To Light Your Way Home

From the folks at Apple Blossom Art

Coming home, it is a wonderful feeling when one has been on the road. Whether it be a short trip down the road to another city, or a long journey to another country, returning is always a comforting event.

As much as we try to expand our horizons with new experiences and places, we tend to be 'home bodies' at heart. Home is the one place where you will always find those closest to you. The wife or husband, father or mother, child or friend that know you most dearly.

When I travel, the vast majority of people that I run into are friendly, helping and genuinely ready to assist. But the hotels are different from my own house, the food is different from my wife's cooking and the sounds or atmosphere does not have the same familiar feel. Always I come back and can slow down from the hectic pace, to be amongst close family and friends.

In your daily life, many of the stresses you encounter can be absolved simply by coming home. Don't make your home a stressful one, try to make it a comforting one that nourishes and rejuvenates the soul. “The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned," was said by Maya Angelou. Build a home that you will always ache for when you are not there.

I myself am coming home and will write again as soon as I am able to. Enjoy your weekend and enjoy your time at home with loved ones.

Each Of Us Carries Something

Everyday, each of us has a different load in life to carry. The picture is from Mumbai, India and it isn't meant to be humorous or downward looking upon the individual.

What is meant to show is that each of us has different responsibilities, jobs or troubles that we must shoulder. It doesn't make one any harder or easier, just that we all share this common bond of living life.

When you consider your own issues in life, understand that many others around you have a story of their own. Each of us has different burdens but we all still have to struggle and cope with them. Try never to look upon others as not having it "as bad as you". Just realize that all of us work to overcome and to achieve all that we can.

Your House Called Life

When you have made a choice in life, you have to take on all that comes with that choice. You do not get to choose just the 'bits' that you like, you have to deal with all of it. It is like buying a new home. You walk into a home you are considering purchasing and you really love the family room. It has beautiful fireplace, cozy atmosphere and wonderful sunlight. Maybe even the kitchen area overlooks the family area, an added enjoyment.

So you purchase the home and move in. Yet the backyard is small and borders a yard with barking dogs. The home itself has too small of a master bathroom. Maybe the garage door does not work very well or the furnace does not heat the house well during the winter. All of these negative things are yours to deal with. You have a choice at this point.

Choose to complain constantly about them, which will diminish your enjoyment of the good things your home has to offer. Or you can change those things you do not like. Talk to the neighbors and get to know them. After a while, you will be able to bring up the subject of the dogs, the neighbors will likely be more willing to try and change the situation. Expand your master bath, get the garage door fixed or research what changes you could make to improve the heating conditions.

All of this requires you to make movement, to make a change. By doing nothing, you change nothing. Your life, like your home is your responsibility and only you can improve it. Take charge, begin now and let change improve your life.

In his book, "THINK BIG", Ben Carson talks of the same things I have written about. He writes interestingly about the need to think positively. The use of PMA or "Positive Mental Attitude"; have faith; you are what you think; I did it, so can you.

These are words that all of us have been told by so many over the years. And though we have heard them often, it doesn't make them any less true or more real. What it does mean is that we have a choice. We can either be negative about all that is around us or choose a more positive life attitude.

Ben Carson is a highly respected physician and he provides that our emotional state affects the hormones in our body. Hormones significantly influence white cells and the body's ability to fight disease. This means that we now actually have a scientific explanation for the fact that people who become very depressed do not do well in recovering from disease. The ability to lead a more positive life can help keep your physical well-being in better shape.

Maybe one could suggest that it doesn't mean we are physically better, just that we accept our physical state in better manner. For me, either way, if having a more positive attitude can keep me healthier or make make feel better about it, my existence is all that much better.

Ben Carson says, "if we allow ourselves to dwell on negatives, on hurts, on mistreatments, we will be negative thinkers. We can choose the way we think. When people object to words like "positive thinking," then you can say, "Think Big, then!"