It’s good to be independent and self-reliant. As strong as we may be, we all need help every now and then. Asking for help doesn’t make us weak. Asking for help is sign of humility. It is an acknowledgement that we don’t have all the answers. There are times when we will be asked for help. When we are asked for help it is a sign that someone sees us as a person who can point the way, open a door, or provide assistance the person needs. Never fear giving help. Never fear receiving help. We are conduits of doing good when we are helping or receiving help.
Words
Today’s Good Word ~ Laughter
A good laugh is good medicine. Especially the kind of laugh that brings tears to your eyes, makes your belly ache, and forces strange sounds out of you. That’s the kind of laugh that warms the spirit, purges the darkness from the mind, and frees one’s creative spirit. Yes, it’s time to turn the frowns to smiles and the smiles into joyful, heartfelt laughter.
Today’s Good Word ~ Real
A young child tries to shape what is real to provide benefit. A young child drops a glass of milk, the child blames the dog or a sibling. The child is trying to construct reality to provide benefit. Adults do the same thing with a great deal more sophistication. When we come across people who seek appropriate data and verify the data before drawing conclusions, we know we are in the presence of someone we can trust.
Today’s Good Word ~ Words
Words – Def: Units of language that have meaning and can be spoken or written.
Our words connect or separate us from each other. We can use our words to share messages of love, healing and inspiration. We can also use our words to condemn and shame. Words can send us into panic buying or give us hope that things will get better. The words we use paint a picture of us to all who hear or read our words. What kind of picture are you painting?
Today’s Good Word ~ Tenacity
Tenacity – Def: The determination to continue what you are doing
When life is moving along smoothly, there’s no need to turn the dial up on our tenacity. It’s when we’re slogging through the tough times that we need tenacity. Tenacity is our ability to hang in there when the going gets tough. It’s the strength and determination to refuse to quit no matter how much time is left in the game. I think we all have a tenacity gene, turn it on in the dark hours and fight on. Neve quit, never give in, never stop trying.
Today’s Good Word ~ Purpose
Purpose – Def: why you do something or why something exists
Here are two questions we have to answer at some point in our life. What am I doing with my life? What purpose am I serving? When life is purpose-less, we drift, we have no anchor and no permanent port to seek. When life is purpose-filled, we are reaching out to others whether it is through our work, creative actions, or specific service. Mystics from all the world’s great religions speak of purpose as one of service to others. Our purpose becomes our why and if we have a why we have a reason to get up each morning.
Today’s Good Word ~ Silence
Silence – Def: A period without any sound; complete quiet.
As I write this blog entry, I turned off streaming music. Ah, silence. I do not experience complete silence. I hear the sounds of the washing machine. I hear a bird singing outside my widow, and my stomach has an annoying habit of making a strange sound every now and then. Yet, in this atmosphere, my mind is free from external noise that interferes with my thinking. Thoughts now race across the movie screen of my mind. Were they always racing across my mind? I don’t know, but in silence, I can hear them. Periods of silence are a good thing. They allow us to come into contact with ourselves. Don’t fear meeting yourself, I have a hunch you may have a new BFF.
Today’s Smile
Joe: “My job as a waiter has one good benefit.”
Pete: “What’s that, Joe?”
Joe: “It puts food on the table.”
Today’s Good Word ~ Responsibility
Responsibility – Def: Good judgment and the ability to act correctly and make decisions on your own
We’ve all heard the expression, “take responsibility.” It’s easy to take responsibility when things are going right. It’s another story when things are going bad. It is why the first step in the 12-step program is to admit one is powerless to handle his/her alcohol problem. In effect, it is taking responsibility. When we take responsibility for the good and poor actions in our lives we are chiseling our character. A person of good character takes responsibility for his/her actions. He/she doesn’t manufacture lies, project blame elsewhere, but has the courage to stand on his/her two feet and take the consequences.
Today’s Good Word ~ Detour
Detour – Def: a different or less direct route to a place that is used to avoid a problem or to visit somewhere or do something on the way
Detours are part of life. They are ubiquitous. They occur on the highway, in our daily life, in the supermarket, and in our work. Detours can make us upset or give us another perspective. We never know what surprises will show up on one of our detours. One could meet the love of his/her life, get a great idea. Enjoy the detours in your life, you may end up being grateful the detour showed up.
