Learning Lessons Along the Journey Of Life | Tracks In The Dust

Archive for the category “Learning Lessons Along the Journey Of Life”

24 Sep 2012

Another Change of Season

Its time again for a season change. Here in the US it is time for autumn. Fall. The time of harvest. In days gone by, it would have been the time to store up for the cold winter ahead. Celebrate the Thanksgiving day in America. But sincerely thankful for the great harvest that summer has brought. To bring the family together to share in the grateful bounty.

But these days it seems like it is more about reminding us that the holidays are upon us. We try to capture the “picture” of what it means. Autumn and Halloween decor is stacked on the shelves. There are a variety of gold,red, brown and orange objects filling the displays. Costumes and goolies all over the aisles for that all-saints night at the end of October.

Right around the corner are the Christmas lights and tinsel, perhaps dusted off from last year. A variety of Santa Claus figures and holly and ivy. Even artificial Christmas trees are lining the seasonal aisles of the big warehouse sized stores.

But what are we really wanting? That feeling of those colder evenings and crisp days. The fall colors of trees signalling the end of summer. That time to remember family and friends with a cheerful time that should be what we celebrate all year, but choose to find a holiday reason to make contact again.

I still remember the magic of those days when I was a child. Knowing that the holidays were coming and would mean a feast at Thanksgiving and songs and lights for the Christmas season. Going to pick that live Christmas tree with my dad that would smell so good when it got tied to the top of the car and later set in the stand in the house.

Autumn brings a lot of memories for the time and remember to be of thankfulness and good cheer. It would be great to have that all year around ( the spirit of God can do that if we want). We settle for less, we could do much more. But it is good to have the season don’t you think. It marks time and allows us to appreciate what the world has provided to us. Even in the midst of all of the world’s strife and conflict- we have each other- we have the seasons.

The Seasons and the Hot Summer Day

Posted in Learning Lessons Along the Journey Of Life and tagged Autumn, being remembered, Change, Christmas lights, Happiness, Joy, Memories, moments, Seasons, Sprituality

20 Sep 2012

What Other People Think Of You

I have always struggled thinking about with what other people thought of me. Acceptance was so often a guideposts for things I would do, for the plans I would make. There was a time when I turned a corner. Maybe it was part of my Lutheran upbringing or later on in life my cancer diagnosis, but I finally realised it had to change.

When you worry about what other people think, you let them control who you are. You waste a lot of time and energy trying to figure out what other people want you to be. Maybe they want it selfishly, maybe innocently they want you reflect themselves on you? You don’t even realise it – but all of a sudden you find yourself wasting a lot of time and energy trying to become like something you believe people want you to be, rather than just being what God made you to be.

Worrying about what other people think is dangerous because it leaves us extra sensitive to criticism. It means we may not do the right thing for ourselves but instead, we do the things that other people want us to do. And what everybody wants to do is often the opposite of the compass inside of us. Then when we feel that friction we are even more irritated with our life around us.

You cannot please everybody. There are so many opinions about so many things today, no one is going to always be pleased with you. People pray for things – some for one thing, some for another. Only a fool would try to do what even God can’t do. You can’t please everybody.

You don’t have to please everybody. So many people try to believe that in order to be happy you must be loved and gain approval by every one else. You know that deep in your heart you don’t have to, but somehow there is always that chance that it seeps back in.

Rejection will not ruin your life. It can be painful, you may even remember it and feel its imprint on you later. But it is not the end of things. In fact later it may look like the beginning of something else.

So I quit trying to please everybody years ago. It became obvious that no one can make me feel inferior unless I let them… It starts by beginning to understand that it can be your choice.

Posted in Doing Things That Will Change Your Life, Learning Lessons Along the Journey Of Life and tagged Acceptance, God, Grace, Happiness, Joy, moments, Opinion, Postive Thinking, Self-Awareness, Sprituality, What Other People Think, Who Are You

10 Sep 2012

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Reliving the Past

Our pasts are so precious. After all every moment we have lived up to this second is what makes us who we are right now. We have our memories to cherish, we have our experiences to formulate our opinions and shape are personalities. There are plenty of minutes in our lives where not a thing has happened except that we have taken another breath, which we can certainly be thankful for.

We should be proud of who we are- if we can count our accomplishments in a way that has helped others, or we have helped to make shape so many people around us by simple things we may have said or done. In other cases we may have profoundly changed so many lives of those who have since moved on to other circles of friends. But we left our mark on them, we may have ever so slightly changed their course, or perhaps made great changes. But there we were in that past.

But there is one thing that seems to be very true about our pasts, yet so many try to defy it. We cannot relive our past. We can recall it, we may even be able to reenact it in some way. But the ever-changing world does not allow us to go back and relive it just the way it was. Even though some of those moments were profound for you. The birth of your children, the first meeting of a love of your life, the simple victories and celebrations of life, sharing thoughts and philosophies with friends that ultimately indelibly put a new spin on your existence. Or perhaps just that simple clear day where the sky is blue, the sun is shining and you can take a deep breath… Or that day that you made a regrettable mistake that you would rather have not, and would do anything to change it now.

But you cannot go back, just like you cannot predict the future an( see my previous blog). You have to appreciate it, but cannot wallow in it. There is really only the here and now. You have to appreciate the here and now. The moment. And every one after it for as long as you are allowed. A while back I had posted “No Day But Today”. There is only that- only this moment until the next.

So don’t spend your time wishing the past back, it cannot be done. You should not forget it. You should not dismiss it. You cannot relive it.

So now what? What can you do?…. Be the person you have become… through this journey, take the next steps in whatever adventure life allows you ( and then more) and make the day count for something positive, in your life it could be the most significant day ever- but then in some ways they all are.

RELATED POSTS

Predicting the Future

No Day But Today

Posted in Learning Lessons Along the Journey Of Life and tagged being remembered, choices, Faith, life is precious, Memories, moments, Postive Thinking, Sprituality, the future, the past, Who Are You

15 Aug 2012

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“What Are People Thinking?”

Today a very wise man was talking about how often we get frustrated throughout our day because we are always wondering “What are people are thinking?”

What are they thinking when they are standing in the 15 item express line when they obviously have 20+ items in their cart?

What are they thinking when they pull out into traffic so quickly right in front of you and then drive 15 miles under the speed limit?

What could they possibly be thinking when they are standing in the middle of a public place and talk on their smartphone loudly and then stare at you when you stop and look at them?

What are they thinking when they drive with their head down because they are paying attention to their mobile phone and texting? (they need to be stopped!)

What the heck are they thinking when they stand in the middle of the public shopping mall and sneeze across the masses of people around them?

Sure in the end it is the small stuff. And like the saying goes “don’t sweat it”. Being preoccupied with life’s irritations will get you stuck in the muck and mire of frustration. Okay you could stop and say something to the people who are irritating you and they would likely wonder who they heck YOU think you are… We may not be able to influence a random stranger on the street. If the chance were there perhaps it could?

So the center of focus is to look for positive opportunities, and the time is now. Let the Spiritual focus fill in those blanks. Understand that you should enjoy the moment and know that it is YOURS to own. You can do with your moment what you will. When so much of humankind around the world are just wondering where their next bite of food or fresh water or shelter will come from, how can we let these things be our focus?

Stay positive. Stay focused on the tracks you are making right now. They are yours.

Posted in Learning Lessons Along the Journey Of Life and tagged Acceptance, Critical Thinking, Doubt, Faith, Reality Check, Skeptical Inquiry, Slow Down, spiritual focus, Thought

07 Aug 2012

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Looking for Life’s GPS

The other day I was driving to some places I had never been before and taking some guests around our huge metro area. So I brought out the GPS device. Global satellite positioning means that this little screen can always tell where you are on the face of the Earth, and help you by providing the directions needed to reach your final destination. It’s amazing that so many years ago that concept would have been some sort of “space age” future miracle you would see in sci-fi movies.

Now it is a reality that is entirely possible and can show up on your handheld smartphone or sit neatly on your dashboard wherever you go. And announce what turns and lanes you should be in. Wow.

It would be nice if our lives had a device for reaching our goals and destinations in life. We could just type in where we wanted to end up, and let the life-GPS just program it. It would talk to you, just like the GPS’s do today. Part of the features of the GPS lets you know when you get “off course” by announcing “recalculating your route” adjusting your course and helping you get turned around the right way.

Often in life we get off course, and there just isn’t that convenient GPS in our pocket to turn our lives back on course. The course corrections are ours to make, sometimes with guidance from others around us. The people we trust, the people we admire or sometimes from those who have alternative motivations that may not be the best course. We may get lost because we get distracted. In my GPS for the car, you can program “attractions” along the way, but in our lives some of those are more interesting than others, and in other cases they are indeed “distractions” rather than attractions, although we may be drawn to them.

So what course do we program into our life’s GPS? How well would we listen to the instructions it would speak out to us. Would we ignore it? It could sit on our dashboard and tell us when we made a wrong turn to our final goal. Of course we could end up with detours, and construction or accidents that may slow our lives course down. But the GPS would just recalculate. Funny.

But we don’t have a GPS for our lives here on Earth. There is nothing we can program. We have to rely on our family and friends and importantly our spiritual leaders that will provide us the feedback we need to make corrections when things go astray. Sure we can just wander like nomads on the map, in hope of getting where we think we want to be, but in the end we have to keep our eyes and ears open to where we are going and who we are listening to.

But we also have to keep our hearts and minds open to God and his plan. Without it we may be recalcuating in circles that eventually get us lost. For many of us, we so much want to stay “on the map” and headed in the proper direction. In the end it will lead to the best destination we could all want. It starts by programming it in… go ahead. You can do it.