Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday – In Times of Trouble…

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Bible, God, Inner Peace, Meditation, Prayer, Religious Practice, Spiritual Exercises, spirituality, The Calm

They say that we seek comfort during times of trouble. Many reach out to friends and family. Others use activities to take their mind off of things. Some turn to their religious beliefs.

It’s hard now because they’ve banned public gatherings across the country. Religious institutions are closed. No one but families in the home can get together. So how do you get comfort?

Some religious institutions are offering worship services online. Others are doing charitable work in the community by delivering food and other items to those less fortunate or at risk. Some will read their Bible or religious tome and rely on the faith they have in their hearts. I fall into the last group. I have a faith belief that all things happen for a reason and that whatever happens is exactly what should happen. “Everything is in its rightful place in the worlds of God.” – Harold Klemp.

How you comfort yourself and your family is up to you. I am comforted by the timeless principles in the scripture I read daily. I am also comforted by the daily spiritual exercises that help me reach the calm within. It is always there—waiting.

I hope each of you finds the calm in your own way. It is a tremendous place to be during calamity, disaster, and chaos, when the world seems to get more frightening daily.

Be safe. Follow the guidance provided by authorities. Take care of each other. We will all get through this together.

Until next time…

Dave

 

 

Daily Ramblings – Thankful Thursday – The School of Hard Knocks

Tags

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

 

Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday – Be Grounded in Something

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Doing your Best, Expertise, God, Grounded, Harold Klemp, Paying attention, spirituality

“Become an expert in something. You need to be grounded in something. When you do something for God, for the highest principle, you do each step until it sings.”

—Harold Klemp, The Language of Soul

When I first joined the Army back in the early 80s, my first few years were tough. I was going through the motions, doing all I could to stay out of trouble, but my heart wasn’t in it. I was in this organization 24 hours a day and wasn’t really doing all I could to do my best.

I thought about that one weekend and decided to change things up. I said to myself, “You’re here. You might as well make the best of it and do the best you can at anything the Army asks you to do.” It was hard at first.

Then, as I began to gain some pride in myself, I began feeling good about my uniform, my room, my equipment. I began to put even more effort into the service. I began reading military history, started exercising in the base gym, began reading regulations, field manuals, anything I could get my hands on. You know what? My life in the Army transformed. I actually began to enjoy the service I volunteered for. The remaining 18 years was a joy.

I’m not sure if other veterans can relate, but I’m pretty sure that a great many followed the same path I did. They realized that they were here, anyway. Why not do your best with the time you have?

That lesson led to many other experiences and taught me something. It’s better to do the best you can on any job, than half-ass it. You feel great when you do a good job. You feel great when you develop expertise in something. The people around you notice too. They will approach you to help them. They will ask you how you got good at it. They will notice.

I enjoy writing. I enjoy learning. I enjoy programming. I enjoy exercise. I enjoy my spiritual path. In each of these areas and many others I do my best. I do the best I can.

The moral of this posting is this: We can all be lazy and do the bare minimum. That’s easy. If this is you, try something different. Try putting all you have into each task, whether it’s making your bed, folding your laundry, or taking out the trash. Take your time, do the best job you can do. Then, when you’re done, take a minute and think about how you feel. It’s a great feeling when you know you did your best. It feels even better when you decide to do your best for God. Then, it takes on a whole new meaning.

Do everything until it sings.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday – Live Your Life Fully

Tags

Dream, Dreams, God, Life, Live, Purpose, Serve

All of us have dreams. Our dreams are unique to each of us. How do you figure what they are? Some of them are a given. We have to uncover the others.

Sometimes we put off our dreams because we don’t think we’re good enough. Perhaps we lack the training or knowledge we need. Whatever it is, I think many of us give up too quickly.

So how do we overcome something like that? Well, we need to use the same tools we use to create the blocks we put in front of ourselves to begin with. Ignore the blocks for now. Instead, imagine what you would do if you couldn’t fail. Think about that for a moment. What would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail?

If you conducted this little thought experiment you probably felt a huge rush of freedom and the same wonder, you had as a child. This happened when I did it. It exhilarated me.

So now you have the capability of pursuing something that has real meaning for you. This is living. This is what will wake you up in the morning. This is what will cause you to work in your spare time to achieve something you really want.

How do you think anyone else got started? J. K. Rowling, Stephen King, Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawking, anyone you recognize as someone who has achieved great things. If you look at everyone’s history, you see that they all started out the same way. They were all kids at one point. They all had their struggles. Yet, here they are decorating our history with an amazing collection of feats. Sure, in hindsight we could say they had gifts. But, imagine if they chickened out? We wouldn’t have Harry Potter, The Shining, The Theory of Relativity, or a greater knowledge of black holes.

I am a firm believer that each of us is here to learn something, do something. I don’t know what your “thing” is. Figuring this out is up to you. Do you want to live your life pushing the envelope, pursuing your life’s dream or do you want to sit on the sidelines, cowering in fear, afraid to fail at something you haven’t even attempted? I hope you pursue the former.

I don’t know if I’ll ever be a great writer or write a helpful computer program that people will pay for. I don’t know if any of my books will sell. I know that I want to try to, realizing a long time ago that none of us can fail if we keep trying. It may take us longer than we like. It may be harder than we thought, but we can’t fail if we keep pushing forward.

I believe we are all here for a purpose. We’re here to learn. We’re here to serve others. We’re here live our lives fully, experiencing all that life has to offer. Get out there. Make something happen. You have nothing to lose and who knows? You might just get what you want.

Have a great Saturday folks.

Until next time…

Dave

 

Daily Ramblings – Thankful Thursdays – Thanks For the Memories—The Good and the Bad…

Tags

BeautyBeyondBones, Calm, Dark Night of Soul, Faith, God, memories, Peace, Pheonix, Transformation

When I think of “Thanks for the Memories”, I think Bob Hope. If you’re too young to remember him, he was an actor and a comedian and did a lot of work with the USO to support our men and women in uniform.

I’m thankful for my memories. There are good ones and bad ones. What I’ve found over time is that the bad ones fade a bit, some even funny, while the good ones just get stronger.

I’m thankful for the bad ones because they teach us so much. I always learn more during the hard times than I do during the easy times. I think this happens because when your survival instincts kick in; you are so alive. Every sense is tingling, your creativity is through the roof.

The most important learning I have gained from the bad memories I have had is that you survived. It was tough. It was hard, but you made your way through it. If you want to read some stories that will just knock you in the dirt, check out my friend’s blog Beauty Beyond Bones.

I have not read her book yet, but it’s on my list. Read through a few of her blog posts, particularly the early ones when she just started out. I don’t want to give anything away, but they are heartbreaking. I’m a sucker for people who have faced this kind of adversity and win. She’s a testament of faith, belief in God, and is just “hard as nails.”

My memories are not as stark as hers, but they are uniquely my own. Each of us when we face those “dark nights of soul” rely on our creativity, our faith, and anything else we can grab onto to pull ourselves out of that deep, dark hole we find ourselves in, when nothing is going right, nothing works, and there appears to be no way out. It takes an iron will to push through these periods in our lives. Slowly, we pull ourselves out.

We are stronger, learn what NOT to do, and we evolve, much like the legend of the Phoenix, who rises from the ashes—renewed. After we’ve endured and recovered from events like these, we are different. We look at life with a new set of eyes. We realize that we are stronger than we ever thought we were.

I’m a firm believer that God never gives us something we cannot handle. God knows us better than we ever will. God gives us these experiences to become stronger spiritually, so we can serve others.

My good memories are always better. You feel them more. The day I proposed to my wife. The day I graduated from college. The day I graduated from Ranger School. My wife and I’s first date. These memories, along with many more, fill my heart with love. All of us have these memories. Hold on to them. They will continue to fill your heart with warmth and a love that is indescribable.

I hope each of you is having a great week. It’s late where I am (around 11:30 pm). I can hear the customary trains coming through town. It’s 27 degrees outside, and all is quiet. My time alone at night is a precious time. During these times I reminisce through all of my experiences, listen to calming music, and thank God for this life. A life that has been worth living, filled with adventure, excitement, fear, pain, boredom, and all the rest. I hope each of you can find a moment or time during the day to reach the same place I find myself every evening. A place of calm, peace, and gratitude for the gift of living.

Thanks for your attention.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday – Love is All You’ll Take With You

Tags

Attachment, family, Friends, God, ideology, Love, Material Things, Possessions, Unattachment

Quotes inspire most of my articles.

Every once in a while a picture will capture my interest. This one of a Lotus floating on water inspired me today. When I look at it, I see the flower floating on the calmness of an undisturbed pool of water. It is a vision of serenity.

I ask myself, how could life be like that? Calm, immune to the chaos surrounding us. Just floating along without a care in the world. I think this level of serenity comes from a place of detachment. Detachment is the opposite of attachment.

Attachment causes all kinds of problems. It causes us to argue with our loved ones when we are attached to a set of ideas and unwilling to listen to another side. “We’ll have none of that”, you say. You’re wrong and I’m right.

Attachment causes us to feel a sense of loss when we lose something we value (attached to). Think about the people that have taken their own life when they lose their finances.

Attachment causes us great pain when a loved one passes and even more pain when we realize that we will pass too.

Attachment is a hard one to get rid of. All of us are attached to something, whether we think we are or not. When you feel loss, you can bet that your attachment to that thing you lost is what is causing your suffering.

What if you could live a life of detachment? How would that look? It would be a life of service. You give all you have because you are unafraid of losing anything. It would be a life of charity. You would do all you could for someone without care for a reward or anything in return. When you are detached, you have all you need, because you don’t desire anything. You simply live in the moment, appreciative for the blessings you have received. If tomorrow brings loss, it rolls off of you, because there is no loss when you are unattached to things in your life.

Life is a series of changes. You gain friends and lose them. You get pets and you lose them. You have a job today and lose it tomorrow. You have your health today and it’s gone tomorrow. Everything in life changes. When you are attached to these things they are painful to lose. When you are unattached to these things, you wake up and say thanks for what you do have. Simple right? Not so much.

Whenever I am feeling down, sad, or upset, I look for the attachment in my life. It is normally the culprit behind my discomfort. Sometimes it is hard to let things go, but let them go you must, now or later.

Think about it. When you die, what are you taking with you? Exactly. Nothing but the love you carry in your heart. That’s all you take. All the toys, glittery bobbles, clothes, friends, family, pets, homes, jobs—everything.

Whenever I remember that all I’ll take is the love in my heart, I lose a little of my attachment. I keep this thought in my mind always. When you pass away, you will take none of the things you have right now but the love in your heart. Enjoy your toys, your friends, your loved ones while they’re here. Rejoice in the creature comforts you have right now. They are all blessings. Just remember, when they go away, thank God for the privilege of having them while you did and move on. You’ll enjoy life so much better when you preserve and build what you will take with you–the love in your heart.

Until next time…

Dave

 

Daily Ramblings – Thankful Thursdays – What I am Grateful For

Tags

Friends, God, Goodwill, Nature, Parents, pets, Siblings, Stepdaughters, Wife

I am thankful for the holiday season. I enjoy spending time with my family, connecting with friends, sending out cards, gifts, and all the great food we’ll enjoy together.

I am thankful for the seasonal shows that warmed my heart as a child that are still on television today.

I am thankful for my Mom and Dad, Brother and Sister, Wife and Stepdaughters, Friends and Colleagues, and the spiritual community I am part of.

I am grateful for the bad times when I learn a great deal and the good times when I can rest and lick my wounds.

I am grateful for a safe place to live, enough food to eat, and my health.

I am grateful for what I have and the blessings that sprinkle down on me in every waking moment.

I am grateful for social media and this blogging community. The stories you share are heartfelt, sad, happy, and span the entire spectrum of emotions we have access to. I am also grateful for those of you who have shared a comment on my writings, interacted with me, albeit briefly, and let me peek into your world for a few moments. These moments are precious to me.

I am grateful for the pictures, the tales of your travels, the recipes, the makeup and clothes you wear, the exercise routines you follow, the books you read, and the food you eat.

I am grateful for the battles you fight, the challenges you face, and the victories you achieve.

I am grateful for the authors that write their books for me, the directors that create movies for me, the musicians that create their music for me, and the artists that create their pictures and drawings for me. I am grateful for the poets that expose their soft center to me.

I am grateful for the teachers who have taught me, the mentors that have coached me, and the leaders who have led me.

I am grateful for the dentists, doctors, nurses, and surgeons that have healed me.

I am grateful for the women who have loved me and shared their lives with me. I am grateful for the friends who liked me for who I am. I am grateful for the stranger that lets me jump the line when they see I have little to purchase. I am grateful for the smiles of the young children who give them to me freely.

I am grateful for the pets that have blessed me with their undying love, loyalty, and companionship.

I am grateful for the beauty of nature. I am grateful for the trees that provide the shade during the summer, and gleam with a fresh snow in the morning. I am grateful for the animals that visit us to enjoy the food we put out for them.

I am grateful for the gifts I am blessed with.

I am grateful for this life.

I extend my goodwill to all in the universes of God.

May the blessings be.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Thankful Thursday – Life is a Celebration

Tags

Blessings, God, Grateful, Happy Halloween, Harold Klemp, Life, Thankful

“So few know what a love for living means. They’ve put a web around themselves and called it spiritual. Life is a celebration. Some will read that as wanton living, but true celebration is loving God and Its own.” – Harold Klemp – The Language of Soul

This quote struck me today as appropriate for today, because we are celebrating another Halloween. If you do not celebrate today, cool. We celebrate by passing out goodies to the kids that come around to the house. I enjoy watching scary movies and we enjoy the many costumed kids that come to the door.

Halloween marks the beginning of the holiday season for me. When Halloween hits, there’s Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day and then we’re off to a new adventure. It’s also nice because my wife’s birthday and our wedding anniversary is in December too.

I love life. I really do. I enjoy what I do every day; I feel great physically and mentally, and it is a true gift to spend time with my folks in their senior years. Yeah, as a family we have our days, but for the most part, it’s great fun. My Dad likes telling stories about his childhood and my Mom does too. We eat most of our meals as a family and we are all readers, spending most of the “bad weather” days inside combing through our books.

My love of life is spurred by my gratitude. I try to find gratitude for all I do and receive. I am grateful for my family, friends, colleagues, siblings, and God. It is a wonderful feeling to wake up every day knowing that God loves me and every moment I am here is a blessing God has given me to gain experience and learn how to love and serve others. This is simplicity itself.

Happy Halloween! (for those that celebrate)

Have a great Thursday, the last day of October, and get ready to attack November.

Until next time…

Dave

 

Daily Ramblings – Thankful Thursday – Thank You New Followers

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Comments, family, followers, Friends, God, Gratitude, Life, Thank you

This week I thank all of my followers. I am grateful for the new followers this week and I am grateful for the comments left by a few of you (These make my day!).

I am grateful for all the great writing on WordPress. Some stories are heart-breaking, but show how strong you are and how you are dealing with the adversities that life hands us from time-to-time. Thank you for the stories you tell.

I am grateful for my health. I am grateful for God. I am grateful for my friends. I am grateful for my family. I am grateful for my life. It has been and continues to be rich.

I hope each of you can see how wonderful this life is and the blessings you receive every moment.

Have a great Thursday!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Thankful Thursday – Gifts

Tags

Blessings, Gifts, God, Grateful, Gratitude, Life, Reverence, Unique

Your talent is God’s gift to you. What you do with it is your gift back to God. – Leo Buscaglia

We all have talents. We are all good at something. Today, I am grateful for the natural gifts I have been blessed with.

One of my greatest gifts is my affinity for learning. I have always enjoyed school and learning new things. Now that I am done with formal schooling, the freedom to learn new things is important. I enjoy learning about everything. Obviously, I am focused on learning more about computer programming, writing, and continuous self-improvement, but I am always interested in finding courses on topics ranging from history to philosophy. I consider this ability to learn and my curiosity to be great gifts.

What gifts do you have? What God-given gifts do you have that you are grateful for?

If you are unaware of them, take a moment and do a personal inventory. What do you do for a living? What hobbies do you have? What do you enjoy doing? Your gift is in there somewhere. Maybe you have an affinity for exploring and adventure? Maybe you enjoy the gift of great motor skills and video games are your forte? Maybe you like a good story and you love to read and watch movies and television shows. Maybe you are a great organizer and a master at raising your kids. Or maybe your gift is an endless well of patience and love that you give to everyone around you.

You see, the gifts you receive are going to be unique to you and your life circumstances. They may not be as concrete as mine, but you will have them. You just have to look at what you do, where you are, and what you naturally gravitated towards. These gifts are priceless. They are what make us unique. They allow us to participate in life, adding to the quilt of our reality, where each of us plays a part.

Take some time to think about this today. You may have never thought about it before. I think you’ll be amazed at the gifts you have been given and how you use them in your everyday life. Still having difficulty? Check out this article: Self-Worth: 5 Ways to Identify Your Unique Gifts, provided by Tris Thorp from the Chopra Center. I think you’ll be surprised and you will get a huge A-ha when you begin thinking about this.

Once you know what your strengths are, take some time to see if there is anything you could do with this gift that you are not currently doing. This may provide you some direction that is lacking in your life, or you may just get a confirmation that you are doing exactly what you should be doing.

There are so many things to be grateful for in this life. Life is precious and a gift. Take full advantage of what you have. I wish all of you a terrific Thursday!

Until next time…

Dave