Life on Earth is filled with lessons, some lessons are more important than others but all lessons have value when we actually learn them.

That's the real problem. Some lessons have to present themselves in our lives over and over, and no matter how many times they come round again we still somehow miss the lesson behind the experience.

If you take a moment to look at your life I'm sure you will find at least one area where you seem to have developed a recurring pattern. Perhaps you tend to date the same sort of person over and over, or perhaps your relationship with a certain person keeps falling into a destructive pattern.

How many times will a man attempt to stick his hand inside of a nest of rattlers before he can expect to be bitten? Most of us would assume that once would do it for any rational person, and most of us do in fact see ourselves as rational people, but even when we find the same outcome over and over we remain committed to the methods we have used in the past.

As we find and examine more and more patterns in our lives we will often find that we have been responding in the same way to the situation each time it arises but we still find a way to believe that this time will be different.

The lessons that are presented to us in our daily lives are there to help us avoid running into the same old negative results, but when we fail to examine those events and find that lesson we can rest assured that the lesson will revisit us in as many forms as it takes to finally get the message across.

What lesson is life trying to teach you?

What are you worried about today? Are you worried about something that happened yesterday? What about something that might happen tomorrow?

Nobody really has a hard time finding something to worry about, looking around at the world today anyone can find worries in abundance.

There are plenty of choices when it comes to things to worry about, but maybe there are some things you haven't thought of, and that too can become a concern.

It wouldn't be so difficult if we could just worry about something and get it over with but worry is a never ending cycle. The more you give in to worry, the more you find to worry about. The more you focus on what is going wrong in life, the more wrong you will find.

I used to be a worrier, I worried about everything to the point of despair but strangely I never seemed to solve one of the problems I was worried about. When we worry, we often convince ourselves that we are doing something constructive about the problem at hand, but worry is destructive by nature.

Worry has never solved a single problem in the history of the world, nor has complaining. It has created plenty of problems, but never solved one. Complaining is usually just a more vocal form of worry, but neither one involved the crucial component required to end the problem - action.

A few years ago I developed a plan of sorts to deal with worry. It began with the serenity prayer.

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

When we worry, we must ask ourselves if the power to change the thing we are worried about is within our reach. If we can't change them, then we must move ourselves towards acceptance. We must admit that is is out of our control and worrying isn't going to change that.

What if there is something we can do? Then to relieve our worry we replace it with action. We get out of our own heads, out into the world and we work towards change.

When we learn to tell the difference between what we can and cannot change we actually free ourselves to a great extent.

Yes, there is no shortage of things to worry about in the world today. We can worry about the future of our job, the future of our home, the future of our children but worry will not change any of those things.

Only action has the power to change the world.

Haiti isn't far from anyone's minds right now no matter what you are doing it hovers right there at the back of your mind. It is just so senseless, it is hard to be reminded that sometimes life doesn't make sense... and death never does.

When something so incomprehensible happens I always loose faith in life just a little. I think all of us do, at least to some extent. It's hard to believe in the goodness in life when something so incredibly bad can happen without notice.

Then I see people so moved by the plight of a stranger that they offer help in whatever way they can, and my faith in life returns a little. Life feels a little more solid. When people find a place in their hearts for someone they have never, and probably will never meet, when for a moment they do not see the differences, they see the commonality, then life seems a little less senseless.

It always amazes me when something so beautiful can grow out of something so indescribably ugly. Nothing we can do can give the people of Haiti what they have lost. Behind all of the death tolls and damage estimates are real people. Countless numbers of real people, human beings just like us. Just like any of us.

As ugly as it is, tragedy teaches us that no matter who we call enemy, no matter who we call friend, deep down we are all human, and no matter who you are pain still hurts.

As ugly as life can sometimes be, that beauty is there too. We create that beauty when we look past ourselves and reach out to a stranger.

For each and every one of you that has done something to help the people of Haiti, I just wanted to take a moment to say thank you.

Thank You.