A park gift

This is the time of the year when gifts are on a person's mind. I have been able to enjoy the gift of a park close to my house that I have walked in for the past 7 years. I walk there many mornings of the year. Over the 7 years it has produced a number of scenes for me to think and write about. The park is a gift because it spawns such generative thinking power.




Today even in the cold part of the day, squirrels were gamboling from one tree to the next. They ran spryly, crisply so that it looked like they enjoyed the movement as they chased each other or paused to crunch a nut off the ground. They gave life to the park. I have seen this scene over and over, regardless of the time of year. It's a gift from the park.



Sometimes the park seems a little sinister. During the winter months, many days the sun is not up when I walk, so I walk in the darkness. But, even if the walk begins on a sinister note, it ends giving me comfort because my eyes adjust to the darkness, and I know every crook and cranny of it. So, I lapse into the familiarity of its places.

And, on a number of occasions, pictures emerge in the park that strike me as something to write about - the moon over the trees, the trees dropping their leaves, its winter wonderland look when it snows. It gives me a certain amount of energy.

And finally, the park revives my mental energy. This is especially true if one facet or another of my life is out of whack. I get to concentrate on what is happening and try to figure out an answer or an approach that will yield happiness. Walking there helps me sort out thoughts as to the priorities in my life, or lets me see a direction that I need to take. The last few months, time there has allowed me to think of the new direction I need to take and the priority I need to have. Just recently some interesting ice formations in the park resembled a crown. It gave me pause to apply that symbol to the priorty of the one who has the regal position in my life.

The park has been a gift. I am thankful for my long time walking buddy.

Knowing what's real

Kangaroo leather is characterized by its flexibility, not its stiffness. So, when I bought a hat made from kangaroo leather, the fact that it came folded in a small bag only to bounce into form after taking it from the bag made me know that it was authentic kangaroo leather. It's been a great hat because of its viability ever since.

No doubt there will be a number of caps sold across the United States touting the Olympics in North America this February. There will be caps with the multicolored rings across the front. There will be caps with the word Vancouver 2010 on them. There will be all kinds of insignias on caps, but there won't be one that has the emblem of the Indian nation from the British Columbian area of Canada unless it was bought in Vancouver or in British Columbia. I have one of those authentic caps; it will be a novelty in the area I live in since I live a long way from Vancouver.

Authenticity is important in an age in which one can wear faux furs or sport faux mohawks or buy faux purses. "Knock-off" is a common word these days. So, when it comes to relationships, people are satisfied with "faux" relationships, knock-offs. There are a number of reasons people accept partial relationships rather than complete ones, but one of the reasons is that there are not that many people willing to offer a complete or authentic giving of themselves.



It is a felt emptiness to experience faux relationships. However, one gets to expecting them since authentic ones are few and far between. How refreshing it is to cross paths with someone who brings authenticity, who is transparent, positive, proactive, cheerful, probing, encouraging, energetic, caring, interactive, and enthusiastic. To use an old phrase, "I want to stake my tent" with such a person, not merely to be around them, but to experience authenticity that is just not available anywhere else. It's the difference between wearing silver or wearing gold in a ring.

Nothing like a good ruse

Somewhere around 850 BCE, Trojan and Greek armies had been engaged in warfare for a long time, maybe 10 years. Whatever the length, both armies were worn completely down. Death tolls were high. Important people had been slain. The war seemed like it would only end with the death of the last warrior in the siege. Then, the Greeks did the unthinkable – they offered a peace offering to the Trojans, a gift for being such a formidable foe, loaded their boats for Greece and withdrew from the harbor in front of Troy.

Oh, but that isn’t the end of the story. Literate people know the phrase, “Beware of Greeks bearing gifts.” The Trojan horse that had been given to the town as a gift was a ruse. It contained soldiers, who would wait until nightfall to leave the horse, open the gates, and let in the Greek army whose ships had returned to the bay and unloaded for the final assault. It’s a well known ploy. The Iliad just made the trickery famous.

War is good only if you win it. I have been engaged in wars with co-workers before and in larger office politics as well. The one event that wins it every time is the ruse that is created. Some people play by the adage that luck is always better than preparation. Thus, if they win a war, “There’s nothing like dumb luck,” they say. But I want to weigh in on the side of another saying, “There’s no substitute for preparation.” And that preparation is the ruse that makes the enemy feel confident of a winning outcome when really they are about to be brought down to deafening defeat because they have unwittingly exposed their fatal flaws to the opponent.

Fight well, my kindred spirit!

A work of beauty

Sometimes we assign importance to an object or to a person by saying that the object or person is the "heart and soul" of something. It would seem that the terms are redundant, and English, in general, resists redundancy (although it has its fair share built into its grammar). I guess the two terms could be considered redundant simply because they are synonyms. Someone could be the heart or soul of a company, for example, because (s)he feels so passionate about what the company does, and passion is represented by both heart and soul.

But, I think the terms could also be seen differently so that they are not repetitious. Heart is used sometimes to refer to courage, and soul is sometimes used to refer to the personality exuded by someone. So, if a person is the heart and soul of something, then perhaps (s)he is the courageous one and the one that everyone thinks of first because the entity is best represented by the traits of that one person.

I love meeting people who provide heart and soul. I know several of these people. One stands out. I love the sparkle and glitz, the courage, passion, and social networking this person provides for everything and everyone. It is sheer beauty to see.

Hooking

One thing I really like doing is finding what is under someone's layer of words. Usually people lay themselves bare with the language they use or written language habits they have developed. Some people are harder than others in determining what intentions lie under the verbage. But eventually people reveal themselves. It's a little like going fishing and trying to use a hook to catch someone. At first people like to present themselves through the frame of a picture, but eventually they can be hooked so that what does not appear in the picture can be seen. Language study is the perfect hook. It has certainly served me in good stead.

Not an illusion

"The grass is greener on the other side of the fence" is a saying of warning. If it is said, then the one saying it is trying to warn the listener that really nothing is truly greener... It just appears to be that way.

This can certainly be true. And there's a sister saying, "If it seems too good to be true, then it probably is." Another warning. And I heard both of these sayings within a two day span just over the weekend.

But I also know that sayings are just that... They are based on the usual or average experience, the typical way things turn out. It is so sweet when the grass really is greener and something really is truly good and doesn't just seem that way. I guess I am fortunate, but I am trusting my experience this time, and it is telling me that what I am seeing is really greener and what seems good, truly is. I have been wrong before, but that experience has led me to know that pure gold is unmistakably pure gold.

The best lemonade you have ever tasted

Dante wrote one of the masterpieces of the world around 1315 A.C.E., The Divine Comedy. The first section, called The Inferno, describes a descent into the depths of hell. It is an awful place. Many readers of Dante's day were frightened at the description, thinking that it was real.

I have written several blogs about escaping the hellish environment that I worked in until last month. Yes, I feel that I have escaped the inferno. The people that ran the place were crazy, inconsistent, brutish, mean-spirited, and ghoulish at varying turns. I am thankful for the escape, but I really, really find my spirit diminished to know that I left behind a very close colleague of mine in the inferno. The two of us often mused how she had to make lemonade from lemons from the misfires caused by the craziness of the place.

I feel her great pain and wish mightily that she could also find a way of escape. I know how the pressure of the place wears on a person. It drains one's energy beyond belief and never is one led to believe that she is competent, talented, used according to her strength. I feel for her greatly!

What is little known is that the Divine Comedy ends with a section called Paradise. It is all about the heavenly spheres that the main character is led through. It is my earnest belief that her talent and competence will very soon lead her away from this inferno into the "heavenly spheres" of the work world that will showcase her strength for all to see and appreciate. She will soon have an angelic taste of success outside of the inferno.

In the meantime, she will be making a lot of great tasting lemonade simply because she is talented and brilliant.

Thanks giving

I didn't know that when this year started that it would yield a number of events to be so thankful for. What a difference a year makes! Last year at this time, I was not at all enthralled with what was happening in my life. This year I have been given hope... and laughter... and vibrancy... for which I am so very grateful. And I thank the one who has caused such a turn-around.

How nice to get a raise in level

In Great Britain an elevator is called a lift. I like that idea a lot. It takes the weight of people and lifts them from one level to a level higher or more.

Today I was on the first floor of my day and had been for the whole day... until about 1:15. I couldn't get off the first floor. What a dull day. Then the phone sounded. The door to the lift opened. I got on and went up a floor. A couple of hours later the phone sounded again. The door opened again and I went up another floor. A third ring, a third floor. By four o' clock I was looking out the window from floors above where I was before 1:15.

Who would have thought that a phone call would equal a lift... but how my spirits were lifted! I don't take lifts for granted any more. I just enjoy them to the hilt when they occur.

A lesson from late fall

Life comes in seasons and flavors them with characteristics all their own. The very late fall characteristics were evident this morning in the park I walk in. One characteristic is that the leaves are all off the trees. It's not the prettiest time of year, but leaves being gone are a necessary function for the season. When the leaves are gone it allows everything in the biological cycle to take place like the scattering of seeds and the relegation of diminished sunlight to be for the main part of the tree without having to supply ever-needy leaves with nourishment.

Trees without leaves reveal the structure of the tree without the masking of the leaves. Leaves tend to distract one from the structure because of their beauty. But when the tree loses its leaves, mistletoe and nests are no longer protected from view. In late fall and winter the nests are empty. Life is latent. Observers get in touch with the structure of the tree again.

So, in our personal lives we have seasons during which we can lose the masks and see the structure of the events and relationships that make up our lives. It's a perfect time to lop off branches, prune, and reinvigorate trees so that when the beauty of the leaves returns it can sustain life better and make the beauty more vibrant.

I believe that time has come to prune and reinvigorate. Some limbs are cracked and dead. The leaves are gone to expose this. It's time to knock out the nests and get rid of the mistletoe that are leeches on the tree. When the spring arrives the beauty of the tree will be more vibrant and stunning.

I see light in the forest, not losing the forest for the trees

A confluence is when a number of events come together usually for some reason or another. Pessimists see confluence as a time when evil happens or events turn sour. Optimists see confluence as a time when events turn for the better or have a chance for new beginnings.

I want to stand with the optimists. There is a confluence going on with me right now. It's a turn for the better. I know it's true. I just check out the number of times I smile in a day, or the number of times Xanadu, the land of enchantment, enters my mind.

Higher levels

I find myself being more creative than I have been in a long time, maybe a decade or so. I wonder why?

Of course, I know why. And when I am at my highest level of creativity, I am most content. What a gift! And I am thankful to have had my horizons stretched.

Magnifique nouvelles

Buena suerta, mi corazon. Estoy contigo por todo el camino.

Stunning... life-giving

Walking in the park this morning was pure pleasure. A refreshing wind was blowing just enough to whisk leaves from the trees that encirlcle the park... littering the ground with their flaming yellow hue. The sun had been over the horizon by about an hour and was pouring its rays into the park... like a pitcher fills a bowl with liquid. It was stunning... life-giving.

The park has provided many moments to reflect on for me over the last 6 years. But this year it has provided visuals for me for the priority in my life. Today was no different. I have been given new life this year. I guess that is why the park scene this morning meant so much. It was a life-giving scene representative of this year. And it was a stunning scene this morning... because this year has stunned me out of my dull routines into a horizon that has been stretched and adventurous and beautiful!

I look forward to more stunning scenes from the park because I know it will represent new horizons of sheer beauty... full of laughter, excitement, energy, and happiness... a horizon reflecting the pure gold of the piority in my life.

A bright sign

I am not much of a believer in signs. I guess they could happen... but so many people just interpret events as they want to. They just match their desires to happenings that reflect those desires.

So... when I was walking in the park the last two days I was mystified by something I saw. Monday, as I entered the walkway in the park, I looked up at a brilliant moon... yellow in color... flooding the park with light, providing those who walk on the path all the light they would need to walk by. Again this morning, right over the top of the trees the full moon was again standing right over the top of the trees... light pouring over the pathway.

This is not a normal scene. True enough that I have seen the moon a number of times brightly shining on the park... but none where the moon was positioned right over the trees providing the park with brilliant light... So I took it as a sign. It would be easy to look at an event in my life and attach the moon's lighting to it. I am starting a new phase in my career... so the moon represents celestial blessing on this new endeavor... the new endeavor has a bright future.

Maybe that's true. But if it is a sign, I think it represents something else... not a sign that the future is bright for a new endeavor. I look to the source for the brightness, happiness, vitality, hope, and anticipation in my life... and that reflects not a job but one who provides such joyful essence. I should be so lucky as to have a sign in the sky devoted two days to showing me how bright my life is to share this one's essence!

I love it when that happens

Some days just start out a little crisper than other days. I love it when that happens. There's more spring in the step, more nimbleness in the mind, more anticipation to the day ahead.

I guess the real question is why a day starts that way. A number of reasons I'm sure. But one would certainly be what the mind must have thought during the night. Dreams can happen because of the subconscious mind arranging events and people in various scenarios for the mind to play with. But, I remember no dreams from last night.

The subconscious can also produce feelings. It can trigger glia to flood the brain. Glia, in turn, changes the chemical make-up of the brain to experience pleasure even if pain or displeasure is present. So, when I start my day like I did this morning, I know that my subconscious has been at work triggering glia to flood my brain.

Of course, that is mere scientific language. In literary language terms, I know that in the most inner sanctum of my being, the deepest place in my heart, that I have made an adjustment in my fabric. My work place has changed - yes. But other pictures and voices have changed as well and blended into my soul. And that is the reason that this day started out a little crisper than normal. And I love it when that happens.

Brilliant facets

TV had a long-lasting soap opera called Love Is a Many Splendored Thing. That title tells the truth about love. People in general who have a relationship find that the other person has parts to her/his behavior that all fit together. But the package comes as a whole, not as a bunch of parts. So, we have in our language a saying we use when someone's many facets combine in such a way that they "fit" a certain job or skill set. It's called the "complete package." You hear in athletics, for example, that someone is the "complete package."

I don't know if complete packages exist in a relationship between two people, but I believe I have seen it. It also would be a high probabilitythat it occurs once in a lifetime , so carpe diem and eureka are the watchwords if a complete package is seen in a relationship. I'll be listening to the echoes of these two phrases from people who have experienced complete packages. Shouts of these two phrases will happen intermittently, probably, and some people may experience the complete package early in their lives, others late. But, I am certain the echo of these phrases sounds beautiful as the cries waft through the air.

Let me join them. Carpe Diem! Eureka!

Road of happiness

One thing I really have liked this weekend was feeling the cold air of the Rockies again. I grew up in Wyoming, so I developed a liking for the cold. Moving around in freezing temperature was different for a change since I haven't lived in cold air for quite some time. But, it was easy to rearrange my thinking about cold air since I reverted to childhood habits fairly easily.

And speaking of adjustments to thinking, I believe a person has to do that when looking at life. Sometimes, what makes for happiness for a person presents itself when least expected. I am very thankful for such a presentation of happiness - so-o-o-o thankful to the one who brought it to me.

Climate change

This morning I woke up to record temperature lows. This evening I am going to sleep with record temperature lows again. I am not much of a low temperature person. So, walking on the streets in 18 degree weather at 8:30 in the morning was noticeable and uncomfortable. I was dressed warmly enough for it, it's just that it was so cold that my face was cold, my hands were cold inside gloves, my legs were cold despite two layers, and my torso was cold under 4 layers. Snow, 18 degrees, and a little wind made for unexpected change.

Since last January, a change in the weather occurred; it is a change for good, a change for beauty. Now I anticipate days with energy. I look forward to them - all due to one unexpected, beautiful change.

Moonlit

On a recent trip the moon shone brightly enough where I could see the countryside while driving even though it was very dark and late. And like the Earth with its singular moon shining brightly down upon it, a person is so very fortunate when rays of encouragement, care, and affection are felt shining in on him from someone close.