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John really valued time spent
with friends and family so this month, in honor of his
birthday, we challenge you to spend quality time with
your own friends and family. Think of ways you can
pay it forward to them and then do! Feel free to
share your quality time experiences with us for
inclusion on this special birthday tribute page by
emailing us at admin@payitforwardinmemoryofjohndye.net.
We also have a few ideas you can consider and some
quotes for inspiration.
Happy birthday, John! Thanks for helping to teach
us to value our time with those we love!
Your Quality Time
Reflections
We hope you take some time this month
(and beyond!) to show your friends and
family that you care about them and
appreciate having them in your life.
That may mean spending a little extra time
with them, calling them up, dropping a
card in the mail, or reaching out in other
ways. In addition, if you enjoyed
quality time with family and/or friends in
the past in ways that you found
particularly meaningful, feel free to
share that, too.
Whatever you do or did, we'd love to
share it here in hopes of inspiring
others to search out their own
quality time!
As this is a site available to anyone and
everyone, please do take care to avoid
using identifiable details when sharing
about your quality time with friends and
family.
From Susan:
I have been making an
effort to spend more
time on a regular
basis with my elderly
aunt and uncle.
They are somewhat
isolated and dealing
with lots of issues,
so I make it a point
to go over to their
house once a week for
breakfast. My
two cousins (their
daughter and son),
also make an effort to
be there, too.
It's a "standing date"
every Wednesday
morning, which is
nice, because it's
something they can
count on and look
forward to on a weekly
basis. I spend a
couple of hours there
before going to work,
and it's really great
because we talk and
laugh a lot,
especially when we
reminisce about my
grandparents and my
uncles who passed on a
long time ago.
We have such a great
time, that we forget
about our problems,
for a little
while. I'm
really glad that I
live nearby. And
since they are in the
late 80's and not in
great health, I make
the effort to spend
time with them while I
still have them here.
From
Jenni:
It was sometime
in late 2011
and, feeling
nostalgic, I
re-read a
transcript of an
interview that
John had done on
The View,
I think.
In it he spoke
about how he
tried to keep in
regular contact
with his
grandparents.
While my
family's pretty
close-knit and
gets together
for all of the
major holidays
and then some,
I've never been
much of a phone
talker.
But something
about reading
that made me
think that I
really needed to
call my Grandma
M. more.
So I started
phoning her
every so often
during my lunch
breaks. I
treasure those
phone calls now
because my
Grandma passed
away in March
2012. I am
so grateful that
John said what
he did because,
as a result, I
have those
memories.
A little
footnote: My
Grandma would
call each of her
kids and
grandkids every
year on their
birthday.
One year I was
out and she had
to leave a
message.
Thankfully, I
never erased the
message. I
have it saved
now and when my
birthday rolls
around, I can
hear my Grandma
wishing me a
happy
birthday.
Something to
think
about.
Live
conversations
are always the
best but you
never know the
impact of a
recorded message
you might leave
for a loved
one.
From
Cindy:
As I mulled
over the idea
of Quality
Time for
John’s
birthday I was
also
consciously
mulling over
*where* I had
been spending
my quality
time for the
past few
years. We know
through
available
articles and
interviews
that John
loved to spend
time with
people in a
variety of
ways-including
inviting
people to his
home. I’ve
always enjoyed
spending time
with others,
but in the
past few years
it’s often
been outside
my home at
someone else’s
house or
through a
trip, retreat
or place such
as a
restaurant or
park. Of
course, I’m
still planning
those things
but this year
I’m making a
conscious
effort to plan
more together
times at my
house as well.
I had started
thinking about
all of this
back in the
fall. I began
doing this
during the
holidays.
I hosted a
craft night
(spur of the
moment when
the venue
where we had
planned to do
this had to
cancel) then
the Christmas
Eve family
get-together.
I’ve
also started
keeping my
niece and
nephew at my
house again-I
used to do
that when they
lived across
the street-but
once they got
into their
dream home, it
was ‘come to
our house!’
(Now the
‘newness’ is
wearing
off
*wink* and
they are
wanting to
come spend
time here
again.)
My ‘adopted’
niece has
asked if she
can stay with
me this summer
as she works
on her
graduate
degree. I live
closer to the
campus than
she does so it
would give her
more study
time and less
travel time.
I’m glad to be
able to do
this for her.
I live out,
and only local
friends,
neighbors and
family ‘drop
by’ so it is
something I
actually do
have to plan
out. I
definitely
need to host
more craft
times and
church family
gatherings
this
year. I
also will plan
more often to
invite friends
to my house
'just
because'. I’m
looking
forward to
that!
Below are some
graphics you can use to extend your love and appreciation
to friends and family via Facebook, email, or however you
keep in touch online. You might also consider
inscribing one or two quotes on a snail mail card or just
looking them over for inspiration.
"Friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain. It’s
not something you learn in school. But if you haven’t learnt
the meaning of friendship, you really haven’t learned anything."
~~Muhammad Ali
"God asks that you let Him be a member
of this family. Invite Him to sit at the head of your table,
to bless the work of your hands and to let your work be a
blessing to everyone." ~~Monica, Quality Time, Touched
by an Angel
"Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all
people, especially to those who belong to the family of
believers." ~~Galatians 6:10
"Friendship is a sheltering tree."
~~Samuel Taylor Coleridge
"Friendship is a cadence of divine
melody melting through the heart." ~~Charles Mildway
"In friendship we find nothing false or insincere;
everything is straight forward, and springs from the heart."
~~Cicero
"Put your family in the hands of God." ~~Andrew, Flights
of Angels, Touched by an Angel
"Other
things may change us, but we start and end with the family.”
~~Anthony Brandt
"A
happy family is but an earlier heaven." ~~George Bernard Shaw
"Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a
family; whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one."
~~Jane Howard
“Cherish your friends, stay true to your
principles, live passionately and fully and well. Experience
new things. Love and be loved, if you ever get the
chance." ~~David Nicholls
"We cannot tell the precise moment when
friendship formed. As in filling a vessel drop by drop, there
is at last a drop which makes it run over; so in a series of
kindness there is at last one which makes the heart run over."
~~Samuel Johnson
"That's what being a family is all about:
believing in each other in the best of times and in the worst
of times and knowing that God will always help you through if
you just open up your hands and reach out to Him." ~~Monica,
Heaven's Portal, Touched by an Angel
"A friend is someone who knows all about
you and still loves you." ~~Elbert Hubbard
“Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn
back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I
will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.
17 Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May
the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death
separates you and me.” ~~Ruth 1, 16-17
"Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to
another: ‘What? You too? I thought I was the only one." ~~C.S.
Lewis
“A new command I give you: Love one
another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another."
~~John 13:34
"All the success in the world
will not make you happy if you don't have your family to share
it with." ~~Tess, The Impossible Dream, Touched by an Angel
“That's what people do who
love you. They put their arms around you and love
you when you're not so lovable.” ~~Deb Caletti
“I sustain myself with the love of family.” ~~Maya
Angelou
“When I walk, I walk with you.
Where I go, you're with me always.” ~~Alice
Hoffman
“I'll
love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
As long as I'm living,
my baby you'll be.”
~~ Robert N. Munsch, Love You Forever
"It's good to have family around." ~~Andrew, The Root of All
Evil, Touched by an Angel
“Let us make one point, that we meet each
other with a smile, when it is difficult to smile. Smile at
each other, make time for each other in your family.” ~~Mother
Teresa
"Home is the nicest
word there is." ~~Laura Ingalls Wilder
“A mother’s love for her child is like nothing
else in the world. It knows no aw, no pity, it dares all things
and crushes down remorselessly all that stands in its path."
~~Agatha Christie
“When you look at your life, the greatest
happinesses are family happinesses.” ~~Joyce Brothers
“Rejoice with your family in the beautiful
land of life!” ~~Albert Einstein
"It's not about having a lot of friends,
it's about being a good friend to the ones you've got."
~~Tess, What Are Friends For?,
Touched by an Angel
“We must take
care of our families wherever we find them.” ~~Elizabeth Gilbert
“Sticking with your family is what makes
it a family.” ~~Mitch Albom, For One More Day
“I may not always be with you
But when we're far apart
Remember you will be with me
Right inside my heart”
~~ Marc Wambolt, Poems from the Heart
"Friends are worth fighting for."
~~Andrew, Only Connect, Touched by an
Angel
“Don't
walk behind me; I may not lead. Don't
walk in front of me; I may not follow.
Just walk beside me and be my friend.”
~~Albert
Camus
"Be devoted to one
another in brotherly love; give
preference to one another in honor;
not lagging behind in diligence,
fervent in spirit, serving the Lord,
rejoicing in hope, persevering in
tribulation, devoted to prayer,
contributing to the needs of the
saints, practicing hospitality."
~~Romans 12:10-13
"If I speak in
the tongues of men or of angels,
but do not have love, I am only a
resounding gong or a clanging
cymbal. If I have the gift
of prophecy and can fathom all
mysteries and all knowledge, and
if I have a faith that can move
mountains, but do not have love, I
am nothing. If I give all I
possess to the poor and give over
my body to hardship that I may
boast, but do not have love, I
gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It
does not envy, it does not boast,
it is not proud. It does not
dishonor others, it is not
self-seeking, it is not easily
angered, it keeps no record of
wrongs. Love does not
delight in evil but rejoices with
the truth. It always
protects, always trusts, always
hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails. But where there
are prophecies, they will cease;
where there are tongues, they will
be stilled; where there is
knowledge, it will pass
away. For we know in part
and we prophesy in part, but when
completeness comes, what is in
part disappears. When I was
a child, I talked like a child, I
thought like a child, I reasoned
like a child. When I became a man,
I put the ways of childhood behind
me. For now we see only a
reflection as in a mirror; then we
shall see face to face. Now I know
in part; then I shall know fully,
even as I am fully known.
And now these three remain: faith,
hope and love. But the greatest of
these is love."
~~1 Corinthians 13
"If I had a
flower for every time I thought
of you...I could walk through my
garden forever.” ~~Alfred,
Lord Tennyson
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