What’s on the menu? I hope having a great day is today’s special. Much like a great meal, a great day takes effort. It doesn’t happen until we decide to add all the special ingredients. These are the ingredients I put into my great day: (Hint:add generously) smiles, gratitude, kindnesses, reaching out to speak/connect to others, reading and viewing things that make me feel better. My great day just got greater writing this post.
The early mornings are dark in south Texas. I stepped outside this morning at 5:30. It was dark and the night sky was hanging around. I saw Venus and Orion. The air was refreshing. I was there alone. My neighbor’s homes were all dark. My only company was a deer a bit down the street nibbling on a neighbor’s plants. I took a deep breath of the fresh air and new that I was , going to have a great day.
Today’s Thinking Out Loud reflection on Richard Bach’s, Jonathan Livingston Seagull.
Jonathon Livingston Seagull finds himself ostracized and banned from the flock. He doesn’t sulk, he decides to keep following his dream.
What he had once hoped for the flock, he now gained for himself alone; he learned to fly, and was not sorry for the price that he had paid. Jonathan Livingston seagull discovered that boredom and fear and anger are the reasons that a gulls’ life is so short, and with those gone from his thought, he lived a long fine life indeed.
Note: Paying more attention to other people than to ourselves and trying to control their lives instead of worrying about our own life creates a great angst both for the other person and for ourselves. Instead of criticizing those who are different from us why not encourage them? Why not look at our own lives and discern what it is that we are meant to do and be. I think what we are meant to do and be is something that is always evolving. What we were meant to be at one stage in our life will not be the same at another stage of our lives. Wise people understand this and adjust and adapt and continue to learn and grow. And those who don’t, like the gulls in the story, discover that their lives are filled with boredom and fear and anger.
Today’s Thinking Out Loud reflection on Richard Bach’s, Jonathan Livingston Seagull.
Jonathon Livingston Seagull has an intuitive insight and follows it.
The moon and the lights twinkling in the water throwing a little beacon trails through the night, and all so peaceful and still. . . .
Get down! Seagulls never fly in the dark! If you were meant to fly in the dark you’d have the eyes of an owl! You’d have charts for brains! You’d have a falcon’s short wings!
There in the night, a hundred feet in the air, Jonathan Livingston seagull blinked. His pain, his resolutions, vanished.
Short wings. A Falcon’s short wings. That’s the answer. What a fool I’ve been. All I need is tiny little wings. All I need is to fold most of my wings and fly just on the tips alone! Short wings!
Note: Listen to your intuition. It’s working for you 24/7. Your intuition sees what your mind refuses to see. Your intuition is not filtered by biases and other people’s opinions. Your intuition knows how your heart thinks and it is connected in a very deep way to your destiny. Silence helps us to hear what our intuition is telling us. It may come when you are walking, riding, or taking a shower. Our intuition has a habit of showing up when we least expect it. But when it does listen.
NOTE: The one thing that we are capable of doing that no one can take away from us is the attitude we choose to take to our day. Why not begin each day by announcing to the world, “I’m going to have a great day.” Don’t waste a moment on a pity party. Don’t waste a moment feeling sorry for yourself. It’s going to be a great day, grab hold of it and don’t let go.
Beginning today I am reading and reflecting on Richard Bach’s, Jonathan Livingston Seagull. Enjoy the passages I select and the reflections I make on the passage.
Seagulls, as you know never falter, never stall. To stall in the air is for them disgrace and it is dishonor. But Jonathan Livingston seagull, unashamed, stretching his wings again in their trembling hard curve — slowing, slowing, and stalling once more — was no ordinary bird. Most gulls don’t bother to learn more than the simple facts of flight — how to get from shore to food and back again. For gulls, it is not flying that matters, but eating. For this gull though, it was not eating that mattered, but flight. More than anything else Jonathan Livingston Seagull loved to fly.
Note: What is it that your heart is calling you to become? Have you heard the call? Or, are you so busy with a life others planned for you that can’t hear the call? The call is like an echo, it is always there bouncing around inside of you. Occasionally you’ll catch a glimpse of it. It takes courage to stop and listen to the call and then to embrace it and follow it wherever it takes you. Find your quiet space and listen to your call.
