I'm marveled

We took the fiery over to the island and seated ourselves on the upper deck. A father brought his two young children up and asked if they could sit in the two empty seats beside us. Reed was 8 and his sister maybe 9. Their father when down to the lower deck. Reed was sitting next to Jeanne and started the conversation by saying—How are you doing…! They were going with their family to stay on the island overnight and do the activities of the island. He told us that their family has done it before and they like to bring their bikes along. He was a very polite, sweet, and personal young boy. When we were going to depart, he quietly said to Jeanne—A little warning, watch out for the horse poop! Well, a little warning folks, watch out for the horse poop in this “It’s Saturday.”

I was working on a problem on my computer and the MI-Wizard asked if I rebooted it! Da! It fixed the problem instantly. He said a common computer error is called EBSAK—error between seat and keyboard! Or an id10t error is another. We were getting gas at Costco, and I asked the attendant what was the biggest problem he had with people—ignorance! Ouchy ouchy!

I am marveled with what I base my decisions on at times.  I think at times, I base my decisions on the wrong information. I wonder if at times I base my decisions on the garbage in my brain and not the good stuff. But the problem we all have is determining what is the garbage and what is the good stuff! It appears sometimes when we are soooo close to situations and have been around them for sooo long we become bias in our views which makes our decisions just plane skewed (i.e. that is my opinion). I felt I was making a decision using the wrong information recently. Jeanne and I had talks about it and she really helped me see it from 10,000 feet; she was very neutral, and I wasn’t. Ouchy ouchy! I was having a hard time accepting some folks who are just not going to change their ways that I wanted them to. I now realize they are not going to change; I must admit it and accept them, but they still frustrate me! Why don’t they just change; their lives would sooo much better!!!!!

I read while eating my oatmeal with half a banana on it--Emotional intelligence can be defined as our ability to interpret emotions in a constructive way. When someone has high emotional intelligence, it means they’re competent in evaluating the entire range of human emotions: sadness, happiness, anger, love, anxiety, excitement, gratitude, etc. It all comes down to identifying how we and others are feeling and knowing how to proceed in accordance with our estimation. Examples of high emotional intelligence include being able to let go of mistakes when nothing more can be done, showing love when a friend needs someone to support them, and embracing change when it’s time for a new chapter in your life. Emotional intelligence is something we might be able to control and change and make our lives much better. “Everything can be taken from a person but one thing: the last of a humans freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way,”  ~ Victor Frankl  Mary Lou Retton says—"Optimism is a happiness magnet. If you stay positive, good things and good people will be drawn to you.”  SusieQ says—erv, you have no idea how crazy my hormones run; they are as crazy as a wild donkey!

I marvel at how kind some folks are and I marvel how hateful some folks can be. I marvel at how humble some folks are and I marvel how arrogant some folks can be. I marvel how some folks have such strong faith in God and I marvel at how some folks who have such little faith in God. I just marvel, I guess.  My mouth is open most of the time, but I catch a lot of flies! It appears that different folks have a different flair or is it a different flare or maybe both. Saturday question—How would you describe your flair and your flare?

I marvel what we can do, even me! I have many options (i.e. we all do folks). Aren’t we something else! RickyRick says--God wouldn’t give you a list of things to do and not give you the time and ability to do them. We’re either trying to do too much or we’re wasting time. There’s really no other option. Either way, we need to learn to enjoy the moment. The Bible says, ‘All of us should . . . enjoy what we have worked for. It is God’s gift’ (Ecclesiastes 3:13 GNT). Too many of us fall victim to a terrible trap. I call it ‘when and then’ thinking. We believe ‘when’ we achieve a particular goal, we’ll be happy.” I personally try to enjoy each moment of my life. I try to make it a fun game!

CoachB says—Life is more like a video than a photo, a video keeps changing and a photo is static. We are dynamic folks who have the ability to adjust (i.e. we must be flexible and adaptable). We have the ability and the choice (i.e. even though it’s hard sometimes). Now life is more like a video as it changes constantly even from minute to minute. If we what to stay on top of life, we dramatically need to change with the circumstances of life that are around us. But we never change the principles that take us through any of the changes in life. Oh no! When our principles are solid, 99% of our decisions are already made.”  Think through that folks! I am marveled at how some folks can adjust and how some can’t. Such is life.

Here is something else that I marvel at, it’s when unethical folks and even folks who use unscrupulous actions succeed and those who are honest don’t. I marvel at that. It shouldn’t be but it seems to be that way sometimes. BusinessManHarold says—"We all would like to think that following the Bible’s high standards of doing business always result in world success, but that is not reality. It can be especially frustrating when unethical, unscrupulous people seem to thrive while we are struggling to do right. This conundrum is as old as history. In the Bible, a psalmist named Asaph was also having trouble reconciling why evil people around him were doing so well while he was floundering in life. He wrote, ‘When I tried to understand all this, it troubled me deeply till I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny’ (Psalm 73:16).” Now that is Asaph's opinion and each of us have our own and maybe some folks have no opinion.

Now this is just marvelous to me; how about you) I read this:  The human body represents a myriad of miracles. It consists of 206 bones, 639 muscles, four million pain sensors in the skin, 750 million air sacs in the lungs, 16 billion nerve cells, 30 trillion cells in all. The body is designed for living. Not only the body but the total person, inclusive of mind, spirit, and soul, is designed for life. We have minds to think. We are given emotions so we can feel and love and appreciate beauty. Totally astonishing to me. I just marvel at that.

I marvel at myself sometimes as how judgmental I am of others. I shouldn’t be but I catch myself being that way. Ouchy ouchy. I want to speak gentle to others and about others. I think maybe if I was in their shoes, I might act even worse than the way they act soooo who am I to judge but I do sometimes. I’m thinking of a particular situation with some folks who I am really going to try to speak gentler toooo. I learned from a crazy resource (i.e. a sports announcer) a tip for my life and that is to be kinder to myself. I can be unkind to myself sometimes. I’m just a little ol’ farm boy from a mile and quarter south of Roseland, MN who maybe has too high of expectations and demands of himself. Saturday question—Are you ever unkind to yourself? You have really done some amazingly good stuff in your life. I suggest you should marvel about yourself. BUT don’t get the big head like Pete’s head! Yikes, he seems to have a big head let me tell ya!

I marvel at all the opportunities you and I are given every day. Jeanne and I talk about this a lot; we have soooo many opportunities; we are just amazed. I hope we take advantage of them wisely. Motivational expert Zig Ziglar said, “Make today worth remembering.” Sometimes maybe we just waste our days. SusieQ says—How do we judge that anyway? Good question SusieQ, good question! The MI-Wizard says this--”It’s soooo simple, yet it makes such a difference. Pretend that every single person you meet has a sign around his or her neck that says, ‘Make me feel important.’”

RickyRick wrote this that I read while eating my oatmeal with half a banana on it—"You can go 40 days without food and around three days without water. You can go an estimated eight minutes without air. But you can’t go a single second without hope. It’s an essential part of life. When hope is gone, life is over. Because hope is in such short supply in our society today, people fall for all kinds of scams. They trust in false hopes like astrology, big bank accounts, quack cures, or a steady career. Inevitably, those false hopes disappoint. In fact, nothing disappoints worse than false hope. So where do you turn to find real hope?" Real Hope is pretty marvelous, I think! There is no medicine like hope, no incentive soooo great, no tonic sooo powerful as the exception of something better tomorrow.

I am marveled that I can’t forget some things (i.e. just can’t get them out of my mind when I should), like let it go erv and then some things I can’t remember when I should remember them (i.e. I just forget them when I should remember them). Soooo what things do you think I should forget, let go?  And what things shouldn’t I forget, not let go? When at our 4^th of July Mellema party, our ages were from 3s to 80s; what a fun time to see all of us interact. My kid sister a.k.a. the cruise director and one of her daughters put together teams and then we did team games together. What a hoot. Not all ages could do the activities of the games the same (i.e. the youngins and the oldins needed help or just couldn’t do them. What a hoot to see all the ages just having a good time together. I would guess all of them will remember the fun time differently. What do you think? BUT hopefully, all of us will remember it! hahaha I heard one of the Mellema clan say during the team competition—This is not elementary school!  I think they were meaning not everyone is going to be a winner! I heard one of the youngins of the Mellema clan say during the time the cruise director was giving directions—What does the winning team get for winning? Now isn’t that interesting. It was obvious that some were more competitive that others. Oh yes! The cruise director told me—I give directions but none of them listen to me anyway; they just make up their own rules! What a hoot!

VelvetElvis says—The Bible points us to Jesus who in some mysterious way is behind it all.

Have a FUN day my friends unless you have other plans. (-:

erv

MyFriendJean said—We cannot direct the wind but we can adjust the sails.