We spent yesterday at Niagara Falls with the family.
It was such a great reminder of the power and beauty of nature.
It was also a great reminder of what man is capable of when we work with nature.
It was a good chance for an attitude adjustment.
To look for the beauty and life that surrounds us every day.
To realize that it will be here long after me and my job is steward my life and time the best I can while I’m here.
Make it a great day.
Jake
Every time I go on vacation I think of this scene from What About Bob.
A vacation from your problems.
Sometimes if we take a break from worrying about something, it reveals itself as something not worth worrying about.
Not that the worries and anxieties of life can just be swept under the rug, but if you view them from a new angle you can see them for what they are.
Make it a great day.
Jake
You have succeeded in life when all you really want is only what you really need. – Vernon Howard
There’s a part of me that disagrees with this quote.
Sure – part of the secret of contentment is being happy with what you have.
But what do to with the drive to do better?
How do you strike the balance between managing your desires and your desires managing you?
We seem to have been built to seek out goals and purpose and making things better.
We also seem prone to buying into marketing and comparison and letting them steal our joy.
No answers to this one for you….just a few questions for you to think about.
In the end, you get to pick….for you.
What do you want? How much contentment? How much striving and purposeful effort?
Make it a great day.
Jake
Hopefully a good laugh for both the introverts and extroverts in the group.
Understanding ourselves and those we love gives us the opportunity to show empathy towards other and patience with ourselves.
We can be more patient and kind when we understand whether someone is introverted.
We can be more aware of our day and what we choose to do in response to our natural tendencies.
Make it a great day.
Jake
PS – Awareness is not an excuse to only do things the way you prefer. It’s not a blank check for excuses to only do what you want.
Better keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which you must see the world. – George Bernard Shaw
Reminder – take care of your body and physical self – it’s the only one you get while you’re here.
A healthy body performs much better.
Make it a great day.
Jake
Today is Maggie’s 16th birthday.
Teaching Maggie to drive has been an experience in patience and empathy.
She’s full of the enthusiasm and desire for independence that most teenagers have. She’s ready to spread her wings and be her own person.
But the parents….not….quite…..ready. It’s a story as old as time. Parents learning to let go and kids trying to break free.
We watch this wonderful person and (think) we see all the future possibilities and want to have our hands on the steering wheel but have to let go. It’s harder than I thought it would be….
I feel so lucky and blessed to have such a good kid and to have had good parents who cared enough to struggle through all of this on my behalf.
It’s a good reminder that some haven’t been so lucky. We run into people every day and everywhere for whom this process didn’t go as well as it could have. Let’s remember to be as patient and kind with them as we all wished (or were lucky enough to have experienced) for from those in our lives.
God is good and I’m so very thankful that I get to be Maggie’s dad. She sure has taught me a lot.
Make it a great day.
Jake
PS – NOW ACCEPTING – any and all advice on parenting a teenage driver.
Be truthful, nature only sides with truth. – Adolf Loos
One of Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules is – “Don’t Lie”.
Nature is on the side of the person who sticks with this rule.
I try to think of it like physics – we can’t argue with or ignore gravity or heat or cold. We can only work with them. The more we work with them and their inherent principles, the more likely the preferred outcomes are to occur.
Same with telling the truth.
Maybe we can get away with a little lying, in the short run, but in the long run – it will come around. Just like gravity – airplanes and rockets can temporarily overcome gravity (but they burn a lot of energy).
Be careful to be more truthful this week. Try to pay attention to the opportunities to bend or shape the truth.
Make it a great day.
Jake
Patience is the companion of wisdom. – Saint Augustine
A key component of wisdom and maturity is learning to be patient.
Patient with others.
Patient with ourselves.
Patient with life and its happenings.
So much of what we worry and fret over tends to take care of itself – given some time.
Make it a great day.
Jake
Annie was signing this one at dinner last night and it reminded me of a Toe Tapper from a few years ago.
What a great reminder for us all. Everybody is a bit of a fixer-upper.
And the way to fix things up is with love.
Each of us was once a baby full of all the endless possibilities that come packed into a human life.
But along the way we made a series of good and bad choices.
We had a series of good and bad relationships.
We made good and bad food and exercise choices.
We made good and bad financial decisions.
And along the way we all became a bit of a fixer-upper.
Embrace the fixer-upper in all of us. Liberally apply all the love you have on the fixer-uppers in your life.
Make it a great day.
Jake
"Be the change that you want to see in the world." Mohandas Gandhi
Becoming a better person, a whole different person, requires change for most of us.
One of the hardest areas to work on for me has been looking outside myself for the things that need to change. Looking at others and seeing areas they should change.
That driver in front of me needs to drive better.
Congress needs to pass better laws.
Taxes need to be lower.
Other people need to post more positive comments on FaceBox
In order to see the changes I want to see in my life, I need to first “Be the change that I want to see in the world.”
Remember that the results of your life are a “merciless mirror” reflecting back to you what kind of a person you are. All of the treasures you have accumulated are in direct proportion to the development on your own character.
Challenge yourself.
Be the change you want to see in the world.
Make it a great week.
Jake
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