Cherish each day and enjoy each moment with those you love

With several friends of mine getting sick and/or hospitalized lately I have reflected on life and how we seem to take it and those we care about for granted. Times like these makes me remember how blessed I am and have been with the few friends I have and kept through out my life. Life is a precious thing that most of us don’t cherish as much as we should. We allow too many things out of our daily routine and stresses to sidetrack us from the things in life that are important to us. Sometimes we even put entertainments such as television and the internet come between us and our family and/or friends. To be honest it has been a long time since I sat at a table with love ones for dinner other than for holidays and eating out once and a blue moon. There is nothing wrong with having time for yourself but I think sometimes we forget we need to have together time with those we love.

We need to turn off the computer and the television from time to time and take out a board game or go  outside with the family for some together fun time. Not only is time with the family fun and helps form  a stronger bond between its members it is quite therapeutic in the sense it enhances ones mood towards  the positive. Then there is the good old compromise of watching a movie together or going out for dinner  with each other. It also is almost as important to spend time out with friends to give you a change of  atmosphere as well as a place and time to vent or blow off steam. What ever way you choose to spend more  time with family and friends is beneficial to everyone involved.

Cherish each day and enjoy each moment with those you love
Raymond Barbier

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A Middle-aged Man’s Thoughts on Life

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

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We are the stewards of this world we live in

We are the stewards of this world we live in; we are responsible for the well-being of the planet and all living things on it. We are responsible for one another, be it friend, stranger and even foe. God gave us the gift of life and the gift of such a beautiful planet to call home along with the responsibility of caring for both. Somehow a lot of us forgot our responsibilities and/or our job of being stewards of this world. So much pollution is filling the air, covering the land and poisoning the water. There is too many hungry and homeless people and way too many children in poverty. When did we lose our way and how can we find our way back? How can we continue to pollute our planet and allow famine and homelessness to run rampant across our beautiful world? We can spend trillions of dollars on wars and dedicate such a large workforce to achieve victory but yet spare hardly any resources to combat the hunger and homeless in our own country and around the world. As precious as life is along with the beautiful and wondrous planet to live on we don't seem to care that we are throwing it all away. Since there is so many of us humans on this planet we all can choose just one or two things to be responsible for in our stewardship and still make an impact. Not everyone can be in Greenpeace or be a political activist. Not everyone is cut out to be a social worker or volunteer. Choose your battle and be dedicated to its cause, be it feeding the hungry, helping the homeless, cleaning up your hometown or doing grassroots activism.

This is our planet to take care of and we should do the best we can to make it a better place. Governments only can do so much to change our world; the rest is up to us and the business sector. We need to pressure both the governments and businesses of the world into being more green minded as well as more charitable towards the less fortunate. Not so much by making laws but by our spending and voting habits as well as writing our representatives. We should educate our fellow stewards about the state of our world and how to make changes at a personal level as well as in the big picture. We as a species need to learn to accept and tolerate the differences between us as people in order to come together and make this world a better place for ourselves and our children.

The Children are the world's greatest resource and they are our precious future.

Raymond Barbier

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I embrace the tender heart within me and accept that which makes me who and what I am.

It is amazing how there is a tender side to everyone if they allow it to show. How we tend to hide that side out of fear, the fear of either being hurt by others or being labeled as someone who is a sissy or too nice for their own good. Being macho, tough and/or cold never gets anyone anywhere but alone and unhappy. For you should be that tender-hearted person god made you be, this does not mean to allow others to walk on you it means simply to forgive those that do and side step those that may. Forgiveness and acceptance of each other and our shortcomings is what Jesus tried to teach us, turn the other cheek and to love even thy enemy. We cannot be a hurtful and hateful person without suffering many pains and losses due to our lack of compassion and love. I rather suffer as a person of love and compassion than to suffer for being hateful and bringing suffering to others. Think what you may of me, my philosophy and the way I view this world we live in, I am what am and I cannot be anything other than which I was born to be. When I tried to be what others expected me to be I suffered with unhappiness, anger and sometimes depression, I choose to be me and be happy as I am than to worry about the opinions of others. If someone is not a positive influence on me I simply avoid them and wish them the best and then seek out the more positive people around me. When anger does strike me I let it out and then put it out so to move on instead of hanging on to the negativity it brings. I embrace the tender heart within me and accept that which makes me who and what I am. I accept and embrace what makes those I meet who and what they are as well. It is the differences between us that make us such a wondrous and unique species.

May peace and compassion be your guides through life.
Raymond Barbier

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Just some random thoughts to ponder on.

Sometimes we go through our day without telling those who we care about how important they are to us or how much they impact our lives. We throw the word love around so much we tend to forget how to show love to others, both those we like and those who are strangers. Taking anyone or anything in life for granted tends to lead to the loss of those people and things. We get so hung up on our daily routine and sometimes even our own problems we forget those people and things that are important to us. We need to slow down and smell the roses as well as share a positive thought or a caring action with others as we go through our daily lives.  Compassion does not mean to have pity, it means to have concern and love towards all living things. Charity does not mean throwing money at a problem, it means helping those in need with not only physical needs but to educate them in ways to help themselves as well. It may be natural to focus upon yourself and those close to you, but it is supernatural to care about everyone and everything in this big world. We tend to get hung up on one thing or another to the point we can not see the whole picture. We either become self-centered or apathetic to the problems in our world around us. We need to wake up from our foggy self-centered apathetic dream state and see that as a world community we can overcome and achieve almost anything. Only if we can set our differences aside along with finding tolerance for each others cultural differences. In the end we all want the eradication of starvation, the end of all homelessness and a brighter future for our children.

This world needs a change of direction as well as a change in heart, we can not take anyone or thing for granted nor can we go on being in a foggy state of denial. We must find compassion, tolerance and love for one another as well as a less self-centered view of the world around us. We need to see that every living creäture big or small is an important part of our world and its ecosystem. No one person is greater or lesser than the other, they are equal though different. The differences between each and every one of us is what makes humanity a wondrous species and an unstoppable force when we work together. We should strive towards a world of love, equality and peace as we rid ourselves of the greed and hatred that plagues us as a species.

Just some random thoughts to ponder on. Right or wrong they are here for all to see.

Raymond Barbier

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It all could be gone within a tick of the clock.

How easily we take those we love for granted, so quickly they can be taken away from us. We should cherish all our family and friends for no one knows when their last day may come. Leave no wrong undone, apologize and repent for the wrong you’ve done others and leave no love forgotten. Live each day as it may be your last and be sure to keep it where you will have no regretful things left behind when its time to go.Forgive those who have done you wrong so you do not carry any anger or hatred with you beyond the grave. Judge no one, but if you must judge them with great mercy for you will be judge in the same way in the end.

Life is way too short to carry grudges or hold on to the emotional scars of the past. Forgive and you shall be forgiven, love and you shall be loved and be compassionate and you will receive compassion. You get what you give in the end, it may not always seem so but it is true. I have found compassion from those I believed to be enemies and help from those who I thought didn’t care. Between all the negativity of this world you will receive that which you have given to others. Teach your children well, show them that mercy, kindness and compassion are greater than being popular or the biggest bully. Teach them to appreciate what they have both in possessions and in friendships. Too many times we run off the friends who would do anything for us because of something petty or a mistake made by one side or the other. Too many times families fall apart over differences of opinions and different view points. I find it quite sad when family members despise one another, families are supposed to love one another unconditionally.

Don’t take your family, friends or the day you are in for granted, it all could be gone within a tick of the clock.

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