali Lama’s Little Book of Inner Peace.  You can find the book on my shelf marked up, but here are some passages related to anger that I recommend you read when you feel angry.

“If I were to develop feelings of vindictiveness, anger, or hatred towards the Chinese, who would be the loser?  I would, because I would thereby lose my own peace of mind, my sleep, and my appetite.  At the same time, my bitterness would not affect the Chinese in the least.  If I became extremely upset, that would also prevent me from making those around me happy.”

“All the great personalities of history, the liberators, the great thinkers, all such people reflect positive thinking; where as tragic events, tyranny, and terrible wars have resulted from negative thinking. Therefore the only thing that is really worthwhile is to increase the power and influence of positive thinking, and to reduce the occurrence of negative thinking. If you let anger and hatred run loose, you are lost. And no sensible human being wants to get lost.” [Read more…]