excited

It is said—Words express our thoughts! 

Excitement can be caused by us being anxious or by us being enthusiastic. Probably in either case it causes our heart to beat faster. Excitement probably can be caused by something joyful or by something uncertain. Probably in both feelings, excitement makes us feel alive. It gets our attention alright!

Fear causes excitement in our mind I think. Sooo what are we fearful of in our lives. I asked a few of you and it sure appears that many are fearful of failure and not being in control (i.e. very open and honest response). Now that’s something to be fearful about I guess. I have failures all the time and I’m surely not in control of very much; It sounds like I have a lot to be fearful about! But I’m not really very fearful; I’m really not ok, maybe sometimes I am! The old saying is-- “Public speaking was just found to be the number one ranked fear for adults. Number two…was death. DEATH came in at NUMBER TWO. That means if you’re at a funeral most people would rather be in the casket than giving the eulogy!!”

I have been told many times by many folks who I have met here in Yakima who know Jeanne that I have hit the jackpot meeting Jeanne. I agree, I have! At our age to meet and share life together is complete excitement for us. We are very grateful for this opportunity. We are very aware of it, and we don’t take it lightly. It doesn’t take away anything of our past but just gives us a new renewed life a.k.a. a new opportunity, excitement!

CoachB says that life is much better and enjoyable when we concentrate on the smooth parts of life and not the rough parts of life. And we all have/had/will have smooth parts and rough parts! Now that doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that out. In fact, a friend tells me that every situation might be 90 percent positive and 10 percent negative soooo we can decide what we are going to spend our time thinking about. I guess he is saying that nuttin in this world is 100 percent perfect. Saturday question—Does anyone enjoy being around someone who is always complaining and bitching about something? Do those folks really enjoy their life?

Another friend thinks that many folks have this type of fear and he is probably right (i.e. very honest and open)—"I’m going to come at the fear question from a small, everyday perspective. On a daily basis, the fear of not looking good or feeling smart enough or not having something you have (jealousy) motivates more people during the day than many other things. We all want to fit in.” Now that can get many folks excited for sure! Another friend put it this way--"I think people are primarily motivated by the fear of failure and/or embarrassment due to failure. Our society favors the successful and the fear of appearing anything other than drives people, even go so far as to live outside of their means to uphold an image."

I talked to a 21-year old young man in church recently who is doing an intern as a mechanical engineer.  I asked him how it was going—good, I like it but I find myself not as excited in doing physical activity on weekends that I normally was—how come—I’m tired or I think I’m lazy; I would rather just sit on the couch—well, that’s not good—I know, I am an adventurous person soooo it’s not my nature—soooo how are you changing your attitude—I have scheduled physical activities for my weekends that force me to get after it—wait until you get my age; then you really have to force yourself to throw those chips away and get your butt off the couch! We had a good laugh!

The preacher said something recently that really caught my attention—He said that all of us will encounter God sometime in our life and we have a choice to embrace Him with excitement or completely turn Him away and become hardened. I talked to an old friend who I grew up with from the Roseland area recently. He told me that he just can’t understand why folks don’t believe in God; I just don’t get it; I just don’t understand it.

Miguel, a speedy delivery driver for Prime delivered a package as I was outside the other day. I said—thanksamillion for the delivery—you’re welcome—you excited about your job—oh yes, I am; I get paid $21 an hour and have 4-10 hour days—are you saving any money—oh ya, I’m living with my mom and am saving soooo I can buy a trailer of my own—you seem to be a good person—I try—well keep it up; I wish you the best—you too; thank you sir!

I have many friends who are really happy; they seem to always be happy. Sorry to say, I know folks who always seem to be unhappy (i.e. pretty bitter it seems). One of my friends told me flat out, I am happy; I have been happy for decades! And I think he is and has been! He’s always excited about life. Sooooo why the difference do you think?

A friend said another fear folks have is the fear that folks will find out they are a fraud!  Ouchy ouchy! My friend said many folks will go to great lengths to cover up being a fraud. I guess that could really get some folks excited!  A friend of Jeanne who I have had the opportunity to visit with a couple of times really appears to be the real deal. Jeanne describes her as someone who lives her principals. Paul, not everyone can be a Paul, said--“Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong.” And then he summarized that summary by saying, “Let all that you do be done with love.” CoachB says—Learning does not happen until there is a change! Paul also said--"Nothing in the spiritual life has value unless it is accompanied by selfless, others-centered, God like love.” That gets me excited, yes it does.

I have to admit that I was excited and still am. Our children, their spouses, and our grandkids are vacationing in the Great Northwest and were with us for a couple of days. Wow! We really enjoyed them. Great excitement! There is a great line in the Walt Whitman poem “O Me! O Life!”: “The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life?  /Answer.  /That you are here—that life exists and identity, / That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.”

 Moses answered them with this strong prediction of God’s rescuing them from their enemies. His answer was simple: “Stand firm and you will see...The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.” Now that is exciting too! My opinion.

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

erv

MyDeceasedFriendJean said--People who do things that count never stop to count them.