Posted by Noble Ron @perry_ron on Twitter
Tag Archives: encouragement
Friends
Clarity Clinic
A shout-out this morning to my good friend Marsha.
She lives across the country from me, but in my heart all the time.
We are helping each other be the healthiest we can be by each motivating the other to exercise every day.
She is walking to the post office daily and also using a new pedaler in her home so she doesn’t have to depend on the weather being good.
I am doing yoga practice daily and then ‘something else,’ including, but not limited to, at least one of the following –
- elliptical trainer in the garage
- online walking and/or weights videos
- yard work
- walking around the yard
We KNOW that exercise is good for us, but each of us is a master at making excuses for NOT doing it. We care about each other, though, and are now comparing notes daily.
If we have done what we promised each other (and ourselves) we would do, we put a star on our calendar. If not, we tell them we love them and encourage them to do better the next day.
Yesterday we both got a star! We’ll try to do it again today. :0)
Filed under Encouragement, exercise, Friendship
Empowered
Freepik
Okay. I’m back, I THINK. I’m feeling empowered, since I really thought about my problem, figured out the first part (making the images list alphabetical), then thought again, then figured out how to get my pics into where I needed them so I could find them and get them out again. ALL BY MYSELF.
I still need to really pay attention when I save an image to be SURE I check on where it’s going before hitting ‘save.’
I just went and smilingly told my husband I had figured out how to get my pics to show up in the right place and usable. He just looked pleased, patted my hand, and then went back to reading his book. That’s okay. I’m BACK. This non-technical, intimidated old lady DID IT!
Clipart Library
Filed under empowerment, Encouragement
Thank You
I love writing this blog. I’m delighted when I find some someone who is creating something that fills me with awe at their talent and with joy from what they have created, whether it’s in music, or art, or writing, or just making me laugh or cry. One of the things that keeps me from giving up is that there are so MANY creative souls who continue to create something special in the middle of our callousness and stupidity. These people shut out the world and create something that speaks to us, makes us feel our better selves, causes us to keep hope alive. I’m so grateful that I am able to find people from all over the world who fill my heart, making me want to share them with you.
The WordPress people provide graphs and charts showing you how many people are following you, how many people look at your posts, how many ‘likes’ you get, comments, etc., and then compare them to the past. I usually just concentrate on the day, trying to provide a variety of posts, hoping that you feel entertained, glad you spent some time with me. Every once in awhile I look at the past, just to get an idea of what has happened since I started.
People follow for different reasons. When they no longer find it interesting, or I send too many posts, they stop following, so the numbers go up and down. The chart above shows the yearly totals of visitors and views, from 2014 when I started until the year just started, 2023. I found it really encouraging to see the difference last year. It makes me happy, but it also makes me more serious about trying to provide a variety of things that will make you feel you aren’t wasting your time or finding me too annoying.
I so enjoy the ‘likes’ I receive, and particularly the comments, letting me know what you think. Thanks for making 2022 a nice year. I’ll try to do better in 2023.
Filed under Encouragement
Style
Learning to be happy is a skill.
With all the awful things happening in our world today, our hearts are ripped out of our chests on a daily basis. Hate seems to reverberate from the walls, causing defensiveness, if not hostility, in return.
We can simply turn off and be numb to all going on around us, or we can LOOK for positive things that help us deal with the bad as well as possible. Being happy is a deep-down choice you make. It comes from within you, recognizing all the good you have around you and filling your heart with it.
When you decide to be happy, it flows outward, affecting those around you. All you have to do to test this is to smile at people you don’t know when you’re out in public. Most of the time, people may look surprised, but they smile back. Not a word has been said, but you’ve communicated and both of you feel better.
This blog is a place where I can share the good things I find with you. I hope that some of it lifts YOUR spirits, too. :0)
Filed under Attitude, empowerment, Encouragement
5 by 5 rule
Filed under Attitude, empowerment, Encouragement
Sunday Thoughts 8-28-2022
August 2022 is almost a thing of the past. Time is whizzing past my head at an astonishing speed and the year will be gone if I blink. I spend too much time being upset at what is going on in the world around me, helpless to do much, if anything, to stop it. I find myself grateful for all the things I have to insulate me from too much grief.
Listening to music, playing in my art room, reading books, talking with friends, gardening and time to myself all help me deal with what is going on around me. If I can’t FIX what’s happening, at least I can make it so I’m not contributing to it. I have more than enough to handle in my OWN little world.
I hope that you, also, have things that help you cope.
Filed under coping mechanisms, Thoughts on a ________
Crayons
To me this means that we should strive to EXPAND our interests, our knowledge, our activities for as long as we are here. We need to actively try to leave our comfort zone, trying something new every once in awhile, meeting new people, finding new sources of information, and more.
I feel lucky that I can learn new things every day simple by being curious on my computer. I enjoy it SO much I have to be careful not to be sucked into a rabbit hole, reading one thing that leads me to another until a good amount of my day is gone.
I don’t want to color with fewer and fewer crayons, allowing my world to gradually implode around me.
Filed under Attitude, Encouragement
Be Careful
Filed under Attitude, caring, Encouragement, kindness
Canvas
It’s in your hands most of the time. Sure, things happen suddenly that swamp us, but most of the time we can choose how we view and live life.
I made a promise to myself awhile back, to include some joy in every day, no matter what else is happening. My happiness comes from within ME. It’s up to ME to splash some paint around.
Filed under Attitude, Encouragement, happy
Enough
I MAY be finally old enough to accept this.
My parents were both only children. They had my brother and me so we “could keep each other company,” but then unconsciously fostered intense competition and rivalry between us. The end result was that we were never close, and got the strong idea that our worth depended on what we had accomplished lately and how that compared to each other. We both knew they loved us. That was never a question. But the competition lasted throughout our lives.
My parents wanted us to do well in school. This meant ‘grades’ to them. I learned to value what I had actually LEARNED and the fact that I knew how to learn more throughout my life, but I guess that was the easiest way to measure how we were doing THEN. My brother brought home almost straight A’s throughout his schooling. I brought home a “C” in math one quarter. There was a distinct coldness and withdrawal of affection until the next grading period (9 weeks) when I was able to bring my grade up. When I went to college, earning enough for my first semester each year teaching swimming during the summers from the time I was 14 through the end of college, by brother got a full scholarship to the University of Colorado and was a Rhodes scholarship finalist. He ended up with a doctorate, of course. :0)
I have always felt that my worth depended on what good I had done lately, rather than any idea that I was ‘enough’ just as I was. I was eager to please my parents, and that meant grades, honors, accomplishments. I was eager to please my husband, too, and wasn’t happy unless he was noticing what I was doing. The only area where I dropped the self-doubt was when I was teaching.
I taught in the public schools on the north side of Tulsa OK for eight years. I fell in love with my students. Since my kids there lived pretty tough lives, totally different that I had enjoyed, they didn’t see the need to learn to read or do math, or write, or think. I had to get really ‘creative’ to come up with ways to show them why they would be happier, stronger, and more in control of their lives if they would give me a chance to work with them. Every day I forgot who I was, immersed in trying to take them from where they were, give them what they needed to move forward, and listen to their concerns. I never felt I was ‘enough,’ but I felt good about what I did.
Now that I’m older than dirt, I realize that each person brings a package to the table. Each of us has a different set of skills, hopes, dreams. And each of us is valuable because of it. THAT is enough.
“You are enough just as you are.”
Filed under Attitude, Encouragement
Lifting
Filed under Attitude, caring, Encouragement
Stop Waiting
Even if I had read this years ago, when I was in junior high, I wouldn’t have been smart enough to heed the wisdom of it.
I’ve spent most of my life waiting. When I was in junior high (14 years old) I met my husband-to-be just before he joined the Marine Corps. I waited for a letter each day. I would watch out the window for the mailman. He knew I was in love – and was a wonderful guy – so he would break the rules and put the red flag on the mailbox up if there were a letter from him for me. He would grin ear to ear as I came flying out of the house, running down the driveway to get the mail.
I waited for my husband-to-be to get leave from the Marines, when I could start to live again. We were inseparable, of course, watched carefully by both sets of parents, until he had to leave again. I remember one leaving-taking in particular, when my mother-in-law-to-be allowed me to ride to the airport with them and see him off. I cried my heart out, nose against the glass as his plane went down the runway.
When he got out of the Marine Corps, I went to Oklahoma State University. He went to the University of Tulsa, so I waited for weekends and holidays. My parents said I had to finish school before we could marry. They finally compromised when a program opened up where I could do my practice teaching in Tulsa, and we were married. I waited so long to marry him that I cried on the way back down the aisle that we were finally together and I could begin to live.
I feel stupid typing this. I wasted so much of my life ignoring what was around me, focused on the next time my life ‘would start.’ How much I missed, marking days off the calendar until the next “big thing” in my life. I’ve spent a lot of my working life wishing Mondays away, waiting for Fridays. Waiting for vacations. Wishing days, weeks, months and years away.
So, even though I was too stupid to realize what I was doing, or unable or unwilling to change my behavior if I DID realize, I think living in the moment is THE most important thing I have ever learned. Better late than never. Better some than none.
NOW is what is important – the people you are lucky enough to know and love – what is happening right – this – minute.
Wring every drop of joy out of whatever you are lucky enough to have.
Appreciate your life.
Filed under empowerment, Encouragement, Favorite Quotes
Never Give Up
This image really hit me between the eyes.
It reminds me that as much as we are overwhelmed by what’s going on in the world, the power lies in each of us to do what we can, where we are, with what we have. It may be enough.
Filed under Attitude, Encouragement, Favorite Pictures
The Rule
Filed under Attitude, building good habits, Encouragement
creativeartworksblog 