Before and After Things Change | Tracks In The Dust

Archive for the category “Before and After Things Change”

09 Apr 2013

The Pending Storms of Spring

You know that feeling you get when you hear about pending storms. Watchful on the horizon. Brewing for a change. Some see it as a fearful thing (rightfully so) and yet perhaps more.

The summer storms often bring colder fronts and fresh air. They bring that smell of green things growing. Before it arrives you can taste it in the air. The bugs sing a song in the trees. There is a sense of it in the pressure of the atmosphere.

But the spring storms however seem to queue up to help clean away the winter. Take away the dust and dreariness that can encapsulate the winter months. They come as the light of the day starts to expand and the plants and trees around are working on a new set of leaves and seeds. The birds arrive back ( maybe they weren’t gone, but the seem so much more vocal). The storms come in on windy days that seem to be designed to blow the seeds along for a summer plan.

Here in Texas the spring storms have begun, they often come with predictions of hail, and sometimes the size of quarters or golf balls. Most storms whisk by with strong winds that line up and rearrange things… fences, lawn furniture, trees and roofing land in the most unexpected places. But still the storms come. They will always come.

When they do you have a chance to see them as renewal of the new pending season. You can work toward acceptance in the anticipation. Perhaps see it as a way to change and change with it.

Posted in Before and After Things Change and tagged Acceptance, Change, choices, Emotion, moments, Postive Thinking, Storm, Texas, Weather

19 Mar 2013

The World in Your Pocket

Smartphones have changed how we live our lives. I think it is amazing that in my lifetime so many things have changed, but this is a historical time when smartphones/cell phones have really made a permanent impact on my family.

The camera inside alone, sitting in everyone’s pocket allows very little of life’s imperfections to pass by. Now every mistake, every victory, every catastrophe, every violent act, every special moment can be recorded and broadcast out into the world-wide web to be permanently entered in the cyber record. It is “instant”. Since there are so many cameras in so many pockets, and every person can choose where to point it- even the subject matter can be managed by our individual point of view.

Things off the top of mind:

You are never alone (if you chose to be). “Social” has a much different meaning today. Not only text, but real-time pictures and videos change your perception of how you are connected to humans in your family to around the world in places you’d only read about.

You have access to what seems like infinite information. Like I have blogged before the friendly argument on a bar-stool at the local pub has changed forever. Just Google it. Share your opinion, it could be news in an hour.

You have access to hundred of thousands of books (probably millions). It is like having the entire library in your pocket. Summon (and pay for it) and you are ready to read things that may have been lost in the back-stacks at your city library.

You have entertainment where ever you want it; those long waits in line, those down-times when you are just looking for something to keep your mind going. Movies, music, even art are at your finger tips.

There’s a new definition of “getting lost”. It may mean that your Google Maps or navigation application may not be working correctly. Or that your battery has died I suppose. But stop and ask for directions? Hmmm.

That is just a start. I couldn’t have imagined as a child that every one would have their own phone numbers, their own built-in answering machine. That you could make long distance calls with a phone in your pocket without thinking about the “long distance” charges. That you could conference friends and family together and perhaps even see their expressions – from something that you would be holding in your hand. Virtually anywhere.

So I marvel at the idea of where my children will access the world when they are my age.

Decades from now there will be something our children cannot fathom, but I wonder what it is?

Today, they see the technology advances as a matter-of-fact. It will happen and it will evolve. What will be their marvel?

Posted in Before and After Things Change and tagged Acceptance, Cell Phones, Change, gadgets, Google, Memories, Reality Check, Science and Technology, technology, tracks in the dust

21 Feb 2013

4 Comments

A Sink Full of Ducks

There is something happens occasionally that leaves me stunned. It is like a feast or famine thing. There seems to be those times of abundance of luck and then other times when you just can’t buy a “clue”… even if you have the money to do it.

If you think about it. When things are tough you may decide to fight for it. You work hard to get through the barriers. Your maneuver your way through adversity or criticism. There is a risk you can fail which makes things all that more sensitive along the way. And if you fail, you can question if you did all you could or you can get up and try again, knowing better if there is a next time. If you do well you appreciate the victory all that much more. And if there isn’t a next time, the best you can do is move on with the rest of your life- but you have that choice.

It may be harder with situations with an abundance of good fortune or luck.

Once you reach a situation where you have the good fortune of abundance it feels good… It may even be what some people call luck. You may start to think you don’t deserve it, and something sort of whispers in your head to watch out for the fall. But you most often you accept the path – it feels good! But still there’s that lurking feeling that something may by-pass your good fortune. But it can be a downfall I guess ” like a sink full of ducks“.

Everything is cute and wonderful and you got a fuzzy bunch of downy little ducklings. It makes you smile and chuckle and be happy. Friends and family “love” your brood of fortune. Then it hits you. What are you going to do with a sink full of ducklings? They are going to become needy. They are going to grow up to be a bunch of large ducks. They are not going to live in the sink. Get over it. You gotta find a place for them and your good fortune is now a problem with a dozen ways to work it out. But you have to.

Obviously ducks aren’t the issue really here. It’s only an analogy. It seems that there are times really- when it is just wise to pay attention to your situation. When it is going well and there reasons to rejoice, enjoy it. Don’t play to your doubts. But recognize that you have something in your midst and you need to be aware… assess the possibilities, understand the pitfalls and be ready for the challenges ahead…. you know what I mean?

Hey- What would you do with a sink full of ducks?

Posted in Before and After Things Change and tagged Advice, Change, Faith, Happiness, Luck, Opinion, Philosophy, Postive Thinking, Reality Check, Sprituality, Truth, Who Are You

06 Feb 2013

4 Comments

The Lost Art of Listening

In my daily life at work and at home I have noticed a trend about “listening” .

It seems like a lot of people today have lost the art of listening.

Yes, we all listen to things. The TV, the movies, the music we listen to… we listen to our teachers.mentors, bosses, or spiritual guides and take note of their wisdom (many times to our own chagrin as we find it necessary to help pass the course). But listening and hearing things can often be different I think.

The lost art of listening, as I see it, is the motion of listening to what someone says and understanding it. Making sure to understand the meaning and the context in which they say it, and better yet understand their personal reason and viewpoint for saying it in the first place.

These days it seems like we don’t take the time. Perhaps it is because we are in so much of a hurry. We move so quickly through our digital lives to meet the goal of accomplishing it – that we often miss what people are really trying to say… in fact we are so busy trying to think about what we should say next, that we take a sound byte from something to start to respond without really “hearing” what was said. Without acknowledging it.

Perhaps the reason that “texting” has become more of a popular way to communicate. After its a 2 way communication that requires that each actually reads the statement made in the text message. No need to call and have two way communication that may certainly require listening.

Sure, maybe the texts aren’t spelled correctly, perhaps they are sound-bytes themselves, but at least they come over just as planned. Indeed texting doesn’t require actually listening at all. But there is still something lost in the transfer. The persons inflection and the world of meaning that comes with the tone of it. Of course there is time to consider the response, immediate responses come from the volley of discussion. None needed in texting.

Listening has evolved in so many other ways. In this “surround sound” world we are looking for the thrills and impact of the movies we watch. Instead of dialog, we are looking for stunning sound and special effects. Driving the beat instead of the message is nothing new, but so often today the music gets lost as we are looking for. It gets lost in the next pop-star to come along. Those artist & musicians that have survived had something more to say… and for those music greats it is about the “listening”.

So maybe for me, its time to stop and take a listen. To appreciate what people are trying to say with their words. The meaning of it. To take the time to listen to the sounds around me, that surround me in such a much more simple way. How about you?

Posted in Before and After Things Change and tagged Art, being remembered, Communication, Hearing, Listening, Music, Postive Thinking, Slow Down, Text messaging

29 Jan 2013

1 Comment

Finding the Smaller World Around Us

There are days where it seems like the world is small. Yet, other days it seems so distant. It is easy to feel so solitary.

Sure, there are so many ways to prove our world is large. You can measure the circumference; you can look at a map and compare the continents; you can even compare the amazing number of different cultures and their religions and beliefs You can look to latitude and longitude and measure in degrees, or measure the ocean between us or the length of the road to get there.

The world still seems small these days. The Internet can often make it appear large, yet in this “the information age”- we are subjected to more information about people in the most far away places that “discovery” seems so much less adventurous these days. There are a number of TV channels that are dedicated 24 hours to showing you the most detailed things about the world around us, the people, the places, the animals and climates, the wonders of the deepest oceans or the farthest away galaxies. You would think that would make us all feel small by comparison, and you are probably right. We are living in the “world-wide” web we have built.

But the exposure to all of these things also bring us the chance to consider a point of view on things we never knew existed. Still, we isolate ourselves. We are allowed to ponder the life of a small girl in a country that has little in common with ours and make judgement on her actions ; we are able view real-time the Earth’s polar regions deteriorating at such a rapid pace w (and deny its impact in the same moment we watch).

So in this age of information and technology, we common folk have a dilemma. We can care about everything and then in fact not be able to consider anything precious. We can make light of the differences and criticize their existence as futile because it doesn’t fit our expectation of what the world should be.

We are subjected to so many choices here in the US, an “over abundance” of input. For some it tends to make life even more anxious. Just walking down the cereal aisle at the supermarket can be daunting. It can make you stop to ponder the size, shape, taste and sugar content of dozens of choices and experience the frustration of conflict. Will we pick the right one? the one that tastes best – or is most healthy? Or is the best value ? Just how are we spending our time and worry?

Now like the cereal aisle before us, we have nearly unlimited input via the Internet. We can hit the search button and make most anything appear. I keep imagining that if the “World of the Future” exhibit at the 1964 Worlds Fair had talked about the Internet, some people would have been more willing to accept flying cars rather than the idea of access to so much of the world.

So it may be wise to be sure, to consider the small world around us. Pay closer attention to the people, places and things that immediately surround us. Understand that there are certainly a lot of similarities for the human race all over the globe. Acceptance, the need for love, basic human understanding and the simple needs of food and shelter. Those and more are in demand in the human condition but it starts at home with our family, our children our relatives and friends. Go find the smaller world around you. Try it.