Tracks In The Dust

A Father's Advice About Learning the Mission of Life

Archive for the tag “Compassion”

18 Jun 2013

Be Thankful

So there are so many ways to say “thank you”. For some it may be a sincere hug. Are you a hugging person? Maybe not as personal for some, but perhaps a genuine handshake or some other physical way.

There are people who show their appreciation with special words of thanks, pointing out very directly how they feel. They may go out of their way to reach out and be sure someone knows what it means. There are others who send cards or notes, communication to make sure to be specific about what they felt and why they want to say thanks.

But there are some people I have met that seem to have lost the art of saying thank you. They may nod or say “thank you” and smile, but they believe that are just trying to be polite. They really expect things to come to them, to be provided to them because they deserve it. Perhaps they think “after all” they have struggled to get where they are, they may have even worked hard to be who they are. But really, it may not be sincere, it may be lost in the point of view.

My kids are adults now. And I hope that I have taught my kids what it means to be thankful. What it means when someone else does something for them. What it means to do things for others as well. Is it an art? Is there a science to it? Not sure that there is, it is just something that has to be recognized. It is a way of life that allows you to recall and remember what others lives are like around you. It’s not a sign of weakness, it is not a sign of submission. It is the proof that you are in the place you need to be in humankind.

You can be the ingredient of the essence that is grace in action.

So simple and so complex at the same time. Thank you.

Posted in Doing Things That Will Change Your Life and tagged Acceptance, choices, Compassion, culture, Grace, Kindness, Love, Opinion, Self-Awareness, Sprituality, Thankful

03 Jun 2013

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Changing Lives One Day At A Time

Time seems to stand still once in a while. There is nothing special happening, nothing monumental. Yet all around you are people who are experiencing quite the opposite. They may be having a life event, a special moment perhaps. They may have run into the depths of failure, or the heights of success.

But there you are. Living in one of those nondescript days where at the end of it, you have to ask yourself how it got so late at night and it is “time for bed”. It seems like a throw-away day. Just moving through the day like the sun overhead. Moving from east to west and finally being done warming the day.

Sometimes it makes me feel sad. It’s a day you can never get back, no chance to have a “re-do”. Could there have been opportunities to make a difference in someone else’s life, to strike a conversation, help someone you may not even have known by offering an act of kindness? Could you have spent a moment to call a friend, make someone laugh or just tell someone you haven’t seen in a while that you were thinking of them?

All of those things seem so simple and somewhat insignificant I guess. But they are not, are they? They are reasons for the chance to live the day. To provide forgiveness, to show kindness, to create a new timeline of events for someone else perhaps, a possible very small thing for you- that sends someone off in an entirely new direction in their lives.

Then you can still say it “seemed like an uneventful day”. But not… it seems for everyone. I will work to make that day happen. How about you?

Posted in Doing Things That Will Change Your Life and tagged being remembered, Boring days, Changing Lives, choices, Compassion, Forgiveness, Grace, Kindness, Making A Difference, Reality Check, relationships, Sprituality

09 May 2013

Behind Every Door

Behind every door is a story. And every one of them is personal.

Recently in Cleveland Ohio USA, three women emerged from the horror of being secretly locked up and tortured and raped for ten years, while the rest of the world moved by the house and the doors and windows where so much pain and anger was hidden. It is one that was discovered, but you can’t help thinking there are so many equally terrifying stories. People living in the private walls of their lives in a way that most may not understand, while yet others may recognize as their own…

So we pass by doors of people’s lives every day, some real, some just figuratively. We may often ignore the idea of what is behind those doors.There stories for every door, so many stories. Stories of loneliness, pain, anger, sadness, hopelessness, guilt and so many more of the agonies that we humans have been dealt. We try to reflect ourselves on those doors. In our heads and lives we see those doors as similar or identical to ours, of we find ourselves threatened by the idea that there are things much worse.

Behind those doors there is certainly good and bad, because everyone has their own demons and challenges. I know someone who is living the pain and challenges of a brain tumor. His family is dealing with all that emotion, all that goes with the disease and the stark mortality that is a constant part of their lives. It is the struggle behind a door that many will pass every day. Most will never know.

Seems like in this world of high-speed connections, Internet friendships and text messaging – the opportunity to have those relationships we need- those connections behind those doors have been damaged. It is lost behind the locks of the doors that divide us. That contain so many stories that deserve compassion, deserve to be discovered. Need to understand there is hope.

Posted in Before and After Things Change and tagged Acceptance, choices, Compassion, Emotion, Faith, Fear, Happiness, Hopelessness, isolation, Reality Check, Salvation, society, Who Are You

19 Apr 2013

1 Comment

Being Rich with the Grace of Living

The rich get richer. Least I always saw it that way most of my life.

I guess if you stop to consider the definition of rich, there is a way you could change that meaning. After all the richness of life has nothing to do with the money and items we possess. It is about much much more than that. Sure it can sound like the movie “It’s A Wonderful Life” or something where you can accumulate your friends and family around you and greatly appreciate that they are there for you.

That is a richness of life that many wish they could have, and in these times when tragedies of life seem to be more part of our daily lives, I think it gives us pause to reflect on what is really important.

When the Boston Marathon explosions occurred, people were reaching out to people to do what ever they could. Mobile phones and social websites lit up with people wanting to know that their friends and family were safe. They provided condolences and well wished sentiment of prayers to all effected. It has happened again and again in the face of adversity ( like the Connecticut school massacre, the recent fertilizer plan explosion in Texas and so many before that). It snaps everyone to attention about how delicate life is- how precious and quick it can change forever.

But deeper than that we all looked around at our loved ones – closest to us and asked the important questions. How we measure the value of our lives is important, and the richness of it is not accumulated by the things around us, but the people around us and the people we connect with each day – even for the slight moments we pass by people on the street or at work. It would seem that it is the richness of this grace in living that we need to embrace to help us all make sense of the changing world surrounding us all. Least that’s the way I see it.

Posted in Before and After Things Change and tagged Acceptance, Compassion, Fear, Grace, life is precious, Love, Postive Thinking, Reality Check, Sadness, Sprituality

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. ♥