How many on their deathbeds wished they'd spent more time at the office - or watching TV? The answer is, No one.
Stephen CoveyRead
I am convinced that if we as a society work diligently in every other area of life and neglect_x000D_ _x000D_ the family, it would be analogous to straightening deck chairs on the Titanic.
Interpretation
Neglecting family while focusing on other areas of life is futile and counterproductive.
In this quote, Stephen Covey emphasizes the critical importance of family in the structure of society. He suggests that no matter how much progress we make in other aspects of life, if we fail to prioritize and nurture the family unit, our efforts will ultimately lead to failure, similar to trying to fix minor issues on a sinking ship while ignoring the major problem at hand.
In practice
In a speech about community building, one could say, 'As Stephen Covey wisely stated, neglecting the family while pursuing other goals is akin to straightening deck chairs on the Titanic.'
How many on their deathbeds wished they'd spent more time at the office - or watching TV? The answer is, No one.
If you want to have a more pleasant, cooperative teenager, be a more understanding, empathic, consistent, loving parent. If you want to have more freedom, more latitude in your job, be a more responsible, a more helpful, a more contributing employee.
Listen with your eyes for feelings.
If we live out of our memory, we're tied to the past and to that which is finite. When we live out of our imagination, _x000D_ we're tied to that which is infinite.
Synergy is the highest activity of life; it creates new untapped alternatives; it values and exploits the mental, emotional, and psychological differences between people.
Keep in mind that you are always saying "no" to something. If it isn't to the apparent and urgent things in your life, it is probably to the most fundamental, highly important things.
My mother was the first singer I had contact with. She sang constantly to us around the house, in church.
Just as my search for my mother had in some ways shaped my life, her faith that I was alive had shaped hers. She couldn't search, but she did the next best thing: She stayed still.
Every mother can easily imagine losing a child. Motherhood is always half loss anyway. The three-year-old is lost at five, the five-year-old at nine. We consort with ghosts, even as we sit and eat with, scold and kiss, their current corporeal forms. We speak to people who have vanished and, when they answer us, they do the same. Naturally, the information in these speeches is garbled in the translation.
This is part of what a family is about, not just love. It's knowing that your family will be there watching out for you. Nothing else will give you that. Not money. Not fame. Not work.
As a parent, if give yourself what you need, your children will watch you doing that and will give themselves what they need.
As a parent, it's my responsibility to equip my child to do this - to grieve when grief is necessary and to realize that life is still profoundly beautiful and worth living despite the fact that we inevitably lose one another and that life ends, and we don't know what happens after death.
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