April | 2012 | Tracks In The Dust

Archive for the month “April, 2012”

18 Apr 2012

Sunshine Award

I have seen the Sunshine Award on several of the blogs I follow, and I always thought it was quite nice that a community of wordpress bloggers were reaching out to others in recognition. It was my lucky day when Hope The Happy Hugger nominated me! You should visit her if you have not. Thanks so very much for all the “hugs” ♥ and the award.

According to the award rules: Thank the person who nominated you “hugs!” and also nominate other bloggers and answer some questions about yourself:

favorite Musician: Todd Rundgren – been in my life one way or another since I was a teen in high school. Grew up with the Beatles, grew old with Todd. I think songs like “Kindness” and “Compassion” and “Only Human” would be popular with some of my fellow bloggers.
Favorite color combination: Black/Red or black and just about any color 🙂
Favorite place I have lived: Minneapolis had great memories for me and my wife, but have to say that Dallas, Texas USA is just a bit more “home” – it is the place we have lived the longest
Favorite Movie: I have a list of over 50. And it wouldn’t ever be a right answer. But old or new movies, I was a student of movies in college and a lover of movies since I was 6. Musicals, Drama, Comedy, Suspense, Mystery, Westerns, some of all of them.
Not every one knows: I was a radio DJ (disc jockey) in college. And for a while the Station Manager and Program Director. Public radio with a very eclectic playlist. And it features the World’s Largest Trivia Contest (the 43rd annual event is happening this weekend)- teams call in for the entire weekend to answer 1000’s of obscure questions with points to win.
If I had a million dollars: I would buy you a monkey, or a nice reliable automobile (Just too easy I guess)
Favorite alcoholic drink: Martini Dry with olives ( shake it- stir it I don’t care)
Favorite Bible Verse: For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (NIV)
My pet’s name: Steele the cat- 14 years old and over 15lbs. Big grey retired mouser who thinks only about food these days. Used to think he was a dog.

My Nominees:

Lori at Bless Your Hippie Heart – Such a kind and wonderful perspective on life
Steve Lucas with Yesterday Lucas- Steve is a great missionary with a wonderful mission in Costa Rica. Moved his entire family there and is dedicated to God’s purpose.
Miss Audrey In Wonderland – it is great to see that no matter where in the world you are- there are similar perspectives on love, life and the pursuit of joy
Same thing here- just great fun to see where life is taking No Blog Intended
istopforsuffering– kindness and goodness- and always wonderful to understand the perspectives the spirit
Mari is inspirational at Peace the consciousness… with some great prose too
Aix at PURE INSTINCT is spiritually centered beyond her age

I know there are more I could nominate and I am still new at this effort myself, so I am learning more and meeting virtual people as I go. Thanks.

Posted in Learning Lessons Along the Journey Of Life and tagged Sunshine Award, Todd Rundgren, Worlds Largest Trivia Contest

17 Apr 2012

1 Comment

Negotiating With Yourself

Unbelievable as it seems I am my best negotiator. But even more incredible is that most of the time I am negotiating with myself. I find that I often work hard to win, but as ironic as it may be- sometimes I lose. How can I lose when I am negotiating with myself? Easy.

Wrestling with the things that I know I should work to do better in my life can sometimes take a long time. I can even declare a “win” on one day and find it was actually anything but a win. Yet there I am – the master negotiator in what direction I could take, what would make the best sense, how it would compare with other things I have done in the past. Sometimes it seems like new horizons are almost easier to decide because there are many unknowns… can’t talk myself out of things if I really don’t have a confident argument to the contrary. Yet many of the easiest things to decide still have their struggles: diets, paying attention to your health, saving for the future, learning more about the things that puzzle you in life. They are all about focus on devoting the effort, but still they involve constant debate with your life’s daily course.

So each day I grab onto reasons why I can or can’t do something. Sometimes it results in stalling out on doing anything. ( Okay Freudian fans, I know the view). Being human means that making mistakes are just part of the natural progression of things, but yet the tendency is to not be public about it, or put others in harm’s way, or do something so wrong that it is against the very grain of your soul and spirit. “Analysis paralysis” others will call it. Better to not do anything, not change anything because of the consequences. Don’t want to upset the rhythm of things.

For me, when I finally negotiate the time, and make the argument with myself that will stick ( maybe even share it with my loved ones to see what they say)- then I proudly go forward. I make the “move”. It’s then I realize that some of the most impulsive things I have done in my life were equally as successful steps along the path. Trusting in yourself has rewards- centered on the positive, on your heart, on the spirit of the Word, on the course that will be forever history in your lifetime once you’ve charted it.

There are often many steps that will require negotiation and course correction. It’s just taking them in the first place. How well do you negotiate your course in life? Do you trust your inner negotiator to win? Do you use your inner compass along the way to make the corrections as you travel this time on Earth?

Posted in Doing Things That Will Change Your Life, Learning Lessons Along the Journey Of Life and tagged Analysis paralysis, Decision making, Doubt, Inner Compass, Reality Check, Self-Awareness, Sprituality

16 Apr 2012

2 Comments

A Famous Musical Moment In Time

Climb The Mountain [Remastered]

When I was younger, much younger than today. I dreamed of being a rock musician and being famous. Almost every guy I knew that was in “a band” in those days had an ambition to be famous. Oh sure, there was the pure satisfaction of being in a band and creating music, creating a sound that would make people come and listen to you when you played in public. But that was just a taste of what could be. Could we be someone who everyone would play on their car radios, or play loud at parties with a bunch of rockin’ people dancing away the night?

Not that any of my musician friends truly believed that we were on our way to stardom. We had some idea of what it could be like, one of the bands I was part of even “opened” for some bands back then that became pretty well-known. But that was a small thing really. The band will forever be grateful for the opportunity to create that time, to create that moment that would be musically connected to someone with music we wrote. Of course it wouldn’t be memorable enough to become the next gold record. But it was something captured by the five of us like a painting that someone would paint and hang on the wall.

So here it is decades later. Me with a family full of love and life and children. A career, a home, cats on the couch and dogs in the yard. No one will recall those days except a few musicians and the road crew that dragged our sorry souls around from place to place. There will be the basements and garages that still ring out the tones of bands we loved. The memory of those prime nights when every thing went well with the crowd, and we had visions of fandom and success (like some arena rock band waving to the crowd of teens). Echoes of Journey, Styx, Kansas, Boston or rockin with the old timers of the British Invasion or even farther back with the distant reverb of Buddy Holly or rocking at Sun Records.

A few years back we had a reunion that had taken decades to realize. Indeed with much less hair, many more responsibilities, and many more pounds. We still had a touch of that remembrance, of the creation of our original music that was so much just designed to honor our musical heroes. With a bit more sensibility, and some recording equipment we recaptured the music we wrote so long ago, so our kids could hear it just once. (Attached is one of our originals). So we could play it from time to time and say “that was us” – back then we had some fun, played for some people and made them cheer. Yup, we were famous, successful – at least in our minds eye.

Posted in Learning Lessons Along the Journey Of Life, Life's Sound Track (Music) and tagged Being Famous, Journey, Music, Rock music, Stardom, Starrider, Styx

16 Apr 2012

2 Comments

Choices for Humankind

All around me I see sadness and anger. People texting, blogging, emailing. calling, talking on the media, ranting on the Internet. They are often frustrated that things just aren’t the way they expect. The picture that they have in their minds-eye of how the world around them should be just doesn’t seem to fit how it is.

Politics, religion, education, finances, what others have and what they don’t have, how things should be bettter-different, more freedom/more restrictions. No matter where it stands there is frustration. Partially there are so many more ways to communicate how someone feels today, social networks, blogs, web-sites designed to sound-off on what seems like thousands of causes. Add the media “news” and “commentary” and you have an elixir for even more sadness, anger and frustration.

Some of the bloggers I share posts with are calling out for “happiness” and kindness and the want and need to be more part of the label “humankind” than the tens of thousands of other labels that everyone seems to want to use. There are so many ways to put labels on someone. Our lightning fast communication to the world seems to demand lightning fast categorization of the things said and the people who have said them.

In the end are human tendencies seem to have lended themselves to generate more sadness, anger and frustration. But that very imperfect humankind that we are, we can still have a choice. That’s the way God planned it. And when we choose to look at things with grace and empathy and understanding, our lives seem to move that direction as well. Some will claim that it is a religious direction (and it is so often as it should be), but it is also something that we can all practice just because we are all looking for a better quality of life. And it needs to be a focus. It requires the effort to be positive, but it can be done. It can fill the negative void that you can leave behind if you desire to.

So it goes, we all have our bad days and our good. We all have the opportunity to spread the kindness of life, the happiness of living, the spirit that God has provided and we can choose to use! Communicate it every day, the good news (in my faith it is the Gospel). Stay away from the sadness and anger that is so easy to share through all of the communication methods we have today. They serve to decay your daily living until you are not alive. I thank God I am alive to share the good news. I have another day to choose to do it. Will you?

Posted in Doing Things That Will Change Your Life and tagged Anger, Communication, Frustration, Good News, Human, People, relationships, Sadness

12 Apr 2012

5 Comments

No Day But Today

There are times when I ask myself “How did I get here?” I don’t mean I have been unconscious and I woke up out of a daze or something. I know I have been moving along day to day, living the life I have lived and counting the days on the calendar.

But when I stop to think about it I realize that there were many, many days that I had wished would come to an end as quickly as it could… You know, those days when it all comes down on you and you think it can’t get worse? At the end, you sigh the sigh of relief, hopefully lying in bed and wondering if you close your eyes will it go away (there are some I remember did not finish in my bed, but were in some very odd places I shudder to remember).

Still when the day is finished, look for the next day to improve. Of course there are always those days that start out looking like they are going to be “one of those days”. You know them…Issues at work, family conflicts, tests of patience or memory or physical stamina. Even in my younger days I knew that they would be around from time to time. But I hoped that they would be far between, and would be interspersed with some really brilliant and wonderful days. And of course they would be.

They stand out in life, those days that are the “best days of your life”. Things that happen in it seem to feel like miracles. Birth of children or like reaching a milestone: finishing school or achieving and being recognized for the challenge. These can be those times when you reflect back on your “firsts” and realize that it there will only be seconds and thereafter and capture those precious days forever in your memories. You find that you relive them again with your friends and family in remembrance. Many times you may not even have a physical picture of it, but the pictures remain clear in your head.

But between the days of “need to be over” and “wish it would never end” are mainly the abundance of days we live. And even then, they may be focused on the coming weekend or looking forward to special events or anniversaries with special people.

My advice to my children. Don’t wish them over, don’t take the day for granted or keep hoping for a better day some other day. Cherish the day you have. Thank God for it. Stop and take it in. Put the ingredients in it to make it be a day you can appreciate. Apply kindness, patience, grace, compassion, love. You won’t get another day that is identical; each day will be unique an non-repeatable. And you don’t have any guarantees that the next day will come with you in it at all. So please don’t wish them away.