meaning

COVID-19 Is a Bummer – It Can’t Stop Good Things From Happening

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COVID-19 Is a Bummer – It Can’t Stop Good Things From Happening

Here are a few of the good things I witnessed or experienced today:

  • It poured rain today in San Antonio. Grateful for the rain. The aquifer will get a recharge shot. Grateful for clean drinking water.
  • Viktor Frankl’s book, Man’s Search for Meaning, became the foundation for my doctoral dissertation and much of my life’s work. Today, I thought of Dr. Frankl and was grateful for his knowledge and wisdom. He endured the Nazi concentration camps and brought out of it an enduring message that is important to any generation facing a crises. He says, “Those who have a ‘why’ to live, can bear with almost any ‘how’.” I have my “Why” I hope you have discovered your “Why” as well. Grateful

We’re another day closer to winning this battle. We keep doing the right things, exercise patience, act compassionately toward one another, we’ll get through in fine style.

The little things are priceless treasures to me. They brighten my day. I hope your day is filled to overflowing with the little things that make life worth living.

Grateful for all the above.

If you’d like to share the good things you’ve witnessed on my blog, Email me (ray.brese@gmail.com) a short list (1 to 5 things.  I’ll post and attribute them to you in the way you choose to be acknowledged (e.g., anonymous, name, Word Press blog (etc.).

Writers’ Wisdom: 4th of 7 Writing Rules by V.S. Naipaul

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Rule 4. Never use words whose meanings you are not sure of. If you break this rule you should look for other work.

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Writers Wisdom: Steinbeck on Dialogue

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If you are using dialogue—say it aloud as you write it. Only then will it have the sound of speech. ~ John Steinbeck

Longevity Tip ~ Grab Hold of a Star and Chase It

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Huge Study Confirms Purpose and Meaning Add Years to Life

Okinawans call it ikigai or “reason for being.” Costa Ricans call it “plan de vida.” . . . It’s simply referred to as your life’s purpose. In the blue zones regions of the world, purpose has always played a major role in well-being and the resulting extreme longevity. . . . Dr. Robert Butler, the first director of the National Institute on Aging, estimated that an ability to define your life meaning adds to your life expectancy. . . .His study found that individuals who expressed a clear goal in life—something to get up for in the morning, something that made a difference—lived longer and were sharper than those who did not. A more recent study published by the Journal of the American Medical Association linked a strong sense of purpose with a lower risk of all-cause mortality after age 50. The study followed about 7,000 adults over the age of 50. They found that participants who had the lowest life-purpose scores were twice as likely to have died than those with the highest scores.

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Writer’s Wisdom on the Importance of Commas

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“Making love to me is amazing. Wait, I meant: making love, to me, is amazing. The absence of two little commas nearly transformed me into a sex god.” ~Dark Jar Tin Zoo

Longevity Tip ~ Sense of Purpose

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Purpose. The Okinawans call it Ikigai and the Nicoyans call it plan de vida; for both, it translates to “why I wake up in the morning.” Knowing your sense of purpose is worth up to 7 years of extra life expectancy.

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Longevity Tip

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A recent study . . . discovered having a sense of purpose, direction and goals may add years to our lives. It doesn’t matter when you discover your purpose (i.e., young, middle-aged, or older) but the sooner the better.  The study looked at 6,100 Americans aged 20 through 75 over a 14 year period.  During that time, about 9% of the subjects died.  All the participants who died scored lower than those who survived on measures of “purposefulness.”  Even when other variables, such as a having a positive outlook, were controlled for, the data stood up.

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Reasons to Live ~ Quote by Viktor Frankl

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“He who has a why to live can bear with almost any how.”

~ Viktor Frankl

Existence ~ Poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

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Existence

You are here, and you are wanted,
Though a waif upon life’s stair;
Though the sunlit hours are haunted
With the shadowy shapes of care.
Still the Great One, the All-Seeing
Called your spirit into being—
Gave you strength for any fate.
Since your life by Him was needed,
All your ways by Him are heeded—
You can trust and you can wait.

You can wait to know the meaning
Of the troubles sent your soul;
Of the chasms intervening
’Twixt your purpose and your goal;
Of the sorrows and the trials,
Of the silence and denials,
Ofttimes answering to your pleas;
Of the stinted sweets of pleasure,
And of pain’s too generous measure—
You can wait the why of these. 

Forth from planet unto planet,
You have gone, and you will go.
Space is vast, but we must span it;
For life’s purpose is to know.
Earth retains you but a minute,
Make the best of what lies in it;
Light the pathway where you are.
There is nothing worth the doing
That will leave regret or rueing,
As you speed from star to star.

You are part of the Beginning,
You are parcel of To-day.
When He set His world to spinning
You were flung upon your way.
When the system falls to pieces,
When this pulsing epoch ceases,
When the is becomes the was,
You will live, for you will enter
In the great Creative Centre,
In the All-Enduring Cause.”

Excerpt From
Poems of Progress and New Thought Pastels
Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Something to Think About

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Our conduct should show that we are on this earth to play a magnificent part in life’s drama, to make a splendid contribution to humanity.

Orison Swett Marden

 

You are important! You have a wonderful gift to offer this world. What is it?

Are you still searching for it?

In quiet and stillness you will know and once you know let nothing distract you from cultivating it and sharing it with others.

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