Pulling Open The Door

"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of." - Ogden Nash

You hear a dog barking. A dog standing behind a closed door, barking at whatever lay beyond it. He senses that something is on the other side but can not get to it. His curiosity drives him to seek out the door every day, possibly hoping the door is open.

Are you standing behind a closed door?

Do you go through life wondering if greater things exist beyond your current circumstances? Does your curiosity have you seek out the door in hope that it is open? If the door handle is there, why have we not tried to open it?

Each of us have a yearning to see what is beyond a closed door. And we each have the ability to find out by simply opening the door and walking through. In a book I wrote, Changed Lives, the stories vary, but each person chose to walk through a door to find a new way.

The hardest part is choosing to open the door.

The door in your life could be one of many different choices or obstacles. It is keeping you from believing in new possibilities. We trap ourselves behind these doors we have erected. They are limitations built by us.

We tell ourselves this is all we can do; that nothing else possible lay beyond what we are. Slowly we install the door frame, adding the hinges which will hold our door. Suddenly one day you push the door shut and with a click of the latch, you have closed all possibility.

Any door closed can also be opened.

I have seen it happen to so people. I have experienced it myself. It is a wonderful thing once you simply believe in yourself. To see life transform into something greater is a fantastic feeling. To have the courage to pull open the door.

It can be done, you can do it. All it takes is stepping up to that door, grabbing the handle and opening the door. The light might blind and disorient you at first. But then the light will warm you. Your eyes will begin to see things with more clarity.

Now simply walk through the door and begin to experience the change.

Change and experience a life full on the other side of that closed door. And stay inspired my friends!

Unlimited Imagination

"The level of our success is limited only by our imagination and no act of kindness, however small, is ever wasted." - Aesop

The ability to imagine something in your life is boundless. You can dream of things day in and day out. There are material things, the lottery, relationships, abilities or most anything.

We have a limitless wish list for our lives.

Yet most people keep their dreams locked up inside, only to be reviewed from time to time by only them self. The dreams never see the light of day because we hold our self back, afraid to move forward, afraid of failure. So each and every time we think of those things we want in our life, the next step is never taken.

An open door that we never walk through.

Even when you can see a glimpse of what is out there, we stay on inside. The grass may be green and comfortable, but it is the comfort of where we are currently which holds us back from something far greater. A world imagined will remain that until we choose to step forward and experience it.

Like the day before a marriage or the pending birth of a child. These are things dreamed of and now you are on the threshold of stepping through the open door. You are now ready to experience all that has been imagined for so long. It is both exciting and terrifying at the same time, but boldness of movement will allow you to reach what was once dreamed.

Set aside your fear of the unknown.

Find out what else is on the other side of the door. That is where your dreams reside and through that door you must walk in order to reach them.

Stay inspired my friends!

Old Oak Doors

"Keep looking up! I learn from the past, dream about the future and look up. There's nothing like a beautiful sunset to end a healthy day." - Rachel Boston

In a book I wrote a few years back was a chapter named "Choice at the Crossroads" which talked about my early years growing up. These early years of our lives tend to form the first you and who you will become. These early years will cement much of who you are.

Each of us have to learn where we came from in order to better understand who we are today. With that knowledge, we can better make choices that will allow us to change. And it was during those formative years I developed a ‘good son’ mentality.

Do what was told of you.

Do it to your best and then do it even better. Being raised on a farm in eastern Nebraska allowed one to work hard as well. It was not always easy, but there are no complaints from me though.

My father had a depression era view of many things. Save as much money as you can, reuse as much as you can and old stuff can be considered new if you are seeing it for the first time. Take old oak doors for instance, old heavy ones you rarely find these days.

There can be many uses for these doors if you put your mind to good use. On our small farm we raised hogs; the kind which end up in the grocery store and on your dinner table. If you read storybooks of pigs, they are cute and seemingly very sweet.

To raise them is a different story and is a lot of work.

There are days which require you to separate the hogs, some for fattening and others for market. The process can be quite challenging and it was the oak doors we used for that purpose. An oak door with door knobs intact makes a great way to separate hogs. You hang onto the door handle in order to maneuver the door into place where you need it.

These doors are also quite heavy for a young boy who did not have the physique of a football player.

We would find these doors at the old trash dump near our farm. This dump was a ravine, back again during times before much stricter regulations. Most times we returned with more then we took. This is the ‘new stuff’ I referred to earlier.

My father had a great eye for things that could potentially be used on our farm. He could spot an old oak door from many yards away. One such day he found an old oak door laying halfway down the ravine. All we had to do was climb down, attach a rope and pull it back up.

I was the available son and was instructed to ensure I tied the rope to it securely.

So down I went....

What are those things stuck in your mind which form who you are today?

At the time, many years ago, climbing down into that ravine to fetch an old oak door, I am sure I wasn't thinking of tomorrow. My best guess is that I wondered if I was going to make it back up the pile. And if I lost the door on the way, would I make it once I did get back to the top of the ravine.

We each take these pieces of our memories, our experiences and stitch them into who we are. We learn from those experiences and grow from them. Open the old oak doors of your past to reveal who you are.

Only then will you be able to understand.

Stay inspired my friends.

Forward To Opportunity

“There will always be a door to the light.” ― Shiro Amano

There will be days go by when all we do is contemplate and worry over that which we have or has been done in our life. We will obsess over what might have been or what our current lot is in life.

Looking backwards constantly in our lives is one thing we must change in order to move ahead in our life.

Yes, knowing and understanding the history of where we have been is a good thing. We use it to study and reflect upon what we have previously done to place us where we are now.

To move ahead, we must look forward for opportunities that await us.

The key thing is to move forward and not stay chained to what has already occurred. In the physical sense, our eyes are in the front of our head...looking forward, not backwards. We walk forward and not backward.

Alexander Graham Bell said, "sometimes we stare so long at a door that is closing that we see too late the one that is open." If we continue to look backwards never seeing the open door, we will never see the open door. We will never see new opportunity opening before us. We could drown in the fading light of history, wondering if things could have been different.

Keep your dreams in front of you, looking for new doors to change; for new opportunity that is presenting itself to you.

One door may close but another is always opening if we simply look for it. History and current circumstance will be your support, but forward momentum will be your future. Keep your eyes open and looking for that open door of opportunity.

Stay inspired in 2015 my friends!

Doors to Possibility

The art comes from an artist named Sifi and is titled "Doors to Possibility."

As the artist describes, "...represents the two poles or two doors - one is the door to the extinction moment, which mankind seems to take great delight ushering other people to and the other the door of possibility, the pole of potentiality ..all that we could be......"

Much like the age old question of whether the glass is half full or half empty, you have to make the decision yourself.

Choose the door of possibility and open yourself to what can be.

Do not be afraid to make that choice.

Simply make a move and movement will happen around you.

Stay inspired my friends.

Open a Door

"Hope is the dream of a waking man." -Aristotle

It is interesting to note that when things are going good, we will optimistically look to the future and all of the possibilities that exist. We will consider that building a great life and having success is achievable.

Yet when times are tough, all we tend to do is focus on what is going wrong and how life will never get us to where we want to be.

It is during those tough times when we most need to understand that a door exists through which possibility stands waiting for you. Hope and vision for whatever life has in store for you is through that door.

So even though you might be in a tough place currently, continue to hold onto your dreams. Know that possibility is on the other side of that door. A door that can be opened if only you make the choice to turn the handle and walk through it.

Stay inspired my friends!

The Open Door

“You can do anything you think you can. This knowledge is literally the gift of the gods, for through it you can solve every human problem. It should make of you an incurable optimist. It is the open door.” Robert Collier

A new week begins filled with work, challenges and recurring things to do. It is also a chance, an opening to new possibilities. Every day opens a new door for you that you can step through.

Take the moment and step through to what is possible.

Stay inspired this week my friends!

Ask, Seek, Knock

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." -Matthew 7:7

It is a simple verse that needs no explanation. Our friends Annie and Dave Spell are wrapping up their final week here in the Atlanta area. A new door has opened and through it they will find themselves in Curitiba, Brazil. An adventure exists for them through that door.

We on this side of the door only see Dave and Annie waving goodbye. Our sadness in seeing them go is hard to wash away as the door closes behind them. Yet I find solace in the fact that people on the other side of that door are excited in welcoming them. Those people have been awaiting their entrance and have open arms to greet their arrival.

I also know that there are other people on the other side of that door who are going to have the opportunity to meet Annie and Dave Spell. The lives of those people, unbeknownst to them right now, are going to be changed. There is going to be a shift towards a better life for them, all because Annie and Dave Spell walked through that door.

So to our friends, adeus, contanto, and viagem segura. But always know that the "porta permanece desbloqueada para você" - "the door remains unlocked for you" - where ever your adventure leads you.

Stay inspired everyone!

If you would like to step out of the ordinary in your life to be a part of Dave and Annie's mission adventure in Brazil, click on the link below...your donation is tax deductible.

Annie & Dave Spell - Brazil Missions

Your Imagination

"Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire; you will what you imagine; and at last you create what you will." -George Bernard Shaw

Your imagination is endless and until you walk through a door towards it, you will never realize the possibility. Go forward in life dreaming big dreams and always moving towards those dreams. To stand still and do nothing means we may as well never imagine greater things for our life.

Turn your imagination into dreams...turn your dreams into goals...turn your goals into reality. Believe in your vision, act upon your vision and realize your vision.

The adventure will be a great one.

Stay inspired my friends.

Dreams Become Real

"Vision, it reaches beyond the thing that is, into the conception of what can be. Imagination gives you the picture. Vision gives you the impulse to make the picture your own." -Robert Collier

As you dream at night when nothing else can interfere and in some cases these dreams can be remembered during your waking hours. Some of these dreams are horrible or confusing with no meaning to be found. Others are of a yearning, a vision, that you want for your future. But dreams are only an undefined mound of wet clay, waiting for you to form it.

As you begin to take hold of your dreams, trying to remember the details, it is your imagination that will start to mold the dream. You will mold the clay into something that only you can create. It may change from what you first dreamed, but it will start to take shape and become a clear thing for your life.

As your dream becomes more real, you have to apply vision in order to move towards the dream as a tangible part of your life. It prods you to walk through the open door and begin a journey. A trip that begins with movement.

Allow yourself to dream big things and let vision push you towards it. Go beyond what currently surrounds you. There is a large life out there waiting for you.

And stay inspired my friends.

Almost

almost
Main Entry: al·most
Pronunciation: \ˈol-ˌmōst, ol-ˈ\
Function: adverb
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English ealmæst, from eall + mæst most
Date: before 12th century

: very nearly but not exactly or entirely

Yesterday, you almost called home to say hello to your mother. With a passing thought, you almost held a door open for someone carrying a package. Early this morning you almost had a conversation with your teenaged child. Those things that we almost do in life but never seem to find the urge to actually do.

Your day goes by, then a week and eventually the year is nearly over. We think back and wonder at all of those things we missed doing. We feel that we came close, that we almost had the ability to do all of those meaningful things. But in our own self assessment, we know that almost really wasn't quite good enough.

The analogies one can use vary with many examples how almost results in things lost. In sports it might be said, "we almost made the winning touchdown." Yet the team still lost so almost doesn't quite cut it. In a political race, others may state, "we almost won the election." And once again, almost does not put the person into office.

Take the idea of almost completing your high school education. Almost does not make it easy to find a job or move ahead in life. There is also the big one, "I almost called to say hello," or for others, "I almost called to say I love you." Life on earth is finite, and almost will turn into never being able to do those things.

Find the time today to actually do those things that you know and feel need to be done. Do not put them off any longer, take the time now. Do not almost try it, actually accomplish and look back on all of those things you did complete.

Stay inspired my friends!

Opened To More

"Courage is simply the willingness to be afraid and act anyway." -Robert Anthony

There is a small part in each of us that would rather sit behind the closed door. We would rather be complacent in the comfort of the small space we occupy. The idea of opening ourselves to something beyond our controlled atmosphere frightens us.

The artificial lights within our home provide just enough warmth to keep us satisfied. We read the paper, search the Internet and generally create a small piece of life. You feel there is no need to extend your world beyond the front door.

A large world exists beyond the threshold of your home. That world can use someone like you to enter it on a larger scale. The world needs the interaction of you. You need the interaction of the world in order to grow. It is said that a mushroom grows very well in the cool dark and wetness of an enclosed space. It grows even better when fed that four letter word which begins with an 's', a lonely existence in my mind.

But the flower flourishes outside in the world under a beaming sun. It draws strength from the cool rain water and nutrients of the earth. The flower is found by the world to be a source of inspiration. It brings beauty where none exists.

Are you that flower? No, I'm not that eloquent to suggest you are. What you are is someone that can flourish out in the world. Interacting with other people, impacting their lives with even the smallest of what you can offer. All it takes is to open that door and step out. To step out and beyond the walls that surround you will bring so much more to your life.

Try it today; open the door and step through it. Find a way to put yourself out in the world and do something for someone else. It all comes back around eventually. Some may call it 'paying it forward'. In this case, nothing may have been done for you yet. Well, you can start the process first. Be the first one in the chain that 'pays it forward' and it will eventually come back around when you least expect it (but need it most).

Open the door on your life and begin.
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Fullfilling Your Vision

“Vision; it reaches beyond the thing that is, into the conception of what can be. Imagination gives you the picture. Vision gives you the impulse to make the picture your own.” - Robert Collier

When you dream of a vision and then begin to step towards it, you are on a path to realize that vision. So it is with a friend of mine and his love of music. As part of that love, the band in which he plays Mandolin has grown to become quite popular in the Bluegrass music community.

His story is like many others that have a vision or dream, but do not simply sit still. He has created movement in his life, always knowing that he would find his way to reach this vision.

You have the same ability to achieve many things in life. If you have even just a single dream, it takes making movement. The building near the crossroads has a door through which you can step through. There will be many paths you can take from that point forward and you will not have a clear idea of which one to take.

The idea though is to simply take one of the paths. Begin the journey and eventually you will find yourself standing at the gate to your dream. This final door that you have been moving towards. Step forward and find your dream.

To find out more about what was on the other side of my friend's door, check out Blackstone Valley Bluegrass.

Doors Of Change

Picture source, Life In Italy

Flora Whittemore - “The doors we open and close each day decide the lives we live.”

There are many doors you choose to walk through each day. Varying shapes and styles, of colors and age. Some are grand elegant doors and others are broken.

You get to pick most of these doors through which you travel each day. Sometimes, the choices are limited and at other times, only one is there to go through.

So you choose, go through or turn back. Like the building by the crossroads I have spoken before, it may start with only one door, but going through it will open your eyes to so many more choices.

(Read Tuesday, March 21, 2006 - Life At A Crossroads)

It takes a bold first step to open and walk through that one door. Then it becomes a series of opening and closing doors. Trying never to look back but to move forward with each bold decision that you make. Reach out and turn the door knob to change in your life.