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Old 11-11-2018, 07:04 AM
offkey offkey is offline
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Default Count Your Blessings

Reading of the California wildfires and shootings, and the anger all across America, along with all the other discord and trouble in the world, makes me need to stop and count my blessings.
I am alive and living with my beautiful wife of 45 years, we share 3 children and 7 grandchildren, and a great little stray dog we got from a friend in California. We have a safe warm home, enough of everything and not too much of anything. I have time to play with my toys, guitars, recorders , bicycles, and a little wood shop.
I have my troubles and health issues like everyone, but they pale in comparison to my blessings. I hope it is the same for you all in ABF land. And I invite you to share your blessings as well. It is good for the spirit.

Last edited by Kerbie; 11-11-2018 at 08:33 AM. Reason: Edited topic
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Old 11-11-2018, 07:27 AM
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As I read your post, I am practicing Gary Davis', "Let Us Get Together"on my 00 and thinking the same thing.

Years ago, my grandfather used to take me to the local park. At the top of a hill in the park was a WW1 memorial - he would look at the names and touch the bronze plaques one by one. For me, it was always a pleasant visit - for him, I can only guess what was going through his mind.

Later in life, I put two and two together. Not only did these plaques name kids that he had grown up with (and were now gone), but he had been an Army doc. Who knows what horrors he saw in those years? No antibiotics, gas attacks, and horrible injuries that I cannot begin to imagine.

In this country, and in this time, we are blessed with riches. We are also blessed with a respect for life and the ability to understand that we are many people, united.

11/11/2018 - Remembering the end of "the War to End All Wars"

I wish all of the AGF peace, health and prosperity through the holiday season and into the new year.

Rick

PS - and may you all have an NGD real soon!
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Old 11-11-2018, 07:45 AM
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Originally Posted by offkey View Post
Reading of the California wildfires and shootings, and the anger all across America, along with all the other discord and trouble in the world, makes me need to stop and count my blessings.
I am alive and living with my beautiful wife of 45 years, we share 3 children and 7 grandchildren, and a great little stray dog we got from a friend in California. We have a safe warm home, enough of everything and not too much of anything. I have time to play with my toys, guitars, recorders , bicycles, and a little wood shop.
I have my troubles and health issues like everyone, but they pale in comparison to my blessings. I hope it is the same for you all in ABF land. And I invite you to share your blessings as well. It is good for the spirit.
Yup, like old-ish men everywhere and from every era, I feel like the world is going to hell but my life has been so good for so long I have to stop every now and then and wonder why I got to be so fortunate when so many aren't.

I'm about to turn 60, have a wife who I've spent about 35 mostly blissful years with (33 of them married). We have two daughters on either side of 30 who have grown into wonderful women with really happy full lives of their own, both with great guys and pets - no grandkids yet, but probably won't be long. I too have plenty of everything I need and enough of what I want and too much of pretty close to nothing. As Saul Bellow or Joseph Heller once said after attending a dinner party with many fabulously wealthy friends, "I have something they'll never ever have - enough".

By accident of birth I've grown up in the time and place that is the most affluent in the history of the world and I believe I lived much of my life (so far) in the peak of that. I've worked plenty hard and had my share of difficult moments, but I can honestly say I've never really suffered in any meaningful way. I've never had to experience war first-hand - I was a little too young for Viet Nam and a old enough and established enough in a non-military career that I wouldn't have to fight in the first Gulf War unless it had gotten a lot bigger and a lot longer than it was.

My health has been such that for most of my life I've been very active and athletic and as health problems have gotten in the way of that in recent years I've been able to go back and pursue less active passions from my youth, namely photography and guitar - I loved them when I was young and I love them again now in my dotage. I'm a much better photographer than musician but I love playing music more than just about anything. I had a career that I found challenging and really enjoyed for many years, until I didn't. And I did well enough (only partially due to my own industriousness - lots of it due to luck) to retire not long after I stopped enjoying it.

I've been so fortunate for so long I sometimes have to pinch myself. I won some existential lottery just by being born in the right time and place. It hasn't all been perfect, but I can't think of any significant decision I'd make differently if I had it to do over. And I can't imagine a better place to be than where I am right now. I hope I have another few decades left, but if I die tomorrow, I still will have come out so far beyond anything I could have hoped for - well, there just aren't words that are adequate.

My only wish is that my kids and any grandkids who come along could have it anywhere near as good as I have. Given the state of the world, I'm not optimistic about that and it pains me to think of what they may have to go through. My only solace is that old men have ALWAYS felt this way and, so far, have mostly been wrong. While I obviously don't THINK I'm wrong, I can be so arrogant as to think I'm right where all of those other generations of old guys haven't been. So I hope beyond hope that I have this wrong too and that my kids and grandkids will have lives as blessed and great as mine has been and continues to be.

-Ray

Last edited by Kerbie; 11-11-2018 at 08:34 AM. Reason: Edited quote
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Old 11-11-2018, 08:21 AM
imwjl imwjl is offline
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Yes, the idea of count your blessing is correct but don't be swayed by the negative or how pop news mostly covers stuff that gets people emotional.

Think about the whole world. There's progress against poverty and poor sanitation. For quite a while we've had goodness and democracy beating the competition. My pretty amazing late octogenarian mom stopped by and pointed out all the things my daughter can do that's the norm now. Forget the bad news mentioned and look at the indisputable fact that a lot of people were engaged.

One of the two papers I subscribe to has a good news section. More should. I don't have a TV antenna that works or cable but I watch TV when traveling. I'm convinced a lot of people have the wrong attitude because they sit staring at or listening to negative and bad content.

Go outside. Go volunteer. Go do something for a youth program. Don't be a puppet with your strings pulled by negative stuff no matter what direction they lean. Then count your blessings for the good that really exists.

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Last edited by Kerbie; 11-11-2018 at 08:35 AM. Reason: Prohibited topic
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Old 11-11-2018, 08:23 AM
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I am grateful to see this thread and to read the posts! Wonderful to start this day with my heart opened by the posts that are here.

In addition, I am grateful that I slept fairly well last night, that my breathing is easy and unimpeded (many cannot even say that!), that I can get out of bed easily and can readily stand up and quickly put my clothes on. I know these are very small things...but after reading this thread, I feel grateful for them, and find it easy to recall friends and family who have died, the friends who are still alive but who have Parkinson's disease, the friends who have significant chronic pain who cannot move so freely, etc, etc.

In terms of the rest of my life: it is as good as it has ever been. I live in beauty and relative quiet. There is great harmony in my household most of the time. I had a great career that I loved, and that has provided the foundation for my retirement. My life is full of kind, well-intentioned, honest people: friends, family, neighbors, community. The folks I know who are not so kind or well-intentioned usually do not affect me much: I hope they find contentment and come to appreciate the value of kindness, and I move on.

There is so much to be grateful for in this moment. And millions of blessings that have come to me as I was walking the path of my life to this point. Recalling them now is so sweet and uplifting.

How lovely to find this thread this morning!
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Old 11-11-2018, 08:31 AM
AmericanEagle AmericanEagle is offline
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The only blessing I have is that I am still alive despite a horrible life beginning at a very young age. I am 51 now and have much more bad memories than good ones.
I break down and cry at least once a week when reality hits me.
I am in therapy and it’s helping just a little.
I am happy for, and yes a bit envious of, those who have had a great life and are truly happy.
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Old 11-11-2018, 08:47 AM
Muddslide Muddslide is offline
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I would count my blessings, but really they are numberless. I have some health issues but they are largely self-imposed...brought on by a youth spent living too fast and hard and recklessly.

I've had my trials and hurdles and setbacks and even tragedies. Battle scars. I'm still here and I have a lot of love and happiness.

I have very little material wealth at this point, but live like a king compared to most of the world's citizens.

Most importantly, I have love and happiness.
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Old 11-11-2018, 11:30 AM
offkey offkey is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by imwjl View Post
Yes, the idea of count your blessing is correct but don't be swayed by the negative or how pop news mostly covers stuff that gets people emotional.

Think about the whole world. There's progress against poverty and poor sanitation. For quite a while we've had goodness and democracy beating the competition. My pretty amazing late octogenarian mom stopped by and pointed out all the things my daughter can do that's the norm now. Forget the bad news mentioned and look at the indisputable fact that a lot of people were engaged.

One of the two papers I subscribe to has a good news section. More should. I don't have a TV antenna that works or cable but I watch TV when traveling. I'm convinced a lot of people have the wrong attitude because they sit staring at or listening to negative and bad content.

Go outside. Go volunteer. Go do something for a youth program. Don't be a puppet with your strings pulled by negative stuff no matter what direction they lean. Then count your blessings for the good that really exists.

If this post is directed at me the OP, it is somewhat misdirected. I am an optimist who fully understands the world situation has steadily improved, in most ways, for thousands of years. But that being true there is still genuine sadness, trouble and indeed evil in the world. And one of the best antidotes to that evil is an optimistic hopeful world view. Gratitude is in some ways a learned behavior and can become a habit that pays big dividends. A realization I have had lately is that freedom is not being able to do whatever you want to do, but rather finding a way to learn to love whatever it is you have to do.

I hope that make some sense. Like Bobby Macfarren said. Don't worry be happy.!
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Old 11-11-2018, 12:56 PM
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Originally Posted by offkey View Post
If this post is directed at me the OP, it is somewhat misdirected. I am an optimist who fully understands the world situation has steadily improved, in most ways, for thousands of years. But that being true there is still genuine sadness, trouble and indeed evil in the world. And one of the best antidotes to that evil is an optimistic hopeful world view. Gratitude is in some ways a learned behavior and can become a habit that pays big dividends. A realization I have had lately is that freedom is not being able to do whatever you want to do, but rather finding a way to learn to love whatever it is you have to do.

I hope that make some sense. Like Bobby Macfarren said. Don't worry be happy.!
My approach is only half a Mcferren. I'm happy, enormously and sometimes oddly happy. But I also worry. Quite a bit. Not so much about my circumstances but about my children's and grandchildren's futures.

Yes, in many MANY ways the overall global situation is better today than it may ever have been. OTOH, we may very well be on the precipice of an extinction level problem that we may or may not have already waited too long to take seriously and many continue not to. I will not name it or debate it so as not to run afoul of forum rules. But I mention at least the possibility that this is happening just to stress the point that for many of the more fortunate among us, there's a real paradox between the wonderfulness and joy many of us experience in our own lives even while facing daunting global problems that may put our kids or grandkids through horrors we can't even imagine.

It's pretty tough to live with, and yet we always strive to live in the moment and, in the moment, life is beautiful and wondrous. I seem to be unable to avoid thinking about and feeling both of these very very strong realities - a fear for what many are experiencing today and that my children and possible grandchildren may have to experience in their lives that I never have had to AND the abundant pleasures and joys that I'm lucky enough to experience in my day to day life at this point.

I guess they say maturity is being able to hold two wildly conflicting thoughts in your head simultaneously. By that definition, and perhaps by no other definition, I have the maturity of Moses and Sitting Bull combined. Because those are pretty disparate thoughts and feelings yet they both live in me pretty much constantly.

-Ray
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Old 11-11-2018, 03:32 PM
Nyghthawk Nyghthawk is offline
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I am 62 years old and still relatively healthy considering I smoked for 37 years and engaged in as much risky activity as I could find. It must be good genes because it certainly NOT any good decision I made.

I have a paid-for home and a retirement pension coming from the state here in about 9 months. I have a wife of 20 years that puts up with me. I have pleasant and adequate transportation, food to eat, clean water to drink, and music I love to play. My 87 year old mother is in assisted living but going strong.

Thanks to the accident of birth I live in a country where I have freedom to live life pretty much as I want to.

Life is good.
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Old 11-12-2018, 08:59 AM
ManyMartinMan ManyMartinMan is offline
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Too many to count. For example, people just north of me are evacuated and awaiting news of loved ones and property. I am headed to the golf course. I am reminded annually to be thankful I don’t live in Malibu anymore.
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Old 11-13-2018, 07:47 AM
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Yes indeed the most meaningful blessing for me I think is when over the course of about a 5 years I came to realize the true nature of personal perspective and finally escape the fear based aspects that the fear I was unknowingly caught in and influenced by. To finally realize the insidious , unrecognized, and skewed aspects of a fear based perspective that unfortunately afflicts a hughe and significant cross section if not a majority, of people .
And to finally realize the profound nature , freedom, and peace, that understanding and using the concept "Change your perspective and you change your world"
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Old 11-13-2018, 08:21 AM
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My wife and I have seven children, all gifted in music and the arts. We have 14 grandchildren, all who show the same penchant. I retired in August 2016. Retirement lasted about a year and a half. Then, my church offered me the paid position of 'music director' and I am working again. I even have an office! But, it's not really a job if you are getting paid to do that which you love - playing music on guitar.

Our oldest son wanted a Nintendo for Christmas when he was seven years old. I got him a guitar instead. He was quite mad about it for a long time. Today, he is 42 years old and his band has recorded six albums.

In 1996, by happenstance, I fell into an opportunity to take a songwriting class at the Vineyard School of Worship. When students would share original songs for review, the instructor would critique my compositions harshly. It was brutal. After one session, I asked why he did that. He said it was because I had a gift for it. That I had a calling and he wished he had my ability. I was asked to co-lead the class the following year. I have lost count of my composition which are over 300.

When I took the music director job, I also took professional voice lessons. Having not sung before, I have become confident in my abilities and am getting better all the time. I'm also incorporating original songs. No matter how old you are, you can still learn, develop and grow. Life is an amazing thing. My wife is singing now as well.

Sometimes I feel like Moses, whose life really took off when he was eighty.
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Old 11-13-2018, 09:19 AM
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One beautiful, smart and sweet wife of 25 years, 2 beautiful, smart and sweet teenagers, one positive and well paying career, one beautiful home, still relatively healthy with no bad habits, no debt, able to take long and relaxing vacations with my family around the world, live in a safe and prosperous country, a closet full of gear and I get to go to Fur Peace Ranch once a year. Like many others a lot of bad things have happened in my life but I'm truly blessed. It's true though that I work hard to make the positive stuff happen.

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Old 11-14-2018, 06:48 AM
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I am blessed with peace, the greatest blessing of all.
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