Category Archives: perspective

Pay It Forward

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I just watched the movie of the same name again with a young Haley Joel Osment and was as overwhelmed with the movie today as I was when it first came out.  What a concept.  For those of you that have not seen the movie, I highly recommend it – and for those of you that have seen it, watch it again.

A young boy’s social studies assignment is to come up with a concept that could change the whole world and to put it into action.  His idea is so simple, yet so possible.  It begins with one good deed done for three separate people.   Instead of that favor being repaid, the favor is paid forward to three other unsuspecting, but deserving people.  The ripple effect of such a simple gesture could be remarkable!

The trajectory of human existence could be put into a whole new orbit.  The onus is on you to start the ripple – the rest is putting your faith in others to continue the journey that you began.  Imagine if the human race could single-handedly make the world a better place to live by putting our faith in each other and believing that such a small gesture could make such a vast difference.

It is certainly worth pondering for more than just a fleeting second.  What if the favor you bestow on someone today could start that ripple?  Kindness begets kindness…what we sow, so shall we reap.  But what if we let others reap what we have sown, and pass on that kindness to someone you may never cross paths with?

Pay it forward.  Impart your generosity to someone less fortunate with only one covenant.  They need not pay you for the kindness you have shown them.  Ask them instead to look favorably on someone else in need of that same benevolence that you have shared. The world can seem like an unfriendly and threatening place, but if we could change the outlook on life for three people and they, in turn, do the same, perhaps we can make a difference and make our world a much better place.

Don’t believe everything you think

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My brain plays tricks on me.  It sometimes deceives me into believing falsities that are so far from the truth it’s astounding.  I have a real knack for over-thinking, for seeing things unlike they really are and for creating sub-realities of truths I believe to be factual.

I am not delusional by any means, but I read too far into the most minute of details and things affect me on a much grander scale than they should.  If I forget to do something at work, I obsess over how it will affect my fellow employees when, in truth, it is a minor hiccup in the larger air pocket of the day.  I will churn words over and over again in my head – words that escaped my lips and perhaps fell on deaf ears, but words that I wish I would have said differently.  I over-think how those words could have been presented although time has already marched over those words and left them behind,  buried in the footprints of the past.

brain_on_fire

(image credit: salon.com)

In this regard, I am my own worst enemy.  Or at least the firing neurons in my thought processes are my worst enemy.  I must not believe everything I think.  I must learn that perspective is an individual thing and not everyone sees or hears the things I do in the same way.  I read too much into people’s reactions.  I over-analyze every word until those words are beaten into submission, yet they still torture me in my sleep and continue to hover above my pillow in my waking hours.

I am on a crusade to teach myself to let those things go – to not dwell on the things I cannot change and to accept things at face value.  The drama will continue to play on in my head but I must remember to not believe everything I think.

Lullaby and good night – Trifextra challenge

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Lullabies pulled the young ones into slumber.  Dreams formed like rainbows while they slept and that warmth soothed them in the darkness.  Crickets sang their melodies and the world closed its weary eyes.

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Written for the weekend Trifextra Challenge:  The editors of Trifecta are tired.  Hectic summer plans, last minute school shopping and prep for courses of our own have us drifting off in front of the computer.  Any millisecond we can shave off of our busy schedules could potentially improve the quality of our lives as well as the lives of those around us.  This weekend, we’re enlisting your help in shortening our considerably lengthy bedtime routines by giving us a children’s bedtime story in exactly 33 words.  It can be an old favorite reimagined or a work that is entirely your own.  We only ask that your story not leave our kids with visions of the boogie man dancing in their heads.  These tired bones thank you in advance.
– See more at: http://www.trifectawritingchallenge.com/#sthash.53SoD6bL.dpuf

Slices of life – Trifextra Challenge

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A million pixels of beautiful light – slivers of reality connected to create a bigger picture.

Life’s spectral portrait can be cherished in its entirety or by seeing each day for its individual beauty.

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pixels

Written for the weekend Trifextra Challenge:  But in an effort to try to steer you guys back into the light and save the darkness for another month, we’re switching gears a bit this weekend.  This weekend’s prompt is to write 33 words exactly inspired by the photo project by Eirik Solheim.  Each slice of the photo compilation is a different day of the year, taken from the same location.

Our senses

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We are a species of senses.  We rely on sight, touch, taste, sound and smell to allow our perceptions to travel to our brain where they are realized and understood.  And when we see something that we find pleasing to the eye we are immediately captured by the look of it.  Whether it be a piece of art, the car of your dreams, a stunning photograph or the look of another person, our brain reacts to the ocular stimulation and we become mesmerized by the vision.

More often than not we become so focused on the things that are evident to the naked eye that we forget to take into account the sense that our heart feels when it is equally captured by something.  It is simple to covet things we see –  a random object that catches our attention and we want so badly to have it for our very own.  But the things that catch your eye can be deceiving – they can change over time and ultimately hold none of the rapture that they once did.

The things that capture your heart are worth a million of the trinkets that once held your visual attention.  Life is about passion and harnessing that ebb and flow of energy that makes our hearts full.  By pursuing the things that truly capture your heart you are embracing the genuine happiness you feel when you follow that intense feeling.

Believe in that passion, whatever it may be, and know that the special things that capture your heart are well worth the effort to pursue.  We get one chance at this life.  Never forget that the five senses will create lasting memories but make this life the best you can by trusting your gut and following your true passions.

State of mind

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I am in a very zen state right now.  I’ve just come back from having a Hot Stone Massage and the tension that used to ride shotgun on my shoulders has dissipated to nothingness.  Although the August temperature is a mere 15 degrees, my body feels warm and I can feel the blood coursing through my newly relaxed muscles.  I am gelatin.

I had a blog post in mind when I left my house but the words have just fallen away.   I have a writing deadline looming, but I cannot conjure the idioms that are required to complete the task.  And the most glorious thing is – at this precise moment I don’t care.  I want to bask in this feeling of nothingness.  I want to close the laptop and absorb the sounds of nature that soothe and enhance this suspension of reality.

The wine is poured, the windows are open and I am on a journey to seek nothing.

Not the cone!!

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For any of you that have ever owned a pet, you are familiar with that hateful plastic cone they have to don as part of their wardrobe after a surgical procedure.  It’s a tragic piece of equipment and it’s as painful for us to watch them wearing it as it is for them to carry it around.  I just went through two weeks of it with my dog.

All too often, people seem to go through life with an invisible version of that very cone.  A compacted mass of concealed particles shrouds their peripheral vision. It keeps them so focused on only the tunnel they can see when the world is revolving around them out of their line of sight.

cone

There are so many things that are missed because we refuse to look beyond our interpreted field of vision.  We forget to study the bigger picture.  So many things go unnoticed because we either refuse to look or hide in the cone that we have created for ourselves.

Pets do nothing but strive to find a way to release themselves from the cone.  They connect with furniture, drag it along walls and even fill it with dirt and mud outdoors trying to scrape it along the ground to release themselves from the binds of selective blindness.  Humans, on the opposite end of the spectrum, try to keep themselves bound in that discerning lack of vision and don’t want the freedom of external sight.

Take the blinders off!!  If you have to scrape your head along the pavement – lose the cone.  Let yourself see everything you are meant to see and learn from the lessons life has to offer. Look in all directions. Any decisions you need to make will be better served by having that entire field of knowledge at your fingertips, not just the portions that you choose to see within your cone.

Words can be weapons

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Everyone is guilty of blurting out something they immediately wished they could take back.  But it’s out there, hanging over their head like a cartoon speech balloon that they can read over and over again.  The words haunt them, and while they hover in the air the letters, as if in slow motion, dissect and become daggers that hurtle themselves towards the intended victim. Whether it was their objective to be hurtful or not, that person undoubtedly didn’t take the time to think about how what they said would really affect the other person.

There is generally a five second window – a brief moment that you can write a rough essay before composing your final draft.  It gives you that precious time to edit what is said before it escapes your lips.  It’s called a filter. Some people have developed the ability to contain a response until it is processed through the many neurons that it should permeate. Others recklessly open that gaping threshold and spew the vile and heinous words that cut through their victim like a round of automatic gun fire.  The blast is quick and leaves many wounds, open and weeping, as the victim tries to rally and repair the damage.

You can’t take back stupid.  And you can’t take back detrimental. You can’t reel in the words that have been so carelessly cast into the churning river of a person’s sea of reality.  Once those sounds have escaped your lips the weight of their purpose hangs heavily on the one receiving the message and the damage has been done.

There may be an endless stream of apologies and begging for forgiveness from the assassin of the English language but memory is a funny thing. Although forgiveness may eventually be awarded, forgetting is not always an option.  And those deep, gaping wounds are carried with them for what could feel like an eternity.  That moment is replayed in their mind more than a thousand times.

You have the power to circumvent that atrocity from occurring. Take the time to think about what it is that you really want to convey.  You can be critical, but don’t be mean.  And if your comment serves no apparent purpose, than keep it to yourself.  Don’t inflict unnecessary suffering because you can’t find the right words.  Take your time and choose those words wisely.  During future battle you may be the one staring down the barrel of that automatic weapon of idioms the next time it is fired.

Moments become memories

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We’ve all had those moments.  Long lost images in our brains that transform themselves into lingering and strong memories. The memories that we retain in our lives are moments that mattered.

They may sneak up on us at the most unsuspecting times, or they may be moments that follow us throughout our days and weeks, never leaving our mind.  Regardless of how often they dwell in the recesses of our brain, the presence of that memory can bring back sights and smells long since forgotten and induce feelings long since buried.

These are times that we refer to as pivotal moments – experiences that changed the way we felt about ourselves or encounters that made us realize what moments mattered most to us.  Although those memories may seem to fade over time their existence is never eradicated.

A sudden and unintended resurgence of a memory may elicit feelings that we have not allowed ourselves to think about for a long period of time.  But when we find ourselves ensconced in that trip down memory lane the recollection is so vivid that it invokes all of the feelings we have long since suppressed.

Memories are life markers – like the post it notes we put in our files to remind us of important paragraphs in the documents of our lives.  Subtle reminders that these moments meant something to us and are marked in our history so we can readily access them.

Let those memories seep back into your consciousness. They are re-entering your reality for a reason.  Relive that memory and realize the importance that it once had in your life and embrace the impact it had on you. Memories are invoked for a reason and only you can decide how to interpret that reflection into your past and decide how it has shaped your present and how it will affect you in your future.

Hello, Kettle? It’s pot calling. You’re black.

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Hypocrisy.  It lives and walks among us and it lurks in the very shadows in which we feel safe.  It feeds upon unsuspecting minds, clinging to the particles of grey matter that are most apt to ignore it.

Professing beliefs or ideals that you neither follow nor remotely understand is the most familiar definition but there is also the flip side of the hypocritical coin.  The admonishment of a habit or behavioural pattern that is so blatantly shared by the one pointing the finger is the one that is most commonly seen – at least by me.

But the ones making flagrant accusations are oblivious to the obvious.  They are standing so far out on the precipice of blindness that they are unaware that they are constantly living in a suspended state of hypocrisy.  And perhaps they truly can’t see the irony in pointing out the shortcomings of another when they represent the same qualities themselves.

Maybe the pot calling the kettle black is a mere distraction technique.  If the focus is shifted in a different direction, the pot will never receive the negative repercussion to which it should so rightly be subjected.  Panning the camera for a close up on the kettle potentially leaves the pot completely out of the picture.

But a word of caution to the pot – even though you may try to use the kettle as a scapegoat to alleviate any personal discomfort, bear in mind that there are many other pots and pans in your proverbial pantry and they see right through the facade.  The very ashes that charred the surface of the kettle are mirrored on the exterior of your pot.  Before you are so quick to judge make sure that your extraneous covering is free from any soot before you bring the kettle into the mix.