Grace | Tracks In The Dust

Archive for the tag “Grace”

18 Feb 2014

Keeping Your Head Above Water

Keeping your head above water. Swimming along with the life you have. It can be a challenge just to swim and keep it up when you are not so sure you how you will survive.

But we all should be doing that, shouldn’t we? Some days it may seem automatic. We have a life to live despite the struggles, and some complex things can keep you distracted. In some ways keep your mind off it.

Other days we risk getting caught in the undertow of the reality that we are struggling and virtually everyone around us is struggling too. In their own way. They are messing up and getting things wrong, they are sad from loss or angry with their situation. They could swim for brighter days ahead- but it looks bleak to them.

This is my battle song. Fighting cancer, I realized that we have to SWIM. Swim for our lives. But it would be good to find the grace in what we are doing as we continue along. That purpose of our constant paddling along.

The spirit of God can give that to you. The purpose may mean less if you think that at the end it is over and you stop swimming because you no longer exist, but if you believe – eternity can matter. We all fall short of perfect, but this helps. It makes life’s swim easier – especially if you are paddling against the currents of adversity.

Make every day count for something . Swim for it.

Here is a song “SWIM” from Andrew McMahon from a group called “Jack’s Mannequin”.

Andrew is battling cancer (diagnosed in 2005) and this song is one of my favorites.

“Swim”
You’ve gotta swim

Swim for your life
Swim for the music
That saves you
When you’re not so sure you’ll survive
You gotta swim
And swim when it hurts
The whole world is watching
You haven’t come this far
To fall off the earth
The currents will pull you
Away from your love
Just keep your head above- I found a tidal wave
Begging to tear down the dawn
Memories like bullets
They fired at me from a gun
A crack in the armor
I swim to brighter days
Despite the absence of sun
Choking on salt water
I’m not giving in
I swim You gotta swim
Through nights that won’t end
Swim for your families
Your lovers your sisters
And brothers and friends
Yeah you’ve gotta swim
Through wars without cause
Swim for the lost politicians
Who don’t see their greed as a flaw The currents will pull us
Away from our love
Just keep your head aboveI found a tidal wave
Begging to tear down the dawn
Memories like bullets
They fired at me from a gun
Cracking me open now
I swim for brighter days
Despite the absence of sun
Choking on salt water
I’m not giving in
Well I’m not giving in
I swimYou gotta swim
Swim in the dark
There’s no shame in drifting
Feel the tide shifting and wait for the spark
Yeah you’ve gotta swim
Don’t let yourself sink
Just find the horizon
I promise you it’s not as far as you think
The currents will drag us away from our love
Just keep your head above
Just keep your head above
Swim
Just keep your head above
Swim, swim
Just keep your head above
Swim

Posted in Life's Sound Track (Music), The Cancer Letters and tagged Andrew McMahon, Emotion, Faith, Fight for Your Life, Grace, life is precious, Music, Poetry, Rock music, Songs About Survival, survival, Truth

30 Jan 2014

Every “Little Thing”

I have blogged about this before- but it constantly amazes me how intricate God has made our lives. The connections between us are endless.

Awwwww Yeah Flowers!

I know the movies and jokes about degree’s between people (hello Kevin Bacon), but it really is much more than that. A passing kindness for someone you don’t even know. A comment made that leaves a lasting impression on someone. The experience of sharing a moment of adversity or happiness can leave you with so much more of a sense of being.

As you reflect back on your life (so far) who has influenced you?

Who has made an impression that has changed your thinking, or made you change direction? Family or friends, perhaps a teacher, a manager at work or someone at church.

Can you imagine who in your life may have been influenced by you that you don’t know? Just simple things that may have happened? Every little thing can make a difference. You may not even know it. You don’t necessarily go out each day looking for the opportunity to change someone’s thinking ( but you could).

Perhaps that’s the place to start? Each day focused on just being aware that you may be doing something for someone else. Not even working at it, you will find it. That is the grace-bomb that has the potential to be an explosion of positive reactions, leading to greater things all around.

I am not as naive to believe that its going to be a revolution or a revelation. Just that we remain aware of the possibilities, pay attention to the opportunities just a little bit each day.

Every connection you make can change the direction of another persons life or perhaps yours. Isn’t that exciting that “just a little thing”- maybe something huge.

Posted in Before and After Things Change, Doing Things That Will Change Your Life and tagged Attitude Change, Compassion, Grace, grace-bomb, Happiness, Joy, life is precious, Little Things, Possibilities, Postive Thinking, Reality Check, Self-Awareness, Sprituality, tracks in the dust

27 Jan 2014

Passing On Stories Worth Remembering

Since I can remember I have always been interested in “stories”. I think it is fundamentally something that must be in our DNA from our ancestors. Years before there was a way to communicate in written form, wise men from tribes would pass down to the younger members the most important stories about their history, about lessons learned.

We all have personal stories we want to pass on to others. It is the life blood of social networks and certainly of this wonderful WordPress blogging forum. So much to tell. We all want stories in our lives that are meaningful. Sometimes they are and other times they may be less than profound. It may be that they are meaningful only because of the very perspective you have at the time, the personal eye in which events happened.

Other times they are lessons learned that we need to pass on, if only to provide others the opportunity to know about the past, or to find their own way, or to make sure they miss some of the perils that lie ahead for their own lives. So that was my intention; to tell my kids everything I can about the things that could be important to them. To make them realize that they don’t have to make the “exact” same mistakes I did (even though they will ironically do it anyway).

So years from now, when I have succumbed to the end that faces us all, I hope and wish that my children will have stories for their children and the people around them. They will marvel that many of them were stories that had roots from their father, or that in retrospect were those things they had so passively listened to and filed away and finally they could apply.

Hopefully some of those stories stick, like one of those richly good novels that are fondly recalled. Perhaps like the story that made time stand still for even a seconds pause to be embraced by the generation ahead.

What are your stories? What are the things that you want to pass on that are worth remembering?

A song about “remembering” 🙂

Posted in Doing Things That Will Change Your Life, Life's Sound Track (Music) and tagged Acceptance, being remembered, choices, Faith, Grace, Harry Nilsson, Postive Thinking, Remembering the past, Self-Awareness, Sprituality, Telling Stories, tracks in the dust

15 Jan 2014

Common Ground

For many people today (not all) there seems to be a great need to stand out in the crowd. Yet we desire common ground for true meaning.

Some will claim that they don’t want to be part of the “crowd”. It seems that the social networking today is centered on being part of a group of people. “Friends”, “Work groups” “Fans” and “Political,Religious or sexual preferences”- we all seem to be looking for our group. It is a good feeling to know that you meld with a group of people who have something in common, yet the desire to “stand out” in a crowd seems to be contradictory but also important to most everyone. Even reinforced by the media, online and other public places by making those “stand outs” be the focus of articles, videos and headlines. The rest of us all gather round and share those things to see what makes others and themselves unique.

So there is the conflict it would seem: We desire to be part of a common group. We want to be identified that way. But it seems that we also have a desire to be treated as unique, to be different. Perhaps to feed our egos. Perhaps to satisfy the need to know that we are personally meaningful in the scheme of time (before our time is up on this planet).

So looking at the web and media it would appear that we all thrive on polarity. We keep being asked to identify which ‘side’ of the argument are you on? In fact the media and online sites want to drive this because it probably sells more media and clicks on a site. In turn, we feed that need because we want to be part of the group. We want to be identified and want to understand why the other side is so “not” in our group.

Of course we all have our own opinions ( want to stand out in the crowd? want to be heard?) But here is where it seems we miss out: we don’t seem to be focused on the similarities regardless of our own unique opinions. Standing out in the crowd is important. But surely no matter what side we land, no matter what opinion we have to make us unique and be “different”… what makes us united is that we are all commonly human beings ( the ultimate group/crowd).

There are reasons for us to be in unity, it is ultimately the reason for our existence.

Posted in Doing Things That Will Change Your Life and tagged Acceptance, Advice, choices, Common Ground, Desire to be heard, Differences, Grace, Opposites, Postive Thinking, relationships, Self-Awareness, Sharing Opinions, Who Are You

25 Dec 2013

2 Comments

Good Parent/Bad Parent

Easy to read all of the comments these days about how parents are treating their kids.

The Internet and media are full of news about parents who have done “bad” things to their kids. Some of them life threatening, some of them much more subtle but damaging. As a parent the obvious conclusion is to compare and be sure that you are not one of those parents who damaged their kids futures from some sort of neglect. Who put them through hell during their childhood so that they would never be good kids or worse yet good adults when they grew up?

Always seems like someone has the best idea: ” Spare the rod spoil the child.” “Teach the kids to be independent.” “Tell them how it really is.” “Make sure they understand that everything has consequences.” Or maybe for some they teach them ” there is always a way to get out of something.”

With so many influences outside a parents control- getting that fundamental core values have to be taught earlier and earlier. There is no shelter from the influences that are available today for kids in every age level.

So what are my wife and I ? Good parents? Bad ones?

I know I have my days where I guess I am pretty good. My kids have their own problems… did I dump them on them or did they collect their situations and predicaments all by them selves?

There are regrets as a parent, but overall you have to make the best of it. Some parents have much more success, while others seem to be constantly frustrated by their children- and cannot see why they had anything to do with it.

So I am guessing that is the fate of parents in general. They didn’t come with an owners manual when they arrived. Other than medical or convictions as reasons that they may not come to be; there are very few rules stopping someone from having one, even if they have very little experience or life lessons to reflect upon. Yup, no license to be a parent, no manuals, no permissions to be obtained. We parents have a lot of responsibility, but that is seldom accounted for as much until the day they are born… handed to you and you become a “parent” …. then the debate begins.

I love my kids (all 4 of them) and hope that they don’t blame us too much for the way they turned out. When they are doing good, we think that we did pretty good raising them; they think they did it all themselves. When they are doing poorly, we think it must have been some other reason than us; they think that it’s all their parents fault.

Either way – most of us do the best we can it seems.