Looms of Life

"We sleep, but the loom of life never stops, and the pattern which was weaving when the sun went down is weaving when it comes up in the morning."
- Henry Ward Beecher

Was there a time in your life when a person or group of people did you wrong? The kind of wrong which sends all of your belief in others shattering into shambles.

Life itself all of a sudden seemed to matter very little anymore.

I recently read again the tale of Silas Marner, considered a classic tale and written by George Eliot many a half moon ago. Silas was a young talented man with the promise of a soon to be new bride. He had talents within a trade and talents in care of his fellow man.

Silas had everything figured out and life was perfect.

It happened one such day that a close and dear friend turned out to be none too close or dear. Silas was set up for failure in the eyes of his community, friends, and worse his soon to be bride. His trust in others had been betrayed and it fell on him as a ton of bricks upon the ground. With the loss of friends, community and his love, all that was left to do was leave and embark on a life of solitude.

It is a story with many similarities that erode parts of our lives.

There can be mistrust, betrayal, loss of love, and loss of faith when we encounter pain each can cause. It can force us into a mere existence of just getting by. It sends our life into a spiral of meager existence within the shadows, while the sun shines brightly elsewhere.

Different forces can be quite cruel if we let them win the battle. The battle I speak of is your own life. Life can be wondrous and amazing but it can also be depressing and dark. Either can happen based on what we allow to enter.

The doorway to your life is controlled by you and not external forces.

It may take time to overcome the hurt in your life. It is not an easy process, but the reward of a great life awaits you if you let the goodness in and push out the pain.

Silas came to trust and love once again. Your life is also worth living in the bright sunshine as opposed to the cold shadows. Find a path to overcome the pain. Allow your life to be full of greatness once again.

Spin your yarn into a wonderful quilt of memories which last a lifetime.

Stay inspired my friends.

Who We Turn To

“Just when you think that a person is just a backdrop for the rest of the universe, watch them and see that they laugh, they cry, they tell jokes...they're just friends waiting to be made.”
- Dr. Jeffrey Borenstein

There are lots of people in the world you pass by each day. As you drive down the street or walk through the store going about your daily life.

Those people you see; you smile and exchange a quick greeting.

Day by day these people fill your world and are a part of all that happens around you. It can become easy to be oblivious to their existence. The fact remains you become a "movie prop" in the background from their perspective as well.

Maybe we should stop and look at others not as "movie props" but as potential friends.

A friend who has a good thing to say or someone to offer support when in need. With so many people moving about in the world, having a friend around every corner is a pretty comforting thought.

Try to create new friends from the everyday background of your life. Every one of them will count as a great new addition to your life.

And stay inspired my friends!

Sky Full

"Press forward. Do not stop, do not linger in your journey, but strive for the mark set before you."
- George Whitefield

Each of us have an ability to move beyond pain, grief or disappointment. We can move beyond the circumstance we find ourselves in. So much is possible if we just press forward and speak the future out loud to ourselves. We can find a way to see beyond what blocks our view.

We can get beyond what is holding us back.

There is an old story about a bedouin within his tent wondering how he would ever achieve all that he wanted. A friend told him to look up at the ceiling of his tent.

"What do you see" he asked the bedouin?

"All I see is the ceiling of my tent" responded the bedouin.

"Come out of the tent and see my ceiling" said the bedouin's friend. "What do you see?"

"I see no ceiling but a sky full of countless stars" replied the bedouin.

Exactly as the bedouin saw, your life has no ceiling above it.

The possibilities are as endless as the stars in the night sky. The paths you can choose are as vast as the eye can see. All it takes is moving beyond the present.

Do not let the past hold you firm in its grip. Break free to reach for a star or even the seemingly impossible.

Step out and look to the night sky. Find a star and begin your journey.

And stay inspired my friends.

Happiness Adjustment

Groucho Marx once said, "I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn't arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I'm going to be happy in it."

Simply put, people do not like to hang out with unhappy people.

Sometimes it requires a bit of hard truth in order to get people to see the reality of a situation. Your productivity at work is impacted by being unhappy and it impacts those around you. If you are unhappy with your job and the daily grind of it, move on to something else.

Make a change in your life.

I am not here to say you should simply quit and walk out the door with a smile on your face. No, the smart thing to do is continue to do your job the best you can, but start looking for a new job.

Life's steps should be planned as best you can.

Take time to understand and recognize how your own attitude is impacting you and your relationships. Understand how being unhappy all of the time is impacting your job performance and then do something about it.

Maybe it requires an adjustment of your attitude.

Examine yourself, adjust yourself and reinvent yourself to rid the unhappiness from your life as you can. It starts from inside.

Stay inspired my friends!

Rising Sun of Hope

“You see but your shadow when you turn your back to the sun.”
― Kahlil Gibran

What is happening in your life right now, this very instance? Are you trying to dig yourself out of a hole financially, relationship or any one of a number of circumstances? Is the darkness of your situation covering you with a blanket of despair?

Each of us go through many of the calamities one reads or hears about every day. There is a parking ticket under the windshield wiper after an especially tough customer meeting. It might be a broken arm after slipping on the icy steps at home. You find mounting medical bills with no pleasant options of overcoming either.

The daily things which happen to lots of people, of all genders, race and social status. Yes, all of us go through things and many of us allow the darkness to encase us in its shadow.

Yet the light of a rising sun can bring hope to our life. The warm rays of light upon our face can renew us and chase away the darkness if we allow it to.

Never give up on the possibilities which exist. The darkness will fade and great things will come upon your life. A warm and brilliant day awaits you.

Stay inspired my friends.

One More Degree

"It takes only one person with one match to light one candle to fill an entire room with hope." - Joseph Primm

There is a success principle called "212" or sometimes "211 to 212". It is a simple concept to grasp and has to do with the boiling temperature point of water. As we all learned in school, water reaches a boiling point at 212 degrees Farenheit.

The point at which water begins to change form.

One degree less and the water is just very hot. Nothing more than that. Certainly not at a point in which water is transformed. The change from a liquid to a vapor is 212 degrees. A boiling point creates the ability to sterilize, ward off bacteria and other very good fundamental things occur.

It is a point where everything can change.

Stop short at 211 degrees and nothing happens.

Go one more degree in life, that is the principle of 212. To go one extra step, to go where change will happen in your life. The significance is in that one degree.

One degree, one more step, one more person.

That one degree is you.

You can make the difference between nothing and something. You can make the difference that changes everything. You can be that one degree.

Stay inspired my friends!

Little Things We Do

"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 news headlines grab your attention regarding great new inventions or discovery. It might be the cure for polio developed by Dr. Jonas Salk in 1952. Or maybe you were the guy who came up with the whole E equals mc squared thing. You might even be a philanthropist gifting billions of dollars to help others.

What of other great people in religion, athletics, politics or business that have come and gone? So many people throughout history have had huge individual impact upon this great world. But do you count yourself among the great people of this world?

You should.

Your life may not grab the attention of millions of people around the globe. But the good things you do in life have an impact on others just like the famous headline grabbing people.

Your impact is just as great and meaningful as others.

Never under estimate the small tasks in life for they are the most noble of all those accomplished.

Stay inspired my friends!

Broken Bubble

“The danger of venturing into uncharted waters is not nearly as dangerous as staying on shore, waiting for your boat to come in.” ― Charles F. Glassman

There is a movie from 2001 titled Bubble Boy, in which a boy is born with an immune deficiency and his parents keep him in an environmental safe room at home. You find out much later in the story that doctor's had misdiagnosed it but his mother was so overly protective, she led him and others to believe he would die by stepping out of the protection.

So he lives his life in a protective room, immune from all which happens outside his door. The insulated nature of his life fuels within him a desire. His story is that of a person wishing to break free of this protective cocoon of safety.

Life is so much more. There is love of life and people to pursue.

The boy decides to risk his life outside of this room in a more portable bubble he has created for himself. He remained in steadfast belief of his need to be protected. He enters the world outside his room with a shield; a bubble that keeps him separated from others just as the door on his room did.

Stepping out to change yet holding on to his perceived truth.

Each of us do this in life. We pursue dreams but with a view of the certainty of things. Those beliefs we simply hold as truth due to the culture in which we have lived in. Some of those beliefs might be absolutely true while others are misguided acceptance.

I for many years had a misguided thought. In it, I had thought Art Garfunkel, member of a popular singing duo from the 1960s had died. Much to my surprise he was performing in Central Park during a reunited concert.

When I look back, as a very young and inquisitive child, a sibling had told me a story of his death. Most likely to quiet me from asking so many questions about why the duo had split up. But I took this information as truth and believed it fully.

My mind was opened to questioning many other truths in life.

You see the idea is not to question and be suspect of everything. It is not meant to live life with paranoia of events and people.

It means to find out as much as you can about the world around you. To live life by stretching yourself beyond the confines of life lived in a bubble.

The Bubble Boy knew he was faced with giving up his bubble of safety for his real dream; the love of his life. When he stepped out of that bubble he found real truth. His long held belief was not true and he was now free to pursue his dreams.

Sometimes we have to face the reality of what we believe.

Living inside the bubble of what we believe has a limiting effect upon our lives. There may come a time when we have to question our beliefs in order to pursue our dreams or goals. Do not be afraid to test those beliefs and take a step outside of the bubble.

You may find the air is fine and the last wall is broken through to a dream.

Stay inspired my friends.

Doing Right

"In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing." - Theodore Roosevelt

In the late 1930s, Jewish refugees were fleeing a country where persecution and death was almost certain. And during that time, many countries including the United States wanted to deny these people access to a safe place.

Even in the latter half of 1941, as yet to be confirmed news of mass murdering being inflicted by the Nazis, the US Department of State placed even stricter limits on immigration based on national security concerns.

Now many will argue there were no terrorists in the waves of Jewish peoples wanting to escape the horrors being perpetrated upon them. If so, then why deny entry of those persecuted on grounds of national security ... at that point in time.

Fast forward through years of other smaller yet similar mass immigration from the Bosnian conflict to the many de-stabilized African countries. There are political, economic, and religious reasons for many of these conflicts of cause. And now we have a current exodus of Middle Eastern peoples of all faiths who are being persecuted in their journey.

So what is the right thing to do?

Well the gray permeates on both sides of the issue. In fact most debates are never black and white as Facebook posts, Twitter comments and the multitude of blogs (including this one) would have you believe. Social media has taken this into a dimension of absolutes on both sides with very little middle ground.

So the idea of doing what is right remains debated.

Whether it be in daily decisions we make or the big debates of our time, we should all try to do what is right. The absolutes of either side when brought together in the gray mix will yield what is right. There will be plenty of time to sort out the dysfunction which inevitably comes from doing the right thing.

Doing what is right should always be the first thing we do.

Stay inspired my friends!

What If

“If you can...” ― Rudyard Kipling

Have you ever asked yourself: "What if?"

The retrospective question in which professors Jeremy Black and Donald MacRaild defined as: "It is, at the very root, the idea of conjecturing on what did not happen, or what might have happened, in order to understand what did happen."

It is when we take a look at our life, history or other incidents and try to determine how things may have been different should something different had occurred at that point in time.

What if Germany had won the war for Europe?
-- Would world events have unfolded as they did?

What if we never embarked on a race to the moon?
-- Would we be probing Mars today with robotic machines?

What if I had decided to attend a different college?
-- Would I have achieved the same great life I have today?

What if, what if, what if could be asked over and over again. It could be used to bemoan the condition we find ourselves in today. We might even be able to find an excuse for not having achieved or possibly attribute to our achievements.

Either way, to question what if is to live in the past of our choices. That would mean we are allowing our past to control our present and our future. We have a tendency to define ourselves and our future self by the past. The choices we made created certain outcomes and we believe the choices create a determined destiny.

The good news is that the present provides us with the ability to create new choices. New choices that can set us on something new, something better. Maybe what we should be doing is asking the "what if" question in the context of where we are here and now.

What if I apply more time to my college studies?
-- Will I achieve better grades and subsequently a better job?

What if I worked harder at my marriage or being a better father?
-- Will I achieve a more solid relationship and happier home?

What if I simply chose to be a better person to others?
-- Will I achieve a more peaceful and happy life?

What if can be a powerful thing to ask oneself. It can change your opportunities, it can change your life.

Stay inspired my friends!

Believe In The Impossible

"Believe and act as if it were impossible to fail." - Charles Kettering

The new year is upon us and I was wondering, what are you believing in during the coming months?

- Are you looking for prosperity?
- Are you looking for renewed health?
- Are you looking for love?
- Are you looking for happiness?

No matter what it is, everything is possible. And you should begin now to tell yourself that yes, all things are possible. It is the belief in oneself where it begins. The ability to say inside, in your mind, in your heart, that you can achieve much more.

Many times we create purposely or inadvertently negative habits. If we fail to achieve something, we blame ourselves and if we do succeed, we tend to put it off to external factors. In doing so, we never establish positive belief in our own ability.

Act as if you can if nothing else.

In a Psychology Today article written by Amy Morin, she clearly indicates, "If you've spent 30 years believing you're a loser, then simply telling yourself, "I'm a winner," isn't likely to be helpful. You can't unlearn deep-rooted core beliefs that easily. Instead, you have to challenge your beliefs by testing them to see if they're really true."

She suggests as others have to use a skill called "acting as if" which can help you break through. In example, if you are not a health conscious person, "act as if" you are and do the things a healthy person does. Act the part of it and watch yourself develop the traits of a healthy person. Soon enough you will no longer be acting but will be the person you want to become.

I am not here to say that you fake being someone else. But act the part of what others who are successful do. This is not the only method as there are many different ways to achieve all sorts of things in life.

Again, it starts with you.

It starts with believing in yourself and moving forward towards it. Little steps, little changes, little moments become bigger the more you keep pursuing your dreams. And I will help you by providing a small bit of encouragement that everyone needs in saying, "I believe in you."

Now that may not seem like much, but all of us need to know someone believes in them. So let me know how you are doing, send me an email, comment. Share your success with others. Above all believe!

Stay inspired my friends.

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

"May your walls know joy, may every room hold laughter, and every window open to great possibility." - Mary Anne Radmacher

'Tis the season to be jolly, Fa la la la la, la la la la

There are several different celebrations this time of year. Each of these celebrations present "teachable moments" and many of these happen each year: Bodhi Day, Hanukkah (Jewish), Christmas Day, Kwanzaa, Omisoka, Yule, Day of the Return of the Wandering Goddess, and Winter Solstice.

Yes, there are Christians, Jewish, Atheist, Pagan, Buddhists, Kemetic Orthodoxy, Native Americans, Aboriginals, Neo-Pagans, and Muslims all with a holiday celebration. It might be religious oriented, or the celebrations could be centered on other end of year beliefs. But all are meant to "celebrate" something.

When you think of popular songs this time of year, one I have always enjoyed is "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas." It is a song for me which says we should reflect and simply enjoy the moment, our each moment at this time of year. To be joyous and thankful of what we have been given throughout the year.

Joyous and thankful, but ...

If you read the history of this song though, the original lyrics were not quite as joyful in its original writing. Those lyrics were more of a lament of a family moving many miles away to a new job. In example, the original lyrics included the lines:

Faithful friends who were dear to us, Will be near to us no more

Not a very happy way of thinking and Hugh Martin, who had written the song for a 1944 movie titled “Meet Me in St. Louis.” That really is not a very merry way of enjoying your Christmas or celebrated morning. So the lyric was changed to the following.

Faithful friends who were dear to us, Will be near to us once more

And while the song is reflective, is also does not promise that these joys or merriment will be handed to you. What it does say though the holiday is one in which you must simply let it be. Whatever the year has brought to you, whatever you have at this moment, "happy" holidays are something you have to make for yourself. All of this joy and merriment is not simply handed to us.

We have to choose to be joyous.

When we accept our own joy, when we are thankful for what we have, when we let it be ... we release ourselves from the anxiety of trying to make everything perfect. It gives us the ability to be at peace with ourselves and with others. It allows us to celebrate whatever the celebration is. My wish is that you allow yourself to simply enjoy.

What I also wish for everyone is peace, happiness and to "have a merry little Christmas" even if you celebrate something different this time of year.

Stay inspired my friends!!

Giving Tuesday

“The simplest acts of kindness are by far more powerful then a thousand heads bowing in prayer.” ― Mahatma Gandhi

Many people ask, what more can I do that embodies the spirit of the holiday season. We sometimes struggle with the question as we set about searching for the greatest or coolest Christmas gift for our loved ones. The question gets lost in our busy plans of making our Christmas perfect.

The knowledge of others in need lay on the edge of our thoughts, likely to be forgotten in our search for the "spirit" of the season. In fact it can be completely lost in the trappings of cyber-sales and holiday parties. We try to do what is right for others since the true meaning of the season weighs upon our hearts.

We can fall short short but here is an idea and it is called #GivingTuesday.

Giving Tuesday is referred to as the Tuesday after the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday in the United States. It is meant to create an international day of charitable giving at the beginning of the Christmas and holiday season. A simple and easy way for you to get into the giving spirit.

A great idea, giving to a charity.

You can make food donations, give money to organizations that help others. You can buy/give clothing, gifts and a whole range of other things needed by families not as fortunate as us. Many times it is the simple doll or toy truck that can mean all the world to a young child. A gift that will fill the heart of the one receiving it and it will fill your heart as well.

This time of year and throughout the year as well, consider giving to a charity, to others, to your brothers and sisters in your community.

Stay inspired my friends.

Unicorns Are Real

"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined." -Henry David Thoreau

Recently I was introduced again to unicorns. Yes, those white horse-like animals with a long horn. A creature described in folklore and Bible as an animal with an un-tamable nature, an extremely wild woodland creature that is a symbol of purity and grace.

It is through my grand-daughters I have been reminded of this creature. I have been reminded of beautiful innocence in which anything is possible. Of not being bound by cruelty or conformity. That yes, we can dream big and pursue that which we want in life.

We go through life where we are told as children to have an imagination that should never cease. We then become adults and are told to conform to the rules of everyday life. Our imaginations are said to get in the way of our work, of raising our families and of living life.

But the power of imagination, of our dreams, remains a force in on our life that can be harnessed to achieve things normally thought impossible.

Dreaming of big and greater things in your life requires change. It requires work. It requires doing the things necessary to place you in a position to achieve. It also requires ridding your mind of negativity. It requires taking a chance at failure, at ridicule and at rejection.

And as you continue to persevere through the toil of this work, you will find your dream just on the other side. It is there waiting for you. It is in a place many people will never venture.

All it takes is your imagination.

All it takes is believing in unicorns.

Stay inspired my friends!

You Can Choose

"Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds you plant." – Robert Louis Stevenson

So this coming week is a national election here in the United States on November 6th. By now you have probably seen all of the political commercials and decided one way or another how you will vote. And I would encourage you to exercise your right to vote.

After seeing those political advertisements, you are likely in a state of believing everything is in a state of upheaval and selecting either candidate will bring our world to an end. Things are bad, the other person will make it worse and yes, we are all drawn to train wrecks.

These feelings that get pumped up can also bleed out into our everyday lives. We can start to feel everything is bad. The traffic is always bad, our boss is always bad, the cashier at the grocery is always bad, bad, bad, bad and it can even start to permeate into our homes.

And maybe today was just a bad day. We all have them but the better days always out number the days. Life is not an eternal train wreck unless you have decided to make it that way. But you can be a change agent in how each day ends.

You can choose to help others.
You can choose to comfort people.
You can choose to help feed, cloth or lift up those in need.
You can choose to merciful by giving forgiveness unconditionally.
You can choose to stand up for those mocked for having different beliefs.
You can choose to be the peacemaker, to let it go and not to stoke anger.
You can choose to stand up for someone being bullied, teased, or tormented.
You can choose to do these things without expectation of anything in return.

Yes, you too can choose to make the world a better place. And in doing so the world will be a better place for you as well.

Stay inspired my friends!

Where To Begin

“Never allow waiting to become a habit. Live your dreams and take risks. Life is happening now.” — Paulo Coelho

Have you ever asked yourself, "Why did I wait so long to make a decision?" Or are you still in the middle of trying to make that decision, waiting for the perfect time or the perfect moment to begin?

I once read a story of a young man who had asked the philosopher Socrates how one could acquire wisdom and knowledge. "Follow me," Socrates said and led the man down to the sea. As they waded into the water, first shallow and then much deeper, Socrates grabbed the young man and held him under the water.

The young man struggled quite mightily and in due time Socrates pulled him up. The man was furious and yelled, "What are you doing?! Trying to kill me?" To which Socrates calmly said, "Absolutely not. If that was my intention, I would not have pulled you up."

"Then why did you just do that?" the young man asked.

"When you want wisdom and insight as badly as you desired that breath of air, then you shall have it," Socrates replied before turning and walking to the shore.

If we want something, of course we plan and prepare but the time must come to take action. To wait and wait and wait even further normally is the result of excuses. Excuses caused by either fear, not wanting it badly enough or a false sense of perfection.

Regardless of what is causing it, you must move forward. Start now, do not wait any further, get moving, one foot in front of the other and every other cliche you can think of. Just start moving.

So to answer the question of where to begin, is to start here and now.

Stay inspired my friends!

Victory Beyond Failure

“When men are most sure and arrogant they are commonly most mistaken, giving views to passion without that proper deliberation which alone can secure them from the grossest absurdities.” - David Hume

There are times in history, the recent past, the present and in the coming future that arrogance places us in a precarious position. I am speaking of when we believe in the infallibility of our own successes. That what we have done is a lock solid testament to all future success.

Now I do believe a difference exists between having confidence in one's successes and exaggerated arrogance. If we have confidence in decisions we have made, in those successes based upon our actions, then of course we should be comforted in our ability to repeat it.

But arrogance brings about excessive pride or hubris which can also bring us to a downfall. In the Greek story of Oedipus Rex, by Sophocles, the king tries to defy the gods but does what he warned of. In other words, he believed his "own press."

In relative recent history, after the war in the Pacific in 1945, U.S. Army General Douglas MacArthur was ranked alongside many of the greatest generals. He had successfully pulled off the overrunning of North Korea from the southern Korean peninsula. Yet he soon believed success was a permanent habit and made the decision to confront the Chinese only to force his troops to fight for victory from a defeating situation.

In the Battle of Chosin Reservoir, between November 27 and 13 December 13, 30,000 troops, nicknamed "The Chosin Few" found themselves surrounded and attacked by 120,000 Chinese troops. In harsh winter, mountainous conditions and surrounded, they were forced to withdraw. When asked of this, field commander Major General Oliver P. Smith remarked, "Retreat, hell! We're not retreating, we're just advancing in a different direction."

The casualties on the U.S. led UN forces numbered nearly 10,500 with reports of nearly 60,000 Chinese troops having fallen. A grim reminder of the consequences of arrogance yet the ability to also achieve some level of victory beyond the failure.

Some will argue the reasons and outcomes of the Chosin Reservoir or any other failure of a leader. But history will always be filled with generals, presidents, pastors, teachers and families where arrogance will lead us down a destructive path. It is in our ability to overcome the unfortunate decisions made by those who do not temper those decisions with confident humility.

George Orwell was quoted as saying that "...each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it." It is our own lack of humility which can drive us to follow arrogant leaders or make poor decisions.

And regardless of who our heroes or demons are today, history shows we can overcome, get through and get beyond the proclivities of arrogance. We can achieve victory in small or large measure beyond the failures which occur in our lives.

Stay inspired my friends!

Autumn Ahhs

“The leaves fall, the wind blows, and the farm country slowly changes from the summer cottons into its winter wools.” ― Henry Beston

We are well into the autumn season that brings with it lots of changes. The leaves begin to fade and fall from the branches. The leaf rake comes out and a battle with the wind to keep our yard looking neat fills my weekend. The cooler weather helps but this year the eighty degree temperatures seem to be holding on longer than usual.

Ahh, those autumn evenings.

I have watched many weather changes through out my years of living. While the general nature of those changes remains the same, I always seem to notice something different. And maybe it really is no different than other years, but only that I took notice. My attention was somehow captured by something different, something new to me.

Ahh, those autumn evenings.

This year the smells of autumn have captured me in remembrance of my growing up on the farm. Those days of knowing the cold winter would be upon us but before then the preparation of the hay in the barn loft, and finishing the harvest. It could be considered the end of something but I always viewed it as a beginning, a start of something new.

Ahh, those autumn evenings.

The life we live, the particulars of what is happening around us and what the future brings is what a change in seasons is to me. It might be the current politics we have, the relationship we are in, a job or one of a dozen things that puts us in a particular season of life. But those seasons change and those changes can bring great things.

Ahh, those autumn evenings.

You might be in a good season of life right now, but change is inevitable just as the changing seasons of nature are. The change does not mean it will be bad, just different, a "new normal" in your life. The change brings opportunity to improve, correct or simply adapt to. This is how life is and we need to embrace the change if only because of "ahh, those autumn evenings."

Stay inspired my friends!

Cult of Personality

“The master key of knowledge is, indeed, a persistent and frequent questioning.” – Peter Abelard

Who do you look up to these days? Is it the latest reality TV series star, a super hero character from the movies, someone in our military forces or a highly viewed Twitter account?

Some would argue we live in a cult of personality period when it comes to our politics. A political "cult of personality" occurs when a political group or even individual is able to use mass media, propaganda, or other terms as defined in Wikipedia "...to create an idealized, heroic, and worshipful image of a leader, often through unquestioning flattery and praise."

One can find in history a long list of people who fit this title. And I am sure there will be those who will tie this to modern day politics. And yes, I would say it has been a topic of great interest.

It is true of any personality obsession we have in our culture today.

I would say we need to question ourselves when the admiration and unrelenting support of a leader, sports, movie or other person becomes an obsession. We should question why the "cult of personality" draws us in and captivates our support. We should do so regardless of political leaning, religious belief or any other aspect of life.

Question, ask, inquire, query, yearn to know and quiz the reasons why this cult of personality has been given.

Stay inspired my friends!

Whose Side Is Time On?

“It has been said, 'time heals all wounds.' I do not agree. The wounds remain. In time, the mind, protecting its sanity, covers them with scar tissue and the pain lessens. But it is never gone.” ― Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy

Does the past justify the present or does the present justify the past?

It seems like a paradoxical question I suppose.

We struggle with what happened in the past through the lens of today.

There are many different subjects one could apply today's thinking on yesteryear's events.

Sexual harassment, racism, health or a whole slew of other topics come to mind if you scroll through social media feeds.

So much changes as time passes by and what one person calls society progressing, another yearns for what once was.

If something happened five, ten, twenty or even more years ago ... does time resolve everything?

Or does time merely delay the eventual reckoning?

I guess only time will tell.

Stay inspired my friends!