Climb slowly, steadily, enjoying each passing moment; and the view from the summit will serve as a fitting climax for the journey.
Harold V. Melchert
As some of you know I have been trying to limit my commitments to things where I would not be too critical or important to the success of the task. It is not that I am any less committed, it is just that my health status sometimes forces me to take a less active role. That is my current situation, for a little while now I have been having some mobility and breathing problems and the docs have limited my activities, especially any outside activities during the current torrid heat wave.
Hopefully it is a transient condition, but until I am back to normal I am pretty much grounded. I will go in for some tests on August 5th. So I am again at one of those times when I get to make a choice. I can lay back and bemoan my temporary limitations or find those things I seldom get to do so I can get enthusiastically involved in thing’s I can do. Of course you know what my choice is; I am not going to waste time feeling bad. I have set up a number of leisurely meals with friends and colleagues, I will attend a few non-physical planning meetings, do some computing, do some learning, get in some reading and maybe even process a thought or two. I will have to fly out of town for a few days before I go for my tests but that probably only means leisurely wheelchair rides between airport gates. So in truth I am looking forward to a few monumental days, just not the kind that was originally on my calendar.
Not long ago Steve Brunkhorst wrote about monumental days and I am grateful for his reminder of the options we all have. Here is what he wrote.
A Monumental Day
A monumental day is a day in which we learn well, live with enthusiasm, and hope with faith and gratitude. Each day we have the chance to learn new skills, create new visions, and ask new questions that will lead us to become happier, healthier, and more abundant. How can we make each day a monumental day in our lives?
First, we can focus our awareness with questions. Questions challenge us to reach further for creative solutions and new ideas; they help us take actions that lead to happiness and success in our personal lives and careers.
As Albert Einstein has suggested, when we keep questioning, we can keep learning, living, and hoping. Here are three great questions to ask each day: What am I learning today? What am I living for today? What am I hoping for today?
Second, accept the gifts that each day presents with a spirit of gratitude. There are gifts of nature and spirit, gifts of helping and service, and gifts of knowledge and experience. Gratitude for these gifts allows focusing the mind in the present; it attracts more of those things that will fill our lives with joy and abundance. Most importantly, take at least one more step toward your most important objective. It might be identifying a need or goal and writing it down. It might be making one necessary call or researching one more book.
What would be one small step you could take today? Over time, small steps forward accumulate into goals achieved. Best of all, these monumental days in which we question, live in gratitude, and move forward will produce monumental lives of service, happiness and abundance.
~~~
Keep your face to the sunshine… and you cannot see the shadows.
Helen Keller
~~~
Two husbands, Bill and Doug, were discussing their married lives.
Although happily married, they admitted that there were arguments sometimes.
Then Bill said, “I’ve made one great discovery. I now know how to always have the last word.”
“Wow!” said Doug, “How do you manage that?”
“It’s easy,” replied Bill. “My last words are always ‘Yes, Dear.'”
~~~
“The Five Stages of Life”
To Grow Up
To Fill Out
To Slim Down
To Hold It In
To Hell With It
~~~
A priest was given the job of hearing the confessions of an order of monks. The priest returned to his parish that night and complained to one of the nuns about how long each of the monks took to enumerate all of their sins.
“Oh Father,” said the nun. “It couldn’t have been that bad.”
The priest replied, “Oh it was worse than you can imagine. It was like being stoned to death with popcorn.”
~~~
Funny, I don’t remember being absent minded.
~~~
The kindergarten class had settled down to its coloring books. Willie came up to the teacher’s desk and said, “Miss Francis, I ain’t got no crayons.”
“Willie,” Miss Francis said, “you mean, “I don’t have any crayons.’ You don’t have any crayons. We don’t have any crayons. They don’t have any crayons. Do you see what I’m getting at?”
“Not really,” Willie said, “What happened to all them crayons?”
~~~
“I think Little League (baseball) is wonderful. It keeps the kids out of the house.”
Yogi Berra
~~~
A minister decided to try something a little different one Sunday morning.
He said, “Today, in church, I am going to say a single word and you are going to help me preach. Whatever single word I say, I want you to sing whatever hymn comes to your mind.” The pastor shouted out, “Cross!”
Immediately the congregation started singing in unison “The Old Rugged Cross.”
The pastor hollered out, “Grace!”
The congregation began to sing “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound.”
The pastor said, “Power!”
The congregation sang “There is Power in the Blood.”
The Pastor said, “Sex!”
The congregation fell in total silence. Everyone was in shock. They all nervously began to look around at each other, afraid to say anything. Then all of a sudden, from the back of the church, a little old 87-year-old grandmother stood up and began to sing “Precious Memories.”
~~~
The foolish seeks happiness in the distance, the wise grow it under their feet.
James Oppenheim
~~~
Stay well, do good work, and have fun.
Ray Mitchell
Indianapolis, Indiana
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