Category Archives: Making the World a Better Place

The Song In My Heart

Posted on May 16, 2012 by russtowne

“A friend knows the song in my heart and sings it to me when my memory fails.” -Donna Roberts A buddy posted this quote on FB and I like it. Thought you might too.

Posted in Friendship, Healing, LIfe Lessons, Making the World a Better Place, Quotes I Love | Tagged buddy, Donna Roberts, Facebook, FB, Friend, heart, sings, song | Leave a comment

Abundance: Unconventional Education

Posted on May 16, 2012 by russtowne

A friend sent an article today that outlined a series of experiments regarding educating students the results of which I found most remarkable. I believe you will too. It was posted on DelanceyPlace.com. The article is dated 5/15/12. Here’s the … Continue reading →

Posted in Abundance, Creativity, Education, Growth/Learning, Making the World a Better Place, Vids & Stories That Touched Me | Tagged Abundance, computers, creative, Delanceyplace, Delanceyplace.com, education, India, Indian, Indian physicist Sugata Mitra, physicist, students, Sugata Mitra, teachers, unconventional, unconventional education | Leave a comment

Smile! You Are Great! You’re Amazing!

Posted on May 15, 2012 by russtowne

I just finished watching a video called “Validation”. It’s longer than a typical YouTube vid, but I found it interesting, fun, and ultimately heart-warming. I recommend taking the time to watch all of it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cbk980jV7Ao&feature=youtube_gdata_player http://tinyurl.com/2f8wavc

Posted in Fun Vids, Inspiring, LIfe Lessons, Making the World a Better Place, Praise, Vids & Stories That Touched Me | Tagged amazing, great, smile, validation, you are amazing, you are great | Leave a comment

I Believe

Posted on May 8, 2012 by russtowne

‘Any time not invested with love is wasted.’ I don’t know who originally coined that phrase but the older I get the more I believe it to be true. Life is short and getting shorter, so I’m focused on making … Continue reading →

Posted in Generosity, LIfe Lessons, Making the World a Better Place, Quotes I Love, Random Thoughts | Tagged action, adventure, enrich, focus, getting better, invest, invested, Life, Love, practice, quest, thought, time, word | 2 Comments

The Beach That Love Built

Posted on May 4, 2012 by russtowne

About six years ago our young teenage daughter was stricken with an “incurable” disease and nearly died. She spent about a month in the hospital, much of it intensive care fighting for her life. She had to deal with an … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Friendship, Generosity, Gratitude, Healing, Humor, Inspiring, LIfe Lessons, Making the World a Better Place, Parenting, True Stories I've Written | Tagged alive, beach, bonfire, chemotherapy, cried, cry, dark, darkness, daughter, disease, Dog, Friend, friends, hospital, ICU, incurable, intensive care, little dog, Love, night, party, sand, sand water, sign, steroids, sunset, the beach built by love, the beach that love built, Tiki torch, Tiki torches, well | 2 Comments

Terror and Kindness on Interstate 5

Posted on May 2, 2012 by russtowne

It was the middle of the night on one of those long and lonely stretches of Interstate 5 between distant small farming communities. My mom and her girlfriend were taking me and 4 of their other children to Disneyland. All … Continue reading →

Posted in Courage, Generosity, LIfe Lessons, Making the World a Better Place, Praise, True Stories I've Written | Tagged 18-wheeler, 18-wheelers, big beast, blaring, blaring horns, brains, bucking wildly, careened, Caring, children, dazed, Disneyland, eighteen-wheelers, eightenn-wheeler, end-over-end, facing the wrong way, families, Family, fast-motion, flat tires, flats, flipped, freeway, glaring lights, gyrating, headlights, headlights coming at us, help, horns, Interestate 5, kids, kind, kindness, mechanic, mom, Mother, mothers, never-ending, nightmare, on-coming lights, on-coming trucks, oncoming traffic, shockwave, shop, siblings, spinning, straddling both lanes, SUV, terror, Travel-All, trembling nerves, truck, trucker, trucks, wrong way on the freeway, zig-zag, zig-zagging | Leave a comment

Have I Ever Done That or Would I Do the Same?

Posted on May 2, 2012 by russtowne

“No man should judge unless he asks himself in absolute honesty whether in a similar situation he might not have done the same.” -Viktor Frankl, Holocaust survivor, author, neurologist and psychiatrist. (Seen in Wordsmith.org’s A.Word.A.Day by Anu Garg) I’d update … Continue reading →

Posted in Forgiveness, Generosity, Healing, LIfe Lessons, Making the World a Better Place, Parenting, Quotes I Love, Random Thoughts, Uncategorized | Tagged A.Word.A.Day, absolute honesty, Anger, Anu Garg, children, day they're having, drive, driving, empathy, forgive, good, good surprises, holocaust, Holocaust survivor, honesty, kids, Life, life they've led, mad, parent, parenting, self-empathy, traffic, Victor Frankl, wordsmith.org, wordsmith.org's | 1 Comment

How a Daunting Gauntlet Became a Fun Zone

Posted on May 2, 2012 by russtowne

Some years ago I was standing in a long, long line at a major theme park in southern California (yeah, the one with the ears). I was bored, hot, and tired. I stuck a hand in my pocket and noticed … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Humor, LIfe Lessons, Making the World a Better Place, Random Thoughts, True Stories I've Written, Uncategorized | Tagged child, children, coins, Disneyland, ears, excitedly exclaimed, exclaim, grinnd, joy, our little secret, parents, pocket change, rin, secret, shoe, shoes, smile, smiles, standing in line, whispered, wife, young children, youngster | Leave a comment

The Power of Love

Posted on May 1, 2012 by russtowne

I recently saw a vid that was called “The Power of Words”. It began by showing a grizzled old blind man sitting on a sidewalk on a busy city street with lots of pedestrians walking by. In front of him … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Generosity, Inspiring, LIfe Lessons, Making the World a Better Place, Vids & Stories That Touched Me | Tagged blind, blind man, cardboard sign, cut-out cardboard sign, hand-written, kindness, Love, power, sat, shoes, sidewalk, the power of love, The Power of Words, woman, words | Leave a comment

Courage

Posted on April 28, 2012 by russtowne

I just read an amazing and heart-warming story of four people–two men and two women; mostly strangers–they had to quickly trust each other at a critical and terrifying moment to save the life of someone they didn’t know. They took … Continue reading →