Today, I release the armor of the past that surrounds my heart. I open to love!
| Every day and in every way, I continue to improve my way. Positive energy is a must, for success is my thrust. I plan what is ahead of me, using my time wisely. Following through to improve my soul, I follow through to achieve success and my goals. |
Love
Bill Martuge
There is someone I need to remember to care about and for. That is me. When I am feeling my best and doing my best, I am fulfilled and I bless others. I care about and for my loved ones, I do what I can for them. Every day, I remember them in my prayers.
What do I need to do to improve and maintain my own health and well-being? Eating nutritious food, exercising regularly, and getting plenty of rest all fit into a plan for healthy living. Enriching my spiritual life through prayer and meditation enhances me emotionally and physically.
Trusting in God is a great stress reliever. I do trust God in all that concerns my loved ones and me. I am at peace because I know that God’s love enfolds us.
Love
Bill Martuge
Many a time have I discussed with someone the value of compromise. Usually, the feeling is that compromise is necessary for and the cornerstone of a well functioning relationship.
Are you surprised to learn I see it from a different vantage? Well, here is the thing. In compromise, you have two people both losing something.
Wikipedia.org quotes, “In human relationships ‘compromise’ is often said to be an agreement that no party is happy with.”
One compromises on quality, compromises one’s virtue, etcetera, etcetera.
Compromise is effectively a capitulation of ones values or a giving in to get. It is a lose lose, or at best a zero sum game. (A zero sum game is where no value is created. For something/someone to gain, something/someone else must lose.)
Better to find a win win solution. It often takes more creativity, open mindedness, caring and time to determine a solution in which both parties win; however, when such a solution is found, true value is created and no one is compromising.
An example of a zero sum game is poker. For one person to win, someone else must lose. I was playing poker about 6 months ago, and lost a bit of money. I walked out not feel so good. I realized it wasn’t the money I lost that made me feel bad. It was something else. Something not satisfying about what I had just gone through. I realized that if I had won, then I might have felt better. Then it hit me, for me to have felt better, I would have had to have won, which meant, someone else would have had to have lost. When I realized that, I realized I could not really feel good about playing poker for money; because, I would not feel good knowing someone else felt bad. I haven’t played poker for money since.
Now, if one were to play poker for clothes… with one’s lover… this could be a form of win win. Your clothes come off first, you win, your partner’s clothes come off, you win. By you, I mean both of you. This is win win.
Win win is good.
Peace and added value on your journey,
Yucel
Sometimes we wonder, ‘What did I do to deserve this?’
or
‘Why did God have to do this to me?’ Here is a wonderful explanation!
A daughter is telling her mother how everything is going wrong:
she’s failing algebra; her boyfriend broke up with her and her best friend is moving away.
Meanwhile,
her Mother is baking a cake and asks her daughter if she would like a
snack, and the daughter says, ‘Absolutely, Mom, I love your cake.’
‘Here, have some cooking oil,’ her Mother offers. ‘Yuck,’ says her daughter.
‘How about a couple raw eggs?’ ‘Gross, Mom!’
‘Would you like some flour then? Or maybe baking soda?’
‘Mom, those are all yucky!’
To which the mother replies: ‘Yes, all those things seem bad by
themselves. But when they are put together in the right way, they make
a wonderfully delicious cake!
God works the same way. Many times we wonder why He would let us go
through such bad and difficult times. But God knows that when He puts
these things all in His order, they always work for good! We just have
to trust Him and, eventually, they will all make something wonderful!
God is crazy about you.
He sends you flowers every spring and a sunrise every morning.
Whenever you want to talk, He’ll listen.
He can live anywhere in the universe and He chose your heart.
Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we are here we might as well dance.
Love
Bill Martuge
Ever hear someone who is really optimistic? We often think of optimism as a positive trait or thought pattern. You know, the glass is half full kind of person?
Here is where I am on this; optimism is attachment to the best possible outcome.
Once we get attached to an outcome, we set ourselves up for disappointment.
Pessimism is attachment to the worst possible outcome. It is still attachment and while our expectations may be exceeded, attachment itself leads to disappointment (we were wrong).
Realism is our best estimate of what can happen, realizing that things may happen differently than we estimate, either better, less well, or just differently. It is also without attachment to any particular outcome.
This now takes us to working effectively with realism. We do this by being positive.
Being positive involves accepting what is, considering what may be, and knowing things happen for a reason. Being Polly Anna-ish and “looking for the glad.” That is, what is the opportunity inherent in what ever situation one faces.
I like train metaphors lately, and I have one for this.
Let’s say we are laying on the tracks in the middle of the wilderness far off from civilization and kind of hungry.
Being optimistic is, train will stop when it comes to me and feed me.
Being pessimistic is, train will never come, or train will run me over when it gets here.
Being realistic is, looking around, noticing that the tracks look well used (signs of recent train passing like fresh trash), figuring the train will come fairly soon. Also, that if I stay on the tracks, I will get run over, or if I get off the tracks, I probably won’t be run over. And, that if I just hang around, the train probably won’t stop.
You may notice, being realistic is a bit more Al Gore and a bit less George W. Bush. Realism doesn’t always fit into a sound bite.
Now with this realism, we can be negative or positive.
Being negative, we would focus on the big train not stopping for little us. This is defeatist thinking.
Being positive, we could build a station, and possibly the train might stop for that, or we could build a small fire about 200 yards up the tracks, the train would probably stop for that. This is looking for how to utilize the opportunity we reasonably expect to happen. In the mean time, maybe we eat a few roots or shoots or do the survival man thing and eat bugs; cause, the train may still take a bit of time to get here; and, we wanna be alive for it when it comes.
Without going into all the possible options on being positive or negative with pessimism (worst case attachment) or optimism (best case attachment), suffice it to say, we leave out all the whole range of likely outcomes by being focused and attached to the best or worst case outcomes, leaving out the likely outcomes.
If you watch Polly Anna again, you will notice she is a supreme realist. She just looks for the glad, or the opportunity for benefit, with gratitude and acceptance for what is. Smart girl she.
Peace and gratitude,
Yucel