Tracks In The Dust

A Father's Advice About Learning the Mission of Life

Archive for the tag “Self-Awareness”

23 Sep 2014

What is Your Muse?

Inspiration.

Being inspired to communicate sometimes can be hard. It can stop with the idea that there is absolutely nothing to say.

Funny but most everyone I met these days has something to say. There is always something that can spark the reason to want to express themselves. it could be on this blog-site, it could be at work, on the Internet somewhere, texting, calling, holding a sign, making noise in a crowd, wearing a t-shirt with something on it, or hundreds of other ways.

What provides the inspiration seems like a million times the ways available to communicate it.

For me music, or written word I guess does it. But perhaps sometimes I need a muse.

Profoundly the verb means: to become absorbed in thought; especially : to turn something over in the mind meditatively and often inconclusively

But I am talking about the noun. Founded from mythology of nine sister goddesses in Greek mythology presiding over song and poetry and the arts and sciences

I am looking for the “source of inspiration; especially : a guiding genius” What is your muse?

As usual I find it in my family and in the music of this world which is truly abundant. It is the language of expression that can reach across cultures, like may of the arts. It doesn’t take interpretation classes to understand it, it doesn’t have to have interpreters to help define it. It is what is in your heart. It is the muse of the arts and sciences that make up our everyday meaning.

Sarah Jarosz – A child prodigy at one point and now just a great artist. Perhaps my muse?

21 Aug 2014

The Countdown-Clock

In sports most of the competitive team sports feature some sort of clock. A timed segment in which to complete a game, take a shot, play a play, complete a period or quarter.

In life we have our own count-down clock, but it doesn’t show up on the bottom of any screen or on any scoreboard. It is our clock that only God knows.

There is no visible way for us track things. No way to take for granted that we have enough time to do the things we want, or to manage a disease to its inevitable end. But still many of us worry about how much time we have, what can we do with it before the end arrives.

I guess for me – now more than ever, occupying every hour with the worry of the future is seems way too consuming. It’s a course that leaves more emptiness than fulfillment. It leads to fear and hopelessness ( since we can influence but not control the final outcome).

There are clocks that we will have to measure daily life we cannot ignore, but we need to understand the bigger life’s meaning and understand the personal clocks we live by. Spiritually we are in need of that center.

So my time on that “personal shot clock” is measured by finding ways to enjoy the passage of time, open my heart to the love around me, look for the positive in things ( the negatives seem so much easier to find us regardless of whether we are looking for it or not- doesn’t it?)

Advice to my kids: Learn to know your internal clock and what is truly valuable time

Posted in Learning Lessons Along the Journey Of Life and tagged Acceptance, Anger Management, choices, Doubt, Grace, life is precious, mental-health, Postive Thinking, Reality Check, Religion and Spirituality, Self-Awareness, Sprituality

14 Aug 2014

The Music of Our Children

Thanks to all who were able to join me on the Internet radio show “How I Met Your Music” on Friday August 1st @ 90FM.org.

It was hard to cover over 50 years of music in just 3 hours, but hopefully I was able to tell the story of how I went from the music I first heard on the little radio above my mom’s Hotpoint refrigerator to the music my children have introduced to me these past years.

There is a lot in-between Frank Sinatra and Frank Zappa, between the Ed Sullivan show introduction of the Beatles and You Tube independent music of Foxygen.

But it has been a journey for me and probably for a lot of other parents who grew up on rock and roll, R&B and Jazz influences and their children are still welcome fresh music to fill that need today. Mine will very appreciative of our “old” music, and even to this day keep showing me fantastic and talented new music.

So here are the last few songs I finished my show with. The music my children had a lot to do with when they were finding their own music.

The final song below was the song 3 of them co-wrote together recently. Just coming full circle from my beginnings with the British Invasion to this…..

Dashboard Confessional: Ghost of a Good Thing (Thanks to my son Adam) Maybe we can sing along some day.

Anthony Green: Anytime ( Thanks to my son Greg) Rockin’ music always on the horizon: Circa Survive all the way!

Lydia: The Exit (Thanks to my son Ryan) So many bands, so little time to know them all.

Copeland: You Love to Sing (Thanks to my daughter Jennifer) You sing like an angel, because you love to sing.

And finally, ” I Can Sleep Again”. The song Ryan, Greg and Jennifer ( our children) wrote for my wife and I in December 2013.

CLICK BELOW… its a great song.

Posted in Life's Sound Track (Music) and tagged Anthony Green, Arts and Entertainment, Beatles, choices, Circa Survive, Copeland, Dashboard Confessional, Greg Gertenbach, Jennifer Gertenbach, Life's Soundtrack, Lydia, Music, Personal Soundtrack, Reality Check, Rock and Roll, Rock music, Ryan Gertenbach, Self-Awareness

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

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.