Rainy Day

About 3 am this morning the thunder was sounding in the distance. By 4:00 it was raining and the thunder and lightning was putting on quite a show. As I write it is raining again and I am thankful that all of our trees and flowers are getting a drink without the effort of dragging a hose around to water our newer trees and plantings. It saved the day for me!!

My thoughts this morning go along the lines of being quiet. Guy Finley had a quote the other day on his website that says: "There is nothing as certain as silence, stillness, and solitude to introduce you to the secrets of yourself." Not only do you find "yourself" in the stillness but you find God. "Be still and know that I am God". Psalm 46:10.

These are the times when there is noise all around us. Many people have to have the radio on, the TV blaring, music going, or talking with friends. All those things are good but when is the quiet time to contemplate? Years ago I heard that a person that has to have some kind of "noise" always coming into their ears is one that does not like to be alone with their own thoughts.

We need time to meditate. We need a time to be quiet and still our mind from all the stress of the day or the stressful times in which we live. We can either just sit quietly or even lay down for a few minutes to relax every muscle.

Even when we seem to have time we tend to fill it with busy thoughts, phone calls, TV or any number of activities. Maybe we should arrange in each day a little time to think about our day and cultivate an attitude of gratitude. We don't usually have any trouble finding time to think of negative things, like what someone said or did to us, all the bad news we hear on TV, the political scene, etc.

Remember the quote on The Secret: "What we think about we bring about". So what are we thinking about. Are our thoughts building or tearing down? Are they relieving us from stress or adding to the problems?

"Quiet time to be alone is not an optional nicety; nor is it just for the retired, the lazy, or those naturally inclined. It is for all of us. It is valuable time well spent. And above all, it needs no justification other than its own noble purpose: to become more fully awake and to remember what you most need to remember about yourself and your life." David Kundtz’s Quiet Mind

Just something to think about! Have a great day!

A violinist

You may have received this story in an email but I thought it was worth putting here. It makes you stop and think about our lives... if we would have been any different than these people. I googled the name to find out about this guy and found out the story is real.


Washington DC Metro Station on a cold January morning in 2007. A violinist played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time approximately two thousand people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. After 3 minutes a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule.

4 minutes later: The violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw the money in the till and, without stopping, continued to walk.

6 minutes: A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.

10 minutes: A 3 year old boy stopped, but his mother tugged him along hurriedly as the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally, the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. Every parent, without exception, forced them to move on.

45 minutes: The musician played. Only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money but continued to walk at their normal pace. He collected $32.

1 hour: He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed. No one applauded nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the best musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before, Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100. This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people's priorities.

The questions raised: in a common place environment at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context? One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be: If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing some of the finest music ever written with one of the most beautiful instruments ever built... How many other things are we missing?

Thoughts and Words

August is on its way out, only a few more days left. It has been such an unusual and pleasant August. It is just perfect with cool nights and mornings and the heat isn't our unbearable like our usual August temperatures. The grass and trees are still as green as spring so we hopefully have a long fall ahead of us, my favorite season. That is it's my favorite until spring comes and then that is my favorite. Who can resist the beauty of new flowering bushes in yards and woods and daffodils blooming announcing the break from winter?

Yesterday was a productive day in the kitchen. Besides making my weekly carrot/veggie juice, I froze a small batch of okra from Diane & Bob's garden, froze 5 baggies of 2 cups of grated zucchini to be used for zucchini bread, made 3 loaves of banana bread and 4 loaves of zucchini bread. Also did other prepatory stuff with vegetables so they are ready for use and made two large salads for dinner. With a quick trip to the bank, that pretty much filled my day.

I felt inspired to write on this blog but since my day went for cooking it never happened. I have been pretty excited over the DVDs we have seen recently. When visiting our friends last Friday, we watched a new one that we received recently called The Shadow Effect: A Journey from your darkest thought to your greatest dream. It was very thought provoking. We definitely will need to see it again. We also watched other inspirational DVDs which were conversations we had recorded from TV about The Secret and later in the weekend we watched another one which we have had for months but never watched called Pass It On.

It was wonderful to be reminded about how easily we can fall back into old habits of negative thought or speaking. I am so grateful for Dr. Gregg Coker telling Warren about the DVD, The Secret. Since watching (and have now seen it probably at least 2 dozen times) we have seen so much change in our lives and the lives of those around us that have also seen it. It changes our focus and makes us aware of the negativity in our own thoughts and words and how we attract to ourselves according to those thoughts. The Bible states, "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he!" It all fits. Our words come out because of what is in our heart. We need a heart "transplant". By pursuing all the positive books, teachings and DVDs on this transformational subject, stating the affirmations that are given to us as suggestions, we can change our hearts. What is in our heart has been placed there by all that has gone before.....what we have learned in church, school, from parents, from friends, experiences, books, movies... and most people need a total overhaul in that area.

One teaching that we have that is very powerful is in book or CD form called Letting it Go by Guy Finley. This is not always easy to do but so very important to be free of all those things that hold us down. He has another book that I will eventually have to have: 365 Days to Let Go. Here are a few excerpts from that book:

Until we become conscious of how many more times a day we complain about our life than we feel gratitude for the gift of it, we not only miss the taste of life's secret sweetness, but we continue to sow the bitter seeds of our own sorrow.

It seldom occurs to us that whatever we persist with in our lives works to perfect the same, so that by allowing persistent negative thoughts and feelings to have their way with us, we unknowingly perfect self-punishment!

Learn never to blame another for the pain you feel, nor to complain about anything that life brings to your door; but this doesn't mean to be accepting of those who would see you ache, nor should you be apathetic in the face of anything that challenges your hopes and aspirations. (Guy Finley).

One of my strong interests over the years has been in understanding people and reading about temperaments, why people do what they do, etc. I have been interested in handwriting analysis (the scientific approach, not the fortune telling) and see a direct connection between handwriting and personality. And as the circumstances change (such as a negative person becoming positive or vice versa) the handwriting changes. I have observed this personally in an acquaintance years ago and it was amazing. I hope to take the time to study that area further soon. So many projects, so little time! :-)

Have a wonderful day!

Some good quotations:

Change your thoughts and you change your world. Norman Vincent Peale

The greatest discovery you'll ever make, is the potential of your own mind.— Jose Silva

The more people complain about their unwanted circumstances in life, the less likely they are to do anything to change them! Guy Finley

William James, over a century ago, said, "The greatest discovery of this generation is that a human being can alter their life by altering their attitudes"

Change Is The Result Of Choices Not Chances. Robb Thompson

Develop an attitude of gratitude, and give thanks for everything that happens to you, knowing that every step forward is a step toward achieving something bigger and better than your current situation. — Brian Tracy

One-Liners:

You can't enjoy today if you're worrying about the past or the future.

You can tell how big a person is By what it takes to discourage him.

He who angers you, controls you!

This morning I received an email from Guy Finley that I wanted to share with everyone. He has some good thoughts and this time it is about wasting time, or our vital life forces as he calls it. Take a look at these 21 ways and we can take an account of ourselves and have a quality life instead of a mediocre life.

"Study these thieves closely and catch them in the act of stealing your chances for Higher Life as they drain away your vital life forces.

1. All forms of useless talking
2. Being wrongly involved in the life of anyone else
3. Daydreams of any nature
4. Using excessive emotions
5. Keeping "accounts" on those who have displeased you
6. Sitting in judgment of anyone for any reason
7. Becoming identified with anything
8. Useless thinking, such as speculating "why?"
9. Overindulging yourself
10. Resisting your environment or the unpleasant manifestations of others
11. Being concerned with how others see you
12. Defending yourself from imagined enemies, as with quips or sarcasm
13. Puttering around in order to keep yourself feeling productive
14. Any form of sexual imagination
15. Rushing through or to anything
16. All forms of frustration, including impatience and anger
17. Doing anything in half measures, or leaving things hanging
18. Telling "little" lies
19. Taking part in any dialogue with yourself
20. Seeking any form of vengeance or retribution, embracing resentment
21. Wrestling with anxious feelings and trying to think your way out of pain

For extra benefit, make a list of ways you suspect your own vital forces are being wasted. Then stop throwing away your chance to know Real Life! -- Guy Finley"

So many of these ring a bell. From time to time we find ourselves thinking about the "what ifs"; or rehearsing the circumstance of some offence we received; or what we would like to say to someone that hurt us; or spending time in fear or worry over something that likely wouldn't happen anyway and we can't change by thinking this way. If we eliminate this kind of wasted time and do the best we can with the time we have, we will feel more joy, satisfaction and accomplishment for the time we do have. We often state that we don't have enough time. Many times that is simply an excuse for lack of motivation. If we need rest, then let's rest without guilt. If we need to do a task, do it with all of our might. I learned, while at the law office buried in stacks of files of work to do, stacks that went as tall as they could before falling over, stacks that went out into the hallway, that when an "ugly" file came along, to just DO IT. This eliminates the hours of dread if you put it aside. The same is true for some household task or anything that we would continually put off until another time. It was inevitable that it had to be done so doing the dreaded thing right away gives you freedom all the rest of the day. It was a great lesson learned.

I hope this list gives insight into the little thieves that rob us of the joy of living a quality life.

Have a wonderful day!

It's a Gorgeous Day!!

This morning the words to the song in "Oklahoma" ring out in my mind....."Oh what a beautiful morning, Oh what a beautiful day!!!" and I can add the next sentence.... "I've got a wonderful feeling everything's going my way!!!" That's a great start to a day.

Our weather is perfect (at least until afternoon when the temperature hits the high for today). Banana bread is just out of the oven making wonderful fragrances float this way and the current bank statement is balanced so I have some accomplishments already this morning.

I have spent some of my morning reading and also communicating by email with family. There is nothing I treasure more than my family. All of my children, their spouses, and the grandchildren and spouses are super-terrific. They are precious to me and such a joy to have around and be able to communicate with them. Now I know I share those thoughts with most other parents and grandparents, but I feel so blessed to have them in my life.

Another very valuable thing to me is learning. From a very young age I was inquisitive. To this day I have a book that my mother gave to me in 1945entitled, "The Question Book for Young Folks" by Sylvia Weil and Rosetta C. Goldsmith. There are pages of 25 questions and the answers are in the back. One would think I know LOTS of information at this point, but I have forgotten most of it but to me it proves that it was very important for me to know things. I suppose it could be called a Trivia book for the types of questions and answers. But it was fascinating and was always my favorite book. This desire for learning has been active down through the years. I can't imagine my life without books. Experiences and communication with others also is a great learning tool. Sharing knowledge and insights is fun.

Due to this insatiable desire for more, I have read some very interesting books. Check out my list of books which I will update from time to time. Also, I will occasionally add more one-liners and good quotes so you might check the blog for these. I do not think they show up on the email updates.

This is all for today. I will close with this thought: "Living consciously involves being genuine; it involves listening and responding to others honestly and openly; it involves being in the moment." Sidney PoitierActor and Author of The Measure of a Man

Blessings.........

Sunday morning musings

Every morning I receive a devotional from the writings of Oswald Chambers. They are excellent and cause me to think and many times confirm my own thoughts. Over the years I have always wondered where common sense fits into spirituality. Having socially interacted with many levels of education over the years I observed that common sense appeared to be missing in many people and great education did not always produce any or more common sense.

I have always felt it was desirable to have common sense but was not sure about how that fits in with Bible beliefs. Some preachers have given the idea that common sense was wrong. This did not set well with me because the Bible speaks volumes about the need for wisdom. "Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not" Prov. 4:5; "Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding." Prov. 4:7; "For wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it". Prov. 8:11 and many more.

This morning Oswald Chambers addressed this issue. I think this is the first time I've heard something on this subject. To quote him:

Never let common sense obtrude and push the Son of God on one side. Common sense is a gift which God gave to human nature; but common sense is not the gift of His Son. Supernatural sense is the gift of His Son; never enthrone common sense. The Son detects the Father; common sense never yet detected the Father and never will. Our ordinary wits never worship God unless they are transfigured by the indwelling Son of God.

Now to me this means it is good to have common sense but if supernatural sense says something else, then at that time it has to supercede common sense. When we read God's Word we can gain Godly wisdom and our decisions will be the good. But I believe we have to give over to the "supernatural sense" when those occasions warrant it. For example, if we are going some where, it may be common sense to go the shortest route to our destination but we sense we should go another way. We don't know why we feel that way but this is when common sense has to give over to supernatural sense. Perhaps there was danger going the other way. The soft inner voice of the Holy Spirit speaks to us and we have the choice to obey or use common sense. Then, of course, we reap the results of our choice.

So this little devotional today helped put common sense in the proper perspective for me. It definitely is needed for everyday life but we have to be open and sensitive to Supernatural sense and be willing and quick to obey.

Time to get ready for church....... Have a great Sunday!

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This morning I had planned to sleep in but LC, my kitty, woke me early for breakfast. I love early mornings so decided to stay up. After a very enjoyable day yesterday I thought I would need more sleep but really wasn't worn out from all the activities. Diane and Kevin came over and we went to see my neighbor's new sun room. It is really nice and will provide many hours of enjoyment.

We decided to check out a few garage sales, and picked up a few small bargains. After a nice relaxing lunch we went to swim with Daniel & Markus. That was so very relaxing and refreshing. Fresh air and water has a way of rejuvenating even though it usually also makes one tired. After having put in two swimming pools of our own, this only renewed my memories and enjoyment in having a pool. Now where could I put one??? Just kidding - that is very far down my list of to-do's.

After making potato salad for our lake day today, Warren and I watched a very enjoyable 50's classic music program. That was even worth staying up late. It definitely was fun to watch.

Till next time.........Keep your face to the sunshine and you will not see the shadows. ~Helen Keller

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