cherish | Tracks In The Dust

Archive for the tag “cherish”

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

05 Feb 2013

Mortality is Not A Choice

The Cancer Letters #2

I grew up in a northern town in the Midwest US. It was near Lake Michigan ( the largest fresh water lake in the US). During my childhood the US was growing up from the post-World War age. Moving into the modern age. But not quite there. The city had its share of blue-collar foundry’s and factories. There were churches in every neighborhood, small grocery stores,old-fashioned movie theaters, and pre-war buildings that had already begun to show their wear.

We had large sandy beaches on the lake that we would go to every Sunday after church, and sit in the sun and listen to the transistor radios as they bellowed out the new rock-and-roll pop songs. There were pockets of ethnic ares in town, with their restaurants and tight-knit neighborhoods. There was the Lions Clubs and the YMCA. Town square and 4th of July parades. It was the time of the transition to the “space age” and also to the stark reality of a Vietnam War and all its injustice.

But those years were genuine, they were times to remember. Like so many others, growing up had many tremendous feelings of the taste of being young, but also yearning to get older. Older so that we could have a “life of our own” and be able to do what adults get to do- with all the freedom. My self and many of my friends always seemed to be in a hurry. And OH what we thought we knew. We saw ourselves as wise beyond our years. Is that a feeling you have experienced?

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As life has it, you can only look back to see what you thought you knew, but really didn’t. Perhaps the confidence of the young, perhaps just the blissful ignorance of youth. Either way. Facing mortality head on is a difficult thing. Even that reality is somewhat distorted, because after all we do it every day in our lives. Just stepping off the curb can be the last thing you do on Earth.

So now, in my life facing the reality of a cancer diagnosis and the clock that begins to tick toward an ultimate end, those days gone by seem so much more precious. And the time ahead does also. So many days in the past where I could have cherished them in such better ways, so many days where I could have looked at the positive things that God had provided me. But you cannot relive the past, or should not spend each day ahead full of regret. So there is a choice to make. It is the same choice you have if you didn’t have a cancer diagnosis but it is a choice.

Choose Grace. Choose compassion. Choose to make a small difference every day in someone elses life.

Posted in The Cancer Letters and tagged Acceptance, Cancer, Change, cherish, Faith, Grace, life is precious, Reality Check, Sprituality, Who Are You

17 Jan 2013

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The Last Words You Say

These days I am so much more aware of what I say to everyone every day. Time and time again I think about how those things I say and how I say them could be the last words I ever say to them. ….Oh, I know that this sounds like this is so filled with dread, like the world is so fatal. But it’s really not that.

If you have a choice with your loved ones on what you would say on the last day you are alive, before you leave this earth for a better place ahead. What would you say? ….. then ask yourself why you are waiting? Say it now.

There aren’t very many reasons to consider waiting, and your life is a gift that allows you look inward and provide love and care to others while you are here on this planet. We all are looking for a greater meaning of the whole thing called life, but the simple things can and should be at the center of it. It is the reward here.

So think about the next time your son or daughter or spouse is leaving out the door for the day. Consider the next time you see your family and friends. Are you telling them what you would tell them if it were the last words you would say? Are those bitter feelings, or small worries worth spending that valuable time? Or would you rather make sure that your precious time together always be cherished?

Don’t take your time for granted. Make it count. Be sure to reach out and say what you mean. Whether it is in-person or on the phone, whether it is an email response or just a random meeting in a store. Never let it go without being sure that you appreciate their love, or the part they play in your life, focus on the reason they mean what they do to you… It doesn’t take a million words. It doesn’t have to be a deep speech or long drawn out oratory… just tell them you care…

Thank you for visiting tracksinthedust. It’s always nice to know how much humankind really needs the same things in life. Blessings to you!

Posted in Doing Things That Will Change Your Life and tagged cherish, choices, Compassion, Faith, Grace, Kindness, life is precious, People, Postive Thinking, Sprituality, Truth

05 Oct 2012

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No One Gets Out of Here Alive

We all know it. We don’t often talk about it except when someone passes on in our lives or we know someone who has lost someone. That time is unpredictable, for some more than others. For a lot of us we all hope we can live to a ripe old age, be aware of life and all it has to offer right to the end of it all.

So we know it. It will be a day some day in our lives. We need to live till we die. And along the way we have our mission to share what brings us purpose. Many people seem lost and angry these days, so many unsure of the meaning of it, while yet others ignore their lives meaning altogether, and live with no purpose at all.

In the last couple of weeks I have known two wonderfully God-centered people who have experienced a loss in their lives. One a father and another a husband. They are mourning like those of us left here on Earth are supposed to do. They are also comfortable with the fact that there is a place afterward that their loved ones will be. Happy in the place that believers will be for eternity after this life. This grace continues to be profound in my life. Something I cannot ignore. That is something that is in the heart of a Christian.

So the reality of it is – no one gets out of here alive. ( Thanks Jim Morrison) No one lives forever in this life on Earth. While we are here, we touch other lives and make a difference in a million ways through our timeline (it’s not just a Facebook thing).

We can choose to be part of that movement in our life.

The lost choices lead to hopelessness, confusion, being unsure about the future or the present or eternity. Sadly there are so many out there that will spend that life until the end without purpose. How empty that must be. The found choices can be to make life what it is- a journey, an adventure, the opportunity to give back to those around us the grace that God has give us. Until the next eternal life. And since each moment could be our last, we need to cherish them and make them count.

Posted in Doing Things That Will Change Your Life and tagged Acceptance, cherish, choices, Grace, life is precious, life on earth, Postive Thinking, Self-Awareness, Sprituality, Who Are You

17 Sep 2012

5 Comments

Life Can Be Like A Wheel

“Some people say life’s like a merry-go-round
I think it’s more like a ferris wheel
‘Cause sometimes you’re up, sometimes you’re down
Sometimes you just don’t know what to feel” (Todd Rundgren)

It is just the way it seem to be. When you ride life’s wheel you have to be ready for the motions that make up the turns. You have to be prepared to know that there will be downs before ups, and know that the ups may not just be the opposite of the downward ride. It may be a whole new place to rise the height of the wheel.

Part of the trip ahead is the anticipation as things start to change. Not worth resistance it is the place you should enjoy as the wheel turns. When you see it heading down you can do things to help turn it faster the other way. On the other hand, when it is turning up you may not be able to slow it down, or it may take more time to get to the top.

“We are either progressing or retrograding all the while; there is no such thing as remaining stationary in this life.”
– James Freeman Clarke

Sometimes hearing the expression “just roll with it” reminds me of that. Making sure to roll with the changes, move with the day as God provided to us. Do the most with it, because how we spend each day is how we spend our lives.