Good Morning Everyone.

 

I hope to see you all in Chicago at the Emergence Conference.

 

After flying half-way around the world in three consecutive days; (hosting our Tahitian group cruise followed three days later by our Danube River cruise), Bill and I returned to San Francisco in time to attend the Wednesday Evening Service — just two days ago.

 

The topic was "Hope" and I was inspired to give a testimony, conveying the role hope played in that experience. I would like to share the spiritual "nuggets" of the testimony with you.

 

Hope is not mere desire… otherwise, it would be desire and not hope. Hope carries with it the absolute confidence that our desires are possible. If our desires weren’t possible, they would be false hope. As we read in Psalms, God gives us the desires of our heart — and He does not give us false desire or false hope.

 

As Christian Science demonstrates, hope leads us naturally to joyous expectation which results in fulfillment, because every right idea, carries with it, everything necessary to complete that right idea.

 

After giving the background of our extraordinary journey, which seemed daunting, if not impossible, I quoted the former C.S.B., Margaret Laird who said: "I am the world through which I walk." I love that thought and use it frequently as I travel. As I walk through my world, "I walk with Love along the way" and bring with me my hopes and dreams, my health and my power, my harmony and my love, my peace and my joy, my weather – and yes, even my parking place.

I concluded by expressing gratitude for the realization that wherever I go, God is!

 

Hope to see you October 6th in Chicago.

 

With big (Tahitian) hugs,

 

Tom Taffel (and of course), Bill Repp 

We should examine ourselves and learn what is the affection and purpose of the heart, for in this way only can we learn what we honestly are. 

Science and Health 8: 28-30 

Learning to trust your instincts, using you intuitive sense of what’s best for you, is paramount for any lasting success.  I’ve trusted the still, small voice of intuition my entire life.  And the only time I’ve made mistakes is when I didn’t listen.

It’s really more a feeling than a voice – a whispery sensation that pulsates just beneath the surface of your being.  All animals have it.

We’re the only creatures that deny or ignore it.  

Awhile back, Bob Greene and I were walking with my dogs around the pond at my home in California.  The weather was damp and

misty, and I was concerned that it was too cold for the dogs to go in the water.  But Bob said, ‘Don’t worry – they’re dogs.  There’re

not going to stay in the water if it’s too cold.  Animals don’t deliberately cause themselves discomfort the way people do.’

How many of us have gone against your gut, only to find yourself at odds with the natural flow of things?  We all get caught up in the

business of doing, and sometimes lose our place in the flow.  But the more we can tune in to our intuition, the better off we are.  I

believe it’s how God speaks to us.

For all the major moves in my life – to Baltimore, to Chicago, to my own show, and to end it – I’ve trusted my instincts.  I take in all the

information I can gather.  I listen to proposals, ideas, and advice.  Then I go with my gut, what my heart feels most strongly.

And I often tell friends:  When you don’t know what to do, do nothing.  Get quiet so you can hear  the still, small voice – your inner

GPS guiding you North.

Oprah

OPRAH.COM – AUGUST 2011 

The 4th of July is a good time to reflect on these words from a great American: 

That’s Teddy Roosevelt speaking at the Sorbonne a century ago in 1910. 

Some truths are timeless: The critics, your critics, will always be there, lurking and worthless. 

Which reminds me… I had a very bright young woman in my office this week. She was bright and educated and clever and fantastic, but I have to admit, I wasn’t buying her very well-expressed desire to join our team, so I said: 

"Hey, look, I do career advice for a living. When you put the kids to sleep, and you have a moment in your day, and it’s just you, what do you dream about doing?" 

And she was passionate, she was engaging, she was alive!… alive in the way that only the fire can bring, and she inspired! — and I’m a guy that lives for inspiration! 

But her passion wasn’t for my business — online recruitment — it was for something else. Maybe that something else could be considered a hobby, maybe it could be considered a small business, maybe it could be considered to be not so quite very prestigious as the other fancy names and pedigrees that popped like fireworks from her resume. 

But it was passion and it was hers! 

I loved it! 

So I asked "Why don’t you go and do that? That’s what makes you passionate, that’s what makes you alive, that’s what makes you happy. Why don’t you go and do that and be amazing at it?" 

And her answer comes rolling back, quieter now, eyes turned down, "Well, my parents / friends / colleagues / classmates don’t think it’s very impressive and that I should be doing something else with my time — something more valuable." 

And I asked her: "When have great things ever been accomplished by doing what other people wanted you to do?" 

And you know, Readers, it’s true. 

There’s no storybook about "The Boy Who Followed Somebody Else’s Dream", no movie rights sold for the tale of "It Wasn’t Within My Purview To Consider Alternatives", no Sinatra tune entitled "I Did It The Way My Critics Requested I Do It". 

All the songs, all the movies, all the books say the same damn thing about you and your dream for a reason, Robert — because it’s true! 

You’ll be on a stone slab someday too soon — far too soon — and your children will look at you and you’ll look at yourself, and you’re going to ask, and they’re going to ask, and wherever you are right now just do me a favor and… 

>stop< 

…and listen to the wind breathe. 

And count the years between here and birth — your birth, on the occasion of the country’s birth — and count the years between here and death. 

And count the words of your loved ones, and your family, and your friends, and your kids, and your own words in your own head about who you are and who you want to be and who you always wanted to be. And realize that that is beautiful. And that is what you were made for. 

And count the words of the critics and naysayers and the negative people in your life and the words they’ve piled up like stones for you with their wants and their desires and their demands of you. 

Count the piles and feel their weight and add them up and ask yourself… 

Which one do you want to carry with you to the end? Which one do you want to carry for the rest of your days? 

Which one is worthy of you? 

This Fourth of July declare your independence from your critics. 

It’s you who counts. 

With all my rooting, 
the ladders – Marc Cenedella, CEO & Founder