Shifting Breeze

“In the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of little things, does the heart find its morning and is refreshed.”
― Khalil Gibran

The wind shifts and the season begins to change. The cool winds of fall are beginning to find their way across our exposed faces. It marks a shift in time as change makes us adjust to a new normal. The change is not something we necessarily want to go through.

Our heart hangs onto the hope of a continued warm summer wind. Of walking with friends along the warm beaches; of feeling free and happy in the company of those that share our summer. As the cool breeze presses down, the heart wants to push it away. The heart hopes for the change not to happen, but it does.

It is in our intellect that reminds us the seasons change, that everything changes over time. The earth moves in rhythm to time bringing the cold and causing the leaves on a tree to die but not before they explode in spectacular color. Everything has a perfect cycle to it, motion of the earth, the seasons, and time itself.

This is how time holds us in it's grasp. A battle between our heart and intellect, to want things to remain as they always were but always changing in perfect manner. We find acceptance eventually and the heart pulls the memories inside keeping them warm and safe. The warm winds will return, new leaves will bud in the spring and life will continue to flourish.

Yet what the heart contains will always remain. Time can not steal that from us. The cool winds can not blow it away. We get to keep it for eternity.

Stay inspired my friends.

Blow Thou Winter Wind

“The truth is, unless you let go, unless you forgive yourself, unless you forgive the situation, unless you realize that the situation is over, you cannot move forward.” ―Steve Maraboli

Only a few more days left in this year and for those in the northern hemisphere, winter's cold wind blows with a cold fierceness. It is a time when emotions can get the better of us. The lamentations of another year gone by can consume our thoughts of perceived failures.

It is easy to sit and question the wrongs we feel others may have exacted upon us. We can let past wrongs consume our future as the cold wind howls outside. Thoughts of how thankless and false love and friendship can be will creep into our minds. It seems as if all life is made up of human ingratitude.

We pull our coats tight in order to fight the winter winds. But the idea that people can be thankless is worse than the harshness of that same winter wind. We allow these thoughts to take over and debilitate us.

What should never be forgotten is that life is worth living. One should move forward, be happy, forgive and forget the failings of others. Forgive your own failings.

Shift your thinking and your world will shift for the better.

Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind
by William Shakespeare

Blow, blow, thou winter wind,
Thou art not so unkind
As man's ingratitude;
Thy tooth is not so keen
Because thou art not seen,
Although thy breath be rude.
Heigh-ho! sing heigh-ho! unto the green holly:
Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly:
Then, heigh-ho! the holly!
This life is most jolly.
Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky,
Thou dost not bite so nigh
As benefits forgot:
Though thou the waters warp,
Thy sting is not so sharp
As friend remember'd not.
Heigh-ho! sing heigh-ho! unto the green holly:
Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly:
Then, heigh-ho! the holly!
This life is most jolly.

Stay inspired my friends!

No Easy Way To Cry

"I wish you sunshine on your path and storms to season your journey. I wish you peace in the world in which you live... More I cannot wish you except perhaps love to make all the rest worthwhile." -Robert A. Ward

We fill our daily existence with the things currently at hand. The bits of getting to work, working through the day and the little things we do to end the day. We tend to lose focus on family and friends at times. It is the immediate and near that capture our attention.

I am no different then each of you in that respect. I can get consumed by what is within my small area of existence. But once in a while you get a shock to that existence. Recently this happened to me and it reverberates in my mind still.

Having friends that were once very close, we drifted apart by distance and time. Donna and Lyle are the kind of truly great people that everyone should have as friends. I have kept loose contact with Lyle over the years, missing the nearer connection we once had.

So it was with heart break that I had learned that their daughter passed away in May of 2006. Two years ago, could it be possible that we let our friendship slip this far. To know that their beautiful and very talented daughter was taken from them so young in her life.

Shelley was 18 years old, a gifted student and athlete. I like to say that she obtained all beauty, grace and talents from her mother Donna. This mostly as a gentle ribbing to her father Lyle. Along with her brother Scott, this family is just wonderful, yet now with one missing piece.

The loss of a child hurts beyond anything I could possibly write or imagine. As Lyle said in a news article, "We loved her very much and we’re going to miss her like I can’t even describe.

David Gray put out a song a few years back entitled "Easy Way To Cry." The words he sings could speak into many different types of relationship loss. For me the lyric he sings which has the most meaning, the only thing that I could possibly so to my friends, "there ain't no easy way to cry."

Hold onto those around you and let them know you care and love them.