Over and over

This is the season for giving gifts.  I have given my fair share over the years.  I have given to people I love like my children and to people I have not known because they could not afford the gifts.  I have given when it was anticipated and unanticipated.  I have given presents that caused surprise and given presents that were deliberated upon ahead of time.  But, the gift I enjoyed giving the most was one not expected.  I knew one of the person's favorite stores and searched that store for just the right gift, going four times before deciding.  I flew halfway across the U.S. with the gift, at one point being searched by airport security because the glass in it contained lead.  But it was pure pleasure to give that gift.  So, when people speak of gift-giving during this season, I remember most the one that gave me the greatest pleasure, and I still smile just thinking about it, wishing I could give that gift over and over.

Treasures in thought too

This morning started out cold.  I don't drink coffee, and I was out of tea which I sometimes drink hot, so I had to just let the cold shroud me.  Tonight was pretty cold, too.  I have a coat, and that helped.  But it's having a warm heart that makes the body warm all over.  Then it could be sub-freezing weather and it wouldn't matter.

Every day this week is supposed to be cold.  But, my brain sends my heart sensations of a cherub's voice and an angel's eyes, and tender scenes of unparalleled joy and beauty that I have stored and treasured there.  So, I know I won't feel the cold... The scenes make my heart warm... Nothing else matters.

Confluence

10,000 years ago a tsunami crashed into the eastern coast of the Mediterranean.  At least that was the theory of an Italian archaeologist.  No one believed him.  So, he set out to find his evidence to prove his case.  He found villages on the eastern side of the sea that are underwater now, but that had been above water at some point.  He found artifacts at those settlements and dated them - no surprise - to the 9th century BCE.  He also found that the water of the Mediterranean had been at lower levels during the 9th century BCE that would allow the settlements to be above water.  He found evidence off the coast of Italy in the ocean floor that a plate in the crust had moved about the same time.  He found a confluence of evidence all pointing to the truth of his case.

One can look at my life and draw some conclusions.  One is that in my 20s I was certainly a different person than I am now.  A quick interview of some my friends then would certainly tell that tale.  One could also ask me about impact people in my life.  They could hear their names and see the trails of their influence in my life and work.  My Greek professor in college was one of those people.  And a person can see his influence in every decade of my vocation and avocation.  But there was a tsunami that left its mark on everything I think and do now.  I doubt that people would see it and believe it at the moment.  It takes a while for evidence to mount.  However, a day will come when people will have a confluence of evidence that my Earth's floor suddenly moved a couple of years back, setting a wave in motion that crashed the shore on the other side of the sea.

I am not sad about it.  It was a beautiful event.  The life I have after is so much better.  In fact, I bask in the hope of a splash to come.

Sacred scroll

Tucked away in the deserts of Israel were some scrolls that had great value to many people.  Jews regarded them highly because they were lost Jewish writings of a sect that had disappeared about the turn of the 1st century ACE.  Christians liked them because they corroborated some of the books of the Bible and shed additional light on the culture of the 1st century in which Jesus lived.  They were sacred because they were regarded highly because of what they contained.

I regard those same scrolls highly, maybe for different reasons, but there are some other writings that have a very special place with me and are esteemed more highly than anything I possess of a personal nature.  On this day of giving thanks, I am most thankful for this other writing.  It is a poster rolled up like a scroll, lying in a place much like the caves around the Dead Sea.  Last week, I decided to take in its contents again since it had been a while.  I could not take my eyes from the pictures of the three most special people in the world standing there talking at a festive occasion.  When finally I did, I read the poem associated with the pictures, then scanned the meaningful songs and places next to the poem.  I spent quite a bit of time, sacred moments, letting my mind once again soak in all that was there. Finally, I rolled the poster and returned the scroll to its container, but it refreshed my day.  My mind was caught up in this moment, caught up in the smile of those in the picture, full of thought, full of reconstitution, full of sheer happiness.

Some consider these two types of scrolls to be on different levels.  Maybe.  I do know that the effect on me was exactly the same with the second type as with the first.  And if the effect is the same, then any difference that may exist is gone.  Sacred scroll... sacred moments... sacred feelings!

Yes, I have seen this one

In 1986, one could look to the sky and see a beautiful, bright star with a tail as long as from the Earth to the moon.  It would not be the first time that celestial body would have been seen by humans.  There are tales of this "star" showing up on a regular basis since 240 BCE.  Other and older reports also exist, but it is unknown whether or not they pertain to this beautiful, bright, long-tailed star.

It was the good fortune of Isaac Newton's friend, not Newton himself, who calculated the periodic return of this fiery but majestic celestial body every 76 years.  Edmond Halley gets the credit for predicting this comet after years of scientific study of its phenomenon.

A person is lucky to see it once in her/his lifetime.  When the average mortality age was 65, one would just have to be born strategically to view the comet's appearance.  Now, with an average mortality age of 80, one has the chance to see it twice.  Still, though, that's a very small class of people.  Once is what most people will see this splendid comet.  Human lives are short, no doubt.  And many people do not see this comet at all in their lifetimes. 

It is my experience that people meet just the right person, their Halley's Comet, once in a lifetime.  Some get that lucky chance early in life, some later.  But, a person always knows when (s)he has met the one.  His/her lips cannot stop smiling.  The joy of living is unmistakable.  The buoyancy of meeting the routines and other mundane matters in life with zest cause life to suddenly be an adventure worth living out.  Having someone to believe in and be believed by is the rare, once-in-a-lifetime pass-by of someone beautiful, bright, and full of vibrance and inspiration.  And, yes, I have seen the one celestial, beautiful, bright Halley's Comet!

Even that is telling

Recently, I got to carry on an extended conversation with a man who was keenly interested in the idea that the way someone says something, that is, the choice of words and phrasing a person uses to word an utterance, can have significance.  He dabbles in language, but it is limited to phonetics because he works on reducing foreigner's accents.  He had not been exposed to the study of semantics, pragmatics, grammar theory, or forensic linguistics.  I love having those conversations.

How people word their sentences does reveal volumes about them. Syntax, word choices, and phrasing all work together to expose one's personality, perspective, orientation, and emotional attachment or detachment.  It also reveals their maturity with articulation.  Piaget pointed out that adults can develop in their cognition to a concrete stage and then plateau.  I think the same is true with language.  Adults can reach a plateau in their ability to manipulate it.  But, even that is telling.  The point at which articulation is arrested says something about the person's personality and perspective. 

I listen to people talk.  It has helped me understand what they are really about.  That has saved me a lot of time and breath.

Let it go

"Let it go."  I hear this phrase a lot in life.  It's good advice from time to time.  I most often hear it said about matters that are minor irritants.  But, I also hear it from professional counselors on television when they advise people to move on with their lives.  They are told to let go of abuse, neglect, kidnapping, verbal lashings, submission, and other behaviors.  It is hard for people to let things go of such a major nature.  It takes time and the willingness to move on without allowing the matter to influence their futures.

So much happens in life that it is easy to let most matters go.  Experience allows a person to learn which battles are the important battles, the matters that one shouldn't let go.  This experience also helps a person build a priority list, values in ascending order.  The higher up the priority list a matter is, the less likely it is for someone to let that matter go.  If  a matter is at the top of the list, a person is not going to let that matter go.

Sometimes, the top priority is a hope someone has; it will remain intact. 

 The person won't let that hope go... ever.  I know this first-hand.  It is the hill worth dying on.

Sentiments for deep sleep

I really, really like the group Sugarland because they blend their voices so well, and their choice of songs to sing are on the themes I identify with.  So I was listening to the CMA awards tonight and heard them sing with Matt Nathanson the song Run.   Love that song for several reasons, but two reasons above all others.

My son used to play the drums for a band.  He was very, very good at them.  In particular, he would play songs using the toms.  The song Run highlights both bass guitar and tom drums all the way through the song.  That sound is so pleasing, and it reminds me of my son's ability on the drums.  For that reason alone I could listen to the song all night long.

The song has tremendous words to it, among them, "When you're beside me, I am so much more," a theme of several of my blogs.  The words occur in the middle of the song, the bridge between the chorus and the verses.  Although subtly placed, the words are not subliminal, but significant.  They speak volumes because I know the person I am when I stand alone.

So, tonight I sleep, savoring two of the closest sentiments of my heart.  It will be a deep 5 hours of sleep before rising again.

Star scenes

Franz Mesmer lived at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th.  He developed a new theory for the world called animal magnetism.  His great test case came when he tried to heal a blind woman, a young musician.  Many thought he was a charlatan for so doing.  But he was merely trying to direct the body's energy to one area in order to heal that area.  To do so, he asked her to concentrate, trance style, on the area needing healing.

This method came to bear his name in English as a verb when people wanted to mesmerize someone.  However, the term hypnotize became more popular in the late 1800s, so mesmerize took on a new meaning - to hold someone spellbound.

Tonight, a glance at the night sky holds my eyes there.  It engages my thought.  It directs my body's energy to my fascination of space, and by association, the fascination of those times that have given my life its happiness.  I have been mesmerized.  Reality returns, but not before the stars have bathed my thoughts with spellbinding, healing visuals of the one who inspires me.

Treasures in thought

Treasures come in two varieties - those that you can hold and touch, buy and sell, and those that you can think of and memorize, mull and replay.  I know that a lot of people put stock in the physical type.  Their value can bring an appraised price, something tangible.  But I put stock in the cognitive type.  Their value is personally appraised, something in the deep recesses of the mind.

Treasures of this second type are always available and their replay seems, like wine, to taste more robust with every swish across the palate.  I have a very special set of them that are placed in vintage bottles.  I bring them out for tasting when life needs more vitality.  They're not just empty scenes that flash across the monitor of the mind.  They have life, sounds, laughter, silences, touches, and vibrance.  They derive from a voice, a face, a time of day. They immediately bring a spring to each step, a reason for living.

Their value cannot be appraised for there is not currency enough to buy, sell, or trade even one of these treasures.  They can be embodied in songs or captured in movies.  Books and poems can represent the feelings created by them.  They provide the flames I want to live beside in life, as in Dierks Bentley's song Feel That Fire and the inspiration I need to live fully as in Blind Side, the movie.

These treasures in thought cast a more radiant glow on life than the brilliance of the sun on Earth!

Choosing from a spectrum

Proverbs reflect the values of people and are good to follow many times.  A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush is a saying worth understanding and valuable when it comes to negotiating a deal involving money.   But, proverbs are only as good as the people's experience that make them up.  When experiences differ, then proverbs differ.  And those proverbs seem to reflect the rub in life.  Some things in life derive from spontaneity, passion, love for the moment, and fire in the soul.  Other things are driven by planning, implementation, and determination.  Thus, Plan your work, work your plan is in diametric opposition to Stop and smell the roses.  So are the phrases, Stay on the beaten path and The beautiful things in life are off the beaten path.  The proverb The best way to project the future is to look at the past ignores completely the idea that The only constant in life is change.  Some people see decision making as choosing between two colors, black and white.  Others approach decision making as choosing from a whole spectrum of colors, each color rendering scenes having their own distinct and particular beauty. 

I lived a rather principled life early on, but in doing so I suppressed much of the input given to me by my heart.  I was wrong.  That led to a Spartan life.  While hedonism is probably the opposite extreme, guided only by desire, there is something to be said for allowing passion and beauty to balance the austere principles.  Every life should enjoy the beauty and hope of springtime, not merely the winter of despair, the dropping leaves of autumn, or the dog days of summer.  Listening to the heart permits us to drink from the wellspring of life.

Comfortable sleep in due time

At the end of last month, it was two years ago that I walked away from the comfortable and routine and ambled toward a rainbow of possiblities.  There was one aspect, however, that I didn't want to leave. :(  Since then, I have been able to accomplish some of the possibilities afforded in that rainbow.  The sweetness of the potential of most of the rest of the color array isn't complete, but will be realized I am pretty sure... except one aspect.

Life cycles around, sometimes slower, sometimes faster.  I just have to remember... Everything in its due time.  Until then, I will only somewhat sleep at night.