Tracks In The Dust

A Father's Advice About Learning the Mission of Life

Archive for the category “Doing Things That Will Change Your Life”

01 Mar 2012

Sing With Your Head Up

“sing with your head up
with your eyes closed
not because you love the song
because you love to sing” (Aaron Marsh/Copeland)

There are days where I have no time to really think about how simple things can be… I hop in my car, dash out to work, get thru the day, get home and eat and relax and then start over.

I recently realized that lately I never stop to sing, stop to take the time to just raise my head and sing. Not because I love the song, but I love to sing. Its a chance to make joyful noise, and allow yourself the opportunity to look at the day and be thankful. Seems like everyone around me could use the break.

“i’ve never any time to play
i always seems to slip away
but it never really goes by
while i wait here with my lullaby
for our only try” (Aaron Marsh/Copeland)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzhAlxT2_H0

Posted in Doing Things That Will Change Your Life, Life's Sound Track (Music) and tagged Copeland, Grace, Self-Awareness, Sing

29 Feb 2012

From Ditch To Ditch On Your Way To Center

Always working for a center, it seems like we are frequently blind as we move from ditch to ditch. We may not see it when it happens – not immediately anyway. But then looking in the rear-view mirror it seems easier to see. We want to be independant, but we rely on others to validate our value day-to-day. For some of us that means imersion into relationships (friends/lovers) or jobs or school. It can be almost surely a pleasure, but with these earthly things- we can equally be the ditch we are not aware of. Our center is questioned? Do we really need to be there? Can we be what others want us to be and still be at our center?

But being good with yourself as you (as I had said in another post) means understanding who and what YOU want to be. Spiritually is foremost. What defines you? For one of my children it meant voiding everything he had learned for his life before his mid-teen years, and becoming validated by someone who he met online who provided him some kind of answer. Her definition of my son. So many years ago he left our home one day never to return, with someone he met online that helped him to a path ahead that didn’t apear to be his “center”- but another persons idea of what that should be. I haven’t seen my son in 9 years. He is lost in somone elses definition and I pray one day he will find himself and look for a way to remove himself from the ditch he is in.

It happens a lot. A controlling person driving relationships from ditch to ditch.

Friends and lovers, family shouldnt consume you, control you, determine your fate or make you someone that is not you. They can help define you in the world by pointing out the ditches, by helping you keep steering to your middle. You can be left of center/right of center, or dead ahead center… but stay out of the ditches whenever you can. It starts by being true to yourself.

Posted in Doing Things That Will Change Your Life and tagged Self-Awareness, Sprituality, Truth

27 Feb 2012

The Definition of You

Not to get all Freudian or something, but lately it seems like I’ve met people who are struggling to understand themselves better. And it starts with them not able to personally define who they are. They have a lot of friends, family and lovers (past and present), around them who are more than willing to tell them how they define them. But the reality is if you could not ask the people around you…how would you define yourself?

Easy to put on different costumes and personalities to show to others, through different phases of a relationship with someone, different pieces of the real you may not be immediately exposed. Asking the question “Who do you believe you are?” without parroting back what others say you are is hard to do and seems to require inner inspection. Are you the same person inside as you appear to others? So easy at first to say “yes”- but the last person you should lie to is yourself and it is easy to do ( at least I can say that personally in a truthful way).

So go ahead…ask yourself who you are. Be honest. Are you a singer, a lover of horses, a follower of sports? Labels. Are you someone who thrives on interaction, or just likes interaction to validate who you are… letting that define the real you. Deeper, who are you spiritually? Sure there are labels: a scientist, a teacher, a lover, a friend. That’s easy to do… just add it to your Facebook profile already… but who are you when the world and others don’t label you.

Worse yet, once you think you know who you are– try comparing that to how others see you. Some of my closest friends have lost marriages, significant family relationships and friendships because they realized that they were trying to become someone they weren’t ever going to be, or worse yet were trying desperately to fit into something someone else wanted them to be. We always evolve from the foundation of who we are- but before you can really grow- you need to know what that foundation consists of.

I sound like a bunch of songs from the Who (queue “Who Are You” or “The Real Me”) or like the dozens of philosophers from my college classes. Seems like we are always in need of introspection. In this busy world – with constant input coming from so many different places- with almost instant feedback [more than any other time before in history], we need to be sure our first definition of ourselves is ours.

Posted in Doing Things That Will Change Your Life and tagged Definitions, Reality Check, Who Are You

22 Feb 2012

Fade Away

There are fade away jumpers,fade out songs,faded jeans,faded hopes or dreams. Some times it feels right to fade into the background. Songs about fading away (Buddy Holly) or rock and rollers who just fade away (Neil Young).
So when someone leaves this Earth so abruptly it seems to go against the “fade”. Lately there have been some young people in my life and our friends lives who have died so young and so unexpectedly that it comes as a shock to the mortal idea that we will all get a chance to fade out slowly, and experience lifes ups and downs.
But then God knows our time, we do not. Sometimes we are given a view of the road ahead [more on that another time] but we need to remember that life is precious. We hope it is a long and winding road, that we can make some significant impression on the world – tracks that make a difference.
In the end, whether we fade away or go quickly like a light bulb going dark we need to embrace what we can do in life while we are able. And for each of us that is something uniquely ours, since it is our life.

Posted in Doing Things That Will Change Your Life and tagged Fade away, life is precious

20 Feb 2012

Enjoying the Passage of Time

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 conjour 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 perserve 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.