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Beauty Inside the Shadow

As we go through life, we find ourselves many times crossing some shadows, sometimes they are scary, sometimes they are not, but we often see them as something that we do not want to enter. Is it fine to try to avoid them? Is it fine to be afraid of them?

Life will always be a mixture of light and shadow, of happiness and sadness, but it is this mixture that makes us who we are. We should not fear the shadow, we might even find some beauty inside of it.

Look at this picture for example. There is a rainbow that we can see on the shadows due to the light interacting with the water. In the same way we can find something positive on our shadows if we let our light, our family and friends, become our support.

If you ever find yourself in a situation that looks dark, looks for the rainbow inside of it, look for the positive on it. It is not an easy thing to do, and it takes a lot of work to get to this level, but it is worth it. If we can see the beauty inside the shadow, we will be able to overcome adversity with a better attitude, which in turn will reduce our stress.

Work on your thinking and make it to a point where thinking positive is automatic, where looking for a rainbow in any situation is part of who you are. Never give up and continue moving forward with everything you got.

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God’s Love

Lord in my darkest time you are my flickering light
Lord in my despairing moments you are my hope
When my knees are weary and weak you send your angles to lift me up
In times of despondent and loneliness you send your Holy Spirit to give me life once more.
When I run out of ideas, you send many
When I complain of overwhelming problems you pointed me to your cross
When the battle is hard and knowing I am lost, you send your soldiers to fight with me
When laughter seems far off
You shine your face upon me
When I feel I am unloved you reminded me that your love is greater and unending
Reminding me always that your awesome love is shown as you die on the cross.
You save us and you want us to be victorious in our adversities.
There should NOT be complaining, but thankfulness of what wonderful Lord you are.

Copyright 2020 Ricardo and JoJo My Unique Stories.com

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Happiness

What is happiness? How do we find it? These are questions that eventually during our life will make it to our heads. How do we answer them? Are we going to be positive or pessimistic? Are we going to be excited thinking about it, or are we going to frown at that moment?

How can we be happy? Every person will give you a different answer. Some will say that they are happy with the family, some that going to a concert brings it to them, and some will tell you their favorite food is enough to make them happy.

Does this mean that there is a right and wrong answer? Not really, happiness depends on the individual person, but there is one variable that will always be present, and that is as positive thinking at that moment and for that action. If you do not have positive thinking, then you cannot be genuinely happy.

Our minds are incredibly powerful, they can control how we react and how we feel. Therefore, it is imperative to be positive and not negative. Negative thinking will always bring negative results. What is in your mind will always surface, be it positive or negative.

Always strive to find the good in anything that you do or that happens to you. By finding the good you will be able to control your negative feelings and you will be one step closer to be genuinely happy.  Do not react to what happens to you, learn to control your feelings, and find the best possible way to move trough that moment in your life.

You are not alone; you are not an island in the middle of the sea. Find a connection with your family and with your friends; these are other keys to find that internal happiness that we all desire.

You are responsible for your own happiness, you either will let the environment control you or you will learn to navigate through it without being controlled by it. Find the positive in everything that you do, become happy one step a time, and once you do, share it with the ones that surround you. Create a positive circle, not a negative one. Be a happy and always move forward.

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A Morning’s Cup of Coffee

I find myself waking up to the warm embrace of the sun light, reminding me that it’s a new day and it’s time to get up, which I start to do as fast as my still half sleep body and mind let me do.

The first order of business is getting myself a cup of coffee; without it I probably would just sit across from the TV and staring blankly at it. Mind you, the TV is off, but my mind probably would not register it.

I await patiently, or as patient as I can be, for the coffee to be prepared, but once it’s ready I go for it without any hesitation and start to drink it, slowly, and this starts to wake up my mind.

Today it’s Saturday, so no need to worry about getting ready for work, the kids, or anything that usually needs to be taken care of during weekdays. Today is relaxation day!

With my cup of coffee in my hand I proceed to the living room to find my favorite spot on the couch. Am I going to look for news? Of course not, today I take a brake from that too and instead find something that I can stream from my online services. Will it be the new movie that my friend told, or how about the next episode of my favorite show?

Finally I decide that I will watch the next episode of one of my favorite series, something that should take around half an hour to do, which would be enough time for my stomach to also wake up and ask me for some food.

Once the show is over, I proceed to the kitchen and open the refrigerator. I decide on making some sunny side eggs with some toasted bread for breakfast, with some milk to enjoy it more.

It is at this moment that I hear noises coming from the rest of the house; it seems they are awake. This signals the end of my quiet time, but it will be replaced with laugher and company.

What would the rest of the day be? Will it be a relaxation time? Will it have some activities that need to be taken care of which I probably don’t know about it? It probably would be a combination of all.

Whatever the day bring I know that it would be a happy day, a day to make
more memories to those that I love.

Copyright 2020 Ricardo and JoJo My Unique Stories.com

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Stay Calm, Be Cool

One day when we look back on this, we will remember everything that we went through, and we might even wonder how did we make it? This is a question that we answer every day during these especial times.

The very first step is to stay calm, be cool. Every day we can find ourselves in situations that increase our stress. It is especially important to maintain our calm during these moments, even more so if across from us is someone that is having trouble keeping a cool head. If both sides are hot and angry then the outcome will be a tragedy.

How many times have we heard that people have being attacked, or even died because of a face mask? Is it worth it? The answer will always be no. A life if not worth a piece of cloth.

Always respect the decisions of other people, even if you disagree with them. Do not let it become an excuse for you to do something that you will come to regret. An action that takes a moment to do can change not only your future, but the future of your family.

How can you stay calm and be cool? Find ways to reduce your stress. Maybe you like gardening? Or how about reading a good book? Do you enjoy exercising? Give it a try on you living room! How about watching TV or even playing some computer games? Find ways to keep yourself occupied and to bring a smile to your face. A smile in your face will also be a smile for your family.

Do not give up and keep moving forward. One day everything will pass, and we will find ourselves in a better situation, but to make it there remember to always stay calm, be cool. Never Give up!

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Be Positive During Hardship

Many times, we hear that it is important to be positive, to strive to be better, but the true test of this happens when hardships arrive. It is easy to be positive when good times are here, but we cannot give up when things turn south.

How can we stay positive when it seems like the whole world is against us, when our worries and stress keep piling up? This is the moment when we should remember the good things that we have. Remember the family and friends that are with you, they will light up your road.

Instead of thinking of the bad, think about what good might come out of this situation. It is not easy to do, but if you keep at it and never give up, it will come a time when this will become easier to do.

A positive mindset will help you overcome any hardships that come your way, while a negative mindset will stop you on your tracks, will drive you deeper into a hole.

What do you do if you find that you are already in that hole? What do you do if you cannot get out of it? You reach out to others; you seek help to overcome this. You might feel alone, but there is always someone that is willing to offer a hand. Many times, a hand is already reaching for us, but we are concentrating so much in ourselves that we do not see this.

Never give up and always move forward; one day the end of the tunnel will come, and light will surround us once again. During these moments of uncertainty think of the future that will arrive if you keep moving forward.  Reach out to people and together you will overcome anything.

All of this will become a memory. One day we will be able to remember and maybe even laugh about it together, but in order to reach this destination stay positive and move forward, never give up and the light will come to everyone once again.

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City in the Morning

Beautiful Image of a City in the Early hours of the Day

Happy Wednesday to everyone! Today I bring you a picture taken during the early hours of the day. What feelings does this picture awaken?

This picture is a reminder to everyone that after darkness the light will come and fill up the sky. Right now there is a lot of uncertainty, darkness surrounding us from everywhere we look. Eventually light will come to us, just like the sun is slowly coming to fill the city with it’s light and warm.

Keep moving forward and never give up.

Copyright 2020 Ricardo and JoJo My Unique Stories.com

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Moods


Mood is like a swing
It swings back and forth
It is like a see saw
It goes up and down
He who loses control of its fury, fails
He who controls its anger conquered the greatest foe within

 
We can choose to be sad or happy
We can choose to be kind or generous
We can choose to practice patience
We can choose to be pessimistic or optimistic
God gives us the free will to do things, but we are given guidelines to follow
It is up to us to decide which to follow

We may encounter hardships but going through it
Has its own prize only we keep doing what is right.
Never stop doing what is good but it starts in our mind
When we think of good consequently good deeds come into place.
 
Copyright 2020 Ricardo and JoJo My Unique Stories.com

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One Day at a Time

There are so many questions that come to our minds during these times. How long? When? Why? As we ponder these questions, it’s good to remember that we always move forward one day at a time.

Believe that the day will come when this is behind us, a day when we will tell stories to our children and grandchildren of how we manage all this by concentrating one day at a time.

These are stressful times, issues at work and out of work. Not being able to see many of our love ones, not being able to do what we always do. Do not stress too much about a month from now, instead take things one day at a time and move forward never looking back or giving up.

Always stay positive on the face of adversity. We will persevere and rebuild what needs to be rebuilt. Do not let fear control you, help each other and look for the good things that are around you.

Never give up and move forward one day at a time.

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Reflection April 2020

As we face this pandemic COVID 19, the journey is much challenging. We are put in a high stress moment. But we are resilient. The question is how we respond to these changes in our daily lifestyle? It is changed significantly of our routine. Many of us lost our jobs or maybe working partially or furlough. But we are all together of this medical war. What can we do to cope this situation? I believe this is the time to reflect that all these changes will pass. While on the process how can we continue living in such a manner that we come out victorious and triumphant.
Reflecting and appreciating what we have would probably help. We are given the time to spend more time with our children at home. Enjoying the moment of our family.
Checking within if, we have been giving thankfulness or gratitude to do the people that are working tirelessly in the front line of healthcare such as nurses, doctors, EMS, respiratory therapists, people that work in the labs, scientists who work round the clock to find medicine or vaccine, and our government who are giving means to help in giving support to get through this fight.
Have we given appreciation to the people that pick up our trash or recycle papers? The policemen or women that keep our place in order. The environmental people that keep the hospital and community clean.
Have we given appreciation to the pastors, or priests and deacons who give us spiritual support any way they can? How do we treat our neighbor while we are waiting in line to get to grocery stores? Should we act out of anger or should we show kindness and patience? Sometimes we are overpowered by our own problems that we forget to show love to our neighbors. Maybe this is the time to count the many blessings we have so that we too can be a blessing to others.
This is the time that our words should be of encouraging, NOT of discouraging. We should be of reaching out and helping others. Being more optimistic attitude or behavior in our daily routines would help get us through this situation.
Above all we should NOT forget to ask God’s help in intervening this dilemma. He is so powerful that He can reverse this pandemic effect. His mercy, graces and blessings are upon us.

Copyright 2020 Ricardo and JoJo My Unique Stories.com