Month: August 2012

Far From Perfect

/ James Browning

O beautiful for spacious skies

For amber waves of grain

For purple mountain majesties

Above the fruited plain

From sea

to shining sea.


The United States of America is far from perfect, but I love the country of my origin.  I love its beauty, the diversity of its people and the ideals the majority adhere to.  While imperfect, it is perfect for me and I am grateful it is my home.   

I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives.
I like to see a man live so that his place will be proud of him.
Abraham Lincoln

 

With a Glad and Grateful Heart

/ James Browning

Each day I come here to put words down, some mine and some borrowed, to express a though to start the day. Each time a minor miracle happens as my thoughts and feelings expressed through a keyboard are cast into the world. I am cleansed; I am empowered; I am softened; I am made more whole. This electronic gratitude journal has become as necessary to my well-being as eating; writing is food for my soul.

From the content of the heart;
The written word is penned,
But without an inner sight;
Is hard to comprehend.
You look amazed at words in ink
And ponder on them, the source;
Was it the mind from whence they came
Or from the heart, that caused remorse.
Is it truly filled with light,
In the way you’ve come to see,
Or does the content of your heart
Provide the ink that flows from thee.
Muddy dark that tends to smear
Or calligraphy with beauty seen;
Words that lift and soothe the soul
Or ones that drag and thus demean.
From the inkwell of the heart,
The pen will draw from in
And place upon the paper white
Those things that lie within.
Inkwell of the Heart by Gloria Sarasin

To every person who has ever been here to spend a moment or two I extend my greatest gratitude for it is you who have helped me rediscover the joy of living! Thank you.

Thank you for what you did;
You didn’t have to do it.
I’m glad someone like you
Could help me to get through it.
I’ll always think of you
With a glad and grateful heart;
You are very special;
I knew it from the start!
 Joanna Fuchs

Cymbal Crashes of Inspiration

/ James Browning

For better or worse, I’m something of a walking encyclopedia of sayings, paraphrased paragraphs, quips and passed-down bits of wisdom. When life has been the toughest I have sought such leave-behinds of others to help me through. When life has been wonderful I reach for someone else’s collected thought to help me express my appreciation. When life is just in between I look for another’s words that better pick me up than my own thoughts do at that moment. Here are three worth sharing with hope they give you the same sort of inspiration and introspection they give me.

Thoughts of just giving up or not trying are as common to me as stars. When that sort of funk hits me, I pull out a handy “weapon of words” that helps me fight my negative thinking.

The worst thing one can do is not to try, to be aware of what one wants and not give in to it, to spend years in silent hurt wondering if something could have materialized – never knowing. Jim Rohn

When asked “how are you?”, my usual response is “all days are good, some are just better than others”. When I am up, it takes me higher. When I’m down saying that to someone picks me up. It doesn’t matter to me if what I say appears a bit ‘Pollyanna’ to others.  I like being happy! 

The belief that unhappiness is selfless and happiness is selfish is misguided. It’s more selfless to act happy. It takes energy, generosity, and discipline to be unfailingly lighthearted, yet everyone takes the happy person for granted. No one is careful of his feelings or tries to keep his spirits high. He seems self-sufficient; he becomes a cushion for others. And because happiness seems unforced, that person usually gets no credit. Gretchen Rubin

In spite of my spiritual work and keeping my feet on a path of attempting to constantly improve myself as a human being, I get knocked down. I get hurt, frustrated, fearful, worried and a litany of related emotions beat on me just like other people. It’s in those times I am reminded a life well lived is one where much has been risked.

There is no safe investment. To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket – safe, dark, motionless, airless – it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell. C.S. Lewis

I am deeply grateful to all the men and women who took the time to write down their thoughts that through miles and time come to me as cymbal crashes of inspiration, whispered encouragements and moments of peaceful understanding.

If we all did the things we are capable of doing,
we would literally astound ourselves.
Thomas A. Edison

Selfish .vs Unselfish

/ James Browning

What a humbling experience! This was far from easy!!!!

Yesterday I wrote, If you know for certain you’d die in just one week and could have three wishes come true what would they be? Would they be selfish or unselfish? I ended by saying tomorrow I’ll share what three selfish wishes and three unselfish wishes I personally settle on. The self-given assignment turned out to be far more difficult than I first thought. Coming up with things for the lists was not difficult. Narrowing it down to two sets of three was!

Selfish Three Wishes
1 – Good health and long life for me and those I love
2 – Financial security and independence
3 – Getting to do everything on my ‘bucket list’

Unselfish Three Wishes
1 – World peace and harmony
2 – Good health for all
3 – No one going hungry

These may seem like quick things I came up with in a few minutes, but on and off all day yesterday things when on and off my lists. What became clear was the difference between the “me, me, me” stuff I kept putting on the “Selfish Three Wishes” list and the “them, them, them” items that came to mind for my”Unselfish Three Wishes” list. By bedtime I felt so guilty about wanting so much for myself.  The process softened me to think more broadly. The items on the first list would change life for only me and those I love. As I pondered things for the “Selfish List” I felt worse and worse. The second list would change the world for everyone in perpetuity. I am grateful for how good coming up with the second list made me feel.

Just for fun here’s three selfish/unselfish quizzes: 
http://www.quibblo.com/quiz/19DacVA/How-Selfish-Are-You
http://www.quibblo.com/quiz/84mxBWL/Are-you-selfish
http://www.blogthings.com/howselfishareyouquiz/

Selfishness is that detestable vice
which no one will forgive in others,
and no one is without in himself.
Henry Ward Beecher

Selfish or Unselfish?

/ James Browning

If you know for certain you’d die in just one week and could have three wishes come true what would they be? Would they be selfish or unselfish? Here’s some random answers found at various places on line:

1. To erase everything I hate
2. To have a trip to the places I want to go
3. To die a peaceful death (like fall asleep never to wake.)

1. To slow down time
2 .Travel the world with my closet friends
3. Find true love

1. To have my daughter and grandkids here.
2. Make sure that my family has everything they need
3. Have a big farewell party with my friends and family

1. Leave a good impression a memory of me
2. Make sure I do my main goal in life
3. When I leave I do not want to leave anything unaccomplished

1. To make everyone happy who is in my life
2. Have not regrets when I die
3. Laugh as much as possible

1. 10 more years of a healthy life
2. To be surrounded by the ones I love most during those 10 years
3. 1000 more wishes

1. Unlimited wealth
2. Excellent health for me and those I love
3. Peace on earth

The Three Final Wishes of Alexander the Great.

As a military commander, he was undefeated and the most successful throughout history. On his way home from conquering many countries, he came down with an illness.

At that moment, his captured territories, powerful army, sharp swords, and wealth all had no meaning to him. He realized that death would soon arrive and he would be unable to return to his homeland. He told his officers: “I will soon leave this world. I have three final wishes. You need to carry out what I tell you.” His generals, in tears, agreed.

“My first wish is to have my physician bring my coffin home alone.

After a gasping for air, Alexander continued: “My second wish is scatter the gold, silver, and gems from my treasure-house along the path to the tomb when you ship my coffin to the grave.”

After wrapping in a woolen blanket and resting for a while, he said: “My final wish it to put my hands outside the coffin.”

People surrounding him all were very curious, but no one dare to ask the reason. Alexander’s most favored general kissed his hand and asked: “My Majesty, We will follow your instruction. But can you tell us why you want us to do it this way?” After taking a deep breath, Alexander said: “I want everyone to understand the three lessons I have learned.

To let my physician carry my coffin alone is to let people realize that a physician cannot really cure people’s illness. I hope people will learn to treasure their lives. My second wish is to tell people not to be like me in pursuing wealth. I spent my whole life pursuing wealth, but I was wasting my time most of the time. My third wish to let people understand that I came to this world in empty hands and I will leave this world also in empty hands.” he closed his eyes after finished talking and stopped breathing.

I am grateful for the path of quandary this line of thinking has put me on. After spending the next 24 hours pondering, tomorrow I’ll share what three selfish wishes and three unselfish wishes I personally settle on. I hope you give the topic some thought also.

May you have love that never ends,
lots of money and lots of friends.
Health be yours, whatever you do
and may God send many blessings to you.
Traditional Irish Blessing

A Few Baby-Steps Everyday

/ James Browning

Deeply felt and fully expressed gratitude is an effective way to positively influence attitudes and behavior, our own and that of others. Learning to feel and express gratefulness has a significant effect on my happiness and success and that of every one around me. Understanding there is more than one level or gratitude can have even greater impact.

Level I Gratitude… This is gratitude for your possessions and your immediate circumstances. It’s the kind of gratitude we learn as children: Thank you for the gift, for the candy, for the trip to park, etc. When you practice this as an adult, it spawns thoughts of gratitude for things like:
* a roof over your head
* your material possessions
* a car that runs
* your health
* your relationships
* your family
* your job
* your skills
* the holidays

Level II Gratitude… I think of this as “holistic gratitude” because it’s independent of situations and circumstances. This is a feeling of gratitude for life itself, for existence, for anything and everything you experience. But rather than being a temporary emotion that requires constant focus, Level 2 Gratitude is more of an underlying attitude. With practice it becomes part of your identity. It encompasses everything in Level 1, but Level 2 goes beyond that to include being grateful for:
* your life
* the universe
* time and space
* your problems, challenges, and hardships
* your foibles and mistakes
* your consciousness
* your ego
* people who treat you unkindly or unfairly
* your thoughts and emotions
* your freedom of choice
* ideas and concepts
Level 2 Gratitude says, “How wonderful it is to exist!” Circumstances are irrelevant because this form of gratitude is a choice that needs no justification. It is a sense of utter fascination with the very notion of existence.
By Steve Pavlina http://www.stevepavlina.com/

Without realizing I had moved into level II Gratitude, I am pleased to find I have.  Oh, how life has changed since gratefulness became a way of living. A few baby-steps every day becomes a lot of distance covered over time.

In daily life we must see
hat it is not happiness that makes us grateful,
but gratefulness that makes us happy.
Brother David Steindl-Rast

Finding Meaning In What You Have

/ James Browning

Sitting here this morning in the lap of plenty, I began to think about looking for a new sofa for the den. The one there has seen much better days. The impressions on it made where people frequently sit are pronounced shallow craters. At the rate the couch’s support is sinking, soon sitting on it will place one twelve inches off the floor stuck in a butt-dent of foam and fabric.

Thinking about buying a new couch, sparked the memory of the first “new one” I ever owned in my late twenties. Previously all my furniture was hand-me-down, purchased used through the classifieds or bought at a second-hand or thrift store. As was the style around 1980, the couch was covered in valor and deep burgundy in color . My then wife and I purchased it on credit which took us eighteen monthly payments to pay off. I LOVED that couch. It was well cared for, valued above any other piece of our household furnishings and visitors were the only ones who got to sit on it.

In the thirty years since, at least eight to ten other couches have come and gone from my home with none valued as that burgundy valor couch was. From the vantage point of now, I look back and see easily why I held it in such high regard. The couch was the first truly beautiful piece of furniture ever owned and took lots of sweat to pay. It was sense of accomplishment, appreciation and gratitude that fueled how I felt.  

Financial well-being is nothing more than a balancing act on the back of circumstance. You can be thrown off at any time.

If you know how to be poor with dignity and grace, nothing short of massive financial disaster can disturb your peace of mind.

Knowing how to be poor means developing an unerring instinct for the difference between what is essential and what is only desirable. It means knowing how to take control of your life – how to repair and maintain the things around you, how to purchase wisely and well, how not to purchase at all when you do not have the means to do so, how to take joy in the simple pleasures of life.

It means not getting caught up in what is lacking, but finding meaning in what you have. It means knowing how to live with style and creativity without basing your life on money. From Simple Truths by Kent Nerburn

When I had little, everything was valuable. As plenty came nothing has ever been valued as much since. Stepping back a little, the thought comes that abundance is numbing even with the best of appreciative attitudes. This morning the awakened sense of the way things are makes me stop and think. With all sincerity I hope those thoughts help me to know great gratitude for the new couch from the very moment I find it, make the purchase and until it is tired and completely worn out.

Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more.
If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.
Oprah Winfrey

Want Less, Have More

/ James Browning

Some days it is simple things that bring the most gratitude to my thoughts and feelings:

the sun coming up,

 flowers in my year,

 a good morning email from a friend,

a banana at breakfast.

Being open to know thankfulness for the smaller and seemingly insignificant seems to attract larger and more meaningful things to my life. Lessening my “want” and building gratitude for what I already have brings me a much more contented life. Want less, have more.

Can you see the holiness in those things you take for granted–
a paved road or a washing machine?
If you concentrate on finding what is good in every situation,
you will discover that your life will suddenly be filled with gratitude,
a feeling that nurtures the soul.
Rabbi Harold Kushner

Light Through a Magnifying Glass Artfully Used

/ James Browning

A busy week had me sleep deprived at bed time last night. The fix was nine and a half hours of good sleep that has me now coming awake feeling rested with a strong sense of gratitude for my well-being this morning. I’m well and thankful for the healing slumber, the bed I found it in, the A/C that kept me comfortable and most of all for the awareness to be grateful for such things.

Begin your day by feeling grateful.

Be grateful for the bed you just slept in,

the roof over your head,

the running water,

your shower,

your clothes,

your shoes,

the car that you drive,

your job,

your friends.

Be grateful for the stores that make it so easy to buy the things you need,

the restaurants,

the utilities,

and services that make your life effortless.

Be grateful for the sun, the sky,

the trees,

and the flowers.

“Secret Daily Teachings” from Rhonda Byrne

Gratitude in mind is like food to my body: it nourishes and makes me stronger. Today I know thankfulness on a level greater than any which came before this blog began. Taking time every single day to focus my gratefulness has multiplied that feeling within me to a level beyond my ability to explain it.  Like light through a magnifying glass artfully used, gratitude burns beautiful patterns into my life.

You simply will not be the same person two months from now after consciously giving thanks each day for the abundance that exists in your life.
And you will have set in motion an ancient spiritual law:
the more you have and are grateful for, the more will be given you.
Sarah Ban Breathnach

Good Judgement

/ James Browning

This has been around for a while, but just too good not to read again and share. I am grateful for the good memories of my southern farmer grandfather (PawPaw) these nuggets bring up.  They are most all the kind of things I remember him saying.  My memories of sitting in his lap while he let me think I was steering the tractor are fond memories.  I thought I was really driving it!

An old Farmer’s Words of Wisdom we could all live by:  advice from Canman

– Your fences need to be horse-high, pig-tight and bull-strong.
– Keep skunks and bankers at a distance.
– Life is simpler when you plow around the stump.
– A bumble bee is considerably faster than a John Deere tractor.
– Words that soak into your ears are whispered….not yelled.
– Meanness don’t just happen overnight.
– Forgive your enemies; it messes up their heads.
– Do not corner something that you know is meaner than you.
– It don’t take a very big person to carry a grudge.
– You cannot unsay a cruel word.
– Every path has a few puddles.
– When you wallow with pigs, expect to get dirty.
– The best sermons are lived, not preached.
– Most of the stuff people worry about, ain’t never gonna happen anyway.
– Don’t judge folks by their relatives.
– Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
– Live a good and honorable life, then when you get older and think back, you’ll enjoy it a second time.
– Don’t interfere with somethin’ that ain’t bothering you none.
– Timin’ has a lot to do with the outcome of a rain dance.
– If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop diggin’.
– Sometimes you get, and sometimes you get got.
– The biggest troublemaker you’ll probably ever have to deal with, watches you from the mirror every mornin’.
– Always drink upstream from the herd.
– Good judgment comes from experience, and a lotta that comes from bad judgment.
– Lettin’ the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier than puttin’ it back in.
– If you get to thinkin’ you’re a person of some influence, try orderin’ somebody else’s dog around.
– Live simply, love generously, care deeply,
– Speak kindly, and leave the rest to God.
– Don’t pick a fight with an old man. If he is too old to fight, he’ll just kill you.
And, finally…..