Morning Briefings

Some Companies Rethink The Telecommuting Trend: A few big promoters of home-based and mobile-office work arrangements, including AT&T, Intel and Hewlett-Packard, have called some home-based workers back to the office, causing some to quit.

– Sue Shellenbarger, The Wall Street Journal, February 28, 2008

One thing I’ve learned is that no problem ever goes away on its own. For any human obstacle to be overcome, there must be inner work.

– Dr. Arthur Caliandro
Simple Steps: Ten Things You Can Do to Create an Exceptional Life

‘I do a lot of funerals,’ Joe said. ‘And there’s nothing sadder than doing a funeral when you have to manufacture something to say about the impact the person had in order to bring any kind of comfort to the family and friends.’

– Jeffrey Marx
Season of Life

For the saying is true, ‘Someone plants, someone else reaps.’

– John 4:37

When we finally allow God to work fully within us, the results may seem like a miracle.

– Kenneth E. Grabner
Focus Your Day

I hope I shall always possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an ‘honest man.’

– George Washington

In Ghana, an often-heard word for God is the name Onyame. The literal translation is ‘He, who when you get him, you are fully satisfied.’ Those who know that Onyame is God’s name alone will be the ones who can move through this world freely and unfettered. And no created thing will ever be able to deceive them.

– Kenneth E. Grabner
Focus Your Day

Clothed in His grace we can do all things, whether to give a talk, go to Africa, battle an illness, kick a habit, lay hands on the sick, or love somebody that drives us crazy. We just believe and get our carcasses to the starting gate.

– Elizabeth Mulloy
Divine Love Song

Pray through even the small things, for He governs all aspects of our lives; pray always expecting a response, for He answers; and finally, never be afraid to pray big, for He displays His awesome power.

– from Beth Moore’s
Voices of the Faithful

Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.

– Colossians 4:2
(NIV)

Sometimes, it’s the simplest ideas that can change the world, and sometimes it is the most challenging problems that can have the simplest solutions. PlayPumps water system utilizes the power of children playing to achieve a sustainable water supply throughout Sub-Saharan Africa, according to PlayPumps International’s Kristina Gubic.

– As posted by
Guy Kawasaki

In the silence of night I have often wished for just a few words of love from one man, rather than the applause of thousands of people.

– Judy Garland

Almsgiving is the giving of material goods or financial assistance to a needy person. This is to be done discreetly and with the spirit of love.

– Online definition of blog
Catholic FAQ

Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed.

– Abraham Lincoln

There is something admirable in people who faithfully embrace their duties and obligations even though what has to be done carries with it no personal reward or delight, such as visiting an Alzheimer’s patient week after week. But our responsibilities need a measure of joy. Two graces are needed here: wisdom to help us see wherein joy lies, and courage to transcend the downward pull of duty’s gravity.

– Robert F. Morneau
Growing in Joy:31 Meditations for a Life in Abundance

This is not a tale of kings, popes and statesmen, but of merchants, monks and fishermen who have lived and worked far from the spotlight of history.

– Brian Fagan
Fish on Friday

Your power to choose the direction of your life allows you to reinvent yourself, to change your future and to powerfully influence the rest of creation. It is the one gift that enables us to elevate our life to higher and higher levels.

– Steven R. Covey
The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness

What is Lent? It is a 40-day Christian season of preparation before Easter, beginning with Ash Wednesday, and, according to the Catholic Pope Benedict XVI, ‘a process of interior renewal’ in which participants practice prayer, fasting and almsgiving.

–
Yahoo! News, February 4, 2008

Mardi Gras, also known as Shrove Tuesday or Carnival is an annual festival marking the final day before the Christian fast of Lent. The term Mardi Gras is French for ‘Fat Tuesday.’ The date varies from year to year, always falling between February 3 and March 9. Cities famous for their celebrations include Nice, France; Cologne, Germany; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; New Orleans, Louisiana; and Mobile, Alabama, according to

–
Encarta

It is important to keep a still place in the ‘marketplace.’ This still place is where God can dwell and speak to us. Without that still place we start spinning.

– Henri J.M. Nouwen
Bread for the Journey

In the NFL, 32 coaches start the season with a plan to win the Super Bowl, and 31 of them fail–every year.

– Tony Dungy
Quiet Strength Men’s Study Bible