Barbara Clark, The Spirited Strider

I Appreciate Websites That Work

I appreciate websites that work! I’ve had my main website off-line for some months and got some help from my host a few weeks back but some items are still not working. My pages (albeit 1) keep giving me the error page.

While I could get help for this again, I’ve been busy with other things so I will fix it when I make time for it. I appreciate that I can relax in the knowing that it will work out in the end.

This unwanted contrast really makes me appreciate websites that work, like this appreciation blog! This free blog has always been rock steady – always there, always working. I appreciate the ease and flow of these free services. I appreciate wordpress dot com for its ease in making a blog or website and I appreciate that I can easily change the look of this site and it all works.

When we run into things we don’t like or want, it’s always an opportunity to appreciate what is working or on what we already have. Technology does make our lives easier in so many ways! Computers, cell phones and social media have added many things to our lives to appreciate.

BUT, writing this quick post has caused me to reflect on the number of times I complain about my computer at work: it’s slow in booting up, it crashes often and forces me to re-start, or a program just freezes. There are a lot of glitches. And I’m not alone, as others in my office complain of similar problems.

What can I appreciate about all of this? For starters, we’ve gotten to know the cool people in our IT department over the years and they’ve gotten away from their desks and traveled to ours. – Stepping away from your desk is a healthy thing. 🙂 – Every staff member in my office can rally together in the collective desire for an improved efficiency of computers. That’s a lot of energy for an improved system just waiting for us to align to. We get opportunities to share our appreciation of the IT staff when they “fix” the problems, too. Collective appreciation makes everyone feel good! When the computers are “down,” we have opportunities to engage with one another, make a phone call and reach out to someone, step away from our desks, and take a break from looking at the computer screen all day. I can appreciate those moments for that.

So in the spirit of appreciating websites that work, I also am appreciating all that unwanted contrast at work because I also realize how much of what I have at home works like a charm: every time! I have 2 computers, one that is older but still works and a laptop that is fast, efficient, cool and fun. I so appreciate that. I appreciate the fact they are mine. There are people who don’t have computers so I don’t take that for granted.

So the next time I find myself complaining about the lack of speed of my computer at work, I will remember this post and it surely will make me smile as I remember that unwanted contrast is just an opportunity to appreciate what is working. And there’s a lot in my life that works: even if I can’t get to all the pages of my main website yet!

I Appreciate Different Cultures

Open Heart Culture I just returned from a business trip to Vietnam and did a stopover in Dubai on the way home. The photo I took of myself was from the desert safari I took while out in the Arabian Desert.

I appreciate that I have a job in international education that allows me opportunities to learn about and meet people from all different cultures. I appreciate expanding my own world by experiencing the world of others. These experiences have allowed me to grow in so many positive ways and contributed to a greater sense of my own self-awareness. Exposure to other cultures both in my own country and abroad has served me well in knowing myself, in developing empathy for others, in understanding different points of view, and how life truly is better when shared with others.

Engaging with people from other cultures has led me to have a deeper understanding and awareness of how cultural perceptions can cause miscommunication and misunderstandings. It has helped me to be a better communicator with all kinds of people and to engage in conversations about culture that help me grow and learn more. I always welcome an opportunity to share with others and to learn from them. I really appreciate my field of international education for I am always learning from all the people I meet around the world.

I love people, I value diversity and I value a world filled with acceptance and peace. I appreciate exposure to different cultures and engaging with them as an avenue to bring me and the world a bit closer to each other. I really appreciate my life in international education and it is my hope that every person gets opportunities to engage positively with others who may be different from them, as these are opportunities for personal growth. They are also opportunities for contributing to world peace and understanding. Life would just be plain boring if we were all the same!

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Let’s Celebrate The Lottery Winners

The Powerball lottery jackpot is expected to reach around 1.3 billion dollars this week, the highest in all the world’s history of lotteries. When you talk to people, there’s excitement in the air with people dreaming and sharing what they’d do with their winnings. You also hear the nay-sayers, too, who point out the odds of winning. Those nay-sayers are my unwanted contrast and a reminder that I love to bask in the feeling of fun, excitement and celebration of winning. Feelings of excitement for what is to come and for the possibilities of realizing dreams is what makes playing the lottery fun for me. It unites strangers in conversations that otherwise wouldn’t have happened. I see clerks smiling and laughing as they give out tickets, too. Everyone is talking about it, so people are more engaged with each other. That’s such a good thing to see and feel. I appreciate how the possibility of winning a lottery jackpot brings people together in a vibe of excitement, joy and fun.

When I turn on my TV or am on the internet, I hear and see stories of past lottery winners who either lost it all or are in debt. I’m really tired of hearing these negative stories! Aren’t you? Wouldn’t it be nice to focus on stories of all those people who have won the lottery that are doing quite well? Wouldn’t it be nice to hear their stories of how they paid off their debts, set their families up in an abundance of financial security, took their dream vacations of a lifetime, bought a house, gave generously to causes they care about and other success stories?

Pointing out the odds and focusing on the people for whom handling all that financial abundance didn’t go so well is taking away from the good vibes of excitement, fun, and the joy of winning. It creates doubts, fears or a let-down, frankly, if you allow others to influence you about your chances of realizing any of your dreams, whether it’s winning the lottery or going for that dream job, for example.

Instead, let’s celebrate the winners! Let’s celebrate that we are in it to win it! After all, you have to play in order to win. Let’s celebrate that we have the finances to play and be happy if we win or not! Let’s not judge who wins or wish for a group to win it, as opposed to an individual. In law of attraction terms, that’s splitting up your energy of being happy only for certain people, so you can’t possibly attract pure joy in that. Let’s be happy for whoever wins! Let’s celebrate the joys we’ve had in the journey of playing the lottery and be happy, no matter the result.

We’ll all be happier when we quit casting doubts and fears about our chances in life, when we quit feeling jealous of what others have and we find a way to celebrate the little things in our lives and exercise our imagination about what is possible. Appreciation is our best friend for happiness. I celebrate whenever I find money, even a penny I find on the ground. I celebrate I have the funds to pay my bills, too.

So celebrate and appreciate where you’re at right now. With the lottery jackpot being so high, I celebrate that I can stretch my imagination of what I’d do with all that money and stretching my imagination is something to celebrate! I’m appreciating and savoring the fun in all of this, just as I do when I find a penny on the ground. And if you can’t feel excitement for finding a penny, I suggest you start a daily habit of appreciating. When you appreciate daily, you may just find more pennies or a dime. Or maybe that lottery jackpot! Can you imagine? I can!

So let’s have fun and celebrate the lottery winners, no matter what!

To the Hawkeyes.

I appreciate this team and this post! Here’s to both of them!

Joe to the World

I woke up this morning, still in disbelief. I checked Twitter, Facebook, ESPN; they all confirmed what I had hoped was merely a bad dream.

The Hawkeye’s run at perfection is over. And as reality sets in for me (while, admittedly, my denial persists), I take to the only outlet I know: writing melodramatic, over-emotionalized, hyperbole-laden monologues. Sue me.

This monologue, however, is less never-ending list of what-ifs and hypotheticals, and more a toast to the best damn thing to happen during my college career:

Here’s to the 12 teams the Hawkeyes played first this year. To the 12 teams who, despite their best efforts, could not overcome the mighty Hawkeyes.

Here’s to the burning heat of September games and the freezing snow-covered games of November. To the fans that refused to leave night games and who shivered through snoozers to sing “In Heaven there is no Beer.”

Here’s to the 2014…

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Turn On Love

There’s been a lot of talk about love this week. With the Supreme Court decision legalizing same sex marriages in all 50 states, we’ve seen the hashtag #lovewins all over social media and the internet. I appreciate this celebration of love. I appreciate that I have found ways to love myself, too, which allows me to love others. I appreciate authors like Louise Hay and Catherine Ponder for their beautiful words on love. I appreciate poets like Maya Angelou and Rumi for poetic and empowering words about love. I appreciate Jesus for loving us unconditionally. Regardless of your religious beliefs, how can you argue with love? Everyone deserves love. This world of ours would be a better place if we all could “be” love more often. The Beatles were right when they sang “All we need is love.”

Today I’m celebrating that I love myself enough to know what’s the best for me. I’ve made some recent decisions for myself that have been acts of self-love. Self-love is the best kind: for when we are loving ourselves, we are more apt to spread our love to others.

I’ve seen the hateful remarks on social media against the recent Supreme Court decision. I’ve seen the internet reports of southern black churches being burned since the racist terrorism in Charleston. This is the time for love to shine forth. As hard as it may seem, we can see people spreading love in these horrific situations. By choosing love and loving actions and words, we spread more happiness into our lives and to others.

These times call for new habits in each of us that serve us by operating from a place of love. I’m reminded of a practice that Catherine Ponder recommends where she suggests we “turn on love” in her The Dynamic Laws of Prosperity book. Basically, it goes like this:

Meditate on love and affirm “I let the divine love now be made alive in me.”
Turn on love in your daily life by affirming silently to everything: “Let divine love be made alive in thee.” Do this with all things -clothes, car, job, people, and even to your dreams that haven’t manifested yet.

This is the time to “turn on love” when we read, hear and see hateful comments and behaviors around us. It’s the loving thing to do. Love wins!

Starting My Morning

How See the light1 do you start your morning? Do you begin with appreciation for another day, a prayer or are you still stressing out over the worries of the day before? Or maybe you’re one of those people who is always running late, and you jump out of bed, hurriedly thinking about all the things you need to get done that day.

How you start the day can pave the way for how your day develops.

I’ve found that the way I start my morning really affects how the rest of my day goes. I intend to see the light in everything and in everyone each day and that includes how I start my morning. I appreciate learning this simple technique and discipline that really has made a difference in how I experience my life. My morning start begins like this:

When I wake up, I am thankful for another day. I find things to mentally appreciate before getting to the bathroom. Often I verbalize them out loud. There is power in saying things out loud. It doesn’t even take a minute to do this, and I often find myself smiling. It feels good to smile and appreciate, no matter how tired I may be in the morning.

It’s that simple. This simple tip can pave the way for more things to appreciate as the day goes on. It puts me in a good mood. It affects how I relate to other people. This practice has led me to other practices, including this blog, journals, meditation and pre-paving my day as I go along. I really appreciate that I start my morning with appreciation!

Today’s Funnies!

I appreciate laughter and the joy it brings in my life and others. Laughter is so contagious, too, so it’s good to spread it around.

One of my friends on Facebook shared this video of a prank. I don’t always find pranks funny but I really loved this one. It shows how impatient we can get! Sometimes you just have to laugh at ourselves. I appreciate that I can do that often. Hope you enJOY the video!

Here’s your permission slip to have an amazingly awesome day

Such a great story of believing, getting rid of limiting beliefs and allowing all the good stuff in!

Pam Grout

“There is something more — it is the unseen essential, and everyone has access to it.” –Bryant McGill

Some people collect wine. Others collect old cars. I collect stories of the unseen, stories that the ancients called miracles.

My hope in sharing some of these stories sent to me by readers is that you will consider them your personal permission slip to find your own spiritual affinity for the unmarked trail that leads to joy and peace.

Here’s one that popped into my email a few moments ago:

“I find myself constantly asking the Universe for fun ways to show me my power to manifest things just for the fun of it. I ask for easy things ~ show me a purple car (I like purple better than “sunset beige”) or license plates with triple numbers or how about a rainbow today. Its just so fun to see how the…

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Summer is here!

I appreciate everyday, I really do! You wouldn’t know it by my absence from this blog, though. lol Today is the fir broccoli spouts on their way up st day of summer and I just love summers. I love the hot weather, the green in all the plants and the vegetables and flowers that flourish. I love the sound of children playing, the smell of grilling in the backyard and the longer days than winter.

Today is the first day of summer and I appreciate I’ve got some vacation time this week. I’m experimenting with sprouts in the kitchen and some new flowers on the porch. I love gardening and while I’m a bit behind this year, I appreciate the thrill of planting and watching it grow. It’s going to be a great season for sure!