Have a good day

Have a good day. I say that a lot at the end of my posts but what does it mean?

The traditional idea of having a good day is this: one where we are happy and nice things happen to us. This is pleasant but not always productive. I want to offer up another concept of what a good day could, and in my opinion should be.

A good day is one were you take value in what comes your way, you look for lessons in the positive and negative experiences you have and were you find the opportunities to move forward in your journey.

Taking value in what comes your way: This is taking the time to be here now. The moments we get will never come again and if we do not allow ourselves to experience them fully we will miss them. This does not mean do not plan or reminisce, but when you do it do it fully and consciously. At other times let the mind be free to perceive all of the moment, all of the beauty and wonder that is available in even the most common moments.

Looking for lessons: Every action we perform or witness others performing can become a moment for learning about ourselves. We must understand what brings successes in to our lives as well as failure then use these lessons to chang our behavior. Without looking for the lessons we have no teacher and our minds are no better organized than a fifth grade class left to their own devices.

Moving forward in our journey: we each have a place we are trying to get to in our lives whether it is a conscious choice or not. First I argue that you must know where you want to go and have an idea of how to get there. If you know these things then you can have your eyes open for the next step down the path when it comes to you.

A good day is one where we can savor the moments and learn their lessons, were we can be aware of where we are and where we are going. So that is my wish for you and for myself as well to have a good day to day and every day.

Do not create specters

Grief will come in to our lives. It is not pleasant but it should not be ignored. Just as happiness should be acknowledged and celebrated we must treat grief the same way. Why? Because grief comes when something good end, an ending that we knew could not be avoided. So we grieve, we miss what we had, and we honor the happiness that has been lost. If we don't grieve we are doing a disservice to what we have lost, if we fill the whole that the end of the good thing has left in our lives with just anything where is the honor and reverence that the wonderful happy moments deserve.

Grief comes from the knowledge that this will never be again. We find ourselves missing what we had, maybe not realizing how important it was to us or not being able to let it go. We must let it go, not all at once, but a little bit here and a little bit there. This is what grief is for putting to rest the desire for the things that are no longer available to us.

If we hide from our grief filling our hours with meaningless activities that dull the mind to the sensations around us then the feeling of loss hide within our mind. They can turn to fears, specters of good times past that can chew at our hopes and dreams. There bite is this thought and this thought only no mater what form it comes in: "I should not try to be happy because it will end and then I will feel sad" These specters tear apart our self-worth and ability to achieve our goals.

If instead we live in our grief for a time, the hole created by our loss will begin to fill. The happy memories, the important memories will live in the place of what has gone away. We begin to know that happiness is possible again because we have had it we now know it is real. In living in our grief we do not look away from our own lives. If we grieve then that is what we are doing here now and it is what must be done.

Suffering and loss will happen to all of us. If we do not give it its place in time then we are know better than a teenager in a horror movie going out in to the woods alone at night. The slasher will attack just as our own specters will devour us if we do not take the time to say goodbye.

Have a good day. I

Called shots

Well here we are another Monday night and time to look at how well I did last week and set the bar for this week. The goals for last week were:

 Get back in to the school schedule.

 Study for midterms.

 Take the time to review and consider each day at its end and recorded my thoughts.

 Find time to read for pleasure as well as for school

So I got back into school with out too much trouble. Monday and Tuesday morning were a pain in the butt however that was survivable. Midterms were studied for and taken. I will get them back on Wednesday but I am confident I did all right. As for the review and consider each day I got a start on it at the beginning of the week but fell out of practice part way through. My personal reading was all gaming related but I did find time for it.

So for this week

• Prep for speech due next Monday
  
• Better organize my time, make better use of the days.
  
• Take the time to review and consider each day at its end and recorded my thoughts.
  
• Take the time to listen to my heart instead of telling it what it wants.
  

Have a good week people. Be happy, be good to each other, and be courageous.