resilience

The Power of Family

by

“That’s what people do who love you. They put their arms around you and love you when you’re not so lovable.” ― Deb Caletti

“I sustain myself with the love of family.” ― Maya Angelou

A family has always been a big deal for me. When I was growing up, it was a place I called home. I felt wanted, loved, and encouraged. Was it perfect? Not by any measure. We all held our measure of imperfection. It didn’t matter, it was family. Mom and dad always held an open door and waited for me with open arms.

When I married Babe, we decided we would be a family filled with love. We wanted our five girls to know their mom and dad loved each other and modeled their love for them. We loved, we laughed, we celebrated, we cried, and we forgave. Through it all, we remain a family.

All through Babe’s suffering and death, the five girls rallied around me. They sustained me. They did it because that is what loving families do.

All through my grieving period, their love was the foundation from which I gleaned strength, courage, and determination to go on. Why? Because it is what loving families do.

Family is the place we come from and where we feel we can always return.

Family is the place where, in spite of differences, when the chips are down, we count on each other.

Not everyone has the same experience of family as I did. It is never too late to create a sense of family. It takes two people who care deeply about each other. Two people who dare venture into tomorrow. And, two people who will always have each other’s back. I found strength in my large family. I hope you find strength in your family.

Family

 

Are You Ready To Soar?

by

“Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.” ~John Wooden

“A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties.” –  Harry Truman

Are you ready for today?

Give me my cup of coffee, a hot shower, a time to give thanks to a loving God I have a new day and a new chance. I am ready. I am so ready for a great day. I ask myself:

Am I ready to go all in and give it my best every moment?

Am I ready to believe good things will come my way today?

Am I tougher than my challenges?

Am I ready to love everyone who comes my way today?

Am I ready to leave a positive imprint on every place I travel and on everyone I meet?

Am I ready to see, perhaps for the first time, all the blessings that surround me and to give thanks for them?

Am I ready? I am. Are you ready? Together we will leave it all on the table. We will give it our best each moment. We will make today better than yesterday. We will positively touch the lives of all whom we meet today.

Words to think about

  • Optimism
  • Fervour
  • Zeal
  • Passion
  • Vitality
  • Strength
  • Persistence
  • Effort
  • Soar

 

Trust Your Instincts

by

“The more faithfully you listen to the voice within you, the better you hear what is sounding outside of you.” – Dag Hammarskjold

I never had a real mentor. I had three people who touched me along my journey. I wrote an article for a prestigious journal titled, “Friends Along The Journey.” These three people showed up at the right place, right moment, with the right push in the right direction.

I share a brief story about the first of the three “friends.” J was my supervisor early in my career. I’ve always been a free spirit and did things differently from many others viewed as the “correct” way to do them. Somehow, the style worked for me. I’m not sure I would recommend my free-wheeling ways to others. Colleagues grumbled about me. I wasn’t like them. They complained to J. It wasn’t long before J invited me into his office. I knew I was in trouble, or so I thought.

I walked in with the attitude, “take it like a man.” J was a former football player, large, muscular, an imposing figure by any stretch. He looked up from his work, pointed an index finger the size of nice-size dowel, and said, “Sit.”

“Yes, Mr. J,” I answered.

J pushed his glasses down to the edge of his nose, leaned forward, and said, “Ray, you have good instincts. Trust them. That’s it. You can leave.”

“Thank you. Mr. J.” He brushed me off with the wave of a hand.

How fortunate I was to have an authority figure I trusted to give me permission to trust my instincts. I followed his advice from that moment on and it made all the difference in my life.

Trust your instincts.

Trust your gut.

Trust your heart.

Give it whatever name you want to give it, but trust it. It is your inner guide pointing the way for you.

voice in the heart

Faith Finds A Way

by

Lately I’ve been runnin on faith. What else can a poor boy do?
– Jerry Lynn Williams

When everything you’ve learned doesn’t work. When everything you’ve tried ends up failing. When life knocks you flat on your back, you have no choice but to look up when you open your eyes.

Faith is trusting a loving God, no matter the odds, no matter the challenge, you and I will find the strength to rise to one knee, take a deep breath, stand up, and move on.

Faith is facing the challenge head on that knocked us down.

Faith is you and me saying, “I won’t quit. I won’t give in. I won’t give up.”

Faith discovers strength from deep within.

Faith stirs our will to shout, “You Will Get Through.”

Faith is available to all of us. It’s a wonderful, awesome gift.

Maybe I don’t understand faith as well as others. I know I find courage, strength, and confidence when give my YES to fight on, do my best and trust God to do the rest.

In times when life knocks me down, I will give a resounding YES to fight on. I hope you do as well. We can do it.

brilliant light.jpg

Yes, You Can Make It Through!

by

Anyone can give up, it’s the easiest thing in the world to do. But to hold it together when everyone else would understand if you fell apart, that’s true strength.
– Author Unknown

There are days when I wake up and wonder, ‘How am I going to make it through the day?’ Have you had a similar experience? I think it is a common experience we all share.

Standing and staring, sitting and thinking, or lying and wondering doesn’t help me get through the day. If I do any of those things, my anxiety rises, I go into a funk, it’s not a good place to be.

I don’t want to be in that space. It’s not a healthy place. So, I made a deal with myself (sounds absurd, right?). Here’s the deal, “I’ll get up, get going, and plunge headlong into the day. In return, I expect things to work out. I’ll have the courage and strength to meet any challenge. And, at day’s end, I’ll be able to say “Thank You. It was a great day.”

It works for me.

Get Up – Get Going – Plunge In. You Can Do It.

I encourage comments and questions.

No Mountain Too High

The Power of Love

by

“Only those who attempt the absurd can achieve the impossible.” – Albert Einstein

I am a guy dancing alone. In reality, I’m only alone if I choose to be alone. I am surrounded by great neighbors. I have great friends. I have wonderful daughters and grandchildren. Everywhere I travel I meet good people, kind people, compassionate people.

I am attempting the absurd, as Einstein says – I am proving to myself and to all who share a similar journey, suffering doesn’t have the last word. Love has the last word. Despair has no place in the conversation. Love is the conversation. Sorrow will not triumph. Love will triumph over all.

Yes, believing in the awesome, healing, renewing, recreating power of love is absurd. It is the path I follow to achieve the absurd.

Power of Love.jpg

Here For A Purpose

by

The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well. 
-Ralph Waldo Emerson 

Have you had tough times? Dumb question, right?  We’ve all had our share of tough times. No one is a stranger to life’s storms. We’ve all had moments when our world turned dark, leaving us wondering if the sun will shine again. Life happens

Life happens in ways we don’t understand. The only fair thing about life is that it is unfair, unpredictable, and uncertain.

I believe, in spite of life’s unfairness, unpredictability, and uncertainty, you and I are here for a purpose. I believe our purpose involves other people. It doesn’t take keen insight to know we all need compassion. We all need to feel loved. We all need to feel needed. I know I find my happiness not in things but through my relationships with other people. I find a deep sense of joy when those I love succeed. I feel a deep sense gratitude when I make a difference in someone else’s life.

I’ve come to understand, any happiness I find occurs when I move from ME to We.

Here for a purpose.jpg

We Are Not Defeated

by

We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated. – Maya Angelou

I love the words by Maya Angelou, “We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.” I know by observation and experience that a defeat is only a setback, a stumbling point. It is not the end of the journey. It marks the beginning of the Journey.

It marks the beginning of the Journey.

It is the place where we get to rise and stride forward.

It is the place where we summon the courage to rejoin the quest.

It is the place where we indelibly stamp our character with a mark of who we are.

It is the place where we find out what we are made of.

It is the place where we stand, hand in hand, with all others of good will, who refuse to be defeated, who rise and again begin our journey.

We Are Not Defeated

Making it Through the Tough Times

by

What you are thinking, what shape your mind is in, is what makes the biggest difference of all.  ~ Willie Mays

You and I experience tough times. You and I have the stuff to make it through tough times. We were created with an inner toughness to get up after being knocked down.

Tough times don’t keep tough people down for long. They get up, shake the dust, and get going again. It’s what they do.  They reach down and find they still have a bit more they give. They don’t save it. They summon it up and give it their all. That’s what they do.

This week. Let’s give it our all.

This week. Let’s stick our face in the wind and bring our best.

This week. Let’s shake the dust, get up, and get going again.

When the weekend comes, we’ll look back together, smile and say, “WE DID IT. WE MADE IT THROUGH. YES WE DID!”

Leap

We Are Strong

by
SoulStrong/Breakaway by Siddharth Anand
Abandon the past
Throw away the baggage
Suffer no more. avast(stop now)

Breakaway from the chains and shackles
Which from you, your life, take away;
Breathe again; this time without constraint
And the dreams in your eyes
Realize;

Forget fear. Forget the barriers and the walls
Even the greatest of mountains on your feet will fall
When you with self-trust stand tall.

Walk away from those who try to cheat on your soul. Don’t stall.
Remember the wisdom of those wiremen The universal law will square all.

Dream and don’t give up
And if they don’t shape up
Try. try once more.
Don’t breakup.

For the race of life
Is won, not, by the fastest or the strongest
But, by the one who can give his all……….

I want to report life is easy – I can’t.
I want to report you and I will easily climb the next mountain – I can’t.
I want to report suffering will not ever again knock at your door or mine – I can’t.
I can report that you and I are strong.
We have an inner guide and an abundance of strength to take over the next mountain and the mountain after that, and whatever mountains await us.
I can report that suffering will not have the last word. You and I will not let it.
We are a strong, hope-filled people and we know if we join hands, lift our hearts and minds to a loving God, it’s all going to turn out right.

Fight On – Fight On – Fight On

strength in chaos

Verified by MonsterInsights