Happiness | Tracks In The Dust

Archive for the tag “Happiness”

24 Jun 2013

“Mad” or “Sad”?

I was in a grocery store over the weekend and I heard a lady exclaim to her husband how “really mad” she was about the fact that a cracker company had discontinued her preferred sized box.

I had to laugh a bit because I couldn’t think of a situation such as that where it would make me be “really” mad. I always thought that “mad” was reserved for horrific things that happened to people or circumstances that became unable to control or ultimately did not turn out the way we expected. Even then there is a fine line I think between mad and sad (or disappointed I suppose).

It seems like more and more people are “mad” at things that really stretch the idea of or being angry. There is room for anger in our lives; applied to those things that may some how stimulate us to a better life, to be more conscientious or be stronger for someone or some cause.

It seems the “madness” I see stems from something else. Perhaps the frustration of the moment or the feeling of helplessness. More than ever before, there seem to be a lot of people who are more angry over things that they cannot change. That is likely because in this “information age” of constant incoming data we are increasingly more exposed to things we can get mad at.

Maybe that is the idea of what someone means when they refer to the past as “simpler times”? Maybe because of ignorance (which I have heard is bliss) or maybe though intentional avoidance, some people just didn’t have to deal with being angry in those simpler times. As time has changed, and war, poverty, hate, disease and the like have come 24/7 into our lives, maybe we have become an angrier society?

Whatever the path, seems like something to be sad about. Perhaps mad; but likely sad…because the ability to turn off that 24/7 input has passed many people by. Unless we ourselves make a choice.

Be mad if you need to, but remember to be sad when you can. Either way you have to find a place where you can move on…. make a difference, change what’s happening, or focus on something else that you can effect. Getting “stuck” in mad is maddening enough.

Posted in Doing Things That Will Change Your Life and tagged Acceptance, Anger, Compassion, Emotion, Grace, Happiness, Hope, Joy, Kindness, mental-health, Sadness, Self-Awareness

19 Jun 2013

Waiting for the Blue

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The church bells have rung all day

And all the music has faded far away

And the clock runs time through

While waiting for the sky to blue

Washed out water-color window pane

The west is grey, a sign of rain

The day grows old and finally dies

Still waiting to see blue in the skies

Overhead above, the clouds still shining

Taking every ounce of wishes from the lining

Lies the golden sun in its darkness den

While waiting for the blue skies once again

I was a big fan of Laura Nyro back in the day, still am. “Stoned Soul Picnic” and “When I Die” and so many more. Her voice was angelic and mysterious in the same way. Inspirational. I wrote some music because of her, this was lyrics one of them. From “Love Songs for A Lonely Night” Summer 1974 MGert ©

Posted in Poems, Prayers and Promises and tagged Arts, cherish, Happiness, Laura Nyro, Lonely Night, Lyrics, Memories, Music, Poetry, rainy days, Reality Check, Verse

06 Jun 2013

1 Comment

From The Summer Porch

Relaxing on the front porch. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

These days of June remind me of this verse I wrote many years ago…..

A quiet morning followed by a humid afternoon worth rambling

From the front porch you can hear the city working out its living

Bicycles click by, their passengers running a soft breeze toward the lake

Mid-afternoon heating the sidewalk and shuffling the insects

All is still as the sirens chase a distant problem in the mid-town

Suburban AM radio blasts sunbathers in a nearby crabgrass yard

Cloudless days one after another sweating out the summer sky

The five o’clock whistles blow in unison from the smoggy foundry streets

Lines of cars and busses roll by to headlines and bar-b-que dinners

A young couple stroll by acting out a Coke commercial love affair

A red sun casts shadows on the softball cyclone fence unlimited

Dusty bird coast through the thick air calling sundown songs

Night approaches from the east a chalky sky of grey and blue

The night slips in on cricket calls and a wet wind from the lake

Cars flash lights across the lawnchair porches and picture window lives

It’s another July evening in the Midwest point of view

It’s another calendar sunshine waking on the lake front

As someone said from the window screen “another scorcher coming”

Just a quiet morning followed by a humid afternoon worth rambling

From the front porch you can hear the city working out its living

There were days when I was younger during the summer vacations from school that my friend and I would sit on the porch for the entire day, slumped back on the old chairs that were sitting by the doors. We would open a beer and listen to music and watch the world go by. This was something from those days….

Posted in Poems, Prayers and Promises and tagged Happiness, Hot Summer Days, life is precious, Memories, Poetry, relaxing, Remembering Summer, Verse

16 May 2013

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Finding Your Happier Life

Finding a happier life seems somehow elusive, but we have to admit there are barriers that we create.

You know about those things that get in your way of finding the path to improving your daily life, in a spiritual way and in a contextual way. Enjoying the passage of time is a simple foundation of life. But you cannot let barriers get in your way.

A recent article I read reminded me of something a very wise man had taught me years ago. It’s not about money or possessions that make for an enjoyable life. It is more the self-realization that you cannot allow these “Five D’s” to stop you from your journey.

Discouragement. You convince yourself that no matter what you do, your life is never going to get any better . That life is always going to be a painful hurdle, things will never change and you might as well not try.
Doubt. You start to think that you are not worthy of a better life or happiness in your life. Chipping away at the hope you have in yourself and those around you. You 2nd guess your decisions.
Delay. You have worked so hard to make things better in your life, you focus on the positive and don’t like doubt or discouragement get you down. But nothing changes, things still seem to be the same… frustrations, the same as before, and if it hasn’t happened with your effort, it isn’t likely to happen now.
Difficulty. Things are way too hard when they appear that they shouldn’t be. You look around it and “looks” like life is easier for others around you. But not for you. Everything seems difficult. Even the littlest things seem big and hard work.
Depression. So the other 4 “D”s have been wrapped around you like a cloak. You are letting them. You are finding ways to let them and you finally give-in and decide that you don’t even feel like making the effort to change anything in your life. It may even feel like things are “better” if you just don’t do anything and wallow in the sadness and the hopelessness.

They are a barriers between you and your spiritual welfare. Your faith in God. Your ability to enjoy the time here on Earth and share your life with others, as well as center your own well-being.

The first step to a better life is to recognize these barriers. Don’t let them consume you. If you think that is hard, it is probably one of the five D’s applied… and the cycle will continue.

Posted in Doing Things That Will Change Your Life and tagged Acceptance, choices, Depression, DIscouragement, Doubt, Faith, Fear, God, Happiness, Hope, mental-health, Postive Thinking, Religion and Spirituality, Self-esteem

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.