One Day Like This

Just wonderful lyrics from Guy Garvey of the British band Elbow. This particular song is called "One Day Like This" and if you click on the link you can hear the entire song on YouTube.

It is a song that tells me that I have many wonderful things in my life. I have my wonderful wife Laura, beautiful children and grand children. There are my friends and co-workers as well as a decent job. There are many other large and small things that I realize make life so wonderful.

What made me behave that way?
Using words I never say
I can only think it must be love
Oh, anyway, it's looking like a beautiful day

Someone tell me how I feel
It's silly wrong but vivid right
Oh, kiss me like the final meal
Yeah, kiss me like we die tonight

Cause holy cow, I love your eyes
And only now I see the light
Yeah, lying with me half-awake
Oh, anyway, it's looking like a beautiful day

It is truly a love song. It is a love song for living life. All that I have I am thankful for and each of those things in my life make it a beautiful day. The things in your life make it a beautiful day as well. Even the smallest of things make it a great day for you.

So throw those curtains wide!
One day like this a year'd see me right!

Many of us get to have a thousand days like this. And each of us will have at least one of these days. Do not despair and hide in the darkness. Be thankful of the things you have in your life. Love life and "throw those curtains wide" and have a beautiful day.

Journey Home

Phil Richards - Long Journey Home

"When we are sure that we are on the right road there is no need to plan our journey too far ahead. No need to burden ourselves with doubts and fears as to the obstacles that may bar our progress. We cannot take more than one step at a time." ~Orison Swett Marden

When we start out on a path towards something new and exciting in our life, it appears a thousand miles long. We even wonder if we are on the right path at all. The questions cloud our mind and cause us to second guess our ability to even proceed.

It is a cruel trick we play on ourselves that is called self doubt. Self doubt is the "ball and chain" attached to our life that prevents us from proceeding with the journey. It slows us and attempts to hold us in one place, never to find what is at our journey's end.

You can rid yourself of this self doubt and continue your travel. But the path may create indecision when a crossroads appears before you. Now you have to make a decision to go left or go right. Do I take the well worn path or the road less taken? Indecision will try to stall you and keep you from moving forward. But you can overcome it by simply choosing and taking on your decision with excitement of the unknown.

We all learn eventually that our journey of life is pretty much an unknown. It is how we choose to travel along the path that will dictate if it is an enjoyable or miserable one. And our paths are so different from each other, we have to love our own path and not covet the other.

When we finally settle into our journey of life, the excitement of where it will end up is replaced by excitement of the journey itself. At that point, we come to realize that the journey is really a journey home. Whether 999 miles remain to be traveled or only a single mile, enjoy every step along the way. Know full well that home awaits you.

Begin to enjoy the travel, step by step, mile by mile to the journey's end.

C3 Journey Leaders - July 2010

"Friends are as companions on a journey, who ought to aid each other to persevere in the road to a happier life." ~Pythagoras

While on the journey of life, it is best traveled with friends, with brothers and with sisters. Each of them will stand to your left and to your right. Each of them will cover behind you and keep an eye out on the road ahead of you.

Yes, life can be traveled alone. But life traveled with others is a much happier, much more meaningful life.

Building A Life From Dirt

“Whenever you make a mistake or get knocked down by life, don't look back at it too long. Mistakes are life's way of teaching you. Your capacity for occasional blunders is inseparable from your capacity to reach your goals. No one wins them all, and your failures, when they happen, are just part of your growth. Shake off your blunders. How will you know your limits without an occasional failure? Never quit. Your turn will come.” ~Og Mandino

Today I draw some inspiration from a family friend. Her name is Belinda and she herself is a source of inspiration. Belinda is a woman who has survived a brain tumor not once but twice in her lifetime.

What she sent me was a story, much like many that circulate around but meaningful if you are in need of a lift. The story tells of one day when a farmer's donkey fell down into a well. The animal cried piteously for hours as the farmer tried to figure out what to do.

Finally, he decided the animal was old, and the well needed to be covered up anyway; it just wasn't worth it to retrieve the donkey. So he invited all his neighbors to come over and help him. They all grabbed a shovel and began to shovel dirt into the well.

At first, the donkey realized what was happening and cried horribly. Then, to everyone's amazement he quieted down. A few shovel loads later, the farmer finally looked down the well and was astonished at what he saw.

With each shovel of dirt that hit his back, the donkey was doing something amazing. He would shake off the dirt and take a step up. As the farmer's neighbors continued to shovel dirt on top of the animal, he would shake it off and take another step up.

Pretty soon, everyone was amazed as the donkey stepped up over the edge of the well and happily trotted off!

Now the story does have a twist about the donkey coming back later and biting the farmer in the hindend, causing a fatal infection to the farmer. A moral about trying to cover up your mistakes that come back to bite you.

But what I draw from the story reminds me of Belinda and her fighting the brain tumors. We know and eventually accept that life is going to throw an obstacle in our way. Like the donkey, some dirt is going to get shoveled on you, lots of it and very different types of dirt.

The idea is to shake it off and keep moving. You need to turn the obstacles into stepping stones. We can get beyond our circumstance not by stopping, but by never giving up!

Belinda nearly lost her life years ago. Her husband Mark talks about it in my book CHANGED LIVES of their fight and survival. Belinda did not stop and succumb to what others might have considered her fate. Not Belinda though, she kept moving and overcoming.

Even when a growth was found again a year ago, she kept moving and the growth went away. A miracle? I believe they occur and in this case she is living proof of that. But we each can learn and take inspiration from Belinda's life experience.

Finally, in her story she sent me there were five simple rules for life.

1. Free your heart from hatred; learn to forgive.
2. Free your mind from worries; most never happen.
3. Appreciate what you have; you'll have so much more.
4. Give more; you'll get much more in return.
5. Expect less; you'll get what you need.

Get to know the stories of others that have been through the well, having dirt thrown down upon them by life. Then be inspired by them to jump start your own life.