Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Counting Our Blessings

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Blessings, Eric Hoffer, Grateful, Gratitude, Monday, Mood, motivation, Simple Things

The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings.

Eric Hoffer

I have touched on this topic before, but thought it was appropriate to attend to it again. The topic: Gratitude Journaling. We all know that much of our motivation is tied to our attitudes and moods. What better way to cheer ourselves up than to write down all the things we are grateful for. The really important ones are those things we take for granted.

Expressing gratitude for a warm bed, a roof over your head, plenty of food, and good health are good ones to start with. Another thing to think about are the people in your life and how they bring you joy. When was the last time you wrote down how grateful you were for your significant other? It’s so easy to get mired in the day-to-day doldrums and monotonous schedules we gravitate to just to make a living.

Starting a gratitude journal is pretty easy. You write down a date and write down 2 or 3 things you are grateful for. Try to think of different things each day. If you have to repeat, no problem. The key is to just spend a few moments thinking about how good life really is, when you think about it.

Have a great Monday, folks!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Funny Friday – Thanks!

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Blogging, Contributing, Friends, Funny Friday, Gratitude, Readers, Reading, Sharing, Thanks

All, I’m taking a little break from the funny videos today, to express my thanks to my readers and all the new followers of Daily Ramblings. When I started blogging in 2016, I had no idea what this was about. Now that Daily Ramblings has been up for a while, I am still amazed by the folks on this platform. So much talent!

It is also terrific to peer into your lives, for a few minutes each day and see what you are up to. The pictures you post, the stories you tell, the neat “finds” you share, are all a wonderful part of this special place.

I hope each of you have a terrific weekend. Thanks for reading, sharing, and following. This has truly been a positive blessing in my life and I look forward to many more years of contributing, sharing, and learning.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – TED Talk Tuesday –

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Cranberry Sauce, family, Friends, Gratitude, Happy, Holiday, pumpkin, Thanksgiving, Turkey

Here’s another Ted Talk with a Thanksgiving feel! I hope you enjoy these neat little facts about pumpkins. Have a great Tuesday!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Thankful Thursday – Grateful I Am Vaccinated

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Consequences, Covid, family, Freedom, Friends, Grateful, Gratitude, vaccine

The folks got their COVID booster shots yesterday and today they are both sore. I’ll be getting mine when I am eligible. Friends of ours had an encounter with COVID recently. The husband was hospitalized and the wife tested positive as well. Both of them are vaccinated. Thank God they were vaccinated, or they may have joined many who have succumbed to this nasty thing.

My view on COVID is this: Each of us is an individual and we have the right to choose what is best for us. If we choose to get vaccinated, so be it. If we choose not to, that’s ok too.

The thing for me is that each individual has the freedom to do what is best for them, but whatever decision they make, they have to live with the consequences. My brother is the only one in our family that chose not to vaccinate. My sister’s boyfriend has also chosen not to get the vaccine. The consequences of these choices is that both have to get tested before they visit us. This is for our protection.

The point I am making here is that you cannot make a decision without consequences–good or bad. If you do not want to get vaccinated, then deal with the limitations on where you can work, where you can travel, and the risks associated with that decision.

Today, I am thankful I got vaccinated. I did not buy into all the conspiracy theories out there about being “chipped” and all the rest. I also continue to live the way we all lived in 2020. I realized during this time that going out to dinner or to a movie were nice, but not necessary. We can order in. We can stream most movies now online, even the ones that are in theaters, which are coming out more quickly than before. When I’m feeling particularly lazy, I even get my groceries delivered.

I hope all of you have a great Thursday!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Ted Talk Tuesday – The Amazing Effects of Gratitude

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Benefits, effects, Gratitude, Life, Looking at the bright side, TedEd, Thankful, Thankfulness

I figured since we are so close to Thanksgiving, this would be an appropriate video for those of you may not keep a Gratitude Journal or practice counting your blessings each day. It is a wondrous time of year!

A good friend of our family provided a quote that I’ve kept close to the chest since hearing it. He said, “When things go bad in your life, you have to remember that these things are not done to you, but for you.”

This quote is all about turning a sour note to a wondrous melody. Sure, we all have our relationship, financial, health, and other problems, but in the end there’s some lesson to be learned. We learn how strong we are. We learn how loving we are. We learn how resilient we are. I think we learn the most when times are tough. What a gift, right?

Gratitude is about looking at every situation with a sense of thankfulness. It’s being thankful for what we have, not what we do not have. It is realizing that we have all we need. Perhaps it isn’t all we want, but it is what we need.

I hope you enjoy this video.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Ted Talk Tuesday – Gratitude

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Focus on the Good, Gratitude, Humility, life-changing, TedEd, Thankfulness, You are enough, You have all you need

One of my goals for running this blog is to help people feel a little better than they did before reading or viewing one of my posts. There is enough bad news out there. You do not have to look very hard to find it. So, Daily Ramblings is something you can open up to feel good. I try to keep my posts short, so I do not take up too much of your time.

I hope you enjoy this video. Gratefulness plays a huge part of my life, and this month, with Thanksgiving right around the corner, it is the one time each year where we can sit back, reflect, and relish all the things we are truly thankful for. I hope this video inspires you to seek out opportunities in your day that you are grateful for and perhaps make purposeful gratefulness a part of your everyday routine.

Have a great day, folks!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Thankful Thursday – Tech Gear

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Apple Arcade, Fun, Grateful, Gratitude, iPad, iPhone, Relaxation

Today, I’m thankful for some of my tech gear. I just started playing Call of Duty Mobile. It is the same as Call of Duty for the Xbox console, but this version can be played on the iPad. I am also grateful for my Nimbus+ game controller, which I use to play Call of Duty on my iPad. It is just like a controller for a console, but connects via bluetooth to the iPad or even the iPhone. I became interested in this because playing with my fingers just wasn’t working out. The controller brings a whole new feel to the game and mimics play on my Xbox. I have a lot of fun playing this game, because it is so much like the Xbox version, but with its own story line, weapons, and challenges.

Another nice thing about the Nimbus+ is that it is also compatible with a lot of the games in the Apple Arcade. These are terrific games that are free of commercials and are not pay to win, like so many iPad/iPhone games. They are like the traditional video games you may play on consoles or other devices.

I hope all of you have a terrific Thursday!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Thankful Thursday – Gratitude Journaling

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Content, Grateful, Gratitude, Gratitude Journaling, Happy, journaling, Thankful

As each of you know, I write about something each Thursday I am grateful for. This is an easy exercise, because I write down all the things I’m grateful for in my Gratitude Journal each day. It is a terrific exercise, because it focuses me on the good in life, rather than the bad. A quick flip of the switch and I am in a better mood for the whole day. The real trick, however, is capturing what I am grateful for during the day and writing these down before bed.

It is nice waking up and thinking about the things I’m grateful for, and I sleep so much better, when I realize how blessed my life has been. If you have never tried gratitude journaling, give it a whirl. I developed the habit using The 5-Minute Journal. After using it for a bit, I decided to add this to my Onenote app. I use Onenote for all of my journals. It’s nice to have everything in one place, and have access to it everywhere, since Onenote is a cloud-based app.

Give this a whirl. Start small. Maybe you only write down one thing you are grateful for starting out. I stick with three. Sometimes I have more, though. It’s your journal. Make it what you wish.

I hope all of you have a terrific Thursday, and have something to be grateful for when you go to bed. I always do. You just have to look around a little bit.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Thankful Thursday – Variety

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Appreciative, Four Seasons, Grateful, Gratitude, Rain, Snow, Thankful, Thunderstorms, Variety, weather

You know, when I was living in California and Arizona I loved the weather. It was pretty consistent–warm and sunny. Now that I am back in Michigan, I realized how nice it is to have some variety in the weather. I love the four seasons. I love the rain. I love the thunder storms. I love the snow. I love the fall.

In Michigan, we experience what has been appropriately labeled the “lake effect”. The Great Lakes play havoc on the weather here, ensuring that meteorologists everywhere are wrong. We will get a storm warning and nothing happens. We get a clear skies prediction and the clouds roll in. We get rain when the skies have been blue all morning. This variety is refreshing. I like not knowing what the weather will do.

For those of you living in tropical climates or in states like Arizona and California, I get it. Living with year-round blue skies is a great thing, but for me, now that I am back in Michigan, the variety is so much nicer. Here’s to variety.

Have a great Thursday, folks!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Thankful Thursday – Home

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cozy, Grateful, Gratitude, Happy, Home, Life, Nook, Thankful

Today, I’m grateful for a warm, comfortable home. It’s paid for, everything works, and it is just so cozy. I have my little nook in the living room by the front room window where I do my work, read, write, learn, etc. When I go to bed at night, I think about how grateful I am for this life. It didn’t turn out the way I thought it would, but the surprises in life along the way have been terrific.

Life is full of surprises, yet in the end, things always work out for the best—a “best” we could not have foreseen. I’ll leave it here for today. Take stock of what you are grateful for. I do this every day, and it is a treasured time to contemplate all the good in my life. We have so much control over how we react to the challenges, joys, and surprises in life. Look for the good and you’ll find it.

Until next time…

Dave