Gratitude

Perspective Is Everything

by Vickey Pahnke Taylor March 25, 2013

It snowed again. I watched the flakes turn from tiny, wet ones to large, perfectly shaped individual geometric patterns. I got caught up in thoughts of how perspective is everything. It made me think of the Jim Carrey movie -How the Grinch Stole Christmas – and the Whoville town that lived within a single snowflake.

Those thoughts led me to ones about this huge earth on which I live. And how, in the entirety of all the space and universes and stars, I am …

Click here to continue →

Peace

Simple Good Ol’ Days

by Vickey Pahnke Taylor February 26, 2013

Mostly in pictures, let’s go back in time.

The simple good old days. Whatever that means to you. Because those good ol’ days are a lot different for each one of us, depending on the era in which we grew up, the circumstances, and what we did during those old days.

A ball and jacks. Who plays that, anymore? Old fashioned bicycles. With ringers on ‘em. Dinners that included potatoes, and no matter what kind they turned out to be – french fries, mashed, casseroles …

Click here to continue →

Goodness

Simple Ways To Make A Good Day

by Vickey Pahnke Taylor February 12, 2013

There are simple ways to make a good day. All of them can be based on perspective, or experience, or focus. The older I get, the more I hunger for moments to celebrate – for any ol’ reason. Or maybe it’s the understanding that when I decide to look for more goodness, there is clearly more to honor and grow.

One way I try to make my day better is by finding good things to read – good articles, good news, happy photos. I …

Click here to continue →

Goodness

Ode to Joy – Beautiful Music and Beautiful Children

by Vickey Pahnke Taylor November 9, 2012

I love beautiful music. I love beautiful children – of all ages. I’ve been blessed to have grown up in a house with parents who played musical instruments and sang. They were both in a movie [a musical] and my mom sang in a trio with her sisters when she was growing up. I’ve had the amazing opportunity to create music and to sing it.

Mostly, I appreciate being able to hear it. To feel it. To be moved by it.

I see what it …

Click here to continue →

Joy

Dig Out. Climb Up. Pry Open. Be Happy

by Vickey Pahnke Taylor November 6, 2012

Digging out of the dirt. Climbing up from the hole. Prying open a window [to let in sunlight] during a moment when everything seems [or is, for real] dark and contrary. My Happy has been temporarily displaced.

Most days I’m in a pretty good mood. If I don’t start out that way, I’ve learned a few tricks to flip it around. But sometimes… sometimes, the gray cloud seems to seep into the pores of my body and invade the warmth and sunshine of my …

Click here to continue →

Happy

Supercalifrag…. Never Mind

by Vickey Pahnke Taylor October 30, 2012

Supercalifrag…never mind. Trying to be Super All That is such a myth. Whoever started the whole “I can do everything!” needs to stand in the corner with their nose touching the crevice. Don’t be crowning me Queen of Goodness – or anyone else. We’re all working stiffs here, shoring up as best we can, and dealing with Stuff. Trusting, hoping, praying, working so that the Stuff doesn’t do us in.

Does this sound negative? Sorry – I don’t mean it to. Just the opposite.…

Click here to continue →

Goodness

You’re Not Ordinary

by Vickey Pahnke Taylor October 8, 2012

You’re not ordinary. Neither am I. Even at times when I feel duller-than-ordinary, or think that I have nothing to contribute. Truth is, there’s always something I can contribute. It’s better if my contributions are good ones, rather than not-so-good ones.

Have you ever said something in just the wrong way, and ended up communicating anything but what you meant? I wish there was a switch I could flip, to stop that from happening. Too often, what I mean comes out wrong. And it …

Click here to continue →

Goodness

It’s Smart To Be Optimistic!

by Vickey Pahnke Taylor September 6, 2012

Apparently, it’s smart to be optimistic.

We all know that optimism is a good thing. But I found a really good article in Reader’s Digest that shed some additional light on why it’s so smart to be a sunny-side-up kind of person.

Optimistic people are healthier, according to this October 2010 article. They exercise more and are more apt to follow a better diet. They pay more attention to good habits.

The article explained that there’s a difference in happiness and optimism:

Happiness is a

…

Click here to continue →

Goodness Matters

Defending Out Of Love

by Vickey Pahnke Taylor May 27, 2012

Memorial Day makes me think about people defending out of love. Love for country, and the people in it. Love of righteous principles. Love for personal freedoms that should be God given.

I remember when my dad would come home from a military assignment, after a long stretch of time. Mostly, I remember him looking tired. And grateful to be home with us.

I remember going to events on different bases in Tidewater Virginia, where every branch of the military is represented. There were air …

Click here to continue →

Courage

If I Could Sing All Day – Joy!

by Vickey Pahnke Taylor May 22, 2012

If I could sing all day long, I’d do it – with joy. Music is mysteriously wonderful for its ability to move people when words, expressions, pictures, may not. Some days I’d like to sing – all day – about my faith in Christ, songs I sang to my children when they were little, or hymns that were my mom and dad’s favorites. I’d try to reach somebody’s heart and bring a little bit of healing. Or share their pain. Or lift them up.…

Click here to continue →

Joy

← Previous Entries