Vacations always end. Today Chuck and I will go on that fishing trip we talked about for, at least, a year. Unless, it is cancelled, again. We were supposed to go fishing on Lake Pontchartrain on Wednesday but the waves were too choppy and the bottom of the lake was stirred up.
The fishing would have been lousy that day. This is my last chance this visit to go fishing. I have never caught a fish that weighed several pounds. I might catch a speckled trout or if I am lucky a redfish that weighs even more. Chuck has never fished in this area.
Maybe, next year we will go camping again. We will see. In any case it was fun and I am looking forward now to flying home and sleeping in the same bed with my wife and seeing all my critters (I especially miss Tilla, my favorite dog) and being in familiar surrounding. It was nice to go away but thank God I have a place to go home to. And a wife to return to. This is the longest we been apart–one week.
Tags: a place to go home to, camping, childhood friend, Chuck, dogs, fishing trip, God, Lake Pontchartrain, my wife, New Orleans, pets, redfish, speckled trout, thank God, Tilla, vacation
Posted in God, knowledge&learning, life, love, marriage, nature, pets, time, wisdom |
Thank God for fatigue. It is your body telling you you have to rest. That is a good thing. “Speed” kills you for it overrides that message and given enough time you keep going and eventually your body deteriorates from within. Rest is a period your body recovers. If you consistently don’t sleep enough you don’t feel well for during sleep your body rejuvenates itself so observe the messages your body is telling you. Your body is an incredibly complex piece of machinery.
Tags: fatigue, God, listening to your body, rejuvenating quality of sleep, resting, sleep, speed kills, thank God, your body
Posted in balance, death, God, health, knowledge&learning, life, mental health, time |
I have to thank God even for the wet and cold days. My sister lives in California and they are experiencing a severe prolonged drought. Not us. Thank God for small favors and thank you for the rain.
Tags: God, my sister, prolonged drought in California, thank God, thank God for small favors, thank you for the rain, wet and cold days
Posted in balance, God, local, seasons |
It is so easy to become unhappy. It is so easy to center on what you don’t have. I have to center on the multiple blessings I have been given: food, shelter, a loving wife. Humans have the capacity to want things they don’t have. It only makes me unhappy. For the rest of the Christmas season and New Year I will thank the Lord for the many blessings I have been given. There is so much I have to thank the Lord for. I will think about those things the rest of the year.
Tags: blessings, Christmas, count your blessings, food and shelter, God, gratitude, it is so easy to become unhappy, loving wife, multiple blessings, New Year, thank God, thank the Lord
Posted in balance, God, knowledge&learning, life, local, love, marriage, mental health, seasons, time, wisdom |
Every day I have to thank God for his blessings. I will repeat this over and over. I owe Him everything. Every provision. My health. Everything. I get into trouble when I take Him for granted. I, also, have to remind myself life, also, is not fair. Every day I have to thank Him for every moment. I owe Him everything. Every blessing. Every breath I take.
Tags: blessings, owe Him everything, thank God, thank God for His blessings, thank Him
Posted in balance, beauty, death, God, health, knowledge&learning, life, love, mental health, relationships, time, wisdom |
Gratitude is the only way. It is so easy not to thank God for His abundance. But you must. Life is not always fair but he says, ‘Give us our daily bread.’ And pray to Him with a spirit of thankfulness. He does take care of us. And we have to thank Him every day for His blessings. That is why we have to approach Him every day with a spirit of thankfulness. We owe everything to Him. Everything. Every gift, every provision. Our health. Everything.
Tags: "give us our daily bread", God, gratitude, His abundance, Our blessings, our health, our provisions, spirit of thankfulness, thank God, thank Him every day
Posted in balance, God, health, knowledge&learning, life, love, mental health, relationships, time, wisdom |
Today I will choose to be happy. No matter what God sends my way. I will choose to be happy. Every day something goes wrong. So what!? I will determine to thank God for every thing He sends my way.
Tags: choose to be happy, God, happiness, thank God
Posted in balance, beauty, God, life, love, seasons, time, wisdom |
It is so easy to be ungrateful. The only thing that counters that is to count your blessings. Don’t compare yourself to any one else. It never works. It never makes you happy. Be satisfied with the portion God has bequeathed you. There is a reason ‘thou shall not covet’ is one of the ten commandments. Thank God for everything. Some people are here to do great things. Others many small things with much love. It is really the tiny things we remember–the favors others graciously gave us. After all isn’t life composed of myriad details. The great events only come once in awhile. You may be the recipient of only one or two earthshaking events. So enjoy all your life. You only get one time around. And thank God for everything. Face each day with a spirit of thankfulness and gratefulness. God does not owe you anything. And no one ever said life would be fair. So never torture yourself with the question “Why?” There is no appropriate answer. Most likely silence is all you will hear from the heavens above. Appreciate every moment given to you. Time is a gift so thank God for all your precious moments.
Tags: appreciate every moment, be satisfied, count your blessings, do not be ungrateful, don't compare yourself with others, enjoy all your life, favors, God, God does not owe you anything, life is myriad details, precious moments, small things with much love, spirit of gratefulness, spirit of thankfulness, ten commandments, thank God, thank God for everything, thou shall not covet, time is a gift
Posted in balance, beauty, death, God, health, knowledge&learning, life, love, relationships, time, wisdom |
Tilla, one of my dogs did it again. We were about to go to bed. My wife took her spot on the left side. And my eighty pound short-haired black dog jumped on the bed, took my spot on the right and curled up looking so comfortable at the head of the bed. He would not move and I slipped in bed to the right of him almost off the bed and tried to grab what blanket I had left. My left hand wrapped around his sleeping body as I slept on my side. The black mid-sized dog was quite cozy. He even sighed a few times. Thank God it was a king sized bed! At some point he jumped off the bed but I did not notice. I was long asleep.
Tags: bedtime, dog sleeps on bed, dogs, my wife, pets, sleep, thank God, Tilla
Posted in humor, local, nature, pets, relationships, time |
We dried our clothing the old fashioned way. We hung them up on the rail of the shower bar. My wife was amazed: let them hang there long enough–they eventually dried. Our drier did not work. We have been waiting on a back-ordered part for weeks now going on months. It was a Maytag and we finally complained to its master company, Whirlpool. The letter was dated almost three weeks ago and we have not heard from them. We even included our E Mail address. Whatever happened to good customer service? Of course, this was the way clothing was always dried before the advent of electricity and driers. It was now winter time and we could no longer dry it on the clothes line we had set up in the yard. Thank God our washer still worked. You have to do, what you have to do. You need clean, dry clothing. My wife, though, liked doing the laundry. I just had to put away my own clothing.
Tags: clothes dryer, clothes line, customer service, dry clothing, drying clothes, hanging clothing to dry, laundry, Maytag, my wife, thank God, the old fashioned way, washing machine, Whirlpool, winter
Posted in knowledge&learning, life, local, marriage, relationships, seasons, time, wisdom |
Sometimes you need to get physically moving to dispel your depression. I woke up depressed. I found out after moving around and doing chores most of the depression lifted. It helps when you do not stay in one spot too long and face your day. It is too easy to give in to your depressed thoughts. Thank God for routine. It does not give you the privilege of bemoaning your fate. There are always tasks that need to be done. And you have to focus on that. It gets you out of yourself. And that is a good thing.
Tags: bemoaning your fate, depressed thoughts, depression, doing chores, face your day, get physically moving, God, routine, tasks, thank God
Posted in balance, health, life, mental health, time, wisdom |
Thank God for things that have to be done every day. It is so easy to become depressed but there are tasks that have to be done: your pets have to be fed and let out, the dishwasher has to be emptied (or filled), bills have to be paid, meals made and grocery trips and so forth. And of course that is an incomplete list. There is no getting around those things. Focusing on the present forces you out of yourself. And that is a good thing. It is too easy to magnify our problems. We can’t escape our self but after all is done maybe your problems shrink a little and are more manageable so thank God for all our routines. They don’t go away but maybe you can face them better after you are done. It is a good thing to forget our current difficulties even if it is only temporarily.
Tags: depressed, focusing on the present, God, pets, routines, tasks to be done, thank God, too easy to magnify our problems
Posted in balance, God, health, knowledge&learning, life, mental health, pets, time, wisdom |
