See Double You

Physically I’m back in the office and at the keyboard, though mentally I’m still pool-side with feet up feeling the warm sunshine and listening to the birds express themselves around me. At least my now sun-burned upper body will appreciate the shaded respite of corporate-land.

The boss is back from vacation, carrying with him all the little nuances that my colleague and I did not miss during his absence….

Instead of sticking myself to the typical misery that would be likened to this environment, I instead find myself once again working to use these elements of life to demonstrate that working with, and through it makes me the better man…

It all hurts, but there are many more painful sensations that make this seem like nothing, and there are living things on this planet dealing with much more pain in this present moment. I’m sticking to that outlook as I grimace through the motions….

deep breath

its Friday… listening to Germany try to rebound and catch up to Serbia, anticipating the US game in a bit… work is work, but nothing beyond control. Things continue to be stable and content… dare I say life is good?

As usual, my mission is to find a reason to brighten the day, mine and yours, even with a smile..

deep breath

rolling with the punches, stick and move, float like a butterfly and all that…

Thursday greets me with its hands up, “I don’t want any trouble” it says as the birds sing, the sun and clouds take turns dominating the sky, and little else attempts to get my attention as the day-to-day dance routine commences….

Settling into my 6×6 space I call home for forty-plus hours a week, I’ve decided to go with some down-tempo electronica this morning as the background soundtrack to what should be another quiet day of doing my best to convince life that it cannot get the best of me.

As usual, I am hopeful that you and those around me survive the day and are capable of a reason to smile, and that perhaps I have something to do with it…..

deep breath

Today seems to be a ‘i’m rubber, everything else is glue’ kind of day. Had what my father likes to call the ‘come to jesus’ talk with the missus last night re: life, the universe and everything and I hope to have inspired her and helped her to have the courage to persevere with what she really wants to do, and that her wishes and dreams are capable of helping to sustain our content existence.

As always, my mission for the day is to help you and me to have a great day and to find a reason to smile

deep breath

The hum and whirring drone of technology provides a fairly monotone bass-line to David Byrne as I stare almost blankly at my monitor on yet another day of work. Things are stable, and because the boss is on vacation, things are also pleasantly quiet.

I attempt to maintain good posture as I work, doing my best to remain mindful of both my thoughts and body in an effort to continue to practice wherever and whatever I am doing during the course of the day. As is always the case though, the mind wanders and the body returns to its almost default slouch. This of course encourages an all-encompassing restlessness which most people spend their entire day caught up in without the slightest idea.

Worries of money perpetually cloud my mind as I try to determine how best to pay the bills, to take care of my family while also not denying me the almost content equanimity that I have found in recent years. We have all the comforts of a warm and safe home in a wonderful neighborhood, our children enjoy their friends and school, dinner is always on the table, and for the most part, things are fine the way they are, today. Unfortunately, underneath that comfortable and attractive exterior, there are noticeable cracks growing larger in the foundation of this stability. Bank accounts perpetually groan and creak under the stress of expenses that have been pruned and refined down to a bare minimum (with a few rare, guilt-ridden exceptions), and the best-laid plans of our family demonstrates that there is currently no fiscal way we can survive the coming years of good intentions in our current state.

While the missus continues her seemingly never-ending quest in our wonderful higher-education system for the answer to “what to be when I grow up” in an effort to once again join the great American workforce and provide a substantial contribution towards our financial stability, I do my best to shoulder the bulk of it all while once again remaining mindful of my speech, thoughts, and actions. Again, my job is stable, yet I’m not sure after fifteen years I want to, or can do it for another thirty. I am always poking around for the random opportunity to present itself to do something bigger, to write perhaps, to help other people to be happy, to inspire them to do something bigger and better for themselves and others, yet the skeptic in me says that I’m being to much of an idealist looking for the brass ring. How would it ever be possible to do that and to pay the bills at the same time. There’s one thing that can be said for working in the IT field, it pays well! To combine to the two, as a continual Yin and Yang of sustenance would be the ideal situation, but nothing has leaped out in front of me yet. Puh.

I’ve mentally decided to take a break from pushing my stone up the mountain, and return to the present, where David Byrne still plays, the malcontents drone their requests from the factory PA system, and for the most part, things are stable.

Deep breath

As I stood at the kitchen sink washing up the dinner dishes tonight, listening to the icy rain fall outside combined with the running water of the faucet and the clingy-clang of my washings, I happen to discover the tiniest cellar spider, no bigger than your pinkie nail and virtually transparent out of the corner of my eye.  Hanging delicately from its web just in front of me, I had to take care to not brush or inadvertently blow it away as I worked to clean the kitchen.  Being a former “professional” dishwasher at one of the local, now defunct dining establishments, I have a almost robotic and speedy knack for washing dishes.  This nightly task also serves as a zen-like meditation exercise for me, allowing me to be mindful of where I am, but also providing my mind with the ability to wander and ponder what it wishes.

The discovery of my companion at the sink immediately reminded me of how fragile our life is, and how amazingly easy it would have been for me to not even notice the existence of this tiny visitor, and to perhaps erase it without even the slightest regard.  Meaning no harm, and perhaps not even without the intelligence to be aware of my intentions, this tiny living thing had come down to check out what I was about at 9:30pm, and perhaps also to enjoy some of the water that the sink provides.

As cliche’ as it sounds, we in Western society have grown accustomed to using December as the month and “season” to open our hearts a bit more.  I’ve lately wondered why we can’t do this for all twelve months of the year, and perhaps what the harm would be in doing this.  Though it certainly could damage (or improve?) the commercial industry, the thought of consistently making a conscious effort to not take for granted those around us, to keep our hearts open, and to ask nothing in return, is not just what the holidays are about, but what we as humans should be about.  Consider what this planet would be like for ourselves and our children and those that share it with us if we lived our lives like this always.

Happy holidays to my readers, and next time you discover a spider in your travels, remember what you’ve read here.  Life is fragile, harm no one, and keep your heart open.  A little compassion will come around and back to you some day, and you may find yourself living the life you’d like to see if you can keep these things in mind.

I recently came to the realization that we are all just dumb animals.  Go to any public place such as a grocery store, shopping mall, or even just downtown, and you’ll see.   This link , not real different from this link , proves it.

Now granted, that’s a harsh way to open the gates on my annual pre-holiday commentary, but if you still maintain the ability of self-thought, and honestly take the time out to watch people around you, you should come to the same realization.  I spent several hours of my life this past week watching Wall-E with my children, and my wife and I both decided it certainly was more of an adult than children’s movie.  Though it was a computer-generated cartoon, it was essentially a movie with a substantial amount of meaning regarding how we members of Western society are headed in terms of laziness, excess, and overindulgance.  From the endless hits to the groin and clumsy stupidity that floods America’s Funniest Home Videos, to the fact that we are actually convinced to buy a fast-food hamburger because it now contains “real beef,” we heralds of a modern society of convenience have somehow convinced ourselves to blindly pride ourselves in our gluttonous ignorance.

Americans have just made one of the most important decisions in modern history by voting in a President running on the platform of change, but what most cease to realize is that it is now not our jobs to sit idle and wait for that President to create that change, we instead have to be inspired to change ourselves and the world around us.  It is this ignorant attitude created partly by the retail land of convenience that has confirmed that it is ok for us to think “its not my problem, let the other guy worry about it.”  We think that as long as our televisions are high-def, as long as Starbucks doesn’t run out of coffee, and as long as Kohls will be open at 4am on the day after Thanksgiving, who could care less about anything else.

Once again ladies and gentlemen, I emplore you.  Take one minute, take two minutes, take as long as is convenient (please, I don’t want to interrupt your television routine or current text message conversation), and consider how you live your life.  Consider what is truly right for this planet.  Consider what is right for your children, or your neighbor’s children.  Consider what is right for your town, your state, for Africa.  How are you living your life today, and how is it impacting those things that you think are right?  Are you eating right?  Are you buying what you should and from whom you should?  Are you buying too much that you’ll just throw away?  Are you giving when you can give?  Are you treating others the way you would like to be treated?  How many of those things you consider can you honestly say to yourself that you’re doing the right way.  This is the change you have to make.  No one will make it for you, and no one is going to force you.  You have to realize.

I recently learned that the first time someone in China actually inscribed the name of our country, he accidentally wrote it as “The United People of America” as opposed to “The United States of America.”  I think that was a pretty good mistake to make.

This holiday, make some change, see the difference.  The reward, a gift in itself, is priceless.

as we approach the holidays, as well as a crossroads in our country’s future… I thought this image important…

The gradually dropping temperatures and changing of foliage from an overwhelming green to variations of yellow, red, and brown means that Autumn is once again upon us.  With this time of year, at least here in New England, comes the almost instinctive drive to get things buttoned up and prepared for the coming ice, snow and bitter cold of Winter.  Like the ant from the fable we all know, we New Englanders spend the remaining months of the waning year busy doing what we can to prepare.

With a list of stuff to do, I spent this past beautiful three-day weekend zooming from one end of our property to the next getting all the things done that needed to be done.  From mowing the lawn, to closing the pool, to acquiring two more truckloads of firewood, each day was spent full until fatigue set in and my legs and back would buckle.  I did however make sure that I took time for the elephant.

Regardless of what has to be done around the yard, regardless of what has to be done in the house, regardless of what has to be done anywhere, I never lose sight in making my children a priority.  In between stacking firewood, painting walls, and cleaning, my children took advantage of daddy’s playful nature.  Attacked and ultimately tackled after a bit of harmless ’sparring’ by both the 2 year-old and 5 year-old working as a team, daddy found himself a beast of burden of another kind.  Coerced into mimicking the behavior of a hulking elephant, I slowly lumbering about our two acres with sixty pounds of additional weight that struggled to stay aloft the skinniest (and only) “elephant” they’d ever ridden.  The giggles and joy that Sophia, Duncan and I shared swiftly erased any thoughts of having more important things to do, as well as any physical pain that I was already feeling due to fatigue.

These relatively brief moments in life remind me how important our children are to us all.  Whether or not you are a parent yourself, it is important to recognize how vital it is that our children get the attention they desire and deserve.  By taking time playing with them outside or taking the time to answer the multitude of questions they ask which rely on our wisdom, we the adults of this world have to remember that it is their world we are taking care of now, and their world that we will leave behind.  This is why it is so important that we not only teach them what is right and wrong in this world today, but we also must do our very best to not leave a mess behind us when we are gone.  Instead of planting your child in front of the DVD, TV or Playstation while you suffer through your day to day, find something you can involve them in that will encourage their imagination.  By reading a book, building something, or even something as simple as allowing them to help us cook, we are encouraging their imagination and helping them to gain an ability to think for themselves and grow up to be capable of handling the many challenges in life.   As I stated in a prior post, these small lumps of clay are our only hope to create the world we’d all like to live in.  The most important thing we can do is see to it that they are molded appropriately.  As the “old” song (sorry Mom and Dad!) goes, “Teach, your children well”…

Ah the election…  Nothing unites a democratic country more than standing behind an individual or group of individuals to support them in their quest to become one of our nation’s leaders.  Whether it be at the local, state, or federal level, you can tell when election day is coming up when we see people’s front yards littered with blue or red campaign signs, and the media is stuffed chock full of blather related to the strengths and weaknesses of those on this quest.

This time around, I find myself much more aware of a significant problem with this entire process that I find counter-productive to what some would call an idealistic expectation of our future.  While these candidates throw themselves into the public spotlight, “unzipping their fly” for all to see, and we the people stand behind them, an overwhelmingly obvious wave of anger, hatred and ignorance passes from one citizen to the next as daggers of accusation and slander are thrown from both sides of battlefield.  From YouTube to local newspaper editorials, truth and more often rumors flood the public forums as we try to sway the decisions of our fellow voters.

I have already found myself caught up in this a few times, and each time I have had to remind myself that it is not healthy to speak negatively of anyone.  Though it is important to identify the strengths and weaknesses of those who we choose to be our leaders, it is also important to remember that every human on this planet makes mistakes.  Instead of generating negative emotions about these mistakes, we instead should be objectively taking them into account and making rational, intelligent decisions based on *facts* that take into account their strengths and weaknesses.  All too often we find ourselves easily becoming “sheep” to an idea or concept that poisons our mind, has a severe impact on our ability to make a conscious decision, and only makes us ignorant to the truth.  Too many people on this planet have become lazy in front of their televisions, computers, and even in their traditional ways that they refuse to use their own mind to make an independent decision.  At what point do you say to yourself, “what is honestly and truly the right way?”

Unfortunately, due to an overwhelming amount of negativity, hatred and ignorance in our world today brought on by bigotry, war, religion, as well as violence whenever we turn on the computer or television, most of us have turned off our ability to seek out this core belief in what is truly right, and have instead learned to feed and depend on these thoughts and emotions.  Prove me wrong, but show me one evening of television, starting with your local evening news, where hate, violence, and death aren’t what keep the ratings going strong.  If its not hate, violence and death, its usually slander and gossip, just ask Paris or Britney.  Ok, there’s American Idol and its relatives…and there is a glimmer of happiness there as people go on the search to fulfill their dreams, but other than that, all that I’ve seen is pain.  This my friends is why I’ve simply learned to turn it off.

So as election day  draws closer and closer, remind yourself that the gray stuff floating around under your hair-do is capable of much more than you ask it to.  Pull yourself away from the ignorant chatter, stop being lazy, and challenge yourself to become learned about something beyond how to program your remote control.  Do everything you can to make your best intelligent effort to create the world we’d all like to wake up one day to live in.  Its most definately not the easiest thing to do, but if each of us were to work a little harder at it, it could certainly be the most rewarding.