moments | Tracks In The Dust

Archive for the tag “moments”

27 Jun 2014

Relax and Take It In

Just take the time to look around, and see what you have found.

I have to say it is hard to do. To stop and just appreciate the art of relaxation.

But then our lives are going so fast. For many of us meditation of the day is not on the schedule.

In these days of self-diagnosed ADD and ADHD we have come to leave it as an excuse then I suppose.

But there are times when it is just good to relax and take it in. I am going to plan on it.

Turn off your mind relax and float downstream.

Posted in Before and After Things Change and tagged Beatles, Meditate, Memories, moments, Music, Postive Thinking, Reality Check, reflection, Relax, Self-Awareness, Slow Down

26 Jun 2014

4 Comments

Do You Remember Your First Record Album?

There is such an eclectic bunch of music going on in my head these days. I have been reflecting back on those days when I got my first “record player” and then again when I got my first stereo record player.

When I was a kid, I resorted to using my parent’s HI-fi console, complete with cloth covered speakers and walnut finish…and a spindle turntable with a drop down function that would allow you to play a number of 33 rpm vinyl records or with the adapter it would accept 45 rpm singles too. The sound was just incredible for its day (nothing like now of course). Once the tubes warmed, up it was a great way to blast the 15 watts of power I’d guess it had.

So I remember firsts with albums based on what it was played on.

On my parents console; “Introducing the Beatles” on Vee Jay records got worn out by the needle before I got a new copy. It was just the greatest album I had ever heard. Even remember begging my dad to loan me the money (under $4) to buy it at the local department store.

My first record player was all plastic, all in one portable player with 2 speakers ( but mono I think). When I got it I was certainly special to me. I shudder to think that anything would last long with the wear and tear the turntable would have likely induced. “The Monkees” first LP was introduced to my new portable plastic dream!

My first stereo was actually a hand-me down from my brother, but certainly welcomed as it was very “stereophonic” set, entrenched in my own room. A Zenith brand all in one system with separate speakers that fired upward with a cone-shaped thing above them to distribute the sound. The important thing with that was that was also the first time I owned “headphones” (take that Beats). The White Album by the Beatles became a favorite that Christmas season and I fondly remember the headphones making semi-permanent marks in my skull.

When I finally had a job of my own I invested in my first “real” stereo system, after shopping carefully and deciding I was never going to be able to actually afford the McIntosh equipment I fell in love with at the Hi-Fi Fo Fum, I did get my JVC amplifier and tuner and a great turntable from Technics (I wish I had- it was totally manual with a weighted platter- just what the DJ’s use today). The EPI bass reflex speakers helped to make “Pink Floyd” Dark Side of the Moon one of the frequent players. That system ended up fueling many house parties in the future before its retirement.

So I do remember my first record album, but I also recall the equipment that made it such.

Technically my first album I owned was probably a Perry Como album. But later in life, with 1000’s of LPs later, I fondly remember the music and the times.

What is your first recollection?

Posted in Life's Sound Track (Music) and tagged Beatles, being remembered, Change, Classic Rock, favorite albums, Favorite Music, LP Record, Memories, moments, Music, Pink Floyd, Record Albums, Rock music, The Beatles

19 Jun 2014

Attention, Please!

No one these days ever seems to work very hard at paying attention. The desire for attention is so strong among all the noise that today”s modern world can produce. After all we live in an ADD kind of world. It seems like everybody’s got Attention Deficit Disorder because the media, the daily grind and the high-speed technology have left us perpetually distracted. That leaves us with little time to pay genuine attention to the people and the world around us.

Huffington Post

When you walk into a room full of people, at work or at home, how many of them are busy focused on their electronic device, phoning or texting? Seems like most of our eyes are always focused on down, engrossed in a video, the Internet or Facebook, and then on top of that we plug in our earphones and keep from hearing the people around us.

How often are you in a public place like a restaurant or at a party and you (or your friends) are more focused on “friends” on Facebook or Twitter than the live action right in front of us?

We have to look to ourselves to find the lost art of “paying attention”. I have posted before, our capacity to listen is precious. To understand what someone is saying is very precious, and even more than that is the ability to understand its meaning.

We are so ready to respond to what someone is saying, that we are missing what it is they mean. That is if we have listened at all. If we are not distracted by the next text pinging our phones, or the next Twitter that is going to say some profound thing in 145 characters or less. When the person right in front of us is likely saying something more important. Responding can be something more significant if we can just listen and understand the meaning.

So advice to my kids- put it down. Look into someones eyes, be sure you are listening, Comprehend the meaning. Take it in, digest it. No need to respond right away, but be thoughtful and make sure you are paying attention. It is really the “instant message” you need to hear.

Posted in Doing Things That Will Change Your Life and tagged Acceptance, Advice, Change, Faith, Grace, Happiness, Memories, moments, Postive Thinking, Reality Check, Self-Awareness, Sprituality, Who Are You

13 Jun 2014

2 Comments

My Father’s Drill

As a father of four children, I was never truly keen on the meaning of “Fathers Day”. It seemed like one of those days set aside to commemorate something that should be observed every day of the year. But then I recall as a child, I was not the best at reflecting on the genuine care my dad provided to me those days.

The old and the new.

As i got older I had very fond memories to recall. Many of them that I didn’t even realize I had absorbed at the time. But he was indeed the kind of father that I can say now I hope that I have been to my children.

He was in some ways distant like every working father would be from time to time. Busy making a “living” and trying to provide for his family. We had some great and very traditional family vacations, station-wagon packed to the windows and trips to cabins in the woods and relatives near and far. There were some personal times fishing together and spending time in the back yard at the grill.

So the movie of the younger days and “good” times plays back in my head, along with some black and white photos and a few 8 MM films. After I got married and we moved away, we were still close enough to get “visits” from him and my mom. We would visit them too.

They worked hard to have an active retired life, but they were also there when I needed them. It has been over 20 years since he passed from this earth. I still remember all of our times together fondly.

When my wife and I got our first home, he gave me some of his tools ( a new homemaker must have tools!). One of them was a power-drill. Nothing special really, but to this day I have had it in my tool box.

It has his drivers-licence etched into the side, the label (Black and Decker I think) has fallen off. Last time I used it was recently with my son – when we were working on some kitchen cabinets. The drill worked, but it sparks were coming from the body of it. It was still a functional tool, but it had seen generations of better times. Time takes toll on everything and everyone.

So with regret I will likely now retire the drill, most likely bought at the local hardware store in my small home town in Wisconsin. Most likely with dozens upon dozens of projects for the home behind it. It will be replaced by a drill bought from Amazon (not made in the USA I am afraid) and shipped to my door. A concept my dad would have marveled at.

Or maybe I should hand the drill off to my son? Tell him to be careful with the “sparks” inside, but mind the fact that it has worked well for decades of projects meant to build on the future.

Posted in Learning Lessons Along the Journey Of Life and tagged Acceptance, Change, choices, Father's Day, Memories, moments, My Dad, Reality Check, Remembering the past, Self-Awareness

09 Jun 2014

2 Comments

Our 35 Years of Sharing

There is no way to put it into perspective completely. Today my wife and I celebrate 35 years of being married.

It has been a marriage filled with joy and sorrow, adventure and patience, love and anger, some victories and some regrets. The memories are precious, even as some of them are filled with cloudy remembrances, they are part of our love growing together.

We were married as our parents opined “very young” ( my wife was 19 and I was 23). We didn’t go in blindly to the marriage, but I think we were naive about what the journey ahead would be. But headfirst we jumped into life with the promise of a bright future.

Thirty-five years later we have relocated multiple times across the US ( mainly because of job related reasons), we have 4 great children that have supplied ( and continue to supply) a house full of love and family dramas. But over all we have been blessed. Not by wealth, not by possessions, not by health or constant good fortune, but by each other. It has not been perfect.

I want to quote a wise spiritual leader, pastor, author I have had the honor to know, Steve Lucas, who also recently posted some sentiments about his marriage on his site (Yesterday Lucas): These really captured my heart as things that I feel are so true. “Marriage is not about perfection. It’s about two people, stumbling through life together, growing in their relationship with each other and with God. Forgiveness, patience, a bad memory, and extra love are all ingredients that are required to make it in marriage.”

And I agree with that 100%. As he explains also that there are a handful of days that could be good to have called a “do over”. I can think of several in recent memory ( some further back are a bit cloudy, but the remnants are still there ). But as he says, do-over’s would likely be at the expense of the wisdom gained through mistakes. Again I couldn’t agree more. “ Thankfully, in every failure there has been forgiveness; in every trial, we shared them together.”

“I don’t deserve my wife. But then again, neither do I deserve the Grace of God. But I’ll happily accept both.”

I am blessed with the happiness of what is truly the good fortune in my life, to know true love.