Before and After Things Change | Tracks In The Dust

Archive for the category “Before and After Things Change”

18 Jul 2012

The Music and the Album Experience

I have always loved music. From as far back as I can remember I had something in my life that would play music. A portable radio (they called them “transistor” radios for a while), a record player, a boombox, a Walkman, a CD Walkman, an I Pod and a smartphone. I always loved my stereo system ( because at one time they had mono systems I guess). There was always music playing around me. In the background, in the foreground 🙂 in the car, at the beach near our house, at friends houses, parties, late night on the back porch.

There was one thing that really changed how I listened to music and made the difference on what I listen to today. I will show my age by saying this but for a while in time the “record album” was part of a renaissance of modern music that made listening to an artist or group different from before. It wasn’t just about one song (although that may be one of the reasons to listen to the album), it was about the complete experience of understanding the artists and their music and the atmosphere it brought when you would play several songs in a row by the same artists. Sort of why they called it an “LP” – long play record.

Since it was hard to skip through/scan through songs on a record without picking up the needle (amazing a sharp little thing that scraped along a groove in plastic), it was easier just to let the “side” play. One half of the album would play out its 4 or 5 selections and you would listen. And somewhere along that time you would get to know the artist better, and actually appreciate the songs that weren’t likely the hit-single playing on the radio. In some cases they all folded together into something that felt more like a drawing or painting of a mood.

And even now, as I scan through songs on the Internet or program selections or shuffle a playlist I still stop to wonder about those “other” songs. The one or two I missed because they were part of a more complete picture in sound. I could even get nostalgic about how the album cover and art were part of the experience. Don’t get me started about those albums that would include the words to the songs, or “liner” notes from fellow musicians who wanted to speak to the listener about their heroes and peers.

I am too much in a hurry now to sit through a whole album (or at least one side). Sometimes when a song doesn’t grab me in the first 10 seconds I hit the forward button and go on. Letting songs pass by without a passing thought.

Don’t get me wrong. Theres something to be said for technology allowing us to experience new and different artists online, streaming or downloading musicians you may never have heard before – when record companies had to pick and choose for you. But that album from the artist that fought their way to the label had character as a “physical thing” to be collected, and replayed and shared with friends as an experience.

17 Jul 2012

2 Comments

What Do You Do With It?

There is something about being told by a doctor how you might leave this Earth that is kind of creepy. I mean we are all going to go someday. Like my previous post “time waits for no one”, it moves on and there is no way to halt it or turn it around. There is not a way to stop the end. People search for the fountain of youth, do as many things possible in some cases to make themselves look young. They take miracle drugs and infomercial remedies that are supposed to make the look and feel younger. But in the end we are all headed for the mortal end.

No matter what the future looks like , there are many times we don’t see it coming. I had a niece who was a wonderful girl with a hopeful future who wanted to see what life would bring, but in the process she took too many chances with her life and lost it at an age before she experienced her 24th year. In other cases we may be able to wait for age to catch up and maybe somewhere along the way we physically wear out, or a disease or other plights gets the better of us. When cancer is a reality, there are so many other realities you may not be thikning about- like that inevitable sudden step off the curb, or the last adventure to take-on the mountain or obstacle worth tackling that brings the end.

So I am really sure that it will end for all of us. I think you probably believe that too. What we do with the time we have here on Earth is the way to put value on our life while we have it. God tells us that we are going to have a place here in the world, and after we leave it. Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

But some how, for some of us, we find our ways to cycle through the hours, days and weeks and wonder how they often get past us with little difference. We get frustrated because we havent felt we have been significant, we aren’t very sure if we have made the time between those major events in our lives worth it when they are just “living”. But we can make it worth it every day, by being there for the people around us, living with the spirit of goodness and all its attributes always.

So we cannot fool ourselves into thinking that life goes on forever here on Earth. That our tracks in the dust will last forever here. We have to wake up each day and cherish it for what it is and what we can make of it. Enjoy the simple pleasures, celebrate the victories however small or large they are. Be thankful for the people around you and the people you have known over your lifetime. When the time is over, be confident that because you believe, you will have another place to be for eternity.

Posted in Before and After Things Change, Doing Things That Will Change Your Life and tagged being remembered, cherish, Eternity, fountain of youth, life is precious, Love, miracle drugs, moments, Sprituality

11 Jul 2012

The Everyday Miracles

Do miracles exist?

They are there in your life. There every day when you step from the curb, say hello to the check out clerk, take the hand of your child, smile at your coworker, so many things that we do each day involve the simple greatness of life. Each action and reaction can cause a chain reaction that you may more than likely never know. Like waves in the ocean, or the wind across the field of grass. We are so unconscious in our simple actions, that we are not paying attention to the motions around us. Do you see such miracles as they happen as we live our lives?

Take a deep breath in, take another one out. Enjoy the fact that you are living on the Earth and are fortunate to be here online in the world-wide web…communicating with each other in such a way that we can share ideas, share the amazement of life, reach across oceans and continents to communicate about all the world has to offer. And when we do, there is an opportunity for confirmation of what being a human-being on this Earth means.

It amazes me everyday how similar so many people are across the globe. Feeling the emotions of sadness, elation, anger and relief, love and kindness, compassion and understanding. It truly is the miracle that we have to experience every day.

We are not alone, we have each other. So much more can be done, and every movement can be a miracle. We are so fortunate that we can decide, when so many others in the world cannot. We can influence simple miracles that will make a difference for someone we have never met, or may never meet. Just like we can influence our neighbours, our family, or friends or the person passing us on the street. We can reach out beyond that and follow our mission while we are here on Earth. Putting our tracks in the dust will eventually blow away with time, but the next persons tracks will take over. And the line can go for eternity with just a simple choice.

There are miracles happening everyday. We all can participate in making them happen. Have faith, be aware of what you can do to affect human change, it seems like it is infinitely more than you are aware of.

Posted in Before and After Things Change, Learning Lessons Along the Journey Of Life and tagged Acceptance, being remembered, Eternity, Faith, God, Grace, life is precious, living on the earth, Miracle, moments, Religion and Spirituality, tracks in the dust

26 Jun 2012

1 Comment

The Seasons and The Hot Summer Day

When I was growing up in the northern mid-west of the US, we always looked forward to the seasons. Each one of them brought a change in attitude, and every season signified something special in some way. I recall as a child I thinking of summer to be those warm days where some days were really hot and the bright sun that you would feel on your skin would be the fuel for a days worth of playing, like sunshine was energy. There would be humid days where everyone would comment “it’s not the heat that’s bad, it’s the humidity”. That too would pass as one of those huge storms would conger up the bursts of thunder and lighting, but also bring the breath of fresh air after the storms. Refreshing you like magic, with cool air the likes of something you hadn’t sucked into your lungs in some time.

Then there was fall. Autumn. Colors of the trees, the crisp night air and the smell of burning leaves. Some days would be wet and the trees and leaves would smell musty. There would be that day when it would rain a cold rain, a hard rain that would put shivers down your neck if you were out in it. By the next day all the leaves would be almost all gone, and the sky would turn a defiantly grey tone letting everyone know winter was knocking.

Oh those winters. In northern states, they could be brutal. Cold on top of cold, ice coated with ice. Cars not starting, cold winds shuddering the outside walls of my home. There would be days where it was so cold a deep breath would hurt and you would know it was time to get from one place to another and not stand out in it. There would be snow, but on those cold days it would crunch like styrofoam under your boots. Almost squeaking with the reminder that you better walk briskly but be mindful of the ice patches underneath. THere were even those lovely “snow days” where schools would be closed, work places too. The snow was so high and thick you weren’t going anywhere and everyone else was in the same place as you. Watching out the window for a break so you could start to shovel out.. peaceful, but cautious we would enjoy the day that nature provided a break.

Spring would start the cycle again. the newness of the grass before the first cut. The trees not exactly full of leaves, but running sap and getting ready for the warm days ahead. Fresh spring rains. Life showing up again in the backyard. Squirrels, birds and bugs. All the time knowing summer was on the other side of all of those spring showers.

So I do miss the seasons. Living in Northern Texas now, it seems like the Texas summers are like those cold winter days in the north. I escape in doors from the heat (104 degrees Fahrenheit today) that will hang around for weeks (maybe months). But I know that in the fall we can lounge in the yard, take long walks in the park. In the winter we can put on a light jacket and say “my how cold it is today” when freezing temps aren’t even in the forecast. All the while others in the north, they will be getting ready for their cold days and icy challenges, pulling out the boots and heavy coats.

I can handle the southern heat knowing that is coming. But there are days when I truly miss the changing seasons. This hot summer day is one of them.

Posted in Before and After Things Change, Doing Things That Will Change Your Life and tagged Change, Joy, Life, life is precious, Memories, moments, North Texas, Sprituality, Weather

24 Jun 2012

Don’t Worry Your Life Away

Worry. There’s one thing that seems to be able to consume so much of your life in so many ways that it can become such a fixation that little else matters. Whether it involves work, your family, your friends, your health, your finances, what others think of you, what you will do today or tomorrow… and on and on.

It’s not that you can’t be concerned, that you cannot plan things and be careful to manuever those things that can get in your way. We all have to go through our lives with eyes wide open and watch for the obstacles we can avoid. But taking “worry” to a point in your life that it stops you from experiencing what God has given you is just not a good course to take.

When my wife and I had our first child, every thing had changed about worry. We would worry did he have enough to eat, enough sleep, were we paying enough attention to him? If he would sneeze we would imagine the worse and always be consulting books or family and friends.

Over the years we have learned that there are only some things we can do as parents, and we have to be concerned about our children (we love them), but we are going to leave it up to God as well. We have to plant the core-things in them that they need to make it through life, but in the end we cannot be standing next to them every step of the way.

When I was diagnosed with cancer, I know that it was something that would need God’s help. My wife has been there to help me through. Even as she has been my angel (because I believe God sent her to me so many years ago), I know that some of it is built on faith to take it one day at a time. Worry could easily consume every minute of every day.

Worry will make you older faster, it can replace the good things in front of you with an awkward view and dangerous perspective. It can consume so much of your life and in exchange repel others around you. So the end it seems, life is the experience and all that goes with it.

As Jason Mraz says below in a song about his friend who fought cancer, “The remedy is the experience.” Don’t let it control your life. Be strong.

The Remedy by Jason Mraz

Well i saw fireworks from the freeway
And behind closed eyes I cannot make them go away
‘Cause you were born on the fourth of July, freedom ring
Now something on the surface it stings
I said something on the surface
Well it kind of makes me nervous
Who says that you deserve this
And what kind of god would serve this?
We will cure this dirty old disease
Well if you’ve got the poison I’ve got the remedy

The remedy is the experience.
This is a dangerous liaison
I say the comedy is that it’s serious.
This is a strange enough new play on words
I say the tragedy is how you’re gonna spend
The rest of your nights with the light on
So shine the light on all of your friends
When it all amounts to nothing in the end.

I won’t worry my life away.
I won’t worry my life away.

Well i heard two men talking on the radio
In a cross fire kind of reality show
Uncovering the ways to plan the next big attack
They were counting down the ways to stab
The brother in the be right back after this
The unavoidable kiss, where the minty fresh
Death breath is sure to outlast this catastrophe
Dance with me, because if you’ve got the poison,
I’ve got the remedy

I won’t worry my life away.
I won’t worry my life away.

When I fall in love I take my time
There’s no need to hurry when I’m making up my mind
You can turn off the sun but I’m still gonna shine and I’ll tell you why

Because

I won’t worry my life away
I won’t worry my life away
I won’t and I won’t and I won’t

“So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.” Mathew 6:34