Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday – Focus on the Positive

Tags

family, Friends, Good, Good weather, Grateful, pets, Positivity, Thankful

It is so easy to think about bad things. I think this is because our brains are wired to seek out danger. It’s a survival mechanism.

That being said, stressing out about things we do not control can really throw us into a tizzy. So, why not flip the coin and concentrate on the good things in life? Some of the things we take for granted are those same things we notice when they go away or stop working. Things like good health, a steady Internet connection, a computer that works, and a car that gets us from one place to another.

Think about the finite reality we call life? So little time, yet so much, if we use it wisely. Reading, writing, learning, loving, experiencing. Get everything you can out of life. Exploring new places, doing things you’ve never done, and loving like there is no tomorrow.

In Michigan, we have been experiencing a heat wave. In the last few hours we have finally gotten some rain. I can hear the pitter patter on the roof. It should cool things down a bit, and give the grass, flowers, and plants in my Mother’s garden some much-needed watering.

One of my daily practices is to be thankful for even the smallest things. It makes me feel great, and it gets my day started the right way. I express my thanks for God, my family, my friends, and many other things. If you haven’t tried this practice, start simply by writing down three things that bring you joy each day. If you want to really go for it, do this in the morning when you arise and right before you go to bed. It’s terrific!

Well, that’s all I have for now. I wish all of you a great Saturday!

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 – Pets

Tags

Companionship, family, Goldie, Grateful, Gratitude, Love, pets, Thanks, Weezer

Image by Sven Lachmann from Pixabay

As always, thank you to all my new followers this week! It’s always nice to get an email notifying me of a new follower. I appreciate it. It is nice to know that people are reading my content and enjoying it. Thank you very much.

Today, I want to express thanks for the pets that have blessed my life. My family lost two pets in the last month. Goldie was our golden retriever that had to be put down a week ago. The day we made the call, poor Goldie had upwards of 9 seizures. Weezer, my sister’s dog had to be put down a few weeks prior for a brain tumor. The memories of both dogs will be with me and my family forever. Dogs provide so much love to a family. They are good companions, funny, and love to hang out with you. It was not uncommon for Goldie to be in the same room with us, wherever we were. Because Mom, Dad, and I all have different places we like to be, Goldie would always position herself so she was in the middle of us. She had four places she liked. The first was the hallway outside my Mom’s, Dad’s, and my rooms. When we are all on our computers, you could turn around and see Goldie in the hallway, ever vigilant. When Dad and I watch television, Goldie is there watching the shows with us. When my Mom is out on our deck in the morning, Goldie is out there. We’ll miss you Goldie and Weezer. When the family is congregating in our living room in the morning, Goldie was there.

Whether you are a dog lover, cat lover, have birds, or a goldfish, pets are a great addition to any home. Yeah, they are a pain at times, but the love they give makes any home a warm one. They are companions that do not judge. They are just there to keep you company, get a petting, a treat, and are the best listeners in the world.

If you have a pet you’d like to highlight, comment with a picture of your fur baby. They are a treasure that add so much to our lives.

Me and Weezer at my Sister’s House

Goldie in one of her favorite places in our home—the living room floor

Until next time…

Dave

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

Tags

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 – Workout Diary – Happy Thanksgiving

Tags

Blessings, family, Friends, Grateful, pets, Thanksgiving

In light of Thanksgiving this week, I’ll be taking the rest of this week off to rest and recuperate. I’ve been hitting it hard in the gym for the bulk of this year and need a break. My brother is flying in tomorrow and we are heading to my Sister’s for Thanksgiving Day. I know I’m going to eat some things I normally wouldn’t and I know I won’t have much time in and around all of the planned festivities this week, so I’ll begin posting again next Monday.

For those of you who celebrate Thanksgiving, Happy Thanksgiving!

In light of this holiday, I wanted to express my thanks to all of you who have followed this blog and for all of the readers out there that will discover my work at some point. It is a really great thing to have readers scattered across the globe.

I am grateful for my readers, I am grateful for my health, grateful for my family and friends, grateful for my pets, grateful for the opportunity to have this life to lead, and grateful for the blessings that God gives me every day. I am also grateful to those who have taught me, mentored me, and contributed in some way to my life.

I wish each of you a great time with loved ones, good food, and hope you take some time to reflect on all of the blessings in your life. It is really a blessing to live life and experience all of the things that are out there for all of us.

See you next week!

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Daily Quote

Tags

family, Friends, Loss, pets, Sadness, Time Heals

Today’s Quote:

“Sadness flies away on the wings of time.” – Jean de La Fontaine

Most of us have experience with unfortunate events. We lose a loved one to disease or old age or a cherished pet whose time has come. Death is an inevitable end for a body that just won’t last forever.

The sadness we associate with loss is always a painful one, primarily because it is permanent. That person or pet will not be here in our lives anymore. Time is the only healer. We get a new pet, we bring our friends and living family members closer, and we just begin to accept our new situation.

If you’ve lost someone recently and are feeling the pain I’ve described above, I am truly sorry for your loss. Only time will heal those wounds.

Until next time…

Dave

Small Things

Tags

change, children, family, habits, memories, minimalism, pets

I use the Calm Meditation app each day to get centered. One of the features of the Calm app is the quote they provide you when you’re completed with the day’s meditation. Today, Calm provided a quote from Beau Taplin which states: “Whoever said that small things don’t matter has never seen a small match start a wildfire.” This statement really rang true to me this morning when I began posting it on my favorite social networking sites. I try to find meaningful posts to share with my network. It’s just my way of contributing to my connections.

But this quote really got me. Small things can have wide-ranging impact in our lives. Think about the value in making small changes in your routine. What if you added just 10 minutes of cardio exercise into your morning routine? That would build to over 3,650 minutes over the year. What if you wrote one page in your journal each day? Again, that would be 365 pages or one or two books worth of writing. These small things can offer so much value with minimal input. I recently read a few books. One was a book called Mini Habits; the other was a book called The Power of Less. Both of these books speak to the difficulty with change and how to make change easier by doing small things. Focusing on small things each day will soon turn into big changes and those big changes will bring great value to your life.

Think about the most precious moments in your life. Most of these things started from small things. Your wedding day may have its roots from a smile across a room. The day you walked the stage to receive your diploma and degree, resulted from each assignment you began and completed one small piece at a time. More importantly is the impact of small things on relationships. Smiling at your partner in the morning. Giving your child a hug on the way out the door or giving your pet some love in the morning when you wake up. People remember the small things you do for them out of love, not the things you buy for them. They remember the hugs, the kisses, the sticky note left on the refrigerator, or even the quick text you send telling them you are on your way home and you can’t wait to see them. It is these small things that build a long-term relationship.

Our lives are composed of an infinite amount of small moments, each building on each other in a progression of memories, visual snapshots, and audio recordings all captured by our minds. Some remain vivid, while others fade away. Small things matter. The small things we do for ourselves and especially those small things we do for others. Focus on the small things and the big things will follow.

Until next time…