"Do you plan?"

My wife and daughters asked me what I wanted for Father’s Day this year. I decided that I wanted to go camping with just the four of us—no friends, boy or otherwise—as a last hurrah before our daughter left for college. We enjoyed camping regularly when our daughters were younger. We did include our pregnant yellow Labrador retriever, Princess, who was due the week following our weekend trip.

We had a great weekend. We hiked around. We were tourists in a nearby town. Mostly we enjoyed one another.

I was about to prepare breakfast on our final morning when I noticed Princess acting strangely. Yep, you guessed it—she birthed seven of the cutest yellow Lab pups you’ve ever seen right there in our cabin. But remember—she wasn’t due for a few more days so we were concerned. Everything turned out fine and the puppies have all been adopted.

The next time something happens you didn’t plan on, remember: God is in control and everything will be fine.

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"Do you know that you're special?"

Will you take just a second and do something for yourself? Put down what you’re doing—unless you’re driving; just pull over—and think about all the special people in your life. Make a mental list or just randomly run through some faces and think about all the special people in your life.

Now as you think about all of these people, who was the very first person to pop into your mind? In your mind’s eye, see her or his face. Watch a smile emerge on that person’s mouth. Look into those sparkling eyes.

Now begin to thank God for all of the reasons why this person is special to you. Name the reasons one-by-one. Take it easy as you breathe your thank-you’s. No need to be in a hurry.

Now decide on three of those reasons why this person is special to you and share them with him or her by a phone call, email, or letter.

And know that while you’ve been doing this, so have lots of other people around the world and at least one of them thanked God for you.

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"Are you a judge?"

I’ll forever remember the first time I saw someone do something that I thought was weird to their food. I sat down to breakfast with a cousin who proceeded to, at least in my mind, ruin my grandmother’s scrambled eggs by pouring ketchup over them. I had never seen that done before.

I had a similar experience recently while coaching a business woman. We were talking about time management and doing those things that are important to us. I mentioned getting up in the morning to walk our dog and pick blueberries. And she said, “My granddaddy loved to eat blackberries with pinto beans and a piece of hoecake.” I must have looked at her strangely because she started laughing and then I laughed. It was another ketchup-on-scrambled-eggs experience for me!

So often in life, it seems we look down on those things or people which don’t quite fit our idea of normal. Today, as you listen to life, keep an open mind and accept others as they are without judging them. Decreasing your negativity increases your positivity. Blackberries and pintos, anyone?

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"How do you remember?"

There are lots of ways to remember our deceased loved ones. Recently I learned about a rather unique one. A company named Lifegems will help you memorialize your loved one in a most sparkling way. You send a portion of the deceased’s cremains to them and they do in a few weeks what Mother Nature does in lots of decades—creates a diamond.

You see, the earth pressurizes carbon molecules through many, many years and produces a diamond. Since our bodies are carbon-based, Lifegems takes some of the ashes of your loved one, puts them under extreme pressure, and voila—you’re wearing part of your grandmother.

Now I’m not recommending you do this, and lots of people are. But the most important part of remembering a loved one happens not with their ashes, but with your actions. While your loved ones are still living, proactively make some memories. Call them. Visit them. Write them. Hug them. Kiss them. Love them. Hold them. Then regardless of how, you’ll remember them well as you listen to life and make a life.

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"What's on your license plate?"

A friend who listens to life with us through our web site at www.listentolife.org recently emailed me. She said she thought I’d be interested in a license plate she’d recently seen. The license plate my friend emailed me about read, “KWIT H8N.”

As she followed the driver with “KWIT H8N” on the license plate, my friend wondered, “What kind of person would think of putting that on a license plate?” She decided that such a person is someone she’d like to meet and get to know. And she wished that the world would live by that message of “KWIT H8N.”

It’s so easy to talk about not hating another person. It’s just as easy to tell someone else that they ought to quit hating. But it’s a far better thing to use something as simple as a license plate to deliver a message as powerful as this one, to get people like my friend, and now you and me, to thinking about specific ways we can quit hating. Listen to life—even the license plates—as you make a life.

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