Tracks In The Dust

A Father's Advice About Learning the Mission of Life

Archive for the category “Before and After Things Change”

11 Apr 2014

In A New York Minute

In a split second, in the matter of a moment, a second, a minute or a day things can change.

It amazes me that in life’s adventure, during our mission here on Earth we are able to experience things in real time and see so many changes around us. I know some people resist change, and others welcome it. I can say that I expect it.

Sometimes the changes are long-coming, but more often it can be one shift in the status-quo for your life to take another direction. Some times it can be predicted, but we choose to ignore it. Other times it is just a total shift in things.

My wife and I are going to get a chance to meet my grandson, someone we have never met during his seven years on this Earth. Due to a long story of events our oldest son has been out of our lives for over eleven years. Now, in a New York minute – we are planning their visit to our home.

There is a story of the prodigal son in the Bible that rings true, but there are so many twists in our story. We are good with things really, it is good to have the opportunity to meet him. We don’t have any way to explain to him the time lost, or to have him understand the life we had with his father until he left home at age 18.

So we shall let things run the course they are headed. Change is good overall. It was quite a change back on the day our son left home. It will be another when we meet up with him and his son these many years later.

Comes to mind the Don Henley song. Here is a great cover of it. Life is short. Believe.

Posted in Before and After Things Change and tagged Acceptance, Change, Change is good, choices, Don Henley, Fear, Forgiveness, Life, mental-health, moments, Music, Opinion, Self-Awareness, The Eagles

30 Jan 2014

Every “Little Thing”

I have blogged about this before- but it constantly amazes me how intricate God has made our lives. The connections between us are endless.

Awwwww Yeah Flowers!

I know the movies and jokes about degree’s between people (hello Kevin Bacon), but it really is much more than that. A passing kindness for someone you don’t even know. A comment made that leaves a lasting impression on someone. The experience of sharing a moment of adversity or happiness can leave you with so much more of a sense of being.

As you reflect back on your life (so far) who has influenced you?

Who has made an impression that has changed your thinking, or made you change direction? Family or friends, perhaps a teacher, a manager at work or someone at church.

Can you imagine who in your life may have been influenced by you that you don’t know? Just simple things that may have happened? Every little thing can make a difference. You may not even know it. You don’t necessarily go out each day looking for the opportunity to change someone’s thinking ( but you could).

Perhaps that’s the place to start? Each day focused on just being aware that you may be doing something for someone else. Not even working at it, you will find it. That is the grace-bomb that has the potential to be an explosion of positive reactions, leading to greater things all around.

I am not as naive to believe that its going to be a revolution or a revelation. Just that we remain aware of the possibilities, pay attention to the opportunities just a little bit each day.

Every connection you make can change the direction of another persons life or perhaps yours. Isn’t that exciting that “just a little thing”- maybe something huge.

Posted in Before and After Things Change, Doing Things That Will Change Your Life and tagged Attitude Change, Compassion, Grace, grace-bomb, Happiness, Joy, life is precious, Little Things, Possibilities, Postive Thinking, Reality Check, Self-Awareness, Sprituality, tracks in the dust

29 May 2013

Looking for the Big Finish

You know those movies where there is the big “reveal” – the ultimate secret that no one in the movie knew?

Lately I have been having those kind of dreams. Like some long story with a lot of mystery and conflict. Then it comes time for the answer and bam! … I wake up.

Answers like that seem to become elusive. I am sure some dream analysis person could tell me all about why I dream that way, or why I wake up before someone reveals the “big finish” to the dream.

But then for many of us life can also seem that way. Always waiting in anticipation for the revealing secret that is going to make everything fit together so well. That “ah-ha” moment. It is going to provide that release for the tension and un-sureness that life brings and let us ride off into the sunset with our heads held high.

From my perspective I guess, seems like that will be an elusive thing for all our lives if we let our subconscious keep gnawing away at our fears, chipping away at our confidence and providing fuel for the worry of not knowing where the plot will end things.

However, there seem to be chapters in life where things will come to a place where there are moments of clarity. Loss of loved ones, gaining new friends or lovers, celebrating the personal and emotional milestones …. things like that will jar things loose for a bit. They can make the story of living so clear as something that has purpose or doesn’t have… but as the page turns the new plot begins and its time to continue life’s story.

To me there is only one way to settle this. It is to trust in your spiritual being. To give to Him. To make adjustments that allow you to have faith in something bigger than you. It can put a lot in perspective and allow for a different look at how the “final” end to the story will look. It can be the ultimate “ah-ha” moment. The big finish will be the last day of your life, when all is certain ( as that day is certain to come) – you will be able to enjoy the ultimate secret.

That will be when the life/movie credits roll and the screen will show thanks to all who contributed, “The End” – or will it be the beginning? It’s all on how you live it now I guess.

Posted in Before and After Things Change and tagged Acceptance, anticipation, Cencer, Change, choices, Dream interpretation, Dying, Eternity, Faith, Interpretation, Life, moments of clarity, Postive Thinking, Reality Check, Sprituality, subconscious

09 May 2013

Behind Every Door

Behind every door is a story. And every one of them is personal.

Recently in Cleveland Ohio USA, three women emerged from the horror of being secretly locked up and tortured and raped for ten years, while the rest of the world moved by the house and the doors and windows where so much pain and anger was hidden. It is one that was discovered, but you can’t help thinking there are so many equally terrifying stories. People living in the private walls of their lives in a way that most may not understand, while yet others may recognize as their own…

So we pass by doors of people’s lives every day, some real, some just figuratively. We may often ignore the idea of what is behind those doors.There stories for every door, so many stories. Stories of loneliness, pain, anger, sadness, hopelessness, guilt and so many more of the agonies that we humans have been dealt. We try to reflect ourselves on those doors. In our heads and lives we see those doors as similar or identical to ours, of we find ourselves threatened by the idea that there are things much worse.

Behind those doors there is certainly good and bad, because everyone has their own demons and challenges. I know someone who is living the pain and challenges of a brain tumor. His family is dealing with all that emotion, all that goes with the disease and the stark mortality that is a constant part of their lives. It is the struggle behind a door that many will pass every day. Most will never know.

Seems like in this world of high-speed connections, Internet friendships and text messaging – the opportunity to have those relationships we need- those connections behind those doors have been damaged. It is lost behind the locks of the doors that divide us. That contain so many stories that deserve compassion, deserve to be discovered. Need to understand there is hope.

Posted in Before and After Things Change and tagged Acceptance, choices, Compassion, Emotion, Faith, Fear, Happiness, Hopelessness, isolation, Reality Check, Salvation, society, Who Are You

19 Apr 2013

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Being Rich with the Grace of Living

The rich get richer. Least I always saw it that way most of my life.

I guess if you stop to consider the definition of rich, there is a way you could change that meaning. After all the richness of life has nothing to do with the money and items we possess. It is about much much more than that. Sure it can sound like the movie “It’s A Wonderful Life” or something where you can accumulate your friends and family around you and greatly appreciate that they are there for you.

That is a richness of life that many wish they could have, and in these times when tragedies of life seem to be more part of our daily lives, I think it gives us pause to reflect on what is really important.

When the Boston Marathon explosions occurred, people were reaching out to people to do what ever they could. Mobile phones and social websites lit up with people wanting to know that their friends and family were safe. They provided condolences and well wished sentiment of prayers to all effected. It has happened again and again in the face of adversity ( like the Connecticut school massacre, the recent fertilizer plan explosion in Texas and so many before that). It snaps everyone to attention about how delicate life is- how precious and quick it can change forever.

But deeper than that we all looked around at our loved ones – closest to us and asked the important questions. How we measure the value of our lives is important, and the richness of it is not accumulated by the things around us, but the people around us and the people we connect with each day – even for the slight moments we pass by people on the street or at work. It would seem that it is the richness of this grace in living that we need to embrace to help us all make sense of the changing world surrounding us all. Least that’s the way I see it.