I just received this from “Barry the Book” who runs an excellent bookshop called Knowledge is King. It might help to put things in perspective and encourage us to slow down a little…
A SANDPIPER TO BRING YOU JOY
The following true story serves as a reminder to all of us that we need to take time to enjoy living and life, and to love one another. Take a moment, even if it is only 10 seconds, to stop and smell the roses.
SHE was 6 years old when I first met her on the beach near where I live. I drive to this beach, a distance of 3 or 4 miles, whenever the world begins to close in on me.
She was building a sandcastle or something and looked up. “Hello”, she said. I answered with a nod, not really in the mood to bother with a small child. “I’m building”, she said.
” I see that. What is it?” I asked, not caring. “Oh, I don’t know, I just like the feel of sand”.
That sounds good, I thought, and slipped of my shoes. A sandpiper glided by. “That’s a joy”, the child said. “It’s a joy. My mummy says “sandpipers come to bring us joy.”
The bird went gliding down the beach. “Goodbye joy”, I muttered to myself, “hello pain”, and turned to walk on. I was depressed; my life seemed completely out of balance.
“What’s your name?” She wouldn’t give up.
“Ruth”, I answered. “I’m Ruth Peterson.”
“Mine’s Wendy… I’m 6.”
“Hi”, she giggled. “You’re funny,” she said.
In spite of my gloom I laughed too and walked on. Her musical giggle followed me. “Come again, Mrs P”, she called. “We’ll have another happy day.”
Several weeks later, I returned to the beach. As I strode along the seashore, trying to recapture the serenity I needed, the child appeared.
“Hello, Mrs P,” she said. “Do you want to play?”
“What did you have in mind?” I asked, with a twinge of annoyance.
“I don’t know, you say.”
“How about charades?” I asked sarcastically.
The tinkling laughter burst forth again. “I don’t know what that is.”
“Where do you live?” I asked.
“Over there”. She pointed toward a row of cottages.
She chattered little girl talk as we strolled up the beach, but my mind was on other things.
When I left for home, Wendy said it had been a happy day. Feeling surprisingly better, I smiled at her and agreed.
3 weeks later I went to the beach again. I was in no mood to even greet Wendy. I thought I saw her mother on the porch and felt like demanding she keep her child at home.
“Look, if you don’t mind,” I said crossly when Wendy caught up with me, “I’d rather be alone today.”
She seemed unusually pale and out of breath. “Why?” she asked.
I turned to her and shouted, “because my mother died!” and thought, my God, why was I saying this to a little child?
“Oh,” she said quietly, “then this is a bad day.”
“Yes” I said, “and yesterday and the day before and – oh, go away!”
“Did it hurt?” she inquired.
“Did what hurt?”
I was exasperated with her, with myself.
“When she died?”
“Of course it hurt!!!!” I snapped and strode off.
A month or so after that, when I next went to the beach, she wasn’t there. Feeling guilty, ashamed and admitting to myself I missed her, I went up to the cottage after my walk and knocked at the door.
A drawn looking young woman opened the door. I introduced myself.
“Oh yes, Mrs Peterson, please come in. Wendy spoke of you so much. I’m afraid I allowed her to bother you. If she was a nuisance, please, accept my apologies.”
“Not at all-she’s a delightful child,” I said, suddenly realizing that I meant it.
“Where is she?”
“Wendy died last week, Mrs Peterson. She had leukeamia. Maybe she didn’t tell you.”
Struck dumb, I groped for a chair.
“She loved this beach; so when she asked to come, we couldn’t say no. She seemed so much better here and had a lot of what she called happy days. But the last few weeks, she declined rapidly…”her voice faltered.
“She left something for you… if only I can find it. Could you wait a moment while I look?”
I nodded stupidly, my mind racing for something, anything, to say to her. She handed me a smeared envelope, with MRS P printed in bold, childish letters. Inside was a drawing in bright crayon hues – a yellow beach, a blue sea, and a brown bird.
Underneath was carefully printed: A SANDPIPER TO BRING YOU JOY
Tears welled up my eyes, and a heart that had almost forgotten to love opened wide. I took Wendy’s mother in my arms and we wept together.
The precious little picture is framed now and hangs in my study. 6 Words – one for each year of her life – that speak to me of harmony, courage, undemanding love.
A gift from a child who taught me the gift of love.
by Ruth Peterson
Have a goal but don’t know how to start the SMART goal planning?
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The Sixth and Final Article in the Series ‘
Then, when you have added up all the individual ‘step-times’, you’ll have a much more reliable estimate of the total time that will be needed to achieve the overall goal.
Change is Certain
On your journey to your goal, it is essential that you keep going. If you keep going, achieving your goal will be inevitable, assuming you’ve used the SMART goal setting process.
2) Easy enough steps?
4) Get motivation-fuel from positive people with experience
5) Give yourself a reward
A = ACHIEVABLE… Are The Steps Easy Enough?
“Aim For the Moon. If You Miss, You May Hit A Star…?”
For that reason, I am now a firm believer in 
So, the journey needs breaking down into smaller steps. After all, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. This is the HOW stage of getting to your goal.
Whatever measure of success you define for each step, your belief in your goal – and therefore the likelihood of achieving it – will strengthen if you see…
S = SPECIFIC… (But Keep Your Goals To Yourself!)
A very important part of this SMART goal setting stage is also to ask yourself WHY you want to achieve your goal. In fact, I reckon that the WHY is the most important part of the whole exercise. Your Why is your fuel – it’s what will keep you going when the going gets tough.
When I look back at some of the goals I set myself back at the beginning of my network marketing career, I can only wonder what I was on… OK, firstly I didn’t understanding the 
“I CAN Walk On Water, I CAN, I CAN!”… Splash!
In the UK, the reality is that there is no such thing as a totally tax free retirement income. You will either be taxed at the beginning (on your earnings), or at the end (when you draw a retirement income). However, one method might be more preferable than the other, depending on your financial requirements.
Of course, the catch is that you cannot take your money out of a SIPP until your 55th birthday. This may be a good thing for those people who find it too easy to spend their savings. However, for those of us who are more disciplined with our savings, even in an emergency, we will not be able to access the capital.
Now I’m no financial advisor – this is just my personal opinion based on my research to date, and I may have missed something obvious. If so, please let me know! Feel free to leave your comments and thoughts below.
Er… but your accountant (who deals with your tax affairs now that you’re a millionaire) gives you a call the next day to say that you’ve just spent over half of your capital on what Robert Kiyosaki would call a ‘Doodad‘; something which takes money out of your pocket month after month, year after year. After all, you’ve got to pay the nice house’s utility bills, keep it maintained, pay the property taxes and the occasional high society party…
And if you have money in the bank, then you’re probably more likely to feel more positive about what life has to offer (that’s No.1 on the list… But will money really help you to see that a glass is half full, rather than half empty?)
The sad thing is that at the end of our lives, many of us won’t actually realise that money is only the answer to a FEW of our most basic needs. If we only focus on accumulating more of the green foldy stuff, then we’ll miss out on many more of life’s riches – just because we thought money would take care of them.
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