Necessity: The key to life

Necessity may cut out the weak and uplift the strong, or it may just show you a path in life that you didn't know was there or weren't expecting to come at that time. It may just show you who you truly are, or it maybe the fact of life is that necessity rules all; and if all we need to do is look into our own soul and appeal to our human side, then that may be the final step we need to do to come to the truth. The truth of what you may ask; well the truth that if all we have left is each other, then that is all we may truly need forever.

Thank you for listening,

Brian

My brother Russell

My brother Russell had emergency brain surgery about 11 months ago. I had the privilege of being with him for 9 months of rehabilitation. Russ is truly the law of positive attraction in a bottle. In all those months with him at all the hospitals and at home I never heard him complain once. Not once. Not a why me? Not a anything. It was truly impressive to watch his progress from day one to where he is now; which is back at school where he has one year left on his masters of accounting at Brigham Young University, where this program continually ranks in the top three each year among all schools and colleges in the U.S. After Russell's two year mission in Brazil I truly saw a change in him, a change for the better. He learned how to work so hard and is now on path to getting married and his degree and I'm betting a wonderful life together with his soon to be wife Melissa. He still has to go a little bit farther in his rehabilitation but he is sure on his way. Anyway the point of this story and for today's message of hope, I just wanted to share with you the power of persistence and the power of positive thinking. And that is Russ. If you truly believe you will get better and be healed you will be. If you put out what you want from the universe and consistently strive towards it everyday you will get what you want. I have seen it in action. It was quite amazing to watch my younger brother teach me one of the greatest lessons of life. With his positive thinking and mindset nothing could stop him and nothing will. He had surgery to heal his tumor for good and let's hope it stays that way. Anyway as we continually search for answers in this world and from the universe about the why's and how's of life all we have to ask is one simple question is what Albert Einstein has said and that is this: Is this a friendly universe? And in spite of it all if we do truly believe that we will always be fine. No matter what happens here or there if we consistently strive to thrive in all circumstances no matter what is going on around us, and we always have the power of our own mind, just like as spoken about in book after book after book, especially in Man's Search for Meaning and As a Man Thinketh, you can overcome being in Auschwitz Concentration Camp in WWII and survive and be able to tell your story to millions and change people's lives always knowing that we can overcome almost anything by the power of pure will power. Obviously there are circumstances here and there, but I truly hope and believe that no matter what happens everything will be made right in the end. And if it hasn't been made right then it isn't the end. Keep striving, searching, hoping, yearning, keep going, keep rolling your boulder everyday whatever that may be, and I mean that in a good way not in as a punishment from the Gods, but always remember to dare to disturb the universe and fight for what you believe in. Challenge what is right and wrong, and never stop believing that no matter who you are and no matter the circumstances you have the right and willpower to change lives and maybe even the world forever. Look to the Savior and always strive to be like him no matter the circumstance. Keep hoping, keep believing, for tomorrow the sun will rise who knows what the tide could bring? Thank you so much for listening your ever faithful friend Brian Robert Gardner.

Stop Hoping and Start Living

Life is meant to be lived. Life is not meant to be spent hidden away in your room or your house. Life is meant to be experienced. We are supposed to be happy, joyful, free, and we are meant to defy gravity in all things. Overcoming fear comes with experience. Even though we have fear, we must go forward in spite of it and do whatever it is we are afraid of: that is the essence of courage. Be courageous as you seek out your hopes and dreams. We all hope for our dreams to come to true and without that hope we would have nothing. "Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and a good thing never dies." "Get busy living or get busy dying." The film Shawshank Redemption can teach us many important life lessons including those two quotes from the film right there. As we continue on in this trek and journey we call life, we must strive to thrive and live in every circumstance that maybe given to us. Not to be acted upon, but to act for ourselves. "We were not sent to this earth to fail, but to succeed gloriously." Elder Richard G. Scott of the Quorum of the twelve apostles has been quoted many times saying that exact line in his conference talks. I hope to start to experience the good parts of life, the exciting things, the hopeful things. I want to begin to really fly and live my life to the fullest no matter what. Seize the day, carpe diem to the max. I want to become in tune with the universe and flow with it everyday. I want to be one with the almighty universe and let it take me on an adventure that was and is worth fighting for and worth choosing to come down to this earth and experience all that it has to offer. We only get one of each day, so it is finally time to start to make each one of them count. No more wasted days on health problems, or anything else. Leave the gray skies of depression behind me, and fight for the light that is just waiting for me to come unto it and live in it forever. I want to stop hoping and start living! I have so many ideas, and dreams, and so many talents and skills that I need to share with the world. I want to leave this world better than it was when I found it and came upon it. I know everything will happen soon and begin soon, I just can't wait to truly start living and truly start experiencing days full of joy and happiness from sun up to sun down. There is so much out there I have missed and I only have so much time to make up for all of those missed times and experiences. I want to fall in love. I mean really fall in love, head over heels in love. My oh my how grand that would be to love someone more than you love yourself. To care for someone so much that you are willing to die for that person. What a lifetime of experiences that are just waiting for me to begin and start enjoy them piece by piece, moment by moment. There is no point in waiting any longer, just jump in the deep end and start swimming.