Reality Check | Tracks In The Dust

Archive for the tag “Reality Check”

21 Feb 2013

A Sink Full of Ducks

There is something happens occasionally that leaves me stunned. It is like a feast or famine thing. There seems to be those times of abundance of luck and then other times when you just can’t buy a “clue”… even if you have the money to do it.

If you think about it. When things are tough you may decide to fight for it. You work hard to get through the barriers. Your maneuver your way through adversity or criticism. There is a risk you can fail which makes things all that more sensitive along the way. And if you fail, you can question if you did all you could or you can get up and try again, knowing better if there is a next time. If you do well you appreciate the victory all that much more. And if there isn’t a next time, the best you can do is move on with the rest of your life- but you have that choice.

It may be harder with situations with an abundance of good fortune or luck.

Once you reach a situation where you have the good fortune of abundance it feels good… It may even be what some people call luck. You may start to think you don’t deserve it, and something sort of whispers in your head to watch out for the fall. But you most often you accept the path – it feels good! But still there’s that lurking feeling that something may by-pass your good fortune. But it can be a downfall I guess ” like a sink full of ducks“.

Everything is cute and wonderful and you got a fuzzy bunch of downy little ducklings. It makes you smile and chuckle and be happy. Friends and family “love” your brood of fortune. Then it hits you. What are you going to do with a sink full of ducklings? They are going to become needy. They are going to grow up to be a bunch of large ducks. They are not going to live in the sink. Get over it. You gotta find a place for them and your good fortune is now a problem with a dozen ways to work it out. But you have to.

Obviously ducks aren’t the issue really here. It’s only an analogy. It seems that there are times really- when it is just wise to pay attention to your situation. When it is going well and there reasons to rejoice, enjoy it. Don’t play to your doubts. But recognize that you have something in your midst and you need to be aware… assess the possibilities, understand the pitfalls and be ready for the challenges ahead…. you know what I mean?

Hey- What would you do with a sink full of ducks?

Posted in Before and After Things Change and tagged Advice, Change, Faith, Happiness, Luck, Opinion, Philosophy, Postive Thinking, Reality Check, Sprituality, Truth, Who Are You

18 Feb 2013

2 Comments

Okay… New Rule

There was a time when it was easy to know all the rules. There was the golden rule, the simple rules that made up the rules of “etiquette” that Miss Manners would teach us. They were a guide to how to react, how to look at things. How to make sure that others felt comfortable with you and who/what you were.

But these days no rules seem to be the rule. The more you can shock someone, the more you can be out of the normal trend of things – the more people may notice you. And it may not be because you did something good, it may be quite the opposite. Be shocking enough or do something that will make people be “aghast” with the way you did it. In popular culture that means you will get noticed, you will be part of the buzz or covered on TMZ or tabloid shows on television. You will show up on some magazine as the “newest” thing.

In these days it seems that it means it has to be notched up. In order to get attention above the normal for this week, one needs to be out-of-bounds even farther than those before us. Of course to make it all work you have to add the Internet. Just do it on YouTube and have it be viral and you will be a star for next week.

It’s like being “change junkies”, even our youth here in the US are thriving on the difference. That seems to have always been the thing…but the notches have turned up higher than before. The shear out-of-bounds rules of the 50’s when kids came to school with blue-jeans on (dungarees) and people were struggling with hair cuts and music. The rules were also changing then for the youth. Now they have become so much more accelerated don’t you think? How can our youth out-do the popular culture which is coming at us all 24/4 on any URL you wish to Google.

So we end up heading toward the potential for a more complicated life. Like working hard to keep track of the “new-rules.” If we are going to be sure we are aware of them, it could prove to be not so simple. All of the media around us and our children’s peer groups screaming it.

My advice to my kids: Be aware of the new rules, but keep it simple. That is going to be my motto too. Just take it one day at a time, understand that you don’t have to make things be bigger, louder, meaner, faster, or on the fringe. Take care to understand the rules will change, and change is good… but don’t let those rules rule you. You can stay in control of things with the simple rules and let that drive your spirit with the power and grace.

Posted in Learning Lessons Along the Journey Of Life and tagged Change, Definitions, Doubt, Golden Rule, Google, Grace, Opinion, Pop Culture, Popular culture, Reality Check, Slow Down, The Golden Rule

17 Feb 2013

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Go Ahead Take The Leap

What are you waiting for? There has to be those times when you make “the leap”.

A leap of faith perhaps or just a leap from one place to another. Getting out the routine, moving to another place, taking a chance when you haven’t in the past.

There is that inner-voice that can tell you to wait…. something else will come along. But then when do you listen and when don’t you? Can you catch the meaning of it? Sure, it is easy to review all of life’s missed opportunities and regrets. Sigh… There are times that I know I wallow in them.

After all, standing still can feel comfortable. Its familiar. It allows you to maintain control. But really it could mean that you aren’t in control. That comfortable spot you are in could be controlling you. Keeping you from making the leap you need to make…embracing the change. It could be that you remember the failure or the hurt. You find yourself playing-back “old tapes” (as it used to be called before the digital age). Those old things can be like an anchor. You have to learn your lesson, you don’t want to repeat things that are destined to happen again. But you have to recognize your opportunity too.

So those times will come… it is important to recognize then – then it’s time to say “go ahead and take a leap”. Make a move and see where goes next. See what happens.

TAKE THE LEAP!

Posted in Learning Lessons Along the Journey Of Life and tagged Advice, Chances, Change, choices, Faith, mental-health, moments, Moving, Opportunity, Postive Thinking, Reality Check, Regrets, Taking Chances, Trust

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

11 Feb 2013

7 Comments

Cleaning Out Junk In Your Life

DO you think it may be time to clean up the “junk” in your life? Over time it seems to pile up and get in your way. It can obstruct your vision. Make you see things that aren’t there, make you stay where you are at when you really should be moving forward.

The stuff that becomes more like “junk” gets so high that it seems insurmountable Old memories, old books and music, old letters and remembrances from another time. They hide in the attics, under things in drawers. They could be hanging in your closets, or even just electronically as part of your email contacts and messages.

They are not meaningless. They make up every bit of who you are. They may be significant in the course of time in your life, but they are behind you. You may think that at sometime holding on to them will be valuable, they will be worthy of a return somehow. They could be beneficial in some way in the future because they are going to assist you in moving even farther forward. That can be sometimes true, but more often they can be equally weighing down the opportunity for real progress.

They can be valuable. Okay. By now some may even be collectibles (cant say antiques -gulp) or something. Maybe you have a thought that you could share them with your children. Show them some of those things that mean so much in your timeline of life. But actually they will nod, say that they understand (although they can’t imagine you being younger than when they were alive). Only they nearly won’t ever cherish them the way you do. In fact when you ask them what they remember about their childhood, it is those things that aren’t often part of the “stuff” you’ve saved. It is more about the moments and places where they enjoyed being a family.

So now its time to hold up the junk to the microscope of today. What will it mean in another 10 years? What will it mean to you? To others around you then? Like cleaning up the clutter, cleaning up the stuff- the junk that memories are made of can be so hard to do. It is like taking pieces of what you once cherished and putting it on the curb. But it can be refreshing and feel like some weight has lifted.

Find what is really important. Search for what it really is.

Like the picture above. Clutter and junk pile up till you are hard-pressed to find the important things in your life…. Can you find the black and white cat in the picture?