Tuesday, February 6, 2024

LOOKING AT LIFE FROM BOTH SIDES




CLOUDS, ICE CREAM CASTLES AND GRAMMYS

I’ve always been mesmerized by Joni Mitchell’s 1969 song Both Sides Now which she wrote at 21.  It was introduced in her second album Clouds and has become her best known song.  But I was uncertain about watching her perform her poetic lyrics last Sunday at the Grammys while sitting in a living room chair sixty years later.  The longer I watched and listened, however, the message held new meaning for me as we are both now close in age and have experienced both sides of a life well lived. 

 

It seems that Joni found the inspiration for the song while sitting at the window seat in an airplane and noticing the flip side of clouds, as we’re the first generation to see from that perspective.  She observed that she had always saw them as beautiful ice cream castles from below, but also concluded that they can block the sun while raining and snowing on everyone.  By this time, she had fought and won a struggle with polio at age nine, the “win and lose” of life, and given up her baby daughter at 20 that she had with a fellow student that wasn’t ready for parenthood, the “give and take” of love.  Clouds got in the way.  I too have observed the dark, menacing, underbelly of thick clouds only to discover beautiful skyscapes on the other side once the plane gains altitude and breaks through to the other side.

 

Joni continues the dichotomy observing that “old friends shake their heads and say I’ve changed, but ‘something’s lost and something’s gained’ in living every day.”  She finally concedes that “I really don’t know life at all.”  But today at age 80 she has the advantage of reflecting back from the other side of life with the wisdom of age and the writings of those who have come before us.  We all have the succinct words from authors like M. Scott Peck that “Life is difficult” and Robert Frost who summed up everything he learned about life in three words, “It goes on.”     



 





 

Thursday, February 1, 2024

COWBOY WISDOM

 

Gore Creek, Vail, Colorado

Most of the stuff people worry about ain’t never gonna happen anyway.

Silence is sometimes the best answer.

Timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a rain dance.

Sometimes you get, and sometimes you get got.

Most times, it just gets down to common sense, which ain’t so common.

If you get to thinkin’ you’re a person of some influence, try orderin’ somebody else’s dog around.

Live simply.  Love generously.  Care deeply.  Speak kindly.  Leave the rest to God.

Live a good, honorable life.  Then when you think back, you’ll enjoy it a second time!

Always drink upstream from the herd.

 “Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit.”  --Edward Abbey

That final bit of wisdom prompted me to think way back and enjoy a memory a second time.  Early in our marriage, my wife Karen and I enjoyed driving west on I-70 on a summer vacation from Kansas City to Denver, Colorado and the colorful Rocky Mountains.  Western Kansas and Eastern Colorado are flat land cattle pastures and waving wheat fields with panoramic skies that wrap 360 degrees and provide endless skyscapes.  But once you approach Denver, what seems to be lowering dark clouds on the horizon become in focus as towering mountain ranges.

We two city folk had driven up a rather remote mountain trail on a subsequent July afternoon and happened upon a pure Rocky Mountain stream that was calmly moving the opposite direction alongside our vehicle.  It was obviously being fed by springs and what little snow melt still remained on the shady areas among the pine trees.  The temperature was hot in the bright sunshine and we hadn’t packed anything for snacks or drinks on this little adventure. 

As we approached the summit of the trail, we stopped and ventured out into nature beside the gurgling mountain stream.  I dipped my cupped hand into the water and experienced an immediate coolness in contrast to the ambient temperature.  We knew enough about hiking to understand that there are purifying tablets which can be added to ground water in a container, but we were ill prepared for that.  So, I confidently announced that this water must be as pure as any liquid on the planet and drank in a cupped handful of the cool Coors beer Rocky Mountain spring water!

We hadn’t ventured more than a quarter mile up the trail when we saw signs indicating the trail was ending.  We soon noticed a sign that announced the presence of a camp ground ahead and an admonition not to drink the water!  I gasped and turned the car around, realizing that I had just drank water down stream from the herd!  I carefully monitored my lower intestine for about 24 hours, but thankfully never got sick.        


Wednesday, January 24, 2024

YOU, YOURSELF INCORPORATED

 

YOU, YOURSELF

Life isn't so much about how many times you get knocked down, 
but how many times you get back up!
  
Through everything that you will ever experience until the day you die, 
you’re going to be the only person present for every event.  
Don’t wait around for someone else to resolve life’s issues.
  
You never lose if you don’t lose the lesson and act on it!

Thursday, January 18, 2024

SOUNDS THAT TOUCH THE SOUL

SOLITUDE

“Hear that lonely whippoorwill,
He sounds too blue to fly,
The midnight train is whining low”


The opening lines to the classic country song, I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry, by Hank Williams evokes memories of hearing that provocative sound in the very still of the night.  I remember hearing that sound as a child in bed since we lived within about a mile from a train crossing in Kansas.  The wind had to be in the right direction to hear it that far away, which made it evoke a sense of spiritual resonance.  That sound of a train whistle at major crossways can only resonate at a distance and usually late at night.  If it’s carried on a strong north wind in winter time the feeling is even more emotional.  I hadn’t heard the sound for many years after leaving home, but now I can hear it once again here at home in North Carolina.  It not only conjures up the same emotions, but also memories of my long-ago childhood.  It’s one of those extraordinary sounds that touches the soul.  And it can trigger nostalgia, remembering who we were and validating our own identity. 

That sound evoked loneliness in old Hank and obviously many others related to the lyrics.  But loneliness is a state of sadness, while solitude is a healthy state of meaningful self-reflection.  It’s a state of being alone without being lonely.  You can be lonely in a crowd, but you can’t experience solitude there. 

There are some other sounds that have the capacity to touch the solitary soul and evoke emotions of well being at the deepest level of human life.  One of the first that comes to mind is another one from my childhood of sitting on a dock and hearing the call of a distant loon over a moonlit placid Minnesota Northwoods lake.  I’ve been walking up a vanishing windrow of midwestern hedge trees hunting bob white quail and hearing their calls as they gather the covey together.  And many of us have quietly listened to the soft coo of mourning doves at daylight.  Then there’s the rhythmic song of cicadas in the trees on summer evenings while sitting with family outside on a wrap-around porch.  I’ve also been sitting on a rural river bank at sunset while the crickets and frogs serenaded all of us.  And who of us has been touched by the experience of sitting near the ocean at any time of the day apart from the noise of civilization and hearing the rhythm of the breaking waves on shore that takes us back to the first nine months of life in the watery womb?

A few other sounds that have touched my soul include the wind and ancestral spirits racing through pine needles at the ancient Mesa Verde ruins in Colorado, standing on the prairies of eastern Colorado and western Kansas and hearing the distant thunder of an approaching summer storm, and standing outside our home in central Kansas as a winter snow mixed with sleet gently falls upon frozen ground.  Distant church bells and windchimes touch my soul along with the whirring drone of an overhead airplane that slowly fades away along with all of nature on a late autumn afternoon.

It occurs to me that all of these reflective sounds that have touched deep within my soul were experienced outside in God’s creation.  Perhaps that’s why I still enjoy the solitude of being there.

Friday, December 29, 2023

EMPATHY

Ready to cross the street, Chicago, IL.

I just finished a short article written by Alyssa Campbell who works in early childhood education and emotional development.  She makes the point that “key components of emotionally intelligent kids include self-awareness, self-regulation and motivation.  But surprisingly, the most overlooked one is empathy…We teach emotional intelligence by responding to children with empathy.”   

That reading prompted me to recall a very short but meaningful incident that occurred a few years ago as I was leaving a restaurant in Chicago with my three-year-old grandson and his parents.  As we crossed the street to our car and entered the other side, we turned and noticed the little boy’s lips were slightly quivering and a tear was streaking down his rosy cheek.  We immediately stopped in our tracks and bent down to ask why he was suddenly crying.  It was difficult for him to voice what was troubling him but he was saying something about a squirrel.  We all then remembered that we had casually passed a flat squirrel in the middle of the street, but frankly, thought nothing of it.  We’ve all seen lots of squirrels that couldn’t make a decision to run faster, so they froze and paid the ultimate price.  We adults had become desensitized to the image.  Sort of like watching war clips on the nightly news…  

Fortunately, his parents embraced his genuine empathy and his dad asked if he would feel better if he went back and moved the squirrel out of the street to the curb.  My grandson slowly shook his head affirmatively and we waited patiently while the body was removed from ongoing traffic.  Once he witnessed this his demeaner brightened and we proceeded to our car where we all shared an uplifting ride home!    

And lastly, Campbell concludes that we should all “remember to pause and say ‘I love you’.  It’s impossible to spoil kids with love.  We promise that you can never say those words too much.”


 

Saturday, December 23, 2023

FAVORITE ONE LINERS

STARDUST

 I recently ran across a social media challenge to list folks’ favorite one liners from music, etc.  It seems like a rather daunting challenge, but there were actually hundreds of posts covering a variety of subjects like life, love, relationships, etc.  So, I waded through the responses and copied and added some of my favorites and then attempted to arrange them into a post:

        Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end.

       Today is just tomorrow's yesterday.

       You’re the master of your own destiny.

       Dream on, but don’t imagine they’ll all come true.

Life is just a candle…and the dream must give it flame.

Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.

We see in life what we look for.

Too many people don’t listen to understand, but to reply.

I was so much older then.  I'm younger than that now.

 Those were the days, my friend.  We thought they'd never end.

All you touch and all you see is all your life will ever be...

I’m glad I’m alive at the same time as you.

Of all the things my hands have held, the best by far is you…

I gave her my heart; she wanted my soul.  Don’t think twice it’s alright.

And in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make.

You make me smile with my heart.

           Put your arms around my soul and take it dancing.

Couples dancing, wrapped around each other in a song.

            The future is uncertain, and the end is always near.

You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.

Light of the world shine on me, love is the answer.

            There is a crack, a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in.

The entire universe and ourselves are composed of the stardust of creation.

Everything is dust in the wind.

As sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti.

LATE BLOOMER

Late Blooming Camellia, Jamestown, NC

Nighttime temperatures have been in the twenties lately and the fall blooming camellias appeared to have fulfilled their destiny a few weeks ago. As I opened the blinds this morning this fresh bloom greeted me with its delicate open petals.

Later, as I ventured out into the chilly air, I noticed that it was the Lone Ranger on the entire bush beside a seasonal string of Christmas lights!

Fortunately, most of us now understand that we shouldn’t push children to keep pace with an early learner or level of maturation and we should patiently assist in their development until they finally blossom, no matter how late in the season.