Every Thing

Well I recall his parting words
Must I accept his fate
Or take myself far from this place
I thought I heard a black bell toll
A little bird did sing
Man has no choice
When he wants every thing

We'll rise above the scarlet tide
That trickles down through the mountain
And separates the widow from the bride

Man goes beyond his own decision
Gets caught up in the mechanism
Of swindlers who act like kings
And brokers who break everything
The dark of night was swiftly fading
Close to the dawn of day
Why would I want him just to lose him again

We'll rise above the scarlet tide
That trickles down through the mountain
And separates the widow from the bride

--Lyrics from the song, "The Scarlet Tide" from the movie “Cold Mountain”

"Man has no choice, when he wants every thing."  What profound wisdom is in this snippet of a song lyric. Every thing, not everything. It is a subtle difference with huge meaning. Everything is a more loving way of using those 10 letters. It calls for an all-encompassing positive embrace of the world. Everyone, everyday, everywhere, everybody, and everything are all words of inclusion. When you separate the every from the other word you create what I believe is a greedy combination. You long to possess the every, now. Make it yours or make more of them for yourself.

Don’t move to fast to get every thing. A new car (even if it helps the economy), a fancy home, a better grade, a better job, all these things are great, but beware of what may arrive in your soul along with them. A higher payment may arrive, and you will sacrifice simple pleasures for the mere possession of them. You can let someone into your life that is poison just so there is someone, anyone, beside you.

Personally, I could have worked longer hours and achieved more success and money, but now I know what I achieved was no less wonderful, as my heart is filled with memories of the great times that I had and the beautiful people that surround me. How many smiles, laughter and sunsets would I have missed?

Remember what Albert Einstein said, "Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted."

Alison Krauss will break your heart when she sings this song written by the incomparable Elvis Costello.

This is another great version, with Elvis Costello, Emmylou Harris, Gillian Welch, and David Rawlings performing.

An Undisturbed Life

In theory one is aware that the earth revolves, but in practice one does not perceive it, the ground upon which one treads seems not to move, and one can live undisturbed. So it is with Time in one's life. -- Marcel Proust

I have identified a terrific new word--and that word is--"undisturbed."

And what a great word--and what a great feeling--when you can feel this in your life.

Some clarification may be in order. Undisturbed is a state of being. It is a choice of what stimuli that you are going to choose to let into your life. You can be undisturbed and be listening to rock music. You can be watching the clouds roll by. Gardening. Cooking in the kitchen. Working on just about any old thing that makes you happy, as long as no “disturbing” elements are allowed to creep into your special place. The disturbing elements are what you choose them to be. At times to my wife it could be me. Probably more than I like to think that it is true but I am OK with that. To me it can be as simple a thing as our cat meowing needily at me or chipmunks digging in the flowers. Unnerving!

You have to find a way to make the noise stop ringing in your brain. Being mindfully mindless, so to speak.

No phone calls.
No demands to answer questions.
No knocks on the doors.
No places that you have to be.
No times that you have to honor either by being someplace or doing some specific task.
No guilt (if that is even possible).

We must come to a mutual agreement--a respect for others autonomy and joy--so we can all pursue the undisturbed state. Each of us travels a different path and experiences strange and wonderful sensations in order to evolve into the spirit we are to be. As Blaise Pascal said, even "Cold is agreeable, that we may get warm."

Do what you must to get warm.

The Little Things

"I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble."--Helen Keller

The above quote sent to me on Facebook by my sister, got me thinking about the little things, or as Ms. Keller referred to them as the “small tasks.” We’ve heard people tell us to “not sweat the small things” or “don’t let the little things get us down.” I’m not sure that these approaches are the proper tactics.

It seems to me that whenever I have tried to skip or speed through part of a job, and it is usually a small segment of the job, that is what I end up having to go back and fix (or disassemble). The same with life, the stuff that I didn’t pay that much attention to are the regrets that seem to pop up later and bite you in the keester. Like why I ever smoked cigarettes, or drove down dirt roads at night at 17 with my headlights off on my car.  Testing my immortality by daring God to smite me. Sorry Mom and Dad, you didn't know.

I would love to have my name in some history book, for some noble accomplishment that somehow bettered humanity. But I have my doubts if that will ever happen. Perhaps it will be a mention that I was a father or grandfather of some great person. I already believe that to be true, but it is yet to be printed. My children may beg to differ on my greatness. In fact, I would encourage them in that.

There are people who will probably remember how I made them laugh at some dull industry presentation that they surprisingly, or refreshingly, had me as the presenter. I can even find some humor in a Power Point of “manure management practices” and “dairy cow comfort” issues. Making people laugh can be a “great and noble” thing as well, if it remains in good taste.

Now I really try hard to carefully proceed in what I do. I think a lot more before I speak and act. Not cautious, but in a thoughtful way, taking things into consideration. Caring. Being more mindful like the Buddha.

I think that is what I enjoy about words, is the careful choosing of phrases and subjects to make a point or form a question. The best I can hope for, is that when someone reads my writing, it may make their thoughts wander a bit, down a favorite path of their minds choosing, and feel some joy for a moment…or longer.

Change...Or Be Scratched

Spring really has a tendency to send me a wake-up call. “What have you been doing all winter,’’ it yells as the temperature rises and the light in the sky seems so different. Brighter than even those snow-covered landscapes of just a few weeks ago.

It reminds me of how difficult it is to change from the recent past to my present existence, to transition from winter to spring. Adjusting the way I live and the types of activities that I enjoy is bothered by the change from fall to winter, but getting back into the swing of things is also hard when you say bye to winter. There are few constants that are able to be maintained in the different seasons. Work still is there. They continue to shovel the walks and drives of my office where I work and the roads to get there continue to be plowed. Sigh! I can still get in my runs with my wife but the places we run are just not as enjoyable. And they are slippery. And I even fall. But I’ve fallen even in nice weather.

The real problem for me is that I realize that it is the difficulty that change brings to life that is the true obstacle. Dean Ornish said, “People don’t resist change, they resist being changed.” So, I resist the fact that Mother Nature tries to change me. She makes me wear layers of clothes when shorts and a t-shirt are my style. She makes me give up wooded trails and warm streams because the frosty wench throws cold and snow and ice everywhere in Michigan. She makes me mope and read too much in the winter. It makes me ponder on little things and great mysteries. Food starts to be too much of a friend…Ahh, a best friend during dark winter days. Yes, dark are the days of winter.

And the tasks that have carried over from the fall, I had almost forgotten until I start looking around now that there is light after dinner outside. Weeds, tree branches, burlap on shrubs, tarps on things, lawn furniture in rafters, leaves against fences. I swear that this is a truthful list of the tools that I used this weekend alone: sledgehammer, shovel, rake, floor jack, screwdrivers, wrenches, sockets, wire cutters, leaf blower, wheel barrel, etc., etc., etc. I was just flat out lazy in the winter. It was like I was under the influence of a depressent drug prescribed by cold temperatures.

So I have thought up a mission statement for dealing with change. Here it is: “Life can change on a dime so I will always try to carry some spare coins in my pockets.” Those coins are going to be lots of things. They will include new ideas, old ideas that were good but not used, smiles and hugs, kind words, being a friend and better listener, and sunscreen to name a few. These attitudes will help me deal better with change so I don’t go through life learning my lessons like Mark Twain said: “The man who carries a cat by the tail learns something that can be learned in no other way.”

I’m tired of life’s scratches.