We should count each day as a separate life. – Seneca
Article written by Alex Blackwell. Connect with me on Facebook.
My friend Tim Brownson at A Daring Adventure once published an article providing seven reasons to be cheerful in spite of your circumstances.
On the particular day Tim wrote this article, he was experiencing the ultimate bad mood creator – transitioning all of his computer files from his old Windows-based computer to his brand spanking new Macintosh computer. Even though Tim is a very bright and capable guy, this exercise proved to be, shall we say, challenging for him.
At the moment of his greatest frustration, he happened to hear his wife break out in what Tim describes as “raucous” laughter. He followed the sound and found his wife watching the movie Hitch with Will Smith.
Soon, Tim found himself smiling and laughing along with his wife. In just a few short moments, his bad day had turned around and corrected itself. To be honest though, it was really Tim who made the adjustment, not the day at all. My friend just found a very good reason to reframe his bad day and then look at it from a different point of view.
All of us have this same ability, too. There exists in each one us the energy needed to reverse the negative circumstances we face in our daily lives and make them either more positive or adjust them. We also have the choice to accept the negatives, but then choose not to allow them to have any power over us. Read more
Life isn’t about how to survive the storm, but how to dance in the rain. – Author Unknown
Article written by Alex Blackwell. Connect with me on Facebook.
Kansas City is in a drought. There has only been 0.05” of precipitation recorded this year. My hands and face are as dry and cracked as the hard winter ground. It’s rare to go so long without any type of moisture during the middle of winter in the Midwest.
There has been no snow, sleet or ice. There has been no rain. I have almost forgotten what it sounds like to hear the drops fall against the window. I need the rain to come back. I need it to wash away the harshness of the past few months and heal my fragile confidence.
Most of us have experienced periods in our lives of pronounced difficulty and pain. These cycles can last for days or weeks. Sometimes they can last for months or even longer. When we find ourselves in one of these droughts we tend to lose our objectively and begin to believe the hardship will never end. The last six months has been one of these times for me. Read more
“The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up.” – Mark Twain
In case you haven’t made dinner reservations for next Saturday night, which is Valentine’s Day, it’s probably too late now. Similarly, I was in the grocery store yesterday afternoon and I noticed a swarm of people at the greeting card rack. It was a good prompt for me to find a card for Mary Beth before the selection is completely picked over.
While my wife and I celebrate Valentine’s Day, either one of us feel the pressure to exchange predictable gifts. Rather, we try to give what is needed to be whole and complete inside and outside of our relationship everyday – not just on Valentine’s Day.
What we want most for the other is just to be happy. Personal happiness is the foundation upon which to build and share a life. However, how we achieve happiness can be different for each one of us. Read more
It’s not having what you want. It’s wanting what you’ve got. – Sheryl Crow
The 45-minute drive home last Wednesday night from Leavenworth to Overland Park, Kansas gave me some time to think. I just dropped off my younger son, Andrew, for a five-day personal development seminar, and I welcomed the chance to remember a similar night six years ago.
Andrew, I concluded, was fortunate. Attending as a 17-year-old would give him valuable resources he could use for his entire life. I received these same tools shortly after my 41st birthday.
Not that I’m unappreciative to have received these tools later in life, just the opposite. In a way, I received a new lease on life and the opportunity to look at my world from a different point-of-view. For that, I will always be grateful.
Before attending the seminar, I didn’t understand the blessings that existed around me. I was too busy focusing on what I should have and less aware of what I already had. Knowing my son was about to walk in the same training room I once entered gave me the opportunity to recall the person I used to be. Read more
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot. With a pink hotel, a boutique, and a swinging hot spot. Don’t it always seem to go. That you don’t know what you got until it’s gone.” – Joni Mitchell
Article written by Alex Blackwell. Connect with me on Facebook.
The coffee shop a few blocks from my house recently closed. On nights when I wanted to have a couple of hours to get some writing done, I would pack-up my laptop and head to this inspirational sanctuary. It never really occurred to me I would arrive one night and find it closed.
Likewise, it’s unsettling when, for as long as we can remember, we drive past the old farm house sitting on land covered with loblolly pines and oak tress only to look over one day from the car window and see it gone. Where a graceful, almost majestic home once stood has now been interrupted by earth movers and dump trucks. Our paradise has been deferred and we are uncertain of its new location. Read more
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