Mikes Blog

Strength is a choice
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It is not easy to call upon your strength and to develop even more. Yet it is possible, and accessible, and highly beneficial.

People advise you to be strong, and of course it’s easy for them to say, while difficult for you to do. Nonetheless, it’s good advice.

Strength begins on the inside, and what’s there inside is largely up to you. No matter how many resources, advantages and connections you do or do not have, you have access to your own strength.

Strength is a choice. It comes from your intentions, your values, your priorities, your commitment to yourself and others.

Certainly, strength can be abused, but that doesn’t mean that strength itself is undesirable. It just means you must be careful and respectful with it.

Ask yourself what it will take to grow stronger inside, and seek to follow that path. Choose strength, and use it well.

— Ralph Marston

Simply enjoy
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Some things you can change, some things you must accept and endure. Some things you can simply enjoy.

Without the need to capture, to possess, to preserve or to modify, you can simply enjoy. Without having to impress yourself or anyone else, you can simply enjoy.

Let go, and enjoy the sound of water tumbling over the rocks. Delight in the experience of children playing as they will, without being coached or coddled or scolded.

Enjoy the moment in the moment. Enjoy not having to save it for later, confident that there will be other moments you can enjoy.

Enjoy when everything goes as you planned and even when everything doesn’t. Enjoy being able to enjoy, whatever each day may bring.

Joy is a powerful state to be in. Gently guide yourself there, and enjoy.

— Ralph Marston

Treasure of existence
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Treasure the strength you have gained in dark times. Treasure the joys you have discovered in the sunshine.

Treasure the friends you’ve made, the loves you’ve lost, the opportunity to share life with them all. Treasure the memories of what’s been, the beauty of what is, and your possibilities for the future.

What you treasure becomes more of a treasure. And you can find it in yourself to treasure it all.

Even the days that are far from pleasant still have value to add to your life. Even the stories with sad endings bring richness and depth to your experience.

Instead of striving to find things to treasure, see the treasure in whatever fills each moment. Life’s treasures are always present if you let them be.

Here, now, the treasure of existence surrounds you. See it, appreciate it, live it, and make it even more of a treasure by doing so.

— Ralph Marston

Life changes
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By very definition, life does not stand still. Whatever you’re not working to improve, time and circumstance are busy eroding.

You are in some ways different today than you were yesterday. Tomorrow you’ll be a little different than today.

You will change, the world around you will change, and there’s no getting away from that. What you can do is embrace the changes and do your best to push them in a positive direction.

That’s one reason gratitude is so beneficial to your life. Gratitude shines a bright light on what’s valuable and enables you to build upon that value.

Changes can be painful and frightening, yet they also open up new opportunities. Instead of wishing in vain that the changes would stop, look for how you and others can work to benefit from those inevitable changes.

Life changes, and with each change comes some positive potential. Choose to make the most of that potential, and do what you can to change life for the better.

— Ralph Marston