“An amazing group of players but an even more amazing group of people.”
The best lessons are the the most simple and straight forward:
Strive everyday.
Be resilient.
Never give up.
Thank You, USWNT, World Cup Champions 2019~
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In the End It’s True…
After all the struggle and strife, it’s true. And too, I find wisdom im many perspectives.
“There is an Arabic proverb which says that “Peace comes from understanding, not agreement.” Agreements are more easily broken than made; but understanding never. It is urgent, therefore, and in the interest of peace, that there be better understanding among nations. As people we are one, seeking the same goal. As nations, we lose each other down the different paths we choose to fulfill our national objectives. that is why we must understand each other better.
-King Hussein”
Nationalism, patriotism, must be tempered. Our country was founded on basic principles that include tolerance and inclusiveness, and of change.
On this birthday of the United States of America, let’s remember, and rise to, the challenges of our time, applying the ideals that have endured these last two hundred and forty three years.
Beach Jottings
Beach Jottings
13, our lucky number these days of family vacation together. California coast, between Santa Cruz and Monterey, house, ocean, sand, good.
Eight adults, five kids, three families stem from one. Feels good to be together. Let the stress and structure fall away, let it be easy for a few days.
Seen along the way:
Early morning fishermen working the surf at high tide. Grey overcast skies, cool breeze, peaceful.
Red-tail hawk flying low over-head, back drop of gray morning coastal chased by two black crows, defending their land.
Further out, a brown pelican flies close to the blue-gray water, looking for fish. The surf nears high tide, the splashing waves leave the sand dark and wet higher up on the shore.
Kids play throughout the day. It’s vacation, adults have time to join in, make the time to join in. That’s one of the purposes of the whole thing. Join in. Be together. Have fun together. Piling up sand, splashing in the water, playing cards or checkers or Switch, loving and relating and being together.
Time to enjoy the sunset, make time for that, on the schedule for the day, part of the plan. It’s simple, purposeful; a way to pause to acknowledge another day, to be present and grateful and there. Be there. Soak it up.
So lucky, so lucky indeed. Along the way, throughout the day, in so many other simple, glorious ways, it is GOOD.
Keep Writing
I kick-started earlier this month. I’ve been in a funk for some time, and this sort of lumbering narrative was crystallizing that was positive. I was super-stoked. Gradually it began wane again. Meh.
Some time later this simple maxim came into my world, this reminder:
“Keep Writing.”
Who said it? Well, a lot of people probably have said it, and would say it, and it’s pretty straight forward….but in this case it was Lin-Manuel Miranda, in a featurette I was watching from the hit movie, Moana.
KEEP WRITING.
It’s a maxim above all others, really. For writers anyway.
KEEP WRITING.
Stalled out? Uninspired? No “good” ideas? Took a long break? No worries.
KEEP WRITING.
Don’t have the time? Can’t find the time? Sure you can. A few is all you need. A few minutes, it won’t take long. Jot down a few words when you can, when a thought comes to mind that has a little spark.
A little spark. That’s enough. Just a little spark, a little flame, that’s enough. Let it be enough.
KEEP WRITING.
GOOD.
Ebb and Flow
How does it go, the ebb and flow? How does it go, we stop and go. We go forward, we pause, we fall back a bit, all the while mindful of motion, mindful of purpose, the reason we go, how do we know?
Do we know why we do what we do? Motivated by inspiration, compensation, some other dispensation, what occasion for celebration? Sometimes it’s clear, other times not so much. Murky resolve, clear intention, or it was once, now not so much.
Habits and training and preparations, ready for any situation, so we think, so we hope; we hope we think clear when the moment comes, come what may, maybe we’ll be ready.
Worry, anxiety, uncertainty, uncertain of what’s next, what could be, what if I’m not enough, what if I fall short? Shortly we’ll know, no one knows before. It’s the wavering sense, sense of foreboding, foreshadow of failure, of crashing, crash out, time to crash, silence the voice inside, rest inside, rest assured, you’re ready, to do, go, good to go; now, ebb to flow, don’t you know, you’re ready to go.
“At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: ‘I have to go to work – as a human being. What do I have to complain of, if I’m going to do what I was born for – the things for which I was brought into this world to do?” – attributed to Marcus Aurelius with some narrative license.
Put another way, it might go something like this:
Let’s get after it. NOW.”
Darkness and Light
WOW. I last posted here over a month ago, on Good Friday. I had every intention of posting again the following week, after Easter, to share boost of positivism. It didn’t happen.
Over the last few weeks it’s been harder to find any writing time, or much free time period, it feels like. I’ve been working maybe a more hours at the day job, maybe…and certainly been prioritizing sleep, trying to stay healthy.
That luck ran out this week. I started having flu-like symptoms on Monday afternoon, and it’s gotten progressively worse. Achy muscles, runny nose, hacking cough, shakes and shivers, all bundled up to keep me home to work right up to present.
I’m fortunate that my company and manager both have the attitude that working from home from time to time is ok, and of course, taking sick time when you need to is the thing to do. So I’m home taking care of me, trying to heal up, work as I can, and get better.
Weird thing is, I’ve felt further out of sorts being out of the normal routine. All the “other” things I have on my master to-do list seem to swell up and cause anxiety, spin me out further. Weird indeed.
Then this morning I took the time to read a short post by a blogger I enjoy, Fred Wilson. He’s home sick today too. The small effort of reading his blog did two things for me.
1/ It reminded me how easy it is to post something in a blog, if you’re willing to make a little effort. And as I’ve shared before, I want to be more like Fred in that regard; he posts every day.
2/ It also reminded me that I’m not alone being sick and feeling crappy. Of course I know that intellectually, but I’d lost track of that emotionally and have been feeling a little isolated [funny to feel “isolated” when you life with four other people].
And so for whatever reason that simple read lead to this little write and I’m turning the corner on the darkness. This darkness wasn’t external evil, it had been within, the enemy within, the doubt and struggle and anxiousness and ill-feeling that compound to grind us down.
I’ve been here before, I’m sure I’ll be here again. Maybe we get better at this sort of process too, like other things we’ve had a lot of practice with. Realizing why you’re in a funk, re-setting, and taking steps to make it better.
Go toward the light, create more light, believe it can get better, then take steps to make it be better.
That’s the essence of this blog, that’s my essence, that’s my core life mission…and, I’m back. GOOD.
Darkness
We’ve all been there in one way or another. The darkness. Unsure, A little afraid. Or maybe it was worse; we had a sense of dread, maybe evil just around the corner, through the trees.
Maybe you’re somewhere in between; you can see the light off in the distance, but you’re not sure you can cross through the darkness.
By some measure it’s relative; each of us knows the doubt and pain and struggle of our own reality and experience.
The old adage, “…there’s always someone worse off than you…” might be a good way to approach this commonality of humanity.
Consider the homeless. Consider the abused. Consider those that don’t have enough to eat; maybe nothing at all to eat.
Consider those displaced by war, terrorized by violence otherwise. Consider the children, and old people, who can’t get away from the shelling, the bombs, the murderous mobs.
Imagine living in the open, in the cold, in the wet, with no real shelter from the elements.
Consider the suffering. Maybe from mental illness, or disease, or strife otherwise in your life, hounding you, not letting up.
And then consider being nailed to a cross and hung there to die.
Imagine a darkness so deep, unending, leaving your heart black with dispare, nothing to hold you back from the abyss but your pain.
And then consider the love it took to walk toward the cross, accept it. A commitment so complete that it bears witness to God’s love for us, to speak truth to the very end, until the spirit departs.
In the end, I think that’s why they call Good Friday good.
