Tag Positive Energy

And another thing

Michael 8 Comments

Sometimes the most obvious of things are overlooked. Other times, we are so ingrained in language and process that we fail to see the contradictions right in front of us.

I give you this opening sentence in a news article from this morning’s local paper. “A graphic video that shows the moment a homicide suspect shot a Robinson motel manager at point-blank range pushed the District Attorney’s Office on Wednesday seek a gag order in the case.” If you have an actual video confirmation of someone blowing the brains out of a different someone, is it reasonable to assume he’s gone beyond the “suspect” phase.

I’m sure some will say “it could have been AI generated!” Yeah, no. This isn’t one of our political “leaders”(hahahahahahahaha!!!!!!) trying to pretend all is right with the world and what you are seeing is just the radical lunatics attempting to distract you. This is a man who was also caught on camera in that same parking lot shooting and wounding a woman while her young son sat in the car watching it, and who shot and wounded a pursuing police officer presumably caught on body cam video. There was no attempt to deceive and apparently some pretty conclusive evidence. Shouldn’t it be time to call a murderer a murderer? Or is it fair game to ignore what our eyes tell us.

Another thing we too often fail to see is that we are not immortal. The question of what will happen when I die records low on most people’s inquisitive meter. Regardless of the visual evidence and historical proof, people don’t want to acknowledge death, particularly their own.

We put death on the forefront in yesterday’s Uplift post at the ROAMcare site and asked the question, “If you were told today would be your last day, what would you do?” Many of the answers revealed most of us don’t understand the assignment. (Some of the answers revealed not all the narcissists have Washington DC addresses, but that’s a different story for a different post.) We found one answer though most telling. Read that one and see our answer to the question what would you do if you found out today was your last day in our post, “The Last Day.”

Good New This Week – Nature Edition

Michael 7 Comments

In Monday’s Moment of Motivation and yesterday’s Uplift post at ROAMcare.org, we visited nature for some positive uplifting news. In this week’s good news of the week post here, nature also is this week’s focus.

I wonder what our vaccine czar would have to say about this one. In South Africa, rhinos are being vaccinated with radioactive isotopes to stop poachers. The isotopes are harmless to the animals but can be detected at airports and borders. Some 20 rhinos have been tested in advance of mass vaccinations.

Also on the animal front, In Amsterdam, the Netherlands, the city is spending about 100,000 euros “animal stairs” to help cats and other animals climb out of the canals instead of drowning when they find themselves at the wrong end of the canal wall. As innovative as this sounds, it is not the first such installation. Amersfoort installed a similar contraption for their cute but clumsy furry friends. Amersfoort is also the home town of abstract artist Piet Mondrian. That has nothing to do with this story but I like Mondrian and that’s not a fact you get to slip in just anywhere.

Over in England, an analysis of the government’s 13million pound species recovery project reveals some positive news. It that it has turned the tide for some of its most endangered plants and animals, including the first hatchings of the red-billed chough in over. 200 years.

Shifting from fauna to flora, lotus flowers are blooming in Kashmir’s largest lake, having been freed from underwater silt that strangled them for over 30 years. in 1992, flooding dumped thousands of tons of sediment into the lake, burying the lotus stems. A staggering 8 million cubic meters of silt has been removed to allow the lotus to flower again.

And it took some digging, but there’s good nature news even in the U. S.. Off Key Largo (one of my favorite movies and songs although neither has anything to do with the other, sort of), staghorn coral have spawned in mass for the first time in 2 years. In 2023, a bleaching event left marine biologists worried over the reefs’ future. Biologists have been working to strengthen the environment to support the tenuous breeding of the coral. Reef researchers across the world are now experimenting with cross breeding of corals in captivity to try and create hardier genotypes.

So once again we proved that there is good news in the world, you just have to go out in the world to find it. Out in the world nature for all its tenuous grasp on survival, is in much better shape than people. There is much life hiding in nature, and there are many times we’d do well to emulate how naturally nature lives. We talked about that in Hidden in Plain Sight.

Choose your case scenarios

Michael 9 Comments

With all that’s wrong in the world, it’s easy to want to consider the worst-case scenario. When was the last time you considered the best-case scenario? I realize I spend a lot of digital energy bringing up some pretty bad things that are happening. Given the chuckle crew based in Washington DC, it’s just too easy not to find laughingly stupid, or stupidly laughing examples of criminal behavior, let alone their usual level of just dumb crap. Given all of that, good things still do happen.

Among all the wars, conflicts, skirmishes, and scuffles going on, Cambodia and Thailand signed an immediate and unconditional ceasefire on July 28th following military activity along a disputed border. Yay, peace without insisting someone say “thank you” first.

Following months of reports regarding the unconscionable shifting of previously targeted humanitarian aid (aka money) to blood-sucking billionaires, word comes of a new medical school just opened that aims to train new doctors on preventative medicine funding by (be still, my heart) a billionaire! Walmart heiress Alice Walton put up the money for the Alice L. Walton School of Medicine. So she’s not modest about it. We’ll give her that. At least she’s spending her own money.

If other cash-rich American have an altruistic streak in them, there is a opportunity in Vermont. Realizing how spotty cell phone service is in his area, Vermonter Patrick Schlott bought an old pay phone and installed it outside a local general store using a device that doe some magic and changes an internet connection to an (old-fashion) analog telephone line. He then removed the coin-operation mechanism and free phone service was available where previously no cell phone service existed. 370 calls were made from the phone in June, many of them students who needed a pickup from a parent. Schlott would like to expand the project if he can figure out financing. Billionaires of America, here’s your chance to prove you’re human too.

While we are discouraging alternate energy sources, nay, actually encouraging energy dependance on dead dinosaurs, for the first time ever, June saw solar energy become the largest source of electricity in the European Union, supplying a record 22 percent of power. At least 13 countries saw solar output hit a new monthly high in June, with solar amounting to more than 40 percent of the power generated in the Netherlands! Take that T. Rex!

While we find more ways to close parks and remove finding for environmental projects, for the first time in over a century, Parisians and tourists will be able to take a dip in the Seine. The river is opening up as a summertime swim spot following a 1.4 billion euro ($1.5 billion) cleanup project.

So there are good things happening and positive influences around the world. Even in America (gasp!) What prompted my foray down the sunny side of the street? Life on the Sunny Side, this week’s Uplift post of course. We explored how by saying, thinking, and doing positive words, thoughts, and actions, we can shift the focus to looking for those best-case scenarios. Give it a read. Please.

 

Are you talking to me?

Michael 2 Comments

There are times when the things I think I think are stranger than the things I think and that I know. Like the other day, I was reading for enjoyment, yes a novel concept and every now then I do get the chance to take on such an inviting task. As is typical for my leisure activities, murder played a major role. Another major role was played by a major. A retired major I would assume because he was described as a “gentleman with a private income” and became a major (sorry) suspect. Now here’s what I think I think about that. At least I think I thought this.

Stories, whether played on pages, screen, or stage, set anytime through the early twentieth century and/or in England through modern days, are filled with captains, majors, colonels, and the occasional admiral or general (or brigadier (across the pond)). I think it would cool to actually see that happen in practice and/or real life. (And for all I know, it does – across the pond.)

Except for the odd “Mr. Michael” from a barely English speaking customer service phone representative, I never am never offered any honorific, haven’t hear a title associated with my name since I left hospital practice. But if people were to start introducing, and speaking of and to me as “Captain,” I could get along with that. And I promise I wouldn’t ever give reason to suspect me as the murderer. Everybody knows the butler always did it. (I wonder if I could still fit in my old uniforms. I’m sure the hat would still fit me.)

There is absolutely no way to tie this in with yesterday’s Uplift post other than to say it’s Thursday, it must be time for my shameless weekly plug. So…shamelessly speaking, if you know where you’re going and you know how to get there, trust that you will get there. Knowing where you’re going is more important than how fast you get there. You might even get there at the speed of popcorn. Check out, You’re a Pop Star at ROAMcare.org, this week’s Uplift offering.

Take a peek – Wealth Beyond Your Dreams

Michael 7 Comments

Hello fellow bloggers! I again invite you to take a peek at another ROAMcare post, Wealth Beyond Your Dreams.

Life’s riches are laid out right in front of you. Reach within yourself and collect them by being the best version of yourself for yourself. Your wealth is in your well-being!

You have most of the riches one might ever expect to collect. A sound mind and a sound body are more than just the requirements for drafting one’s will. They are the cornerstone of health, physical and mental, and key components to your well-being.

It is unfortunate that many people discount the idea of self-worth, claiming it is a silly concept and that others determine your worth. Pardon our frankness but that is a bully’s approach to life. Self-worth has been a key to personal fulfillment since long before the term even existed.

Read the full blog at Wealth Beyond Your Dreams on Uplift at ROAMcare. As always there is no fee to read, nothing to join, no catches, no kidding.

While you are there, consider joining the ROAMcare community and have Uplift delivered to your email as soon as it hits the website. In addition to an Uplift release every Wednesday, you will also receive weekly our Monday Moment of Motivation and the email exclusive Blast from the Past repost of one of our most loved publications every Friday. All free and available now at ROAMcare.org.

Uplift 2024.png

Take a Peek – Make Me Happy

Michael 9 Comments

Hello fellow bloggers! I invite you to take a peek at another ROAMcare post, Make Me Happy.

You can’t make anyone happy. Only you can make you happy and you can make only you happy. And therein lies how you can make anyone happy.

Make Me Happy

Originally posted October 9, 2024
3 minute read

Recently Michael scrolled by a meme on social media that read “You’re not a pierogi, so you can’t make everyone happy.” You can substitute your favorite comfort food and you still won’t make everyone happy, yet we humans still try. Maybe it’s because we are still confused about what makes happiness.

The most positive thing you can do to offer happiness to someone is to be happy for yourself and to be happy with yourself.

Read the full blog at Make Me Happy on Uplift at ROAMcare. As always there is no fee to read, nothing to join, no catches, no kidding.

While you are there, consider joining the ROAMcare community and have Uplift delivered to your email as soon as it hits the website. In addition to an Uplift release every Wednesday, you will also receive weekly our Monday Moment of Motivation and the email exclusive Blast from the Past repost of one of our most loved publications every Friday. All free and available now at ROAMcare.org.

Uplift 2024

 

 

Take a peek at Each Day a Bonus

Michael 7 Comments

Hello dear bloggers. Today I bring you a peek of yesterday’s Uplift post at ROAMcare.org, Each day a Bonus. We have a choice every day. Do we make it fun or will it be dreadful? Death is tragic often enough. Don’t make life tragic also. Make every day a bonus.

In the last week, several “young” deaths made headlines. Hockey player Johnny Gaudreau and his brother Matthew, ages 31 and 29 respectively, lost their lives to a drunk driver. Hiphop artist Fatman Scoop (Isaac Freeman III), 53, died after collapsing on stage. Olympic wrestler Michelle Fazzari died of cancer at 37. We are sure none of them expected their last day would be their last day.

On the other hand, Maria Branyas Morera died on August 20 at the age of 117 years, 6 months, and 24 days, leaving five people older than 115 years of age still alive. It is estimated that there are more than half a million centenians in the world, nearly 90,000 in the United States, and over 300 supercentenians (over 110 years old) worldwide. These are people who appreciate the daily gift of a new day.

What do the tragically dead too soon and the life-fulfilled oldest among us have in common?

Read the full blog post at Each day a Bonus. There’s nothing to buy, no fee to read. Ever. (You do have to register if you want to comment and join the discussion. Again, though, that is absolutely free.)

We don’t decide how long we live. We do decide how we live. Whatever you decide to do today, do it with a smile.

Uplift 2024