Doing Things That Will Change Your Life | Tracks In The Dust

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

29 Oct 2014

The Secret of Life

I have to repeat myself. There have been so many life shaking events in and around my life. People who’s young lives have been cut short by a debilitating diseases, friends who are negotiating serious heart complications, and my personal journey with cancer.

So much happens that we tend to forget how precious time is and that life is there to love and be loved.

So here is the song that seems to say it all. It is the one I share with my kids, friends in the hope that they understand. Life is what you make it in whatever time God allows. How you use it, what you do with it (or don’t do) is up to you. You can spend it angry or hopelessly languish in it, you can waste the time being totally introspective and never share God’s riches with others.

The Secret O’ Life ( by James Taylor)

The secret of life is enjoying the passage of time.
Any fool can do it, there ain’t nothing to it.
Nobody knows how we got to the top of the hill.
But since we’re on our way down, we might as well enjoy the ride.

The secret of love is in opening up your heart.
It’s okay to feel afraid, but don’t let that stand in your way.
Cause anyone knows that love is the only road.
And since we’re only here for a while, might as well show some style. Give us a smile.

Isn’t it a lovely ride? Sliding down, gliding down,
try not to try too hard, it’s just a lovely ride.

Now the thing about time is that time isn’t really real.
It’s just your point of view, how does it feel for you?
Einstein said he could never understand it all.
Planets spinning through space, the smile upon your face, welcome to the human race.

Some kind of lovely ride. I’ll be sliding down, I’ll be gliding down.
Try not to try too hard, it’s just a lovely ride.
Isn’t it a lovely ride? Sliding down, gliding down,
try not to try too hard, it’s just a lovely ride.
The secret of life is enjoying the passage of time.

Posted in Doing Things That Will Change Your Life and tagged Acceptance, Advice, Cancer, choices, Faith, Grace, life is precious, mental-health, moments, Music, Postive Thinking, Reality Check, Secret of Life, Self-Awareness, Spiritual Health, tracks in the dust

17 Oct 2014

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Going to the Extremes

We want to embrace a position on things, everywhere we are being asked for our opinion. We want to look as though we are confident.We want to share why we feel the way we do, and in the end it puts us at odds with each other.

An example: People may say… you cannot like Green and like Orange at the same time- you are commanded to pick one. After all anyone who likes green surely cannot be an advocate of orange that the same time! Or at least that is simply what people tend to want you to think.

Choose! This is the world of choice- so why are you in the middle? That makes you seem weak, makes you look stupid or something.

The internet is based around this communication, the media demands it, social networks want to know,… inquiring minds wan to understand and they want an instant response. What do the polls indicate? Websites want your rating on everything, they measure the clicks to decide “interest” so they can continue to feed you more of what they believe you “like”

So in the end we look for the decision, winners and losers, haves and have-not’s, right vs wrong, “the time has come to stand up!”

And once we huddle around the decision, others “pile on”. They want to be acknowledged in being on the same side. Damn the facts, the hack with how people feel about the opposite things. They are stupid, ignorant, in the wrong “club” or the inferior political party. There is no middle ground, compromising would be a sign of weakness after all. Trust no one who contradicts your position in the choosing! They just don’t understand.

That is the extreme of my frustration I guess. There are not that many absolutes in this world when it comes to opinion. Some people even take the absolutes of the physical world and deny them. Like there is a place for “maybe” – but only when it means picking an answer with conviction.

ALL that energy. All that anger or resentment. All of the time spent. Debate is healthy, but arguing “opinion” is like saying “my opinion is better than your opinion” … it has some sort of laugh-ability about it really. And sadness

I know I have posted about this before- but I still believe: Life is short. Focus on positives, make the most of the passage of time.

Posted in Doing Things That Will Change Your Life and tagged Acceptance, Anger, coping, Definitions, Happiness, Ignorance, life is precious, Opinions, Postive Thinking, Reality Check, Reccognition

02 Oct 2014

Hopelessness and Despair

What amazes me today what appears to be that there are so many lost people in the world. People looking for a purpose. People feeling helpless and out of control of their lives. There have always been lost people with who feel hopeless and heavy with despair. It is nothing new, it is a human ailment since time began. .

But these days there are non-stop 24/7 reports of people around the world who are struggling with their lives, with their vision on what they want from life. They feel alone and seek to find acknowledgement from others that they are something.

Feeling alone can result in evil things happening. Evil provides hope by authority, allowing people to reach for bad things that will make them feel in-charge. It is a kind of hope that is easy to come by with when one is alone. It seems ironic that in a world so “full” of people hope on things we should not

But that is what is means to be hopeless I think. Thinking there is no way out. And then today it is so much easier to let things leak in from everywhere. 24/7 – lonely in front of a glowing monitor as it speaks. The appearance that the world around us is “so bad” and everything is wrong. The government cannot help you, there is no end in sight and the news is not good . Negative piles on to the despair one may already feel.

What is truly sad is that the positive messages get lost in the balance. There is the rub. Embracing the messages of hope and promise are hard to do, it means being confident in its existence. Feeling as though there is some way to make something out of life. Not seeing the short time on this Earth as worthless. Looking for answers from those who are willing to help lift you up.

The answer is there. It is in the spirit of the human being to focus on the simple. Too many people make the simple salvation too complicated. They find all the rules they can to provide you with hurdles- when salvation is only one faithful step away. Choose it.

Posted in Doing Things That Will Change Your Life and tagged Acceptance, Change, choices, Dispair, Doubt, Faith, Hope, Hopelessness, Postive Thinking, Religion and Spirituality, Who Are You

23 Sep 2014

What is Your Muse?

Inspiration.

Being inspired to communicate sometimes can be hard. It can stop with the idea that there is absolutely nothing to say.

Funny but most everyone I met these days has something to say. There is always something that can spark the reason to want to express themselves. it could be on this blog-site, it could be at work, on the Internet somewhere, texting, calling, holding a sign, making noise in a crowd, wearing a t-shirt with something on it, or hundreds of other ways.

What provides the inspiration seems like a million times the ways available to communicate it.

For me music, or written word I guess does it. But perhaps sometimes I need a muse.

Profoundly the verb means: to become absorbed in thought; especially : to turn something over in the mind meditatively and often inconclusively

But I am talking about the noun. Founded from mythology of nine sister goddesses in Greek mythology presiding over song and poetry and the arts and sciences

I am looking for the “source of inspiration; especially : a guiding genius” What is your muse?

As usual I find it in my family and in the music of this world which is truly abundant. It is the language of expression that can reach across cultures, like may of the arts. It doesn’t take interpretation classes to understand it, it doesn’t have to have interpreters to help define it. It is what is in your heart. It is the muse of the arts and sciences that make up our everyday meaning.

Sarah Jarosz – A child prodigy at one point and now just a great artist. Perhaps my muse?

Posted in Doing Things That Will Change Your Life, Learning Lessons Along the Journey Of Life and tagged Advice, choices, Music, My Muse, Postive Thinking, Reality Check, Sarah Jarosz, Self-Awareness, Who Are You

15 Aug 2014

Being At Peace

To be at peace with yourself takes the effort. It takes a path you are willing to follow to get there.

It takes a resistance to fear, to the evil that comes from every aspect of life it would seem these days.

But with the latest catastrophic thing in our lives right around the corner, we can easily get preoccupied with the notion of not being at peace. At peace with ourselves, at peace with each other. A level set with life that only God can provide I would think.

But it starts with us. We cannot succumb to fear. To our anger. We must conquer it. Our fear of circumstances. Our fear of the world around us.

People do so many things that make me mad but
Angry isn’t how I want to spend what time I have
Cognitive dissonance they call it
I wonder just how small it
Could be made to be in me?

life in the city is so densely packed
fear of each other is an accepted fact
fear soaks into concrete just like grease
fear is the antithesis of peace – “TIme I Have” by David Crosby

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. – Mathew 6:34

It takes effort finding peace in ourselves with the “time we have” and the world around us. The opposite of that is to surrender to fear, to give in to the darkness around us. It will mean we may need help. It is there in many ways, we can help each other… we can look to Him for the help.

Are you prepared to not surrender to fear? To not let worry consume you? Or have you already allowed other things to take over your peace?