Sundays

Every Sunday, I recount what I have done over the weekend & any exciting things that may have happened through the week. This week I was talking trough things with one of my roommates/brothers & he mentioned something that I have noticed before. Put simply, our weekends are like vacations & include sports, relaxation, volunteering, & a little productivity. I have definitely noticed an increase in quality of life over the past year, although there are always things that I could find I would like improve or have improved.

Sunday's also my time to reflect on my faith & how lucky I am to have a strong healthy body & able mind. I don't have to deal with disability like millions around the world do. I don't have to worry about hunger, thirst, shelter, or even love. Not to brag at all, but I rightly feel blessed to have all of these things. On Sunday's, I also take time to give some of my time to sick children. The reason I chose to do so is simple & the reason that I will start a children's charity & that is because I believe that children deserve all the help, love, & support they can get.

Maybe you have thought about how lucky you feel & thought that you have something you could do to help someone. Why not make today the day to stop finding a reason not to. If you wonder how to find ways just try typing in "volunteer opportunities in (your city)" into www.google.com. There are so many great causes & ways for you to share your talents. If today isn't the day, maybe some other time. Peace, LOVE, & Happiness to you all!!!

Bless You!
Thomas

Happy...Happy...

The search for happiness is a very interesting thing. People will search from here to there & from one end of the earth to the other in search of it. They will interchange words like satisfaction, completion, or even arriving like it is a destination. What I have noticed though is that so many people miss that happiness is something that they already have & is always within them.

It is not surprising to me that this happens & I think it is very human. As babies, we only eat what we need to & don't overeat. This is something that we begin when we grow older & is representative of other traits that we acquire as we grow older that are contradictory to our wants & needs as maturing adults. It is very easy to get into the "Groove," & let worldly things cloud our judgment. So, the challenge is to take a more conscious look at the world we surround ourselves with & better analyze why we feel the way we do. Then we open our minds to realize that the key to happiness is actually in our hand & all we have to do is take that key & open the door.

Today, I challenge you to close your eyes to the world you have surrounded yourself with & say, "if I were all alone, what would make me happy?" Then revel in those things. You have life & you have the ability to make a difference in so many lives, so let all of the happiness you have shine on others & just watch the reward you get. Peace, LOVE, & HAPPINESS to you all!!!

Bless You! ;^)
Thomas

Summer

Summer is a great time of year. As things begin to come full circle from the spring, new members are welcomed into families & all of the plants & animals thaw & shake off the cold from the winter & spring. People begin to come out of their houses to celebrate the beauty around them. Those that take a winter break get back into their routines of outdoor activities. Things begin to fill with people ready to have fun like the trails, tennis & basketball courts, pools, & lakes.

This time of year just brings a smile to people's faces & I absolutely LOVE it. When I see a smile on the face of another person, no matter what I am going through, it gives me a happy feeling inside. So, although I LOVE all of the seasons, I especially LOVE summer because of all the extra happiness being spread around. Today, I just wanted to write about all the happiness I see around. If you like what I write, take a minute to pass along the love because it is the best contagious thing in the world & it will pay you more dividends than any other investment you will ever make. Peace, LOVE, & HAPPINESS to all of you!!!

Bless You :^)
Thomas

Blink

Head slightly tilted downward with my eyes closed, with one hand on the keys, the other gently feeling the freshly cut hairs on the back of my head. I let my breath out slowly reciting in my head what I am thinking about typing while my hand waits patiently to play the words in my head like a musical piece on this page of life. I only recite how I see & feel thing & don't wish or desire to change the feelings you have, but do hope to help you explore feelings you may have that you may have not explored much.

The speed of life can be overwhelming to say the least. I feel like I have experienced this in my own life. I am constantly attempting to adjust to the ever-changing expectations set on me from other people & responsibilities I have undertaken. I attempt to do so with ease & grace, while reflecting my own personality & beliefs. This does not mean that I want everyone to accept & support my way of thinking, but it does mean that I want to ensure that who I am is accurately reflected. I accept that this is all I can do & am happy that I have the opportunity to do so.

Many people spend their whole lives searching for satisfaction from things outside of what they have inside & around them in their lives. One key thing that they miss is that they do not need anything other than what they have to be happy. I feel that we will never be completely satisfied with what we have, because we always look for ways to improve who we are & the world around us. So, this simple fact is something that we can be happy with because it means we are human & we don't really need to be fully satisfied to be happy. The simple fact that seek more should make us happy! When we seek to improve, we reflect that we are happy & inevitably we do improve our lives & the lives of all those around us... So, today I challenge you to take one of those things & revel in how you are improving the world with your simple desire to expand. Peace, LOVE, & Happiness to you all!!!

Bless You!
Thomas

Say What You Need To Say

Today marks a day that I have thought about in my head for quite a while as I do with important decisions. Today instead of choosing who to let in I choose to let everyone in on a story that changed who I am today & who I will be for the rest of my living days. Although this is only the headline of what happened to me & a small portion of what I experienced, I think that it will be sufficient for those in need of the words to feel what they need to. What follows is the most challenging thing I have ever been through in my life, but the happy part is that I am through it, a better person, & not stuck in it.

Other posts I write so that you can take what meaning you want or need to out of them. This post I write with some specific intentions. I intend for this to help others that may have something similar happen to them & to help others that will never realize how blessed they are. To begin, I always hear people say that good things happen to good people, but what they fail to realize is that bad things happen to good people sometimes too.

I remember the days like they were yesterday. From the day in March 2008, when my wife at the time told me her heart had checked out to the day not too much later & while we were still married that I found her at the house of one of the guys that stood by me at my wedding posing as a best friend & best man. I can also remember how, when I heard her utter those words, I felt my heart actually skip a beat for the first time ever & I was completely crushed. I remember it all vividly & probably will for the rest of my life, but now I have a much better understanding. The journey that followed was not always the easiest, but I am blessed with a great group of friends, my mother, & faith that all helped me through.

Looking back, I am happy with how I handled things & happy with the person I have become because I made a decision to rise above what was happening around me & let the person I am inside & LOVE rule my actions. I chose to act out of integrity & say what I needed to say to ensure that how I felt was communicated & that I would never have to worry that I did not say enough. I can rest easy knowing that even if I did make mistakes I did not give up & stayed willing to work to keep the promise I made. To this day, I still try to ensure that I act out of integrity & LOVE for others while not turning a blind eye to my cautions.

Like the song by John Mayer, "it is better to say what you need to say than to never say what you need to say again." I know that what I say is out of LOVE & well thought out...& I am absolutely sure that they will attract the right people & take the wrong from my life! Above all else, I have to thank God for allowing me to remain faithful in the fact that he uses all things to work together for good & for helping me remain happy, faithful in marriage & life, & eternally optimistic in what the future holds. Peace, LOVE, & Happiness to you all!!!

Bless You!
Thomas

Hands

I was running a few days ago & began to look at my hands. I was thinking about how great it was out & how good it felt when the cool air rushed through my hands & between my fingers. I remembered how great it was to just be free, happy, & healthy. At that moment, how thankful I am that I have been blessed with these common things that I feel I sometimes overlook.

So much of life seems to be spent planning while life is happening faster & faster. We plan for our careers, investments, relationships, & many other things we are involved in. Some people live a very structured life in this way going through their regiment from day to day. Others live a less structured life filled with new adventures around every turn.

A funny thing is that many times these people will look at one another & want to be more like the other. They see traits in the other that will either make their life more exciting or more stable. Some will completely change to emulate the other, some will change certain things, while many will just look & wonder. Is one way more correct than the other? I would not say so, but what I would say that these feelings are representations of balance & should not be ignored.

I have learned through experience that it is the little things that truly make us happy. It is the little things that we cherish about our lives & about others & what we miss when they are lost. They can make us very happy or sad & literally make or break our sense of happiness, love, & peace. These are all reasons that you should make absolutely sure that you communicate these things that you may consider with your loved ones, because our time is never guaranteed & there is no better time than today to show the ones you love that you do. Peace, LOVE, & happiness to all of you

The Builder

Today, I was thinking about the thought that is in my head when things around me fall. What I mean by this is that I see our lives as a journey where we build constantly building. I think of it like building a house because, like a house, we are only as sturdy as the foundation we have & the world we build around us. If the walls fall down, what do we have left? What we have left is the foundation we have built & if our foundation is not solid we can feel lost & unsteady.

The significance of this ties into the fact that Jesus was a carpenter. In essence, he was a home builder. I consider myself to be very faithful & it is on my faith that I chose to build my house. Now, I can say that if things do fall in my life, they fall around me & not on me. I recently went through a tragedy that only a select few know about, but that brought my world down on me & it was the hardest thing I have ever & will ever have to go through. This event helped me change my thinking & feeling & changed my life in one of the most positive & significant ways. I can honestly say that I can speak of the feelings reflected because I have felt them.

Now, I am a better brother, man, & friend. This is all due to help from my faith. I have re-confirmed my foundation & begun to rebuild my house even better than before. The thing with faithful people is that we are challenged & are rewarded in excess of the size of our challenges for overcoming them & sometimes our houses must be taken down to make them into what we deserve. So, if things begin to seem to fall please think of my words if you think that they will help you & remember your faith. If you ever need a friend, feel free to get in contact with me. Peace, LOVE, & Happiness to you all!!!

Bless You!
Thomas

Good People?

In life, we meet many different types of people. We meet funny, serious, obsessive, compassionate, mean, rude, happy, etc. Some of these people have a profound impact & others are more like passers by. The thing is that people are many times very good at hiding who they really are or pretending that they are a good person. There are many examples that we have seen strewn through the mass media.

One example we have all heard of is the catholic priests that abused their position to take advantage of & abuse children. Some of the top leaders of Enron were very generous to their church. The CEO of WorldCom taught Sunday School. From the outside all of the people above seemed to be good upstanding people & Christians. The fact is that they were not good people or good Christians. They used others to improve their own position & achieve their own goals with blatant disregard to how their actions would hurt others.

These type of people are not just the major ones we hear of in the media. There are people just like this all around & we as people attempting to be good people living a life of integrity & faith must be mindful. This does not mean that we need to be overly guarded & suspicious, but we also cannot turn a blind eye to things we see in others that set off red flags to us. As much as we may want to like someone, we are given our senses of right & wrong as gifts from our God who put them in our heart along with what our meaning is on this earth. So, please be mindful of the people you allow to be close to you, because you deserve to have people that truly LOVE you in your life & to be rid of those that aren't truly good people. Peace, LOVE, & Happiness to you all!!!

Bless You!
Thomas

Better Judgement

First of all, thank you all for choosing to follow. It is flattering to think that you like what you read enough to wan to come back. I apologize for not writing much lately. I have been busy with the new weather. We only get so long to enjoy it, you know? I have been wanting to write, but have not been able to find the time until now & today I want to write about emotional attachment to situations.

I learned a very wise lesson a long time ago from my grandpa about reacting to things. He told me that sometimes you have to be able to detach enough from situations so that you can take a look at what is happening from a different perspective. He said imagine as if it wasn't happening to you, but like you were watching it happen to someone else. This way you don't emotionally attach to what happened & can make a clear judgment as to if there was something you could have done differently or if it was caused by something else.

Many people these days, including myself at times, have a very hard time not internalizing the things that happen in our lives. I do not discredit that there are surely times when you can & should take things to heart, if you will. The distinction that must be made is when to do so & when to avoid doing so. I think of it like my personal boundaries I set & am constantly looking to perfect. Boundaries are essential to ensure that we protect ourselves just enough while, at the same time, allowing us to also be open to what possibilities lie ahead of us. The one thing you have to ensure is that you do not set these out of fear. Setting boundaries out of fear will only stop you from seeing the potential you have inside.

My personal goal is to LOVE freely while ensuring I am treated fairly in my relationships. So, today I challenge you to imagine you were completely alone & write down what defines you & not in terms of relationships, but in terms of the things you do that you LOVE to the core. These things are you & they should be celebrated & never compromised because you are perfect the way you are. Peace, Love, & Happiness to all of you!!!

Bless You!
Thomas