Energy of Heart

One of my daily goals is to read from scriptures, and ponder what I've read. When I have the time, I like to write down some of the thoughts and impressions I receive. Most of my scripture study over the past few months has been centered around faith. I've re-read certain chapters dozens of times, gleaning new insights and understanding as I've written my thoughts down in a thought-journal. I don't write in the journal as frequently as I should, but I still have over 20 full-size pages. Faith is key to becoming who we desire to be, and to pursue and reach our dreams.  Faith is a principle of action and of power.  Here's one day's entry.

Following up on the last post, the levels of learning determine how well we actually know the subject. There are four levels.  Rote is the lowest level of learning. It's the ability to repeat back something which was learned, but not understood. It may be enough to pass some tests, but if deeper learning isn't gained what we learn by rote will be lost. Understanding is the step above rote. Where you could compare rote to having a knowledge, understanding is to comprehend or grasp the nature of meaning of something. Application is the second highest level of learning. It's the act of putting something to use that has been learned and understood. The highest level of learning is Correlation, which is associating what has been learned, understood, and applied with previous or subsequent learning. Here's an overly simple example, learning multiplication. A student can memorize multiplication tables. Understanding comes when multiplication is understood to be how many times ...

More than a decade ago I worked for a helicopter company. I had received my private rotorcraft pilot certificate and then passed the ground instructor and advanced ground instructor certifications (and later I got the instrument ground instructor certification). With my AGI and pilot certification I got hired by the company as a ground school instructor while I worked on, and completed, my commercial rotorcraft pilot certificate and added the instrument rating. I also completed the flight instructor certificate and instrument instructor rating for that certificate. After a couple years, economic conditions collapsed the company and I was inspired to move on to other pursuits. It was after that change that I met a beautiful woman who would become my wife. Since that time, I haven't flown. But every couple years I go through a flight instructor renewal course to keep up-to-date in my knowledge (at least in some areas). One of the areas that has fascinated me is the learning process. ...

Do  your birthdays leave you feeling older? Mine don't. I've never felt old. And I usually have to think about it to recall how old I am and how old I'll turn on my birthday. My age just isn't really important to me because I feel young. My last birthday--number 49-- a few months ago showed to me how my perception was really changing for the better. But first, a little bit about the last year. Summer 2020 I worked several weeks on building a nice shed in our back yard. It's an 8 ft x 12 ft shed that I designed. The kids did help and it was great to get their help, and to teach them, however I mostly ended up building the shed myself. It was mostly built after a month of getting up early and spending a couple hours on it before going in to work later in the morning, The COVID scare made it so work was slow anyway. For the first few weeks I was regularly sore from the work my body wasn't accustomed to. But after a few weeks I felt stronger, and better. My eating h...

I posted the following on another blog and thought it'd be applicable here as well. The title doesn't state "pride is scarce". Pride is certainly not scarce. It's all too common among all categories, classes, and types of people. From the extremely rich to the poorer-than-dirt, pride infiltrates, infects, and infests many of the human race. Pride is evident is all races, ethnicities, religions, movements, nationalities, genders, ages, groups, etc. Is pride ever good? There's a single verse in the Book of Mormon that implies there must be some level of pride that is acceptable. It's during a discourse Nephi gives to a multitude who had gathered outside his garden tower. He rebukes them for their pride, their desire to "get gain" and "be praised of men", and for setting their hearts on the riches and vain things of the world. He calls them to repentance and to return to God. And he warns them of impending destruction because they had unit...

 As a man (woman, child, or anyone) thinketh, so is he. Or as it's written in the King James version of the Old Testament: "For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he" Proverbs 23:7 The interesting thing about this verse is that it doesn't say think in our mind. It's thinking in our hearts.  When most people consider "thought" it's the conscious thought that is brought to mind. It's what we are intentional thinking about, what we are aware of. What's not considered is that many of our thoughts are reactions to how we feel. When something happens we respond "naturally" or, more correctly, subconsciously--how we've been conditioned or programmed to act/react--and those responses bring thoughts to our conscious. This is where awareness, or mindfulness , comes into play. We really need to be aware of how we feel and the thoughts that result from those feelings. Without this mindfulness it'll be extremely difficult to make changes...