Everything is a miracle, and every day you are totally immersed in the miraculous.
From the top of your head to the tip of your toes, you are a miracle.
From the day of your birth until the day of your death, your cup overflows with the miraculous.
It's all too easy to overlook the miraculous, or even worse, trade the truly miraculous for the clever.
The twenty-first century is full of trivial but amazing things. If we are not careful we will overlook the miraculous and sink into the quicksand of digital disorientation.
Although the digital world may appear amazing, it is neither real nor miraculous. Mostly it is a compelling diversion that hides the miraculous from our eyes.
Children experience the digital world at an early age with their eyes glued to ipads and other digital devices. They have a strong affinity for the digital world and prefer it over the real one. They trade the truly miraculous for the trivial and amazing.
These children become strangers to the real world and in the process they are no longer immersed in the miraculous. What they know about nature they learn from television rather than going out and actually experiencing nature in all its wonder.
When given the choice between the digital world and the real one, I will choose the real world every time. There is no other way to experience the truly miraculous.
There is a world of difference between looking at a digital image of an iceberg and actually touching one.
A photograph of a calving glacier can't hold a candle to seeing it up close and personal with your own eyes.
The digital world is a poor substitute for the real one.
During our sailing voyage around the world, I discovered a connection with the miraculous that forever changed my life.
The closer I am to nature, the more miraculous is my life.
Sailing across an ocean is a total immersion experience.
Twenty-four hours a day you are totally immersed in the natural.
The wind and sea constantly talk to you telling you which way to point the bow of your yacht and how much sail you should carry. Sails flapping in the breeze call out for you to trim the canvas as you sail on the ocean of your dreams.
Even when you are asleep, when there is a change in the motion of the boat or the sound of the sails, you immediately wake up and check to see what is happening. Nature is talking and the feedback loop is strong, and you know that your agreement with the wind and sea has changed. It's time to adjust the set of the sails or maybe even assume a defensive posture.
People who suffer from digital disorientation regard nature as the enemy or a wily adversary that must be watched and subdued.
For them the natural world is a fight or flight experience that prevents them from experiencing the miraculous.
Instead of understanding nature and using it's power to sail on the ocean of their dreams, they observe it through the binoculars of life at a safe distance.
I confess that I am bored with the amazing because I have experienced the truly miraculous.
I have surrendered all my my digital fantasies for the real world where everything is a miracle.
There is nothing in the digital universe that can compare with the thousands of sunrises and sunsets that I witnessed during my eleven year sailing voyage around the world.
In the trade winds I have seen dozens of brilliant green flashes as the sun sets on the clear western horizon. I have even witnessed double green flashes caused by massive Pacific Ocean swells lifting our catamaran like a giant elevator giving us the privilege of seeing the sun disappear below the horizon two times within a few seconds. Each time the sun slips from view, it sends a miraculous flash of emerald light our way.
You won't find me staring into the digital world on my tablet when I am sailing on the ocean of my dreams.
When a bird sings its song, you are hearing the miraculous.
When a whale breaches the surface of the ocean, you are witnessing miraculous joy.
When a baby is born, the miraculous thunders into your life.
We have eyes that don't see and ears that don't hear when we lose the ability to recognize the miraculous nature of our existence.
Virtually every natural thing in your life is a miracle. From the top of your head to the tip of your toes, you are an astounding miracle. The air your breathe, the earth where you live, and the sun that provides the energy to make it happen are beyond miraculous. Everything else bears the stamp of the trivial.
I am not denigrating or diminishing the amazing accomplishments of the twenty-first century, but at the same time it's important to remember that they are not miraculous.
To some extent they may have changed the way we live, but they have not changed who we are.
Texting is a poor substitute for talking, and real conversation is an endangered species.
The evidence is not yet in, but I suspect that when it's all been said and done, the digital world will turn out to be a disappointment. The digital experience will be a poor substitute for real ones.
The picture at the top of this page is my son floating in the turquoise water next to a tree that marks the entrance through the reef into Uligamu in the Maldives. The big smile on his face is not an accident. He is totally immersed in the miraculous in the natural non-digital world.
In this great adventure called life, you have a choice.
You can choose to live in your digital world with a 55-inch wide screen existence and cheer others on who are living their dreams, or you can have a real life.
You can totally immerse yourself in the natural world and experience the truly miraculous.
That natural world is free, and you can touch it, breathe it, embrace it, and love it. And if you do immerse yourself in it, you will discover that everything is a miracle.
Many times I felt like I had taken things to the limit, but on further examination, it was clear I simply had enough. I was done and was unwilling to do whatever it takes to continue. Hitting the wall of absolute limits has never been a problem. The envelope of possibility is infintely large, and the likelihood of encountering absolute limits is infinitesimally small. There are no limits. There are only limiting beliefs.
In the grand scheme of things, my grand schemes seem fairly insignificant. In a global sense it's easy to feel as if my life counts for nothing, or at most, counts for little. When someone tells me that I shouldn't be doing things that are important to me, and that I'm wasting my life, they are really saying that my dreams don't count in their scheme of things.
I am a daktari without borders. I am not sure when and where borders disappeared from my mind, but sometime in the last quarter century, I became a citizen of the world. Wherever I am on planet earth, I feel at home in my borderless world. Find out what it's like to live without borders.
When my life is over and on judgment day I stand in the final line up with all the rest, I hope millions of people can point their finger at me, pick me out of the line up, and say, "He's the one. That's definitely him. He's different from the rest. He didn't conform, and he is guilty of living his dreams.
The envelope of possibility is infintely large, and the likelihood of encountering absolute limits is infinitesimally small. Although the envelope of possibility is exceedingly large, it is equally true on a personal level the envelope of possibility is only as big as you believe it to be.
You are never safe from negation. Unchecked negativity can rapidly flush the achievements of a lifetime down the drain. If you ever reach your dreams, it will be because you stopped listening to the voice of fear and negation. You stopped looking at your limitations and stopped constructing barriers that exist only in your mind.
I could write an entire book called, "Things I Feared That Never Happened," and follow that up with a second book entitled, "I Feared The Wrong Things." Almost always, fear is a waste of time. Most of the things you fear will never happen, and you fear the wrong things. When the hobglobins of fear start dancing in your mind, it's time to refocus on other things. Learn how to squelch the voice of fear with a positive focus!
For me, the dream is all about adventure, freedom, and being really alive. Although I like seeing the sights wherever we go, I think it's the sense of adventure coupled with the freedom to do what I want to do with my life, seasoned with a pinch of adrenalin that makes it all worthwhile.
The first step in moving toward your dreams is to doubt your limits. Once you doubt your limits, it's almost as if you are born again. You get an entirely new life with radically different rules of engagement. You enter the Promised Land of Imagine, Believe, and Receive. I know this to be true because I have been there.
WHO IS DR. DAVE AND WHY IS HE BLOGGING?
More than two decades ago, Captain Dave (aka Dr. Dave) started writing and creating websites as he sailed around the world on his sailboat, SV Exit Only. Those early websites and books evolved into the Positive Thinking Network you see today.
Captain Dave lived overseas for twenty-eight years in his globe trotting lifestyle until he became a Flying Doctor with the Indian Health Service working for ten years in the American Southwest flying out to deliver health care to the Apache, Hopi, Hualapai, Havasupai, and Colorado River Tribes.
Dr. Dave completed his work with the Indian Health Service in Arizona, and now runs the Positive Thinking Network full time either from his catamaran or his Land Rover Defenders as he travels around the world
The Positive Thinking Network has a global outreach sending a positive message to 196 countries, and it is your definitive source of positive thinking on the World Wide Web.
With hundreds of positive websites, and more than a million pages and podcasts downloaded each month, it's where you come to learn everything you want to know about positive thinking. The Positive Thinking Network focuses on positive self-talk, positive spirituality, winning the battle against depression, PTSD, and positive adventure.
Hundreds of family safe websites stand ready to fill your mind with positive things.
Dr. Dave and the Positive Thinking Network work around the clock to change the world, one person at a time, one web page at a time, and one podcast at a time.
