Posted on by BWThomas

Staying the course, being true to ourselves, making things better by making a difference.

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give. Winston Churchill

Is it easier to give up than to stay the course? One of the things that sustains us when we want to give up is the habits we’ve created. We are told we can count on our habits more than our willpower.

Is it easier to create bad habits than good ones? We have to be careful we create the habits that will sustain a good life and not result in a bad one. When we realize something isn’t working for us how easy is it to change our direction, to regroup, and go forward in what we hope will work better for us?

We need to ask ourselves these questions throughout our lives. Is it easier to look at someone else’s life and see the change in direction they need but hard to see it in our own life? How often do we say to ourselves if I were them? Why is it easier to know what someone else should do than what we should do ourselves?

If we don’t keep on doing what we know needs to be done it will be our own life that suffers. What price will we pay if we don’t write our book, sing our song, or create whatever calls out to be created? What if we don’t stand up for what needs to be stood up for?

We create order out of chaos, but order is not created randomly. A pile of car parts in a garage will never randomly end up in the right place and the car rebuilt without effort by the car builder. When I see restored cars I appreciate only a small part of the effort it took to rebuild that car because I don’t know how much work and money went into it.

We are told we should only give up one dream for a greater dream. If we give up on our dreams without a bigger dream what kind of a life do we end up with? How many women give up on a dream in the workplace to create a family?

The best portion of a good man’s life is his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and love. William Wordsworth

Creating a family is the one lasting thing we have, the one we can leave behind, and the one that builds on itself. If some of our dreams get put aside for family then I think the greater dream wins. We have to be careful we don’t think just because we have a family we can’t do anything else, but we also have to be careful we don’t think going after what we want means we have to give up on family.

If we are lucky at eighty we will be surrounded by family, and their accomplishments will be part of what makes us proud. They might be the one that fulfills a long-lost dream. They might be the one that finally attains the pinnacle of success, and we might have played a part in that.

We will be as proud, and maybe even prouder of what our children or grandchildren accomplish than if we accomplished it ourselves. Because they are the legacy we leave behind, our contribution to the greater good, and the progress of the future.

As I write this my grandson asked me to read him the puppy books. He didn’t sit on my knee long enough to finish them both and he was off on another adventure. He plays the piano as I write. It takes longer to accomplish things with him but everything is brighter and more fun because of him.

We must leave our world in a good place because of our grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Can we agree on what makes a better world?

Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud. Maya Angelou

There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it. Edith Wharton

The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the greatest of intention. Kahlil Gibran

Thank you for reading this post. Please come back and read some more and 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 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

Are we strong and courageous? Courage and strength are needed to live a good life. What would it take for our life to be an example of courage?

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

Courage is the mother of all virtues because without it you cannot
consistently perform the others. Aristotle

If we are to live good lives we have to have a degree of courage. We have to
stand by our convictions and be impeccable with our word. Do our best, and act on our well-chosen values. We will demonstrate a commitment to good causes by active participation. We will refuse the temptation to comply with, assist with, or ignore dishonest, coercive, cruel, bigoted, wasteful, or deceptive words or practices encountered during our everyday activities. We will be willing to speak truth to power to right a wrong. Doing the right thing may be a defining moment in our lives. We may courageously overcome or at least control bad habits and addictions.

That is a tall order and none of us will probably be consistently courageous
in everything we do. We will make mistakes of judgment.  We will believe things that are not true and may even feel others have no right to their opinion if they do not believe what we believe. Even though we won’t be perfect we will lead better lives if we are more courageous than if we are not.

We may truly believe we are doing the right thing and be wrong. We may find as life goes forward that going with accepted beliefs is not correct. Who do we listen to when deciding what the right course of action is?

There is so much information on so many topics we may not know what to believe or who to listen to. Epistemology: How do you know that what you know is true? How do we know what someone tells us is true, or what we read or listen to is true? What about conflicting stories, news reports, and biased arguments that may be based on a kernel of truth?

It isn’t what we don’t know that gives us trouble; it is what we know that
ain’t so. Will Rogers

The sincerity of one’s belief, the volume or frequency with which it is stated, or assurances to “believe me” should not be rationally persuasive. It is hard to sift through everything we know, hear, and read. Is it possible to get comfortable with uncertainty and knowing we don’t know, instead of thinking we know things, we can’t know?

Even when we don’t know for sure what the truth is, can we be courageous in
our questions and our actions?

By what criteria do we evaluate reasons? How are those criteria themselves
evaluated? What is it for a belief to be justified? What is the relationship
between justification and truth? Harvey Siegel

There are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies, and statistics. Mark Twain

I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know
nothing. Socrates

 Thank you for reading this post. Please come back and read some 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 purchase price.

Posted on by BWThomas

If we are wise we will know what changes are good and which ones are not, but who is that wise?

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

Only the wisest and stupidest of men never change. Confucius

How many of us got up today wondering why we can’t quit changing our clock ahead and back again every year? Pick a time and stick with it. If we can’t get our time back on permanent daylight saving, and I don’t know anyone who likes the switch, how can we make changes we don’t all agree on?

B.C. passed legislation in 2019 allowing it to ditch the switch, but it has not been implemented yet. Ontario passed a bill in 2020 to stay on Daylight Saving Time permanently.

One day this foolishness will be over, but change is often slower than we want unless it is faster than we want. How often do we think we are living with everything going just right? Would perfection look the same for everyone? One of the problems I think we have is when we start getting comfortable we find our comfort is causing other people’s discomfort. As they work to get more comfortable we become more uncomfortable and the cycle continues.

At our writer’s group on Saturday, the conversation on how to write about sensitive issues was so interesting we didn’t get to our workshop on writing. It takes courage to be a writer, but it especially takes courage to write about sensitive issues. As writers, we ask whose story is being told and do we have the right to tell it.

I wonder how many writers stories are not being told because they worry how their story will be received and so don’t put it out there? How many writers like me skirt issues they would like to delve into? Are we becoming a less courageous society? Ignorance sometimes passes for courage, and that is not what I am talking about. The problem with free speech is some will misuse it; the problem with not having free speech is everyone is muzzled.

All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another. Anatole France

If important questions don’t get asked where does that take us? If questions get asked in a way that some will find hurtful, where does that take us? If no one asks the questions out loud, but whispers about issues where they deem it safe to do so, where does that take us?

Civilization is a balance of rights and responsibilities. We don’t live in a perfect society but do we appreciate how good it is, and how bad it could be? How many decisions are we away from it being better, but how many decisions are we away from it being worse? Do we agree on what would make it better, and do we agree on what would make it worse?

Most of us, I think, agree that being in one time zone for the whole year would make things better. It is a small change, and I hope to see it become a reality.

Other changes might bring more good. We won’t agree on all of them, they might not be good for everyone, and how do we weigh who benefits and who loses?

Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced. James Baldwin

In any given moment we have two options: to step forward into growth or step back into safety. Abraham Maslow

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

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 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

Living our best life is about choice, we have to choose between what can only happen now, and what can happen later.

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

Life is a matter of choices, and every choice you make makes you. John C. Maxwell

Stretching ourselves too thin often doesn’t accomplish what we want it to. We want to keep all our balls in the air, everyone and ourselves happy, but instead of getting everything done, we might end up spinning our wheels.

If it is true that the first twenty percent of what we do gives us eighty percent of our results, how can we focus on the effective twenty percent? I’ve been thinking about this with my morning writing which goes between the blog two mornings and writing a novel the rest of the week.

When I started the blog it was seven days a week, then I cut it down to two days a week because I didn’t have time for any other writing, and now I am cutting it down to one day a week.

How effective can we be if we set our minds to it? Parenting and grandparenting are not the areas to cut our input. Children and relationships need time and attention. We don’t have effective conversations because we’ve set aside twenty minutes for an important conversation. If we want an effective conversation, especially with a teenager we should take them on a long road trip, and not fill the space with the radio or audiobooks, but let the conversation flow however haltingly.

Sometimes it’s the smallest decisions that can change your life forever. Keri Russell

We can have relationships with many people, but most of us won’t have many close friends. We will have a few important people in our lives and the more time we spend with them the better.

Life is always about choice, where we spend our time is important. I’m spending more time with my grandson and less time writing. These wonderful months are passing by quickly, he’s almost two, and I don’t want to look back with more books written wishing I’d spent more time with him. I’m spending more time with him and getting less writing done, and I’m sure I will never regret that.

Your life is a result of the choices you have made. If you don’t like your life, start making better choices. Ziz Ziglar

Life is a chess match. Every decision that you make has a consequence to it. P. K. Subban

When your values are clear to you, making decisions becomes easier. Roy E. Disney

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.