Posted on by BWThomas

Remembrance Day 2024

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

In Flanders fields the poppies blow. Between the crosses, row on row.That mark our place; and in the sky. The larks, still bravely singing, fly. Scarce heard amid the guns below.

John McCrae

Remembrance Day is a day to remember sacrifice and service. I’m seeing photos of service men and women on Facebook. What a group of brave men and women. Mom, my fountain of information on the Second World War and the great depression died this year, and now I have to rely only on history books.

She told me her first husband never felt he fit anywhere like he had in the army. At our writer’s group on Saturday, I heard a quote, “What hardens an egg, softens a potato.” We don’t know when we are in circumstances if we will be the egg or the potato. The army made people into people they didn’t know they could be, and it destroyed lives, even if they came out with all limbs still attached.

Will we rise above the circumstances or be destroyed by them, and is it our choice? I saw a post on Facebook about spilled coffee and how whatever is in our cup is what we’ll spill, so we need to fill our cup with gratitude, joy, love, understanding, forgiveness, etc. But, one person responded to that post as if it was blaming the victim.

I don’t think people should not feel wronged by injustice. Wrongs that can be righted should be, and equal opportunity should be offered to all as much as possible.

Terrible things have happened to people who overcame them and lived great lives, and some have given up in the face of adversity and never rose again. Is this the choice, not what happens to us, but how we react?  

Patriotism is not dying for one’s country, it is living for one’s country. Perhaps that is not as romantic but it is better. Agnes Macphail

We don’t know what will happen in our lives, or how we will react. We think we will take things in stride, roll with the punches, and overcome adversity, but until it happens we’ll never know. We don’t even know if it is better to become harder or softened by life. Too hard is brittle, and too soft is mush, but somewhere in between is the sweet spot.

I was blessed to have a mother who lived through a lot, life threw a lot of punches at her, especially in the early years, but she came through with a good outlook on life.

Is a lot of life what we make of the circumstances we find ourselves in? Do we make things better or worse by the attitude we choose? Is choosing our mindset within our control?

We owe a debt to the men and women who served. Growing up and living in peace and plenty isn’t something we can take for granted. We never know when we might have to take a stand, and we won’t all agree on when, how, and what to fight for. Can we all say, I am willing to do, what I can do for my country?

Our obligations to our country never cease but with our lives. John Adams

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words but to live by them. John F. Kennedy

Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of a readiness to die. G.K. Chesterton

Thank you for reading this post. Please come back and read some more. Have a blessed day filled with gratitude, joy, and love.

To subscribe, comment, and see archives or categories of posts click on the picture and scroll to the end.

Thank you for reading my books, and a special thank you to those who leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon. If you click on the Amazon link and purchase an item I receive a small percentage of the sale through the Amazon affiliate program.

Posted on by BWThomas

Gratitude makes our soul blossom, changing our attitude, brightening our outlook, and broadening our perspective.

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

Take one thing with another, and the world is a pretty good sort of a world, and tis our duty to make the best of it and be thankful. Benjamin Franklin

People are gathering in their homes to celebrate Thanksgiving. We give thanks for the bounty and blessings we’ve received. Is it as easy to give thanks as to complain? Isn’t there always something that is not quite right we can complain about, but blessings flow to us daily?

Isn’t it a blessing when we turn on the tap, flush the toilet, open our fridge, and start our vehicle? We pick up our phone, turn on the computer or TV, and are connected to the world. Life has probably never been so simple, we don’t have to lay up stores for the winter like long ago when if we didn’t have enough, death was certain.

We don’t have to spend all our waking hours hunting for food. We have time for pastimes, reading, learning, and discussing world affairs. Do we see a cup half full or a cup half empty? Are we part of the problem or part of the solution? Are we waiting for someone else to do what needs to be done or are we getting in there and making the best of what there is?

We may think we should have made better decisions throughout our life, or just different ones, life might not have turned out how we thought it would, but life isn’t so much planned as meandered through in many ways. If we’ve seen the movie “Up” it was a good analogy of how life works. Something comes along to derail our plans. It doesn’t mean we shouldn’t make plans, but we need flexibility.

When it comes to life the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude. G.K. Chesterton

As life twists and turns is cultivating an attitude of gratitude the best thing we can do? Does it make a difference if we are grateful for the blessings and challenges of life? It’s easy to be grateful for the blessings, the challenges not so much, but facing challenges is where growth lies, and when we meet people who have faced many challenges we are often impressed with who they’ve become. We wouldn’t want to face those challenges ourselves, but aren’t we impressed, and just like coal under immense pressure becomes a diamond perhaps pressure on people turns them into people who sparkle with life, character, and gratitude.

What if we start life as an old lump of coal but could be a diamond someday? Sweet old people who have faced the challenges in life are a joy to be around. They have wonderful stories, insights into life, and an encouraging way about them. They are givers, encouragers, supporters, and uplift those around them.

Who can we uplift, encourage, and support? Times will get hard, situations seem impossible to overcome, relationships may seem beyond repair and if we give up they will stay that way, but what if we don’t give up, what if we keep dealing with the hardships, we keep trying to make peace, we keep looking for common ground, and we look for a way to make things better?

What if in the end, we come out the other side and things are better, the road behind us is rougher than the road ahead of us. Will we be grateful for persevering and being steadfast? Will we have taught our children and grandchildren the benefit of not giving up? In most stories there is a point where the character thinks they can’t go on, what is the use, defeat is sure, but if they continue, though they pay a heavy price they are rewarded in some way.

We all have a story, and we can’t go back and change the beginning, but what if the ending is in a good part up to us?

Being grateful does not mean that everything is necessarily good. It just means that you can accept it as a gift. Roy T. Bennett

The more you practice the art of thankfulness, the more you have to be thankful for. Norman Vincent Peale

Never let the things you want make you forget the things you have. Sanchita Pandey

Thank you for reading this post. Please come back and read more, and have a blessed day filled with gratitude, joy, and love.

To subscribe, comment, and see archives or categories of posts click on the picture and scroll to the end.

Thank you for reading my books, and a special thank you to those who leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon. If you click on the Amazon link and purchase an item I receive a small percentage of the sale through the Amazon affiliate program.

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Is accepting other people’s negative thoughts like letting them walk through our minds with dirty boots?

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

It takes but one positive thought when given a chance to survive and thrive to overpower an entire army of negative thoughts. Robert h. Schuller

At Toastmasters one of the speeches was, “The Son of a Thought.” The speaker broke down the thought, “We want ice for our drink and we have no ice cubes, and how wonderful it would be to have a refrigerator with an ice maker.” A week later opening the door to our new refrigerator with an ice maker, we wondered how this new purchase ended up in our home when there was nothing wrong with our old refrigerator, and it wasn’t something we were planning to purchase.

Where do some of the thoughts that have changed the world come from? We listen to someone’s adventures and start thinking we want a life filled with adventure, too. We might contemplate joining a gym when one of our friends transforms from couch potato to fit and adventure-seeking.

Someone writes a book and we think I’ve always wanted to do that, and if they can, I can. But what if one of our friends gets a divorce, is that contagious too? If they start believing in conspiracy theories, losing faith in our leaders, and feeling our society is going down the drain, do we start seeing what they’re seeing?

If thoughts and emotions are contagious, how do we know if our thoughts and feelings are our own or someone else’s? How do we combat other people’s thoughts and emotions from taking up space in our heads? Are we feeding our minds with good thoughts to combat the negativity around us?

Do we examine our negative thoughts and ask if they are true? Do we find if we are well-rested, energized, and in control of our emotional state we will be less susceptible to other’s negative emotions?

If we give something positive to others, it will return to us. If we give negative, that negativity will be returned. Allu Arjun

When we want to be there for someone stuck in a negative cycle do we risk becoming caught up in a negative cycle too? How do we support others and protect ourselves? Does negative thinking keep our suffering fresh? If we practice gratitude can we prevent negative thoughts from taking over? Is gratitude the antidote we need to practice to keep negativity from taking over our lives?

There are always negative things happening in the world, but there are also positive things happening, and we need to keep a balanced view because life is neither all good nor all bad. If we think everything is good we might not make the improvements in our lives we could make and if we see everything as all bad we might give up on being able to improve anything and find that is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

When we can control nothing else can we control our thoughts, and by controlling our thoughts find we can control things we thought were beyond our control? If we question our thoughts, can we have a more balanced view of life, ourselves, and others? Does dwelling on the negative only contribute to its power?

Negativity is an addiction to the bleak shadow that lingers around every human form, and you can transfigure negativity by turning it toward the light of your soul. John O’Donohue

It is better to dwell on the beautiful things in life than the negative. Lailah Gifty Akita

Gratitude can transform any situation. It alters your vibration moving you from negative to positive. Oprah Winfrey

Thank you for reading this post. Please return and read more and have a blessed day filled with gratitude, joy, and love.

To subscribe, comment, and see archives or categories of posts click on the picture and scroll to the end.

Thank you for reading my books, and a special thank you for leaving a review on Goodreads and Amazon. If you click on an Amazon link and purchase an item I receive a small percentage of the sale through the Amazon affiliate program.

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Gratitude is the spark igniting a fire of joy in our souls. It is the catalyst for a better life.

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance. Eckhart Tolle

Are we grateful for what we have, or are we feeling one more something is what we need? We might think that if we get to… or accomplish… then we’ll feel grateful. Oprah tells us, “If we aren’t grateful for what we have, we will never have enough.” That doesn’t mean it’s wrong to want more, to strive, to build, or to grow, but we need to be grateful for the blessings we already have in our lives.

One of the things said in an Illustrated Journal workshop Saturday, is that members in the audience who kept a journal said they couldn’t believe what a bad state they had been in at specific points in their lives. Looking back over concerns they had they could see those that were resolved, those that didn’t matter anymore, and those they still had to deal with.

Journaling gives us clarity about our lives I don’t see how we can get any other way. Adding illustrations to our journal gives us a creative outlet, creativity feeds our soul, and sometimes we may feel something is missing in our lives and it might be creativity. We get so busy doing this and that, we may look back on a time that was filled with joy and find where the joy came from was some creative outlet that we’ve given up as life got busier.

Listening to the radio not long ago a singer (I can’t remember his name) was talking about how he put out a new album and thought it would sell a couple thousand copies but it became a big success and his life spun out of control. Years later he listened to a speaker who said something that hit him profoundly, “Creativity is beautiful.” He realized he’d gotten away from being creative, and that realization made a significant impact on his life. By bringing creativity back into his life he brought back balance, joy, and gratitude.

Gratitude is a powerful catalyst for happiness. It’s the spark that lights a fire of joy in your soul. Amy Collette

It isn’t always easy to be grateful for the changes we see. We think things should be better, but what if we have to be grateful they aren’t worse? What if we aren’t built for a life of ease? What if a life of ease makes us weak? Who gets to decide who is living a life of ease?

Of course, I say all this as one who lives in relative ease, safety, and abundance. Yesterday my husband was watching a YouTube video on people living in their vehicles in Calgary. They’ve created a community that like turtles, takes their home with them, and as long as their vehicles can move it seems to be a workable solution. They help each other out as a community and share information on how to handle the winters.

Living in a van might not sound great but it is giving a community of people dignity, and freedom without infringing on the rights of others. We might be surprised how happy a simple life can be. I didn’t watch the video enough to understand how they look after some of the simple things in life like bathing and using the bathroom.

If it isn’t happiness that brings us gratitude, but gratitude that brings us happiness can we be grateful for the life we have?

The struggle ends when gratitude begins. Nicole Donald Walsh

As with all commandments, gratitude is a description of a successful mode of living. The thankful heart opens our eyes to a multitude of blessings that continually surround us. James E. Faust

When we focus on our gratitude, the tide of disappointment goes out and the tide of love rushes in. Kristin Armstrong

Thank you for reading this post. Please come back and read some more. Have a blessed day filled with gratitude, joy, and love.

To subscribe, comment, and see archives or categories of posts click on the pictures and scroll to the end.

Thank you for reading my books, and a special thank you to everyone who leaves a review on Goodreads and Amazon. If you click on the Amazon link and purchase an item I receive a small percentage of the sale through the Amazon affiliate program.

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Gratitude and happiness. Thanks to those that do the heavy lifting in life.

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

When gratitude becomes an essential foundation in our lives, miracles start to appear everywhere. Emmanuel Dagher

It is good to be grateful for all the good we have in our lives and the people who provide what we need and want to live a good life. Thanks to those that provide the food we eat each day, those that keep the lights on, the sewer system working, and the energy that heats our homes, and powers our world.

We women in our hubris sometimes talk like we don’t need men in our lives but the world doesn’t work very well without them. It is a personal choice if we don’t want to share our lives with a man, but we all benefit from their work. We should never think building a society that works with all the interdependence we have would be easy to replicate.

Our society was built with men doing the work for society and women doing their work for the family. It might have been a little patronizing to be told “Don’t worry your pretty little head about it.” But, it was also comforting. When there is a power outage men go out and fix it. When there is any type of disaster men are there to do what they can to protect life.

The fact that women can take care of their children without a man is a testament to the society that has been built to make it possible. If women lived in groups and men were roaming around doing what they pleased, and taking what they wanted, women and children would be in a pretty bad way.

When you are grateful, fear disappears and abundance appears. Tory Robbins

Most of us don’t want to go back to how things used to be, and even if we think we’d like to, we’d pick and choose what we want to keep, and what we want to change. This is the sign of a good society, we have choices. Life isn’t necessarily easier when we have choices, but we love choice, even when we don’t know out of our myriad of choices what choices we should make.

Positive psychology has been criticized for its failure to acknowledge the value of negative emotions. Barbara Held from Bowdoin College in Maine, says “Positive psychology has been too negative about negativity and too positive about positivity.”

Life is about suffering, setbacks, disappointments, frustrations, and change. One of the choices we sometimes make is to put ourselves in danger and mostly we get away with it. Just because most people do not take advantage of us if we are drunk, does not mean that someone won’t. Our society can’t protect us from bad choices, but we can learn from them.

If we are grateful for all the lessons we learn in life, for everyone that contributes to our lives, for the opportunities that present themselves, and give thanks for all we have we can live in a state of gratitude.

Does an attitude of gratitude make a difference in our lives?

Living in a state of gratitude is the gateway to grace. Arianna Huffington

When we give cheerfully and accept gratefully, everyone is blessed. Maya Angelou

Gratitude opens the door to the power, the wisdom, the creativity of the universe. You open the door through gratitude. Deepak Chopra

Thank you for reading this post. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you will come back and read some more. Have a blessed day filled with gratitude, joy, and love.

To subscribe, comment, and see archives or categories of posts click on the picture and scroll to the end.

Thank you to those that read my books. A special thank you to those that leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon. If you click on the Amazon link and purchase an item I receive a small percentage of the sale.

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Is resilience what makes us capable of facing what we have to face and finding the strength to keep going?

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

Resilience is accepting your new reality, even if it’s less good than the one you had before. You can fight it, you can do nothing but scream about what you’ve lost, or you can accept that and try to put together something that’s good. Elizabeth Edwards

This weekend was a fun weekend of going to a friend’s place and enjoying a jazz festival and then yesterday, popping in to see family in the afternoon. It is lovely to be able to do these fun things again. We were happy to see bands perform we’ve seen at previous jazz festivals.

It is a testament to the resilience of people being able to bounce back from difficult situations that festivals are going on.

Resilience is the ability to manage the emotional impact of stresses, difficulties, and traumas in our lives. Are we born with an inherent resilience that protects us, informs how we discover and explore the world, how we learn, and take risks, or do we develop resilience?

Being resilient doesn’t mean we don’t experience stress, it is how we deal with it that makes us resilient. We are resilient when we work through our pain, our losses, and our setbacks. We are told we can grow our capacity for resilience and hasn’t these last couple of years been a testament to that. We haven’t equally faced difficulties, traumas, and setbacks. Some of us have been fortunate to sail through these last few years without much impact and others have seen the fabric of their lives ripped apart.

Flexibility and adaptability to go with the flow of life, and perseverance to not give up when things get hard help us to be resilient. When we believe things can get better and that we have the resources, strengths, and skills to overcome the challenges and work through our setbacks we will have the strength to carry on.

If we have gratitude for what we have, compassion for ourselves and others, acceptance of what is, and believe there is meaning and purpose to life. If we can forgive ourselves and others for our shortcomings we have the building blocks for a resilient life.

Resilience is very different than being numb. Resilience means you experience, you feel, you fail, you hurt. You fall. But, you keep going. Yasmin Mogahed

This doesn’t mean we won’t have moments of being overwhelmed by trauma, adversity, and hardship, but we will utilize our resources, strengths, and skills to overcome and accept the challenges and realities of our lives. Being resilient does not mean we never need help, it means we will acknowledge our situation, seek help and adapt to situations and move forward. Resilience is the core strength we use to carry our load in life.

If we can develop a resilient mindset we will do better in life. It will help us weather the ups and downs. If we are grateful for what we have, and where we are and know even if it seems bad it could be worse, and that we are stronger than we think we are and there is a joy to be found even in the midst of adversity. The more joy we glean from small things in our life the better our lives will be. Resilience is taking the lemons in life and making lemonade. It is people going through hardship to give their families a better life. It is believing tomorrow will be better and enjoying whatever joys today brings.

None of this is new, every generation faces adversity and has to dig deep to find things to be grateful for and the strength to persevere. We admire those who have had the courage to persevere, and who have faced adversity with courage, optimism, and humor. It is people who have faced the greatest obstacles that have the best stories.

We don’t know what life has in store for us. We don’t know how we will react to the circumstances ahead, but we can hope we will be resilient, grateful, resourceful, and persevere through whatever lies before us.

It may sound strange, but many champions are made champions by setbacks. Bob Richards

It’s your reaction to adversity, not adversity itself that determines how you life’s story will develop. Dieter F. Uchtdorf

A good half of the art of living is resilience. Alain de Botton

Thank you for reading this post. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you will come back and read some more. Have a blessed day filled with gratitude, joy, and love.

To subscribe, comment, and see archives or categories of posts click on the picture and scroll to the end.

Thank you to everyone that reads my books. A special thank you to those who leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon. If you click on the Amazon link and make a purchase I receive a small percentage of the sale through the Amazon affiliate program.

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Our attitude shapes our life, we must guard against developing a critical spirit.

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

Life is a garden our thoughts are the seeds, we can plant flowers or we can plant weeds. Unknown

My husband tells me he heard a woman say, “I love a lazy Sunday doing nothing, but I sure hate it when I see my husband doing nothing.” How many of us in our hearts think the same. It might not be the same situation but often we are looking at things in someone else’s life they should fix when if we put our attention on what we should fix in our own lives we can make things better for ourselves.

One of the worst things we develop in life is a critical spirit. A critical spirit is a negative attitude of the heart that seeks to condemn, tear down, and destroy with words. In contrast, constructive criticism involves opinions that are meant to build up. A critical spirit creates blind spots in our hearts and minds causing us to believe we are being constructive when we are condemning, tearing down, and destroying with words.

There are four different ways we can be critical spirits, we can be gossipers, slanderers, judgmental, and complainers. Why do we develop critical spirits? We may be jealous, envious, angry, or hold grudges. We may be full of fear and develop a critical spirit as a way of self-protection. We may feel we are not in control of situations and we use manipulation and shaming in order to gain control.

The only true disability in life is a bad attitude. Scott Hamilton

How can we get rid of this problem that colors everything in our life and can ruin all the good things we have in our lives? It may be horrible to live with someone who is critical but if that someone is us how do we get rid of a critical spirit?

We can focus on what we control in our own lives, we can be grateful for what we have, we can make an effort to build others up, and we can look on the bright side of life.

This is what we can do. We can’t make other people act better, think better, or be better. We can only make ourselves act better, think better, and be better.

It seems to me there is a lot to complain about, but most of what we are hearing being complained about is not anything we have any control over. What if we put our energy into our lives, our families, and what we have direct influence over?

We can notice the small blessings in our lives and be grateful for what we have instead of what we feel is missing. We should think about what is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, and praiseworthy. This doesn’t mean we should ignore falsehood, injustice, ugliness, or imperfection. But, we should not dwell on the negative.

How do we deal with the realities in life without becoming bitter and critical?

Ask yourself: Have you been kind today? Make kindness your daily modus operandi and change your world. Annie Lennox

Respect a man, and he will do all the more. John Wooden

Always give your best, never get discouraged, never be petty; always remember, others may hate you. Those who hate you don’t win unless you hate them. And then you destroy yourself. Richard M. Nixon

Thank you for reading this post. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you will come back and read some more. Have a blessed day filled with gratitude, joy, and love,

To subscribe, comment, and see archives or categories of posts click on the picture and scroll to the end.

Thank you to those who read my books. A special thank you to those who leave a review on Amazon and Goodreads. If you click on the Amazon link and purchase an item I receive a small percentage of the sale through the Amazon affiliate program.

Posted on by BWThomas

Envy is one of the deadly sins. How does envy play out in our lives?

Photo by Belynda Wilson Thomas

The jealous are troublesome to others, but a torment to themselves. William Penn

Is envy at the root of many of the ills of our society? Was it envy that made Cain kill Abel?

There is a big difference between jealousy and envy. We are jealous if we think a girl is after our guy or worse yet he is showing some interest in her. In our mind our husband is ours and we feel threatened that we might lose something we have.

Envy is a reaction to something we think we lack. We may be envious of someone and their husband, their career, new car, fame, fortune, or opportunity. Envy harms us in a negative way if it takes up our time, consumes our thoughts, ruins our professional or personal relationships, warps our personality, and creates negativity in our lives.

Can it be a good thing if it spurs us to take action to better our lives and if it makes us move past the fear of failure by taking action to prove we can do it too?

God told Cain it was up to him what happened with his envy. If he changes, he will be able to control his anger and not sin. If on the other hand he does not, his anger will overcome him and he will commit a terrible crime. Cain slew Able because he didn’t control his anger.

Is this same scenario being acted out in our society over and over again by people who cannot control their envy and become bitter and resentful? What we also have going on is the media attention this garners which might make some people feel powerful for the moment, “Ignore this,” as they spray bullets.

Gratitude for what we have is one of the antidotes to envy. We can stop judging ourselves and comparing ourselves to others. We need to forgive ourselves for not being or having what we envy. We may need to forgive the person we envy for making us envious because of their good fortune, hard work, or genetic lottery. We can turn our envy into an appreciation of others’ good fortune. We can use our envy to generate goals for ourselves.

Envy is the art of counting the other fellow’s blessings instead of your own. Harold Coffin

If we can live by our own definition of success, and realize no matter what we see in someone else’s life we don’t know the whole story. We need to remember that other people’s success doesn’t impact our own; we need to do what we need to do to feel successful in our own lives. Can we quit comparing ourselves to other people and focus on our talents, assets, and goals? Can we be thankful for the people in our lives? Can we accept the things we can’t change, and change the things we can to create our best life?

There may be things we can’t change that are the cause of our envy. We will need to come to a place of acceptance before our envy turns into a negative force. We may need to look for a group of positive and grateful people. People who are nonjudgmental, generous, and kind may help us begin to feel that way too.

Maybe we can start a gratitude journal, focus on one positive thing per day, stay away from negative input, remind ourselves of what we can control, and give other people compliments. Research tells us that complimenting people we envy can help us overcome our feelings of resentment. Can we find a way to help others and will this help us see how much good we have going for us, in our own life?

Envy is one of the seven deadly sins. When it shows up in our lives we need to find ways to deal with it positively because if we don’t it may overcome us.

What role does envy play in our life?

Blessed is he who has learned to admire but not envy, to follow but not imitate, to praise but not flatter, and to lead but not manipulate. William Arthur Ward

A person is born with feelings of envy and hate. If he gives way to them, they will lead him to violence and crime, and any sense of loyalty and good faith will be abandoned. Xun Kuang

Jealousy is both reasonable and belongs to reasonable men, while envy is base and belongs to the base, for the one makes himself get good things by jealousy, while the other does not allow his neighbor to have them through envy. Aristotle

Thank you for reading this post. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you will come back and read some more. Have a blessed day filled with gratitude, joy, and love.

To subscribe, comment, or see archives and categories of posts click on the picture and scroll to the end. Please subscribe and comment.

Thank you to those who read my books. A special thank you to those who leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon. If you click on the Amazon link and purchase an item I receive a small percentage of the sale through the Amazon affiliate program.

When Can We Get A Puppy by Belynda Wilson Thomas
Secrets and Sorrow by Belynda Wilson Thomas
Secrets and Silence by Belynda Wilson Thomas
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Enjoy the little things. One day we will realize they were the big things.

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

When you arise in the morning think of what a privilege it is to be alive, to think, to enjoy, to love. Marcus Aurelius

My friend and I went for a walk yesterday. What a lovely day, cool enough to need a jacket, with the sun shining and pockets of early spring flowers blooming. We saw two open houses and popped in for a look. The first house was a bungalow with potential; the second was a bungalow with its potential realized by the current owners. It was gorgeous, with an addition and renovation completed about ten years ago, in the backyard was a pool, hot tub, outdoor kitchen with grill and pizza oven, a change room, and a bathroom. This is the house for people who love to entertain.

As we walked through the first house my friend said, “You need to have a vision of what it can become to buy a house like this, and the pocketbook to make it happen.” The second house was an example of someone with a vision, the pocketbook, and making it happen.

In the morning my new grandson’s other grandma and his aunt came over. They brought breakfast and we talked and laughed, while they admired and held the new addition acknowledging the changes since the last time they saw him.

As we talked and laughed I started dinner so it would be finished when my friend and I finished our walk. She is a first-time grandma herself but last year with the restrictions during this pandemic did not get to hold her grandson when he was brand new. She stayed for dinner and held my grandson marveling at how small he is compared to her one-year-old grandson.

The secret of being happy is accepting where you are in life and making the most of every day. Unknown

My son tells his fiancé that when he sees me holding my grandson it looks like I’m on crack. “My mom has this perpetual smile on her face.” It’s true, being a grandma is wonderful and I am enjoying every moment of it knowing he won’t stay little for long. My friend goes through her picture gallery showing me pictures of her grandson. I’ve already done the same with people.

We don’t know what a day will bring. Yesterday was wonderful, filled with laughter, joy, friendship, and exploring our neighborhood. My husband and I are planning to go on day trips this summer, explore different areas, and see the sites near us. We can be tourists in our own locale.

Wherever we are in life, whatever our age, there are joys to be had. Some things we have to plan, some are spontaneous, some are even serendipitous, but if we are open to living in the moment and going with the flow we can enjoy these moments. They are especially sweet because they are fleeting.

We need to grab onto the moments of joy the day brings, and suck out all the sweetness in life. We never get to live the same day twice, we have to make the most of each one as it comes.  

Make each day a masterpiece. Don’t think your best days are out there somewhere. Why not today? Why can’t today be a great day? It can be if you believe it will. John Wooden

Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Attention is the key to life. Whatever you really give your attention to, you become. Whatever you really concentrate upon will come into your life. We grow into the thing that fills our thoughts as inevitably as the stream merges into the ocean at last. Emmet Fox

Thank you for reading this post. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you will come back and read some more. Have a blessed day filled with gratitude, joy, and love.

To subscribe, comment, see archives or categories of posts click on the picture and scroll to the end.

Thank you to those who read my books. A special thank you to those that leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon. If you click on the Amazon link and purchase an item I receive a small percentage of the sale through the Amazon affiliate program.

When Can We Get A Puppy by Belynda Wilson Thomas
Secrets and Sorrow by Belynda Wilson Thomas
Secrets and Silence by Belynda Wilson Thomas

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Are we grateful for the little things? The little things we take for granted are the big things.

We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude. Cynthis Ozick

Things can change in an instant. Everything is going along even if not merrily, it is rolling along. Then we get the phone call, someone is in the hospital or didn’t even make it to the hospital. Whatever it is, it catches us off guard.

Start each day with a positive thought and a grateful heart. Roy T. Bennett

I sit here today as a grateful grandma. Have a happy Easter. As we gather together this Easter we will feel even a little more blessed to share time with each and every person at our table.

Things turn out best for people who make the best out of the way things turn out. John Wooden

Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things. Robert Brault

I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder. Gilbert K. Chesterton

Thank you for reading this post. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you will come back and read some more. Have a blessed day filled with gratitude, joy, and love.

To subscribe, comment, see archives or categories of posts click on the picture and scroll to the end.

Thank you to those that read my books. A special thank you to those who leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon. If you click on the Amazon link and purchase an item I receive a small percentage of the sale through the Amazon affiliate program.

When Can We Get A Puppy by Belynda Wilson Thomas
Secrets and Sorrow by Belynda Wilson Thomas
Secrets and Silence by Belynda Wilson Thomas