Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving !!

Calm Before The Storm

Steen Doessing - Calm Before The Storm

"Look for me in the whirlwind or the storm." -Marcus Garvey

The idioms "lull before the storm" and "calm before the storm" are terms for a quiet period just before a period of great activity or excitement. The literal reference being to weather. Today is one of those days that I would refer to as the calm before the storm of the holidays.

Halloween was a bit of a primer but Thanksgiving in the United States is the starting point of a nearly five week flurry. The gathering of families and friends for a large meal. The shopping madness, football games, decorating, more family and friends. The travelling, wrapping of presents, unwrapping of presents, more food and drink. All ending up with a celebration of a new year, family, friends and the end of what was a storm of activity.

What happens is that some people get a thrill from riding the waves of a storm while others get frightened by the noise. We sometimes forget that it is a rather long period of time in which we will ride high on the waves of enjoyment. While there will be other possible moments of disappointment. Some will want perfection in sailing through all of the celebration. Some will want it to just end.

While each of us will experience the holiday storm differently, be aware of two things; the storm will pass and that others will be weathering it with you. When you get too high or too low, look for a friend "in the whirlwind".

Enjoy your holiday season, enjoy the madness of it all and sail on to a great new year.

Maze Of Opportunity

"The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty." -Winston Churchill

Life can seem very much like a maze that has thousands of turns and dead ends. We find a promising path to take, only to find it ends abruptly at nothing. Other paths we take give us new adventure and experience while never getting us to the final destination.

All of these paths teach us more about our life and the world around us. If we pay attention close enough, we will not repeat some of the old paths that failed before. We begin to map out our life and what we did to get where we currently are.

Many people find it too difficult and reach a wall, only to stay there. Giving up is the only solution for their life. What they fail to understand is that each failed path is an opportunity to learn. It is in that learning where we build the chart that enables us to reach our goals.

Kierkegaard said, "Life must be lived forwards, but can only be understood backwards." We learn from our past with the vision of where we want to be. Without understanding the failed paths of our life, we are nearly doomed to constantly repeat them. The frustration will build until we either choose to give up or change our attitude.

Look forward to the life you want and learn from the path already taken. Keep searching and the correct path will eventually present itself.

Marjorie's Music

Back from a great, but short vacation down to the beach in Panama City, Florida. Great time to reflect, rest, relax and recharge our lives before the holidays.

While I was gone, a friend sent me her latest music video that I wanted to share. She is an independent singer/songwriter by the name Marjorie Whitley. Odd that I've never asked her if she is related in any fashion to the (now deceased) singer Keith Whitley. But Marjorie's talent is not to be overshadowed by anyone else.

There are thousands of independent artists that are singers, songwriters, painters, photographers and movie makers. Each of them deserve our attention and support. Huge fame and fortune may not be the end result. But creating great music or whatever it is you create in life is what matters.

Each of us have talents; artistic, business, community or any of a number of things. You may not realize it but living life takes a certain amount of talent. Nurture your talents and live a great life. If we support each other along the way, then life gets lived a little better.

Enjoy Marjorie's music and if you feel inclined, support her and buy one of her music CDs. Or write her a note on Facebook of support and to find out more.



Enjoy the talent that surrounds us.

Is The Sky Blue

“There must be a positive and negative in everything in the universe in order to complete a circuit or circle, without which there would be no activity, no motion.” -John McDonald

So maybe I should let that sink in a little bit or let people wonder just what a quote like that is doing on a blog like this.

This blog is a positive, motivational, self improvement website that people can get a little bit of inspiration from. It is a way of helping you find some goodness to help you get through whatever it is you might be going through.

Yet I fully understand the reality of life, that you can not always live in the happy Neverland. There will be periods of the "not-so-happy". Even I have been called (in a nice way) a cynical b@$tard. Although I much prefer the term "centered contrarian".

My view is much more positive then not, but I find that I have to keep my life centered. So when I start approaching the starry, "pie-in-the-sky"; my instinct is to ensure I step back and view the other side.

The reason why?

I can not speak to those going through bad times with out understanding what they are facing. The 'positive' means nothing to them if it isn't relevant. So my cynicism for things can peek through from time to time. But again, that cynicism can come off sounding like I don't believe in having a great attitude.

Having a great attitude and leaning to the positive is what dreams are made of. Without it, we would never move forward. We would never try anything new or even want to for that matter. My contrarian ways are in some ways left over attributes but in no way do they diminish my belief in living life in a positive fashion.

You have to choose the way you want to live your life. That is the great thing about it. We get to choose it, we get to also change it. We can pull ourselves out of misery and choose happiness. No one else, no artificial thing, no magic potion can make that change...only you.

And if you say the sky is blue and I happen to say its not; then its just the cynic in me dreaming of a great sunrise.

Flower Bed Of Color

“It matters not what goal you seek; its secret here reposes: You've got to dig from week to week, to get Results or Roses” -Edgar Guest

A new week is upon us and you have the opportunity to put a small 'dent in the universe' with your actions. To work hard and advance your life each and everyday is possible when we allow ourselves the effort.

Many will sit and wonder why there are no flowers to smell. They yearn for all that is good yet are unwilling to work for it. They want to swing from a tree branch yet will never plant the tree. It is said "when is the best time to plant a tree?" The answer is twenty years ago. The second best time is today.

To achieve anything, we must start now and begin the process. Waiting will never accomplish the goal. Waiting will forever keep your dreams at a distance. A young girl grows up to raise a wonderful family. Life complete, the years of nurturing results in a flower bed of wonderful colors.

Pick yourself up today, this week and tend to the rose bushes. Nurture your life until one day you can 'stop and smell the roses' of success.

Sunrise

Taking the day off from writing. Yet a great sunrise should never go unseen, which is the power of the internet. Enjoy your weekend.

A Sore Knee

"Life's real failure is when you do not realize how close you were to success when you gave up." -Unknown

I was listening to Jill Sweetman speak the other day and she related a story I found interesting. She was speaking about having worked out in our new fitness center. Afterwards, she was talking with some folks and indicated that her knee was quite sore. A physical therapist was in the group and told her that it was very likely not the knee but a muscle above the knee causing her pain.

It was interesting to me because when we have a complaint in our life, it is likely not the complaint but something else that is the real cause of the issue. What we see at the surface is not the root cause. You need to look beyond and find what the source is.

To look at where the complaint or failure originates will allow us to see just how close we are to success. Success is just beyond complaint or giving up. The source of failing may not be what you think it is. Resolving the source of the complaint may require change on your part.

Whatever it is that causes your complaint should be the focus of your attention. If the knee is sore, concentrate on the muscles associated with it. If you are annoyed by others driving on the road, concentrate more on your behavior and attitude towards it. Focus on the source and make changes which will place you closer to success.

Until you deal with the real cause, the knee will remain sore. Boldly resolve to get beyond the complaint and closer to your dreams.

Trust By Faith

"We're never so vulnerable than when we trust someone - but paradoxically, if we cannot trust, neither can we find love or joy" -Walter Anderson

Yesterday I was listening to a local radio station and thought I had heard incorrectly. It was a advertisement for a security firm that effectively proposed that to trust someone, you need to spy on them. The wife was suspicious of her husband. As the commercial has it, she buys their equipment and finds out her husband was being truthful all along. She can now trust him, all is well.

Isn't the definition of trust; "a charge or duty imposed in faith or confidence or as a condition of some relationship." The whole concept of the commercial kind of amazed me. I assume this 'couple' would now have a long and wonderful relationship. As you may not notice, but I state that with full sarcasm. Additionally this is not meant to call out or criticize a radio station or it advertisers.

The mind set behind coming up with such a commercial does exist in people. There are those that have an inability to trust. It is likely that they have been hurt in the past or had people dishonor their trust. But how does one build trust without having faith?

Religion gets accused of promoting a blind faith in a God that can not be verified. It could be that some would like to have spy equipment to prove or disprove God's existence. Yet faith is what those believers, one I call myself, have in that existence and trust in that relationship. Again, I'm not here to debate God's existence.

What I do wish to state is that 'today' you build a relationship based upon faith in the other. You are opening yourself to the possibility of pain most certainly. But a deeper and more lasting relationship exists when trust is built on faith in the other person. Not by spying and tearing down that faith. Once you begin that process of verifying trust, the relationship is in big trouble.

The song you are listening to has a lyric which says, "I'm trusting You with all that I am." Do you trust your loved one based on faith or on some spy gadget? As I've said, the risk of getting hurt exists when the other person abuses that trust. But life is full of risk and when you get hurt, you get back up and keep moving. I know from experience about losing trust in someone, losing a love.

After dealing with the pain and working on my own issues, I opened up my heart again to trust another. Life did get better. Your life will get better.

Allow faith in another to be your guiding hand when it comes to trust. There will be signs when trust is broken, but lead with faith.