Tracks In The Dust

28 Feb 2013

Where Do You Draw the Line?

Are you ever finished? Where do you draw the line?

Don’t you think there are times you have to just say “stop” and draw the line?

I mean there are somethings that just have to get unloaded from your life as you continue to progress though it. Friends, family, work, personal commitments to managing your day and your week. You want to “be there” for everyone you can. You want to help them, support them. You want to be able to enjoy their company. Your work may demand a lot of your energy just to stay ahead… making it all that much harder to make it all work.

I have friends who burn-the-candle at both ends. They stay up late, get up early. They spend time moving from place to place and wanting to participate in just about everything. I wonder sometimes how satisfactory that experience really is. They worry if they miss something or if they are not “there” for someone who they will have failed- they struggle to be accepted.

Eventually you see them get discouraged. It’s like the analogy “If you attach one light bulb to a battery, the battery will continue to run for a long time. If you attach a dozen light bulbs to a battery, the battery will die quickly and things will l get dark.”

When you keep adding things to your calendar, piling things on top of your life, it is fairly likely you will get run down and discouraged. You may need to un-plug from things. It can be very hard to do.

A there are so many things that can get in your way and drain the batteries Maybe it’s a relationship, the work you do, a get together with friends or sports league or tending to all of the kid’s activities. ( I have seen parents who have their kids so plugged-in that they are heading for a crash as well).

It’s not necessarily an unwanted thing, many things can be really desirable. A being involved,participating in things can be great, but if you add up all those things in your life, you’re going to collapse because for the lack of time . You may just have to say “no” to somethings.

You cannot fall prey to peer pressure or the need to please someone. But guilt is a very strong thing, especially when you create it on your own. Or perhaps you may be holding on to a happiness or hurt. The reality is that you can never live in the past or the future; you can only live for today. Looking back in the past, or always working for what might happen tomorrow can drag you down.

I have read many blogs, I have written some myself about de-cluttering junk from your life. Maybe this is part of that clean-up, if it isn’t working for you, if it’s dragging you down, perhaps you need to do the hardest thing… you need to let it go.

Negotiating With Yourself

Organization in the Clutter of Life

26 Feb 2013

1 Comment

Poems, Prayers and Promises [February Edition]

MGert Concert Picture

Since January I have added a new page to http://www.tracksinthedust.com.

I have dredged up some old lyrics and poetry in the page above called The Songs and Poems of Another Time.

For the most part all from the mid-70’s ( for many of you before you were born).

But they were rooted in rock and folk music at the time. Inspiration for stuff that has long sat in spiral-bound notebooks that collected dust over the years. I told my kids I would pull out some of them I was fond of and capture them here. [Yup, that’s me many years ago when rock was younger and so was I).

For those of you who are following, thanks for the indulgence. I kindly recap the February entries here with links.

Posted in Poems, Prayers and Promises and tagged Arts, Memories, moments, Music, Poems of Another Time, Poetry, Song

25 Feb 2013

2 Comments

Something Left To Give

As we grow older it seems, priorities change don’t they? When I was younger getting through each day meant something quite different from what it does now. In some ways I was always wishing hard for the weekend, where I could more intensely enjoy the company of my friends. Raise the roof and party. I was in a rock band in my early days and there was always something about the weekend. Gigs at local schools and pubs, party’s with long nights of drinking beer and smoking and pretending to be so worldly about our observations of love and the world around us.

But as I grew older giving was more significant than receiving. It became more important to be part of something that would last. It’s not that everything has to be “important”- but somehow I guess having kids will put a whole new perspective on that. As I had written in a previous post a while back, my father-in-law lived to the ripe old age of 90. And though all of his years fortunately old age did not shake is memory or faculties. He was a vibrant person pretty much till the end. One of the most important thing he wanted from life was to “be remembered”.

So now as I gain years and hopefully get wiser with age, I hope that I can have “something left to give” and that all of my children (even the lost one I haven’t seen in 10 years) can gain from the insight of the world around them. They won’t let the world pass by them and not notice the greatness of life, the wonder, grace and compassion. They will find ways to give to life the blessings God has provided, they will be conscious of the opportunity and it will become the reason that generations ahead will benefit from the wisdom they leave behind.

This is a song that always reminds me of that idea. One my children introduced it to me. From The Starting Line. It’s several years old, but I have frequently came back to this song and its words. ♥

Posted in Life's Sound Track (Music) and tagged being remembered, choices, Compassion, Faith, Grace, Joy, life is precious, Music, Reality Check, Sprituality, Who Are You

21 Feb 2013

4 Comments

A Sink Full of Ducks

There is something happens occasionally that leaves me stunned. It is like a feast or famine thing. There seems to be those times of abundance of luck and then other times when you just can’t buy a “clue”… even if you have the money to do it.

If you think about it. When things are tough you may decide to fight for it. You work hard to get through the barriers. Your maneuver your way through adversity or criticism. There is a risk you can fail which makes things all that more sensitive along the way. And if you fail, you can question if you did all you could or you can get up and try again, knowing better if there is a next time. If you do well you appreciate the victory all that much more. And if there isn’t a next time, the best you can do is move on with the rest of your life- but you have that choice.

It may be harder with situations with an abundance of good fortune or luck.

Once you reach a situation where you have the good fortune of abundance it feels good… It may even be what some people call luck. You may start to think you don’t deserve it, and something sort of whispers in your head to watch out for the fall. But you most often you accept the path – it feels good! But still there’s that lurking feeling that something may by-pass your good fortune. But it can be a downfall I guess ” like a sink full of ducks“.

Everything is cute and wonderful and you got a fuzzy bunch of downy little ducklings. It makes you smile and chuckle and be happy. Friends and family “love” your brood of fortune. Then it hits you. What are you going to do with a sink full of ducklings? They are going to become needy. They are going to grow up to be a bunch of large ducks. They are not going to live in the sink. Get over it. You gotta find a place for them and your good fortune is now a problem with a dozen ways to work it out. But you have to.

Obviously ducks aren’t the issue really here. It’s only an analogy. It seems that there are times really- when it is just wise to pay attention to your situation. When it is going well and there reasons to rejoice, enjoy it. Don’t play to your doubts. But recognize that you have something in your midst and you need to be aware… assess the possibilities, understand the pitfalls and be ready for the challenges ahead…. you know what I mean?

Hey- What would you do with a sink full of ducks?

Posted in Before and After Things Change and tagged Advice, Change, Faith, Happiness, Luck, Opinion, Philosophy, Postive Thinking, Reality Check, Sprituality, Truth, Who Are You

19 Feb 2013

The Gap Between Us

There is a gap. A widening gap that is clearly defined these days by the opinion of others.

I think it comes from the need to embrace a position. I mean if you are “for” something worth declaring, or”against” something you want to be sure to defend your reasons… you can fight for your right to believe it as well.

You get to pick something that has 2 pointy ends and show that you have a strong opinion, and in this day and age you get to do that in so so many public ways unlike ever before. There was a time when “clubs” would represent the social perspective in public ways. There was a time when you could sit with your fellow club-members and remiss about the reasons you were together. There was a comradeship about it, a way to gather all of the people who had a genuine interest in something and see them face to face. You would sponsor public events, march in parades and perhaps engage in philanthropy.

Over time and the millions upon millions of connections we make electronically these days, we have depersonalized the equity of joining together in one place and making the effort to be part of the club. The social network was local but strong in its conviction. Its vast

So now it feels like many people are widening the gap, putting themselves on the farthest ends of their passionate convictions, and they are willing to let everyone know their opinion. Politics is a beast – even though there are so many in the middle- others seem to be pulling people to the extremes to prove their point. They even make news programs out of it that really aren’t “news” but the chance to share their extreme opinions to help validate the people out there who share them (really are they changing any extremes?).

There is still a place where everyone can gather. The church as its opinions too, but there are some core defining truths that make being in that group the best opportunity in another life. –

For some of us ( maybe many) we may be adverse to being labeled in one way or another. And those people on the extreme ends of things will accuse us of being soft, not taking sides. It is to their advantage to provide 2 solutions and ignore that there may be a third.