Tracks In The Dust

A Father's Advice About Learning the Mission of Life

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

26 Nov 2014

Thankful for Our Children

My wife has said before that as a parent you may not always like your kids, but you will always love them. There may be some sense in that for many of us. As our kids get older and become adults they have had plenty of time to formulate their own idea of the order of their lives. Sometimes they make poor choices ( and you wonder if anything soaked in during those younger years), sometimes they take things for granted or create problems that are not really there.

One thing I have learned as my kids got older ( they are all over 21 now) is that they are forever entwined in their childhood personas. When they were born, from the day they could actually respond to things around them, my wife and I could tell that each of our four children were unique in their own way. They had their own way of looking at the world from virtually the day they were born. And all the life lessons and teaching you could apply would help to shape the edges, but their personality was something they were born with.

So as adults my wife and I can still see it. We had 3 sons in a row, and each one of them had their own perspective on things. While one of them was Intellectually reason out the simplest of problems ( even at 3 years old), another one of them got easily frustrated and would work to plan to manipulate his surroundings , the third was laid back and things would roll off and he would work through things in such a simple way and just smile. My daughter was our last, she was earthy, of the earth she loves animals more than people, enjoys nature and adjusts to things overtime when she finds the balance.

One thing they all had in common was music, my children did not all become consummate musicians ( however one of them has composed a number of great songs playing all the instruments and vocals). But music was meaningful. It is the canvas in which our lives would speak through sound and emotion. It ties us together in so many ways.

So this holiday season, when my adult kids will all be visiting our home we are thankful. We are grateful that we have had the opportunity to experience being a parent and proud of what they have become.

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

25 Aug 2014

Schmaltzy Movies

Since I was probably old enough to change the TV channel on our family TV I have loved movies.

I guess I am going to turn in my “man card” to admit this: I love schmaltzy movies. Rom-com’s. Romantic comedies. I know that when I was a kid it was so easy to turn on the TV and work to find those Tracy/Hepburn classics, or Thin Man movies. Gable/Lombard, Astaire/Grable,,,the list of old movies goes on. My first fave movie of the era gone-by “It Happened One Night” was (is) one of those movies I can watch again and again.

But I am just as likely to scan the hundreds of channels today and find one that tweaks that old memory. And I am inclined to stop I guess. Whether it is old or contemporary. It is just in me.

“Love Actually ” (another one of my all time faves) just stops me cold and have to watch some/all of it. I know it is more like a holiday movie, but I am just stuck liking it. Or When Harry Met Sally, or Notting Hill, or Runaway Bride, You’ve Got Mail,or….you get the idea. That doesn’t even include the 60’s movies romping through hi-jinx and crazy situations, with stars as that can range from Sinatra to Tony Curtis or Rock Hudson.

So yeah, Julia Roberts movies, Hugh Grant, Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, and all that lot. Just the same to me there are stars of the 30’s and 40’s that were just great too… Once again you get the idea. I am a sucker. So many more. Old and new. Great sound tracks; inevitable endings where the “meet-cute” is over and the wrap up is forever bliss.

My wife chuckles when I stop and dwell on the Rom-com movies. Some end sad, some end with a head scratch, But any way, it is always great stuff. Heck- as part of my college degree (Communications/Media) we had CLASSES about movies. Bliss.

So put me up for the hours of wasted time I guess. Watching those movies. It is like hearing a great song or reading a great book, you want to listen to it or read it again. Movies are like that… just suspend everything else for a small bit of time and enjoy them.

Whew… I feel better. A confession of sorts (except for my immediate family who already knows this weird obsession and lives with it). Someday I will get over it…. perhaps.

Posted in Learning Lessons Along the Journey Of Life and tagged Arts and Entertainment, choices, Classic Movies, Happiness, Movies, Rom Com, Romantic Comedies

21 Aug 2014

The Countdown-Clock

In sports most of the competitive team sports feature some sort of clock. A timed segment in which to complete a game, take a shot, play a play, complete a period or quarter.

In life we have our own count-down clock, but it doesn’t show up on the bottom of any screen or on any scoreboard. It is our clock that only God knows.

There is no visible way for us track things. No way to take for granted that we have enough time to do the things we want, or to manage a disease to its inevitable end. But still many of us worry about how much time we have, what can we do with it before the end arrives.

I guess for me – now more than ever, occupying every hour with the worry of the future is seems way too consuming. It’s a course that leaves more emptiness than fulfillment. It leads to fear and hopelessness ( since we can influence but not control the final outcome).

There are clocks that we will have to measure daily life we cannot ignore, but we need to understand the bigger life’s meaning and understand the personal clocks we live by. Spiritually we are in need of that center.

So my time on that “personal shot clock” is measured by finding ways to enjoy the passage of time, open my heart to the love around me, look for the positive in things ( the negatives seem so much easier to find us regardless of whether we are looking for it or not- doesn’t it?)

Advice to my kids: Learn to know your internal clock and what is truly valuable time

Posted in Learning Lessons Along the Journey Of Life and tagged Acceptance, Anger Management, choices, Doubt, Grace, life is precious, mental-health, Postive Thinking, Reality Check, Religion and Spirituality, Self-Awareness, Sprituality

16 Jul 2014

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Coffee and the Morning Ritual

My wife and I have our morning rituals these days. After we wake and let the dogs out for their morning constitutional we head for the coffee. It is like the kick-start that begins the day. We also reach for our respective technology and get an update on the news of the day and the weather ahead.

I have tried to ignore coffee over the years. I have worked my way toward tea and assorted other hot drinks. I have skipped it entirely and made sure that the breaking-fast was centered around a healthy menu fit to start a day.

But in the end, it is the coffee that I come back to. Like mine with nothing in it generally, but strong enough to give it a bit of rich taste. Admittedly some days it doesn’t end up that way. Never destined to be a Barista I guess, just as long as I get the caffeine I suppose.

Many of my friend and work mates go for other caffeine in the morning. Colas or Diet Colas, the infamous Mt Dew. That just makes me shudder really. I recall younger days after a long night out – waking up with a thirst. But overall I couldn’t do it.