“Sleigh bells ring, are you list’nin? In the lane, snow is glist’nin! A beautiful sight, we’re happy tonight, walking in a winter wonderland…”
In the danger of being Captain Obvious…It’s Almost Christmas!!! Of course you knew that already, but sometimes it’s even better saying it out loud. Everything in these few days just seems to lead straight up to this magical day. The snow, the shopping, the gift-wrapping, the decorations… it all fills the heart with a wonderful feeling.
This season holds so many memories for almost everyone. It’s a time when people get together to share stories, presents, ideas, and memories. It’s a time when the world tries to quiet its hectic, frantic spinning and think of peace, goodness, generosity, giving, and open hearts. With all this, who wouldn’t support Christmas and all it is?
It’s a pity that Christmas isn’t every day of the year. Of course, this would cease to make it different, but the ideals it upholds should be kept year-round. Who knows? It might even do us some good—they stopped fighting for a day in WWI on Christmas. Maybe if we had Christmas for an entire year we’d reconsider what we’re really doing to ourselves and each other. They had Christmas songs, entertained each other…if you think about it, the people you’re fighting probably aren’t bad guys themselves, and are the people you’d like to sit down and have a cup of coffee (or tea, or whatever) with and enjoy a morning with. You’re just two people on different sides, is all…
Christmas is simply full of good times, though. It seems as though the entire world (although that’s not quite true) is caught up in the same mindset, of being good, of caring, of family, and friends too, and a glow of happiness. The things it brings…all through the years of my short life, there is something that stays the same. Our fat old Christmas tree, for instance, which seems doomed to being lost to a new, skinnier, “prettier” tree that can’t hold half the ornaments or memories that our big one we’ve had forever can. The ornaments themselves, all gathered through years of collecting from many places—Crater Lake, Mount Vernon, my dance school, my brother’s college, and more. They’re precious, and each has a little story behind it. Then there’s the cookie baking, ripping open presents, enjoying ourselves, being stupid. I mean, what’s Christmas without a little stupidity between family?
I think it’s true that we really forget these things when it gets to sometime in March. It lingers in our memory for a month or a few, and then it disappears as other things overtake it. But then it grows in our minds again in November. Let’s relax and see how long this Christmas can last. In spirit, perhaps all through the year. Have as much fun as you can, and will, because it’s a blessing every year. And at the end, a new year dawns, just like the blank page full of possibility.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Saturday, December 19, 2009
If You Just Believe...
As Christmas swings around, everyone returns to examine that funny thing called belief again. Including me. It’s one of the most extraordinary things in this world, you know. The simple conviction that something is, or can happen, is what achieves the most amazing things. Without belief in one’s abilities, without belief in good and right, the world wouldn’t be the way it is, and it would be so much worse for it.
Mainly, though, aside from the belief in what you can do, what you can achieve, that lets us create what we can, it’s belief that brings us through tough times. Even if it’s not belief in a higher power, as it often is, and which is powerful in its own way for it, it’s the belief that there are good times ahead, that there’s a sun behind the dark storm clouds, that gives strength and hope beyond what you think can be done.
At times we lose this belief. We stand there under the storm and wonder why we even try. But you have to believe that there really is a light behind the darkness. Because there always is…they who lived long ago in the darkest of times, could they but see where we’ve gotten to they would be stunned, to think that their world could turn into ours. Life goes on. The story goes on. Stories never end…we’re all part of the same one that’s been going on since the beginning of time, the story of our world and our people and our pains and our triumphs. If we could step out of the world and take a look at time flowing by, we’d see that the problems we think are so desperate are really just little wrinkles in the great flow and weave of the pattern of life, fate, and time. We have to be able to step back and realize this, and feel our belief pulsing through us again.
And that’s why we return to the strength of hope and mind every time this year. We look around and we see happy people, joyful celebrations, and they’re more than just a celebration of your religion—they’re also a celebration of life, and the happiness that always exists somewhere, and of hope and love. We take joy in the season, of giving to each other, of returning to this happy time each year, in part because it renews our belief that there are good times after the sad times, that we won’t always be fighting, and that there’s a little something around the corner to make us happy.
So remember to believe. It’s belief that gives us strength, the conviction of something else that we can’t always see. In the dark, try and remember the light that you’ve seen so many times. Because it’s real, and it’s good, and it’s beautiful. If you can believe, you can wipe away the tears, uncover the windows, and let the real light within stream out. Only when you believe can you really live.
Mainly, though, aside from the belief in what you can do, what you can achieve, that lets us create what we can, it’s belief that brings us through tough times. Even if it’s not belief in a higher power, as it often is, and which is powerful in its own way for it, it’s the belief that there are good times ahead, that there’s a sun behind the dark storm clouds, that gives strength and hope beyond what you think can be done.
At times we lose this belief. We stand there under the storm and wonder why we even try. But you have to believe that there really is a light behind the darkness. Because there always is…they who lived long ago in the darkest of times, could they but see where we’ve gotten to they would be stunned, to think that their world could turn into ours. Life goes on. The story goes on. Stories never end…we’re all part of the same one that’s been going on since the beginning of time, the story of our world and our people and our pains and our triumphs. If we could step out of the world and take a look at time flowing by, we’d see that the problems we think are so desperate are really just little wrinkles in the great flow and weave of the pattern of life, fate, and time. We have to be able to step back and realize this, and feel our belief pulsing through us again.
And that’s why we return to the strength of hope and mind every time this year. We look around and we see happy people, joyful celebrations, and they’re more than just a celebration of your religion—they’re also a celebration of life, and the happiness that always exists somewhere, and of hope and love. We take joy in the season, of giving to each other, of returning to this happy time each year, in part because it renews our belief that there are good times after the sad times, that we won’t always be fighting, and that there’s a little something around the corner to make us happy.
So remember to believe. It’s belief that gives us strength, the conviction of something else that we can’t always see. In the dark, try and remember the light that you’ve seen so many times. Because it’s real, and it’s good, and it’s beautiful. If you can believe, you can wipe away the tears, uncover the windows, and let the real light within stream out. Only when you believe can you really live.
Friday, December 11, 2009
Mastery
For thousands of years the other creatures that share our earth have walked its paths in a quest for survival. Battling sickness and Nature and predators and hunger was enough to engage their lives. But when man came along, this wasn’t enough. They settled down and started figuring things out, how to use things to cure sickness, how to grow food instead of search for it. And this was good. Then came modern times…
See, sometimes the human race worries me. All around there are all these new breakthroughs. Something has been invented to do this! Now they’re working on this! What I fear is that we care too much about controlling, about having mastery over things around us. We want to be able to control the wind, the seas, the snow, to our will. We’re interested in discovering how to do everything so we can work less.
But…Nature’s job is to keep the world balanced. Her job is to keep everything right. When a population grows too large, sickness plagues it, or it breaks, and it moves on to a better place. When one selection of creatures is wreaking havoc on others, the others form defense, attack, and things are regulated. But the human race is growing too fast and adapting so quickly that these things cannot help. And our only aim is our comfort, our enjoyment. We fail to see that without the work, we cannot appreciate it. Without the struggle, we cannot see the value in the fruits.
I fear for us. I can envision a time when everything will be controlled. We will raise mountains and drain seas at our will, and the rain will fall when we want it to. Lives will be elongated and there will be too many people, but we’ll build towers as high as the mountain to live in and grow food in our homes, and the blight of this “civilization” will cover the entire earth.
You might imagine the good about this. Rain when the crops need it, suppressed when they don’t so plans aren’t ruined. But the beauty of the rain and the forests and the wind is that…it’s free. It comes and goes as it wishes, and grows and changes to further beauty, to enhance the gentle earth. It brings wonder and awe. If we could control things, what would they be but another toy to play with, another machine, another thing we had to deal with every day and thought no more of?
So again, in another way, we need to move slower. Think of the consequences of our actions not just on us, but on the world. This tired world that has endured so much, that shelters us, that gives us life. It’s more beautiful than we can imagine, holed up in our tiny places who have never seen the hidden wonders that exist. But with our arrogance we would change and destroy it, shaping it to what we think is right, when in reality it is in its own right more stunning than we could even envision. We need to see this truth and think on it, for without thought we are moving into the collapse, the last stand of something that is great and beautiful and vaster than we think, we with our planes and cars and spaceships. Appreciate more what we have, for the more we think we gain, the more we lose, and the more we hunger. It’s a downward spiral…unless you can change it.
See, sometimes the human race worries me. All around there are all these new breakthroughs. Something has been invented to do this! Now they’re working on this! What I fear is that we care too much about controlling, about having mastery over things around us. We want to be able to control the wind, the seas, the snow, to our will. We’re interested in discovering how to do everything so we can work less.
But…Nature’s job is to keep the world balanced. Her job is to keep everything right. When a population grows too large, sickness plagues it, or it breaks, and it moves on to a better place. When one selection of creatures is wreaking havoc on others, the others form defense, attack, and things are regulated. But the human race is growing too fast and adapting so quickly that these things cannot help. And our only aim is our comfort, our enjoyment. We fail to see that without the work, we cannot appreciate it. Without the struggle, we cannot see the value in the fruits.
I fear for us. I can envision a time when everything will be controlled. We will raise mountains and drain seas at our will, and the rain will fall when we want it to. Lives will be elongated and there will be too many people, but we’ll build towers as high as the mountain to live in and grow food in our homes, and the blight of this “civilization” will cover the entire earth.
You might imagine the good about this. Rain when the crops need it, suppressed when they don’t so plans aren’t ruined. But the beauty of the rain and the forests and the wind is that…it’s free. It comes and goes as it wishes, and grows and changes to further beauty, to enhance the gentle earth. It brings wonder and awe. If we could control things, what would they be but another toy to play with, another machine, another thing we had to deal with every day and thought no more of?
So again, in another way, we need to move slower. Think of the consequences of our actions not just on us, but on the world. This tired world that has endured so much, that shelters us, that gives us life. It’s more beautiful than we can imagine, holed up in our tiny places who have never seen the hidden wonders that exist. But with our arrogance we would change and destroy it, shaping it to what we think is right, when in reality it is in its own right more stunning than we could even envision. We need to see this truth and think on it, for without thought we are moving into the collapse, the last stand of something that is great and beautiful and vaster than we think, we with our planes and cars and spaceships. Appreciate more what we have, for the more we think we gain, the more we lose, and the more we hunger. It’s a downward spiral…unless you can change it.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Shattered Glass
I closed my eyes and saw the light
Twixt the lines that brought the truth
Only dark can fence this out
Only light can now break through
Across the endless iron ocean
Across the rolling fields of green
I watched the sun set in a blaze of fire
And I knew
There’s so much more that’s to be held
Break the bonds that hold you tight
Wash the darkness from your eyes
Open up and see the sun on the green, green grass
The world is more than you can know
The sky is wider than you dream
Eternity is there in every glance of tired eyes
So feel the snowflakes on your skin
Breathe the crisp frost in the air
Hear the laughing of the clear cold mountain stream
And hold tight to the things that make this world alive
For without them there is nothing
Touch once more the things that bind you
For without them you are nothing
Only shattered glass
Twixt the lines that brought the truth
Only dark can fence this out
Only light can now break through
Across the endless iron ocean
Across the rolling fields of green
I watched the sun set in a blaze of fire
And I knew
There’s so much more that’s to be held
Break the bonds that hold you tight
Wash the darkness from your eyes
Open up and see the sun on the green, green grass
The world is more than you can know
The sky is wider than you dream
Eternity is there in every glance of tired eyes
So feel the snowflakes on your skin
Breathe the crisp frost in the air
Hear the laughing of the clear cold mountain stream
And hold tight to the things that make this world alive
For without them there is nothing
Touch once more the things that bind you
For without them you are nothing
Only shattered glass
~HRMA
Between the Lines
When you walk around outside, do you see what you are looking at? Do you notice the azure sky, the crisp smell after a cool spring rain, the sound of laughing water? Why is it that there are so many wonders flowing past us that we rarely pay attention to? I’ve seen many beautiful things in my life, and they are part of what makes life good, and rare, and unique, and precious. Some things you’ll never see again in your life. Doesn’t it make sense to look for them? I wonder exactly how many things we pass by as we rush through our daily lives. We need to walk slower, to see everything we can, to actually touch the things rushing by. Because who knows? If we cease to do so, what happens to it? Without regard for the things that make up the world just as we do they will vanish like rain in the parched desert, lost forever beyond reckoning. So many things are being lost, because people don’t watch where they step. We are not blameless ourselves. But we are, as they always say, the future. If we don’t look and see, then we are a downward spiral, for our children will not look if we can’t teach them.
So take things a little slower. Look around and see what you’re living in. Is it really so bland as to be passed by? Here we are taking our focus on things that in the long run probably really don’t matter. Sometimes we feel like we can’t get anything done, like nothing’s important anymore. Because we focus on the unimportant, fence ourselves in with routine and the mundane, we think we can ignore in our little cells all the other things that are happening and think that life is amazing, when we’re missing so much. Remember, although the big things in life are what shape life and shape people, it’s the little things that make or break it. It’s the little things in life that are the sweetest and most precious. Take some time and find them!
So take things a little slower. Look around and see what you’re living in. Is it really so bland as to be passed by? Here we are taking our focus on things that in the long run probably really don’t matter. Sometimes we feel like we can’t get anything done, like nothing’s important anymore. Because we focus on the unimportant, fence ourselves in with routine and the mundane, we think we can ignore in our little cells all the other things that are happening and think that life is amazing, when we’re missing so much. Remember, although the big things in life are what shape life and shape people, it’s the little things that make or break it. It’s the little things in life that are the sweetest and most precious. Take some time and find them!
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