Tracks In The Dust

A Father's Advice About Learning the Mission of Life

Archive for the tag “tracks in the dust”

If Your Eyes Could Speak What Would They Say?

I think we can all admit honestly that our true self, that self that is what is inside isn’t always what appears outside. We are certainly different in public than we are in private. Some more than others, “what you see is what you get” has degree’s of variations.

closed-eye

We all have degree’s of pain, suffering, sadness, in our lives. Moments ( or days) of uncertainty that can lead us down paths we may never have considered at some other time. That influences who we are, as does those times of happiness and joy, those moments to embrace what we have been given and be thankful, those times when love is so overwhelming in our lives that little else matters.  They all make up the complex person our lifetime allows us to be.

The outside self many times seems to be insulated in hiding our emotions. We will mask our thoughts because we are unsure, or lack confidence to be truthful with others about who we are inside.  There are times we don’t want to share because that may expose a part of our hearts or minds that would make us vulnerable or allow us to be cast aside or ignored.

In the end you can see it in people’s eyes. I see it when I am out in pubic, when I am at work. There are many people who speak confidently, but in their eyes they seem lost. Unable to determine what is really important in their lives, they are “in the moment”  perhaps, but there are things missing.  No spiritual center most likely, no introspective self. Maybe they just mask it so well, perhaps from years of practice.

So it can be refreshing sometimes. To meet those genuine people. You can just tell it, and they emit something that tells you that they are more than face-value. You can see it in their eyes. It is within them.

Not big on Beatles covers, but love this rendition by Patti Smith.

“We were talking about the space between us all,”  Within You and Without You

Detachment or Indifference?

No doubt there are many reasons to be concerned about the world’s issues. Throughout history there has been focused attention on the separation of cultures, religious beliefs, power and money. There are many reasons I can say I care, but overall I can say that I have become less interested.

Charting The Course

A travesty you say? How can you be so unfeeling? How can you not  personally care about the hate,greed and malice of the world around us? People insist that you HAVE to care about the political landscape – you must have an opinion and you better well be landing on the one that whomever you are talking to is passionate about. There is this sense of urgency to be “correct”.

Sorry to disappoint, but I am likely to say that the battle of with cancer has led me to be more detached more than indifferent. .
Many things don’t  take the same priority as  they it once did.
Oliver Sacks from the New York Times recently said in an article on his diagnosis of terminal cancer at aged 81:”Seeing life from a great altitude. This detachment to things that belong to the future. The future will be left in great hands in some cases.”

Honestly I have gotten much closer to God (perhaps the greater altitude) and the meaning of my future, and that future to me means eternity. But the future here on Earth is going to go on without me. And I have to accept that day will come, as it will for each and every one of us.

So am I indifferent? No. I would like to see more people have peace in their lives, to save their temper for the fight against the deterioration of the human condition. Perhaps that would be worth some passion…

Three Years for Tracksinthedust

Wordpress Anniversary LogoHard to believe that 3 years ago I started writing on Tracksinthedust.com and that its coming up on 10,000 views.

My intention is still the same I guess. Can I leave some messages  that our kids may read one day and perhaps reflect on their lives?  Advice? Maybe not always, But it has been very self-cleansing as well. I am guessing for most bloggers that is the net result, regardless of how many views you get on a post.

Thanks to all who have been visiting. I couldn’t have asked for more than an occasional stop on the busy travel through the Internet highway.

Some personal observations, some music (the image of the soul), and some self-absorbed lyrics/poetry. Thanks to those who have also visited my other blog: The Cancer Letters. http://www.cancerletters.wordpress.com too.

  • Tracks in the dust – we are passing through here kind of fast. Will your tracks in the dust last?
  • Love is what you make it. It’s not about you.
  • The secret of life is enjoying the passage of time.
  • Eternity matters most.

Sharing just a few of some of the older posts over the years.

1 Songs About Changes

2 All Things Must Pass

3 Scale of Accountability

4 Organization in the Clutter of Life

5 The Verb To Love

 

If The Sun Refused To Shine

This song Led Zeppelin song has been with me since I was a teen. Long forgotten, I still love it and it still has meaning decades later.

To my lovely wife. Thank You.

     If The Sun Refused to ShineThank You

  1. If the sun refused to shine
    I would still be loving you
    When mountains crumble to the sea
    There’ll still be you and me
    Kind woman, I give you my all
    Kind woman, nothing more
    Little drops of rain, whisper of the pain
    Tears of loves lost in the days gone by
    My love is strong with you there is no wrong
    Together we shall go until we die
    Inspiration is what you are to me
    Inspiration, look to see
    And so today, my world it smiles
    Your hand in mine we walk the miles
    Thanks to you it will be done
    For you to me are the only one
    Happiness, no longer sad
    Happiness, I’m glad
    If the sun refused to shine
    I would still be loving you
    When mountains crumble to the sea
    There’ll still be you and me, and me

Future Regrets

We all seem to have regrets. It is so easy to look backward and see where there could have been opportunity to do one thing instead of another, to say one thing instead of another (or nothing at all). Regrets can easily build on themselves and make for a potentially miserably life buried under excuses and alternate scenarios.

The Holy Touch

There is no way to change what has already happened; but today has not already happened. So the future is ahead of us for what ever time we have. There are somethings we are not going to have a chance to avoid. They will happen as they do by the synchronicity of life I suppose. They may be very simple things that just pass by and we don’t even recognize their profound impact till much later.

“Some” of the future regrets may be avoided. I know that I have worked a mental list of those things ( perhaps writing them down). It is amazing to go through them one day to the next and see what things stick as important or significant in the future. I could surely make a bucket-list of dozens of things that I need to get done (life’s necessities)  or of things that I wish I want to get to ( desires, dreams, life milestones).

In the end it is the spiritual things that are important.  Everything else may be regrettable, it may be missed because there isnt enough time or money or simply just isn’t possible. It is more likely those things are centered around my own desires or temporary possessions or experiences that make up the time here on Earth.

There are only a very few things I need to assure I don’t miss:  it centers on my family, our children are our life. Like my wife, I  have invested all of my emotions on them because I love them, I have made decisions because of them that I wouldn’t have, had they not been there. So I struggle with the regret whether I have done my part to instill in them the simple unconditional belief in salvation.

For some of you reading this you may have already tuned-out. I am not trying to be preachy. And if you have children, ask your self that question. Ask your children: Just what do they think will happen at the end of their lives? Pray that it is centered in hope and faith.

I want them to be with me in the next life for eternity. Often  I am not sure that they get it.  Like most of the parents around me, we work to provide them access- but fall so short in injecting the atmosphere around them to make sure. Sunday schools, Bibles in hand, great moral compass get sideways because life happens. As parents we have never been the best examples in practice, but as our children are all adults now, we hope that we have provided enough direction in His name to get them to understand that Eternity Matters Most.

I regret that I have missed that in someway. Working hard to make that the only thing on my list worth worrying about.

 

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