Daily Ramblings – Thankful Thursday – It’s Great to Learn New Things

Tags

Coursera, family, God, Learning, Life, Reading, Udemy, Writing

Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay

Today I am grateful for the ability to read, write, and learn. Think about some people on the planet that are illiterate or have suffered from a traumatic brain injury or a learning disability that precludes them from learning the same way you and I learn. My wife is a special education teacher, and she works with these kids every day.

I am grateful for my interest in learning new things. I truly enjoy learning something I didn’t know yesterday. I enjoy taking a trip with an author and walking through the mental libraries they have created in their books. “Look here”, they say. “Look there. This is really important.” I am also grateful for the free repositories of books online and my local library. So many books to read and so little time.

Online learning is also a terrific thing. Think about it. You can learn a great deal by reading other people’s blogs, reading books, and attending classes and webinars, most of which are absolutely free. Why learn you ask? It adds to you. It provides you with skills that you can continue to earn a living with. It gives you a wide berth of experiences through other’s eyes that you may not have the ability to do on your own.

I recently read a book about finding out what you love to do. Think about how many people are in jobs they hate. Can you imagine going to a job that stressed you out and made you unhappy? We all have to make a living one way or another. People who are trapped in a job they hate is a really bad place to be in. Yet, many do not take advantage of the learning opportunities that are available to them. I am grateful that I am not one of these people.

I am always looking to improve. I want to improve my physical body; I want to improve my spiritual practice; I want to improve my skill set, and I want to build my knowledge. I am grateful I have that drive to do these things, day in and day out. Recently, I started listening to albums on Spotify, starting with various jazz artists. I also enjoy the classics, but wanted to start with Jazz. I listened to albums by Miles Davis and Bill Brubeck. Wow! What a treat. I am going to listen to Dizzy Gillespie next. It will be a nice treat. When I listen I put in my earphones, close my eyes, and picture myself in some speakeasy, listening and watching the band and the people there. It is terrific how music takes you places when it is really good.

I hope each of you can find things in your lives you are grateful for. It is a great feeling to sit back and think about all the things that contribute to your life and how nice it is to have them. Gratitude for God, for family, for your life, with all of its difficulties, and the rich experiences each of our lives contain, if we only look and appreciate them. Life is too short to be pissed off or afraid all the time. Take some time each day to express your gratitude for even the smallest thing. It will change the way you engage with the world and interestingly, when you have cultivated the gratitude habit, the world will give you more things to be grateful for.

Life is grand.

Until next time…

Dave

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Daily Ramblings – Thankful Thursday – Being Grateful for the Little Things

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Appreciative, family, Friends, Grateful, health, Life, Little Things, pets, Tecumseh, Thankful

“When you rise in the morning, give thanks for the light, for your life, for your strength. Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason to give thanks, the fault lies in yourself.” – Tecumseh

Read more at: BrainyQuote

I want to start today’s post with a “Thank You!” to my new followers this week. I appreciate you following my blog and hope my content helps or inspires you to do great things in your life. Today is Thankful Thursday and I want to talk about the things we take for granted in our lives.

Each morning I journal. The first thing I do is write in my dream journal, recording whatever I remember about the dreams I had the night before. The second thing I do is write in my gratitude and affirmations journal. The third thing I do is work through my morning pages to empty my mind and think about the day ahead. All these journals are important in different ways. The most important journal is my Gratitude and Affirmations Journal.

I am grateful for this life. I am grateful for God’s love. I am grateful for my family and friends. I am grateful for my pets. I am grateful for the little things. Little things, like a warm cup of coffee as I stare out my office window and look at the snow. A nice meal. A good book and a cup of tea. I am grateful for my health. I am grateful for the intellect I am blessed with. I am grateful for the insights that come into my mind.

The beauty of practicing gratefulness is the way it focuses my mind on the good rather than the bad. It is so easy to be unconscious. It is so easy to develop bad habits. It is so easy to blame everything outside of us for our problems. It is so easy to get upset and pissed off. I started my gratitude practice by writing three things I was grateful for. Initially, it was hard. It was hard because it takes a conscious effort. It requires you to act and recognize how great your life is.

Despite your current circumstances, you have lots to be grateful for. You are alive. This life is yours to live. Be grateful for what you have. Look at all the things that make your life great. Maybe it’s your warm bed. Maybe it is one of your friends. Maybe it is taking a hot bath or shower. Find things to be grateful for. You will notice a feeling enter you. This feeling will be one of comfort, joy, and contentment. It may take a while to recognize it because we are so focused on what’s wrong with our lives. Flip the switch. Look for what’s right. Focus on that.

Each of you who are reading this posting has things to be grateful for. What are they? When you think about them, how do you feel? Try this out for a month. Each morning take time to write three things you are grateful for. Constantly look for new things to express your thanks for. When you concentrate on what’s good, more things will rise to your attention. Before long you will have hundreds of things you are grateful for. This is one habit that can change your life. It will change your life because it will focus your attention on the good rather than the bad. It is a great way to live.

Well folks, that’s it for today. I hope each of you begins a daily gratitude practice. It will make a huge difference—promise.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Thankful Thursday

Tags

Bad times, experiences, Good times, Grateful, Happiness, Learning, Life, Sorrow, Thankful

“I believe that if you don’t derive a deep sense of purpose from what you do, if you don’t come radiantly alive several times a day, if you don’t feel deeply grateful at the tremendous good fortune that has been bestowed on you, then you are wasting your life. And life is too short to waste.” – Srikumar Rao

Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/srikumar_rao_563863?src=t_thankful

This life is such a blessing. The ups and downs, the happy times and the sad, and the times of loneliness and joy of being with family. All our experiences combined comprise our life.

When the bad times come, we are in the thick of it. We are at the edge of the abyss and highly creative, solving the problem right in front of us. During these times we aren’t so happy. We are stressed out, we are overcome with emotions, and we are struggling to survive. Interestingly, when these times pass and we recollect the experience we view it as a source of triumph, sometimes even laughing to ourselves. We laugh because we see the comedy in some of the things that go wrong in our lives. These bad times are the areas in our lives where we really do learn and grow. I am thankful for all of the bad times. They taught me so much about myself.

When the good times come, we are ecstatic. We are so happy and joyful. Everything is bright and colorful. We enjoy these times so much that we hope they never end, knowing that something can go wrong at any minute without notice. These are the memories we store away for later. These experiences slip in and out of psyches over and over again. They remind us how precious life is.

Then there are the times that reside in the middle of these two extremes. They are the workdays. They are our habitual experiences. Getting up, going to the gym, getting our kids off to school, our morning commute. These are the days that we rarely notice. Nothing good or bad, exciting or boring, just time passing by.

Our lives are all of these things woven together into a quilt, with the myriad pictures we capture and remember. Pictures of friends, holidays, and graduations. Pictures of marriages, reunions, and anniversaries. Pictures of dinners, vacations, and birthdays. This is the life we lead.  I am grateful for all of the pictures in my quilt. The good pictures, the bad pictures, and the opportunity to share my quilt with others.

New Followers

I also wanted to thank all of the new followers this week. We are getting really close to the goal of 500. Daily Ramblings is at 488 followers. I only need 12 more to hit the goal of 500. If you know of anyone that may be interested in my content, send them my way.

I hope each of you has a great week!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Thinking Thursday

Tags

Bible, Goals, God, Gratitude, Life, Love, 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

Life is a grand adventure! We learn, love, and laugh. We travel, we try new things, and we meet new people. When our cycle ends, others take up the mantle. Life continues.

I enjoy thinking about my life. The ups and downs, loves and heartbreaks. The scary and the serene. All these experiences weave themselves into a quilt with little facsimiles scattered about.

I look at all the technological changes that provide us access to so much information, music, and other forms of entertainment. I look at the technologies that provides us the ability to create a document, create a movie, create music, or even create a program of our own making.

Here’s what I’m up to:

Physical

I came down with a flu or cold a few days ago so the workout routine is out until I beat this bug.

Mental

I’m reading 4 books. I’m reading The One Thing, 2136, Shariyat-Ki-Sugmad, and Beyond Good and Evil. All these books are engaging. I’m goaled to read 12 books by the end of March.

I’m running through a JavaScript Project currently, employing the use of Objects, which is exciting. I had no idea that JavaScript was an Object-Oriented Language, but sure enough, it is.

I am still working on a section a day for my book and it is coming along nicely. By the end of next week, I’ll have my initial rough draft. I’m a little over schedule because I wanted to be finished by the end of 2018, but with my vacation visit to Phoenix, I over estimated how much I would get done while I was there (I had too much fun!).

Spiritual

I’m working through my bible and am on the 12^th discourse of my spiritual study for the year. I’ll be starting a new course in the next month or so.

I’m looking for ways to interact with more people. Last year I got a lot done but was a hermit for most of the year focusing on the important work of book writing and the rest. I am going to look at some different venues this year to work on my book writing, so I can continue to get my work done but interact socially with other people.

My book discussion is set for the 14^th of this month. I look forward to that.

Social

I’m still scanning my area for something fun to do this quarter.

Well, that’s it for today folks!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday

Tags

Acceptance, Contentment, Grateful, Happy, Life, spirituality, Unhappy

“Even if you are living a nine-to-five life, you can make it an adventure. We owe it to ourselves to live life to its fullest in whatever we do. And the motivation to do this must come from within.”—Harold Klemp The Language of Soul

So many people take life for granted. Life is a special thing. It is a privilege to learn, to love, to experience. Even the hard times prove to be the best teachers.

In a previous post, I mentioned how I always felt like I was losing. It didn’t matter what I did or tried I would always end up with the “short end of the stick”. Then, I changed my mindset and things turned around. When I discovered that the new mindset brought out a part of me that I didn’t like, I decided to not fiddle around with this at all—to simply take life as it comes and just be happy with it all.

Happiness is really about attitude. Are you happy or are you unhappy? If you are happy, why? If you are unhappy, why? It is about creating happiness, regardless of the circumstances. Happiness shouldn’t come from outside. It should be internal. Depending on people, situations, or any outside influence to make you happy or sad will make for a tough time. Lose the dependence. Decide to be happy today.

Get out there and live your life. Don’t settle. Don’t use excuses. Get out there. The whole world is special because of you and your uniqueness. There are so many adventures and experiences waiting for you.

Embracing even the little things is such a treasure. For me, a little thing is a nice cup of coffee on my deck or listening to some good music while I read or working on a writing project. Sometimes I sit and just think. I ponder. I take the time to be quiet and just soak life in.

I enjoy life for what it is. I don’t need some outside thing to make me happy. Life just is and it’s wonderful.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Daily Quote

Tags

Discrimination, Illusion, Learning, Life, spirituality, Stephen King, unfolding

Today’s Quote:

“Life is like a wheel. Sooner or later, it always comes around to where you started again.” Stephen King

It seems to me that we are introduced to a problem now and again to learn from. We learn the lesson. We see another problem and again we learn from it. Interestingly, our problems address certain weaknesses we have. Perhaps we are easily duped. The person who learns to avoid this has begun to master discrimination, or the ability to see the truth for what it is when presented with an illusion.

God continues to present us with problems to help us unfold spiritually. Each problem we solve gets us closer to the realization that there really are no problems per se, only wrinkles in ourselves.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Workout Log

Tags

Documentation, Goal Setting, healthy living, Life, Random Events, Unexpected Situations, workout

Living Your Life

Folks, as you’ve probably noticed, I’ve not been working out this week. I’m afraid my Mother’s issue last week, through my schedule out of whack. Since she’s come home, I have to help with cooking, run more errands, and help my Dad out with some of his appointments (he no longer drives a car).

I know some folks when they begin a workout routine do not want to let anything disrupt their routine, but frankly, this is not realistic. Life happens and you will be disrupted by it because that’s just the way life is. Life is one big dice roll and it is better to ride the wave than fight it.

I’ve decided to kick in my routine again tomorrow, now that my Dad’s appointments are knocked out. This leads me to my next topic–documentation.

Documenting your Workout

I cannot tell you how important it is to document what you do (or don’t do) in the gym. This should be done while you’re there, so you don’t miss any weights you are using, or any special things you learned that day. Your body is a terrific teacher. It will tell you when it is stronger, weaker, or just plain tired. It will tell you that it’s ready to go and will also tell you to take one more minute of rest.

The only way to truly hold yourself accountable is to document what you do. You pretty much track the things you eat and the weights you use for each exercise, along with the number of reps you complete. If you do this, it will be very easy to pick up right where you left off.

Setting Goals

Realize the body will do what the body will do. You need to be careful when setting goals because if you push yourself too hard, you will burn out and stop going to the gym. On the other hand, you don’t want to set your goals too low either. This will only result in you doing what I call as “sandbagging”. Sandbagging is doing less weight that you need to be doing. Don’t let yourself fall into this trap.

The only way you gain muscle mass is by increasing the loads you work with or the number of reps or a combination of both. If you are not pushing your limits each time you go to the gym, even if it’s only a 2.5lb increase in weight or maybe one or two more reps, you will not see the improvements you seek, but I digress.

Let’s talk about the goals you have. My goal is simple. I want to remain healthy, increase my muscle mass, maintain my bone density, and have good endurance. Muscle mass is gained very slowly. The changes in your muscle mass and body composition are so minute that you will not see them instantly. They improve over time. The easiest way to gauge yourself is to take a photo of yourself at the beginning of every routine you begin and one at the end. You can also track your weights. The more weight you are pushing, the bigger that muscle is getting, even though you cannot see it yet.

I’ll get into more specifics tomorrow. Hope everyone has a great Thursday!!

See you tomorrow…

 

Daily Ramblings – Bonus – Ted Talk – 12 Truths by Anne Lamott

Tags

12 Truths, Anne Lamott, Death, Life, wisdom

Daily Ramblings – Daily Quote

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…

Daily Ramblings – Turning Points

Tags

change, decisions, fate, future, improvement, Life, new

My life has been one, long, on-going adventure. It started in the early 80s when I enlisted in the US Army and began a 20-year career. What I’ve discovered over the years, particularly when I reflect on my life, is that there are turning points. These turning points are those actions that cause a move from one place, one person, or one attitude for another. This change, in my experience, has always been better for myself and those around me at the time.

Once such turning point came in August of 2003. One morning, I awoke and complained to my wife at the time that it felt like I had dislocated my hip. She got up and immediately called a doctor and I was set up for a meeting on a Monday morning. When I went to the doctor, he mentioned that I had been in for numerous visits concerning my lower back. In light of this, he recommended that I get an MRI and have it analyzed by a neurologist.

A few weeks later I got the results. They felt it was a herniated disc. The doctor upon receiving the results felt it might be a little more and sent me on my way to a neurosurgeon, who, in his opinion, would have a better idea of what might be going on. I met with this neurosurgeon about a week or so after that.

When I met with the neurosurgeon, I was surprised by the small office. I figured a neurosurgeon had to make a lot of money and would have all kinds of staff running around, a large office with all kinds of books, and a large desk with all of his degrees on the wall behind him. This wasn’t the case. To my surprise, his office was small, because he was never in it. He was one of many doctors in this office complex who split their time between this small little office and an operating room in the nearby hospital.

When I settled into my chair, the doc showed me a model of a human spine. He showed me what discs were affected and what he proposed to do, to alleviate me from the pain I had been experiencing for over a month. He also had me take a look at the pictures of my MRI, showing me what a normal disc looked like, compared to the distorted pictures of my discs in the MRI pictures. Obviously, I agreed to surgery. I was in a lot of pain, and my discs, the two largest discs in my back, were ruptured, with fragments of them drifting about. The doc told me the key problem is the lower disc, which has been rubbing on the nerve bundle that runs down the left leg, called the Sciatic nerve.

After my surgery, the pain was gone, but I had lost some feeling in my left leg. This was caused by the nerve damage the disc had done to that nerve bundle. It rubbed a hole in this bundle of nerves and did damage to them that would take a long time to heal. In light of this surgery and the result, my Army career was over. I opted to retire and put in my retirement paperwork when I hit my 20 years in October of 2004.

This turn of events also motivated me to go to school to get a degree before I retired. I was laid up for some time and had plenty of time on my hands. I earned a Bachelor’s degree and Master’s degree before I left the Army and got a great job with a prestigious firm in Los Angeles. Because of this move, so many things have unfolded.

This turn of events motivated me to get a degree, motivated me to retire, and motivated me to work in a field that was highly lucrative, which is why today at the young age of 53 I was able to retire and truly pursue what I love—writing. There are many more of these turning points throughout the last 12 years since my Army retirement. Interestingly, when the decision was made to leave the Army and go to work in the civilian sector, a calmness overtook my life, like a recognition that I had done the right thing. Have you ever experienced a turning point like this? A point which resulted in a major change in your life where the situation you found yourself was monumentally better than the situation you were in previously? If so, comment here. I’d love to hear your story.

Until next time…