Tracks In The Dust

A Father's Advice About Learning the Mission of Life

Archive for the tag “Happiness”

06 Jun 2015

Anticipation

Anticipation. We are all subject to that feeling of anticipation of what comes next in our lives, New family additions, weddings, vacations, promotions at work, a new course in our lives that will change so much of what we already knew.

It can be something special, or something you know is coming and only time will allow it to arrive. I remember in my youth those anxious moments of “going out” with only a night full of adventure ahead. where nothing would seem to get in your way. It would be great to kind of “box that up” and keep it to know that feeling again. I often recollect the phase about how ” youth is wasted on the young”. Not always true, but there were those times when the anticipation was golden.

Still that anxious heart lives in me and I embrace what I can to anticipate things in life even as they are ever-so-simple. It’s not a complicated thing, but it can be elusive when hopelessness and despair are so easily able to make their way into your life.

Even as I fight the fight of my life to beat cancer, I can reach back in my heart and find anticipation in what God will bring me and my family. My children are growing up and experiencing marriage, job promotions, starting new life directions, and getting the dark clouds pushed aware by the reality that they control their own future.

Anticipation of a new day. Anticipation of Eternity. Anticipation is what brings life one of its greatest joys.

I had to include this song. It was on my mind. Carly Simon.

Posted in Learning Lessons Along the Journey Of Life, The Cancer Letters and tagged Acceptance, anticipation, Cancer, choices, Direction, Faith, Grace, Happiness, life is precious, Love, mental-health, Postive Thinking, Self-Awareness, Who Are You

26 Feb 2015

Lessons Learned Over Time

There’s this song by The Faces which sings about “I wish I knew what I know now when I was younger”. Now I understand the wisdom of age, but when I was young I was certain I had life figured out. I know now that you can get off course from your younger plans.

Off course: That our ideals are sometimes replaced by practicality, that the dreams are sometimes effected by the reality, that life is full of things to embrace but we often run away from them because of our doubt and uncertainty that they are the right things to be embracing.

So there are lessons learned, and like many of my friends and relatives who are with me on the downhill side of the hill, we have a more complete view of the course we have taken. We can see the victories and the mistakes, the failures and the missed opportunities. But life is still good for many of us. It has its priceless golden moments, it has the love of family and friends.

I have learned many lessons only by my experience. Did someone tell me these things when I was younger? Well yeah, maybe and I just didn’t grasp it. A few of them:

Not going to have a positive life hanging around negative people. One of my sons truly understands this and maybe better than I. It’s kind of obvious, but we often blindly don’t see it. I want to tell my kids over and over, be certain that you are surrounded by people who are positive, who don’t want to shape you like them but let you be who you are. Worth repeating.
If something is broke, fix it… don’t just throw it out. We give up very quickly on some things in life that perhaps we shouldn’t. Like friendships, marriages, diets or breaking bad habits. In today’s disposable society I can understand I guess. Just get a new one. Problem is that it costs something – and not always money- to make that work. We don’t think of that right away.
Time is relative only to you and what you do with it. It is the premise of http://www.tracksinthedust.com. TIme goes fast and dust will shift and your footprints will be gone. But the passage of your time on Earth is what you make of it. Time isn’t really real, it is your part in the spinning world and what you believe will happen after you are gone from it that will make a difference in your life.

Posted in Doing Things That Will Change Your Life and tagged Acceptance, Advice, choices, Decisions, Grace, Happiness, Life, life is precious, Memories, Opinion, Postive Thinking, Reality Check, Self-Awareness, Sprituality, Who Are You

19 Feb 2015

Forgotten More than I Remember

It is very easy to say “I have forgotten more things than I remember”

But it is funny how something someone says can trigger a memory, how something you see or a song you hear can unlock something that may be years old in your head. Or maybe a smell. I have heard it say that smells are the strongest sense that connects us to recollection of our past.

Today I opened the back door to let the dogs out in the yard, and got the strong smell of pine trees washing its way back in the door on the cool morning air. Immediately I propelled decades back to a day when my best high school chums and I had gone up in the northern woods to stay at a cabin. We had partied pretty hard ( as we were known to do in those days) and we had all gotten up early for some reason. We were sitting on the deck in front of the cabin and chasing “the hair of the dog” (which we were also known to do in those days).

The morning was glorious, the sun was rising over the pines. There were blue-jays in the trees calling out their sharp retort, and loons on the lake ( if you have never hear laughing loons- it is a treat of nature)l The lake was like a mirror and swirls of fish could be seen all over the lake as they came up to feed. The smell of pine was floating over the lake.

We had music playing in the back ground. It was some sort of jazz music. We were listening to so much stuff back then but it was saxophone ( Turrentine, Washington. or something like that). It was a moment to cherish. It was an idyllic moment that we would let come and go on our youthful travel forward.

Maybe that’s why the memory came back today in the simple opening of a door? This precious moment that in my youth was something nice, but in my older years ( and wiser I hope) it means so much more. It is remembering something that was so rich and full of life. It is good to remember that in my minds-eye. A gift.

Posted in Learning Lessons Along the Journey Of Life and tagged being remembered, Happiness, life is precious, Looking Back, Memories, moments, Music, Reality Check, Sensory Memory, Slow Down

28 Jan 2015

Maybe I’m Amazed

Maybe I’m amazed by the way we can make “something” out of “nothing”. And sometimes we like it and sometimes we hate it.

Maybe I’m amazed how there are always two stories to everything, and then there is the real story. Looking through our own eyes, we see them through our own lens and it has so many colors.

Maybe I’m amazed that after 30+ years of marriage I am still wildly in love with the same person. Love is not negotiable, it has ups and downs but it can be always and forever.

Maybe I’m amazed that more people don’t know about how find the beginning of something new, and stay stuck in one direction wondering when things will change.

Maybe I’m amazed that we only have a certain amount of time here on Earth, but we treat it so poorly… letting days go by without appreciating our time and using it to do what God has expected us to do. The rewards are endless.

Maybe I’m amazed that there are so many beautiful, wonderful people in this world, yet so many people are attracted to the negative things around them.

We all have a path. For us so fortunate to be able to make choices, we can. Yes we have the ability to change. We can choose at any moment to make things better.

So with so many in the world that cannot choose, we need to take that power and choose for the better. Help show others the way. Be amazed.

REPOSTING FROM 8/2013

Posted in Life's Sound Track (Music) and tagged Acceptance, Emotion, Faith, Grace, Happiness, life is precious, Memories, moments, Music, Reality Check, Self-Awareness, Sprituality

07 Jan 2015

New Year or New Day?

Being away from posting on “Tracks in the Dust” for a bit. I wanted to add my comments about celebrating the new year of 2015. We are all looking for milestones in our lives aren’t we? To assure we are making forward progress, to be sure that we can commemorate the passing of a significant moments (anniversary, birthday etc).

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

A New Day: As it ends, it will start again

Over time I have learned that those special milestones are worthy of celebration, however that also recalls that every single day should be a milestone for life. There is a special meaning in everyday that we are here on this earth. We have time. Time to rejoice in God’s countenance, to embrace our loved ones with the thanks for the comfort and piece of mind that goes with knowing that we are all here for each other.

I am risking being cliché in so many ways. But as the clock struck midnight on 2014 and 2015 had arrived, it seemed like I was profoundly reminded that everyday should be about celebrating that it has come. The calendar is man-made, the pages that turn on it are governed by the 24 hours it contains, but each minute of those hours is a new opportunity to take a breath and understand the meaning of it. We connect with many people over each day, We need to do it with the kindness and compassion that we are all passing through this life “kinda fast” ( as the song “Tracks in the Dust” says).

I am happy for the new year, I am happy for the new day. I am happy that I can share it with others, with the ones I love and that I have the faith to know what will happen when the last day arrives for me. Hopefully you have that comfort also, and celebrate the new day every day.

Happy New Day!