March | 2014 | Tracks In The Dust

Archive for the month “March, 2014”

28 Mar 2014

Embrace the Day

A smell, the weather, a certain sound, a book, a song, a painting, a color, a texture.

So many things capture memories, trigger the recall of things that have been- things that are. The best ones are those you don’t seek I think. The memories you don’t conjure up. They just appear, they just show up in a dream, on a walk, sitting with your friend, your lover.

They take you through time and capture something that was hidden in your brain, a feeling, a thought, a place you’d forgotten, a person who has long since not been part of your life. That is the building blocks of who you are. Those are the things that preserve the fabric of your being.

Yet, some other days seem void of things, almost like they come and go so quickly that they blend in with each other. That is when we need to remember what is really important.

Don’t run away from it, don’t force it or be angry because that day has come and gone with what seems like no purpose. Just embrace the passage of time and be aware of every small victory, every simple opportunity to provide grace to those around us. It only makes those empty days full.

Sometimes its worth saying it again.

Posted in Doing Things That Will Change Your Life and tagged Acceptance, Advice, choices, Finding Confidence, Joy, Lack of Confidence, Life, life is precious, Memories, mental-health, Self-Awareness, Slow Down, Sprituality

27 Mar 2014

Focused Restoration

Recently, some very wise men spoke to me and others on the perspective of “restoration.” It was profoundly interesting that it applies in so much of our lives each day.

We work to restore those things that are broken in our lives by doing some fairly outlandish things. Just like those projects to help restore the broken things around us, we work to restore ourselves and others.

As we try to fix what is broken in our relationships, what is broken in our lives – at work, in our families, with our friends, with our own spirituality… our chances of getting it wrong are very high. We tend to count on our own sensibilities to reason out our restoration.

Or worse yet we may be working on restoring others around us. It may be easy to point at others and see their imperfections. It may even be reassuring that by doing so, we can tuck away our own need for restoration. Do you know those “fixers” that work to fix up others in their lives, but miss working on themselves? The focus is elsewhere.

Personal restoration can be kind of like a facade. A false front that has little content behind it. Maybe just go for the quick fix: If “only I ” do this one thing- everything will be better. Life is moving kind of fast, so we hunt down that magic thing that will solve the problems in our lives, will help to mend the issues that seem to be looming and keep us from the better life, keep us from being a better person.

But ultimately I think, the truth is in how we focus our energy, how we make sure that we are doing those things we can do and putting our trust in the outcome. The expectation may be different from the result. Perhaps we need to invest in ourselves? Some may see that as selfish, but it is the genuine investment in our spirituality. The focus on inspecting our hearts and our souls to know that we are right and true to ourselves.

Posted in Doing Things That Will Change Your Life and tagged Acceptance, Definitions, Faith, Grace, Personal restoration, Philosophy, Postive Thinking, Reality Check, Religion and Spirituality, spiritual focus, Sprituality

25 Mar 2014

Perfection

Easily it can be said that we will never achieve perfection. As humans it is not in our DNA. Nor should it be.

We will strive for it.

We will find ourselves constantly falling short.

We will measure ourselves by what someone else may expect us to be. Or perhaps we may measure ourselves on our own perspectives of what we think we should be.

But in the end- we will fall short.

It is what you do with that will become part of your self-realization, It will be the context in which you are able to live your life. You can choose to measure yourself to perfection, and in some ways that is a good thing. It is the motivator by which we can create our standards to live by. But if we are delusional in using that to apply to the adage that “winning is everything” we may find ourselves in a place that is hard to maintain.

We are rewarded often in our lives for working hard to strive for things. We want to avoid failure, We do not want to be seen as weak or unable to perform to the standards in which we are expected. In our families, in school, at work in our relationships we are always trying to measure up. Accepting that perfection will not happen does not make you mediocre. It makes you human.

We know that we were made imperfect. As humans God has made us that way to allow us to be – well – human. Perfection would be reserved for only one, and He left this earth centuries ago.

So a first step in making your life happier is to accept imperfection. Be sure that you strive for things, but be honest that things will get in your way and no matter how you work it…. you will fall short.

Posted in Doing Things That Will Change Your Life and tagged Acceptance, Change, Doubt, Failure, mental-health, moments, Perfection, Postive Thinking, Reality Check, Self-Awareness

21 Mar 2014

The Music That Echoes

I always loved the ending of The Beatles Abbey Road: ” The love you take is equal to the love you make”

Sort of like another song : “What what comes around goes around.” It really became one of my favorite musical statements. It was the reminder at the end of a turbulent decade that we still could cherish the golden rule- do on to others as you would have them do on to you (or something like that). Love they neighbor as you would love yourself.

There is so much music that has become woven into the fabric of my life- how about yours?

But there are times when you may remember getting burned, you may find yourself asking “how did I get here?”. Sort of like Talking Heads “life in wartime” – same as it ever was, same as it ever was.,

But the sounds contain the soundtrack, that bounces into the stratosphere of your remembrances. It is the music hitting the angles of my living room right now.

Listening to thoughtful music that once seemed like the ingredients of that “hippie hopefulness” of a younger time. Does that mean I don’t believe it now. No, I think I believe it more now than ever, but when you get older and life gets more serious I suppose it makes it harder. Neil Young may tell you not to “let it bring you down, it’s only castles burning”. More an echo now that the dream it may seem to once have been.

So I will escape. ” Be a free man in Paris, unfettered and alive. No one calling me up for favors, no one’s future to decide.” ( thanks Joni). It will be a short trip down the road I am going before I get there. It will be the travel music that will keep me sane, it will be the soundtrack that will put a song with a moment and indelibly inject it into my memory as “that time when….” It will show up in the background at the mall, in the movie credits, on the radio in the car, or just when things are quiet and my mind wanders…

What is your life’s sound track sound like?

I know this is all random. But it is like all the songs that reach out, streaming from a website like a “sonic cocktail” that can take you on a trip though time. Sorry for the free-form random song-dropping. But that’s how it is.

It can capture a feeling… It can make you recall things that are just an echo in your mind that suddenly reappear.

Posted in Life's Sound Track (Music) and tagged favorite songs, Joni Mitchell, Legacy of Music, Life's Soundtrack, Memories, songs about growing old, Talking Heads, The Beatles, thoughtful music

20 Mar 2014

Paper or Plastic?

Does it all come down to that? Sometimes it feels like it. Asking the question what kind of grocery bags you want at the store.Here in the US some stores give you the option. And you have to “call it”. Paper or Plastic.

Do you weigh out the environment and be a responsible consumer? Maybe where you live you aren’t even given the choice ( thanks Austin, Texas and other points west). Some communities have already outlawed plastic, others expect you to bring your own bags with you. ( and I have noticed a lot of them are just a different version of plastic).

But that’s not my point I guess. Paper or plastic kind of reflects on other things. Maybe how you see yourself? How you fit in the solution.

I mean those plastic bags only hold so much, a few things and on to the next bag. They are fast to peel off the stack of hundreds and are neatly stacked to be opened as you pull them off. Mass produced. Opaque and crunchy. They often find themselves lining the next small wastepaper basket,or carrying some gross thing from your favorite pet in its afterlife. Are you a plastic? or maybe you are a paper?

Paper bags. Bags like these have been around for decades to “sack-groceries.” Those brown containers with little chips of pulp. Many have handles to help better grasp them for even more utility. Square with room for plenty, but be careful of the weight. Of course rather than another bag you can always double bag. And they are bio-degrade-able (which sounds so environmentally conscious). If they get wet they can tear, if they survive they can be used for wrapping books or drawing on, making a kite or… just going in the trash or recycle bin to have another shot at life.

SO, are you a “paper” or “plastic” person when given the choice?

Wonder what the choice says about you? Or then maybe you bring your own bag… and that’s another kind of you all together?