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Nearly every year we get some form of meteor shower showers. In 2005 we had the Perseids Meteor Shower, which was quite good and turned out to be a major shower, very impressive. In October of 2005 we had Draconids, which was observed over Asia and Eastern Europe, although it was not a major event. There of course were other notable showers, but not so spectacular. But in 2006 we will witness some wonderful meteor showers.

On January third and forth we will see the Quadrantids, the peak will be extremely brilliant and comparable to the Perseids and Geminids. The rates of meteors per hour are not easily predicted with Quadrantids, yet many scientists and studiers of such believe this year will be something special perhaps as high as 85 to 100 per hour during the peak.

Then on April 22-23 we will get the Lyrids Meteor Shower, which is not as spectacular but 20-25 per hour for the maximum and peak is not untypical. Then around the corner on May 6 we will have the Eta Aquarids, with up to 55 per hour, but generally if you get to witness 12 per hour you are doing quite well. July 28-30 comes the South Delta Aquarids, which are notable as you can expect 8-12 per hour for up to 28 hours. The Perseids in August on the 12-13 ought to be very good this year, but the moon will be somewhat in the way casting some light pollution during the peak and you can expect about 25 per hour or more. In October from the 20-22 will come the Orionids, this time the moon will be cooperating and allow for good visibility against a blackened sky for a good 25 per hour between none some hours.

The Leonids will arrive on Novermber 19, as Earth travels thru left remnants of the Leonids Comet, the predictions are sketchy, yet some say we may get to see as many as 100 per hour, that will truly be worth watching indeed. And rounding out the year in 2006 will be the Geminids, which will be at its best on December 13-14, again with one hundred per hour maximums. The Geminids are known for their often various colors of Yellow, Green and Blue. This meteor shower will extend thru Pearl Harbor Day to the seventh of December and it is especially excellent during the 13-14 of December, so be sure to mark your 2006 Calendar. 2006 is your year to make a wish, so think on it and be ready.

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A better life has been achieved when we are no longer trying to achieve a better life. It means that we are content, as we should be, with ourselves and what we have. To be anxious for more or to envy someone else’s life or possessions is self-defeating. We are then in a constant state of frustration, always hoping and waiting for more happiness.

So what is important? Enough, not more.

“Think of what you have rather than of what you lack. Of the things you have, select the best and then reflect how eagerly you would have sought them if you did not have them.” - Marcus Aurelius (121-180)

There is, here and now, much to appreciate. There is life itself with friends, family, and everything that is naturally before us. We just have to look around and take it in. Perhaps it is time to make a list of all the good things we have to grateful for.

Are there people in your life that you would miss dearly if they were not here? When you go for a walk don’t you see, hear, and smell, many things to appreciate and feel nice about? Like the flowers, trees, birds, and the clouds in the sky. A caterpillar crossing the sidewalk or your neighbor waving. A cute pup or child enthusiastically enjoying that moment in life.

“Whether in favor or in humiliation, be not dismayed. Let your eyes leisurely look at the flowers blooming and falling in your courtyard. Whether you leave or retain your position, take no care. Let your mind wander with the clouds folding and unfolding beyond the horizon.” - Hung Tzu-ch’eng (1593-1665)

It just makes good sense to be satisfied and at peace with yourself and others, and to enjoy life now.

© Read Ken McIsaac’s 32 KEYS About Life at www.32keys.com or his articles on marketing and consumerism at www.axiom.ws/unethical/

“When words are many, sin is not absent, but he who holds the tongue is wise” (Proverbs 10:19); “The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil…” (James 3:6).

“Words are like leaves; And where they most abound, much fruit of sense beneath is seldom found.” Pope. One cannot talk about nothing forever, so the talk finally degenerates into small rap about people. Some wonderful advice comes to us from the ancient Orient. We should test our words to see if they can pass through three golden gates:

1) Is it true?;
2) Is it necessary?;

3) Is it kind?

Dr. James T. Jeremiah of Cedarville College in Ohio gives an apt description of the backbiter: “It has been suggested that biting is not always done with the teeth. The tongue feels soft compared to your teeth, but it is twice as sharp. A backbiter is not a person who bites back, but one who bites behind your back.” Hannah More handled backbiters and talebearers by asking them to go with her to the person slandered to see if the story was really true. Cuts from a knife heal, but we have no guarantee that cuts from our tongue will heal.

Proverbs is full of admonitions about what we do with our tongue. I particularly like The Message Proverbs, by Eugene H. Peterson. Here are a few on the tongue from Chapter 10:

“The mouth of a good person is a deep, life-giving well, but the mouth of the wicked is a dark cave of abuse.”

“Hatred starts fights, but love pulls a quilt over the bickering.” What a lovely thought!

“The wise accumulate knowledge, a true treasure; know-it-alls talk too much, a sheer waste.”

“The more talk, the less truth; the wise measure their words.”

“The talk of the good person is worth waiting for; the blabber of the wicked is worthless.”

The following is from the Biblical Illustrator, James 3:

The power of the tongue:

I. WORDS ARE THE EXPRESSIONS OF THOUGHTS.

Says Max Muller, with concise truth, “The word is the thought incarnate.” The Greek word translated “brotherly love” was unknown until Christianity coined it to declare a new relation revealed to men. It depended upon the Christian Church to exemplify the virtue expressed in the word “humility.” Every word we speak has its history, and in its appointed time each has been added to the library of the world’s thought. “Words are things,” said Mirabeau, and he was right.

II. WORDS, AS INCARNATE THOUGHTS, ARE REVELATIONS OF CHARACTER.

The morality both of nations and men is stamped in their words. “The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality-, and without hypocrisy.” The speech of every Peter betrays the man. Just as the despatches of Napoleon were of “glory,” while those of the Iron Duke centred in “duty,” so may their respective characters be known. He whose thoughts are on noble things will never grovel in speech. The “IncarnateWord” was compelled to reach men through their own vernacular, yet the purity of His teaching is as matchless as His own Divine nature. Humanly speaking, the voice of Jacob will always be Jacob’s, though he dissemble Esau.

Conversation touching impurity photographs for the world an impure heart. Ecstatic language, like purling brooks, denotes shallowness of thought. Repeated quotations of others’ opinions are proofs of having no substantial opinions of our own. Willingness to speak freely about others’ business is proof positive that we are not attending to our own affairs.

III. THIS POWER OF LANGUAGE DECLARES THE SOLEMNITY OF ITS USE.

The spoken word, like an arrow from the quiver, has its mark. Said Hawthorne, “Nothing is more unaccountable than the spell that often lurks in a spoken word.” A kind word has given courage to more than one despondent heart; and, struck by a cruel word, more than one gentle spirit has sobbed itself into the grave. Each word has a meaning, and the word is that meaning sent home to another a word alive with fear, or joy, or love, or hate. It matters not as to their derivation, the words we speak mean ourselves back of them.

IV. THIS POWER OF SPEECH EMPHASISES THE NECESSITY OF SELF-CONTROL.

Man is at the same time a king to rule his tongue and a slave to suffer from its abuse. The school of life deals with a double danger the arrogant assumptions of self and the oppositions experienced from without. The first is illustrated in the control of the nervous horse held in with bit and bridle; the other means the steadfastness of the ship that no tempest can turn from its course. The helmsman’s duty on the tongue is no easy calling. It requires strength to hold the bits. The small rudder firmly held gives the promise of safety to the ship.

V. OUR WORDS SHALL CONFRONT US AT THE JUDGMENT.

We often unwittingly send them on before us, as though they were sand to be blown into the eyes of others, forgetting that they shall blind or bless ourselves. It is serious business to write a book like the “Pilgrim’s Progress,” or its opposite, “The Age of Reason.” It is serious business to declare in speech even the gospel of Christ. It is no meaningless service to expound the Bible in the Sabbath school. It is no less serious when every word of father and mother makes its impression upon the children’s lives, to see that such words are rightly spoken. (Monday Club Sermons.)

When you were a child, or maybe even when you were older, did you ever toss a pebble into the water and watch the ripples that emanated from the point where it broke the surface? Or watched the effect of raindrops falling on a body of water? I have done these things and have since found myself pondering on this process, and just how much it can be compared to our lives.

The pebble splashes in the water and affects the surface surrounding it. A circular ripple spreads outwards and in turn produces another and another and so on. Have you noticed also, that just how far this effect travels is dependant on the magnitude of the impact of that initial pebble? As you read this, take a moment to consider yourself as being that pebble.

You may make more of an impact on people’s lives than you think. When I say “people’s lives”, you can include your own. The impact you make in any territory, whether it be yours or that of others around you, helps to determine what I would describe here as: circles of destiny.

You may perhaps have seen a photograph portraying the ability of flash photography to capture movement and freeze it in time. I am thinking particularly about a photography that shows something being dropped into a pool of milk. That initial impact of the object being dropped causes a “crown” to form as the milk splashes upward with a ridge having milky “jewels” suspended above it. As that “ridge” falls back to the surface, the radiating circles begin to commence their motion. This is the more dominant radiating force, but in the meantime, the milky jewels also land back upon the surface with each of those giving birth to their radiating existence. Such results commence a dance with multiple circles of destiny.

Logically, before you were conceived in the womb, you had no effect on anyone or anything upon this earth. From the moment you were conceived however, your very existence began to cause an impact not just on other people, but on life and human development too as interaction, cause, and effect, began. During such early years, you of course, had little if any control on such interactions and reactions of those to your existence. You might have protested with the odd kick or two, but that was about your lot until you were born.

As the years passed and you grew to the point where you could readily communicate with those around you, your impact on society took a more earnest stride, but let us leap forward to another time…now.

How do you feel about the impact you have on the lives of others from day to day? Do you recognize that impact? Are you happy with the impact or effect you have on others? There are those amongst us who would like to be considered as more significant and yet others who would rather not be in the limelight and just quietly live out their lives. The odd thing is, that even by quietly living out your life behind the scenes as it were, you still have an impact on those who know or who are aware of you. There is no getting away from it - we are all at the centre of our own ripple effect. How much of an effect we have though, is dependent on two factors: force and resistance.

If I were to drop a “Water Boatman” insect on the surface of a pool, it would happily scoot around on the surface and not sink once! If I jumped onto the surface of the same pool, I would do very little scooting around unless it was on the bottom of the pool! My impact on the poor Water Boatman would be pretty severe!

At the point of impact, there is always resistance - a result of surface tension. It gives way dependent on the force exerted. How much impact you have on the life of another is dependent entirely on your approach i.e. how much weight you put behind it, how much insistence; how much determination.

People do not always want help. They do not always want to feel of the impact you may provide, no matter how good or well intended it might be. The trouble is that once you have launched yourself in this way, you cannot retract it. Like it or not an impact will occur, all that you can do is attempt to lessen it. So how do you go about lessening the impact you are making on someone’s life? There you are, already launched. How are you going to restrain the impact?

I recall watching a film a while ago, in which some overeager person hit a missile launch button. The missile was enroute to target when it was realized that it was a mistake! What’s the more, the self-destruct button failed to initialise the onboard sequence. They had two choices left open to them - evacuate or use another missile to destroy the first that was launched manually from an aircraft.

So what are your options if your “missile” has been launched and you want to avoid the impact or at least lessen it? They are as follows:

1. Send an auto-destruct sequence - can you say or do something that will stop the “missile” in its tracks and thus prevent any impact?

2. Manually destroy the “missile” -Can you say or do anything that will cause any previous situation to be totally dissipated or deflected out of harms way?

3. Lesson the impact - What can you say or do that although will not prevent the impact, so that it will cause the least amount of damage possible?

4. Evacuate the area of impact - Can you move the target so that although they are aware and damage may be done, lives are salvaged?

Personal impact is not all bad though. Notice how the ripple of impact in fluid (and even in some examples of solid impact), does not change the matter itself but simply the form the matter takes and the direction it takes. Ripples in liquid, form circular ridges flowing outward, in line with the strength of impact. In people’s lives, we often cause ripples that do not change the character themselves necessarily, but do affect their direction and strength. An important factor to understand here is that such affects may be for good or bad. We all need to offload our cares and trials from time to time, and when we do this, it makes us feel good. We feel so much lighter for doing so. Our problem or concerns may not be solved, but somehow we just feel better for doing so. It is good to have friends who can share our burdens. It is important though to remember that our friends too will have their own concerns. What’s more your problems will be a concern to them simply because they are your friends! Oh dear! Does this mean that we should not really be burdening our friends with issues in our lives? No not all. What it means is that we all need buffer zones. We, if you like, make ourselves targets for points of impact for each other.

Impact upon the lives of others exists as natural fact. How we deal with the impacts when they occur is softened by the simple task of listening to each other. Being the listening ear - providing the shoulder can sometimes be all that is required. You may not be a “professional” in dealing with the problems of others, but one thing you can be - one thing that really lessens the impact of less thinking people upon people you know - you can be their friend - their true friend. Your impact then really does change people’s lives. It changes them for the better. Go and be a friend, play a part in their “circles of destiny”.

About the Author
Doug Harvey,
doug.harvey@lifesight.net
http://www.lifesight.net
Northampton, United Kingdom.

As a Professional Life Coach, Doug changes peoples lives by helping them discover self-worth and clearing away the fog of life that sometimes restricts their view. Doug particularly helps those who have reached a stage of uncertainty in their lives and need to take control. To download two FREE chapters from his latest ebook, “Take Control Of Your Life”, click here:-> http://www.lifesight.net