NO BULL

This is not your ordinary bull. It is a buffalo in the state park at Thermopolis Hot Springs Wyoming home of the world's largest hot springs.

Last night I discovered a wondeful social networking site and the name of it is called SparkPeople. It is a healthy living site where people report their health statistics and weight losses. A great site to join that will help you keep accountable to someone about your health. The people I met have been encouraging and most friendly. If you need some encouragement about your health I encourage you to go there and sign up. It is a user friendly site and you will be glad that you will be glad that you did. http://www.sparkpeople.com/

This morning on my 6am walk I was filled with gratitude for life. The air was brisk, early fall in the makings, and all was quiet. Not even a dog barking until I reached the house. Normally I see deer, rabbits, or hear the peacocks in the distance. But today was all quiet. Well, until I reached the high school. They have outside speakers going and country music was playing. As I continued on my walk I remembered when I started this journey in May. It was bitterly cold and snow was a constant happening on most mornings. I can remember the day that I was able to leave the house without a jacket. Not very often even in Wyoming. We of course have some warm days but the evenings and mornings can be quite nippy. It is always a good idea to carry a stocking cap and some cotton gloves with you at all times just in case the winds begin to whip up the air. I guess that is to be expected since I live in the Wind River Reservation area. The Grand Tetons are not very far away and the wind can rush in off of those mountains and down through this valley pretty quick.

We will be leaving on vacation this Thursday on our trip to Georgia to see our children and grandchildren. Everyone says : You are going to Georgia in August? Well, yes, I can go get warmed up from last winter and get back to cool off for this winter. The mornings are getting darker and the nights are not as long as they have been during the summer. A change of season is coming. Before you know it we will be shoveling snow and watching the stores put out their Christmas Decorations. It is nice to live in a place where there are still 4 seasons to look forward to each year. Another thing to be grateful for. If there is one thing to remember about this blog if you read it today it should be Gratitude.

Cleveland

HOPE

It has been said : Whatsoever the mind of man can conceive and believe he can achieve. Last week we have talked about choices, thoughts, words and motivation. During this week we are going to discuss the word Hope and its meaning with descriptive adjectives and verbs in hopes that it will be a measure of inspiration and motivation for you the reader.

My wife and I will be going on vacation this week. Our plans are to leave bright and early on Thursday morning and we will be driving across the country to Georgia to visit our children and grandchildren. A trip of about 2000 miles. We are filled with hopes and inspiration. Last summer we enjoyed visiting several places along the way. For instance we stopped in Memphis Tennessee on the way back to visit Graceland. We visited Elvis Presley's birth place in Tupelo Mississippi. ORU was another interesting place that we visited with the towering Praying Hands and the Prayer tower. This year we will visit my wifes brother near Savannah and our hopes are to eat at the famous Williams Seafood Restaurant on Tybee Island. The grandchildren have hopes and dreams of visiting the beach and playing in the ocean and sand.

On the way down and back we will stop and visit with friends in Arkansas. With a new van my hopes are to let my wife drive part of the way and I can lay back and take a nice nap. Although I still have classes online I can lean back and do some of my required reading along the way.

With the marvelous technology of the wireless internet I will be able to make post on the journey. So if you have been reading these blogs and HOPE to continue reading the stories check in daily to see what new post may have been made. I believe you will enjoy what we have to say this week. My brother Stan and I will be co-writing this week as the Linked Brothers.

Warm wishes literally,
Cleveland

The Empty Chairs

Something is missing in this picture. You see two empty chairs. I put this picture on this blog to share something that happened recently. While surfing the net and looking at some websites I had a pop up that I thought was from my bank. It turned out that it was a scam to get my bank card id. The next day I checked my banking account and discovered there was a charge for $129.85. When I checked the address of the web site it mentioned it was from some strange foreign country I had never heard of before. I immediately called the bank and notified them that there was an unauthorized charge on my account. To make a long story short I had to go to the bank and deactivate my card and order new ones. So beware!

Just today there was a news story on hackers ripping off millions of dollars from credit card holders by riding around in their car and stealing these numbers from wireless access. If you have been negligent to take precautions with security measures on your cards hopefully this wil be a reminder to you. Never let down your guard. Stay on top of charges on your bank statements or credit card bills.

So what's in the chairs? Nothing. Protect yourself with security measures concerning your accounts. You certainly don't want to look at your accout and find out "nothing" is there because of hacking theives.

A saying that fits the occasion would be: A word to the wise is sufficient.

Cleveland

Finished

The office is finished. Books and stuff moved but how in the world did I end up with so many boxes of other stuff from my old office? Why was I keeping it? Now that shelves and desks are in place and most of the needed books and computers a new job is waiting on me. Sorting and throwing away the stuff not needed anymore. But, isnt that the story of most moves. I have boxes in storage of things I have been dragging around for years and still waiting for that day when I can sort through it. It must be important because I am still hanging onto it.

Maybe it would be good to take some lessons fromt he professional organizers. If you don't need it throw it away or give it to somebody that might need it. But that old lamp is good I will fix it one day. Yeah right. Today I went to get a light bulb for a lamp in my office. When I looked at the price of a new bulb I said I could get a new light for that price. Then I went to the famous department store that starts with a "W" and low and behold I found a new lamp and bulb for one dollar more than the bulb at the other place. Good grief! Oh, but I could buy a bulb for one dollar less and then have two lights. Guess I will throw it in the pile of other things to fix later.

If there is a moral to this story it would be throw out what you don't need. Those folks at the garbage dump need to have something to do. Afterall they sort through the old stuff we take in and no doubt make money on some of the good junk we dump. Perhaps we should look at the trash bin as a recycling box. With the use of acronymns today that would be TSIDW or the stuff I didn't want.

Regards

Cleveland

A new Office

I am presently putting into action an idea that came to mind a few days ago. My office at home is small but efficient. However, with new blogs and now a domain site I feel the need to have a bigger office. We have a living room that is basically "another room". One night I was sitting there drinking a cup of coffee and the idea popped into my head, "why not use this room as your office and turn your old office into a music studio." Eureka!

Since moving to Wyoming I have missed my home music studio because there was not enough room in our new house. Until, the other night when this idea hit me like a ton of bricks. So I began to think about the possibilities. I took out a planning pad which has grids on it. Then began to draw up a plan of how I could move the furniture around to make this idea work. The more I thought about it the better I liked it. The Law of Attraction works even when you are not expecting it. Almost a year ago someone gave me a large metal desk. It has sat basically in the way in our other living room. The local school is building a new school and put lots of desk and furniture in the yard for whoever wanted it. I got a good desk and put it in my garage. So the Law of Attraction was working even before I had the idea of enlarging my office and setting up a music studio.

The key to this is that I have been saying for over two years I wished I had my music studio back together. Well now that I have a plan I know it will happen soon. Today I started clearing out the other "living room" making room for the changes. A plan has come together in my mind how to do it so it won't be long before that happens. Hopefully before I leave for vacation in 12 days. At least I have started the action so it s just a matter of getting it done. I will write a report when I am finished.

Peace,

Cleveland

Thoughts

Thoughts Continued

When you think of something can you visualize it? For instance, think about going to Hawaii. Beautiful weather, sunny beaches, tropical flavor, grass skirts, and Hawaiian music. Can you visualize you going to the airport and getting on a plane and flying to Hawaii? Immediately other thoughts may appear such as you don't have the money. It takes a lot of time and money to go to Hawaii. You probably get the idea now. Everytime that we decide to do something that may be fun or good for us doubts will always show up on the scene. It takes some practice to learn how to avoid these negative thoughts and it takes practice to reject them. So what can you do?
You can get in the practice of visualizing small steps and get in the practice of seeing yourself doing what you are dreaming about. A simple example would be have a thought about going to get a nice thick milk shake. If you continue to think about it before long you will start putting to action what you are thinking about. You may even find yourself going down the road wondering where am I going? Then remember that you had programed yourself to go get a milkshake or some other favorite thing you might have a thought about. The Key is to be Aware about thoughts and ideas and how they develop into a plan and how you go about following that plan.
I know it sounds simple but if you will turn up your Awareness button you will begin to think this way. You may find yourself on an airplane before you know it going for the vacation of your life.


Warm wishes


Cleveland

Words

Words. They can hurt. They can help. They can soothe. They are Powerful!!! Words are containers of energy. Ask, believe, receive. When we have a thought or idea we generally will tell someone about it. Then we will continue to discuss the idea. If it is a good idea it could produce something beneficial for everyone. Words can be positive or they can be negative. We all know how it feels when we are in a crowd of people talking negative. The air is thick and immediately you either want to join in or leave immediately. Negative talk will produce more negative talk and negative ideas and sometimes it can end explosively. Why waste energy being negative. We have so much to be grateful for. Gratitude theres another word. How greatful are we that we can open our eyes and get out of bed in the morning? How greatful are you that you have a roof over your head? How greatful are you that you have something to eat? Money in the bank? That you are sober and don't have to take a drink? Words are powerful. Think about the words that come out of your mouth. Are they bringing life or are they bringing death. You have heard folks say I have been talked to death. I am so broke I can't pay attention. Guard the words of your mouth. They are containers and are energized. Speak words of life and hope and success. Life will attract what you say. Thats something to think about.

Think about it.

Cleveland

Thoughts

August 01, 2008
Thoughts
As a man thinketh so is he. Whatsoever the mind of man can conceive he can achieve. The Law of Attraction. You probably have heard of these sayings. They have been around for a long time.
For just a moment think about the statements. Everyday we are bombarded by thoughts. From these thoughts ideas formulate. Some ideas we reject because we have been told that it is impossible to do that. But where do you think inventions come from? They come from thoughts. Everything material that you see came from a thought.

A person has a thought about how to make an improvement on some gadget. He/she begins to formulate ideas until finally one day it's like a ton of bricks fell from the sky and smacked them in the head. You probably remember the ad that FORD had a few years ago when a light bulb would light up. This ad was saying that Ford had a better idea.

The person may begin to talk about this idea and everyone thinks they are crazy. Until one day they put the idea down on paper and present it to a draftsman. Then a plan is drawn up. Next a patent may be applied for to keep someone from stealing this idea. Before long the idea has developed into a prototype. When all of the kinks have been worked out a product is developed and mass produced and the inventor goes off happily to the bank to enjoy the fruit of his labor. All of this from one thought.

The mind of man is a storehouse of ideas because it is bombarded everyday with new thoughts. We have thousands of thoughts every day. We reject the bad thoughts and keep the good thoughts and usually it brings good results to us.

However, if you are one of those that has been going around in circles lately wondering when the fog was going to clear today may be your lucky day. you have read this far and no doubt the ideas have already started to formulate in your head. Don't wait. Write them down.
Hopefully you are beginning to see the light. In other words the light bulb is beginning to shine through the fog. You see a glimmer of hope on the horizon. You think, Eureka! Maybe I have found an answer.

I hope you will come back again and read the next article and gain some encouragement from these posts.

Warm wishes
Cleveland McSwain