Now What

So here it is a few days before Christmas; work has come to a standstill as it does every year at this time. We work less and spend more.

I always spend part of this season reflecting on my life and looking at the could've, should've, and now what. So this year, I think, holds a lot of promise. Yeah, the government is corrupt and selling our lives and money for their own private purposes, but I am alive. Not all my neighbors are the best, but my wife loves me. The dogs still have accidents, but they cuddle at night. It may be cold, but it is so beautiful when it snows.

I think this is going to be a great year! I have written a screenplay, we have serious investors and great actors.

My resolutions for the next year? Be better, love more, and lose 30 lbs.

Have a great year!

Reaching Goals

There are many ways one can manage their time, two specific ways are, schedule and prioritize.
If you take the time to schedule, you are taking control of how you plan to spend your time. By making conscious decisions about what goals one has, and creating a plan of action to accomplish those goals one can move forward, in a desired fashion, undertaking only the required tasks to achieve the goals.
By listing major goals, then dividing those goals into smaller increments, one may see the plan unfold. This creates a roadmap of building blocks to success.
The ability to prioritize and the execution of that talent are vital to goal accomplishment. The exercise of creating priorities defines the value one give to the tasks and goals outlined. Knowing what is most important to one will help define and solidify the path and focus required to accomplish the desired success.
Without scheduling the prioritized tasks one is just a wanderer in the forest of life.
“Goals are dreams with deadlines” Diana Scharf Hunt
(Carol Carter, 2007)
Carol Carter, J. B. (2007). Keys to College Studying:Becoming an Active Thinker (Second Edition ed.). Pearson Prentice Hall.

Desiderata

I receive a word of the day from Visual Thesaurus Magazine and on Nov 7 2009, the word Disderata was received. It means, “Something desired as a necessity, anything indispensable.” In 1920, Max Ehrmann wrote a poem with this word as the title. I would like to share it with you.

Desiderata

Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others,
even to the dull and ignorant; they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter,
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.

Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs,
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals,
and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.
Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be.
And whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace with your soul.
With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

Max Ehrmann c.1920
http://www.businessballs.com/desideratapoem.htm

Dreamers

Of all the different type of people in the world, I get along best with dreamers.
I don't know what it is that makes their excitment, but like a common cold, with dreamers, it's contagious.
You begin to see and to dream and to grow, with dreamers.
They are the ones who seem to bounce on their toes as they smile to themselves, these dreamers.
So please tell me your dreams and hopes and fears, that together we may smile and be dreamers.
11/17/86

That was a long time ago, but it is still true. Dreamers see the best in the past, present, and future.

Prose

OK so I mentioned prose, well 20 years ago I handled the hardships in my life by writing prose. So here is the announcment, I will go back and occasionally add a prose from that time period. If I can find them.

Middle-aged woman

Maralee Stallings is an incredable woman with a vast knowledge of literature, religion, history etc. After being hounded by frineds and total strangers she now has a blog, http://ijustfinditinteresting.blogspot.com/ where she will expound on these subjects. It is for this reason I have started this blog so I could comment on hers.

Therefore, with courage and abandonment, she sallied forth into the world of prose, fearing nothing, save the cat under her bed. A middle-aged mind sharp as a tack, fingers flying across the keyboard, crossing the references and finding the folly, scoffing at the insidious idea that nothing is related, and giving freely of her knowledge to the students at her feet who had come by hoof and foot, by sail and internet, to learn of timeless tells, forgotten words, and iconic phrases with meanings ever hidden.
Tell us oh great one expound we implore, the chanting crowd begs, “Give us more!”

Enjoy and perhaps I too will write of things I know.
Bob