Category Archives: Life

BIG PLANS FOR A BIG LIFE

05 Wednesday Sep 2012

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BIG PLANS FOR A BIG LIFE

If you want to have a big life, you have to make big plans, design your own big dreams and dream bigger dreams than people think are possible achieving!  Life isn’t a trial and error process, it’s in the execution of purposeful living.  If you persist that it is only filled with obstacles and occlusions, then guess what?  That’s what you’ll encounter each and every step of the way!  When you see the inability to achieve something easily as a minor inconvenience which forces you to amend your journey for the better, then you will already be miles ahead of where you would have been before!  Live with purpose, with an insistence that even bumps in the road will serve to take you to a better place in the roadway.  Don’t just be a reactionary, waiting to follow the ups and downs of life, instead, be a leader of your own life by purposefully pursuing dreams and goals!

The hardest thing to give up on is a dream.  Why should we then?  The short answer, we never should, not if we truly desire that which we’ve dreamt!  Well some of us give up on them when we get frustrated from too much time ticking off life’s clock, or too much pressure from our family or friends convinces us we are not worthy or able to achieve a dream. Sometimes dreams seem so impossible when we are sitting in our current position, maybe we’ve been beaten down and have so much trepidation about ever reaching the stars!  If you don’t aim for the outermost limits of the space around you, then you will never know how far you are capable of going!  

Never letting a dream die is the best advice to give a friend who is struggling these days, no matter how they perceive their future.  If they truly aspire to achieve something, no matter how seemingly big nor small, then they should never give up on the accomplishment of that dream! Never let yourself be let down by life.  We may not see the timing as being favorable to our schedule, but it may be just the timing to allow us to accomplish the best, the most and the greatest! We need to know life is still hopeful and encouraging . . . we need to believe in our ideas, our concepts, our beliefs, our aspirations.  We need to know life is ours for the making!

LEARNING AS I GO

05 Wednesday Sep 2012

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LEARNING AS I GO

Life is a process, you can dream about your whole life, plan it out in minute detail even, following your own set course, up until the time that life happens for real.  When life intrudes on how we are living, we must make a detour, we must set our course to new geographical coordinates, and find a new direction suitable for our amended goals.  All of us are learning as we go, we are taking our cues from what happens to us as we proceed, and when we are confronted by things which we must correct in our plan, we have no choice but to redirect, reconfigure and reconnect our internal hard-wiring to be accepting of newness and variation.  Life is a learning process, the minute you stop learning, you are either dead or on your way.  There is no way to limit the inevitability of life challenging us, making us hopefully rise, and not fall to each occasion, demanding from us a certain level of participation.  Life is not a spectator sport! 
Life requires your constant involvement, each day is a rude awakening of the unexpected, combined with the planned, all to make us expectant and surprised, in a fabulous match of emotional internal ping pong.  This is the trick of life, it isn’t ever what you assume it should or would be, it is always a mix of upsets swirling together with the planned.  There is never a time when we aren’t feeling something from a new source, or experiencing a different situation requiring us to look for navigational help.  Even when we share an experience with another human being, the way we deal with it, feel about it, and internalize the situation will always be uniquely our own.  No one else can ever know exactly how it feels to be us. That being said, perhaps we should learn to just go with the flow more often, as life will always take us for a ride, give us a thrill and leave us wondering why things cannot remain constant and steady a while, or just more often! 

How do we learn to let it ride?  Well, the older I get, the more I realize I don’t know about life, and its limitless potential to leave me dazed and confused.  Life is definitely a thrill-ride of surprise, shock, and less often, same-old, same-old.  I admit to being a fan of the routine, the usual, the constant, but the reality of life very rarely permits me to wallow comfortably in that state of being.  Life is rarely that “perpetually” anything, there are usually mishaps, snags, snafus, and dramas often causing unrest all at the same time.  The most important quality to have in life, as my burgeoning wisdom has taught me, is a sense of faith, unwielding and constant.  These most important qualities, hope eternal, faith constant and patience without end must reside perpetually within me.  That’s how you learn to live through life.  Love is a given if you are healthy and in touch with your spirit, but having those other qualities to tether you to the mast, assuring that you are going to find your way through, no matter the storm, is essential to your sense of victory in this life.   Life will shock you, it will lull you in to a sense of false security, thinking there are rhythms of calm and comfort ahead, then “pow”, along comes the first shock!  From that moment on, the only way to respond is to move out of the reaction mode and into the action mode, give up the “victim’s” role and learn to be a conqueror, as you go!

Life Is Like A Classroom

05 Wednesday Sep 2012

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Life Is Like A Classroom

Life is like a classroom, our daily tests – those things which happen to us by choice & by randomness. Each day we wake begins the day of testing, much like in school, we just have a much bigger & more expansive classroom & arena for learning. Some things on our tests we’re prepared for, we know what to do. Other things are just “out of the blue” & leave us guessing for ways to respond so that we can do our best to make it through the test. We don’t like to view life like a vast classroom, somehow we assume the end of school days means the end of this whole process of our learning & then having to prove we know what we’ve learned, but it is surely our task to pick up where we leave off as adolescents & continue the process right up until the day we pass.

It never stops, so we cannot stop either . . we must continue to learn, to grow, to seek knowledge, to make better choices, to avail ourselves of all the benefits of life lessons so that we make for ourselves a better life. When viewed thusly, we realize our goal is to pass each lesson, to learn & to grow. When we look to the lessons as necessary teachers enabling us to learn sufficiently to advance us to some higher level of wisdom, knowledge & understanding, then they become positive parts of our daily experiences, we advance with each one learned instead of remaining where we are!

Definitive’s In Life

05 Wednesday Sep 2012

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Definitive’s In Life

Lately I’ve had some reminders of definitive’s in life, taking delight in watching a young girl discover misters in Phoenix, her pleasure in the feeling of the cool light spray of water as it hit her skin all while she laughed with such sheer joy! On the plane, I watched a small child celebrate the flow of air coming out of the overhead vent as it blew her hair about. The last few days seeing children & adults find their inner youthful exuberance reborn through play in the water, on ziplines, in all sorts of endeavors meant to ignite their sense of exploration, their desire to find joy in tasting life!

I am reminded that life is to be lived to the fullest & I feel sorrow for those who are unable to find simple pleasure in places even common & even the simplest things, for our joy is found within, it comes from a place inside which knows how to be a child at the right times, but also how to connect with that inner spirit of joy at surprising moments within our days! No matter your place, if you are not finding joy in your days, you’re not feeling it first within!

What Used To Be Best

05 Wednesday Sep 2012

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What Used To Be The Best

Sometimes in life, what was once the best thing becomes the most painful. What once gave you joy now brings you sorrow, what was once your shining time is now your memory, what once brought you so much contentment & peace now makes you fearful & filled with doubt. It is inevitable that we will experience events which are capable of altering our perspective, but it always up to us as to how we react in the long term. If we realize that something good became something bad, then surely we can see how something bad can then again become something better! Look at the aspects of how you can learn from every scenario, making the most of the moments of reflection in the change, then seize upon the wealth of that lesson & move forward knowing that all will once again be changing. Life events are like the changing currents of wind in the sails of a sailboat . . we need to be flexible, we need to appraise our position upon the prevailing conditions & we need to be able to adapt as best as we can to what we encounter! Then we need to proceed into life with expectation & faith!

When It Is Time To Let Go…

04 Tuesday Sep 2012

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When It Is Time To Let Go…

 

Sometimes in life, we have to learn to say our goodbyes.  It’s inevitable.  Life happens, situations change, circumstances occur and those we love leave.  It’s not ever easy . . if it were, there wouldn’t be a whole industry dealing with grieving and therapy wrapped up in helping people to cope with losses.  The simple fact of the matter is that we are always going to have to learn to face the inevitable thief who comes to steal our steady contentment and joy, replacing it with fear, anger, pain, hurt, and a flood of loss washing over us.  On any given day, people may come happily into our lives anew, but we may have to learn to say goodbye too.  No matter how many times you have said goodbye to someone, whether in a breakup or by death, the feeling is usually the same.  It’s grief.  It starts with shock and sometimes mixes immediately with anger, but always sadness swirls in to take your happiness temporarily away, much like the clouds moving over the sun.  Even when you have purposefully extricated someone from your life, you still feel much the same way about it, for it is a loss, albeit by choice.  

The worse losses are those, whether expected or not, which take those we love deeply away from us for good by death.  If you’ve never experienced a loss like that, you are very fortunate.  If you have, you know as I do, the sense of grief washing over you like a tsunami of pain and hurt.  It ebbs and floods again forward, with no rhyme nor reason, it takes its toll upon every part of your life, and when it finally eases up in the future, there’s no absolute recovery, only a tender daily lessening of the impact.  Love is never easy to leave behind nor to lose.  By choice, it’s a double-edged sword.  To give it up requires a sense that the pain without it will be less in time than the pain you experience with it.  When it just happens through the cruel twists of fate without your say-so, you will one day feel more like your old self again, but time is what is required, and at best, it takes a lot.  You’ll never be all the way back to the way you were before the loss, but then again, we are never, from one day to the next, the same anyway.  Learn to find the positive in all circumstances, even if at first that seems highly implausible, for it is what makes the hurt have less power for a shorter period of time in your life.  That’s the best you can hope for!

Conquering…

04 Tuesday Sep 2012

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Conquering…

Life is not easy . . we reach stages in our lives when things happen which we simply do not understand, nor have answers for, which test our self-confidence or take hostage our self-esteem.  We feel challenged and pinned up against a wall, immovable and often incapable of progress.  When in these states, we often feel completely out of control, unworthy and stressed to a high level.  It might be a personal problem with a close associate or loved one; it might be from health issues we seemingly cannot resolve to our own satisfaction; we might be beleaguered by conflicts in our work, our home life, our personal relationships or elsewhere; or perhaps we are just aging and feel uncertain how our lives will pan out, how our dreams will be realized.

 Life is not easy, it demands our attention and perseverance to make the best choices, to examine our options and to be true to our own internal spiritual needs.  We must live in tune with many varying factors for our lives to be sensical and for us to deem them successful in the end.  When even one part of our life is out of tune, we notice a sour note played out in the way we appreciate things . . some of our joy is waning, our happiness is not guaranteed, we are more stressed and we struggle more against the currents of our daily endeavors.  Even one choice made erroneously, against what we deem essential for the happiness and contentment of our spirits, can leave us burdened with troubles! 

Knowing what makes you happy is key.  First of all, knowing that only you can be responsible for your own happiness is even more essential in life!  It is no one else’s job to make you happy, to cause your happiness, nor to decide what things in life will lead to your happiness.  Only you, with your consult in God, can make those determinations!  Learn to listen to the internal nudges and proddings which are your instincts.  They are often the best way to heed the real desires of your heart, no one else need convince you of their viewpoint . . only your desires matter after all, it’s your life!  Learn to trust your judgment as it is always the case that a wrong choice, or a choice which weakens your spirit, goes against God’s will or isn’t in your best interests will spike an instinctual call to make a different choice, or at the very least, to correct a poor prior choice!

 We are our own best advocates . . we know what it is that we need, want and what is best for us.  Learning to keep that in the forefront of our minds when making all decisions always assures that we will not make wrong decisions.  It’s okay to say no, to not do what others ask, to be so concerned about the state of your own spirit, that not doing something is the way to go!  Listen with a more alert heart to what makes you spirit content, that is what you should always do!  It is true that you always know in your own “gut” what is right or wrong, it’s instinctual, you feel it! 

The other way to conquer all your issues is to find a peaceful way to be calm when making decisions, when thinking and deliberating on something, and when you are pondering outcomes.  I choose to seek God’s counsel, for I always think He is leading me in the best way possible, knowing the best course for me, and He is always with me wherever I go.  Without my prayerful contemplation on everything throughout my day, I would be lost!  I ask Him for His grace, His favor, His direction and His loving compassion through each part of my day, every day.  I rely on Him, as He is my Shepherd.  Faith allows me to make that most easy decision to trust in God for all things I need and all that I must do.  It’s as simple as deciding that the way off the cliff each day is the way of faith!  As for our struggles, each one of us has them and must overcome them throughout life.  We haven’t exemptions from struggles.  When I’ve been overwhelmed and clearly befuddled by mine, I find that the most obvious reminder that I need God for everything!  I am incapable of doing and being anything without Him.  I am literally a lost sheep without the voice of the Master.  

Trusting in your Spirit’s communication, which comes through the instincts you sense, is the best way to know that you are keeping on the right path, making the right moves and following in God’s will for your life.  Anything else, and you will feel it as a gnawing in your own gut!  Pay attention, all the signals you need are there!  Just listen to the active voice of the Spirit within you.  It never steers you in the wrong direction.  If you make a wrong turn, listen anew and heed the best way to make the situation work out for your behalf!  It’s never wrong to turn it over to Him!

Dry Spells

04 Tuesday Sep 2012

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Dry Spells

Dry spells, we all have them.  Our creative energies fizzle, our ideas die on the vine, producing no fruit.  We are at a loss for words, we cannot come up with thoughts worthy of expressing and we seem at some miserable place of low creative juices.  Simply put, we haven’t a desire to share our spirit!  It’s not feeling that sociable!  I have been stuck in such a period for about six months now, unable and really unwilling to share a thought, an idea, longer or more productive than a sentence, for fear of exposing my situation.  I was going through something emotionally draining, quite stressful and not all that inspiring!  I didn’t feel like being motivational, nor inspirational, and I would have considered it disingenuous to have been considering myself at a thoughtful place when in fact I was not!  Life is like that, we all go through it, and we are not always able to escape emotional impacts from storms we must weather.  

A good thing to note, the storm will pass, whether on our time or not, it always will eventually leave us again, and then we are free to feel inspired by life, seeking a way to share a bounty of hopeful and purposeful thoughts from our once-again inspired spirits!  During this time, I tried at high periods to write my thoughts down.  I would begin what I thought was a decent discourse from my heart, only to realize somewhere before too long that I was in fact lost in the issues which were pressing upon my heart.  We cannot fool our hearts, our souls, our spirits!  They are the core of our beings, and reflect who we are most aptly and most often.  We are able, like good performers, to wear disguises and hide our true natures, but when a problem presses down our souls with unimaginable weight, we cannot deceive ourselves of the burden!

I suggest letting the writing of your thoughts go, until you can be sure it is from a place of wholeness, wellness and happy contentedness!  Then it means something!   I am happy to be feeling somewhat expressive of late, although I still have to rally myself to be disciplined enough to write.  Some people exude thoughts and write them down as though they are very prolific, but then again, maybe at this time, nothing is pressing down upon them either!  Let your spirit have its space in life, don’t push yourself to be or to do what you cannot be or do!  Be yourself by doing what you want to do!!  Be real and be truthful, live defiantly as the best you you can be!  When and if you hit a dry patch of creative ideas, give yourself permission to rest in that time until the ideas flow once again!  And they shall, it’s inevitable! Go with the flow! 

REMARKABLE DAYS

10 Sunday Oct 2010

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REMARKABLE DAYS

 

We know these days, the ones which each year stand out and become our most hoped for days!  I’ll call them remarkable, but in truth, all of our days should be remarkable!  For us to not label our days this way, each and every one, we cheat ourselves of our precious time.  We have only what number we were promised when we were designed by our Father.  From our first to our last, we decide how and what becomes our legacy of days.
 
This day, 10/10/10 is only going to happen once.  We with our mortality, will not know this measured time again.  We will know other special days noted for their curious specialty in time, such as next year’s 11/11/11.  But in truth, yesterday mattered, today is crucial, and tomorrow is our dream hoped for.  We shouldn’t decide that only today is special for the relevance of three numbers lining up so methodically.  It’s more than that . . our days are precious for the fact that each one becomes more valuable as we live the last . . . the minute today passes, tomorrow becomes the only one which matters.  It is the single most significant day that you will have to live.  Live it fully, with intention to see your dreams realized through faith, hope, and perseverance to endure!  

Life is rarely easy any longer, seems we all are suffering and enduring something.  But the most important thing to understand at this critical juncture of time is that we don’t have time to waste!  Life isn’t limitless, infinite and expendable.  We shouldn’t allow ourselves to waste time nor to be so mocking of circumstances, just because we feel compelled to cower down and wait out the storms!  Waiting doesn’t have to mean that we are watching life pass as we lie in fear hoping for new events to prevail.  Decide today that it means the world to you!  

Today, the only day you know for sure you are promised, it’s remarkable for that very reason!!

IN THE BEGINNING . . .

06 Monday Sep 2010

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IN THE BEGINNING . . .

 

Welcome . . . I’m using this first post to introduce myself, my name is Cheryl Ries, and although I’ve written blog posts for a company blog I co-founded, this is my initial entry into self-promotion!  What do you think so far?  Ah, you say it’s too soon to tell.  I can only qualify my attributes, my abilities, by explaining my desire to fulfill a lifelong passion for writing.  It’s either you who become my noble guinea pigs, or I make my beginner’s mistakes in a more serious arena such as a novel, which isn’t always guaranteed editing these days.

We’ve all slipped into a new world, one of our own making, but still unfamiliar to most of us.  We were swept away by a wave of technology before most of us even grabbed onto something sturdy like a byte, and now, we are adrift in some unknown, unchartered sea of mysterious digital reefs.  

Have you any idea how these things function, computers I mean, or are you a novice like me?  Let me assure you, I can dig a big enough hole for myself here, so if you see me forgetting to tag or categorize something for my own betterment, you might suggest how I can utilize this blog to help us all be more effective communicators.  I have no problem being wordy, verbally or on paper, even typing on this pesky computer keyboard, it’s the more subtle places, such as blogs and websites which I am now discovering.
Bear with me, and I will attempt to make this an exciting exploration into a woman’s midlife mind, a place of dark recesses, deep and cavernous thoughts, as well as the most likely place for ideas to be volleyed back and forth until they see the light of day! 

Have a wonderful new week, a great Labor Day, what is left of it anyway . . . and for those of you abroad, you always have my sincere affection and fond regards!  Ciao! Cheryl