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Tag Archives: Experience

Daily Ramblings – Wisdom Wednesday – Thomas Merton

05 Wednesday Jan 2022

Posted by Dave Gardner in Wisdom Wednesday

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Ambition, Experience, Happiness, Love, scholars, Soul, Thomas Merton, Wisdom Wednesday

Love is our true destiny. We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone – we find it with another.

Thomas Merton

The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them.

Thomas Merton

When ambition ends, happiness begins.

Thomas Merton

We do not exist for ourselves alone, and it is only when we are fully convinced of this fact that we begin to love ourselves properly and thus also love others.

Thomas Merton

Every moment and every event of every man’s life on earth plants something in his soul.

Thomas Merton

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Merton

The above link will take you to Thomas Merton’s Wikipedia page. Wow, what a life! I encourage each of you to take a few minutes, and share a cup of coffee or tea with Thomas as you explore his life. It was truly an inspiring one. This is the first of my Wisdom Wednesday posts in 2022, and this was an awesome find. I continue to wish all of you health, prosperity, love, and high adventure in 2022.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday – The Law of Fixidity

28 Saturday Nov 2020

Posted by Dave Gardner in Spiritual Saturday

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

Experience, fixidity, higher worlds, Learning, liberation, lower worlds, Negative, Neutral, Physical body, Positive, Soul

In my religious path, we believe in two realms of worlds–the lower worlds and the higher worlds. The lower worlds are bound by matter, energy, space and time and are fixed, while the higher worlds are not bound by these same characteristics, and are unlimited.

The lower worlds are designed for Soul to learn. The design gives them the appearance of completeness, spaciousness, and accommodation, yet are beset with numberless restrictions. Subsequently, everything here comes with advantages and disadvantages. Everything has a “catch”.

A person is rich, but dies from a disease money can’t cure. A person commits evil acts and gets away with it (or so he or she thinks). Bad things happen to good people, without any rhyme or reason. Change is permanent here.

When we realize we are not this body, the fixidity of this reality makes sense. We live, we die, we return to do it all over again. Only when we realize the temporal nature of this place, we will begin to search for something beyond this. When we do, we find that Soul is the real us, and these many bodies and lifetimes we experience are just that–experience, so Soul can learn and become liberated from this ever-turning wheel.

Have a great Saturday!!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Thankful Thursdays – The Year of Thanksgiving

19 Thursday Nov 2020

Posted by Dave Gardner in Thankful Thursdays

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Awareness, consciousness, Experience, family, Friends, Karma, spiritual growth, Thankful, Thanksgiving

My religion labels every year with a theme that runs in 12-year cycles. This year’s theme is The Year of Thanksgiving. We place special emphasis on being grateful for the gifts of God. These gifts are awareness, consciousness, and spiritual freedom.

My gratitude is boundless for the blessings of this life. The people I have met, those that took the time to teach me something, and especially for those that called me friend. I’m grateful for my family, friends, and every person who has given me some of their time.

I’m also grateful for every win and loss. They are both necessary for growth. We grow when we lose. We grow when we struggle. We grow when we have to search for answers to our problems.

I’m also grateful to be an ECKist. The spiritual insights I have gained have been wondrous. It’s hard to put these things in words. It is the knowingness that is most precious.

For these things I am grateful. Life is a gift. Life is precious. Life is a privilege.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Thankful Thursdays – Grateful for Authors

09 Thursday Jul 2020

Posted by Dave Gardner in Thankful Thursdays

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Authors, Books, Entertain, Experience, Fiction, Non-Fiction, Storytelling, Teach, Writing

This week I’m grateful for the many authors that have entertained me or taught me something.

So many authors I’ve read and so many have contributed to my way of thinking. It would be impossible to list all of them here, but I have learned a great deal from the authors I have read. Covey, Sowell, Tolstoy, Tolkien, Allen, Shapiro, Seneca, Aristotle, Einstein, Feynman, Hawking, and the list goes on and on.

I’ve probably read more Non-fiction than fiction, but fiction writers like K.M. Allan, Tolkien, Burroughs, Poe, Doyle, have also taught me a great deal. Fiction teaches, too. You just have to read a talented author and peer into their words to learn something about them. Good fiction is drawn from life experiences. So when I read an author from an unfamiliar part of the world or time period, you learn about what they experienced in their lives and what they are teaching.

So, today I am grateful for the many authors who have contributed to the world.

Have a great Thursday!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Thankful Thursday – The School of Hard Knocks

13 Thursday Feb 2020

Posted by Dave Gardner in Thankful Thursdays

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Experience, God, Hardship, Love, pain, Suffering, Teacher, Thankful, trouble

I review my life quite a bit. I wonder why I did this or that. I relish the experiences I’ve had. I like looking back at what I call a pinnacle moment. That moment when you make a decision that drastically changes your life. Sometimes a change comes because we want it. Other times, it comes because we have no other choice.

I’ve experienced bankruptcy, death, horror, fear, extreme boredom, and high adventure. I’ve experienced divorce, breakups, and the loss of dear friends. I’ve achieved some pretty terrific things and failed miserably at others.

What have I gathered so far in this life? Quite a bit of wisdom. I’ve learned what to avoid. I’ve learned about myself. My definition of love has changed. I’ve cultivated a gratitude for everything in my life.

I think about how I am today, compared to what I was. When I look back over the years, I didn’t like my earlier self too much. But you have to start somewhere. Over the years, hardship and problems have smoothed out the rough edges. I’ve become more accepting of other people and empathize more with people in tough positions. Perhaps this empathy developed because I have experienced some of these things myself or at least can measure another person’s troubles more accurately now that I have experienced some of the things others have.

Would I change anything? No. My life is the way it is today because of each bump, scratch, and tear. I like where I am today. There are many more things to learn, perhaps even more suffering, but each experience is a gift. One of my friends told me that many people are upset with life because of what life does to them. He told me that life doesn’t do anything to us—life does things for us. To rephrase, it’s not what is done to us, but what is done for us.

We are all here to learn through experience. God wants us to come home, but only when we have learned to serve others, to love others, and receive the love of others. When we achieve that state, we can then become Co-workers with God and carry out our mission for the good of all.

I hope each of you has a terrific Thursday.

Until next time…

Dave

 

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Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday – Earth is a Classroom

07 Saturday Dec 2019

Posted by Dave Gardner in Spiritual Saturday

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Coincidence, Experience, Growth, Learning, Maya, Purpose, spirituality, Truth, Unfoldment

Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself and know that everything in this life has a purpose. There are no mistakes, no coincidences. All events are blessings given to us to learn from. Elizabeth Kübler-Ross – Courtesy Wisdom Quotes

When I look back on my life, it is amazing to see how all the puzzle pieces come together. Each action, each decision resulted in my current circumstances. Perhaps it is because I like to find those pivot points—the points in my life that impacted my future life. I suppose all of our actions are pivot points, but the ones I think about are the points we arrive at that are forks in the road. If I went this way, I’d be here. If I went that way, I’d be there.

I believe this quote to the bone. We are exactly where we are supposed to be. The things that occur in our life are not a chance, bad luck, good luck, or mistakes. They just are.

It is sometimes surprising to see this in action. Why did I do that? So I could be doing this now. Why did I go there?  So I could be here now. I may not be explaining this right, but everything, and I mean everything has led to where I am.

All of us experience pain, suffering, hardships, and loss. We also experience love, success, joy, and pleasure. These are all realities in our lives. Our loved ones will pass away like we will someday. How do you deal with that? You live your life the best way you can, serve others, and realize that the physical shell you wear in this lifetime is just that–a shell. The real you is eternal. That you never dies. Nor do the real selves of your loved ones. We all continue.

When you realize this truth, there is no sorrow, pain, hardships or loss. There is only experience. This experience is what the real you needs to unfold and become more aware. The more you experience, the more you grow. The more you grow, the more service you can provide. Serving others without expectation of reward is the key. When you give of yourself selflessly, you gain more than you know.

The real you is on Earth to learn. Earth is a classroom. Nothing more, nothing less.

Until next time…

Dave

 

 

 

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Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday – Experience

06 Saturday Jul 2019

Posted by Dave Gardner in Spiritual Saturday

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Tags

Albert Einstein, Experience, Getting out there, Learning, Living, Spiritual, wisdom

“The only source of knowledge is experience.” – Albert Einstein

Quote provided by: Brainyquote.com

Read about any sport. Now go play the sport you read about. Huge difference right? This is what Albert is referring to. Albert Einstein is well known for his thought experiments but also for his prowess in Math and Physics.

Look at anyone who is gifted in a particular area. All of them practice. All of them do. They gain knowledge of their sport, their gift, or their talent by learning how to do it themselves. Look at any sports hero you admire. Babe Ruth and Michael Jordan started out just as ignorant as the rest of the folks who ever picked up a baseball bat or basketball.

I don’t care what field of study or endeavor you look at. Every person has to start out as a beginner and work there way to expert. Some read about what they need to know to accomplish something, others learn from a coach or mentor, some just grit through it and learn on their own.

Think back to a time you learned to ride a bike, drive a car, or learned how to operate a cash register in your first job. Someone told you how to do it, then they showed you how to do it, and then they let you do it. It took a little time, but you learned. With time, you can now ride a bike, drive a car, and operate a computer or some other complicated machine with ease.

We learn all kinds of things through experience. We learn how to ask a girl out on a date. We learn what it means to be nice or polite. We learn how important it is to keep our commitments to other people. Some of this learning is through trial and error. We ask a girl out on a date and totally flub it up. Then we ask out another girl and it goes a little better. We learn what to say. We learn how to react to the responses a girl gives.

Sometimes experience isn’t so nice. Think about a time you committed to something and couldn’t keep your promise. The person we made the commitment to is upset with us and we feel guilty. We learn that we need to be more careful when committing to something because breaking that commitment hurts worse than the disappointment someone expresses when we tell them we can’t do this or that.

There are so many experiences in a lifetime. All of them teach us something about ourselves and other people. We learn all the time if we pay attention. We learn more if we are willing to get out there and do something. Life is about gaining experience. We need experience to grow. We need to learn what to do and what not to do. Through experience we gain wisdom.

I hope each of you has a great Saturday! The weatherman predicts thunderstorms today. Today will be a day of reading, writing, gaming, and catching a series or movie in the den with Dad. What are you doing today?

Until next time…

Dave

42.997350
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Daily Ramblings – Thankful Thursdays

10 Thursday Jan 2019

Posted by Dave Gardner in Thankful Thursdays

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Challenges, Experience, Gratitude, improvement, Learning, Opposites, Paradox, Thanks, Travis Barker

“Thank you for life, and all the little ups and downs that make it worth living.” – Travis Barker

Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/travis_barker_468582?src=t_thankful

I am grateful for this life. A life filled with adventure, love, learning, and interacting with others. I am grateful for the problems, challenges, sorrows, and mistakes. I am grateful for the teachers and mentors I have benefited from. I am grateful for everything this life has provided to me. Without the challenges, life would be boring.

Think about your life for a moment. How can you be happy without the ability to be sad? How can you be healthy without the ability to be sick? How can you be bored without the ability to be engaged?

We live in a world that is composed of opposites and paradoxes. These opposites are necessary for our existence. Without the valleys there would be no mountains. Without heat there would not be cold. Without problems there would be no solutions.

I am grateful for change. Without change life would be static. There would be no growth, no learning, no experiences worth our while. The changes that come in our lives make life interesting. They keep us on our toes. They spurn learning, particularly when life tosses us an unpleasant surprise.

Think about the last time you were sick. When you get better you cherish the health that returns. Think about the last time you lost a loved one. When you find a new partner, pet, or friend you cherish that relationship more because you have felt loneliness, emptiness, and sorrow.

Think about when you learned the most. It is likely a time of stress, peril, and uncertainty. Without the opposites that are ever-present in our lives, we would have nothing to compare the good times with. They would all just be. This would cause problems because our minds could not grasp good or bad, up or down, light or dark. We need change. We need the opposites. We need the ups and downs of life.

Each year around this time, I contemplate my life. I look at past mistakes. I look at past victories. I look at my experiences. Some of these experiences have been unpleasant. Some of these experiences have been wonderful. Some of these experiences have been horrible. Some of these experiences have been healing. With each experience we go through we come out of them stronger, wiser, and more loving.

Why is the world set up this way? Why are we here? We are here to learn how to give love and receive love. We are here to become stronger spiritually. We are here to contribute to one another and participate in life. Your life is about learning, teaching, communicating, and contributing. Right now, you are the strongest and best you have ever been.

I invite you to do the same thing I am doing. Contemplate your life. Find those time periods where you had great success. Find the times your life was turned inside out. Look for patterns. You’ll be amazed when you see how each problem or challenge you faced made you stronger and put you in a situation that was better than the situation you were in previously.

Once you have completed this exercise, write down the things you have learned. Write down the things you have done. Write down the things you would like to do. Then get around to doing them. Live a life of meaning, purpose, and achievement. What else do you have to do?

I hope you are having a great time this year. I hope you have some goals you are committed to. I hope you are laying the plans for a great 2019. I wish all of you well on your journey this year.

Until next time…

Dave

42.997350
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Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday

20 Saturday Oct 2018

Posted by Dave Gardner in Spiritual Saturday

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Experience, Personality, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, spirituality, Uniqueness

“We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.” – Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Found at https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/pierre_teilhard_de_chardi_160888?src=t_spiritual

Have you ever thought about how different each of us is from one another? We all interpret the world differently. We all experience things differently. These experiences add the ways we interpret and react to the world.

Who are we? Are we this body that will run down and die? Are we the mind that will degrade and lose its elasticity? What makes our personality unique?

I am not going to inject my opinion here. Instead, I’ll just give you something to ponder for the rest of the weekend, should you choose to do so. The clue is in the quote above.

Until next time…

Dave

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Daily Ramblings – Daily Quote

10 Saturday Jun 2017

Posted by Dave Gardner in Quotes

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Experience, Good times, Life, Quote, trouble, Victoria Holt

Happy Saturday Readers!

Today’s quote:

“Never regret. If it’s good, it’s wonderful. If it’s bad, it’s experience.” – Victoria Holt

I really like this quote because it speaks to life. Our life is a series of experiences. Our attitudes, values, norms, and beliefs are what dictate whether an experience is good or bad. Imagine taking a stance where all experience was good because of its contribution to our learning.

We learn when we mess up right? We really do not learn anything when we get things right. We really do not learn anything when we are having an easy time of it. When things are easy we tend to sit back and enjoy it. It’s the hard times that truly benefit us, even though we wished they didn’t happen. Who likes to get hurt, sick, lose a loved one, or run into financial troubles? How do we react to these situations?

At first, we’re in shock. No one ever expects a loved one to die or leave us for another. No one ever expects to lose their job without notice. No one ever expects to be told they have a new condition or disease to worry about and no one purposely goes out of their way to sprain an ankle or break an arm.

What do we do? We deal with these things. We learn to compensate, we learn to be happy without someone being around, and we learn how to pick up the pieces and find a new job. All of this takes time, mind you, but we all adapt to our misfortunes and climb our way out of the hole we’ve dug. Interestingly, if we pay attention, our situations, after we’ve overcome hardships, tend to get better.

We end up with someone that is better for us. We end up with a new job that is better tailored to our circumstances. We end up compensating physically to an illness, disease, or condition, and learn new skills or find new alternatives. Ultimately, we become stronger, better, and more resilient, only to be hit by another challenge in the future.

Pay attention.

Learn.

Experience.

After a while, the ebbs and flows of life won’t matter. You’ll be strong enough to handle anything and take it in stride. You’ll enjoy the good times more deeply and you’ll deal with future problems with grace and love. After all, what are we here to do in this life? We are here to learn how to give and receive love.

I hope you have a terrific Saturday!

See you tomorrow…

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