Thank You March

                                  exiting Gig Harbor Washington with Mt. Rainier in background

Again it is hard to believe another month is coming to an end. I know a lot of people appreciated the weather here this month instead of the cold and snow of February.

I actually enjoyed the snow however March was nice as well. Whatever the weather it is nice to have a good conversation with people. The weather for both months helped me kick off any conversations. Now have to see what April will bring. I find it important to enjoy each day for what it is.

I hope you had a good month as well as having a wonderful weekend. Everything is going well with the family and you are not too stressed out. I find it always good when blessings are poured on us.

I find any day when we can smile it is a good day. Feeling healthy and in our right mind is a blessing too. Until next time God bless you. Amen!

More and More

This is a day that a lot of stuff was downloaded in my mind so where do I go with it I asked.

I figure the most important thing to write is for us all to keep things simple. We can make life complicated or throw a lot of things out here but keeping it simple is the best way.

Relationships can become complicated if we don’t keep them simple at least at first anyway. Of course, it can depend on where we want to go with the relationship that is.

Anyway since this should be simple I will just end it here and let you have a simple day. Amen!

Opportunity Arises

We have all experience opportunities in our lives that have gone well while other times not so well. In fact, our lives may be different if we handled every opportunity right or even taken advantage of the opportunity. We sometimes just let those times go by.

On Thursday morning a gentlemen came up to me at my favorite coffee shop to say hello because he recognized me from Wednesday night. That night I took my mother to her church for soup night. During Lent, her church has soup every Wednesday night along with a teaching and a short service. This year her church is having a service along with another local church members as well. This gentleman was a member of the other church. Most of the people at the dinner I didn’t recognize even some from my mother’s church.

Anyway, he said that he has seen me in the coffee shop on occasion however decided to say something since he saw me Wednesday night. He usually comes in for his drink then goes on his walk without getting into a conversation. I told him there was someone at the soup night from his church that I grew up with so we talked about her and a few other things as well.

So he took full advantage of the opportunity to meet and know me. I let him know I look forward to seeing him again in the coffee shop well as next Wednesday night. We all need to take advantage of these opportunities than just pass by. Our lives can change for the better.

My Home Town

                                                         My home town of Gig Harbor

I have to admit that I am blessed to live where I do. I have lived in Gig Harbor, Washington almost my whole life. Not many other places I would want to live. I hope you feel the same way where you live. I know not everyone has the same feelings.

Gig Harbor isn’t the most perfect place to live because of some of the people; not the place itself.  I feel fortunate that most people I meet are kind. Like any place, you will find those who are not so kind. We just have to be kind in return.

I feel blessed to be in a country that has freedoms. I know not everywhere has the same blessing. There are those who take advantage of the freedoms we have. There are evil people among us. Just yesterday a man in Seattle carjacked shot and killed the driver. He killed another person well as injuring a couple of others.  One of the injured was a bus driver who was able to drive away after being shot to save the lives of his passengers. The mayor of Seattle called him a hero. So it could have been a lot worse. Shootings don’t happen a lot in Seattle but on occasion. It is a large city after all.

Gig Harbor is 35 miles south and west of Seattle so takes about an hour drive to get there depending on traffic. Some people here do work in Seattle. Some drive their cars but many take the bus. It is a good way to relax to and from work. There are jobs here in Gig Harbor, however, many do travel to Seattle and other nearby cities to work.

I do go to Seattle once in a while along with the other cities surrounding Gig Harbor but this is a good place to spend time especially when the weather is since. It is a good place to do my purpose as well. I hope though in the future to do much traveling too. There are a lot of beautiful places and people to see. Amen!

Looking Forward

What I like about social media is seeing what my friends are up to right now. We have to remember today is where we are living.

Looking forward means we are making plans for today and beyond. We can’t plan too far forward because we don’t know what will happen. The idea isn’t bad either though.

Writing a journal about what is happening right now is a good idea so is what we are planning going forward. This way when it becomes today we can see what we did along the way in planning for it.

Looking back is good to see the lessons we might have learned to help right now or in the future. Whatever the case living today is the most important thing though having a time machine around to go forward or back would be great too. 

There Are Going To Be Days Like This

There are times when my 98-year-old mother doesn’t make sense when she talks well as not remembering things. I know it is normal for someone her age but doesn’t make it any easier.

Her health is better than a lot of those who are around her age so I am grateful for that, however, still not easy at times. I know too she is frustrated as well. Another thing her friends are worried as well but some of them are not as healthy as she is though they are ten to twenty years younger. They see her when she is forgetful but honestly that isn’t so often. I am sure most of us are forgetting things as much as she does.

I know right now in my life looking after her is one of my main purposes in life. I do know someday she will be gone. Like all of us really it could be today or tomorrow. I know to her health will get worse at some point as well or at least her memory will be. She does remember things from the past it is just in the moment she sometimes forgets. Say a prayer for my mother along with your parents if they are still alive. I know there are those who have more trouble with the health of their parents or a family member. I am grateful she is in pretty good health. Until next time Peace!

A Blessing

Living a life of purpose you are a blessing to others. In return, you will be blessed as well. You don’t do your purpose to be blessed; however, it is how it works. You reap what you sow. 

I am sure you have already been blessed but more are coming your way. You will receive blessings in ways you can’t imagine at this time.

Enjoy your life as the blessings flow into you. In many ways you are like a mighty river. 

A Stiff Neck

I am not sure how it happened but on Friday around noon I came up with a stiff neck while sitting in my favorite coffee shop. I found it hard to deal with for sure.

On Saturday afternoon since it was still bothering me I decided to get a massage after doing some stretching off and on for more than a day. The massage did help for a little while though helped my other body parts better. So I will have to see what comes next.

Made me realize there are those we sometimes meet people who act as a stiff neck. I am not sure whether it is a personality flaw or something in their life caused it. I don’t see many around that are stiff necks or I just ignore it in a way.

We all have flaws so we need to love those who are stiff-necked as well. I certainly know I need as much love as possible though why would someone not love me since I am a great guy. My sense of humor comes in here.

I feel our greatest purpose in life is to love others. All of our other purposes should have love mixed right in. The reason we have a purpose has to do with love. Just a nice reminder for us all; I hope everyone is having a good Sunday. Bless You!

Excitement

I believe excitement is a gift from God. I know that joy is a gift from God for sure. It is right up there with love, hope, and peace.

I think that excitement is joy at a higher level like double or triple the volume depending on the person. For the average person, it is probably double while for the soft person it is closer to triple while a loud person it might be hard to measure if you know what I mean.

We should have joy all the time or at least most of the time; however, we should decide to have excitement more often. I think most people believe excitement should happen only at a sporting event or a reunion with someone they haven’t seen in a while.  Depending on where they are at showing excitement I can see on someone but they don’t go above the level of joy.

I don’t really care where someone is at if they are excited showing it off should be a priority in my mind. This is even true when they might look rude around everyone else in the room. I would really like to see it in the library because the library is way too quiet in my mind. Whoever’s idea was you can’t talk in the library beyond a whisper isn’t someone I want to be around too much. I hope to see someone show emotion in the library and I will applaud them.

I hope today I will see someone with excitement. It will be such a grand thing to see. Remember it is a gift from God. Next time someone may give you a sour look because you are being excited tell that you are expressing the gift God has given you. Amen!

A Favorite Month

I have to say March is one of my favorite months of the year. You can ask me why.

Since I enjoy sports a lot two events happen that gets things going for me. Here in the USA, the large colleges have a tournament for the sport of basketball. They have for both men and women basketball. They call the tournament March Madness. The reason because often there are upsets in the tournament. Teams not expected to turn out to win especially the first round. Each winner stays in while the loser is out. Other words, teams have to win or go home. They rank the teams in who they think is the best down to the teams not expected to go anywhere.

The teams are first chosen by who wins their conference tournament. They are automatically in March Madness than they pick the rest of the field. They have 32 conference entries plus another 32 at large teams. The better conferences have more teams in the tournament. There are some conferences that have one entrance the one that wins their own tournament.

They have four regions with teams ranked one through sixteen. The number one team plays sixteen, two plays fifteen and so on. The winner moves on to go down to four teams. The champion comes out of those four teams.

This year my local college University of Washington made the tournament for the first time since 2011 when they won their conference tournament. This year they lost the conference tournament championship game but allowed in as one of the at large teams. I am sure you can figure out who I will be rooting for.

The other sport is baseball. My favorite local team in the major leagues is the Seattle Mariners. The season begins in March so the reason I am excited about baseball starting. It doesn’t matter how good or bad they are expected right now it is time for baseball. Yeah!

This leads to the fact there is something we are all excited about some time of the year. We should soak it up as often as we can. I hope our purpose in our life is what we are excited about. Amen!

What Is Difficult?

I find naming the title for each post here is the hardest part. The content is easier than the title. I just hope the title doesn’t hurt anyone from not reading what I have to say or write.

One of the local television stations has a story about how Seattle is dying. A lot of it has to do with the homeless. It is a sad story because Seattle has one of the highest levels of homeless in the USA.  A major reason is the area has a lot of people with mental illness is what they say. It is probably true; a major reason I believe this area has the lowest level of people going to church as well. Other words, a lot of people don’t care about spiritual things. We could say because of the high cost of living, however, it has been going on a long time before the current age of tech companies. Yes, we are the home of Microsoft and Amazon to name a couple of them.

There is coffee being the home of Starbucks as well. You wouldn’t believe how many coffee shops we have here. Even in my home town of Gig Harbor where there are about 25,000 people in the area. The town of Gig Harbor is under 10,000; we have eight Starbucks and that doesn’t count other coffee shops. I am sure all together we have at least 20 coffee shops. So on average, it is a coffee shop for every thousand people. As you can figure not everyone goes to a coffee shop. This doesn’t count restaurants that offer coffee as well. We probably have at least 20 restaurants as well. Amazing when I figure there only maybe five when I was a kid; our family didn’t eat out much. My mother was a pretty good cook so no real reason to do so.

So enjoy my post no matter what the title is. Let your friends know too. It would be nice to encourage more people.

I know other countries have more trouble with the homeless than we do. In fact, we are probably really on the low end of the scale. The answer whether it has to do with homeless or the mentally ill or any other problems like I said in my last post we need to see with new eyes and love of course. Until next time I love you very much my friends.

Welcoming Spring

Here in Western Washington, we had a hot day to welcome spring coming in a couple days. The temperatures reach almost 80 degrees which is remarkable; So much the last time the temperature this warm in March was 1894.

I found it hard to find people in the early evening. Most of the time it is anyway but I am sure many were out enjoying the sun somewhere else than where I was.

I realize when it comes to our purpose we have to go where the people are at or in some instances wait for them to come to us. Whichever is the case the purpose we are supposed to be involved in will happen and with the people, we are supposed to do with. I believe we can get wrapped into our thinking we must go to get the purpose done. Also, there are times where the purpose might happen to us; whatever the case the purpose will happen.

We can often make things complicated when it should be easy. We might over think our purpose altogether. Let’s relax the job will be completed. Amen!

Seeing the World with Different Eyes

I fortunately live in a nice place but even here things are far from being perfect. We can change our world by being the person we want the world to be like. This all begins with seeing the world with different eyes.

I am sure there are those who have given up on the world with the eyes they see with now. This is why we have to see with different eyes. We have to give hope to a world that is dying. We have to give love with our eyes. The world will only change if we change too. Amen!