Tracks In The Dust

A Father's Advice About Learning the Mission of Life

Archive for the tag “Emotion”

09 Apr 2013

The Pending Storms of Spring

You know that feeling you get when you hear about pending storms. Watchful on the horizon. Brewing for a change. Some see it as a fearful thing (rightfully so) and yet perhaps more.

The summer storms often bring colder fronts and fresh air. They bring that smell of green things growing. Before it arrives you can taste it in the air. The bugs sing a song in the trees. There is a sense of it in the pressure of the atmosphere.

But the spring storms however seem to queue up to help clean away the winter. Take away the dust and dreariness that can encapsulate the winter months. They come as the light of the day starts to expand and the plants and trees around are working on a new set of leaves and seeds. The birds arrive back ( maybe they weren’t gone, but the seem so much more vocal). The storms come in on windy days that seem to be designed to blow the seeds along for a summer plan.

Here in Texas the spring storms have begun, they often come with predictions of hail, and sometimes the size of quarters or golf balls. Most storms whisk by with strong winds that line up and rearrange things… fences, lawn furniture, trees and roofing land in the most unexpected places. But still the storms come. They will always come.

When they do you have a chance to see them as renewal of the new pending season. You can work toward acceptance in the anticipation. Perhaps see it as a way to change and change with it.

Posted in Before and After Things Change and tagged Acceptance, Change, choices, Emotion, moments, Postive Thinking, Storm, Texas, Weather

15 Mar 2013

Looking for the Rewards Around You

Looking for the reward

Some say rewards are earned, and that is surely the truth in so many circumstances.

Having a heart to heart with my son the other night, we got talking about those things that result in “rewards” in our lives. Those things that can increase the value of what you do and say everyday. He sees it like many others do, that “rewards” are something that will come to you if you deserve them. There could be some element of truth in that, but there are those times when it just happens-like it is planned or expected because you earned them.

So that leaves another thought, the idea that rewards are something you should look for. Of course. Like they are very likely to show up in your life “just because” ( never say never, but when they do I think some call that “luck”)…

Rewards in life can turn to be something we can search for, after all they may not be in plain sight. But it is that adventure of working to uncover them that makes life interesting. You have to define them. Sometimes it is founded on determination, other times on awareness, and yet other times just being in the right place and at the right time to allow the rewards to appear (again some call it “luck”).

After that it is of course also up to your definition of “reward“. I mean cash- money is nice, and so is due recognition for doing things that accomplish life altering efforts- or just getting the individual thank you from someone who makes the work all worthwhile. There are personal victories that end up as our own personal reward. Those can be the most satisfying and long-lasting of any when they meet your goals.

They can sharpen your senses for seeing more in your life, seeing the rewards and the opportunity around you.

Start by defining what the rewards really are.

They start to show up in the most amazing places.

Posted in Doing Things That Will Change Your Life and tagged due recognition, Emotion, Fear, good fortune, Happiness, Luck, personal reward, personal victories, Postive Thinking, Reality Check, Rewards, searching for happiness, Self-Awareness

07 Mar 2013

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Getting Stuck and UnStuck

I am not sure sometimes how I get into particular situations. There are just those times when “poof” I am there. You ever have that feeling of extreme distress? You can’t believe how you got there. It’s likely that you were thinking of something else, maybe head in the clouds.

There are plenty of times where when you are feeling stuck, it seems insurmountable Panic may ensue, or that feeling that you are never going to get out of the situation you are in. Things get blue or bleak or bad (funny how many words can describe it).

Some of my friends will surround themselves with others who are feeling the same way, so they can feel better that they are not alone in their sinking feeling. Other friends of mine will disappear off the face of the earth it seems for long periods of time. Seems like plenty of people think they have the remedy to help them get out of those feelings of being stuck in the situation they’re in.

But getting un-stuck is a challenge that has to be faced eventually. For most of us there is a time when you just have to admit that there is a way out– a solution. You have to make a decision. It’s funny sometimes that someone can “wallow’ at the bottom of a situation for so long.

We can all break-free of things if we put our minds to it. We have the ability to change things, but there are times that we just don’t. We draw out the inevitable and then later – after we finally look back – we ask ourselves “what took so long?” There has to be someway to recognize that getting un-stuck is a choice we can all make if we want without wallowing in it. Without just standing still and wondering why things don’t change.

Advice to my kids when they feel stuck: Take action and make things change. Sometimes I have to hear my own advice. Then God will provide.

Posted in Learning Lessons Along the Journey Of Life and tagged Advice, Change, Emotion, Fear, Feeling, Helplessness, Life, Postive Thinking, Reality Check, Sadness, Slow Down, tracks in the dust

12 Feb 2013

2 Comments

No Drama Zone

There are days when it isn’t welcome. The drama and urgency of others hits you square in the head. You just want to leave it alone, let it be something someone else needs to know, someone else needs to deal with.

It’s really not that you don’t care, close family and friends deserve the critical points that make up drama in their lives as much as anyone. We all have those moments, those days, those situations that put drama in our lives.

Sometimes it seems it is self inflicted – we can attract drama in our lives like a magnet. We even are unaware and unconscious about it coming and are surprised when the drama arrives. Things do go another direction than we expect, things find their ways into our lives that just make things so much more difficult than we are expecting, than we are wanting.

But there are times when our friends and family want to share drama. Even more unexpected than our own, it comes with the needs and wants of their expectations, which sometimes just.. aren’t… yours. You just can’t deal with it and you take a deep breath. Because after all it is a loved one… you have compassion for their plight. You understand your dilemma but it just isn’t something you can deal with at that time. Maybe some other day, but not today.

So then you feel like you don’t care. It tips the scales on the things you are dealing with at the moment, and makes it even worse in some ways because you want to be there for them. But it is that moment when you can not. It feels wrong.

As a person who cares about things (like most of us do), especially your family and close friends… it feels frustrating -yet is probably better for them that they know there are those points in the day, week, month. moment that it just has to be a… NO Drama Zone.

Posted in Learning Lessons Along the Journey Of Life and tagged Compassion, critical points, deep breath, Definitions, Emotion, Family, family and friends, Friends, Happiness, Kindness, Listening, Opinion, Postive Thinking, Reality Check, Worry

31 Oct 2012

1 Comment

Imperfection is Perfect

As the song goes “that’s the way God planned it”.

It seems that perfection (like beauty) is in the eye of the beholder. Imperfection is what makes things so right. Nothing is perfect- there are blemishes in nature, and humankind is far from it. So many strive for it, but the harder they work toward it the farther it seems.

So what about this imperfect life we live? Some of the rough parts are hidden, some of them are there for all to see. Some things are ugly, others are beautiful. There is not going to be a way to be perfect in everything. Only one man on Earth was and He died on the cross.

Today in the media, it seems there is always some story about a gaffe or mistake that fromcelebrity or politician doing or saying something. People put under the microscope of public media. Scrutinized for any mistake, or unexpected action not commonly fitting the in the “perfect form” we think we want. Awk! Like pictures of celebrities in regular every day circumstances, women celeb’s without their make up on (really?) or politicians making comments that don’t fit what we think they should be saying (especially for the opposition during election).

All this just appears to reinforce our expectations for what the media or some portion of the community wants to paint as “the standard” of perfection . It feels like a bad trend. It makes others feel inferior when they shouldn’t It sets the bar so high that others feel they cannot ever reach it.

Sadly, so many continue to live up to expectations of perfection they will be hard-pressed to ever achieve. They look for approval that never comes, and in their frustration they get angry or sad. Sometimes the emotion leads to violence or suicide. Other times it leads to depression and hopelessness.

We have to accept imperfection. God embraces it. We have to understand that in itself there is the beauty of uniqueness ( is that a word?). There is something that makes everyone and every thing worthwhile. If we put that under the microscope instead and rejoiced in it… relished its imperfection. Celebrate the exceptions.

So what can we look for in our striving for perfection? What do you believe? Do you believe?