Faith

Sorry to be gone so long. Still no computer.

I am starting a new adventure. I want to open a pastry shop. Not sure where or when, but over the last few weeks I've been cooking up a storm. Donuts, bread, muffins, cobbler, all the good things that are so bad for you. Mostly family and co-workers are my taste testers but I'm branching out a bit to some other friends.

It's been difficult to stay positive about my adventure. I fight off the voice that tells me that this is probably the most terrible time to start a business. But I am ignoring it. I have learned that my thoughts are powerful and if I want this to work I need to see it succeeding and to push out those negative thoughts. It's a daily battle, but one I plan to win.

I'll keep you posted.

Blessings

I haven't posted for a bit, I broke my computer. Not great, but we are managing.


As I thought about what to write today, gratitude came to mind. We are very blessed and sometimes I guess I forget it. Both my husband and I have jobs. We have a place to live, food on the table, vehicles to drive, gas money, insurance, electricity, I could go on and on and on.


Sometimes it gets easy to focus on whats missing and forget to see what's good about life. I know that I need to spend a bit more time being thankful.

"Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a
present and not giving it."~William Arthur Ward

The Pursuit of Happiness

I just watched the Will Smith movie The Pursuit of Happiness. It's one inspirational movie I have a hard time watching. It's not that it's a bad movie, it's just that the movie tells the story of a man who is trying to do better for his family. He feels that working for Dean Witter will get him where he wants to be, but the only way to get his shot with the company is to take an unpaid internship. Six months with no income. He and his son live in a homeless shelter, he sells medical equipment on the side, sells his plasma, and whatever else he can find that might give him a few dollars to survive a few more days.


I struggle with the movie because I tend to be a quitter. When the going gets tough, I quit. I love my comfort zone and I know that success takes place out side that zone.

"Periods of tranquility are seldom prolific of creative achievement. Mankind has to be stirred up." ~Alfred North Whitehead

I know that if I want to succeed I have to do something. I often wish success would walk up and knock on my door, but it's not going to happen that way. I don't have to do it all at once, but I do need to do a little. Everyday I do a little more towards my dreams takes me that much closer to where I want to be.

I may not be there yet, but I'm closer than I was yesterday. ~Author Unknown

Yesterday's Post

So why all the fuss about inspiration?

I think that all of us have inside of us dreams that we have forgotten about, given up on or maybe failed to achieve. I also believe that we all can accomplish anything that we put our mind to. Seriously put our mind to, not just consider. That's where inspiration comes in.

It's hard to put your self out on a limb to try something new or to try something that you might have previously failed to accomplish. There are lots of people who have experienced the same thing but have picked themselves up or stuck their neck out and succeeded. That's why I wanted to read your stories.

I don't know about anyone else, but I struggle, struggle a lot with putting myself out there to fail. I hate failure. My motto has been, don't try it if you don't think you are good at it. But as I read and watch inspirational stories I realized that failure is part of the game. I also realized that sometimes you learn more from your failures than you could ever learn any other way.

Failure is a detour, not a dead end street. ~Zig
Ziglar

Inspiration

I have tried to write this post several times. I start and then delete it because I worry about how it will sound or what someone might think. This explains the large gap between now and my last post. I figured I better just write it down or I would never post again.

I love inspirational stories. My movie shelf is full of movies that are inspiring. Same with my bookshelf. You are probably wondering why this was so hard for me to write about. What I have been struggling with is the fact that all of us do exceptional things in our lives. Maybe not to the degree that will get Disney to make it into a movie or will be put into a best selling book, but its still something that could inspire someone else.

There are people in this world who are going through very difficult times. Sometimes those people are our neighbors or even our friends. A story of triumph over adversity just might be what they need to push through their hardship.

(Here's where I quit and delete) A few years back I was asked to be the administrator of our local nursing home. I thought it was a great opportunity but there was a small problem. I needed a four year degree. I had attended a community college for two years but never quite finished my transfer degree. After much discussion with my husband, the plan was to finish up the class I needed for my transfer degree then attend a four year school. Since we don't live near a four year school the plan was to take the classes on line. Oh and the best part was I needed to be done as fast as possible. I finished up the transfer degree in about three months and then proceeded to start on my four year degree. I figured out how I could get this done in a little over a year. I didn't quit my job or stop being a mother (housework did suffer greatly I will admit).

Fast forward one year. I just about met my goal but I had one class to finish. I was about 1/2 way through it when the owners of the nursing home came to visit. They gathered everyone together and explained that they were closing the doors. Talk about devastating. I didn't want to finish up my class, I just wanted to quit. After a lot of encouragement from my husband, I went ahead and finished the class and got my degree. The nursing home closed and I found other work and eventually ended up where I am now in a much better job.

Why share this story? I don't know if it is inspiring, that's something you will have to decide. The point was to show that we all overcome things in our lives. Some small like me and others are huge. I would like to ask that you share with me your inspiring story. Yes I really want to hear it. You don't have to give names or any details you don't want to give.

"The greatest results in life are usually attained by simple means and the exercise of ordinary qualities."

It's how you tell the story

Everyday I get e-mails with positive quotes or uplifting stories in them. Today I got a story about golf. It talked about these great things this golfer did. Then, he said this.

"What I didn't talk about were all the balls that landed in the woods and didn't bounce out. I didn't mention the trophy I won for the most lost balls in one round. Jim doesn't know I lost the hole-in-one ball in the woods on my next shot, and he doesn't know that the day I got four birdies, my final score was twenty-two over par."

He didn't share all the negative when he talked about his golf game, he shared the positive. We all have positive and negative things in our lives. Where is our focus?

I quit watching the news because out of 30-40 minutes of news, you get 5 minutes of positive and all the rest is the negative, nasty things in this world. But what do we talk about when we get the chance? Are we sharing the positive in our lives or are we dumping our negative experiences on our friends, family, co-workers?

"Life is hard - life is good. It's how you tell the story." ~Michael T. Smith

Opinion

"Every man is a fool in some man's opinion” ~Spanish Proverb

I read something this morning that got me thinking about opinions. I've spent a lot of time in my life worrying about other people's opinions. Family, friends, even strangers sometimes. How do I look? Am I doing what I'm suppose to be doing? What do they think of me? Finally, I've come to realize that the person's opinion I need to worry about is my own. Is what I'm doing in line with my beliefs? Are my actions moving me in the direction I want to go or taking me down another path? Will this lead me closer to living my soul purpose?

I've decided that the things that I want to do in my life probably won't be looked at by others as "normal" or "right'" but that's ok. I know that there are things that I have been put on this earth to do and when it's all said and done I will have to answer for my actions. I don't think the excuse "people didn't think it was a good idea" is really going to fly. When I am gone from this earth I want to be remembered as someone who made a difference.

The purpose of life is not to be happy - but to matter, to be productive, to be useful, to have it make some difference that you have lived at all. ~Leo Rosten