Answers called out ranged from 8oz. To 20oz.

The lecturer replied, "The absolute weight doesn't matter. It depends on how long you try to hold it."

"If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my right arm.

If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance."

"In each case it's the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes."

He continued, "And that's the way it is with stress management. If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the burden becomes increasingly heavy, we won't be able to carry on."

"As with the glass of water, you have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again. When we're refreshed, we can carry on with the burden. "

"So, before you return home tonight, put the burden of work/life down. Don't carry it home. You can pick it up tomorrow."

"Whatever burdens you're carrying now, let them down for a moment if you can. Relax; pick them up later after you've rested.

And then he shared some ways of dealing with the burdens of life:

• Accept that some days you're the pigeon, and some days you're the statue
• Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them.
• Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.
• Drive carefully. It's not only cars that can be recalled by their Maker.
• If you can't be kind, at least have the decency to be vague.
• If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.
• It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others.
• Never buy a car you can't push.
• Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time, because then you won't have a leg to stand on.
• Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance.
• Since it's the early worm that gets eaten by the bird, sleep late.
• The second mouse gets the cheese.
• When everything's coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.
• Birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.
• You may be only one person in the world, but you may also be the world to one person.
• Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once.
• We could learn a lot from crayons. Some are sharp, some are pretty and some are dull. Some have weird names and all are different colors, but they all have to live in the same box.
• A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour.

• Take a 10-30 minute walk every day. And while you walk, smile. It is the ultimate anti-depressant.
• Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day.
• Buy a DVR and tape your late night shows and get more sleep.
• When you wake up in the morning complete the following statement, 'My purpose is to __________ today.
• Live with the 3 E's -- Energy, Enthusiasm, and Empathy.
• Play more games and read more books than you did in 2007.
• Make time to practice meditation and prayer. They provide us with daily fuel for our busy lives.
• Spend time with people over the age of 70 and under the age of 6.
• Dream more while you are awake.
• Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured in plants.
• Drink green tea and plenty of water. Eat blueberries, wild Alaskan salmon, broccoli, almonds & walnuts.
• Try to make at least three people smile each day.
• Clear clutter from your house, your car, your desk and let new and flowing energy into your life.
• Don't waste your precious energy on gossip, OR issues of the past, negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment.
• Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn. Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime.
• Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a college kid with a maxed out charge card.
• Smile and laugh more. It will keep the NEGATIVE BLUES away.
•  Life isn't fair, but it's still good.
• Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
• Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
• You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
• Make peace with your past so it won't spoil the present.
• Don't compare your life to others'. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
• No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
• Frame every so-called disaster with these words: 'In five years, will this matter?'
• Forgive everyone for everything.
• What other people think of you is none of your business.
• However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
• Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.
• Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.
• Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
• Always believe the best is yet to come.
• No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
• Do the right thing!
• Call your family often. (Or email them to death!!!)
• Each night before you go to bed complete the following statements: I am thankful for __________. Today I accomplished _________.
• Remember that you are too blessed to be stressed.
• Enjoy the ride. Remember this is not Disney World and you certainly don't want a fast pass.  You only have one ride through life so make the most of it and enjoy the ride.

• You can't just sit there and wait for people to give you that golden dream. You've got to get out there and make it happen for yourself. Diana Ross
• If you want to gather honey, don't kick over the beehive, Dale Carnegie
• Champions know that success is inevitable, that there is no such thing as failure, only feedback. They know that the best way to forecast the future is to create it. Michael J Gelb
• Never let your failures go to your heart or your successes go to your head. Anon
• The biggest mistake is to believe that you're working for someone else. Nashua Cavalier
• You are your own yardstick. You may never be the champion, but if you measure up to your best you are the best. Anon
• The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for out wits to grow sharper. Eden Philpotts
• Accomplishment is easiest when we work the hardest, and hardest when we work the easiest. Anon
• Whenever we do what we can we can immediately do more. James Freeman Clarke
• There are very few things we can achieve without someone's help. Anon
• Success is never ending, failure is never final. Dr. Robert Schuller
• One of the secrets of success is to refuse to let temporary setbacks defeat us. Mary Kay
• A wise man, when asked how he had learnt so much about everything, replied, "By never being afraid to ask questions about anything of which I was ignorant." John Abbott
• Like a ten-speed bike, most of us have gears we do not use. Charles Schultz
• He that is good at making excuses is seldom good at anything else. Benjamin Franklin

• Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully.
• Marry a man/woman you love to talk to. As you get older, their conversational skills will be as important as any other.
• Don't believe all you hear, spend all you have or sleep all you want.
• When you say, "I love you," mean it.
• When you say, "I'm sorry," look the person in the eye.
• Be engaged at least six months before you get married.
• Believe in love at first sight.
• Never laugh at anyone's dream. People who don't have dreams don't have much.
• Love deeply and passionately. You might get hurt but it's the only way to live life completely.
• In disagreements, fight fairly. No name calling.
• Don't judge people by their relatives.
• Talk slowly but think quickly.
• When someone asks you a question you don't want to answer, smile and ask, "why do you want to know?"
• Remember that great love and great achievements involve great risk..
• Say "bless you" when you hear someone sneeze.
• When you lose, don't lose the lesson
• Remember the three R's: respect for self; respect for others; and responsibility for all your actions.
• Don't let a little dispute injure a great friendship.
• When you realize you've made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
• Smile when picking up the phone. The caller will hear it in your voice.
• Spend some time alone.

September of 2005, a social studies school teacher from Arkansas did something not to be forgotten. On the first day of school, with permission of the school superintendent, the principal, and the building supervisor, she took all of the desks out of the classroom.

The kids came into first period, they walked in; there were no desks.

They obviously looked around and said, "Where's our desks?"

The teacher said, "You can't have a desk until you tell me how you earn them."

They thought, "Well, maybe it's our grades."

"No," she said.

"Maybe it's our behavior."

And she told them, "No, it's not even your behavior."

And so they came and went in the first period, still no desks in the classroom. Second period, same thing. Third period. By early afternoon television news crews had gathered in the class to find out about this crazy teacher who had taken all the desks out of the classroom. The last period of the day, the instructor gathered her class.

They were by this time sitting on the floor around the sides of the room.

She said, "Throughout the day no one has really understood how you earn the desks that sit in this classroom. Now I'm going to tell you."

She went over to the door of her classroom and opened it, and as she did 27 U.S. veterans, wearing their uniforms, walked into that classroom, each one carrying a school desk. And they placed those school desks in rows, and then they stood along the wall. By the time they had finished placing the desks those kids, for the first time I think perhaps in their lives, understood how they earned those desks.

Their teacher said, "You don't have to earn those desks. These guys did it for you. They put them out there for you, but it's up to you to sit here responsibly, to learn, to be good students and good citizens, because they paid a price for you to have that desk, and don't ever forget it."

A few weeks ago, I was shuffling toward the garage with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and the morning paper in the other. What began as a typical Saturday morning turned into one of those lessons that life seems to hand you from time to time. Let me tell you about it:

I turned the dial up into the phone portion of the band on my ham radio in order to listen to a Saturday morning swap net. Along the way, I came across an older sounding chap, with a tremendous signal and a golden voice. You know the kind; he sounded like he should be in the broadcasting business. He was telling whom-ever he was talking with something about "a

thousand marbles." I was intrigued and stopped to listen to what he had to say.

"Well, Tom, it sure sounds like you're busy with your job. I'm sure they pay you well but it's a shame you have to be away from home and your family so much. Hard to believe a young fellow should have to work sixty or seventy hours a week to make ends meet. It's too bad you missed your daughter's "dance recital" he continued. "Let me tell you something that has helped me keep my own priorities." And that's when he began to explain his theory of a "thousand marbles."

"You see, I sat down one day and did a little arithmetic. The average person lives about seventy-five years. I know, some live more and some live less, but on average, folks live about seventy-five years.

"Now then, I multiplied 75 times 52 and I came up with 3900, which is the number of Saturdays that the average person has in their entire lifetime. Now, stick with me, Tom, I'm getting to the important part.

It took me until I was fifty-five years old to think about all this in any detail", he went on, "and by that time I had lived through over twenty-eight hundred Saturdays." "I got to thinking that if I lived to be seventy-five, I only had about a thousand of them left to enjoy. So I went to a toy store and bought every single marble they had. I ended up having to visit three toy stores to round up 1000 marbles. I took them home and put them inside a large, clear plastic container right here in the shack next to my gear."

"Every Saturday since then, I have taken one marble out and thrown it away. I found that by watching the marbles diminish, I focused more on the really important things in life. There is nothing like watching your time here on this earth run out to help get your priorities straight."

"Now let me tell you one last thing before I sign-off with you and take my lovely wife out for breakfast. This morning, I took the very last marble out of the container. I figure that if I make it until next Saturday then I have been given a little extra time. And the one thing we can all use is a little more time."

"It was nice to meet you Tom, I hope you spend more time with your family, and I hope to meet you again here on the band. This is a 75 Year old Man, K9NZQ, clear and going QRT, good morning!"

You could have heard a pin drop on the band when this fellow signed off. I guess he gave us all a lot to think about. I had planned to work on the antenna that morning, and then I was going to meet up with a few hams to work on the next club newsletter..