Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday – Serving Life

Tags

Carl Sagan, Earth, Impact, Interactions, Pale Blue Dot, Purpose, Spiritual Saturday, YouTube

Today I’d like to explore serving life. Serving life is not some magnanimous act. It is doing your part. It really is that simple. I believe each of us is put on this Earth to serve a purpose. Maybe you’re a housewife, an accountant or doctor, a soldier, or some other profession. You are someone’s son or daughter, mother or father, aunt or uncle.

Each of us is in a unique position, in a unique family, in a unique community, serving our fellow beings by just doing the things inherent in the roles we find ourselves in. In other words, we serve by being who we are and doing what comes naturally. There is no effort involved, it just is.

We each play a part in this fabric we call reality. Some things we do for others is done unconsciously. A casual smile at the local grocer, a wave to a neighbor as we head off to work, or sharing some of our garden with the local wildlife (whether we want to or not). Some things are done purposefully, like when we send a nice note to someone, finish something for someone we promised to do, or taking care of a particular chore in our home.

What other ways do we serve? The list is infinite. The impact each of us has on the world is immense. Each action is like dropping a stone into a pond. The ripples of water go out, and they come back. The same thing happens with the actions we take and the ones we don’t take.

There are so many things to wonder about and this was one of those things I wondered about today. How do I affect the world, the universe, this dimension? How do my actions contribute or detract from the universal cause?

Here is a YouTube video by Carl Sagan called the Pale Blue Dot. It will give you a sense of what I am trying to say today in today’s posting. With that said, enjoy.

I think the key to all of this is to just be. Be the best you can be. Do the best you can. The rest will work itself out. I just wanted to give you something to think about on this fine Saturday. I hope all of you have a great weekend!

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 – Spiritual Saturday – Earth is a Classroom

Tags

Coincidence, Experience, Growth, Learning, Maya, Purpose, spirituality, Truth, Unfoldment

Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself and know that everything in this life has a purpose. There are no mistakes, no coincidences. All events are blessings given to us to learn from. Elizabeth Kübler-Ross – Courtesy Wisdom Quotes

When I look back on my life, it is amazing to see how all the puzzle pieces come together. Each action, each decision resulted in my current circumstances. Perhaps it is because I like to find those pivot points—the points in my life that impacted my future life. I suppose all of our actions are pivot points, but the ones I think about are the points we arrive at that are forks in the road. If I went this way, I’d be here. If I went that way, I’d be there.

I believe this quote to the bone. We are exactly where we are supposed to be. The things that occur in our life are not a chance, bad luck, good luck, or mistakes. They just are.

It is sometimes surprising to see this in action. Why did I do that? So I could be doing this now. Why did I go there?  So I could be here now. I may not be explaining this right, but everything, and I mean everything has led to where I am.

All of us experience pain, suffering, hardships, and loss. We also experience love, success, joy, and pleasure. These are all realities in our lives. Our loved ones will pass away like we will someday. How do you deal with that? You live your life the best way you can, serve others, and realize that the physical shell you wear in this lifetime is just that–a shell. The real you is eternal. That you never dies. Nor do the real selves of your loved ones. We all continue.

When you realize this truth, there is no sorrow, pain, hardships or loss. There is only experience. This experience is what the real you needs to unfold and become more aware. The more you experience, the more you grow. The more you grow, the more service you can provide. Serving others without expectation of reward is the key. When you give of yourself selflessly, you gain more than you know.

The real you is on Earth to learn. Earth is a classroom. Nothing more, nothing less.

Until next time…

Dave

 

 

 

Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday – Doing Your Best

Tags

Doing your Best, Effort, Harold Klemp, Love, Meaning, Purpose, wisdom

If you make a meal, put love into it instead of the frustrations of your day. Because whatever is put into the food is a reflection of what you have inside yourself, and it goes out to your family, it goes out to your friends. And it makes a very real difference.—Harold Klemp The Language of Soul

This quote advises us to put love into everything we do. Love builds. Love gives meaning.

I remember my first few years in the Army. I thought I had made a mistake, shortly after I arrived at my first duty station. I was going through the motions. I did what I had to do to avoid getting into trouble. I realized one night that this was not working for me. I put more of myself into the job. I read field manuals and regulations. I put extra effort into my uniform and appearance. I put in more time into exercise. My Army career changed for the better. Instead of biding my time, I embraced my career. This made all the difference.

Love what you do even if your current job is not a perfect one. You will find, like I did, that the more you put into the job, the more rewarding the job becomes. Your job will have more meaning. Love is active. Love is doing. Love requires you to give your best. What you give to the world returns to you.

Do the best you can in every situation. Take the time to do things right. Give everything your best effort. You will find what I have found—the more you give, the more you get.

I hope all of you have a wonderful Saturday.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday

Tags

Goals, Going for it, Meaning, motivation, Persistence, Purpose, Structure

“Believe and act as if it were impossible to fail.” – Charles Kettering

Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/charles_kettering_121333

I’m finally over this bug and got back to the gym this morning! It felt good to get in there and get moving. Today was a full body workout with weights. We had some snow come in last night and it was nice looking at the white covering everything as I drove to the gym.

Today is a work day. Since I’ve retired, I’ve learned that I need structure. So, I treat my Monday through Friday as my work days. Subsequently, I’ll be working on my book, getting my reading in, my JavaScript programming courses, lectures by Dr. Peterson at the University of Toronto, and pursuing my other interests. For those of you who haven’t retired, keep this in mind. You may not be working for other people, but we all require some structure and goals to pursue. This provides us with meaning. The folks who reduce their lives to watching tv, playing video games, and all the rest, won’t last that long. When you lose meaning and purpose in your life, your life tends to turn into absolute misery and boredom. Stay busy and pursue the things you couldn’t when you worked. The world still needs you!

I’ve recently signed up to the Poetry Foundation. You can find this at: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/ It’s a great site and if you sign up (it’s free), they’ll send you a daily poem to read. I really enjoy the random poems they send because it exposes me to people I would have never found on my own. Try it out if you’re interested.

We’re in the part of the year when we reexamine our lives and look forward to the new year. Some of you may have already set your New Year’s resolutions, while others may still be looking at what you are going to accomplish this year. As today’s quote states, set your goals so that you pursue something meaningful. What do you want to do? What have you always wanted to do but decided not to pursue because you’ve convinced yourself you can’t do it? Take the can’t out of that sentence and go for it. It is really liberating to pursue something you might have to work really hard to achieve. Imagine how you will feel if you accomplish something you didn’t think you could?

Goals should stretch you. Why set up something you know you could accomplish? Is that really a goal? Failure? You can’t fail if you keep moving toward your goal, regardless if you crawl, walk, or run. You can’t fail if you don’t quit. Get at it!

My decision to learn how to write computer programs has been exhilarating. Yeah, there are times I get stuck and frustrated. That’s normal when you’re learning new things. Imagine how much impact this new skill would have on your ability to make money or just create useful programs for yourself and your family?

I wish all of you the best of luck this year! I hope all of you achieve what you have set out to do. Persist. Adapt. Continue. You’ll get where you want to if you keep walking.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Ted Talk – Emily Esfahani Smith – “There’s more to life than being happy.”

Tags

4 Pillars, Belonging, Emily Esfahani Smith, Purpose, Storytelling, Ted Talk, Transcendence

Here is another great TED Talk folks.

Enjoy!

Dave