Category Archives: Walking Wisdom

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Miracle or Just an Invention?

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Here’s one definition of miracle: extraordinary and astonishing happening that is attributed to the presence and action of an ultimate or divine power.

What constitutes ‘divine power’?

I think we should pay attention to those things that are all around us – those we take for granted on a daily basis. It is my opinion that we have become too glib about what surrounds us. I believe there are many miracles in our lives but we just don’t see them anymore. We’re always looking elsewhere. Most of what makes our day go smoothly was probably once considered a miracle – the inventions – the airplane, electricity, the car, going to outer space, antibiotics, vaccines, etc..

The cynics would say those things are just inventions. I say they are miracles. It gives me pleasure and happiness to look around me and see all the miracles that have made my life as perfect as it is. And it is perfect in so very many ways. Do I give thanks for this? Not enough. Do I take everything for granted? Unfortunately, Yes. My heater wasn’t working when it was so cold here last week. When the guys fixed it, did I realize how fortunate I was that a thing called a “heater” was in existence now? You bet. I thought about it even more for the 4 days I froze my butt off. It made me remember that the house I lived in when I was young had a coal bin in the cellar. Those are probably words many of you don’t even understand. Cellars are now basements and coal bins were the walled off sections in that cellar where they stored the coal for heating. What a pain that was.

Look around you. Stop taking each day and each “gift” in your life for granted.

Start each day anew and see how many “miracles” you can identify. You can do it when you wake up, when you go for a walk, on your way to work or to the store or even lying in your bed. Treat each person you meet each day as a miracle in your life. Soon, the miracles will multiply and you’ll spot even more.

Let’s focus on the good people and things around us. Each of us has a daily miracle. We just need to open our eyes to find it

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Are You Using Visualization Effectively?

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Visualization is not daydreaming. It’s a focused technique where you do mental imagery and see things exactly as you want them to be. You’ve heard the saying “everything happens twice” (my paraphrase). This is an old belief that is now, like so many others, incorporated into many motivational speaker’s repertoire. What it means, though, is that we first create what we want in our minds and then it happens in our lives. It may not be right away but it will happen. I had wanted to do the cross country trek for over 30 years and thought about it in my mind so many times. It took 30 years but it finally got started. I put it that way because you all know that it didn’t get finished…yet. I’m still working on that. When I was a kid I only wanted 3 things – to be a doctor, to have a horse and to meet Mickey Mantle. I ended up with two of the three so that’s pretty good. 


Why did I put the subject line as I did? Because if you're like me, you may not have been using visualization the best way. I have only discovered this recently. Most people, including me, think that you should visualize the outcome you want and if you're specific enough and rehearse it, it will come. But what I have discovered is that it's really helpful if you write down potential adversities that you will encounter and then have specific visualizations of how you will be overcoming or dealing with them. You need to do this for every type of obstacle you can think of. If you go along with the everything happens twice, this make sense. If you just write the obstacles down and in writing figure out a plan then that is good too. You are still creating the solution in your mind, just not in a formal visualization. Try writing it out and then do a visualization -  watching yourself figure out how to get across the stream without getting totally immersed or watching yourself making sure your kids are safe while you're doing a business video without them barging in, when these things occur, it will be like second nature to implement the solution. 

This type of visualization makes so much sense for we all know that when we want something big, there will be things that are considered obstacles in the way. If we anticipate and visualize how to navigate despite the obstacle, they then are no longer obstacles. 

This is exciting to me and will be something I implement for Vol State training. 

Hope you have a great day - you will if you visualize it!

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Are You A Prisoner of War?

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Wars are not just external. We wage wars within almost each and every day and sometimes those wars are much more fierce than any others. Why? Because we are waging war with ourselves. Why on earth would we do that? There are many reasons but most are buried in our past and we may never know what they are even with years of therapy. 

You don't need therapy to know that there is a war brewing or already raging inside you. You can just FEEL it. It's those heart pounding, sweat inducing, shallow breathing times of our lives and our days when you just don't feel good. I am not referring to not feeling good physically although that will be the next step if you don't use your own United Nations to end the war. I'm talking about that psychological tug of war you're most likely experiencing and don't even know it.

Your kids need this, your spouse wants that, your job demands something else and on and on. Your to do list rolls down the wall and onto the floor it's so massive. You know you could really use some alone time, a massage, a walk or run with some friends, a night out, uninterrupted time to be with or talk with a friend. But when? Everything and everyone else is pulling at your insides, tugging every which way to get your full attention. There are skirmishes within the wars. Each of the kids wants your full attention so they are at war with each other;
your spouse is jealous of the time the kids and your job take so he/she is at war with the kids and your job;
your boss demands your full attention and time - you have to produce perfectly - there's a war there between your boss and your family.

Can you say 'no' to any of these? Can you stop that constant nag on your nervous system? If you don't, there is a high likelihood that your body will then step in and "help you out" by manifesting something physical. It's trying to get your attention. If you don't get that message, it will send you another one and it will continue doing that until you do get the message. I have told you of how that occurred in my life and unfortunately I didn't hear the incoming calls until it was painfully obvious - literally.  I learned a lot from that but hope you don't have to go through similar experiences although from reading your comments I think many of you are in receipt of the same kind of telegrams - do they even have telegrams anymore?

The other day I received a "text" from my soul. Fortunately I have grown to the point where I can identify some of these and ask the question "ok, what message is this experience trying to give me?" If you listen to your intuition, you'll usually be able to interpret it correctly. This signal was telling me to slow down. I know that sounds funny for someone who's retired but I have been going at full speed in the last 6 months or so and even more since the first of the year. I am reading as much as I can trying to read a book a day. There is a lot of material going into my skull and onto my brain's receptive surface. But I am not taking time to enjoy or process it. I put the books to the side telling myself I want to take notes but because it's on to the next one, that doesn't happen. So there's a war between the new knowledge/input and the application of that knowledge. As a result of listening to the message and knowing that if I don't pay attention to it now, the future messages won't be as benign, I decided to make a change. I will take one day a week where all I do is walk and then spend the rest of the day reviewing everything I have learned the previous week. Sort of clearing the slate to start the next week. I will have a peaceful ending to that war.

What about you? What can you do to ease the pain of the parts inside of you that are fighting so hard for your love and attention? What tools can you use? Will you use them? Do you want to wait until you develop pain or illness?

If you've been successful in helping to put out these fires within, post in the comments any suggestions you have for folks. We have to win the war within before we have any hopes of dealing with the external world.