Posted on by BWThomas

Making plans, celebrating milestones, and making the best of it when our plans don’t work out.

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft agley, and leave us nought but grief and pain, for promised joy. Robert Burns

The best-laid plans go oft astray. But, what really goes astray are the wishy-washy plans. It turns out I’m a flake, not an intentional one, but one nonetheless. My sister’s birthday is today and I asked my niece what she was planning for her mom’s birthday. “Nothing yet, but I’ll get back to you.” I hadn’t heard anything by Saturday and my husband said, “We should have a barbecue on Sunday, and yesterday being our son’s first wedding anniversary we set it up.

Yesterday at about two o’clock my niece called me, “Did I get the text about dinner?” I was so busy pruning bushes in the garden I hadn’t checked my phone. Dinner to celebrate my sister’s birthday was an hour and a half away, and my son and his wife would be arriving at our place to celebrate their anniversary in a couple of hours. I apologized to my niece and will call my sister today. I hope we have a good laugh over it and there are no hard feelings.

Feelings are easily hurt and one of the ways we hurt people’s feelings is by trying to do too much. We have good intentions, but people don’t see our intentions they only see the results, a botched birthday celebration.

A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow. George S. Patton

On Friday a friend and I were planning to attend the Horticultural Society plant sale Saturday morning. She volunteered to help out at 6:30 in the morning and I told her I probably won’t end up going if we aren’t going together. My garden needs pruning more than it needs more planting. Saturday I accompanied my grandson and daughter to the park. He’s now old enough for the swing and he loves it. Two little girls wanted to pet our dog Lulu and she loved the attention. Then I filled four garden waste bags with dead tree limbs. I didn’t end up going to the plant sale but if I had all that dead wood would still be in our garden.

Next weekend I am at the Bread and Honey Festival for the Mississauga Writers Group so no gardening will get done. My son looked at what I’ve accomplished and said, “You must have worked really hard.” Don’t we love it when someone notices and we get a little credit for our accomplishments, a pat on the back, and recognition in some way?

Can we host a barbecue in July for my sister and niece? I will start planning it now and hope nothing derails the plans. Happy birthday, Sis from the flakey one!

Chaos is roving through the system and able to undo, at any point, the best-laid plans. Terence McKenna

We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us. E.M. Forster

It’s not your plan that’s important. It’s your ability to adapt to the changing conditions that’s going to determine your success. Jon Butcher

Thanks 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 to everyone that reads 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

Friendship and trees, never underestimate the power of friendship or the power of trees to bring good into our lives.

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

The best friend on earth of man is the tree: When we use the tree respectfully and economically, we have one of the greatest resources of the earth. Frank Lloyd Wright

The book club met on Tuesday and we had a lovely evening. Not all of our members could attend some have kids’ activities that take priority and one will be able to attend our meetings now she’s moved closer. We shared pictures of one member’s daughter’s destination wedding and talked about vacation plans and how important friendship is in our lives. Last month we got a new member who is a wonderful addition to our group.

Reading books is hard for some of us to get done, and I find myself in that group, but this morning I made a pledge to make an effort to read the books. One of our members sent a picture of the group to her son and he commented on the glaring absence of books. The glaring absence of books or not the book club feeds a need we have for friendship.

On Saturday the Horticultural Society is having a plant sale and a friend and I will attend. I have a sign on my lawn advertising the sale, my friend and I laugh that as Horticultural members we should have better gardens. At our last meeting, the speaker talked about providing plants that pollinators like, and how the bug population has decreased dramatically. We need to create urban forests and gardens; there is a movement to plant native flowers on boulevards to provide corridors for pollinators to be connected.

Some believe that greener cities are safer cities. Don’t we love the neighborhoods with lovely trees and gardens, what if every neighborhood regardless of income could be lovely? What would it take, how much would it cost, and what would the benefits be?

One of my friends started a boulevard garden last year. Boulevard gardens will become more popular than grass boulevards I predict over time, but how much time, we’ll have to see. We are beginning to realize the cost of lawns is not just in the pesticides used but also in the sterility they produce. Most of us don’t live in nature but we can bring a bit of it into our backyards, front yards, and boulevards with trees, shrubs, and plants other than grass. Of course, grass is better than no plants at all.

Love is flower-like: Friendship is like a sheltering tree. Samuel Taylor Coleridge

I often think of growing up on a farm with wide spaces to ride my horse. How blessed I feel to grow up how I did. My choices took me far from the farm, but I treasure that time.

The greening of cities has probably been an interest of many since we began to live in cities. Most of us want our little oasis, a place to relax, reflect, putter around, and beautify. Reading a book in the backyard is one of the joys of life. Listening to the bird’s chirp, a squirrel or two running along the fence, and the sun shining with a cup of tea is pure pleasure. Sitting with friends or family in the backyard and sharing a bite to eat feeds our stomachs and soul.

When I first moved to Toronto, I lived beside a golf course, where there was a break in the fence and a small stand of trees I could sit in. I enjoyed sitting there alone with my thoughts and the energy of the trees. I missed trees after moving here, having been surrounded by trees my whole life, and finding some trees to spend time with fed my soul.

Now the trees we’ve planted over the years have grown up, they might be a little wild and unkempt for some, but I love the privacy they have created and the opportunity to view trees from the kitchen window.

This is our life; we need to bring things into our lives we enjoy. If we love trees, plant a tree, and even if we don’t have a garden, maybe we can find a space with a tree we connect to.

We should make time in our busy lives for friends, old friends, and new friends. Mom, at 98, is still making new friends, and I think we can always widen our circle. If we don’t include new people in our lives, our circle will get smaller and smaller. Some day we might not have busy lives anymore, and we will have more time for friends, but wouldn’t it be sad if we have the time for friends but no friends?

Do like trees: change the leaves, but keep the roots. So change your ideas, but keep your principles. Unknown

Friendship is a tree to take shelter from the storm, to find shade from the blazing sun, to climb its branches to get a better view, and to swing from when we are happy. Sir David Baird

Be as useful as a tree! Give life to others; be shelter to everyone; grant fruits to all! Be good like a tree. Mehmet Murat Ildan

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 to everyone that reads my books, and a special thank you to everyone that 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.

Posted on by BWThomas

Planting a garden, tending, and reaping is a metaphor for life.

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant. Robert Louis Stevenson

This is the gardener’s weekend, whether we are planting seven tomato plants or a garden patch to meet all of our family’s needs this is the weekend. I was feeling quite smug, I wintered my three Dahlias from last year. I planted them in too deep of shade so they never bloomed but this year was going to be my year with Dahlias. I carefully dug them up and put them in a box in the cold cellar and sometime during the winter I looked at them, and they looked great.

Yesterday, I pulled out my little box of Dahlia tubers, and to my horror, they shriveled up to almost nothing. What if this was a collection of rare Dahlias, what if they were something I needed to be a good steward of? What if this is a metaphor for my life, and I think I’m tending to things better than I am? What if a little more tender loving care needs to go into other areas of my life so they bloom and blossom like I am still hoping dahlias will?

Fortunately, I can buy more Dahlia tubers, and I can learn how to store them so they will overwinter, or I can purchase more every spring. This is a choice we have when we live with an abundance of stores wanting to sell us our heart’s desire. If nobody overwintered plants we would not do well as a society.

Mom stored her Dahlias, which grew every year, and she bought new varieties and expanded her Dahlia border. Being a good steward of what we have helps us to get more. If we squander what we have through neglect, ignorance, laziness, or fear we will not see an increase. The law of sowing and reaping plays out in our lives in small and big ways. When we look after the little things the big things look after themselves. Haven’t we all heard that our whole lives? How is it working for us?

It might be the wrong thing to do, but I’ve soaked my shriveled Dahlia tubers and I’m planting them today. If they grow they grow, this is my little experiment giving them a chance in case there is some life left in them. I could just throw them out, but maybe not giving things a chance is also one of the problems we have in life. We are quick to throw away things that could be fixed, recovered, and repaired. We do it with things and we do it with people.

Life is an echo. What you send out. Comes back. What you sow you reap. What you give you get. What you see in others exists in you. Zig Ziglar

I’ve read articles about people getting rid of negative people in their lives. I’ve read books where people found a way to deal with difficult people and found they became allies and friends. Finding a way to deal with difficult people is the better way because there will always be difficult people, and some may think we are the difficult ones.

Yesterday, I pulled out armfuls of stinkweed, definitely, something I was not happy to see in my garden and yet when I Google stinkweed it provides many benefits. It stops bleeding, disinfects wounds, and alleviates skin rashes and arthritis, fevers and gum disease, muscle and headaches, bruises, and sprains. Wow, I pulled up a whole pharmacy from my backyard because of prejudice against certain plants that grow more easily than the plants I want to grow.

Cicero said, “If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.” What if we can learn as much from our garden as we can from our library? I loved being out in the dirt with the sun and the trees, earthworms wriggling, and the promise of the bounty of my garden. I love planting, but tending is also essential as is harvest and storage so it will grow again next year.

This year I intend to spend more time in my garden and learn the lessons the garden has to teach me. Are you enjoying a garden, on a window sill, balcony, patch of earth, park, or public garden?

Be not deceived; God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. Galatians 6:7

Sow a thought, and you reap an act; Sow an act, and you reap a habit; Sow a habit, and you reap a character; Sow a character, and you reap a destiny. Charles Reade

If you don’t like what you are reaping, you had better change what you have been sowing. Jim Rohn

Thank you for reading. Please 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 everyone that reads my books, and 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.

Posted on by BWThomas

Health is the real wealth, without health how can we enjoy any other parts of our life?

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver. Mahatma Gandhi

Health is our greatest wealth, without health how will we enjoy anything else? Hippocrates said, “All disease begins in the gut.” It’s a cute little saying that trips off our tongue, but how much do we take it as truth?

When we can’t put the cookie bag away is that us, or our gut buddies, the ones that aren’t so friendly, the ones that cause problems and get our system out of sync? Fasting, I am reading is good for our gut health. What if when we don’t feed our gut buddies they do better? It seems our bodies will look after the good ones, and the bad ones die off during a fast. There are many good YouTube videos on fasting and one I listen to is Dr. Pradip Jamnadas.

Why I started listening is concern over diabetic drugs and how much harm they do. Do we have a better way to control our blood sugar by controlling what and how we eat? Do we have access to natural foods that populate our gut with good bacteria like yogurt, kimchi, sauerkraut, cheese, cream of tartar (made from fermenting grapes), and Kombucha to mention a few?

One of the challenges we all have is keeping our gut healthy. It might be more of a challenge for some than others, but for all of us, it might be something to consider when our body isn’t acting quite right.

We might think reversing some of our health problems is beyond us, but if we listen to videos about health or read books about health there is a lot of information being shared. Many are sharing and want us to buy supplements that may or may not improve our health. But, most of them improved their health before they created the supplements, so if we can do what they did in the beginning perhaps we can have the same outcome.

Even with conditions such as psoriasis, I’m reading, there is at least a gut health connection in some cases. As we get older gut health becomes a bigger and bigger issue, but if we can keep our gut healthy or at least healthier can we avoid some of the ravages of age, as Dr. Gundry put it, “Die young at a ripe old age?”

What we think and what we eat, combined together, make what we are, physically and mentally. Edgar Cayce

I’ve struggled with Candida and mentioned it to my doctor years ago when he looked at me like he had no clue what I was talking about. In 2016 I took an Epsom salt bath every night for six weeks and drank an elixir of cream of tartar, baking soda, Epsom salt, and apple cider vinegar when my sinus pain was so bad I could hardly stand it. The sinus pain went away and hasn’t come back.

In 2019 I started making Kombucha and drink it almost every day. Gut health is never fixed and forget about it. We have to be vigilant throughout our lives. Yesterday, I started the cream of tartar elixir again because I want to recommend it to someone and want to make sure I could tell them I tried it again and felt it didn’t do any harm.

Last year I made a honey, garlic, lemon, and ginger potion and that didn’t work for me at all, I think because of the honey. We will have to be willing to experiment to find what works for us. Just because something works for someone doesn’t mean it will work for everyone. I was introduced to molasses in Kombucha but when I added it to mine I didn’t think that worked for me either.

Staying healthy might be one of our biggest challenges, but if it is, we can be sure no one else will do it. Drugs may help some symptoms but are they getting to the source of the problem? We need to be willing to experiment in our own lives with practices to improve our health, and some have been around long enough like fasting and fermented foods that we aren’t taking a risk at all. We are doing what the healthiest people throughout history have done.

If we are going to change our lives for the better, is there a better time to start than now? What if we get a snowball effect of better and better health? What if part of living right, is eating right, and we choose to make things better or worse every time we put something in our mouth?

You are what you eat, you are what you think, you are what you believe. Michael Ryan

Don’t focus on how much you eat. Focus on what you eat. Unknown

The food you eat can be either the safest most powerful form of medicine or the slowest form of poison. Ann Wigmore

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 to everyone that reads my books and a special thank you to everyone that 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.

Posted on by BWThomas

Celebrating Mothers, no one can take the place of our Mother – even if we never knew her.

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

I think in a lot of ways unconditional love is a myth. My mom’s the only reason I know it’s a real thing. Conor Oberst

Yesterday was Mother’s Day and my daughter and son made breakfast. My daughter-in-law was hosting her family in the afternoon so they had to leave before my mother-in-law arrived. My son-in-law barbecued burgers and we had a lovely afternoon.

There is controversy about celebrating Mother’s and Father’s days in schools and I think this should be left up to the teachers to figure out what is best for their class. Maybe it would have been best if this didn’t become a big commercial holiday, but it is and if it is taken away over not everyone having a mother in their life, many of us will feel – one more thing is being taken from us.

I sent a bouquet of flowers to Mom through a local florist where she lives, and for the first time, she told me the flowers were not fresh. I’m not a person that likes confrontation, nor am I a complainer, but I think I should let the owner know instead of just taking my business to the local grocery store which is what Mom suggests.

If I have done anything in life worth attention, I feel sure that I inherited the disposition from my mother. Booker T. Washington

My husband picked up flowers for his Mom and the lady at the cash told him to pick another bouquet the one he’d chosen was not fresh enough. The one he gave his mother was beautiful and thanks to the lady’s advice will last longer.

On Valentine’s Day, the roses my husband bought were past their best. It is hard to get flowers that meet the demand these days when everyone wants to pick up a bouquet for their mother, but a few experiences with poor flowers and we’ll choose something else or at least somewhere else to provide our flowers.

Business is tough and if our customers don’t give us the feedback we need to improve, and instead take their business somewhere else without giving us an opportunity to make it right, we lose. So I am going to give them a call, I’ve developed a bit of a relationship with the owner over the years as I’ve called to send flowers to Mom. She deserves to know because quality control is only something we can improve if we know it needs improving.

There was a time when I wouldn’t have made the call. I would never use her service again and she would never know why. I like that we have independent florists; I don’t want small entrepreneurs to no longer be in business. So today I will make an uncomfortable phone call and hope she receives it in the spirit intended.

I hope everyone enjoyed Mother’s Day, it is more enjoyable if we still have our Mother to spend time with or talk to, but even if we don’t, even if we never knew our mother, she gave us life and the opportunity to live this life and that is something to be grateful for.

A man loves his sweetheart the most, his wife the best, but his mother the longest. Irish Proverb

It takes months to find a customer… seconds to lose one. Vince Lombardi

Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning. Bill Gates

Thank you for reading this post I hope you enjoyed it. 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 everyone that 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.

Posted on by BWThomas

Making things happen, turning wishes into goals, and goals into reality.

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

Life is a journey that must be traveled no matter how bad the roads and accommodations. Oliver Goldsmith

We can make plans but all they ever are, are plans unless we actually do something. Last night was our time to book the flight, places to stay, and car rental for our trip to British Columbia and Alberta. I keep adding people to see and my daughter is asking when will we get to relax. The answer is probably when we get home. We should have made our plans a little earlier we would have had more choice in accommodations, but I think what we’ve booked looks pretty good.

The more people involved in a trip the more complicated it becomes but all the pieces seem to be coming together nicely. For seasoned travelers what we did last night wouldn’t seem like much, but it took us all night to book the flight, places to stay, and the last thing was the car rental when the site we were booking through had a problem. We had the vehicle booked through a site and then when we saw the price they confirmed in the email it had been quoted in American dollars and converted to Canadian dollars, thus much higher than we thought. Was this our mistake or a shady site?

We need to be careful we don’t blame others for our mistakes but we also need to be aware that there are those out there looking to take advantage. There is a buffet of things we can choose in life and yet many of us seem hesitant to define our choices. Can we have what we want, but we have to know what that is? Why is it hard to know what we want, we have to be careful about wanting things but never actually getting around to making them happen.

Travel is something I’ve never gotten around to making happen. That trip to Europe is now in the planning stages, but will only be to London and Paris. A friend and I have been going to travel since we were in high school, maybe we will travel together as seniors, and enjoy and appreciate it all the more for all the life that has happened.  Has anyone managed to fit everything into their life and had everything work out just like they hoped and planned? Does serendipity work in our lives, and even if we don’t get what we planned, we love what we got, and still hope to realize dreams that haven’t happened yet?

Life is short and we have never too much time for gladdening the hearts of those who are traveling the dark journey with us. Oh be swift to love, make haste to be kind. Henri Frederic Amiel

I have a friend sending me links to things we should consider for our trip to England and Paris. Planning is part of the fun, and I wonder if a surprise trip would be as wonderful as the anticipation of planning one.

When we have a goal and set a date things happen. When we have a wish without a plan it can remain a wish throughout our lives without any movement toward what isn’t actually a goal yet.

Life has strange ways, I was looking at a book, and a woman dreamed of a house and found herself living in a house exactly as she had dreamed, but she didn’t own it. She said next time when she dreamed of a house, part of the dream would be to own it.

Are we specific enough in our dreams, do we worry about things, and get our fears instead of our dreams? Focusing on what we want, instead of what we don’t want can sound easy, but in reality how often do we think about the things we don’t want? Sometimes we hear people talk about challenges they had in their life they would never have asked for, that have given them a better and bigger life than had they gotten what they wanted.  

No matter how life unfolds do we need to be willing to make the best of it? It seems to me those who can deal with the slings and arrows of life with grace and dignity are who we admire. We don’t admire those who haven’t faced challenges, who didn’t pick up a load, and who didn’t do something that was hard to do.

If we can truly say we’ve tried to make the best of what came our way in life we will feel good about the life we’ve lived. No one gets to live our lives, and we don’t get to live anyone else’s. We are each on our own journey and making the best of it will look different for each person, and our lessons will not be someone else’s lessons. Can we live and let live because we are all on a journey?

You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending. C.S Lewis

Have faith in your journey. Everything had to happen exactly as it did to get you where you’re going next! Mandy Hale

The only impossible journey is the one you never begin. Tony Robbins

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 to everyone that reads my books, and 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.

Posted on by BWThomas

Making plans and setting goals. If we don’t know where we are going how will we ever get there?

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

A goal without a plan is just a wish. Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Can we always tweak things to make them better? Is it possible to continually improve? At some point in life, our goal might get to be being able to do on Tuesday what we could do on Monday. How do we measure our life? Did we wring all of the joy out of life and all of the opportunities; did we do all the good deeds and help as many people as we could?

We realize how efficient and effective we can make our time when we are planning a trip. How much can we pack into a week, ten days, or a month? The longer we take to plan our trip the more we think of what to do, see, and experience. Sometimes we need a rest at the end of our trip because we were so busy doing what there was to do, and seeing what there was to see. Even if we pack it as tight as possible, we won’t see and do everything.

What is the point between busy enough and relaxed enough? We don’t want to miss smelling the roses, but we need to plant them and tend them. There gets to be a point in life (I’m told) when traveling doesn’t have the appeal it once had, and some are telling me it comes sooner than we think it might. This is scary, my husband and I are getting to the stage where we might finally have some time to travel. Will we get to see the Seven Wonders of the World, wouldn’t that be a worthy goal? At Toastmasters my mentor’s goal is to see all seven of the world’s wonders. The new list was compiled in 2000 when a company based in Zurich Switzerland launched a campaign to name the New 7 Wonders. The seven wonders of the world on today’s list are:

The Colosseum, Rome, Italy, the Great Wall of China, the Taj Mahal, India, Christ the Redeemer Statue, Brazil, Machu Picchu, Peru, Chichen Itza a Mayan city, Mexico, Petra, Jordan.

The Great Pyramid of Giza is the only wonder of the ancient world still standing.

The seven wonders of the natural world are:

The Northern Lights: Aurora Borealis,  Mount Everest, Paricutin volcano in Michoacán, Mexico, the Grand Canyon, Victoria Falls along the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe, The Harbor of Rio de Janeiro, and the Great Barrier Reef.

Your goals are the road maps that guide you and show you what is possible for your life. Les Brown

We might not agree with the lists, but they are at least a starting point. It would take a lot of traveling to see everything. We should all make our own list of what we’d like to see and do in our lifetime. There are lists of places to go, things to see, and experiences to have. We must curate our own list, and make our own plans because we must live our own life. When I look at YouTubers putting their experiences out I think what a way to see the world and some are getting paid for it.

We all make choices about our lives, and we may look at other people’s choices and think why didn’t I think of that, but they are living their life and we are living ours. We can’t have someone else’s life, but can we make the best of our own is a question we should ask. How much of what we want can we get out of the next ten years? How much effort would it take to figure out what we want and go after it?

Do we need to ask ourselves what we want to accomplish in life? Do we need to let life unfold knowing we can’t know everything that is ahead and we have to be willing to go with the flow, but also we can direct that flow somewhat? Is there something deep down we want to see, experience, or do? Can we make it happen without disrupting the rest of our life?

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

Goals. There’s no telling what you can do when you get inspired by them. There’s no telling what you can do when you believe in them. And there’s no telling what will happen when you act upon them. Jim Rohn

Setting a goal is not the main thing. It is deciding how you will go about achieving it and staying with that plan. Tom Landry

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, see archives and categories of posts click on the picture and scroll to the end.

Thank you to those who read my books, and 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 purchase through the Amazon affiliate program.

Posted on by BWThomas

Developing our attitude is the power to develop our lives.

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

A person with an outstanding attitude makes the best of it while he gets the worst of it. John c. Maxwell

It is truly inspirational when we read about people who have made the most of the worst situations. They were dealt hands we would never want and turn their life into something great. Wheelchair athletes come to mind, and it reminds each of us to focus on what we can do, not on what we can’t.

When one door closes another opens is something we’ve heard and it can empower us to not look back at our losses but instead look ahead to our opportunities.

I love listening to YouTube videos of old motivational speakers, Earl Nightingale, and Jim Rohn. Books by Florence Scovel Shinn and Neville Goddard are being read and posted on the internet. Are they better speakers or writers than the ones we have today? Many of our speakers today have looked at those speakers and writers and been inspired by them.

Yesterday the news said our school libraries are removing books written before 2008 from the shelves. This will mean children will not find any of the same books their parents read. Books written more than fifteen years ago are irrelevant, really. I believe we need to make room for new writers, but do we need to get rid of all great literature to replace it with what is recently written?

My interpretation of this process might be wrong, but how it was reported is sure to upset a lot of people. Of course, libraries cannot carry all the books, and they have to pick and choose what books are worthy of being in the library. I would hate to have to make that choice but that is what librarians are for, to put together a collection of books for their collection of students.

I’m not sure anyone’s life turns out exactly the way they imagine. All we can do it to try to make the best of it. Even when it seems impossible. Nicholas Sparks

It is easy to criticize, grumble, and think things aren’t going how we think they should. Announcements like that make us wonder who is making the decisions and why. We may be thinking they have motivations they don’t have, but published before 2008 does seem a little arbitrary. Maybe authors like me will have more opportunities to get our books into libraries. It never crossed my mind before, what book would have to be removed for mine to have room on the shelf.

Sometimes I still have to pinch myself that I have four books out into the world. That I accomplished a goal I’ve had since I was a little girl a goal for many years I barely breathed a word about, even to myself. Reaching our goals changes us, not because of the goal, but because of what it took to reach the goal. The hard work, discipline, persistence, dedication, and learning that goes into achieving a goal widens our horizons, we now know if we could attain that goal, we could also attain others. We could have done things we didn’t do, but we can also do things we haven’t done.

We realize that we have limited our life by the choices we have made, or we might have a bigger life than we ever thought possible. We can think that life is over as retirement looms, or we can think there is time for pursuits we haven’t pursued. How we look at what is left of our lives will determine our future.

Harnessing our minds is what we are told is required to live a great life, but minds are not easy to harness or control. Criticism and grumbling come easier than gratitude and speaking a blessing. Is what we think, and what we say building or destroying our lives? Is it easier to think everything is being done to us, than to think that out of what we have we can make something great?

Whatever life may send your way – make the best of it. Don’t waste your time and energy worrying about it. Instead, find a way to do something about it. Learn from it, adjust to it, be strong, be flexible and be your best in every situation. Les Brown

Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out. Art Linkletter

If you can stay positive in a negative situation, you win. Anonymous

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 to everyone that reads my books, and 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.

Posted on by BWThomas

The dance between chaos and order is playing out in our lives.

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

Chaos breeds life, while order breeds success. Franklin P. Adams

We had a weekend of rain so I didn’t get out for a walk, of course, that is an excuse, it didn’t rain every second of every day, but any excuse will do when we want one. I did get the front closet cleaned out. Old shoes and boots we haven’t worn in years finally got thrown out.

There is something cathartic about clearing out clutter, so why don’t I get to it more often? Some of us are much better about living without clutter than others. I’ve seen shows where people live with mounds of stuff everywhere. I’ve wondered how they manage, they aren’t managing or they wouldn’t be on a show.

We might envy the compulsive cleaner but that is a problem as well. What is the line between a well-kept home, and a home that is so clean it is uncomfortable to be in because we might leave a footprint?

Life is messy; our dog goes outside and comes in with muddy feet. Our one-year-old grandson leaves a mess behind him wherever he goes. Cooking is messy, but how can we be healthy, if we don’t cook? Many hobbies are messy, but what kind of life is it without creative hobbies? Can we live in organized chaos, and is this actually the best way to live?

Organized chaos may be different for each person, but somehow we need to be able to live without our routines becoming too rigid because rigidity is not good for our souls. I wonder if we are all struggling with a chaotic life and if we get too much order in it, all the spontaneity and fun might be gone, if we have too much chaos in our lives maybe it is hard to function.

Chaos and order are not enemies, only opposites. Chaos and order combined equal balance. Richard Garriott

Do we need to embrace chaos in our lives because coming up with the perfect morning routine like the perfectly organized coat closet can be daunting? Life gets in the way and we have to be okay if we can’t get everything on our list done so we can do other things that are required for our life.

An extra hour in the morning is like a golden gift but how long will it take before this hour is filled with tasks that need to be done, and I think if only I got up an hour earlier. Maybe we are hardwired to never be satisfied, we are looking for ways to make things better, and if we are satisfied we think we are no longer ambitious enough, but perhaps we can become a satisfied striver. We are setting goals and reaching them, and then setting new goals.  If we have a comfortable life, we might think it is a little boring, if we have too much excitement we crave peace, if we eat out all the time, we crave home cooking, if we have home cooking all the time we long to go out.

Finding a balance that works for us is our challenge. Everyone is quick to tell us what works for them, there are lots of gurus who tell us to buy their system, but if something is going to work for us it will have to fit into our unique life, and life is always changing as we go through different stages.

Can we find peace as we juggle chaos and order?

In all chaos, there is a cosmos, in all disorder a secret order. Carl Jung

It is only in the dance between chaos and order that life progresses. Harrison Owen

Chaos precedes order and order precedes chaos and beauty is somewhere between. Amy Larson

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 to everyone that reads my books, and a special thank you to everyone that 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.