Many people wait around for happiness to find them but if you really think about it, it’s really only a positive thought away. Being happy can be a choice you make. With all the chaos that life brings into our lives, it’s really difficult to find a way to be carefree. With so much on our minds, I can see how one can get caught up feeling stressed, angry, confused, frustrated or lost.
For me, I’m at a point in my life where I’ve come to realize that I have to stop, live in the moment and appreciate everything that I already have and everyone who is around me. I try to be optimistic even when the deck is stacked against me because there is always something positive to be gained from all the hardships I’ve gone through.
Everyday that I wake up, I thank God that I get to enjoy another day regardless of how good or bad it is. I don’t worry about the past or the future…now is what’s important to me. I look around and enjoy the small things in life that give me joy.
Yeah it’s easy to say all this and hard to do, but with enough practice it can be done. It took me awhile to get this optimistic attitude but I did it. Enjoy your life, be grateful for your family, friends and pets, be content with what you have and bask in the little things that make life worth living. You’ve come this far, just imagine what the world can offer you.
So don’t wait for happiness to find you, grow it yourself…it’ll do wonders for your life.
Bloggers
Mid-Life Reflections #11
As I get older, the more wiser I become. It’s strange to say that because I’ve come to the realization that life teaches you many things. It helps you build strength, character and resolve. But in all my years, at home, work, school, outings with friends, just life in general, I’ve learned that it was important for me to stay true to this one quote, “It’s easy to say and harder to do, so follow through on your actions and be a person of your word.”
Mark’s Musing #9
“I have less energy but what is there, is used wisely…most of the time.”
Mark’s Musing #8
“As my eyes go out of focus, I see clearer.”
Mark’s Musings #7
“As I get older, my hearing starts to deteriorate…so I listen more carefully.”
Liebster Award
I am truly honored and appreciative of the fact that I was nominated for the Liebster Award by Haylee. I had stumbled across her log one day and was pleasantly surprised by her posts…most especially her poems. They are simple, profound and touch on life experiences that we all encountered at some point in our lives. If you get the chance, check out her site: stumblingaboutourworld.wordpress.com
You’ll be pleasantly surprised as I was.
Questions from stumblingaboutourworld:
1. What is the most extreme thing that I’ve done?
When I was in college, I hiked along the entire ridge of Diamond Head. Which I’m glad I did because now they do not permit anyone to do so because of the dangerous conditions.
2. Out of all the places I visited, which did I like the most?
I really like Hawaii (also known as the “Big Island”) . I got the opportunity to see an active volcano, walk on solid lava, got to go to the top of Mauna Kea, experienced the black sand beach as well as the green sand beach and saw many historical Hawaiian sites.
3. What is on of my favorite memories?
The birth of my daughter Chloe and my son Conor. It truly was an experience that surpasses anything and everything that I encountered or will encounter.
4. Why did I decide to start my blog?
It was on the advice of my literary manager but in the end it was my passion for writing and sharing my inner voice for the world to see.
5. What is my favorite book or book series?
“Writing Movies For Fun And Profit or How We Made A Billion Dollars at the Box Office and You Can, Too!” by Robert Ben Garant & Thomas Lennon
6. Do I have a post (one of my own) that you favor over others?
The one that I liked best was a post called “Our Special Gift” :
midlifemaniacalme.me/?s=our+special+gift
7. If I could go anywhere in the world and take one person, who would it be and why?
I would go and see Japan with my wife because she is my everything – the love of my life, my best friend, the foundation of our family, strong, smart and a fighter.
8. If I were given $500 today, what would I do with it and why?
If given a $500 today, I would spend it on a dinner for my parents because of all they’ve done for me. They’ve taught me the values of life, helped shaped the person into who I am today.
9. What inspires me to write?
It’s just a passion that I’ve had for the past 27 years. The joy I get from writing anything totally frees me and lets my inner voice be heard and shared with both strangers and all of my blogging colleagues.
10. What is my opinion on the advancement of technology?
I think that it’s great. A lot of what we do and see whether it be writing, seeing something is all instantaneous. It’s truly convenient.
Nominees:
I had a hard time trying to determine what blogs I was going to nominate because I follow so many great ones. The ones that particularly stuck out were the ones that touched me, inspired me, made me laugh and provoke thought. These blogs are written by the people who provide encouraging words and have the gift of prose. They really don’t need my help in sending people their way because so many people have found them already. But on the off chance you haven’t stumbled across them, please check them out..you won’t be disappointed.
Questions For The Blogs That I Nominate:
- What made you decide to start a blog?
- Which one of your own posts do you like the best and why?
- What inspires you to write?
- What have you learned from following other blogs?
- How has blogging affected your life?
- When do you like to do your writing – day or night?
- How do you decide on what blog you want to follow?
- Has your blogging experience been so far?
- Who is your biggest influence in your craft of writing?
- Would you recommend blogging to your family and friends?
Rules for Nominees:
- Thank the person who nominated you, and put a link to their blog on your blog. Try to include a little promotion for the person who nominated you. They will thank you for it and those who you nominate will also help you out as well.
- Display the award on your blog — by including it in your post and/or displaying it using a “widget” or a “gadget”. (Note that the best way to do this is to save the image to your own computer and then upload it to your blog post.) At the bottom of this post, I’ve included a whole lot of images you can use for your 2017 Liebster Award.
- For the 2017 Liebster Award, I will be shaking things up! Write a 150-300 word post about your favourite blog that is not your own. Explain why you like the blog, provide links.
- Provide 10 random facts about yourself. (This year I’m making this optional. If you wish to engage with your readers it’s a great idea to include random facts about you.)
- Nominate 5 – 11 blogs that you feel deserve the award. (Note that you can always ask the blog owner this since not all blogs display a widget that lets the readers know this information!)
- List these rules in your post (You can copy and paste from here or simply link to this post.) Once you have written and published it, you then have to:
- Inform the people/blogs that you nominated that they have been nominated for the Liebster award and provide a link for them to your post or mine if you don’t have all the information so that they can learn about it (they might not have ever heard of it!) (info)
What to blog or what not to blog…that is the question
I’m not too sure if other bloggers encounter this dilemma but I go through this week after week. Granted some bloggers write every two weeks, once a month or every couple of months while other write on a daily basis. For me, I try to blog about something at least once a week; guess it’s the writer in me that needs to do this on a consistent basis. I’m sure that all of us go through this, just trying to figure out what to blog or what not to blog about.
Some people specifically have an area of expertise or subject matter that can yield tons and tons of topics to cover, I unfortunately am not the case. After a year of blogging, you’d think I’d have a host of things to talk about but that’s not the case.
I think for me the main struggle is in figuring out what to say or what not say. A couple of instances, I got an idea and soon realized that I blogged about it in a previous post. Other times when the well ran dry and I ended up grasping for straws on a topic; it felt like I put in half the effort on something that should’ve required 110%. I never realized the dilemma I’m in week after week; it’s harder that working on a screenplay.
Okay, it’s not the worst place to be in but I always like to try and blog about something that’s interesting. I’ve perused other sites and I’ve noticed that they’ve constantly posted stuff that’s cool and mind-blowing. How do they do that?! Do they even have that problem of deciding what to write about?! Now if I could only do the same, guess not all of us are gifted in that aspect.
If I could only get into their mindset when they’re preparing to blog then maybe I could get a perspective on how I could go about doing my blog. Life would be much simpler. BUT, that’s not the case for me. Nothing ever comes easy and I accept that.
Maybe what to blog or what not to blog is not the question I should be asking myself, instead it should be “Do I enjoy blogging?” or “Is it worth my time?” As you can see from this post, it’s an emphatic – YES!
