Month: May 2013

For the Love of Animals

For the last 2 days, the “gym movie” has been the same at my local gym. War Horse was the movie and though I was listening to my tunes on my iPhone, I still got a good deal out of the movie… or the part that I watched.

War Horse was set in WWI with the battle between the British and the Germans. One moment that hit home was the scene where the horse became tangled in barbed wire. There was a British soldier that put a white flag on his bayonet and went to the rescue of the horse. When he reached the horse, he realized he didn’t have any wire cutters with him and the horse was pretty tangled. A German solder then came out of his foxhole and offered his wire cutters.
I thought it was so remarkable that 2 people, fighting against each other with such verbosity could come together when an animal was in trouble. This led me to think about some friends I have today and their hard work in the name of animals and how much tireless energy they put in for animal “no kill” shelters. I find it so interesting how much energy gets put into keeping puppies and kittens from being sacrificed but yet when it comes to human a baby that does not seem to be the case. What would these people who love animals so dearly think if they knew that baby kittens or puppies were being.  The news is littered with human examples of indifference… if this were a cute and cuddly animal… who would be outraged then?

Care Givers and Mother’s Day

What a awesome Mother’s day was celebrated in the Clifford Household. I have an amazing mom, and 2 wonderful moms of my kids. I’m truly blessed in that regard.

In church on Sunday, Becky was asked to give a talk on mother’s day of all things. Her message was very powerful and left a mark with me. She talked about the role of moms and while I was listening to her speak, I thought about all the motherly characterizes that moms have… follow me here. There are plenty of women in the world, who do not have kids of their own, but who posses the same motherly characteristic of that of moms. Think about the women who are caregivers…take care of their elderly parents or serve in some other capacity. This day is for them also. I can’t help but be reminded of all those great people also. I know many people who are like that and who have the same love that my mom had. THANK YOU for taking car of people and giving back. THAT’S HUGE!

Do Your Personal Best!

Watching your kids perform is just such a blessing. Having your kids teach you a life lesson, even better. This weekend I had the opportunity to watch Tommy run in a track meet at Little Chute High School. I was just stunned by the turnout…hundreds of kids at the meet. Waiting for Tommy’s race was hard, as I don’t “wait” well. The time for his race was upon us, I was taking pix as fast as I could. I didn’t even want to take a set in the grandstand for fear I would miss the action, so here I was right up against the chain link fence near the starters blocks.

The gun went off and there they went. Tommy was one of 9 runners in the 800-meter race. I could see early that he wasn’t the fastest. I could see he wasn’t the slowest either. After the race, I could see he was excited. He ran other to me and told me that his time of 3:01 was his personal best… and he was so ecstatic.

Tommy loves to run and any chance he gets he is out running, but I learned an important lesson that day. It’s not about winning or losing against the crowd, it’s about beating your personal best and he did that on Saturday. And for that I could not be prouder!

Just be Nice, It Gets You More

TommyLog – Just be Nice, It Gets You More

Hey Kids, Welcome to Atlanta. I’m visiting Uncle Andy and participating in the 2013 Graphic Users Association meeting here in Hot-lanta. Actually the weather is super nice and I’m enjoying it all. Had a few experiences that I want to share. First, the battery on my iPhone 5 was giving me troubles. After the latest IOS update, the battery life seemed to be a lot less than before. I went to the apple store and met this nicest gal names Lana. She took the best care of us. One thing to know, few smiles and a thank you or 2 really gets you far. She ended up replacing my iPhone with a brand new one..and I wasn’t even expecting that.

Secondly we met the social media coordinator for the Gwinnett  Braves AAA baseball organization. She was so nice and gave us the BEST seats for last nights game.We talked social media and even met the general manager. So much fun had by all… and mostly al this was possible because we were nice.

Sometimes nice people finish first!