Emotions

As a counselor I have discovered emotions often present as nebulous creatures.  The extreme between love and hate is often separated only by unmet desire. Someone famous once said, "From the deepest desires often come the deadliest hate." Truly hate, in its most base form, becomes deadliest to the one in whom it resides.  It is from there that hate festers and warps the life of an individual.  Today we should each consider checking our deepest desires and ask ... "Are my desires driving me to become a better person, or are they becoming a cesspool within which I am sinking?" You ponder that.

The Shadow

Someone famous has said, "Between the idea and the reality, between the motion and the act, falls the shadow." Truly, if the sun is shining behind one before walking through the door to the inside, a shadow is cast - not the real thing, but an image - an image that may say something about the one entering or may in fact be quite misleading.  The point is there is much that may be revealed between an idea and a reality.  If you and I have an idea to be a better person that is of some value. However, intentionally set that idea into motion - make it reality - and that idea becomes worth a great deal more.  You ponder that. 

Changes

The other day I found myself at a party in which there were many folk I hadn’t seen in a long time.  As I surveyed the faces sitting around the room I was a bit surprised by the new wrinkles I saw … new contours of the face … some with new found peace … others with eyes that betrayed the sorrow of past years.  It was then that it dawned upon me – there are precious few things one can truly count on in this life – one of those things is change. 

While some people seek change and others avoid it like the plague, change is concomitant with this journey we call life.  Today, as I look into the mirror, I see the story of 52 winters.  It is a story written with many chapters of love, laughter, success, and victory.  It is a story punctuated by a few chapters of loneliness, failings, and the agony of defeat.  It is my story.  I have earned every grey hair, wrinkle, and scar.  You have a story as well.  

Listening to the stories shared around the table at the party I am struck by just how much people have changed … how much they have grown … in knowledge and as people.  I am reminded that, like mine, their story is still being written. 

Through the sun sets, the passing moons, and even the fleeting winters – every soul around the table is in transition – sifting ideas, hopes, beliefs, dreams, traditions, and things held most dear. You are changing as well. Change comes with living – we can’t control it.  How we change … for the good or for the worse … THAT is what we can control.