Focus on Goodness and Good Times

Do you want goodness and good times? Do you want to make the world a better place, to make a difference?  

What can one person do, you ask? 

There is so much to do.

I came across a quote the other day that made me smile. “A raindrop never admits its responsibility for the flood.”

Traveling this country I have discovered the world is not as bad as it is painted to be. 

Everyone ….yes, EVERYONE!  …wants  goodness  and good times. 

Everyone is beating down the paths to their  places of worship because we long for peace and good will.

“What the mind perceives, it will achieve.”

I believe this to be true. We are all proclaiming our good intentions and desires for a better world. So, what are we doing wrong?

I am offering  you my simple theory.

A simple idea yet so difficult to achieve.   Because the very concept and lifestyle in which we profess that we long for … that  utopia of peace and good will  which we are frightened will not come about … can not  manifest,  because we don’t have our eyes on the prize, which is goodness and love. We do not have faith. We do not believe. Which is it? Do we believe in evil or goodness? I believe we can’t have it both ways.

Choose one. 

That is my challenge.

 Believe  there is only good.

 For one week, only see the good. Erase all  “Yeah buts … from your thoughts.  If you do this, not only will your life change, but also so will your world. GUARANTEED!

Decide. 

Good or evil? 

Which will you choose to believe?

If the marathon runner sees the race as too long, too steep, or too many obstacles he will not finish he has lost the faith that he can finish let alone win.

You marry someone not to make your life better, but because you want to make your partner’s  life better.  If you marry for the former reason, your marriage will fail.

Focus on those  relationships  with  what the Dali Lama calls, Sacred Friends

“In life we have friends and then we have sacred friends. Friends are easy to love and easy to forgive. Sacred friends are very hard to love.”

Tell me what you think. If you meet my challenge I want to  hear from you!

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Change Your Life -- The Great Listen 2016

Change happens on that long stretch of rough road,

after cruising along, sometimes for miles, or years at a smooth, comfortable clip. It happens after the joy resulting from successfully   weathering   the last stormy stretch. You are thinking to yourself, “Life can’t get any better than this.”   

Change hangs around the next approaching bend. It occurs with   one hand on the wheel, as you are leaning back and counting your blessings.   You round the curve, even hold your head up, proud to have come so far. “I have arrived. I’ve reached my destination on the happy road of destiny,” you say.

Nothing stays the same. The straightaway becomes a bend.  The weather cools from balmy summer days to wintery blizzards, or thundering nights.  On a bigger scale, neighborhoods evolve, people move.  Everything is forever shifting –– attitudes, feelings, and perspectives. Reform, repair, revision is   inevitable.

When we are young, we are   like the salmon who swim upstream.  We wanted what we want and we strain against the currents of opposition to reach our goals.

Our willful efforts may exhaust us, but the desire to achieve pushes us. When we were young, we stood our ground. We did not back down.

Fighting the forces challenging us, the effort itself changed us, like the river’s path, and we became stronger, like the saplings in the gales.

 Like past generations,   today’s folks and those to come will face transformations of an epic nature as well as the smallest changes, but all significant. Men and women, even children will maneuver their route with its twists and turns functioning only with the knowledge, which we have imparted upon them. 

I believe in storytelling.  As representatives of history, we must share our experiences with those stepping up to take the wheel.

It is my dream that we all relate our victories and our failures, too, in order that our children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren may learn how to   stand their ground and not back down. It is my dream that we teach this next team how to respect values and hold everyone in high regard.  However, these upcoming generations need to know what it was like for us, what happened and what it is like now.

 

StoryCorps.com is a tool to achieve this. Please check out the website and download the app. Interview and record your parents’ experiences strength and hope. These stories will be placed in the archives of the Smithsonian Institute forever. And most importantly, in the process, I guarantee you will discover more and become closer to your family than you could ever imagine –– which just might change your life.

Change your life. The Great Listen 2016 - StoryCorps.com

The Great Listen 2016


Books By Judy Howard