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PURPOSE, JOY AND POSITIVES

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Focus on your mission today.

This can be a monumental task, can it not?  So many distractions and so many other necessities to accomplish that the mission line can become blurred. When we think too far ahead about our mission, it may get murky, as in how am I going to get THERE from HERE. It starts to become a burden and feel impossible to accomplish. Just like trying to climb that thousand some foot mountain in the picture.

The mission has to be doable, reasonable, and PURPOSEful for you individually. It is wise to remind ourselves that there are steps in the mission, incremental steps that will take us all the way. Of course, there will be some struggles on that path. Who said this statement……. anything worth doing/gaining is not easy or simple?

John R. Wood (Ordinary Lives, Extraordinary Mission) stated: “Focus on your mission and you will come to see the struggles of life not as a burden but as an integral part of the process”.  That is the key to our mission……..it is indeed a process, one which makes us stronger through the struggles.

PURPOSE, JOY AND POSITIVES

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Step back; enjoy the moment; breathe deep; smell the freshness of the morning breeze!

Over the past weekend, I had an opportunity to do these things. It’s amazing how much more one can feel ‘present’ in nature.  The beauty of nature can be nearly overwhelming if we watch and listen. That tiny bird chirping, which often goes unnoticed,  is a JOY to hear. The breeze is fresh blowing through your hair. Sipping the hot cup of tea, you savor the herb flavor. Early rays of warmth from the sun send inspiration and gratitude to the depth of your soul. The swaying leaves above seem to say—–wait, enjoy, don’t go yet; there is no real hurry. Take time to dream a little. Herein, lies the beauty.

Life can be put on hold in order to experience these little moments in nature. Whatever you thought you had to do immediately, truly can wait. Technology and social media can be non – existent for the moment, if only to give one a short respite from the constant drum beat of ‘let’s get it done and hurry on to the next to do’. These moments invigorate and revitalize one’s PURPOSE and bring relaxation and JOY into your being.

John Muir, Nature Philosopher, said: “Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul”.

Where will you find your respite in nature this week to invigorate and revitalize your PURPOSE?

 

PURPOSE, JOY AND POSITIVES

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ART…..what a beautiful gift!

I recently returned to one of my passions…..water color painting after a leave of absence for about six years (one of those life things  got in the way). I am realizing each time I sit down to paint how deeply I missed my art practice. Even though not everything I paint is frameable, in my opinion, I feel a sense of my spirit up lifting as I look at a finished piece. Some I will sign and display, others I consider practice.

Art is a way of expressing  feelings, sharing one’s vision of beauty, or bringing a reflected experience to the  light. It presents in many forms….painting, sculpture, ceramics, pottery, drawing, graphics, poetry, music, dancing…….to name a few. Art is in the eye of the beholder, however we may see it, true beauty or not. One’s mind and heart must be open to seeing art in perhaps the simplest of things. I have this thing I say to myself when I ‘see’ art/beauty……THIS  is paintable, or I really want to capture this emotion in color. Sometimes, I am successful and sometimes it escapes what my skill level can do. But I still see the art in my mind. With practice, I know I will POSITIVELY get it right.

Pablo Picasso said: “The PURPOSE of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls.”

What form of art would you like to experience to express yourself? It doesn’t have to be perfect, just art as you see it. Have fun with it!

 

 

PURPOSE, JOY AND POSITIVES

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Having your cake and eating it too! What DOES that even mean?

It is an idiom or a figure of speech that suggests that you use all of something now; it is gone; and yet, you want to be able to have it in the future. But it is all gone!

So, you can’t use all your paycheck to go shopping this week, when you need that money to pay the bills next week. Can’t use all the PTO days at work this month because there might be an emergency and you could desperately need a PTO day in the future. It is so tempting to just do it all; forget about what you might need in the future. OH, this is going to take a lot of patience……..and then some more of that thing we call ‘self-discipline’.

So, I suggest just eating a slice or two of the cake, and then you WILL have some for later when you want it. And you will relish it even more perhaps later.

What is your CAKE that you want to have now and still more of in the future?

PURPOSE, JOY AND POSITIVES

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Summer solstice has just passed and so we are now officially in the JOYous season of summer!

Along with summer comes picnics, swimming at the lake, trips to the beach, biking, beautiful flowering plants, vacationing and hopefully some rest and relaxation. Remember when you were a kid and your parents said “it’s time for a nap”? Now as adults, we may often wish there was some nap time. No one for sure is going to ‘give us permission to nap’, so we just need to give ourselves that permission.

Some  research  has reported that each of our brains does different things during rest mode. For example: some experience “inner seeing”; others noted emotions/feelings bubbling up; some report a greater sensory awareness; while others experienced ‘inner speech’. (Hurlburt, R.T., Alderson-Day B., Fernyhough, C. & Kuhn, S. 2015, Frontiers in Psychology, #6.)

What ever our brains do experience during rest can only happen IF we take that much needed rest. It is a rest away from TV, social media, movies, iPhones, running errands, cleaning, (YES) and all the other things that encompass our daily responsible lives. Even just a few minutes a day of true relaxation with eyes closed, not specifically thinking of anything, and some calm deep breathing in and out, can produce remarkable results in rejuvenation of body, spirit and mind.

I think that William Wadsworth said it well: “Rest and be thankful”.

Plan some rest time for yourself today and everyday.

 

 

PURPOSE, JOY AND POSITIVES

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A lighthouse near the banks of the shore or at sea is the guiding light to bring ships to safe harbor, amidst rushing waters, reefs, or other dangers that are in the path of safety. Before lighthouses, our ancestors built fires high up on the hills to guide the ships, warning of dangers, guiding those at sea.

So it is with fathers or the important people in our lives whose role it is to be our father figure. Sometimes, they don’t show up when we are born, but may present themselves later in our lives, biological fathers or maybe not.  Sometimes, the going may be rough until that father figure appears. Sometimes, they may disappoint us deeply, but they are still our father. We may have to grow to the age of being able to forgive.

These figures are the guiding light to help us on our life path, to warn us of dangers, to show us a safer road, to help us avoid the pitfalls that could crush us, to hold us up when we fall. They can be our superhero’s one day and the next week the strictest person of discipline we have ever encountered. One day we may admire them as our role model and the next week we might wish we had our best friend’s father. Through it all, the one we call ‘father’ in our life is human and will make mistakes; yet, he means only the best for us and will go above and beyond to bring PURPOSE, JOY and POSITIVES into our lives. He is only a man, with his own limitations and skills. And sometimes, it takes us a long long time before we can acknowledge his  role in our lives……maybe not until one day when we become a father.

To each of you who are fathers, father figures, step fathers, grandfathers, foster fathers: May you have a wonderful day of celebrating you, counting your blessings and knowing that you are appreciated and loved. As a father, you may never know how many children you influence, just by your actions and your commitments. You may never know how many lives you touch.

This quote reflects my father. “My father didn’t tell me how to live: he lived, and let me watch him do it”  (Clarence B. Kelland).

 

PURPOSE, JOY AND POSITIVES

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Interesting Road Sign! Made me stop and think about what humility is and is not….. and if I am humble in life.

Fulton Sheen in “Finding True Happiness” said: “Humility is the pathway to knowledge.” As I thought more about this quote, I interpreted it to mean that if we are not all filled up with ourselves and our worldly possessions, we have open spaces in our hearts and minds to take in the things that are really important about life, leading to true knowing.

The Latin meaning of humility literally means low. Examples could be  putting others before yourself; remembering to think of others each day and what they might need; not drawing undue attention to oneself; and maybe even not having to be right. Ohhhhhh, the last one is interesting because we all WANT to be right, sometimes even at the expense of another’s feelings. Someone very wise once told me that the words ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ have no place in relationships. Funny, when you take those words out of your conversations, attitudes shift. Humility has a place to come into your heart. It would seem that having true humility leads to greater contentment with oneself and greater JOY in life.

“Pride is concerned with who is right: humility is concerned with what is right” (Ezra T. Benson).

Have you assessed your humility quotient?

PURPOSE, JOY AND POSITIVES

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One Summer : America 1927 written by Bill Bryson is a  book that highlights all the great happenings of the infamous summer 1927, including Babe Ruth’s rise to fame with 60 home runs, the decisions of Wall Street policy makers that became the fore runner of the 1929 crash, Charles Lindbergh’s flight in a cloth-covered plane (yes) from Paris to New York, television was introduced to the American public, and Henry Ford stopped making the MODEL T. The book also brings in many other savory characters, such as Al Capone and Dorothy Parker, making for a very interesting read. Makes you wonder if there was ever another summer to compare!

Reading the book brought to mind some of my own favorite happenings during summer. Growing up in a small rural town on a farm in central Illinois, the happenings do not equate with those in One Summer: America 1927 and yet those summers are like a movie that replay in my brain bringing me JOY! Summers included riding our horses, going with the family to participate in local parades as dressed up pioneers to ride in the Conestoga wagon my Dad had rigged up,  a Sunday swim in a small man-made lake, picking cherries from our trees in the corner of our front yard, waiting for the mailman each day by the gate at 10:05 AM because he gave us each a piece of Dentyne gum, trips to the local A & W root beer stand (where I eventually had my first job at 15) and helping mom and the neighbor ladies prepare the food on the days the local farmers came to help Dad with our crop of hay (and of course that meant the boys from town would be coming out to work on the farm that day….whoo hoo!). Even though we did not own our farm and had to work the land to live there, times were good and those summer days are close to the most favorite times of my life.

“And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer.” (F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby)

What was your favorite summer and what memories do you have?

PURPOSE, JOY AND POSITIVES

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Last Days of School:

With this holiday weekend of Memorial Day approaching, it signals that the last days of school for this year have just happened or will be happening in a few days….a week at the most. So, students that means no more reading, writing, listening, tests or homework! Really??  Well, maybe we shouldn’t throw all of the above out for the eight weeks of summer.

I would venture to say that reading and writing are the two most important areas that should not be put up on a shelf during the summer. This is true for all students, not just those who were getting some extra help during the school year. In fact, many reading specialists who have researched this topic clearly point out that children who do not read during the summer can lose several months of reading and academic progress. So, here are some ideas for your kids or grandkids to put in to practice this summer to lessen the opportunity to lose reading skills.

  • Make going to the library a weekly excursion.
  • Make a list together with your child about topics and books they would like to read during the summer.
  • Let the child pick some of his own books when guided to the area of the right reading level.
  • Read to your child every single day, even if it is only for 15 minutes.
  • Have many variations of print in your home….books, magazines, maps, pamphlets, coupons, grocery lists, written letters,  etc.
  • Have set times when the adults and the children in the house read on their own for short periods of time. Even small children can have their own bookshelf with picture books they look at during this quiet time.
  • After quiet reading, each family member shares two things they learned from their book. (All answers as long as on topic can be correct).
  • If the child has written language skills, let them write the grocery list (phonetic spelling is fine here) or write the notes to other family members regarding their whereabouts and when the return time is.
  • Search on-line for some sites that have free download books that can be read on the iPad (not all reading should be this way).
  • Get out the paints or crayons and have the children make book marks for themselves and each family member.
  • As a grandparent, I always give a book for every occasion I can think of in the child’s life.

These are just a few ideas to encourage the LOVE and JOY of reading in children. If a child does not learn to like and come to love books and reading, they will not promote it for themselves as  adults, or model it in their own homes one day.

Remember: “You cannot open a book without learning something” (Confucius)

 

 

PURPOSE, JOY AND POSITIVES

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What is WEALTH anyway?

Looking at the picture of Vegas from a few years ago, one might think wealth resides in the glitz, glamour and the allure of ‘winning big’. However, as we all know, Vegas is just for fun sometimes and most of us either break even, win or lose a few dollars, and not much more.

Some define wealth as having a fantabulous home, being able to take extended vacations, or a healthy bottom line in the bank. And there is nothing wrong with aspiring to attain these things. Maybe at some point we have been pretty ill or suffered an accident, and we come to understand that wealth  truly is having good health and being able to physically do the things we desire. As we age and we see our children grown into adults or feel those little loving arms of a grandchild around us, we know that this is pure JOY and wealth in our lives. Most probably wealth has different meanings for each of us during different phases of our lives.

Today, I opened my computer and this quote was the first thing I saw. Truly, I read it several times before it sank in, and now I am reflecting on it for myself. I encourage you to do the same.

“Wealth is a measure of our well-being, most accurately measured in the quality of the human capital and relationships, and the hope and expectations of those relationships.” (Frank J. Hanna,  from  A Graduate’s Guide to Life as noted on Dynamic Catholic.com)