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

Daily Ramblings – Ted Talk Tuesday – 4 Lessons

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Balance, Changes, Lessons learned, Life, Pandemic, Patty McCord, vaccination, Work

All of us experienced lockdowns in one way or another in 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic touched everyone across the globe. In this video, Patty McCord discusses what the pandemic taught us over the last year. I wanted to share this today, because I am getting the COVID vaccination today. My folks and I need to get this thing because they both have underlying conditions and since I live with them, need to get vaccinated as well. I hope you enjoy this video as much as I did.

Have a great Tuesday, folks!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Wisdom Wednesday – 5 Quotes

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Chinese, Content, Daoism, kindness, Lao Tzu, Life, Love, Nature, Philosopher

The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.

Lao Tzu

Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.

Lao Tzu

Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them – that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.

Lao Tzu

Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.

Lao Tzu

Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.

Lao Tzu

https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/biography/lao-tzu-biography

Lao Tzu is credited as the founder of Daoism. If you’d like to learn more about this Chineses philosopher, click the link above.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Thankful Thursday – Birthdays

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Birthday, born, Day Off, eat some good food, Happy, Life, play some games, Read, Relax

This is going to be short today, folks. It’s my 57th birthday and I’m going to be taking the day off. I’m grateful to be alive, grateful to have been born, and grateful for this life. It has been one hell of a journey so far.

Have a great day, folks!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Wisdom Wednesday – 5 Quotes

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5 Quotes, Earl Nightingale, Enjoyment, Life, Quotes, wisdom, Wisdom Wednesday

Don’t let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of your doing it. The time will pass anyway; we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use.

Earl Nightingale

Learn to enjoy every minute of your life. Be happy now. Don’t wait for something outside of yourself to make you happy in the future. Think how really precious is the time you have to spend, whether it’s at work or with your family. Every minute should be enjoyed and savored.

Earl Nightingale

We can let circumstances rule us, or we can take charge and rule our lives from within.

Earl Nightingale

The more intensely we feel about an idea or a goal, the more assuredly the idea, buried deep in our subconscious, will direct us along the path to its fulfillment.

Earl Nightingale

The biggest mistake that you can make is to believe that you are working for somebody else. Job security is gone. The driving force of a career must come from the individual. Remember: Jobs are owned by the company, you own your career!

Earl Nightingale

I hope you are having a great Wednesday! I took my nephew and his girlfriend back to the airport today, for their flight back to Arizona. We had a great time with them. Enjoy these quotes and have a great day!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Thankful Thursday – Life

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Adventures, experiences, Grateful, Learning, Life, Thankful Thursday, Thanks

Today, I’m grateful for life. Oh, the adventures I’ve had. Some horrific, others wonderful. But the journey has been a great ride.

I’ve experienced love and heartbreak, achievement and failure, sickness and good health. Opposites are the nature of our universe. We have light and dark, good and evil, fun and boring, and the list goes on and on.

What makes the journey worthwhile? The ups and downs. When you’re up, you’re on top of the world. When you’re down, it sucks. But either side of this equation is necessary, so we know the difference.

How many people truly cherish life? It really depends on their outlook and belief system. For the nihilists out there, life is meaningless. For the optimist, everything is terrific. I think you’d be hard pressed to find someone that is totally this or that. Instead, you’ll find people that are in the middle somewhere.

I have always chosen optimism over nihilism. Perhaps I was lucky with my upbringing. Perhaps I was born at the right time period. Honestly, I choose to be happy.

My father taught me a terrific way to look at things. He said, “Son, you will always have things you have to do in life. You have to go to school, you have to work, you have to fulfill your responsibilities. You will not escape these responsibilities, unless of course, you want to have a hard life. If you fail to graduate your life will be hard. No one will want to hire you. If you don’t want to work, you will starve, or you will live a life of crime to support yourself. If you’re irresponsible, you will cause great pain for yourself and anyone that joins you on your life’s journey. So you have a choice. You can do the things you are required to do happily, or you can be pissed off your whole life. I choose to be happy. What will you choose?”

Obviously, I choose to be happy. Why be pissed off about the things you have to do anyway? The choice to me was obvious.

So today I’m grateful for the gift of life. I’m grateful for the things I’ve done and the things I have not done. I am grateful for the people who have come and gone in my life. I am grateful for the teachers and mentors who have helped me learn something new, grasp a new concept, or suggested I make an adjustment to the way I think or act. All of these things are a blessing.

Happy Thursday, folks!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Thankful Thursday – Grateful for my Teachers

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Books, Colleagues, Friends, leaders, Life, mentors, Parents, Professors, Teachers

All of us have had teachers in one shape or form that contributed to who we are today. I’ve had some great ones. I had great teachers in grade school. I had terrific professors in my undergraduate and graduate studies. The best teachers I’ve had were my parents, my leaders in the military, and life itself.

My parents taught me how to treat family, how to be a man, and how to treat a woman. My teachers gave me insights into the topics I was studying that you could not get from a book. They demonstrated how the book knowledge could be applied to the “real world”.

My military leaders taught me what service was about. They taught me how to take care of my equipment, learn my job, and lead others. They also taught me things that couldn’t be measured—things like honor, discipline, keeping your word, and being honest, even when things get screwed up.

One group I didn’t mention are the group of teachers I have not met. These are the authors of all the books I’ve read to date. Teachers like Covey, Allen, Guise, Twain, Einstein, Hawking, Aristotle, Nietzsche, Tolstoy, Tolkien, and so many others.

All of us have had great teachers in our lives. Life is the final one. Life tends to blindside us. We learn from the cuts and bruises life dishes out. We learn things like being thrifty, planning, always striving for something better, but the most important lesson of all—we learn to treat other people with decency and respect.

I love learning. I love learning from the greats. Whether it is a book, a quote, a video, or in-person advice, our teachers have helped us achieve what we are achieving today. Today, I am grateful for every one of my teachers. I would not be where I am today without them.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday – Live Your Life Fully

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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 Thursday – Life is a Celebration

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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 – Life

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Adventure, Blessing, Grateful, Gratitude, Life, Thankful, Thanks, wonderful

Every day, I like to wake up and remind myself to be grateful of the simple things.

Miranda Kerr

The life you live is a blessing. I am grateful for every moment I am here, to live, to love, to laugh, to learn. Each experience we have builds on the next and the next and the next.

Looking back there are plenty of examples when life was tough. I wouldn’t trade any of them away. All these experiences got me to where I am today. I am grateful for every hurt, every betrayal, every lapse in health, every disappointment, and every failure. They all contribute to my life.

As time passes by,  the bad things fade and the good things remain. Things always get better. That’s the nature of life.

Enjoy the beauty of simple things and simple moments. A warm cup of coffee while you look at the snow outside your window. A shared moment with a loved one knowing exactly what each other is thinking. A good meal with family and friends. Laughing so hard you can’t breathe. Enjoying a book with a cup of tea and spending your day in pajamas. I could go on and on.

 

You have your own memories and moments that bless your life. Be grateful for every moment you have been alive. Life’s adventure continues for all of us.

Until next time…

Dave