Daily Gratitude: “No experience is wasted if I bring attention to it.”

What can you derive from an experience? How can you use it to shape your future…even if that future is just a few hours.

We lost power yesterday for about 5 hours. I didn’t open my refrigerator because it wasn’t clear how long the power would be out and I wanted to keep as much cold in there as possible.

That meant I could only have warm soda and warm water. I was missing my caffeine fix and my morning shake.

I had to get my camping gear out to power up a small USB light once I was done using my phone for my basic morning tasks. But I also had to charge the phone.

And it was raining so that was messing with my intent to do a heat acclimating walk.

Poor me.

Was any of this in my control? Some was and some wasn’t. The weather and the power outage were not. The rest was.

I ended up spending a lot of time working on editing my book (it’s printed out so I didn’t need my computer for that, Just some light.

I went out to walk a short walk later in the day. It was warm but not real heat training.

I got so much done on my book that it felt really good. I needed that time to “be with” my book.

I felt gratitude for all i have that makes my life easier. It also reminded me of the times in my life when this wasn’t such a big deal. We didn’t have all these electronics so when the sun came up we could still read or write something until the power was restored.

I am grateful for that experience yesterday. It also reminded me that this upcoming race can be full of surprises and my only course of action is to deal with what I can control and figure out how to deal with what I can’t.

Who’d have thought that a short, 5 hour power outage could teach so much about life?

All our experiences can do this.

Daily Gratitude: “The greatest danger to our future is apathy.”

Did you know that that’s part of the strategy behind the constant bombardment of news that we’ve had since 2025?

We’ve been under siege and it’s been intentional. I have seen it in myself. I used to be at least a little interested in what the news stories were. I stay away from almost all reporting. I don’t read the newspapers and don’t watch TV but I read one news email to see the topics.

But in the past few months I’ve noticed that I don’t even have an interest in that. Why? Because I can’t keep up. My nervous system can’t handle all the drama and it’s all drama. So my protective brain just shuts off. It’s taken me all these years to learn to calm my nervous system that i cannot expose it again. I don’t want it to get all worked up again.

All this “incoming” leads to apathy. When we are apathetic, we no longer care. But we have to care. We’ve seen what’s happened when power is unchecked. We can’t let that continue to happen. The country has no more checks and balances. No matter what side you’re on (think about how pathetic that statement is – why do we have to have sides and not just be for what’s good for everyone?) you have to admit we need checks and balances.

Don’t become apathetic simply because you’re not a government official and “can’t do anything”. There’s something for you to do. Everyone one of us has to fight apathy. Otherwise we’re saying that all those people who died protecting our freedom died in vain. This is why I say Memorial Day must be every day. Honor those who’ve lost their lives by fighting your own apathy.

Daily Gratitude: “You cannot change what you are not aware of.”

I’m always advising people to do reflection and make lists and inventories. Review, review, review.

Do you even know what your core beliefs are? Those are those things that you believe beyond a shadow of a doubt. But do you know not only what they are but where they came from?

These are the things you were taught as you were growing up. When you hear the same thing day after day, you begin to believe it….especially if you never questioned it.

A belief is just a thought you keep thinking. It’s not as if God came to you and told you to believe that people who don’t look like you aren’t good people. No, it wasn’t from God but so many of us act like what we believe was decreed by the almighty. And it really was just your parents, your teachers, your spiritual leaders, peers, media etc.

Do you want to continue to just blindly believe something you heard repeatedly in school? Especially if you hated school?

The way our beliefs develop is surreptitious and can he dangerous. I think we need them as we’re growing so that we have some guidelines. But where all these influencers (parents, teachers, spiritual leaders) go wrong is that they don’t teach children to question and review their beliefs.

You have to be aware of what’s going on around you and inside you and be willing to examine these things in detail. Then be willing to change your thinking and your beliefs.

If you’re upset or frustrated or angry or any emotion, step away and ask yourself where that feeling came from. Even if you can’t answer the question, just the fact that you asked it will be the start of a new awareness habit.

Start today. How did you react to what you read here? Where did that come from?