Seeing the key

Clarity is an attribute that I admire a lot. I don't see it in people too often. What I see is a lot of opinions based on notions that don't appear to have a base in reality or truth. I see people who don't plan because they can't see the end. They end up plodding along, and they never really catch up from being behind the curve. I see people acting out of fear of what might happen. I see people saying what they believe, but it is rooted in wishful thinking or based on the power of positive thinking.

What I try to do is put myself around people who exhibit clear thinking. They don't always have life figured out, but they have a good grasp of how reality works, or what research says are the odds or the true behaviors of something or some group. They have a direction, yet they are flexible when the occasion calls for that. They know how to work with others, but they don't let others get in the way. If they have notions about something, they recognize its being different from the truth or reality, so they are willing to mold their notions to truth and reality as the two become clear.

I tend to trust those who have clarity. I love being around them. They take you where you are going. It's so much easier to see the key to life with them in the circle with you.

The Sahara cycle

I am usually fascinated by the history of the earth. Sometimes I think I missed my calling because I like geology so much. The Sahara Desert's interesting history is a good example of why I like geology. The great Sahara Desert hasn't always been a desert.

The Sahara has a varied history, but it also has a rhythm to it. At one time, about 300,000 years ago, it was a sea bottom. There was more water in the Mediterranean Sea area than there is now so that about the top third of Africa was a part of the ocean that is now the Atlantic. Old dinosaur crocodile bones have been found in the desert to verify this along with other shells.

But after the disappearance of the ocean, the Sahara has been through several 20,000 year cylces of going from swamp and jungle to being a desert. I would love to have seen it when it was green. But the most recent change to the cycle, about 13,000 years ago, insures that I won't. The Sahara is desert now, and for the next 7,000 years.

I think, as I look back on my life, that it reflects the cycles of the Sahara Desert. It has certainly been through cycles that have reflected both the lush green times and the times of brown desert dunes. I have just been through the desert dunes phase. I see the lush green ahead. I welcome it. I hate intense heat! The Sahara only took about 200 years to change when it passed from one cycle to the next. That is fairly quick in light of its 20,000 year scheme of cycles. The last year in my life reflects that period of cycle change. I am ready.

It's J ust L ike S ahara...

Cave paintings speak

It seems that in many places around the world there are cave paintings of ancient people. Some date back to an age before the most recent ice age. A lot of archaeologists believe the paintings show where to find game so they could stay well fed. However, just 2 years ago one archaeologist has a really good case for some of the paintings to herald what is in the heavens - the movement of the stars.

It is fascinating to me that ancient people knew so much about the sky and our planet's role in the universe. But, even with the knowledge they had, they still are ancient people and did not have near the vantage point that we do today. So with life... our most recent vantage point should be the one that guides us because it is the one that has the wisdom, the accumulated experience and knowledge, the applied living principles that work.

While cave paintings are fascinating and intriguing, they do not represent current reality. So with life!

(Mental) natural selection

Barnes and Nobles is a good book store in that it offers many, many books in all kinds of genres both fiction and nonfiction. They have just about anything a person would have an interest in. I seldom go to Barnes and Nobles to browse, though. I go there when I know more or less what I want. But even when I have narrowed the field, I sometimes go up and down several of the aisles just to browse titles of books for which I have no interest for that particular visit. This helps me appreciate the book or genre that I came there for, knowing that I have chosen one from such a wide array choices.

Life is a kaleidoscope of people with more choices than Barnes and Nobles can offer with books. It's kind of amazing to me that I can go through life meeting all kinds of people, experiencing a whole range of events, and still end up with a finite set of preferences because of the natural selection process. People have preferences so they approach

life like going to the book store. They know their preferences, so they don't really waste a lot of time browsing; they might notice the various titles on occasion, but they know what they came to the book store for.

So, as I travel through life, I choose to remember the events I have

preferences for. I don't always forget the sad times or the travesties that have

occurred, I just sort them into a life philosophy that I can live with and move

on. However, I do select some experiences or persons to bring to the front of

my consciousness that propel me to push further in life. It is nice to have people and events as a catalog to draw from in shaping my future, but it is equally as satisfying to have that one event and person to help in painting the picture of what lies ahead.

Winds of change

Tonight the wind is blowing rather ominously. A cold front is moving in that will lower the temperature for tomorrow by 40 degrees and the wind chill temperature by 55 degrees. That's an effective change!

Life blows through sometimes and changes things radically. Not all change is bad and some matters in our lives need something effective to turn them into something new, exciting, and hopeful. Life can become mundane sometimes, or it can imprison us to certain life views. If I look back a year, I find the mundane and the prison view. But the wind changed direction and effected some changes of major proportions. What a welcome change of scenery!

A Waterford person

The box above may look like an ordinary box to keep valuables in. But it isn't; it's very special. It is made by one of the premier designers of glass in the world - Waterford. I didn't hear of Waterford until I was an adult, but I clearly understood then that Waterford didn't produce just ordinary crystal objects.

Waterford headquarters is in Ireland about an hour from Dublin on the top of the world, so to speak, near the Arctic Circle. It's location makes it special if nothing else since it is way off the beaten path. But, beyond its location, Waterford is special because of the extreme care its artisans take in crafting each glass object it makes.

First a mold is made for each crystal piece out of beech or pear wood. Those are the only woods that withstand the heat needed as the crucible for the molten glass. Next, the glass is a product of the furnace room where the molten glass is blown then shaped and cooled over the mold made just for it.

http://www.waterford.com/images/product_enlarged/1350755600lg.jpg

The link takes you to Waterford's virtual visitor center for pictures and explanations.

Beautiful crystal objects are produced from this hard to reach spot on the earth. What a great analogy for the people we surround ourselves with in life - Waterford people. They are those people who are generally amazing. They inspire us, challenge us, befriend us. They are special, having been formed by the master artisans of life's molding forces.

I have important people in my life - business partners, profs who have taught me so much, friends who help professionally. But besides the deep bonds that tie family together, there are those Waterford people. They are Just Like Sparkling gems!

Trans (across) + spire (to breathe)

The turn of a new year brings with it the chance to see with a little clarity from a distance all that has transpired and a look ahead to the hope of what can transpire. Although you don't hear the word transpiration very often, that is what New Year's Day and New Year's Week is all about, seeing what vapors might escape once they are breathed out.

In one sense, what transpires on the first day and week of the month by a lot of people should transpire, that is, setting goals and planning to achieve them. Some activities do work best that way. In another sense, some activities should not have goals attached to them. Life requires spontaneity, passion, excitement, hope, and change. There is no goal for these. They just happen. Sometimes they take work or include work, but you can't plan for them necessarily or give quotas for them.

I do have some goals for this coming year, especially in my work. But, I also have high hopes that my life will be filled with spontaneity, passion, hope, and change. You can't plan for what is around the next corner. But life with purpose and passion anticipates that the next corner will be exciting even if it includes change, having horizons stretched, or inhaling new vapors breathed across my path. So, I will strive to achieve my goals while at the same time be excited about the transpiration of life around the next corner.