Some thoughts on Dec 25 2012


005Positive thinking? Changing ones perception of the world around us? Choosing your attitude and changing how you interact with the world around you can greatly change your life and help fill your life with happiness and love. Forgiveness is a choice to let go of hurt and anger within yourself and it is one of the many forms of love god gave us. What it boils down to is our self-made perception of the world and our choices on how we interact and interpret it as well. Though we are individuals and we have our own personal view of how the world is and how it should be, we should remember we are also a piece of the great puzzle of life. There is so many other individuals living here with us at the same time and we are as one machine even though we are independent  in thought. In the end each one of us has pretty much the same goals such as living a happy life, making those we love happy and helping them to have a happy life as well. Though we all may see what happiness is in a different way, we all want to be happy and live life in peace. Even those who start wars and seem to pursue an aggressive existence crave peace and happiness, they just got hung-up on the pain and anger the world and life can bring. Some seek wealth, others seek power and both seek what they believe will bring them and those they love happiness in the end. There are even some that seek death either because they want to reach their vision of heaven or they believe it would end the suffering they have within their minds and hearts. Death is no answer, it is just an inevitable fact of being a mortal being as we humans are. Life is the answer and how you live it, perceive it and interact with it are the keys. We can either work together to find happiness and peace in life or we can continue pursuing our personal dreams. Either way we are the captains of our own destinies and we alone choose our paths in life. No one is responsible for your actions, thoughts and how you perceive life and the world around you but yourself.

We choose our own path in life, how we interact and perceive our world is an individual choice.

Ray Barbier

Merry Christmas


 

 

 

Everyone Here at One Lifetime Blog want to wish our fellow bloggers and readers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New years. May your Holiday Season Be full of joy.

 

Remember the Reason for the season outweighs the Gift we give and receive

Merry Christmas
One Lifetime Blog Team

 

what I don’t like about myself I try to change and what I like about myself I try to improve.


004Sometimes I let what other people think of me bother me more than it should. If someone likes me or not is something I can not control and knowing that makes me see that they are going to think what they may no matter what I do or say. So do I really care if others lie me or not, well I would be lying if I said no, but it isn’t as important to me as it used to be for sure. All I can do is to try to be someone who I would like and try to be someone I could be proud of being. IF I am neither of those then I have a problem, I may not always love myself but what I don’t like about myself I try to change and what I like about myself I try to improve as well. It is an ever going challenge to improve oneself and to grow emotionally and spiritually.

Be who you are and make who you are someone you could respect and love.

Ray Barbier

it’s the quality of the family and friends you have


MP900442811Through ones lifetime we are born into a family, obtain friends and colleges and form a family of our own. The family we form on our own is composed of our life partner, our children and the close friends we have made and kept throughout our lives. Many times we tend to take all of them for granted, forget to show them appreciation, love and compassion. Our friends and Family are what gives us strength and what keeps us rooted when times are tough and when times are good. Without them we would be a solitary and lonely being which would find unhappiness as our daily companion. I have met many of people who claim they do not need family and / or friends in my life and usually either they do have one or the other and when they are unfortunate enough to not have either they become bitter, lonely, depressed and have a hard time dealing with this world and all of its realities. Of course there are the exceptions to the rule and I have met one or two who seem fine, but who knows what goes on in their minds.

dd43853 It isn’t the quantity of family members or friends that matters it’s the quality of the family and friends you have. I have noticed the better you treat them the better they become and the more they are a part of your life. So we should always try to be the best friend and family member we can and treat those that are our family and friends as the treasures they are to us. When you lose a good friend to death or to life’s circumstances you will notice a hole in your life, it may not be immediately but down the line you will. I have lost several to death so far and even those friends that were distant or that I haven’t seen  for a long time still are a part of who I am and a part of my heart.

Lately I have been gaining new friends both in the real world and on the internet through blogging and social networking. Both are just as real as the other and mean just as much as one another as well. The greatest treasures in my life are my family and my friends, even those friends who chose to forget me or to move on are still jewels in my treasure and will remain so till it is my final time to rest. So god bless my family, friends and all those in between.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution By license.

We should just be the best person we can be


bnf0422We make our lives far more complicated than they really are, we seem to put too many conditions on every choice we make and action we take. Things are either black, grey or white there is very little else they can be, either it is for our good or for our dismay. We allow our ego to get in the way of the happiness of others and even our own happiness in the end. Selfishness serves no purpose other than to deceive you into believing that possessions and wealth can make you happy. Yes money makes it easier to live in this world, but money is not a source of true happiness or love. Money is but paper or metal and it usually causes more problems than it solves. We tend to be addicted to temporary and instant gratifications which are good at distracting us from the good things in life like friends, family, love and communal fellowship. We need to be less about self and more about family, friends and community.

bnf0421 We need to learn to put our ego’s back in their place and live life with unconditional love, trust, compassion, hope and most of all faith. We need to put away the fear we have been taught and embrace the spirit of hope so that we can truly live our lives. We can no longer go through each day just trying to survive, we must live each day in the fullest as if there is no tomorrow. We should show our appreciation to those in our lives that we love and hold dear. We should be considerate, kind and compassionate to all those we meet, for none of us are perfect or without fault. We shouldn’t worry about what we don’t have for possessions are only temporary. We shouldn’t worry about who does or don’t like us for that is something we can not control in the end. We should just be the best person we can be and cherish those that we are blessed to have as friends and family.

The first step in changing one’s life is to change the way you look at life itself.
Raymond Barbier

Embrace that spirit of hope


p10329 We tend to look outwardly for our happiness, love and for acceptance. God gave us all the tools within us to be happy, love and be loved. Pretty much anything we need to be or do is within our own selves, God gave us everything within, it is only the matter of having the faith to utilize what we have been blessed with. We can not find happiness from an outside source if we can not even embrace the happiness god gave us within. It is hard to love anyone or anything if we can not embrace the love God gives us deep inside. Once we learn to have faith in and embrace the gifts god planted within our souls we then will not worry about acceptance because we know we belong to God. As long as we don’t allow the distractions on our modern lives to get in the way and we don’t fall to the spirit of fear we shall live a happy and successful life. We must embrace that spirit of hope and the sound mind God blessed us with. We can not allow those in this world who try to make us believe we are hopeless or condemned without salvation. They wish only to drag you down with them, we shouldn’t have hatred for those people for we should pray for their souls and show them the compassion we are taught by Christ‘s teachings.

Look within yourself for the blessings god blessed you with and do not fall for the traps of our modern world.
Raymond Barbier

A Middle-aged Man’s Thoughts on Life


MP900321192 A lifetime sounds like a long time, but it is but a drop of water in the ocean of time. It goes by in a blink of an eye, one minute you’re in high school and the next minute you’re a grandparent or at least old enough to be one. It really does seem just yesterday I was a teen and a day before that I was a child. Life goes by way too fast and there is very little time to appreciate everyone and everything in it. We get so wrapped up in everyday life we don’t even realize that life is flying by. By the time we figure out that life goes by fast we are past the mid part of our life here.  Getting old isn’t so bad at least until teenagers and kids keep pointing it out to you. Just because I am so-called old doesn’t mean I don’t have dreams or that I don’t want to have fun or that I am incapable of doing so. I am pretty much the same person I was when I was 18 to 19 years old just a bit wiser and a little slower to be as compulsive. I have quite a few battle scars from relationships and life’s lessons that I didn’t have back then but still I try to be optimistic.

I guess the funniest part of it all is I went through most of my life never being old enough for one thing or another and now I am too old for a lot of the same things. Seems I missed that right age for everything somehow. Well phooey on all the people who think I am too old to do what I like and the same that think I am to young to have my own opinions and wisdom. I am me and no matter what age I am and will live to be I will live life and enjoy it with all my heart. If I am not the right age or good enough in someone else’s eyes then they don’t have to look. To live life by the opinions and ideals of others isn’t living your own life. To live by what is your own ideals and beliefs is living a full and hopefully  a happy life. Even if it isn’t as happy or as fulfilling as I might want it is still my life and my choice and that is what really matters.

For life goes by quickly and we should enjoy every moment we are blessed to live to see.

Raymond Barbier

an invitation to be kind or to smile


p10328 To be true to yourself, to be who you are and be happy with yourself and to realize that what others think matter very little in the long run. That is one of the paths to self-assurance and a healthier self-image, a self-esteem built upon the real you not the reflection of you off of others. One of the hardest thing to quit or correct is ones tendency to rely on others for both our self-worth and our happiness. No one can add or remove either your worth or happiness besides your own self. The illusion someone else can make you happier or make you a better person is one most of us fall for. The truth is that you make yourself happier and a better person and the other person is either an inspiration or a guiding force towards both. Yes they can help fuel the happiness within you and help you find the better person within you through their guidance or just their kindness, but the choices to be happy or to improve yourself is solely yours and requires your effort alone to bring them about.

A child’s smile can knock on the door of your kindness and then you can open the door in return. The child’s smile was an invitation to be kind or to smile you have to choose to comply or not. The choices of who and what you are and can become are yours as well as the power to make the changes.  The only time an outside force can change you and your life is if you give it the power to do so.  So be true to yourself and be who you are as well as love who you are. Do not let the negativity of others affect you or damage your self-worth. For in Gods eyes we all are precious and he loves all of us equally. And no man can take away the gifts God has given and has promised to us all. Besides our own will and choices Only God’s will can directly change us into a better person and bring us happiness.  Let God’s love and kindness flow through you and seek out his will and the path he set out before you. Try and surrender to his will as well as put aside your own.

God Bless

Raymond Barbier

What our definition of happiness is may differ


008 I am who and what I am, full of faults and shortcomings that I have learned to accept. I am no stud or intellectual giant but I have finer points that few ever see or notice. My uniqueness is something I treasure and will never hide from others. I used to be so concerned about what others thought of me, but I have learned that what they think about me is less important than what I think about myself. I have leaned to love me for who and what I am. Take me for what I am or do not take me at all, for I am the sum of all my experiences though life and the person I have become within. I am an ever changing and growing person and I embrace the fact I can and will make many mistakes along this path of life I walk. By accepting myself as is I also have learned to accept others for who and what they are. Not one person can be perfect nor can they be accepted and/or liked by everyone. I learned one of the greatest gifts one can give and receive (besides Love) is forgiveness. For forgiveness is one of those things that usually return to you 7 fold down the line. Just like Jesus taught us, we must love and forgive freely and not be swayed by anger or envy. Selfishness is one of the biggest enemies of being happy and living a full life. Selfishness keeps us from loving and forgiving others, it keeps our focus on ourselves and not on the world in full. We may be individuals but we are also a part of a huge family called humanity. We must learn to love and accept ourselves before we learn to love and accept those around us. Love is something that starts as a seed within and grows outward and so is all the other emotions related to it. To love yourself is not to be selfish it is to be selfless, for loving yourself leads to loving others and is a required first step towards happiness. There is always going to be someone you have a hard time liking but this does not mean you can not love them is a general sense. There have been many who I have not liked so much in my life but I still loved them as a human being.  Hate the sin not the sinner and love the person but not their faults or actions.

I am who I am and you are who you are, We are two unique people with different views but both of us want the same thing and that is to live a happy life. What our definition of happiness is may differ but we both still long for and strive towards that same goal. I pray and hope you will find that happiness as much as I hope I find mine.

Not one person is alike, yet we all desire to be happy.

Raymond Barbier

Fear, The Enemy of Success and of Happiness.


tpl_7_ppl  Paranoia, self-doubt and low self-esteem are some the most difficult thought processes to correct. They play a significant role in ones chances to achieve success and in living a happy life. It seems for the most part the roadblocks to happiness stem from one troublesome root. That root cause appears to be fear, fear of failure, rejection and the fear of not being able to be in control. Fear seems to control so much of our decision-making that it controls a part if not all of our life. Though fear has its place in one’s life it is not supposed to control our life. Fear is a lot like a wild dog, once it is in the chicken coop it will keep killing the chickens until it gets tamed. Just like the wild dog, fear is something we all need to learn how to tame. Because if we allow fear to run wild it will kill our hopes and dreams before they have a chance to materialize as possible realities.

The fears we all have to face seem to be deep-rooted and they had their beginnings far in our youthful past. The worst of them usually come from our childhood and teen years. The only way I know to face such fears is to discover the time and place of origin. If we can discover the original source then we can find a way to overcome the fears hold on us.

“You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.’ You must do the thing you think you cannot do.”
Eleanor Roosevelt

  In a nut shell the only way to conquer or tame your fears is to discover their root and face them head on. Once you do overcome your fears then you are on the path to becoming your true self and will be able to live to your full potential.

 

Just some random thoughts on fear

Raymond Barbier