Category: Mind

Dream Big

By now, you’ve figured out that I have a growing addiction to all these cooking shows that are on cable. Tonight, it was the season finale of The Next Food Network Star. You’ll have to find out who got their own show, but this last episode was pretty engaging. I didn’t watch the show each week, but just catch it from time to time.

The funny thing is, I’m not interested in most of the food that is prepared on these shows. I don’t eat that way anymore, and a lot of it is “heart attack on a plate” kind of stuff. So, if it’s not the food, what is it?

Inspiration Mind

Believe It Can Be Done

Did you know the first skyscraper was the Equitable Life Assurance Building in New York City? Coming in at an amazing seven stories tall, it was built in 1870.

In January of this year, the Burj Kalifa building in Dubai was completed. Coming in at over 200 stories, it is the tallest man-made structure ever built.

Both these buildings made history, and both began with someone’s dream. Despite the odds, and probably quite a few naysayers, someone took a risk and dreamed big. What would our world be without people who don’t spend a lot of time on what can’t be done, but instead focus on possibilities?

There’s plenty of people walking around today who have lost the joy of dreaming big. Maybe one or two are reading these words right now.

Inspiration Mind Prayer Spirit

The First Beatitude

The beatitudes found in Matthew’s Gospel (Mt. 5:3-12) are meant not just for the chosen few, but for everyone. The passage begins with the words, “when he saw the crowds…” Maybe we would say today that it was a message for the masses.

How many of us can remember how many beatitudes there are, and how many have forgotten their meaning? Take some time in the next few days and pray over this passage. What is God saying to us through these words meant not just for ancient times, but also for today?

Here’s a little reflection by Catherine Doherty, found in the book, Grace in Every Season.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” To be poor in spirit does not mean to give up all things and embrace holy poverty with one swoop. Nor is this meant for priests and religious only. No. It is a beatitude for all of us, for it detaches our hearts from earthly possessions and places them into Christ’s Sacred Heart.

Continue reading “The First Beatitude”

diabetes Inspiration Mind Prayer type II diabetes

Persistence Pays Off

Did you know that it took Thomas Edison thousands of failed experiments over decades before he invented a long-lasting incandescent light bulb that revolutionized the world? He never stopped trying, he never saw himself a failure. His persistence paid off.

Did you know that over a span of thirty years, Abraham Lincoln repeatedly failed at business, love and politics before becoming the President of the United States? He never stopped trying, he never saw himself a failure. His persistence paid off.

It seems to me that persistence has become like a dirty word nowadays. Many people throw in the towel before they even start, thinking whatever task is before them is simply too difficult to overcome. There’s a lot of folks that, once beaten down, never get up again. They lose hope and give up trying. Persistence is no longer part of their vocabulary, if it ever was.

Inspiration Mind Spirit

Joy

Post author By seedthrower1
Post date 08/03/2010
No Comments on Joy

I was at the library the other day, and I picked up a little book on art written by Sister Wendy Beckett. You sometimes see her on public television, giving some discourse on a piece of artwork. Anyway, the title of the book was Meditations on Joy.

Well, I didn’t want to check the book out, but rather just flip through the pages and see what paintings she had selected to write about. This first painting, done by El Greco, caught my eye.

Painted over four hundred years ago, there is an amazing sense of the contemporary with it. Sr. Wendy writes, “Like the lightning in El Greco’s View of Toledo, joy does not merely illuminate our interior landscape, it transforms it. The world becomes different, marvelous and unique.” Interesting.

I have long been a fan of El Greco. He painted one of my all time favorite works of art, St. Francis Receiving the Stigmata. It hangs in the Walters Art Museum here in Baltimore, and I try to make it down at least once a year to see it.

I can’t really tell you why I love this painting so much, but when I sit down in front of it, I quickly feel a mix of emotions. It is an awesome painting, and before looking through Sr. Wendy’s little book, I don’t think joy would have been a term I would have used to describe the feelings/emotions.

Upon reflection tonight, though, joy is exactly the right word. Although his life was not an easy one, St. Francis was filled with joy. When you think about this amazing saint, doesn’t it bring a smile to your face?

We all need a little more joy in our lives. Try and find it wherever you can, and look for it in even the smallest things and events of our daily living. If you can make some time, take a trip to one of the great museums near where you live. If you’re traveling on vacation somewhere, find out where the museums are, and check them out. Maybe you’ll leave with a smile on your face and a bit more joy in your heart.

More importantly, try and find ways in which you can bring a little joy to someone who needs it. Imagine if we could all do that with just one person?

Psalm 100 is a psalm of joy. The words are a constant reminder to me of the importance of joyful living and knowing that we are well cared for.

Shout joyfully to the Lord, all you lands;

worship the Lord with cries of gladness;

come before him with joyful song.

Know that the Lord is God,

our maker to whom we belong,

whose people we are, God’s well-tended flock.

Enter the temple gates with praise,

its courts with thanksgiving.

Give thanks to God, bless his name;

good indeed is the Lord,

Whose love endures forever,

whose faithfulness lasts through every age.

What brings you the greatest joy?

Blogging Inspiration Mind Prayer

Take the Chance

Sorry I haven’t been posting every day. I’m laying some things out to update my blog, and, well, all this planning is seriously eating into my “blog” time.

A little advice. If you’re thinking about starting a blog, I’d say that they’re a lot of fun, but also a lot of work. But it’s worth doing if you have some idea that can help people. We all know there are lots of people who need some help right now, folks like you and me who are looking for a transformation, to get unstuck from where they are right now. They want to move forward, and are searching for ideas.

Even though we’re moving into the height of summer, the fall will be here before we know it 🙁 I’ve always liked making personal changes that coincide with the seasons, so I guess that’s why I’m deep into working through my planned updates to this blog. I can’t wait for you to see them.

I was having a conversation with a friend last night, and we were talking about taking changes. He’s definitely looking to get unstuck and wants to be excited about his future. Like so many people, he doesn’t have a lot of encouragement coming his way, and that’s too bad, because he needs it.

We talked about ideas for the future, brainstormed about options, and dreamed about potential. It was an exciting conversation. Is there something that you’ve wanted to do for a long time but haven’t followed through and brought it to fruition? I want to encourage you to start developing a plan. Pray about it. Think it through. Start talking to people about it. Take the chance. Most transformations don’t take place overnight, and they usually involve quite a bit of planning. Use these wonderful, relaxing and restful summer days to start thinking about your future. Trust that better days are yet to come!

Inspiration Mind

Why Me?

Sometimes things seem so unfair. How many times have we asked, “why me?” when faced with even the smallest things that come our way? The reality is, there’s plenty of people who have it far worse than us. We can either choose to be bitter and angry about our issues, or we can attempt to overcome them. Check out this video clip about Nick Vujicic, who has turned what would appear to be an insurmountable disability into a blessing for many.

After watching Nick, I realize that there isn’t a single issue in my own life that I can’t overcome. How about you?

Inspiration Mind Prayer

Forgiveness

A young friend of mine called me late last night. He grew up here in Westminster, but moved out-of-state a few years ago. We keep in touch and talk about once a month.

He wanted to talk because he had gotten himself into a very tough situation due to some poor choices he’d made.

Mainly, he was mad at himself. Not even twenty-one yet, he’ll be affected by the decision he made for the rest of his life.

I told him he needed to begin the process of forgiving himself. Not an easy thing to do when it comes to serious matters, but necessary.

I don’t know how it is for you, but I find it a whole lot easier to forgive someone else than to forgive myself. The issue with that is that you carry it around with you all the time. It affects every other relationship you have, and I don’t think it’s especially healthy.

I was thinking the other day how stupid I was to have sold all my investments (not that it amounted to a whole lot) in my mid-twenties and used the proceeds to pay for grad school. Had I kept that money where it was, my retirement planning would be going a whole lot better right now. But I did what I did, and it’s time to move on.

My young friend wants it all to go away so he can get back to just being an easy-going twenty-year old. Instead of trying to find something positive (there are many) in his situation, he’s totally focused on negative.

Forgiveness, especially of yourself, can be really difficult. But once you make the decision to do so, you can get back to genuine living. Is there really anything stopping us?

Blogging Inspiration Mind

You Have To Be Yourself

Have you heard about the newest craze sweeping the internet? It’s all related to a website called I Write Like. I think the site got over 100,000 hits the other day.

Here’s how it works. Simply past a few paragraphs of something you’ve written and best exemplify your writing style into a text box, and within seconds you’ll find out who you write like. Now, it’s not an exact science, since the inventor only uploaded works by fifty famous authors, three books each.

Margaret Atwood, a contemporary writer who was included on the list, decided to try it out herself and entered a few paragraphs. It turns out she writes more like Stephen King than Margaret Atwood. She sent out a message on Twitter asking, “who knew?”

I entered three of my blog postings, just for fun. The first one came back stating that my style most matches William Shakespeare. Wow! There must be some mistake…

The second and third entries matched me to contemporary authors I’ve never heard of. They will remain nameless until I can check some of their stuff out 🙂

When it’s all said and done, it really doesn’t matter whose writing style matches mine. I can’t be them, and they can’t be me. In everything we do, isn’t it best to just try to be yourself?

Inspiration Mind

Have A Plan

For the past few weeks, my staff and I have been planning for the upcoming school year, which for us begins at the end of September. It’s tedious work and we want to get it right, since our plans effect well over a thousand people. In the end, some hard work now will greatly improve our chances at having another wonderful year.

If you’ve been following my blog for awhile, I think you’ve also picked up on this theme of planning. If you want to be successful, you must have a great plan. Not necessarily a perfect one, but rather one that reflects long-term goals and at the same time can be quickly adapted to meet current circumstances. What a challenge.

Do you think that’s why 49% of adults in the US could not cover even one month’s expenses if they were to miss a paycheck? Yes, getting our lives back in order after, what for most of us has been a disastrous couple of years, is going to be tough. As I’m trying to work on this myself, I see all kinds of sacrifices coming. But I have no doubt that good planning now will greatly improve my quality of life in the future.

As the sign above reminds us, we also have to plan for the unexpected. How about you? Are you working on a game-plan for your future? Just yesterday, Congress started floating the idea that they may raise the retirement age to 70. I guess we should have guessed that one was coming.

Well, to sum all this up, I’m hoping that you’re starting to develop plans for your future. This isn’t only about saving up money. It’s also not just about getting ourselves in shape physically. How about your spiritual future? When it’s all said and done, isn’t that the most important future we’ve got? If we’re trusting our stockbroker or trainer more than God, we’ve got a big problem.

For you procrastinators, stop worrying about it. Worrying isn’t going to resolve the situation. Instead, when you wake up tomorrow, remember it’s a new day. You can start fresh, and do the best you can.

Our futures will be very bright if we get our priorities straight, and we begin working on getting our lives back on track. If we can do that, then our transformations, body, mind and spirit, will be secure.