The Modesty Writers Guild

“When it comes to life the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude.” G. K. Chesterton quotes i had the chance to go to walter reed hospital yesterday, a military hospital that specializes in soldier rehabilitation. its attention to detail was obvious, but it is what one would expect seeing as it was occupied by soldiers. smiling faces enveloped the first wheelchair as it rolled past, an anomaly i assumed. but after awhile i noticed that it was more of a pattern that took me awhile to grow accustomed to. when we walked into the first room i didn’t know what to expect, i thought i was going to see a soldier laying on his back staring at the wall, daydreaming of some desert scenario where he twists and turns his way into a different outcome. but i found no hidden regrets in the three hours that we were there. the first guy ‘chris’ was surrounded by friends and family, with hundreds of cards posted over the place like wallpaper. he had a grin on ...

i have read several business books throughout the years, for college, in college, and beyond. it is so funny how focused we are on obtaining ‘it’ ($) but have you ever stepped back to figure out why we as a people want it. being ‘rich’ to me is far more than obtaining wealth, for me there are things equivalent or even greater than simply having financial freedom. what about health, happiness, joy, relationships, adventure. etc. possessions are the great salve . they cover, but they are not responsible for the healing. it seems we have been trained by handsome women and pretty women in the advertising that everyone seems happier when they are holding a bottle of _________. so year after year we begin to accumulate, and after awhile they have bought themselves into poverty with their hurt and pain still following them every turn they make. i think this is why there are so many men and women who have quarter/mid life crisis, and changing of jobs, and spouses. they are hurting childr...

'if you would attain to what you are not yet, you must always be displeased by what you are. for where you are pleased with yourself there you have remained. keep adding, keep walking, keep advancing.' ~saint augustine

i sat in church a few weeks back. it was a really archetectually asthetic structure, with wood beams, sterling silver, and large windows. honestly it felt more like a loft than a church. i wanted to live in it, not practice my faith there. as the service went on i noticed something so very peculiar. basically everyone that went to church there looked like they were from silver lake, california or williamsburg, nyc... basically 'hipsters'. not that i have anything against that at all, but upon further observation i saw that there was not one old person in the building, then i realized that there was not even one older person there, then i realized that there was not one person over 40 years old! in the book 'lord of the flies' a group of boys get stranded on an island and end up having to fend for themselves, before long one by one a group of the boys began to kill the other. it is a fascinating read, and short, and is one of my favorite books because it shows the shear...

“When you do nothing, you feel overwhelmed and powerless. But when you get involved, you feel the sense of hope and accomplishment that comes from knowing you are working to make things better.” -anonymous

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check out this weeks modesty blog on relevant magazine's website click here to check out 'your iron rusts' here -stephen *or just go to: http://www.relevantmagazine.com/community/blogs/YOUR-IRON-RUSTS.html

before the sudden burst of technological advancements mankind had to communicate using old fashion methods of 'talking face to face' & interpreting the body language presented which are both now as we know a barbaric and primitive form of interpersonal communication. now that we have deemed it obsolete we have to issue a new set of rules that go along with our newly formed communicational evolution. it seems to me you can NOT take the ‘old outdated ways of communication’ and apply it to the new way of computerized advancement. for instance: my brother was giving me his honest opinion in an email of something i created. even though it was a negative opinion i appreciated it because i would much rather brutal honesty then yes men. because i didn’t email him back right away, because i was working on something else, he took lack of response as a sign that i was upset or mad. tsk tsk paul for thinking that we live in the barbaric days where if i was silent after you said someth...

this is not your momma's facebook quiz, this is a test that most employers give to potential employees to see their value and potential hardships in the workplace. this quiz, for me, was rather right on. go to: http://www.keirsey.com/ 'then click the keirsey temperament sorter-II' on the right hand side of the page. go through the motions (make sure you don't click the box to receive emails). take the test and lets talk about your results in the comments! my test was about 95% dead on! -stephen i got: IDEALIST Idealists, as a temperament, are passionately concerned with personal growth and development. Idealists strive to discover who they are and how they can become their best possible self -- always this quest for self-knowledge and self-improvement drives their imagination. And they want to help others make the journey. Idealists are naturally drawn to working with people, and whether in education or counseling, in social services or personnel work, in journalism or ...

this week Kentucky Fried Chicken is giving away free meals with the coupon you can find here: www.unthinkfc.com you can help feed the homeless in your community by printing this free coupon out (good for a whole meal!) and distributing it to anyone you see that looks like they need a free meal. be a blessing to those less fortunate. AND giving away a free meal opens up a door to some great conversations and starting friendships! -stephen

modesty readers! this will take you less than five minutes to do but can make a HUGE difference in the fight against human trafficking. the senate foreign relations committee is on the brink of making a huge decision. we need to make as much noise as we can, letting the committee know that Human Trafficking needs to be stopped, and they need to make the issue a priority. please contact the state department and ask them to confirm Lou de Baca as mbassador at large to monitor and combat human trafficking at the state department. having a person in place to oversee trafficking could make a massive difference in getting laws passed, people protected, and justice served for people who have been trafficked. senator john kerry is the head of the senate foreign relations committee Phone 202-224-4651 is the majority office phone number. http://kerry.senate.gov/contact/office.cfm senator richard lugar is the minority leader of the committee. phone 202-224-6797 is the Minority office phone nu...

‘the most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. it is the source of all true art and all science. he to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: (their) eyes are closed.’ -albert einstein author vladimir nabokov will best be know for his novels ‘pale fire’ and ‘lolita’, but even deeper than the initial respect for his writings and word craft is the interest in the way he loved to place a deeper level hidden inside his body of works. this russian born writer was obsessed with codes and ciphers and was known to put acrostics, number games, and even anagrams hidden in almost all his writings. when questioned why he put so many hidden meanings and messages that both puzzled and lured many readers he responded by exclaiming that (paraphrased) ‘‘the thrill of discovery was one of the miraculous things that life had to offer.’ i am on the constant search of wonder, i feel in a way that technology and the inter...

instead of giving you my list of what i'm listening to right now i will just keep updating my blip. hope you have as much fun listening as i did putting it together. -stephen

chess is one of those games that i have always desired to be better at but never am. i love anything strategy and feel as a whole chess provokes much more thought (and anxiety) than checkers or a video game. i believe i enjoy the board game for many reasons. the history alone dates back hundreds of years and still it is a prevalent game in some circles currently. i am partial to the fact that it has an almost ‘outcast’ stigma attached. as in if you were in the chess club as opposed to the football team you were considered on the lower echelon of the socially excepted. yet most chess players usually hire the football players years down the road, funny how life works out as so. however, i think my favorite reason for appreciating the game is that in chess one of the keys to victory (or check mate) is to always think 2-3 moves ahead. at least that’s the goal. you begin to place your pieces in strategic settings and hope that you will find an opening or an advantage in the game. it doesn’t...

it was trampled, mangled, dirty, and you could even see footprints from size 6 shoes but it didn’t have any words on it so i claimed it as my own. pure gold, that’s what it was worth to any 5th grader in our class. all the boys were going, or the ones that were in the know. my new found treasure was a bi fold invitation that had been torn in half, but there was no name on it now, so technically it could have been mine.; perhaps at one time it was in an envelope with my first and last name on it, but was dropped, taken out of its envelope, misplaced, ripped, and winded up just feet from my desk as if it was fate that we should end up in each others hands. it wasn’t mine. and the person who was giving them out made sure to tell me that i wasn’t invited, i know this because i showed it to the others in the class and they relayed the information to its rightful owner, a neglectful caretaker of precious goods. the birthday party was going to be the next weekend, and all week i had hyped t...

while reading a great book from a (new, yet) dear friend called ‘simple spirituality’* i stumbled across some interesting quotes by various authors but one stood out a little more than most. the lesson was by a man named henri j.m. nouwen a dutch born, catholic priest who authored more than 40 books on spirituality. in his writings henri said that there are three lies that one needs to overcome in this world for a full life. 1. i am what i have. i have done many blogs on possessions and the attempt to collect and hoard wealth because, well that seems to be the new american dream. no longer is it the pursuit of happiness, but the pursuit of store bought happiness. samuel kamalaleson, vice president of world vision said that if ‘we are unable to give something away, then we do not possess it, rather it possesses us. this struck me rather hard as i began to think/name off all the inanimate objects that i doubt i could part with. my car, my guitar, being a simple start but still convictin...