happiness

Poem for Today ~ The Dawn’s Awake

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The Dawn’s Awake

Donald Leland Bohanan

The Dawn’s awake! 
   A flash of smoldering flame and fire
Ignites the East. Then, higher, higher, 
   O’er all the sky so gray, forlorn, 
The torch of gold is borne. 

The Dawn’s awake! 
  The dawn of a thousand dreams and thrills. 
And music singing in the hills 
   A pæen of eternal spring 
Voices the new awakening. 

The Dawn’s awake! 
     Whispers of pent-up harmonies, 
With the mingled fragrance of the trees; 
     Faint snaches of half-forgotten song—
Fathers! Torn and numb,—
   The boon of light we craved, awaited long, 
Has come, has come! 

 

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Feeling Good ~ What Really Makes Me Happy

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I don’t need drink to feel good. I don’t need to a trip to an exotic destination to feel good.

When I know I am loved and can share my love in return my heart is at peace. It’s all good.

Feeling Good Tip ~ Do You Have the Gift?

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Some people make you feel good each time you enter their sphere. My Uncle Joe was that kind of person. He was a truck driver and he worked on cars in a garage at the rear of his house. When I was young, I walked a mile and half down the tracks to his house. I’d walk into his garage and he’d stop working on a car and welcome me. He made me feel welcome. He’d talk to me while he worked and I felt like I belonged. He had a special gift. I looked up to him. When people are made to feel wanted, the sun breaks through the clouds and a rainbow appears.

Poem for Today ~ For Who?

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For Who?

Mary Weston Fordham

When the heavens with stars are gleaming
   Like a diadem of light, 
And the moon’s pale rays are streaming, 
   Decking earth with radiance bright; 
When the autumn’s winds are sighing, 
   O’er the hill and o’er the lea, 
When the summer time is dying, 
   Wanderer, wilt thou think of me? 

When thy life is crowned with gladness, 
     And thy home with love is blest, 
Not one brow o’ercast with sadness, 
     Not one bosom of unrest—
When at eventide reclining, 
    At thy hearthstone gay and free, 
Think of one whose life is pining, 
    Breathe thou, love, a prayer for me. 

Should dark sorrows make thee languish, 
     Cause thy cheek to lose its hue, 
In the hour of deepest anguish, 
     Darling, then I’ll grieve with you. 
Though the night be dark and dreary, 
     And it seemeth long to thee, 
I would whisper, “be not weary;” 
   I would pray love, then, for thee. 

Well I know that in the future, 
    I may cherish naught of earth; 
Well I know that love needs nurture, 
    And it is of heavenly birth.
But though ocean waves may sever 
     I from thee, and thee from me, 
Still this constant heart will never, 
    Never cease to think of thee. 

 

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Photo for Today ~ Life is Good

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Photo for Today ~ Let Love Flow

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Poem for Today ~ The Miracle

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The Miracle

Fenton Johnson

Though I was dwelling in a prison house, 
My soul was wandering by the carefree stream
Through fields of green with gold eyed daisies strewn, 
And daffodils and sunflower cavaliers. 
And near me played a little browneyed child, 
A winsome creature God alone conceived, 
“Oh, little friend,” I begged. “Give me a flower
That I might bear it to my lonely cell.” 
He plucked a dandelion, an ugly bloom, 
But tenderly he placed it in my hand, 
And in his eyes I saw the sign of love. 
‘Twas then the dandelion became a rose. 

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Feeling Good Tip ~ Living a Meaning-Filled Life

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Are You Living a Meaning-Filled Life?

Researchers at Tohoku University in Japan did a 7 year study of over 43,000 adults age 40 to 79 asking if they had ikigai (a Japanese term for meaning in life) and then tracked their health. People with ikigai were much more likely to be alive 7 years later.

NOTE: When we have meaning in our life, we have a reason to get up and get going. We’re not going to be bored. We’re not going to feel useless. We’re not going to feel powerless. Meaning is almost always associated with something beyond ourselves. It might be taking care of one’s garden, e.g., “The plants need me.” It might be a project at work that needs your personal skills. If we have a meaning, we’ll find a way. When we find a way, we feel better. We know our life is significant.

Poem for Today ~ Renewal of Strength

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Renewal of Strength

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper

The prison-house in which I live
Is falling to decay,
But God renews my spirit’s strength
Within these walls of clay.

For me a dimness slowly creeps
Around earth’s fairest light,
But heaven grows clearer to my view,
And fairer to my sight.

It may be earth’s sweet harmonies
Are duller to my ear,
But music from my Father’s house
Begins to float more near.

Then let the pillars of my home
Crumble and fall away;
Lo, God’s dear love within my soul
Renews it day by day.

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Thinking Out Loud ~ Is it Really Normal?

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I am reading “We Should All be Feminists” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Ms. Adichie is a well-known Nigeran author who Time Magazine named as one of the one hundred most influential people in the world in 2015. Her book, “We Should All be Feminists” was taken from a Ted Talk and initiated a global conversation about feminism. Hope you enjoy the snippets I share with you from her book and my reflections on them.

In her book, We Should All be Feminists, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie writes, “If we do something over and over it becomes normal period if we see the same thing over and over, it becomes normal.” Pg. 12

NOTE: I’d like to add, “If we hear something over and over, we begin to believe it’s true. When I was a young kid, one of my chores was to mow the lawn. There was one way to mow the lawn, my dad’s way. I found myself, years later, mowing the lawn in the same way until I decided it was okay to mow it a different way. When I did, I wasn’t struck by lightning. I didn’t have a coronary. And the sun continued to rise and set right on schedule. Unless we question why we’re doing something over and over we may miss out on a better way to do it.

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