Donnette

Everyone knows that you have to keep all the humans in your family insured, but what about your furry little family members? What if Fido should develop some chronic illness, or the family kitty get in a scrape with a neighborhood tomcat and need medical attention?

It hasn't occurred to most people to get their pets insured. But for many of us, our animal family members are just as precious as our human ones.

Who Should Get Pet Insurance?

While animal vet visits are not such a big expense (not anywhere near doctor visits), an extended hospital stay or surgery due to an unforeseen accident can be very costly. Pet insurance is designed to cover accidents and injuries.

Most standard pet insurance covers dogs and cats. Companies don't mean to discriminate against all those bird, snake, mouse, gerbil, iguana and ferret owners out there; it's just that dogs and cats are the most common pets that need insurance. Some companies cover "exotic" animals as well, so whatever kind of pet you have, you can definitely find pet insurance somewhere.

Where Can I Get Pet Insurance?

Unlike human health insurance, you can often buy pet health insurance from your local veterinarian. Your vet keeps records about your particular pet's medical history, so the process of applying for insurance is simple.

Your vet is the one you know and trust, so it makes sense that they are probably the best choice for your pet's insurance. Still, read the policy's small print carefully. Plans vary widely, so make sure you're well-informed about the plan you decide on.

How Does It Work?

There are as many different plans as pets. While some plans cover only accidents, there are policies that cover both accidents and illnesses.

Pet health insurance plans are much cheaper than human plans. Usually, you can get premiums in the neighborhood of $20 a month or less. Some policies are under $10. Pet health insurance policies are usually designed to cover accidents, injuries and illnesses, so they usually carry a low premium and higher deductibles.

The deductibles depend entirely on your plan, and they vary widely. Compared to human health insurance, you will probably pay higher deductibles. But, remember that animal health care costs are less than humans, so it balances out.

What Factors Influence The Rate?

Your 14-year-old family pooch is going to carry higher premiums than the sprightly little kitten you just bought. Like human insurance, age makes a big difference on your pet's health risks. But, you may find that the difference is not as great between an older and a younger pet.

Most plans give you a discount if you insure more than one pet. So, if you have a whole jungle full of wild animals living at your house, you can carry them all under the same plan and save money.

Some pet health insurance policies cover grooming costs and obedience training for dogs, our most fawned over and babied furry friends. If you have a rare breed, or plan to enter your dog in a dog show, you might want to look for a policy like this. It will cost you more, but will be well worth it in the end.

Your family pets are important, and you want to make sure you are covered in case anything unfortunate happens. Pet health insurance is available from your local vet, and premiums are usually quite low.

You can also find more info on Health Insurance Coverage and cheap Health Insurance. Medicalhealthinsuranceguide.org is a comprehensive resource to get help about health insurance.

I woke up on my 59th birthday giving thanks for yet another day of life. I had never felt better or more alive. I no longer take my days for granted ever since I learnt that appreciating everything and every person sent to accompany me on my journey was a very satisfying way to live. Even more magical, the more I give thanks the more I seem to have to be grateful for.

I had a brief historical flashback of all the significant points in my journey which had brought me to being 59, especially all the achievements and pioneering activities I had done. I marveled at it all. I try not to dwell on past negativities because they do not resolve anything, neither do they help my future because they are already gone and I am still here; still able to change my actions if I wish, to reach for the skies and beyond. I thought of all the women like me, in their fifties or forties, who hate being older, who refuse to mention their age when asked, who physically dread the aging process, who spend their days not being grateful for life, but cursing their age, watching their wrinkles, and counting them grudgingly, getting even more lines as they watch; women who dread to see their face and bodies in the mirror.

My heart went out to them because a long time ago I used to be like that. Then I gradually learnt that dead people don't age! If I am aging, I must be ALIVE, thank goodness! I wished at that moment I could share some of the awesome self-love that I feel with them, the way I accept my age completely and do not even bother to think about it. In fact, I cannot wait to be 60 next year because I know I will look and feel exactly the same. And if I am still around, you will all be able to judge the result of that statement for yourselves.

I must be one of the few women, or perhaps even the only one in the world who keeps looking forward to each birthday, being completely unfazed by age. I think about my age only in relation to using it as an encouragement and inspiration to others. I know I do not care anymore about aging itself, and the strangest thing is that I am looking better with each birthday. I have switched the focus from getting older to how fabulous I can be as I age, and what an empowerment that is turning out to be. I posted my new birthday pics that evening and I have had so many appreciative comments from men since then, it has been unbelievable. One would have thought I had become a year younger!

Lost Love, Lost Years
I also thought about my children. I always come back to that. My children whom I love dearly and who have used the marriage break-up to judge me and vilify me like a criminal. My children who have resisted my attempts at leaving the past behind, yet not saying what crime I committed. I know we will reconcile our differences in due course because love always prevails. But that thought does nothing to lessen the continuing pain because our situation is totally avoidable, if one has no need for scapegoats. In the meantime, the years flash by, 6 years and counting, in this quagmire if animosity and vindictiveness, going nowhere fast. Regardless of the differences and the blame, forgiveness is the only thing that can heal the wounds because no one can ever go back into the past to retrieve lost pride, lost love or lost years. They are gone forever.

In fact, a truly sobering thought just hit me as I am writing this. We all live as though we have forever to do as we wish; we keep putting off things in our life or putting off declaring our love until another day. But we actually have only THIS MOMENT in time, about a minute long, before it becomes the past and we have it no more. Because we are constantly moving forward in seems as though we have the whole day but we don't. We only ever have a tiny moment in that day to be completely aware of ourself and what we want to do before the past takes over. For example, I began to type this blog 10 minutes ago. That's the past. This line of writing is my present now but by the time I put my full stop to end it, the whole line will become the past! I cannot go back to those few minutes before now. They are gone.

So, with the knowledge that today is the beginning of the rest of my life, which I intend to make the BEST of my life, I am really going to enjoy the journey. My birthday celebrations were wonderful and now it is business as usual as I continue to enjoy the gift and true blessing that is Elaine Sihera. CHEERS to another glorious year!

ELAINE SIHERA (Ms Cyprah -www.ecademy.com/user/elainesihera and http://www.myspace.com/elaineone) is an expert author, public speaker, media contributor and lifestyle columnist. The first Black graduate of the OU and a post-graduate of Cambridge University.

Elaine is a CONFIDENCE guru and a Personal Empowerment, Relationships and Diversity Consultant. Author of: 10 Easy Steps to Growing Older Disgracefully; 10 Easy Steps to Finding Your Ideal Soulmate!; Money, Sex & Compromise and Managing the Diversity Maze, among others (available on http://www.amazon.co.uk as well as her personal website). Also the founder of the British Diversity Awards and the Windrush Men and Women of the Year Achievement Awards. She describes herself as, "Fit, Fabulous, Over-fifty and Ready to Fly!"

You must believe it can happen; you must believe "you" can do it; you must know that this is what "you" want and then you have to go out and make it happen no matter what!

Your invitation, approach or qualifying question is very direct for this type of building. Here's what you say

You:

"JohnIf I can show you a way where you can earn an extra $5000 (up to $10,000) per month (it needs to be a meaningful amount but not too big) working from home in your spare time, would you give me an hour of your time to review what I've got and see if it would be appropriate for you at this time?"

Prospect:

What is it?

You:

It's a marketing business. That's why I need an hour of your timeI can't possibly give you the full magnitude of this in 30 seconds on the phone. When is a good time for you? I could drop by tonight at 7 pm if that would work (Notice we close for the appointment here. Always finish with a question or you end up having to answer their question).

Prospect:

What sort of marketing business? I'm not going to spend an hour of my valuable time without some idea of what it's about.

You:

Johnas I said I truly can't do it justice on the phone. If you don't want to take the time that's perfectly fine, we'll just let it go. But if you do want to look, I'm really in motion here and you are my top choice for a partner, so what about tonight or tomorrow for lunch?

If they agree, set the appointment and get off the phone before they start asking questions again. If not, you can ask if you can call back in a few months (or not if you don't want to) and move on. Sometime it's easier to just let them go and call back in 3 months anyway. You'll be much more successful then.

This is where you must be strong! You only want qualified motivated people here. It doesn't matter how good you think this person could be, if they're not ready at this time then they're not ready.

If this prospect doesn't respect you enough to give you an hour of their time then they'll never accept you as a leader.

Let them go! Move on! Call the next person on your list!

Some people struggle with face to face approaches to strangers. I hate rejection too! One great way to create a continuously growing list of quality prospects is on the internet. Adding the internet as a business tool can really "up your game".

Would you like to learn how to build your Network Marketing Business Online?

I have just completed a new book: "The Perfect Online Network Marketing Business".

You can download it FREE here: The Perfect Online Network Marketing Business

Plus there's a goldmine of information in my other FREE book: How To Use The Secret Magic Of Article Writing To Start And Run A Successful Online Business

Jim Keayes is an expert Internet and MLM Marketer. He teaches people to be successful online.

"All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small, all things wise and wonderful, the Lord God made them all" - Refrain from a hymn sang in British school assemblies during the 1960's.

Life is precious and young life is most precious as it embodies the future and the chance to create a brighter and wiser world. So when a young life is taken we mourn the loss of potential as much as the devastating personal tragedy. Aberfan is the story of the tragic waste of young life on a monumental scale.

For most people born before 1960 in America they can remember what they were doing when they heard President Kennedy got shot. For the same generation living in Britain at the time, you were more likely to remember what you were doing when you heard about Aberfan.

On the morning of 21st October 1966, 144 people, 116 of them children, were killed when a tip of coal waste slid onto the village of Aberfan in South Wales. One of the first structures in the path of the slag slide was the village school. In just a few short minutes the future of this small welsh community was erased.

Aberfan tormented and shrouded Britain for many months after.

Parents found the haunting images in the newspapers and on TV difficult to confront. The inconsolable father who lost his whole family. The mother still waiting at the door for her child to return home from school... but who never will. Just when you thought the stories could get no more tragic... they did.

Surviving children in Aberfan were prized - they were hugged and protected.

English poet and essayist Laurie Lee visited Aberfan one year after the disaster and wrote a poignant essay describing the lingering devastation on the community he found. The fields of tiny graves visited daily by parents, the sound of silence on the playgrounds, and the scarcity of children's garments drying on wash lines. They all told the story of a village that had lost its children.

Within a few hours of the disaster people came from miles around with their picks and shovels to dig out survivors... but it was futile. No survivors were found after 11:00am. Grown men openly wept as they uncovered the bodies of still children surrounded by black mud-laden books and toys.

The slag that engulfed the village was a by-product of the local mine. After many years the tips grew to be mountains... but without a solid foundation. One of the tips had a spring underneath it, and it was just a question of time before the saturation shifted its core and created the unstoppable landslide.

Coal mining disasters in south Wales were not unusual. It was part of the price for the work it brought to the region. And it was hard and dangerous work for the men of the village, and they lived daily with the knowledge an accident could shatter the fortunes of a family. But never for a minute did anybody think the price would include their children.

Aberfan has long slipped into the English language. One word that when spoken evokes instant sadness and remorse for a day in the 1960s that changed a village forever.

At the time the mines were owned and run by the National Coal Board, and after a few days of mourning the miners were required to return to work. Nationalization of the Coal industry was originally welcomed in the hope that the years of exploitation of the miners would be redressed. But even after the Aberfan disaster life in the South Wales valleys remained hard; collieries closed regularly, unemployment remained high, and nothing came in to fill the widening economic gap.

Today the colliery is closed and the site of the destroyed school is a memorial garden.

The Aberfan tragedy is part of a history that still casts its long shadow over the south Wales coalfield. We all carry our own "Aberfan" with us - some event that overwhelms us with grief and makes us question the injustice of life.

By October 1966 I had left school for good and was no longer required to sing hymns as part of my life. I'm not what most would call a religious person, but when I heard the news of Aberfan the hymn's refrain I quoted at the beginning occupied my thoughts for days. To this day when I hear the hymn I think of Aberfan and a lost generation in south Wales.

I give my children plenty of hugs and protection - they are precious and I know why...

"All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small, all things wise and wonderful, the Lord God made them all."

Cliff Calderwood was raised in England but now lives in Massachusetts. He edits a New England Vacations Guide site at: http://www.new-england-vacations-guide.com where he shares his experiences and favorite destinations and attractions.