"Silence is sometimes the best answer." From an early age, we've all been taught the importance of problem solving. Yet, sometimes, we can help people more by not trying to find solutions. In fact, on occasion, silent listening and empathy can be a priceless gift. People who are grieving the loss of a loved one or a relationship, need time to mourn, not quick solutions. They need you to listen while they pour out their hearts; they want a silent hug, not instant answers. A friend who is ranting and raving about her partner may just need to let off steam. An understanding smile and a hand on the shoulder may be the best support you can give. Why not try a little silence today? You may find it says more than a thousand words! ©Jane Powell Get a Life! I suppose the best piece of advice I could give anyone is pretty simple: get a life. A real life, not the manic pursuit of the next promotion, the bigger paycheck, the larger house. Do you think you'd care so very much about those things if you developed an aneurysm one afternoon, or found a lump in your breast while in the shower? Get a life in which you notice the smell of salt water pushing itself on a breeze over the dunes, a life in which you stop and watch how a red-tailed hawk circles over a pond and a stand of pines. Get a life in which you pay attention to the baby as she scowls with concentration when she tries to pick up a Cheerio with her thumb and first finger. Turn off your cell phone. Turn off your regular phone, for that matter. Keep still. Be present. Get a life in which you are not alone. Find people you love, and who love you. And remember that love is not leisure, it is work. Each time I look at my diploma, I remember that I am still a student, still learning every day to be human. Send an e-mail. Write a letter. Kiss your mom. Hug your dad. Get a life in which you are generous. Look around at the azaleas making fuchsia star bursts in spring; look at a full moon hanging silver in a black sky on a cold night. And realize that life is glorious, and that you have no business taking it for granted. Care so deeply about its goodness that you want to spread it around. Take the money that you would have spent on beers in a bar and give it to charity. Work in a soup kitchen. Tutor a seventh-grader. All of us want to do well. But if we do not do good, too, then doing well will never be enough. Life is short. Remember that, too. I've always known this. Or almost always. I've been living with mortality for decades, since my mother died of ovarian cancer when she was forty and I was nineteen. And this is what I learned from that experience: that knowledge of our own mortality is that greatest gift God ever gives us. It is so easy to waste our lives: our days, our hours, our minutes. It is so easy to take for granted the pale new growth on an evergreen, the sheen of the limestone on Fifth Avenue, the color of our kids' eyes, the way the melody in a symphony rises and falls and disappears and rises again. It is so easy to exist instead of live. Anna Quindlen Best possibilities Some people think they can demand your attention just by being outrageous. Give your attention instead to those who offer real substance. If you allow yourself to be offended, you're allowing someone else to dictate your thoughts and feelings. Instead of being offended, you can choose to be amused or inspired, or to simply let it go. Give your time the respect it deserves. Use it for what truly matters, not just to feed someone else's ego, or your own. Focus on the best possibilities, not merely on the loudest spectacles. Give your attention to life's true beauty. You're surrounded by a universe that is endlessly fascinating and overflowing with valuable substance. You can live each moment of every day with meaningful, authentic richness. There's no need to settle for a flimsy, superficial imitation of what matters. You deserve the real thing, so live it each and every day. Ralph Marston 
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