Your Choice

It's early and the sun hasn't fully risen over the tree tops as of yet. Not being much of a morning person I am surprised to find that I am enjoying the stillness just before dawn. It's quiet, peaceful, and beautiful.


It sometimes takes a morning like this sitting back and appreciating the wonders of God's beauty to understand how it is possible to hold on in a world so full of chaos, destruction, and yes, even hatred. It's difficult for me to understand how people can be so cruel to nature and other human beings. What is so hard about just being nice? You may be thinking, well that's fine for those who haven't experienced the trials and troubles that I have. It's easy to be nice when your world is all good.

Well, I'll have to disagree. My world has not always been good. Have I suffered through trials and hard times, most certainly. However, regardless of what befalls us, WE are the ones who make the choice of how to deal with those trials and the after effects. I guess I choose to try and learn from my troubles instead of blaming the world for them. I deal with them and then put them in the past. I refuse to allow them to harbor deep in my heart and drudge them up and use them as an excuse to do evil

Economic times are tough and will most likely get worse before they get better. We can make a choice. We can let these difficult times harden our hearts, we can sulk in anger, allow depression to take over, or we can get up every morning say a prayer and ask God to help us to be kind to others regardless of the difficulties we face.

A smile, a kind word, a helping hand, it cost nothing. You may even be surprised at how beneficial it can be. We can chose to sit back, complain, take our troubles out on the innocent and stand around and cry VICTIM, or we can chose to face our troubles head on, do what we can to get by, and choose not to let our circumstances turn us into miserable, depressed, hateful, uncaring, violent human beings.

WE are all victims of something. The difference is how we choose to deal with our problems, and the incidences that befall us. I am often amazed when I see or her of a parent forgiving a criminal who has in whatever way destroyed a part of their lives. But I understand now. It is a choice. They have decided that they had rather forgive and let those responsible be judged by a higher power, instead of letting their anger and hatred boil within them until it manifest into criminal and hateful acts towards others.

What kind of person will you choose to be?

You are who you are because YOU choose to be.
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May you have a wonderful day and may God bless you in some unexpected way.

Granny

Are You Happy?

I didn’t ask if you were satisfied or if your life was problem free, I asked, Are you happy? Happy in your heart where it really counts.

So many times, we find ourselves drifting through life doing what is necessary just to get by, for whatever reason. From the time we are born, we are lead and guided by those who think they know what’s best for us, often guided by their own experiences. However, you and only you, truly knows and understands what makes you happy.

If you had a choice to do anything you wanted what would you be doing? I’m not talking about just a momentary break from life; I’m referring to everyday of your life. Is there a passion that runs deep down in your soul, but you have kept it locked away, because you have followed what others believed was best for you. How many people do you know who have fallen into the trap of taking over the family business or have became a doctor or lawyer because that’s what their father did, or their father before them did?

Often, we are cornered into taking our lives in the direction others have laid out for us although we have no real burning desire to be, or do, what others have destined us to do with our lives. “I always wanted to be a painter but…, I always wanted to be a writer, a racecar driver, whatever it may be, but instead of following our passion we allowed our love or our sense of responsibility to force us into doing the expected.

Have you thought about what you would do if their where no influences in your life from others? What is your passion? What would you do if you could do anything your heart desired?

I can name two, off the top of my head, who pursued their passion and achieved not only a life for themselves but fame and fortune along the way. NASCAR racing champion Dale Earnhardt Sr. and talk show host Oprah Winfrey. Did they just wake up one morning and say my passion is racing and then automatically become great, an instant success with money flowing like wine. Of course not, they made a choice to find a way to make their passion their lives work and they became not only rich but admired, for their triumphs.

It’s easy to spot those who are living their passion, whether it is a teacher, a baseball player, a dancer, or a singer. They have a special something that sets them apart from others in their field and it’s not just the amount of money they make. However, you most likely will find those who have a real passion for what they do have become monetarily successful and they are happy. Not because of the money but because they are living their dream. They wake up every day and get to do something they love and it shows. If you are passionate about what you are doing, you are going to do a better job, you are going to put forth more effort, and you are going to reap the rewards.

Pursuing your passion is not an easy task. In many instances, it can be more difficult than just roiling with the flow and doing the expected. We all have to face challenges in our lives, whether we are doing what we love or just working at getting by. Since we all have to deal with the challenges of life doesn’t it make more since to face those challenges while pursuing our passion instead of just settling for what others think we should be doing?

You may be thinking I don’t have the time or the resources; I have too many responsibilities to follow my dream. Those are only excuses and we all have them. The afore mentioned individuals had responsibilities and had many hurdles to overcome in order to pursue their dream. So what makes those who succeed at pursuing their dream different from the rest of us? Sacrifice! Ask anyone who has ever made a living doing what they love and they will tell you there were many sacrifices along the way. Suppose your passion is becoming a writer. The biggest challenge most writers face is time. They have families to juggle and often fulltime unfulfilling jobs and very little time for hours spent writing draft after draft after draft until their writing is polished enough to be worthy of publication. Very few things worth pursuing in live come easy and they all come at a cost. The key to those who succeed is that they are willing to make the sacrifices it takes to pursue their passion and become the best they can be at it.

Take Dale Earnhardt for example. Read his biography and you will find that the man made many painful sacrifices in his life to pursue his dream. I’m not saying you should sacrifice all that is important in your life just to follow your dream. I am saying that if you have a passion and a burning desire to be something nothing is stopping you but you and your willingness to make the necessary sacrifices. Your passion should be a priority in your life and not just something you lay on the back burner to pursue when the time is right. Life will eat you up, spit you out, and be over before the time is ever right.

Our happiness lies in our passions not in just doing what is necessary or right according to others. It doesn't seem to matter how many hours are in a day we always find the time to take care of our priorities, whether its work, kids, husbands, or taking care of our elderly parents. Therefore, it only seems reasonable that if we make or passion a priority we will somehow make the time to pursue it.

It is only by discovering our true passion and then establishing goals towards that end, that we discover true happiness.

Your choice. Are you willing to just get by and do what’s expected of you or is it time to rip free of whatever is constraining you and make the choice to accept the necessary sacrifices and reap true happiness?
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My prayer is that you can spend your days doing something you love, which will fill your days with happiness.

Granny

Your Bank Account

This was passed to me through an e-mail. I have no idea who the author is so that I might give him/her credit, but it sure spoke to my heart as I hope it will yours. It's not all about the money.

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This is AWESOME....something we should all remember.

A 92-year-old, petite, well-poised and proud man, who is fully dressed each morning by eight o'clock, with his hair fashionably combed and shaved perfectly, even though he is legally blind, moved to a nursing home today. His wife of 70 years recently passed away, making the move necessary. After many hour s of waiting patiently in the lobby of the nursing home, he smiled sweetly when told his room was ready.

As he maneuvered his walker to the elevator, I provided a visual description of his tiny room, including the eyelet sheets that had been hung on his window.

'I love it,' he stated with the enthusiasm of an eight-year-old having just been presented with a new puppy.

'Mr. Jones, you haven't seen the room; just wait.'

'That doesn't have anything to do with it,' he replied.

'Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time. Whether I like my room or not doesn't depend on how the furniture is arranged .. it's how I arrange my mind. I already decided to love it. 'It's a decision I make every morning when I wake up. I have a choice; I can spend the day in bed recounting the difficulty I have with the parts of my body that no longer work, or get out of bed and be thankful for the ones that do.

Each day is a gift, and as long as my eyes open, I'll focus on the new day and all the happy memories I've stored away. Just for this time in my life.

Old age is like a bank account. You withdraw from what you've put in.
So, my advice to you would be to deposit a lot of happiness in the bank account of memories!
Thank you for your part in filling my Memory bank. I am still depositing.'
Remember the five simple rules to be happy:

1. Free your heart from hatred.
2. Free your mind from worries.
3. Live simply.
4. Give more.
5. Expect less.

Have a nice day, unless you already have other plans.

May blessing pour down on you from heaven.
Granny

Time is A Possession


We work, we slave, we spend years in meaningless jobs working late, on the weekends, and we try to convince ourselves it’s because we have to in order to survive. It’s true we have to work in order to provide our families with necessities like food and clothing. But, is all the extra hours and time spent away from our families truly necessary? Are we sure we’re not working those extra hours just so we can afford that new big screen TV or some other materialistic possession we think we need.

Economic times are hard right now. They may get even worse before they get better, if they do. Every weekend I ride down the road and I see more and more cars setting in people’s front yards with for sale signs on them. Neighborhoods filled to over flowing with garage sells and yard sales giving away possessions for next to nothing because their hours have been cut or they’ve lost their job.

It started me wondering. Just how much of what we have can we really live without? What do our possessions really add to our lives? Oh, it’s great to have all the latest technical gadgets and spas, and swimming pools, and the mountain of other items that we cherish, but at what cost.

Instead of working 60 hours a week, could we provide our family with the necessities on 40-hours a week? That’s 20 extra hours a week to spend with those you love. Have you ever sat down and asked your family if they would be willing to forgo some of the material things for extra time together? You may be surprised at the answer. Especially if you have young children. We can learn a lot from kids, if we actually took the time to ask and really listen to them.

When was the last time you sat in the yard, had a tall glass of lemonade, and watched your kids playing kickball or a game of tag? When was the last time you actually rolled in the grass with them giggling, kicking, and just acting silly? Do you remember the last time you and your spouse took a leisurely walk through the park holding hands just enjoying each other’s company?

Time is a precious possession and I fear we may be squandering it away on the wrong things. There are no guarantees in life. There may not be a tomorrow for yourself or your wife, or your child. Will you stand over the casket of a loved one and think to yourself, if only I had taken the time to go to Bobby’s last baseball game or left the office early and had that romantic evening with my wife, but no, I had to work.

It’s a new year and we have no idea what the future may hold. Today is all that we can control. Is it perhaps time you prioritized what’s most important in your life? Do you honestly have to take that weekend business flight or do you only have to take it to impress the boss, or get a promotion. So you’ll miss Susie’s piano recital, “There’ll be another one,” you say. Will there? Maybe, but maybe not.

Time is indeed a possession and I hope that 2009 will allow you amble time to spend on what is most important in your life. For some it will be work, for others material possessions, but time with those we loved cannot be replaced.

There is a time; there is a place for all things. I hope time with loved ones will be at the top of your list of priorities for 2009.

May God Bless.
Granny

AAAAGH Web Technology!

Have you ever tried so hard to figure something out but the more you studied and researched it the muddier things got? I consider myself fairly computer literate, but after weeks of compiling notes I suddenly feel like a blundering idiot when it comes to web technology.

You see, the problem is I've been considering building a web site to sell a few technical e-books I've written. Not so much for the money, although any monies generated would be grand, but more for the experience and knowledge of knowing how to accomplish such a task. I've constructed a few web sites and even know a tad about HTML coding but I feel totally lost when it comes to constructing a website for selling.

Of course, I've ran the gamut of web sites and free e-books on the subject and have even purchased a domain name; but being a bit of a cheep skate and low risk taker when it comes to web selling, I think I've confused myself even more than I was when I began my research.

I did get burned a few years back when my husband and I let some one talk us into setting up an online store for his locksmith business ($3500 worth of burnt) and so I guess I've become leery of getting taken again.

Of course, the old saying nothing ventured, nothing gained keeps popping into my head at the oddest times. From what I've gathered you need a paid web hosting site, because most of the free sites don't allow your own domain, you need a PayPal account or equivalent to receive payments online, and you need a shopping chart like E-Junkie.

So you're probably thinking, yeah that's about it, so what's your problem. Well, there are only like a gazillion web hosting sites and shopping cart options out there, and I have looked at tons of them. The more I look the more confused I get.

However, on the positive side, we are only into the 16th day of 2009, and this being one of my goals for the year, I guess I still have plenty of time to accomplish it; so perhaps I should just chill my brain for a while and then take another stab at figuring out just what I need to do and in what order I need to do it to accomplish this challenge.

Although I have heard it said, that when you get to the point where you are ready to give up on something is about the time when you are just before getting it right. So maybe my frustration means I'm close.

We shall see. Thanks for listening to my babbling.

May God bless you today and keep you healthy and safe.
Granny

Fear Breeds Procrastination

~May you soar to heights yet to be discovered
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The are two types of procrastinators. The first type is comprised of those who tend to put off doing task they might consider insignificant in the grand scheme of things, annoying but necessary tasks such as cleaning, or performing other mundane chores, this is not to say they are lazy. It only attest to their inner anxiety that their time could be better spent doing more important things.

The second type includes those who perhaps feel a bit overwhelmed because the task at hand may seem too big to control, or they may fear completion of the task might have a significant impact on their life. They may be experiencing an unconscious fear that they may not be capable or ready to handle the consequences. For example many writers procrastination may, in fact, be due to the challenge and fearfulness of becoming published or from the simple fear of rejection. It becomes almost like a defense mechanism that gives them an excuse for not completing the task at hand.

Many times procrastination is the result of a person who has set unrealistic or uncertain goals brought on by feelings that they lack the ability or focus to successfully complete their work. They tend to find any excuse to put off the task at hand. They may intentionally or unintentionally set enormous plans that aren't realistic due to their life style. Procrastination can lead to increased feelings of guilt and apprehension. This can soon become a cycle of failure and delay, as plans and goals are put off, penciled into the next day or week and often times leads to the person giving up on their goals.

One key to help over come procrastination is not to think about the task in its entirety, because that can often be overwhelming. Focusing on the completion of a task where you can't even clearly envision all the steps necessary for completion, can bring on stress and the task or goal no longer becomes something you want to do but something you feel forced to do; so you wind up delaying the task as long as possible. By allowing this self-doubt to creep in it robs you of your desire to accomplish the task at hand.

The trick to avoiding this dilemma is to break you goals down into small task or achievable goals that are realistic. For example a writer who wishes to write a novel might be totally overwhelmed at completing a 50,000 to 1000,00 word novel, however if he thinks of it in smaller chunks, such as scenes or chapters the goal doesn't seem as daunting. After all a novel is simply a complied story of scenes. Often times we allow our nasty little subconscious to riddle us with doubt concerning our abilities and before we know it we think that in order to complete the task it must be done to perfection. Perfection only comes with practice, knowledge, and training, which takes time and perseverance.

Sometime procrastination can be the result of knowing that in order to complete the task we know we are going to have to make certain sacrifices. For writers it is often a time issue. "I only have 20 or 30 minutes a day to contribute to writing, I can't possible accomplish anything in that amount of time." Well lets do the math, 30 minutes a day adds up to (7x30) 210 minutes a week which adds up to (210x4) 840 minutes a month, (840 x12) which is 10,080 minutes a year, which is approx 168 hours of writing time. If you only typed say 200 words an hour that's 33,600 words a year. Not bad for 30 minutes of work a day. Of you could say that if you typed 200 words a day for 30 days that would be about 6000 words a month which translates to about 72,000 words a year. By breaking it down into small increments the task no longer seems impossible.

As procrastinators we must learn to over come the fears that are holding us back and not focus on the insurmountable whole but make our accomplishments realistic, so as to avoid failure and the urge to just give up.

As a procrastinator myself, if I am honest this indeed makes perfect sense.

Therefore, in order to accomplish our dreams and goals we must overcome the fear that breads our procrastination tendencies and step out of our comfort zone. We must concede to just do what our heart tells us we need to do. Forget about perfection, forget about the outcome and legitimatly concentrate on the immediate task. One step at a time will get you there. You are not running a marathon you are pursuing a dream.

So to my fellow procrastinator writer friends, I say make 2009 the year you tell Mr. or Mrs. procrastination to go find another partner in crime, because you are no longer going to submit to his/her wily ways.

"She may not have anything to say, but she says it anyway because she is a WRITER and who knows where it might lead.

Happy Writing,
Granny

Happy New Year

Life is a journey. This was e-mailed to me by someone who cares. The secrets to living a happy and successful life are enclosed.

I hope the coming year brings you all the blessing life can offer.

Granny