Review

When do you tend to mindlessly watch television or surf the Internet?

Set a reminder on your phone or your computer to use that time instead to call a friend, to talk and listen to your spouse or kids, or to journal about a person who has made a difference in your life.

Identify a few of your favorite tunes, and say a prayer thanking God for the talents of those who fill the world with song.

Review the last twenty-four hours. Where did you find God? Resolve to be more aware tomorrow as the day unfolds. 

(Ginny Kubitz Moyer in Daily Inspiration for Women, 18-20 March)

20 March 2016

Your Life

... do a quick review, and note all of the people who've shown up as characters in this play called your life. It has all been perfect.
(Dr. Wayne W. Dyer, The Power Of Intention, p. 20)

Retirement Anniversary

Last month, on 3 November 2013, I celebrated the twentieth anniversary of my retirement from The Library of Congress.  They offered early retirement buy-outs and I took them up on the offer. Looking back, it was the right thing for me to do.  I did miss the many friends I left behind.

Mr. Dickie

10 December 2013

Inventory

Depending on how you look at it, it's either time for an end of the month inventory or a beginning of the month inventory.

An occasional review of our progress is an encouraging exercise, for it shows us that we are gradually learning how to live in poise and serenity.

At any rate it is a good time to look back over the month just passed to see what progress we've made and what changes have taken place in our lives as a result of practicing our programs.

• Have we given sufficient attention to our program?
• Have we done at least a little reading each day?
• Are our family relationships more serene and happy than they were a month ago?
• Have we renewed a strained friendship; or made good for an injury to someone?
• Did we make an effort to avoid gossip?
• Did we try to learn something new?

Make this a day of review and preparation for the coming month in which you will renew your efforts to progress in your personal development.

If you don't see any improvement in the month which just ended, do not be discouraged.  There are still many things to learn, one of which is, to accept yourself as you are.  Everything good we can bring about must begin with that.

(after One Day At At A Time In Al-Anon, 31 July) 1 August 2012

Spiritual Gifts Inventory

Take time this evening to do a brief review of the day.  Try to clean out any daily dirt with God or others before putting your head on the pillow.
(The Upper Room Disciplines - 2003, 10 August) 9 May 2012

Closing The Year

For Auld Lang Syne - BBC Symphony

Closing The Year

This is the day on which another year closes.  It is a good time for a quiet, honest look at our personal progress.  Has it been a good year, better than those which came before?  Has following your day-by-day spiritual program brought you more serenity and acceptance of yourself, the unique individual you are?

If you have regrets for errors or omissions, review them quickly and dismiss them.  In the new year, which lies ahead, there will be no time for futile regrets.

Resolve to live the coming year, one day at a time.  Whatever comes, meet it with a serene mind.

"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God."  (Romans)
(after One Day At A Time In Al-Anon, 31 December)

Serenity Prayer

God grant me the serenity 

to accept the things I cannot change; 

courage to change the things I can;

and wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time; 

Enjoying one moment at a time; 

Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; 

Taking, as He did, this sinful world

as it is, not as I would have it; 

Trusting that He will make all things right 

if I surrender to His Will; 

That I may be reasonably happy in this life 

and supremely happy with Him 

Forever in the next. 

Amen.

Reinhold Niebuhr

2011 Reading Program

This morning I finished reading twelve books which were part of my 2011 daily reading program.  In all I read twenty-five books this year. There were four other books on my reading list that I set aside and didn't complete. I also skimmed a number of books on computer subjects, Windows 7 in particular, that I checked out of the county library.

I maintained two lists of the books I was reading.  I used the weRead application which I set up to work with Facebook.  On my own computer I created a file with the CSVed program.  Last night I extracted the following list of books read from the CSV file.  I also set the "Read It" switch for all twenty-five books on weRead and "tagged" each one with the tag "2011."  This was the first time I'd used tags with weRead.  I was pleased that it allowed me to easily find the books read in 2011.  I'm going to use LibraryThing to track the books I'm reading in 2012.  I've already selected the books and done some of the work to set up the two files I'll use to track my reading program.

1. Andrews, Andy - The Noticer
2. Anonymous - In God's Care
3. Anonymous - One Day At A Time In Al-Anon
4. Anonymous (Casey and Vanceburg) - The Promise of a New Day
5. Barclay, William - The Letters to the Galatians and Ephesians
6. Barclay, William - The Letters to Timothy, Titus and Philemon
7. Barclay, William - The Letter to the Hebrews
8. Case, Steve - Everything Counts
9. Copage, Eric V. - Black Pearls
10. Dyer, Wayne W. - Wisdom of the Ages
11. Franken, Al - Lies And The Lying Liars Who Tell Them
12. Graham, Billy - Hope For Each Day
13. Hughes, Selwyn  and Thomas Kinkade - Every Day Light
14. Kushner, Harold - To Life!
15. Larsen, Earnie and Carol Hegarty - Believing In Myself
16. Magee, Mike - A Book of Choices
17. Martin, Iain C. - Worthy of Their Esteem
18. O'Toole, Ph.D., Mary Ellen - Dangerous Instincts
19. Rice, Helen Steiner - A Collection of Blessings
20. Rice, Helen Steiner - From The Heart
21. Thoreau, Henry David - Walden
22. Tolle, Eckhart - A New Earth
23. Tolstoy, Leo - The Gospel In Brief
24. Various Authors - Daily Guideposts - 2009
25. Wiersbe, Warren W- Chapter-By-Chapter Bible Commentary

Mr. Dickie's Blog

Thanks to everyone who took an interest in Mr. Dickie's Blog in 2011 on NetworkedBlogs, Facebook or Google.  I hope that once in a while I posted something that caused you: 

• to think, 
• to smile, 
• to laugh.
• to learn.

It's my intention to continue posting to this blog and my Arrow Prayers blog on a daily basis in 2012.  I hope you'll find my efforts worthy of taking some of your time to see what's on my mind.

Happy New Year 

2012

Mr. Dickie

31 December 2011

1000th Posting

Stop awhile to reminisce and to pleasantly review happy little happenings and things you used to do. Today be thankful for pleasant memories. (Helen Steiner Rice, From The Heart, 7 February)

... you cannot have mountaintops without valleys. (Warren W. Wiersbe, Chapter-By-Chapter Bible Commentary, p. 178)

There is a generic term for all negative emotions: unhappiness. (Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth, p. 136)

Live your life in extraordinary ways. (Steve Case, Everything Count, 17 January)

This is the 1000th posting to Mr. Dickie's Blog.