Posted on

Love That Doggy.

When Hudson was a baby.

Love between a pet owner and it’s pooch is such a wonderful bond. Of course the bond between people is fabulous, but it is tenuous, sometimes shaky, sometimes unstable. With pets it is just straight out love. No conditions, no holding back, no judgements, just great big bundles of affection.

I say this because I am dog sitting my grand dog. He is a beautiful pit bull that is always so happy to see me. He loves to come to grammy’s house and hang out. We play tug of war, go for long walks, eat lots of treats, and sleep together. I know it sounds icky, but we love to snuggle.

Now for people who don’t have pets I say you are missing out on a great source of happiness. Dogs just think we are their whole world, and they love us for sharing it. As I am writing this, Hudson, that’s my grand dog baby, comes in every now and then to stick his cold nose under my arm to give me a nudge of affection. No needs, just wants to say hi.

He is a beauty. I know that people think that pit bulls are evil, terrible beings, but they are wrong. Raised with love and kindness, they are the best.

My Tessie.

Tessie, that’s my dog is willing to share me with Hudson, but only on her terms. It takes a few hours for her to accept him and let him in to play and cuddle. Once we pass that phase they play happily together, looking my way to be sure all is well while they slobber all over the place chewing on doggy toys.

It is a great way to soothe the heart when you look into those eyes and know that there is true love shining through.

My goal in all of this madness is to give you another way to look at the world around you. What is in the news is awful. That is not all that is happening, but they want us to think it is. I say turn off your television, let the liars lie, and find a little happiness in the things around you. Sometimes we have to stop and look for a moment, but I am sure it is there.

Tess is the boss.

Pets are a wonderful release, having a moment with a child and laughing at something silly is great, walking through nature and being amazed at all the glorious things in front of you can be wonderful too.

I have a bunny that comes to my house. She sits out in the backyard and stays put when I show up. I think there is a bond there between us. I always throw her a slice of bread which she loves, and we sit quietly in our little spots sharing a moment in time.

My bunny.

Find a refuge somewhere with someone or a pet and embrace the peace around you. It is a great way to start and end your day. Don’t let the day to day crap spoil your good mood. And as I always say, have a great day today. You and I deserve it.

Posted on

Inspiration.

Beautiful.

We all need something to sling us into the future and get us off our butts. Right! We need to become active in creating the life we want. Not just sitting around whining about the past. How do we do this you might ask?

Well, it is the people we let into our lives. Yep! The very folks that hang with us can bring us down or lift us up. Even the music we listen to, and the movies we watch, influence our way of thinking. We just aren’t paying attention, but we should.

All day, everyday we absorb the energy around us. The happiness that may be given off by someone or the anger that another is spewing has an effect on how we are feeling. It influences how we react to the world around us.

Don’t believe me take a moment and look at some happy pictures on the internet. You pick the genre, but spend a few minutes looking at puppies, or babies, or things in nature. Look at what brings a little joy to your heart. I promise if you do this it will lift your mood.

Now, I am not challenging you to let the feelings in as a contest to prove that you won’t. I am saying open yourself to the feelings that might flow in. We have to open ourselves up to the good experiences in life. There is much that surrounds us that can lead us back on track to feeling good. To finding a purpose in life.

I love Ed Sheeran. I am almost seventy years old and I just love his music. I wonder how such a young man can create such powerful love songs. One of my favorite ” youtube” videos is Ed Sheeran singing with the great opera star Bocelli. If you want to hear something beautiful watch that video. The amazing part of the video is that two unique, talented individuals generations apart came together to bring us something beautiful. What a blessing!

Both of these great musicians have come far in their music journey crashing through many obstacles along the way that only made them stronger. We too must find the things that will make us stronger. Things that have the power to move us forward when our life has stalled.

It’s in the details.

My life has stalled many times. I have been creative, but lack the will or determination to follow through. I let self doubt get in my way. I took the easy out, the security of an eight to five.

Something I have learned along the way is that all great people, big and small, have one thing in common. Determination. They did not quit. They did not let the hurdles placed in front of them deter them from what they wanted to do. What they wanted to create. The rest of us, me included, let self doubt and fear create a wall.

So, the first thing we must do is bring things into our life that will lead in the direction we really want to go. Read books, listen to moving music, bring good people into our life. You wouldn’t want a bad tennis player to teach you how to play tennis. Why let a bad life coach teach you how to live a shitty life. Did you know our friends are our life coaches?

Long ago I had a dear friend. Together we had a dream. Sadly life got in our way or we let it, I don’t know which it was, but we put away our dream and went our separate ways.

Later I found out that this dear person who had been a part of my life for several years died from breast cancer. It was the demon that actually challenged both of us at different times in our lives. I fortunately won my battle, she did not. Cancer does that, it takes away, and it leaves behind some of the wounded.

I have included a little clip at the bottom of the this page that is from a meditation tape we made together years ago. It is called ” Chakra Lights Meditation.” Stress management was and is a big topic. We taught a variety of classes on stress and mediation. We had a dream. I am going to revive that dream and offer this great meditation to all of you in the near future.

The part I included is the beginning relaxation section. Something most of us do not do enough of. And I don’t mean sitting down in front of a television or blurring out on the internet. I mean really relaxing and letting go of the tension that has built up throughout your day. Taking a moment to let go is the beginning to feeling better. To moving in the right direction.

A major step in making life changes is to let go of the garbage floating around us. There are many things that just don’t matter. Sometimes just taking a minute to breathe will help us refocus and get about our day. I hope this little segment will help. Have a great day today.

Posted on

Mindfulness

Look at the details.

Do you know what you had to eat for breakfast today? Or did you even eat? Do you remember the flavors, the texture of the food, or did you just wolf it down as most of us do.
Often we go through our day and miss most of the moments that have passed us by. Something as simple as driving to work and we may not even remember the journey.

Mindfulness is the act of being present in the moment. Noting what is around you. I have heard people say they never noticed this or that on there routine journey home. It is like we go into a zone of nothingness. When this happens we miss so much.

Perhaps we are focusing on yesterday. I read that 40% of our time is spent in the past. Reliving events that occurred long ago. Often these are not the happy moments you would think we would focus on, but the bad, what we did, and what someone did to us.

We spend 40% of our time in the future worrying about what might be. We fret, worry, and imagine some pretty awful things. There might be a few who live in a state of ecstasy, but most of us lean toward the bad things that might happen .

Fluffy beauty.

And we only spend 20% of our time in the here and now. Can you believe it? For most of our day we are not even here.

My challenge to you is to become more mindful. Pay attention. I mean really pay attention to what is occurring right now. Look at the people in your life, look at the world around you, your pets, your family. Get lost in today.

I was browsing through some old photographs of my granddaughters and I was lost in the beauty of their faces, the joy that was there, the fun they were having. I mean it was such a sweet treat and I felt so good afterward. It really lifted my mood.

And lifting your mood is something that you can do as well. Get lost in today’s moments. Look at something around you like that feather at the top or the web picture. Our dog Zoey was a beauty. There is so much rich detail in the day to day things we encounter. Think of all the things it took to give us this moment. And let it all sink in.

So when your mind is wandering, look at where it is and bring it back to this day. After all that is really all we have. And as I always say have a great day today. You and I deserve it.

Can’t you just lose yourself in those eyes.
Posted on

Sunshine

There is always a bit of sunshine.

Oh my you are not going to believe this. Look at that lovely picture. Do you know what it is? It is the sun shining on a tree that was covered with moss. It was a cloudy, dreary day. But the sun’s rays lite up that tree like a beacon. It caught my eye right away when I was out walking. There in the midst of all these trees that were folded up for winter this one was glowing brightly in the distance. I found it amazing.

Just like this picture finally uploading on my post. I can only say thank you to all the worker bees who kept taking my hysterical calls, and continued working on the problem. I say a great big thank you too all of you.

This is a message to me, and to you, that we should not get upset, but continue working on the problem. Any problem. With patience a miracle might happen. Okay someone might just fix something. I just wanted to sound like a sage.

Again thank you to those who were so kind. So helpful. I really appreciate you hanging in there and not letting me get lost in the shuffle. I hope my future blogs will entertain, enlighten, and bring a smile to your face. Although I might sometimes cause you to frown.

As I always say have a great day today, you and I deserve it.

See you soon.

Posted on

Still at it!

Yep, we are still pictureless. ( I have edited this with a picture as it is now working.) My spell checker says pictureless is not a word. It is, I just made it up. It fits the situation. With the help of my invisible friend I have tried everything that has been suggested with no results. It is making all of us crazy.

I am thinking that it is my computer. I bought a new one and that is when all this trouble began. I may be heading over to a computer store where the wizards work and see if they have any ideas. Just call me mad Max.

What do you do when you are at the edge? I know I shouldn’t let this crap get to me, but when you want things to work, especially after paying lots of money, then it should work. They say it will only cost you ” this amount” and then several hundred dollars later it is like “what happened to the ” this amount” of the amount, and then the crap won’t listen to my commands. It’s like raising a child.

I will admit I am tenacious. I do not give up. I might get red faced, I may sweat, I may scream to the heavens, but I am not giving up!

There is my girl.

I promise one day you will see pretty pictures. I am not the best photographer, not even close, but I love to take pictures. and I want to share them. There is a site called pixaby.com that has the best photos for people to use. The one of the water on my earlier blog is one I downloaded. Not sure how it got there but I am keeping it.

Please do not let the crap get to you. Just step away from whatever is setting you off, even if you can only do it mentally through deep breathing or visualization. Both can be very helpful when you are ready to smack the wall.

I know that with patience I will succeed. You can succeed as well. We are stronger than we look. I am stronger, just messier. I push my chores aside when I am so focused on something. Thank goodness this is not live or you guys would quickly turn off your monitors. Don’t worry I will bathe before I go to work. This identity is hidden from my co-workers. I think my picture has been on that Walmart site though, you know the one, you’ve looked at it too.

There are times when it is okay to let it all hang out, just not in front of anyone. So thanks for listening to my rant. Have a great day today. See you soon.