Love Gives Meaning + Time For My Check Up + That Would Sound Silly
Good Morning from Warren Grove, Prince Edward Island,
Please put the hot chocolate on, no marshmallows, but happy with extra cream.
Omicron is tearing through the land, but I am encouraged by what I read. Viruses tend to wear themselves out. Could this be true?
Could this be the light at the end of the tunnel?
I sure hope so!
A friend in her early nineties wrote to tell me, ‘I have a nice little sign made for my door side mailbox. It says, "Unvaccinated? Unwelcome!" So far, so good. I have lost a few friends but am still safe.”
When I read this, I laughed out loud, and it also made me think of the self-respect she had for herself. And I loved it. Not everyone will, and that’s ok, but we need to respect each other.
Only the spread of love between people
can improve the existing social structure.
Love gives meaning to human life. This we have known since antiquity.
But what is love?
Many wise people throughout the ages have tried to solve this question.
If you raise people to praise only wealth, power, and glory,
then naturally they will praise only these things.
If you raise people to love the feeling of love, they will start to live in love.
-MEE-TEE, a student of CONFUCIUS
It is hard to believe that next Saturday is Christmas Day. There will be a blog that I will wait to write the morning of.
This week is a time to thank all who have helped my year. And I look forward to saying many times. But, first, a BIG thank you to you who continue to subscribe and comment on our blogs.
Did you read on our collective blog taking you down memory lane? The Kitchen Range by Theresa Redmond.
I like to look back on the last year and the accomplishments.
I am grateful for all the community is doing to protect each other. The nurses and frontline workers are heroes. Not only are the citizens being tested for Covid, but Covid tests governments everywhere.
We need to celebrate the global scientific community’s coming together who tried and succeeded at creating a vaccine to solve this problem at record speed.
"Never try to be someone else's definition of beautiful.
You have to define beautiful for yourself." - Zendaya.
Thinking ahead, I like this exercise I learned from a Tim Ferris podcast some years ago. However, I have altered it a bit to fit my style.
“The belief that you cannot change leads to a victim mentality. If you are determined by nature to be what you are, then there is nothing you can do about your lot in life. Conversely, the belief that you can change leads you to take responsibility for your life. You may have been born with certain constraints, but you can change those constraints, allowing yourself to improve and grow.” ~ Dr. Benjamin Hardy
This week will be the start of my annual “check-up,” sort of speak.
What was healthy or unhealthy this past year?
The exercise:
- Take out a piece of paper create two columns: POSITIVE and NEGATIVE.
- Take a calendar from the last year.
- List any people, activities or commitments that triggered peak positive or negative emotions. Then, write them in their respective columns.
- Look at your list and ask, “What produced the most reliable, positive and rewarding outcomes?”
- STEP ONE: Take your “positive” and schedule more of them in the new year. Book things with friends and prepare for activities/events/commitments. It’s not real until it’s on the calendar.
- STEP TWO: Take your “negative,” put “NOT-TO-DO LIST” at the top, and put them somewhere you can see them each morning for the first few weeks of 2022. These are the people and things you KNOW make you feel positive, so don’t put them on your calendar out of obligation, guilt, or FOMO. (fear of missing out)
I try and take the good with the bad and plan for more good.
As part of my check-up, I start with free-flowing a list, a brain dump sort of thing. I don’t question anything; I just write. Then, I review it over and over, asking myself why.
Then I pare the list down and fit it into the basics—Spiritual, Health, Family, Relationships, Business, Finance.
I break it down into actionable steps of progression. Once I have it settled, I will put it on the calendar. That doesn’t mean it won't change, but it is a good start.
“Giving yourself the best opportunity to be happy by doing
the things in your life that create the
fundamental foundation for happiness is a good way to begin.”
– Chris Williamson.
Regardless of your religious or spiritual beliefs, there is one thing I hope we can all agree on.
Only one clear quality marks an action as either good or evil:
If it increases the amount of love in the world, it is good.
If it separates people and creates animosity among them, it is bad.
The time is coming, a time of concord, harmony, forgiveness, and love. Depend on it. We must do everything in our power to bring this time closer and to stop those things which delay its arrival. ~ Leo Tolstoy
Music. I love music. Especially music that allows me to think, read or relax.
Here are a few links to new music I have been enjoying this week:
Jazz: Street of Dream Bill Charlap Trio
Classical Crossover Piano: Yiruma - Solo
Choral: The Belfast Cathedral Choir
And Songs To Make Your Heart Warm a playlist by Nao.
A BIG Thank you to all who supported us during this shipping season; our staff did a fantastic job! THANK YOU, team.
I wish everyone a great week ahead.
Take care of each other, and Merry Christmas to you and yours.
Peace and Love.
Bruce + Millie
ps. Your Morning Smile from Millie
On a slow day with few customers, a clerk at a telegram office looks down from her counter and sees a dog waiting in line.
"Oh, aren't you cute?" she says. "What would you like me to put on your telegram?"
"Bow-wow wow, Bow wow wow," the dog replies.
The clerk says in a cutesy voice, "But you can add another 'Bow-wow wow' for the same price."
The dog responds, "Now, wouldn't that sound a little silly?"
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