Author: asmith

For each day in life most people start out with a clean slate. when first awakened, most people are a pretty blank as their mind copes and clears away the hurt, pain and other items from previous days allowing the past to fade, both good and bad. This allows people to handle a myriad of issues without constantly feeling as though the world is closing in on them. (I would like to pause here for all of you that can do this and give you a hearty SNL “Isn’t that special”)

There are those of us who are a bit different. When we wake, we still have access to a tremendous amount of information which is sometimes positive, and sometimes not so positive. This makes for either really good days, or really bad days as the thoughts, feelings, and positives and negatives multiply and we just feel (and think and enjoy, and a whole lot of things concurrently)

So as the sun sets on another day today I felt a little down, not for any good reason, but because the plethora of happy times in my life collided with the not so happy times and it just made me miss a few things. 

So now, as I write this post, for all of you who feel as I have felt. Take a deep breathe, hold on to the happiest times in your life and try, just try to set aside the negatives from those people and situations that pulled you down and in the process, feel good. Breathe, smile, and love the moment. Moments may hurt, and they may hurt until the end of time, but that does not mean you cannot enjoy all you can until such a time that you find a way to those things that would make you happy forever. When you get there, hold on, and perhaps, just perhaps you may find peace, fulfillment, and happiness for a moment then reach for forever. 

The sun sets on another day…

Cut me some slack, I took this picture at 70 miles per hours running down a highway, but the colors were unreal.

As we sit and look at our sunsets it is important to remember that no matter how close they may look, no two sunsets are the same, ever. It is interesting to consider that life, and people, are similar to those sunsets as no two people are the same, and no two lives are the same either. We are the sum of who we are in life, and as such, none of us have ever experienced the same things in their lives. We can listen, learn, and understand everything about someone else but we cannot ever say we really know how they feel exactly. (We just make a good guess based on ourselves)

Why does this matter? As you are sitting and considering your actions and reactions you really need to understand that people may not see the world as you do and may not understand your reactions to how they do or say things. When dealing with children, we must adapt to the child as they see the world differently even if they are raised in the same house. In a relationship you may understand your partner, or may have no clue where they are in life if their experience is different from yours. At work, each employee has a different hot button that will open their life up, and allow them to be more effective.

The common key for us all is to listen and at least try to understand. I may be wrong, but I feel I have had an advantage as I have had such a myriad of experiences, good and bad; have been awake longer than many people much older than me; and like to listen and learn always. I feel the most important aspect is listening, and we should do so all the time and hopefully see the point of whomever we are listening to at the moment. 

So pay attention, hug your child, encourage your employee or colleague, and love the person who loves you until our sunsets are no more.

Have an amazing night, after all, tomorrow is another day. 

The sun sets on another day…

As I was wandering by the beach looking at the snow and cold I looked to the car window and saw a cardinal pacing me. The cardinals red wings shone brightly in the sunlight and I considered how wonderful it was to have this beautiful bird facing the cold and adversity but enjoying every moment.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we were all as carefree as that cardinal and only had to consider food and fun as our goals for the day. In this model we would not be burdened with the myriad of daily chores, problems, stresses and general goofiness that we deal with all the time.

Well, I do not see the day coming but I do see we can meet halfway. Perhaps we should take a lesson and spend more time looking at the necessities in life and less time focusing on the petty items we cannot change. Perhaps we should be thankful daily of those people who have the vision, understanding and love to move us forward and make our days complete. Perhaps we should take our moments and make each day the best possible day it can be. Perhaps we should the that person at our job that everyone knows wants to be a success. Perhaps each day we should grab onto love, and ride the wave of passion to tomorrow.

I hope you agree. There is no tomorrow until it is today, and as today becomes yesterday we only have ourselves to blame for anything we have missed.

So race with the cardinal, feel the wind flowing through your hair, love the moment and as the cardinal looks for its goal, lets also find ours and make it happiness for us, and others will soon follow by our example.

The sun sets on another day…

I am thankful today for those people who are around me. As I worked on truly mindless yet fulfilling tasks today I felt good about life and considered one of the people I talked to today. Young and patient, he has a rather unique name that I think I purposefully mispronounced at least 10 ways today just to be funny. He is a good sport, and took it all in stride but it made me consider how our parents give us these names, and how our name either does or does not drive who we are in life. I consider one side where Shakespeare says:

“What’s in a name? that which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet; So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call’d, Retain that dear perfection which he owes without that title”

As Shakespeare has said, our name does not define us, we are defined by who we are and what we do in life. We can be perfect or imperfect based solely on how we react to our day, how people see us, and the lessons we leave to those around us. 

But wait, how about those times where our name forces us down a separate path. What if our name brings out something that makes us uncomfortable, or someone uses our name against us. It is those times that we see our inner spirit either rise or fall to the occasion. We can be like the young man today and take it all in stride, or take it harder and stew about something that really does not matter.

What I am saying is easy, those people you touch today will not always remember your name. Those people you stop to help or work with or meet will not think about Fred, or Sam, or Sally. Instead they will remember that guy or girl that went the extra mile to make their day a better day, and they will remember your smile, your passion, your perseverance, and your action. If they remember all of that, perhaps they will remember your name, but I for one would rather be remembered for what I did, how I did it, the promises I kept, the way I loved, the way I laughed, the way I lived, the way I tried and did not give up, or the way I changed to make the world a better place, than ever by just my name. So to our young man, good job, keep your life straight, love life every day, and be who you are always.

 

_{Photo by Gary Samples}

The sun sets on another day…

The cold wind blows and takes away the warmth of the day

I feel the chill invade my body, my heart, and my soul

the wind blows, and I feel the grip of ice upon me

little knowing how hard comes the tole

 

The chill is upon me now and i close my eyes

the warmth of your light a glowing spark

I feel the warmth return to me

and chase away the imposing dark

 

Close my eyes and make it right

chase away the darkest night

a memory held that warms my life

and a hope of time and no more strife

 

You know, each day we are given a choice on how we perceive life. It can be cold and stormy, or warm and inviting. The choice daily is up to us as the world may not ever be on our side. As such we have to have the courage to step above what the world gives us and keep our positive attitude while doing the necessary to eliminate the low parts in our life. Eliminate is a tough word. I have been eliminated before and it is not  pleasant journey. By the same token I have eliminated before,  and had to bear the pain of penance and eventual redemption of my own. 

So I say to all, make good decisions for love and peace in your life and live every moment you can to enjoy your life and be happy. 

 

 

The sun sets on another day…

…on the beach the fences are built to hold the sands from being eroded by the massive forces of nature. The dunes can be blown away, roads covered by sand, and the beach as a whole can suffer. Men have seen this and the fences they build hold the sand fast, while letting the wind and force of the world pass harmlessly by.

So we too build our fences to save us from the world that can erode us with its massive forces, the people and situations that erode us and make us worn from life. With that in mind many of us build massive fences, to protect our core from the pain, suffering, and despair that can overwhelm our hearts and our souls. Many of us are surrounded by truth, and some are not, but in the end this is not the way.

I feel strongly that we need to let the walls down sometimes for the right people and let them in, the walls protect us but there are those people we can trust and allow close enough for us to experience the joy of life, the joy of living, and the joy of passion and love. So take a moment, and determine those people you can trust, let them in, trust them with your heart, protect their heart, and love more that you ever thought possible, the benefits are worth it, no matter what.

 

Due to technical difficulties the sun did not set today, just kidding, but I am changing my post due to a glitch in a card reader. 

The sun sets on another day and we of course have to consider how we progress through life. I had some interesting messages from people I did not expect to hear from today. A friend lost his job, a friend sent me a picture that opened a wound, and neither of those were as I expected. It is often that we go through life and life throws us a curve-ball. If you have not seen a curve-ball thrown before it is when you are sure the ball will go one way, and suddenly it goes somewhere completely different. In baseball this throws the batter off and he swings and misses. (Well sometimes he does not miss, sometimes he swings and nails the curve-ball through the roof)

When you are thrown a curve-ball in life it can be quite different. It can be wonderful and amazing or hurtful and painful, but it is hard to make life as you expect it. (Those who think they can decide their fate, will have a fun fate at some point) It is important with everything to remember the show must go on! Tomorrow is another day, and tomorrow may well be the day that let’s you nail that curve-ball and own it.

The “Alan Parsons Project” wrote a song that means a lot to me, it is fairly depressing in some ways, but it does point out that “Day after day, the show must go on”.  So as we pass into this wonderful night, remember that giving up is never an option. Even when faced with the impossible, love, passion, light, and life should always be on your mind. You should find the way to change if necessary, but never give up on yourself. At the end of the day you are the most important person in your life. Sounds simple, but people sometimes forget this and make poor decisions for everyone but themselves. (or worse, make poor sacrifices to make another persons sacrifices valid) Hearken to my words and live for you, for your creator, and for the fantastic life you deserve.

As the sun sets on another day I sit quietly and consider how the pieces of the puzzle may fall together in our lives. Quite often we are not sure about tomorrow, a little concerned about yesterday and many people are still wondering about today. This is perfectly normal to most people, but as I sit here pondering all of my yesterdays and considering all of my tomorrows, I am usually happy with today. Don’t get me wrong, I have my bad days, but I try to rise above them. It is only when someone does something really really insensitive that I have difficulty seeing the forest through the trees, but even then I have hope.

So let’s consider the pieces of the puzzle. We have our jobs, our friends, our family, and a hundred other items that build together to make our today. More important we have the pieces of our past that bind together as well to make our present. We need to look at all the aspects of our life and build a good future, not wait for someone else to build it or assume it will be built for us. We should take our lessons, those pieces of the puzzle we often set aside, and build the foundations of a new life. We should consider this path each and every day to that point that our sun sets forever.

In my opinion the puzzle pieces we need are : Honor, love, kindness, and mostly passion. As I say over and over, passion should be the focus and center of our lives and in the end, it will be passion that wins out over all else.

I am reminded of the man i knew of who sat in the hospital bed after surgery. When he awoke it was beyond the pain, beyond the fear, he just wanted his wife. His passion for her was absolute, and that type of passion is what our pieces of the puzzle should take us towards.

Let the sun set, consider your pieces of your puzzle, and make tomorrow a better life by looking at what is necessary to make your picture complete.

 

When the sun rose this morning the number of shades of red was almost an assault to the senses. From crimson to rose, from pink to fiery red, all of these colors were painted on the clouds by a majestic brush that swayed ever so slightly in the wind. As the sun set today, no color remained, and the clouds closed in and seemed to take away all light.

Sometimes it may seem that way in life. That at the start of something the power and majesty of it all is all consuming, but at the end, or the perceived end there may be a darkness that closes in on us and takes away the wind from our sails. I suggest we pass on that feeling, and pass on the gray skies, and instead remember the power, majesty, and color of all that we do. There are so many possible outcomes in our lives that worrying about anything but the most important is less than productive. Take a deep breath, hold on, and hope constantly for the best. Close your eyes, breathe in deep and remember the scent of something special. Listen closely to the wind and hear the voices that once called to you. Remember the feel of something special, a touch of a railing, a tree, or a persons hand. Remember a sunset you once loved, remember a person who touched you deeply, remember happiness and how you felt as you were lost in a moment.

The sun may set with no color, and there may be thoughts of despair, but chase them away knowing the world is a better place because you are in it.