Each Day Learn

“God allows us to experience the low points of life in order to teach us lessons we could not learn in any other way. The way we learn those lessons is not to deny the feelings but to find the meanings underlying them.” - Stanley Lindquist

Each day I learn something new about life around me.

Each was learned through disappointments, occurrences I wished occurred differently and through examining each event.

Each was learned through success, occurrences I had hoped or prepared for and examining what worked in each event.

My belief in how we learn our lessons each day could be different than yours. Religious belief does enter in and my intent here is not to preach. Those that regularly read this blog understand that. Yet from time to time, I am sure my religious views shines through but rest assure I am only trying to shed a light to help guide your path through life.

If you find yourself disappointed or elated with success, find meaning and learn from it.

I do so most every day because life gives so much to us. Allow life to teach and guide you every day.

And stay inspired my friends!

Live Life Out Loud

“If you ask me what I came to do in this world, I, an artist, I will answer you; "I am here to live out loud.” - Emile Zola

According to various reports, the average lifespan in the United States for women is 80.1 for women and 74.8 for men. These are ages which, when you are young, seem to be a far off point in time.

The closer you draw to those ages thought, the shortening days become more special. You reach a point to which you wonder what you have done in life. Have I lived my life quietly and in the shadows? Or have I lived my life out in the world making a difference in big and small ways?

In other words, are you living your life 'out loud' impacting the lives of others?

Living life out loud means engaging in the life of others around you.

- It does not mean being the loudest person shouting above the din of everyone else.
- It does not mean being the most flamboyant person, brighter than all of the stars.

To be a part of the everyday world, you can leave a mark on those around you for their betterment. The legacy you will eventually leave behind is how you will be remembered. Others will say they were a better person for having known you.

- It does not mean being the biggest philanthropist spreading money to save the world.
- It does not mean you have to change the world in history book making ways.

Living life out loud means doing small things for others.

Living life out loud means what you do will have a lasting and rippling effect on others. You may not even realize it when you do it, but living out loud will cause impact on others. And whether you impact others in one large way or in a thousand small ways, you can not do so by living in the shadows.

Live out loud and live all your years in the bright light of life and do it loudly.

Stay inspired my friends!

And Its Alright, In Fact, Its A Gas

"I was drowned, I was washed up and left for dead. I fell down to my feet and I saw they bled. I frowned at the crumbs of a crust of bread. Yeah, yeah, yeah I was crowned with a spike right thru my head. But its all right now, in fact, its a gas! But its all right, Im jumpin jack flash, Its a gas! gas! gas!" - Rolling Stones "Jumpin Jack Flash"

From the good to the very bad, the lore of how this song came about only adds to the greatness of it. But how does one take a song like "Jumpin Jack Flash" and spin it into something about attitude?

Well hang on folks, first listen to the song and then we'll talk.



As I have always understood it, when the song was released in 1968, Mick Jagger's comment was "...it was the most basic thing we ever did." But much later in another interview he said "...it’s a metaphor for getting out of all the acid things."

Being older and having listened to this song hundreds of times, I never interpreted it with the demonic or drug use labels others have given it.

This song for me has always been about overcoming circumstances.

We each get dealt a life that many times we didn't ask for. Sure, our behaviors can place us in situations that create lousy circumstances. Those circumstances build up inside like a bad chili on a warm day. You feel rotten, it brings you down and destroys anything positive you may have.

How we choose to react to those circumstances dictates whether we remain firmly defeated or pull out of them. You need to begin the process of creating an ARC (ACCEPT, REMOVE and CHANGE) to something better in life.

An arc is shaped like a curve or arch, which in certain terms means getting over something. Think arc of a bridge you build to a better life.

ACCEPT - Accept and acknowledge circumstance; understand the circumstance and accept it.
REMOVE - Remove any idea from your mind that circumstance is permanent or unchangeable.
CHANGE - Change negative things in life; movement creates change which changes circumstance.

Keep remembering, "I was drowned, I was washed up and left for dead", but I was determined to do more with my life.

And "...its all right now, in fact, its a gas!"

Stay inspired my friends!

Help Wanted

"Chance is always powerful. Let your hook always be cast; in the pool where you least expect it, there will be a fish." - Ovid

We can become very discouraged when our run of luck seems to have gone dry one too many times. We become self-defeating in our attempt to rise above circumstance. When we reach that point, taking a chance never enters our mind.

Yet in this excerpt from CHANGED LIVES, we find one man who was down to nothing.

Chance was all he had left, yet it was more than chance.

It was a willingness to walk through a door and talk to a man named Milt.

~~~~~~

I was looking for a job anywhere with no luck, moving from bit work to hand outs for helping on daily labor, when I walked by a clothing store with a help wanted sign in the window. There I was, fully confident that the outcome of me going in and applying would be the typical 'thanks but no thanks'.

I turned to walk away when a gentleman smoking a cigarette in a little cigarette holder asked if I was looking at the help wanted sign. I replied that I was but knew I probably couldn't get that kind of job. That's when the gentleman who was Milt Harm, manager of the store introduced himself and invited me in to "just talk".

~~~~~~

Opportunity comes in ways you least expect.

But in order to allow opportunity to present itself, you have to keep moving; to keep taking chances in life. I know those who would sit on their couch and believe or expect opportunity comes knocking on their front door. Sadly you will never be found.

It takes getting out there, taking risk, taking chance.

Opportunity will cross our path once we walk out the front door and expose ourselves to life.

Keep moving, keep trying and maybe Milt will invite you in to just talk.

Stay inspired my friends!