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Looking forward to a great New Year. What changes will make our lives better, healthier, filled with gratitude, joy, and love?

What changes will make our lives better, healthier, filled with gratitude, joy, and love? Looking forward to a great New Year.

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change we seek. Barack Obama

Today is the last day of the old year. A New Year starts tomorrow. What will it bring? What great things will be accomplished? What new discoveries will be made? What will we learn? What will we do? What will we complete? What will we improve? What are the chances we will take, what fears will we face, and what challenges will we overcome?

This is our year, it will fly by fast like the last one did, but it will give us opportunities to grow, develop, live, love, change, be grateful and live in abundance.

We may not think we are living in abundance because our abundance doesn’t look like someone else’s. Every life is different. What do we want to accomplish? What do we need to feel happy, grateful, alive, loved, important, useful, and complete?

Are there small things we can do to improve our lives. One of the things I can do is get more sleep. Over the holidays I’ve been experimenting and no matter what time I go to bed at about eight hours I feel ready to get up. One of the best changes we can make in our life for our health is getting enough sleep.

Another thing I think we can do is cut off arguments at the start. If I can listen to someone’s complaint without becoming defensive it rarely becomes anything more. If I don’t put my two cents in, just let them say what they want to say, and in my own time roll over what they had to say. Trying to understand instead of seeking to be understood makes a big difference.

Only the wisest and stupidest of men never change. Confucius

If we are going to learn anything it will be from listening, not talking. This year I’d like to become a better listener, even when it is something I don’t want to hear.

This year I’d like to walk more. I love walking, my husband loves walking, my dog loves walking and so do my son, daughter, son-in-law, and my son’s girlfriend. We’ve gone on hikes with all of them; I’d like to do more of that.

I’d like to streamline our meals and bring in more vegetables and salads. The greener we eat, the leaner we get, or so I’m told.

This year I’d like to read more.  Read for fun, knowledge, and enlightenment. It would be great if our book club meets more regularly. We have our January date tentatively set. It works best when we set a date and everyone tries to make it but the meeting goes on even if someone can’t attend.

This is the year to finish editing and putting my novel out there. My son keeps telling me about the 80/20 rule and to quit obsessing about perfection, get it done, get it out there, and move on to the next book. He’s right but going through it with Pro Writing Aid is illuminating and will leave me with a much better book to hand off to a professional editor and then I will have to say okay, here it is.

Whatever we want to do in the New Year we won’t know how it will work out unless we actually do it. Diet and exercise make us healthier, but only if we do it. We don’t need to do things perfectly we just have to keep doing them day after day, after day. One day we won’t even think about not doing them, they will be a habit, a habit that will enrich our lives. Then we can turn to the next thing and turn that into a habit.

If we do this enough times we have healthy habits that build a healthy life. Health will always be our greatest wealth. If we are lucky, make good choices, and develop good habits, we can die young at a ripe old age.

Here’s to a great New Year filled with possibilities, challenges, changes, risks, rewards, facing our fears, reaping the benefits of fully living, and loving in gratitude and joy.

What would we do if we knew we could not fail? What habit would we develop if we knew it would lead to greater health? What change would we make if we knew it would lead to greater love in our relationships?

Are we the change we need to see in our lives?

Can we make this coming year the best one yet?

It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad. C. S. Lewis

Life belongs to the living, and he who lives must be prepared for change. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

We must all obey the great law of change. It is the most powerful law of nature. Edmund Burke

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.

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How God Changes Your Brain: Breakthrough Findings from a Leading Neuroscientist Paperback – Mar 23 2010

by Andrew Newberg M.D. (Author), Mark Robert Waldman (Author) 3.7 out of 5 stars 16 ratings

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Focus is the key to success. Are we focusing on our own business or someone else’s? Are we working within our circle of influence?

Are we working within our circle of influence? Are we focusing on our own business or someone else's? Focus is the key to success.

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

Always remember your focus determines your reality. George Lucas

Last night I watched Sixty Minutes and they talked about gene-splicing therapy for Sickle Cell Anemia using the HIV virus as the carrier for the gene splice. The young woman they were profiling had perfect shaped blood cells after a few months. She could do things she could never do. For all intents and purposes, she looked healed.

The Doctors who figured this out were focused. If we are to achieve anything in life we must focus. One of the reasons life is better for us is because so many have focused on improvements for society. Many of the people, who improved things, improved them for someone else. The Doctors who came up with the cure for Sickle Cell Anemia didn’t have it in their families, but it seemed to them a disease caused by one wrong letter in the genome could be edited and the problem solved.

Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself. George Bernard Shaw

Where will this take us? What other diseases will they be able to cure? Will the cure be passed down genetically?

We don’t know what we don’t know. We have people working diligently focusing on the problems in our world. There may be unintended consequences of some of our fixes. We may think we’ve found answers when we haven’t. We may think we know things we don’t know.

As a species, we have always moved forward. We have asked questions and we have found answers. We have faced challenges we have overcome. For every action, there is a reaction. We have to deal with cause and effect.

When we focus on what is ours to focus on and let other people focus on what is theirs to focus on we both get our stuff accomplished.

Are we focusing on what we are to do, or are we worried about what someone else is to do? Are we focusing on what is ours to control, or what we know someone else should do? Are we working within our circle of influence?

The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a person’s determination. Tommy Lasorda

Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible. Tony Robbins

You’ve got to get up every morning with determination if you’re going to go to bed with satisfaction. George Lorimer

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The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Revised and Updated: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change Paperback – Special Edition, Apr 21 2020

by Stephen R. Covey (Author), Sean Covey (Author), Jim Collins (Foreword) 

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Looking back over a great year. What will the New Year bring?

What will the New Year bring? Looking back over a great year.

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. Aristotle

A new year is almost upon us. As we look back on our old year how was it? Did we accomplish some things? Make some relationships better? Are we still talking to everyone? Is our health better, our finances better; is our life in some way better?

One of my accomplishments is I am still blogging. Many bloggers have quit by nine months according to stats I’ve read. They’ve given up for whatever reason. If anyone wants to start a blog to only make money my advice would be do something else. Because if money is your only goal staying with it will be hard, and there is no guarantee of money.

Sometime in January, I will post my 500th blog. A major milestone it will have taken me a little over eighteen months to accomplish. In March I took Mom a binder of all my posts. I will print off a new binder and send it to her. She tells me she enjoys reading them. I enjoy writing them and I believe the only reason to write a blog is if you enjoy it. I love getting comments, on my blog or through FaceBook. If I’ve touched someone with my words I am grateful and especially grateful when they let me know what they were touched by.

You’ll never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success is found in your daily routine. John C. Maxwell

In September my sister gave me a Kombucha starter and I set up my Kombucha brewery. The first container was green tea and then I added black tea and Yerba Matta tea brew containers. The green and Yerba Matta Kombucha I really like, but the black tea not so much.

I was the only one drinking it and three gallons of Kombucha is a lot to consume so since I didn’t love the black tea I turned it into green tea and gave my green tea brew container to my Mother-in-law.

Every winter for a few years I’ve had a sinus flare-up especially when it got cold. This year I haven’t had one, it might not be the Kombucha but because what seemed to help the sinus problem was apple cider vinegar and cayenne pepper, and kombucha seems like the same type of brew as apple cider vinegar, I’m giving the credit to Kombucha. Both of them ferment from a culture, but I drink the Kombucha before it becomes vinegar. I also took my blood pressure lately and it was 119 over 80.

As an experiment Kombucha seems to be a keeper for me. My son and his girlfriend are now drinking it in small amounts. I may need to add another batch. My mother-in-law will keep me posted as she starts drinking it regularly. Kombucha is called the Tea of Immortality and has been used for over two thousand years. It’s expensive if you are going to purchase it every day, but it is easy to make your own, and fun too.

This year I’ve started twenty-four-hour fasts and will keep them up. Dr. Gundry of the Longevity Paradox recommends fasting, and Kombucha (although that might only be online not in his books).

I started walking every morning with my dog Lulu but it got so dark at six o’clock in the morning I stopped. As the mornings get brighter I will start again.

I joined the five o’clock club. Going to bed at ten o’clock to get up at five o’clock only gives me eight hours of sleep if I fall asleep as my head hits the pillow. In a health calculator, they added years of life expectancy if we sleep between seven and eight hours but not more than nine.

Getting up at five o’clock is how I fit reading, journaling, and a morning walk in before blogging. I like going to bed at ten o’clock because the sleep we get before twelve o’clock is supposed to be especially beneficial. The five o’clock club five days a week may be the answer, we’ll see. The experiment continues.

Over the next year, I will continue to tweak things. I will keep the things that are working and change some things that don’t seem to work as well. Now is a good time to look over our year and think about the changes we want to make. Life is an experiment; we won’t know what works for us if we aren’t willing to try new things.

Can this next year be one of our best years ever? Will it be healthier, happier, and more prosperous? Can we improve our relationships, health, attitude, habits, and thoughts? Will this be our year, and by making it better for ourselves will we also make it better for everyone around us?

Depending on what they are, our habits will either make us or break us. We become what we repeatedly do. Sean Covey

Habits are safer than rules; you don’t have to watch them. And you don’t have to keep them either. They keep you. Frank Hall Crane

Successful people aren’t born that way, they become successful by establishing the habit of doing things unsuccessful people don’t like to do. William Makepeace Thackeray

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.

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The Longevity Paradox: How to Die Young at a Ripe Old Age Hardcover – Mar 19 2019

by Dr. Steven R Gundry MD (Author) 4.4 out of 5 stars 16 ratingsBook 4 of 5 in the Plant Paradox Series

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Friends are one of the great joys in life. Are we open to friendship when someone makes an overture of friendship toward us?

Are we open to friendship when someone makes an overture of friendship toward us? Friends are one of the great joys in life.

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another, “What! You too? I thought I was the only one. C.S. Lewis

Last night we had a fun night of laughter with friends. Getting together with friends is one of the joys in life. My husband’s friends went to school together and have stayed in touch all these years. Any time we get together it is always fun and filled with laughter.

I don’t have that; I left friends and family to move across the country. Earlier this year I connected with my best friend from school. We hadn’t seen each other since the early 1980s. We talked and laughed and I hope to be able to do it again when I go out to see Mom.

On FaceBook I have connected with people from back home. It’s great to reconnect with people but it isn’t the same as having people in our lives who know us, our spouse, and our kids over the years.

Friends are very important to our mental health. There are ways we can keep relationships alive if we are willing to make at least a minimum amount of effort. One of the things we need in our lives is deep friendships.

We may have friends that we do certain things with golf buddies, Toastmaster buddies, book club friends, and work friends. Over time they may develop into well-rounded friendships that stand on their own. Making time for friendships is important.

True friendship comes when the silence between two people is comfortable. David Tyson

We can’t be someone’s everything. The more we expect one person to give us everything we want in life, the more that relationship can’t deliver. When we have friendships we are healthier, happier, more rounded, and grounded.

It may seem to be a lot of work to develop friendships, but the joy we get from friends helps us live our lives with an open heart. Sharing with friends helps us put life in perspective.  Highs and lows are better shared.

I remember reading about someone who had her highest moment on stage as a performer, and the only person she had to share it with later was the taxi driver that drove her to her hotel. How sad is that?

When we have people who can hold our hands when we are sad, laugh with us when life is good, and be there with us through the thick and thin of life, we are blessed.

Friendships don’t just happen, we have to be open to develop, nurture, and sustain them. Are we open to friendship when someone makes a tentative effort to invite us to be more than an acquaintance? Do we call and connect with friends often? Do we let friendships slide because we don’t make enough effort?

You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you. Dale Carnegie

Friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain. It’s not something you learn in school. But if you haven’t learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven’t learned anything. Muhammad Ali

If you go looking for a friend, you’re going to find they’re very scarce. If you go out to be a friend, you’ll find them everywhere. Zig Ziglar

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.

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How to Win Friends and Influence People Paperback – Oct 1 1998

by Dale Carnegie (Author) 4.6 out of 5 stars 1,044 ratingsAmazon Charts #13 this week

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Marriage is a long conversation. Do we know what our partner wants out of the next thirty years? Do we know what we want?

Do we know what our partner wants out of the next thirty years? Do we know what we want? Marriage is a long conversation.

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

Marriage is a risk; I think it’s a great and glorious risk, as long as you embark on the adventure in the same spirit. Cate Blanchett

Yesterday I watched Hillary Rodham Clinton and her daughter Chelsea on the view. They’ve written a book called Gutsy Women and Hillary says the gutsiest thing she has done is stay in her marriage.

I’ve always thought that was very gutsy of her. We all expected her to divorce him. We will never know how hard that was, but the look on her face as she said it made me believe she believes she did the right thing.

Getting married and staying married is a gutsy thing. It is important in this life to love and be loved, that doesn’t mean it is easy to have twenty, thirty, forty, fifty or sixty-year marriages.

Yesterday I also watched Dog, The Bounty Hunter talking to Dr. Oz about his late wife Beth. Nietzsche, the German philosopher (who was a lifelong bachelor) said, “Marriage is a long conversation.”

A long conversation is a good way to put it, someone in our corner, a soft place to fall, someone who has our back, who believes in the best of us. Someone who sees us at our worst and still loves us accepts us and believes in us. We are told that those of us who remain married over the long haul will usually be happier because of it.

A happy marriage is about three things: memories of togetherness, forgiveness of mistakes and a promise to never give up on each other. Surabhi Surendra

I’m not sure what is the year when we start thinking we’re in a long marriage. To me, I think it was around the thirty-year mark. We have reached the stage where we need to think about what we want the rest of our life to be like.

Do we have a bucket list? If we don’t maybe we should make one? We may think things are too expensive to do? But, what is the cost of not doing them and thinking we are missing out? This may be one of the causes of the gray divorce phenomenon. We have a fantasy that if we lose a few pounds life will be better, some people may fantasize about divorce the same way. Wherever we go, there we are. Some people may have a fantasy that life would be better without their partner. It is probably not true.

We are told we are happier and healthier in long marriages. Do we need to make some changes? We may need to have some long, intense conversations while we figure out what we want out of the next twenty, thirty, or more years.

The best way forward is probably together. We would make changes in our life if something cataclysmic happened, we don’t need to initiate a cataclysm to initiate change. Maybe the changes we want in our life will start with a long conversation. Are we ready to initiate the conversation that leads to more fun, excitement, adventure, love, and togetherness?

Love does not mean you will always agree, see eye to eye, or never have an argument. It means despite the bad days you still can’t see yourself without that person. Unknown

A great marriage is not the union of the perfect couple, but an imperfect couple who accepts and embraces each other’s flaws. Unknown

A great marriage doesn’t happen because of the love you had in the beginning but how well you continue building love until the end. Unknown

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.

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Hold Me Tight: Seven Conversations for a Lifetime of Love Hardcover – Apr 8 2008

by Dr. Sue Johnson EdD (Author) 4.4 out of 5 stars 122 ratings#1 Best Seller in Marriage & Family

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Loving what is. A small Christmas can be just as much fun.

A small Christmas can be just as much fun. Loving what is.

Gifts of time and love are surely the basic ingredients of a truly Merry Christmas. Peg Bracken

Another Christmas is in the bag. Today for many is a day of hustling and bustling looking for a bargain or three. Jostling for parking spots, waiting in line it’s all part of the fun. We’ll come home to a cup of tea and lots to nibble on, and then a dinner of what is left of the Christmas excess.

Yesterday we had a lovely big breakfast, opened our presents and then in the afternoon, our numbers began to thin. Our daughter and her husband were off to his family’s festivities. My sister-in-law and her family were off to theirs. We were a group of five who sat down to turkey and fewer trimmings as I realized how small our group for dinner would be.

One of my sister’s cooked a turkey and it was just her and her husband and Mom. Roast beef is Mom’s favorite but my sister was pulling rank this year, she hasn’t had turkey in a long time so she cooked a turkey.

It doesn’t matter if our celebrations are big or small. If we are together we can celebrate, and as we gather around a table we can hold hands and create our circle. With grateful hearts, we are here to share once again the magic of Christmas.

Christmas is not as much about opening our presents as opening our hearts. Janice Maeditere

As the group played dominoes my son said, “Mom you seem very busy for someone who had everything prepared.”

“Oh, I thought I’d make fancier vegetables since I’m not cooking so much.” Boiled green beans and Brussels sprouts became Green Beans Provencale and fancy Brussels sprouts.  We had a lovely time. Unlike last year where the turkey wasn’t touched this turkey was carved into and enjoyed. When I realized how few would be eating dinner I cooked less of what wasn’t already prepared.

My daughter said a few days ago, “I’m sorry we can’t stay for Christmas dinner.”

“I’m not,” I said. “I am so happy you have a life, a husband, and you get along with his family and are spending time with them. I’m not so selfish that I want you all to myself”

We didn’t know how this Christmas would work out. Family friends who have spent every Christmas with us were no longer able to attend. Their health is deteriorating and we can’t do anything about that but accept what is.

Sometimes it seems not knowing how things will work out leaves us with fewer expectations, and fewer expectations leave us enjoying what is, and what is, is full of laughter and fun, spontaneity and joy.

Can we find joy in the moments of every day?

From home to home, and heart to heart, from one place to another. The warmth and joy of Christmas bring us closer to each other. Emily Matthews

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Loving What Is: Four Questions That Can Change Your Life Paperback – Dec 23 2003

by Byron Katie (Author), Stephen Mitchell (Author) 4.4 out of 5 stars 92 ratings

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Reach out and touch someone. Merry Christmas. Tis the season.

Tis the season. Reach out and touch someone. Merry Christmas.

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

May the spirit of Christmas bring you peace, the gladness of Christmas give you hope, and the warmth of Christmas grant you love. Unknown

As we get ready to celebrate another Christmas my thoughts go to those whose chair is empty for the first time. Many people are going through this, their first year without their father, son, daughter, sister, mother, brother, uncle, aunt, wife, husband, or friend. Maybe it isn’t even the first year, or maybe they aren’t gone yet but it is inevitable and soon. Others may be hovering over a hospital bed not knowing the outcome.

Sometimes we don’t know what to say when people are going through these times. Especially if we aren’t really close. Often it is easier to think about them, but not call. We don’t know what to say, so we don’t say anything.

I’ve been guilty of that. When we aren’t in close contact with people we don’t know how to reach out to them. If we wait too long there is no reaching out to do. We may now have a regret to live with for the rest of our lives.

Christmas is a good time to reach out to people. To let them know we think of them, they are in our thoughts and prayers.

I wish we could put some of the Christmas spirit in jars and open a jar every month. Harlan Miller

At Christmas, our circle is big or small and over the years it gets smaller or grows depending on the season of our life. Some families have the joy of a baby’s first Christmas, or a son-in-law or daughter-in-law has now joined them. Maybe they’ve invited someone to share Christmas with them who would otherwise be alone.

Some people may have healed a long-standing breach, and wonder what took them so long.

Whatever our situation let’s gather round, and give thanks for what we have, and who we get to share it with. It’s a special time and through our hard times, there are hidden gifts. We didn’t want these gifts but they are here, life goes on, and a New Year dawns.

Merry Christmas to all and may you have all the blessings of the season. If you can think of someone to reach out to, reach out to them. I bet you’ll be happier if you do.

Christmas is doing a little something extra for someone. Charles M. Schulz

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.

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Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Wonder of Christmas: 101 Stories about the Joy of the Season Paperback – Oct 16 2018

by Amy Newmark (Author) 4.7 out of 5 stars 4 ratings

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Decisions, changes, and executions. When is a better time to do the things we want to do? Is it as simple as making a decision, putting it on our calendar, and executing?

When is a better time to do the things we want to do? Is it as simple as making a decision, putting it on our calendar, and executing?

Architect and builder Aaron Thomas and Natalie Scott

Be democratic in decision making and autocratic while being in execution mode. Sreeram Jvc

Christmas is a time of connection. We call people we don’t speak to often; we send cards, we think about people but they will never know unless we connect with them in some way.

I was speaking with my youngest brother and his wife. He said he dropped in on a neighbor back home after being away for years. They were invited in for coffee, given some food, talked and laughed. He later learned the guy had no idea who he was.

There is a nice facebook post circulating where people are saying you can drop into their place for coffee, hot chocolate, wine, something to eat and talk. Growing up we never had a phone. If anyone wanted to see us they had to drop in. Have we gotten too formal to just drop in and have a chat and a laugh?

Our circles get too small if we don’t make an effort to connect. I called an old family friend yesterday. She’s ninety-four in assisted living and we had a lovely chat. She’s still cheerful, optimistic, and grateful for the blessings she has in her life. I’m asking myself now, why haven’t I called her lately?

Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forward. Soren Kierkegaard

Yesterday I read a Facebook post by a twenty-four-year-old woman who posted it the day before she died of cancer. She was telling us to put what is important first. To have as many experiences in life as we can and want. She tells us to give blood because blood donors kept her alive this last year which gave her more time to enjoy her short life.

My new January resolution is to go to the blood clinic and give blood. My hemoglobin isn’t always high enough to donate so I can’t donate as often. I shouldn’t use that as an excuse not to bother.

Any excuse will do if we want an excuse. It doesn’t matter what we are using the excuse to avoid. Avoiding things we should do is not a good way to live. Everything we want to do may not fit into our life. What is important to us is what we do fit in.

This is our life, the only one we have. As this year ends it’s a good time to think about what we want to fit into the next one. Are there people we need to connect with, are there relationships we need to heal, are there decisions we need to make? Have we been putting off bringing projects to completion, is this new year the year to finally publish the book, make a decision to go forward in our lives, start the business, travel, get healthy, or any other decision waiting to be made? When is a better time to do the thing we know we want to do, should do, and is ready to be done?

If we can make one change in the new year what is the change we should make?

No project is completed until its objective has been achieved. Paulo Coelho

Nothing works until you do. Maya Angelou

Those who plan do better than those who do not plan, even though they rarely stick to their plan. Unknown

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.

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A Personal Mission Statement: Your Road Map to Happiness by [Stawicki, Michal]
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A Personal Mission Statement: Your Road Map to Happiness Kindle Edition

by Michal Stawicki (Author), Diane Arms (Editor)

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Developing a forgiving heart. Is forgiveness the path to peace, love, and happiness?

Is forgiveness the path to peace, love, and happiness?

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it. Mark Twain

Last night was a fabulously fun night of laughter, camaraderie, and food. Amidst the laughter are a lot of hurting souls and fractured relationships. Christmas is a good time to reach out to heal the breaches within our families, and friends.

In The Advocate Of Peace, Boston, December 1897 volume 11 The American Peace Society Published The Lesson of Christmas. This is a short excerpt.

One great idea possesses all sincere Christian minds at Christmas time, – the idea of love and goodwill. It was love and goodwill that gave us Christmas. Whatever is best in our civilization has been produced by love and goodwill. Once a year at least at Christmas time, this supreme idea comes back and presses powerfully upon all our minds and hearts. God loved the world. He sent his son to tell the story so; to make the world believe, by visible and tangible evidence in his exhaustless, ever active, never-ceasing interest in the inhabitants thereof. Jesus spoke and acted and died, and love was at the bottom of it all.

The lack of love and goodwill – absolute, unmixed, totally harmless, totally helpful love and goodwill – is the greatest breach which these evils continue to pour in upon us. That breach must be filled up before those wild bombs of wickedness will be slayed.

Could love possibly be at the bottom of our own lives? Could developing a forgiving heart be the answer?

Program for achieving a truly forgiving heart by Robert Muller

                  Decide To Forgive

Decide to forgive

For resentment is negative

Resentment is poisonous

Resentment diminishes and devours the self.

Be the first to forgive.

To smile and to take the first step.

And you will see happiness bloom

On the face of your human brother or sister.

Be always the first

Do not wait for others to forgive.

For by forgiving

You become master of fate

The fashioner of life

The doer of miracles.

To forgive is the highest,

Most beautiful form of love.

In return you will receive

Untold peace and happiness.

Here is the program for achieving

A truly forgiving heart.

Sunday: Forgive yourself.

Monday: Forgive your family.

Tuesday: Forgive your friends and associates.

Wednesday: Forgive across economic lines within your own nation.

Thursday:  Forgive across cultural lines within your own nation.

Friday: Forgive across political lines in your own nation.

Saturday: Forgive other nations.

Only the brave know how to forgive. A coward never forgives. It is not in his nature.

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, forgiveness, joy, and love.

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From Anger to Forgiveness: A Practical Guide to Breaking the Negative Power of Anger and Achieving Reconciliation Mass Market Paperback – Sep 23 1992

by Earnie Larsen (Author), Carol Larsen Hagerty (Author) 4.7 out of 5 stars 6 ratings

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Posted on by BWThomas

Can we at least be friends? Friendship, laughter, joy, and forgiveness. Can we heal the breach in our families, relationships, and friendships?

Friendship, laughter, joy, and forgiveness. Can we heal the breach in our families, relationships, and friendships? Can we at least be friends?

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

The key to being happy is knowing you have the power to choose what to accept and what to let go. Unknown

Last night we ate and laughed at Toastmasters, played some games, sang Christmas Carols. Someone brought a bottle of wine, which quietly got put away as we didn’t have a liquor license. We always worry there won’t be enough food, but it is always too much.

One of my big decisions for the week was what to take for the Toastmaster potluck? I decided on chicken wings and they were all gone. One of our members brought her fifteen-year-old daughter who is too young but wishes she could join us. What a delightful young person she is.

Kids of all ages are so much fun. I love talking to friends of my kids. I love talking to teenagers. I love it when my son-in-law brings his nephew over, and when our nephew brings his daughter over.

For Christmas. we will not have the joy of spending it with any little kids. I talked to my brother yesterday and he was being grandpa taking his grandkids skidooing. Life is so much fun if we enjoy what there is to enjoy.

Being part of a group that laughs a lot is something I highly recommend. Being part of a family that laughs a lot, but especially where every member talks to every other member is what is most important.

To forgive means to release healing, peace, and joy. Forgiveness is the best form of love. It takes a strong person to say they are sorry and an even stronger person to forgive. Unknown

I am reminded once again of the fragility of life, and the stubbornness of people to repair the rifts while they are able to be repaired. Living with regrets is one of the things we can try to avoid. There will always be some regrets in life.

“I won’t open myself up to that kind of hurt again,” someone close to me says. We want to protect ourselves but we have to find the courage to be able to open ourselves up and be vulnerable if we are to love and be loved.

We want our sisters, brothers and other people to be better than they are, to consider our feelings more than they do, to understand where we are coming from, to see things from our perspective. We feel they are more wrong than we are, they must accept their wrongness.

What happened to “I’m sorry?”

“Me too, let’s be friends.”

Christmas and other holidays are some of the most awkward times of the year because family members are not speaking to other family members. If we are one of the ones that speak to everyone we can’t have them all together in one place. If we are one of the ones that don’t speak to everyone do we see how awkward we are making it for others? Can’t we let bygones be bygones? Who would we be without that fractured relationship? What would forgiveness cost us?

How should we handle the fracture of family, relationships, and friendships? How can we heal the breach? Is there an olive branch that can be offered? What would it take to have goodwill toward all?

The road of life is full of hardships and blessings. You have to gather the little joys and treasures you see. You must learn from the misfortunes you meet and do not let sorrow get the best of you. Unknown

No one in this world is pure and perfect. If you avoid people for their mistakes, you will be alone in this world. So judge less and love more. Unknown

We all make mistakes. Don’t let that be the reason you give up on somebody. Unknown

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.

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Radical Forgiveness: A Revolutionary Five-Stage Process to Heal Relationships, Let Go of Anger and Blame, and Find Peace in Any Situation Paperback – Unabridged, Jan 1 2010

by Colin Tipping (Author) 4.1 out of 5 stars 27 ratings

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