https://youtu.be/W-TE_Ys4iwM?si=heiSS1KLre4aYMhs

One good thing about the start of another school year is the clear distinction from one period to the next.

Like the ending of one chapter and the beginning of the next.

Time marches on. It’s helpful to have markers along the way to show you are making progress.

This goes for kindergartners and grown ups.

Since most of us are past the school stage of life we need to set our mile markers along the way.

Whether they are goals or just simple traditions at home to mark the changing of the seasons they show us whether we have grown or atrophied, succeeded or failed.

We are made for meaning and progress. Set yourself a direction and move towards it.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears. – Marcus Aurelius

Some things in life I think of as “fool’s gold” – this quote hits on one of them.

Spending our time identifying whose fault it is and how they have not done right by us is fool’s gold.

It’s easy to find fault. To judge. To see how someone has wronged us.

We can focus on this and find plenty of material – there is no shortage of shortcomings.

If we can let it go though, we find out that it wasn’t really worth worrying about in the first place.

It all disappears. Fool’s gold. No real value after all that.

Make it a great day.

Jake

If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude. – Maya Angelou

This feels like some solid dad advice.

Stop complaining.

Either do something about it or change your attitude about it.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Some believe it is only great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not what I have found. It is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love. Why Bilbo Baggins? Perhaps because I am afraid, and he gives me courage. – The Hobbit

Tolkien did such a great job in this series of painting the picture of these epic battles of good and evil – all decided by the actions of a few people of genuine character.

Most of the battles between good and evil are fought in our day to day lives.

In traffic. Getting everyone out the door and to school on time. Customers that don’t listen. Coworkers who aren’t the person we’d like them to be.

All opportunities to choose good over evil. To move towards better instead of worse.

This is an opportunity, not a curse. We can and do effect the outcomes. We make a difference.

Make it a great day.

Jake

The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up. – Paul Valery

It’s easy to get stuck in the dreaming phase. Scrolling through the socials, looking at what other people have and wishing you had it.

You can have it – but first you have to wake up.

Wake up and decide if that dream is worth pursuing.

Wake up to where you are right now and how you got there.

Wake up to the work and dedication it will take to get there.

Wake up to the stuff you’ll have to let go of to move from where you are now to that new reality.

Make it a great day.

Jake

https://youtu.be/Lw4nvg8S7Nk?si=SUulw3ljDyx2nLpQ

Marky Mark for a fun start to your Friday!

Some in the positive attitude literature focus in on the idea of vibrations and other ideas of "the universe" and how it interacts with us and our goals.

I think they are mostly right, but it doesn’t work quite how some describe it.

Will a vision board or a mantra or a positive affirmation create a reality that you desire? Not quite. But they don’t hurt.

We sow what we reap. If we put good stuff out there and into our minds and bodies, good stuff will come out. Does that mean we’re in total control – not really. We get to pick the general direction and have faith that it’ll all turn out, but there are no guarantees.

I wonder if the trick is in where we focus – on ourselves or on others. The more we focus on the best for others the closer we get to what we truly desire.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Resending this daily attitude from a few years ago….

Sam: It’s all wrong

By rights we shouldn’t even be here.

But we are.

It’s like in the great stories Mr. Frodo.

The ones that really mattered.

Full of darkness and danger they were,

and sometimes you didn’t want to know the end.

Because how could the end be happy.

How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad happened.

But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow.

Even darkness must pass.

A new day will come.

And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer.

Those were the stories that stayed with you.

That meant something.

Even if you were too small to understand why.

But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand.

I know now.

Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back only they didn’t.

Because they were holding on to something.

Frodo: What are we holding on to, Sam?

Sam : That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it’s worth fighting for.

This seemed particularly relevant given the pandemic and much of what has happened in the last 12 months.

Life sure has changed.

At times it has felt like a dark cloud hanging over us.

As Sam says – when the sun shines, it will shine out the clearer.

Love, courage, service, kindness, humility – these are all worth fighting for.

And it’s worth playing our part in that fight.

By doing all of this and more for our neighbors. Today. Right here and right now.

Make it a great day.

Jake

In the Bible it says the meek shall inherit the earth.
It’s hard not to bristle a little when you hear that.
We hear words like meek and humble and think of the perennial doormat that doesn’t think enough of themself to stand up for what they believe in.
I went in search of something around the topic of humility and found this short excerpt:
One of the most powerful prayers in the midst of suffering I have read was uncovered from the horrors of Ravensbruck concentration camp. Ravensbruck was a concentration camp built in 1939 for women. Over 90,000 women and children perished in Ravensbruck, murdered by the Nazis. Corrie Ten Boom, who wrote The Hiding Place, was imprisoned there too. The prayer, found in the clothing of a dead child, says:
O Lord, remember not only the men and woman of good will, but also those of ill will. But do not remember all of the suffering they have inflicted upon us: Instead remember the fruits we have borne because of this suffering, our fellowship, our loyalty to one another, our humility, our courage, our generosity, the greatness of heart that has grown from this trouble. When our persecutors come to be judged by you, let all of these fruits that we have borne be their forgiveness.
I think that is the kind of behavior the Bible is talking about.
The kind of humility and meekness it takes to write something like that is hard to imagine.
It’s easy to read something like this and feel bad. Hard to live up to those kind of standards, so why even try?
Why try? Prayers like this one are proof that better is out there. We are capable of amazing things.
Use this as inspiration to get started on your own amazing thing.
Make it a great day.
Jake

I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, for vengeance, for desolation. War is hell. – William Tecumseh Sherman

This quote reminds me to be praying for those involved in the wars happening right now.

I am so very thankful for those who fought for our freedoms and for the life I live which has so far has not required the same of me.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies. – Mother Teresa

Monday morning reminder.

Pick a few small things this week that matter and get them right.

Nail your morning routine.

Finish the day strong.

Do it right the first time.

I’m sure you can think of some others…

Make it a great day.

Jake