Month: June 2012

What Do I Do Now?

Every day living life, we all absorb a great deal of information, events, and experiences.  We take that knowledge and process it to a conclusion at the level of our understanding.  This observance puts us in a place of making choices.

As a child you may have a heard the word “No” or “No No”.  Some of you may have concluded that your name was “No No”.  Now, that you are older you may have witnessed a small child being told “No” and observed the expression on their face of “What do I do now?”  This may cause you to understand yourself in a memory of something you did as a child.  My hope is you watched long enough to see the result of their choice.  You witnessed their choice was either the easiest or the hardest way to go.

As we mature and grow older gathering understandings in our minds and hearts builds a library inside of ourselves that, we can call upon quicker than any technological search engine device to help us make choices.  Not all people share collecting books of knowledge within themselves.  If you are conscious of the things you have experienced, collected it in your mind and draw from that, count yourself an above average person.  If I have made you aware of the library you carry inside yourself, enjoy going through it before you make your choices.

As a pre-teen, you may have encountered other children who have been exposed to somethings before their time.  They, in their curiosity, talked you into to doing and trying some things, you were not completely informed or mature enough to process.  As you are looking at that memory, you see the result of your choice taking you down an easy path or a hard path with lingering results good or bad.

As a teenager you have accumulated even more experiences that you are alright with, some you are not alright with, and some you are still paying for today.  The results of your choices were one with either an easy path or a hard path with memorable results.  Your high school days have left memories that are fun and others that are scars that you possibly still carry with you today.

“What do I do now?” is an everyday encounter whether conscious or subconsciously.  When we answer, the “What do I do now?” the results or aftermath will be easy or hard for us.  Reflecting upon all the diverse images and knowledge the easy path is the one everyone can choose.  Easy (Weak) Path – It is easy (weak) to try to lie your way out.  It is easy (weak) to blame someone else.  It is easy (weak) to hate.  It is easy (weak) to stir up things and make it worse.  It is easy (weak) to go ahead and have sex before you are mentally and spiritually ready.  It is easy (weak) to let jealousy take you over.  It is easy (weak) to be so self minded that everyone else should try to live in your world.  It is easy (weak) to allow the high from drugs and alcohol be your choice.  It is easy (weak) to choose what our flesh wants to do.  This path does not make us special or above average.

Hard (Strong) Path – “What do I do now?” balanced in our mind library can conclude to a different level of results or aftermath for us.  It is a hard (strong) to tell the truth, especially when it hurts others or us.  It is a hard (strong) to take blame when it is your fault.  It is a hard (strong) to love in an unwarranted or undeserving situation.  It is a hard (strong) to make things worse and fueling the fire.  It is a hard (strong) to keep yourself from addiction of sexual exploration of your body.  It is hard (strong) to see past jealousy and be appreciative of what you have going for you.  It is a hard (strong) to be mindful of others with compassion of understanding of what they are going through.  It is a hard (strong) to say no to peer pressure of doing drugs and alcohol.  It is a hard (strong) to choose what will preserve your mind, body and spirit in an honorable state.  This path puts you in an above average class and an elite group.  Make your mind and heart to focus on a solution every time is harder than easily becoming a part of the problem and complaining.

There is too much glorifying for the easy path people choose and there is not enough praise going out to you who are choosing the hard path, going against what others naturally give in to.  We all have in times past choose the easy path, but what really sets us apart are the ones who chooses the path that takes more guts and inward strength than any other.  I know this sounds like old school stuff, but this is what has set us apart from the rest of the world.  You have the ability within you to stand strong for yourself and others.  We all need each other to live this life together to combat the falling nature of humankind around us.  Terrorism and local crime is not going away quietly.  There is a great deal to be said about our fathers and grandfathers integrity.  United we stand, divided we fall.  May your soul-searching find its way through your mind library to a path true and faithfulness.  Have a great day in-spite of what comes your way.

Locked and Loaded

Photo06232104_1     “Locked and Loaded” has many different meanings to different people.  Some of you will think I am getting ready to talk about locking your magazine into your gun and loading the ammunition into the chamber.  You may think I am going to talk about getting ready or being ready for action.  Both thoughts are right, but one thing you have to consider about my writings they will most likely have a “Past the Surface” twist – a good twist.

“Locked” is having something secured into place.  It is not going anywhere else to easily.  It is for this moment in time set on a destined course of action.  It has a tunnel that must be passed through before seeing day light.

“Loaded” is having something full that was once empty.  A container that is filled to capacity and heavier than before.  It is a place that needs to be subtracted from to lessen the weight.

Go back with me to a time when you were small you ran, jumped, and laughed with a pureness of innocence.  This was a time that when you woke up to a new day of new adventures and discoveries.  For most people this lasted all the way to high school graduation.  Then some choices came and they had to be made for we knew the world would not stop spinning and time would not wait for us.

You went on to college, you went to work, and some may have enjoyed a little time longer at home.  Our sunshine as children began to slowly darken with some clouds.  The blue skies and the green trees began to fade in our eyes as we directed our lives towards things we wanted.  You may have gotten married during high school, after high school, or at college. You may have gotten a child before marriage or after marriage.  Survived all types of relationships, but as time has moved on our days have become a blur.

The things that happen to us brought the weight of responsibility and accountability.  Some adults may have warned you of the things to come, but our youthfulness may have washed it out of our hearing.  One day you begin to take a look at yourself from the outside and see you are locked into a daily job to keep up the life style you now have become attached and you feel the load heavy upon your shoulders.  You may feel you are in total darkness with a tiny light in the far distance. You have heard the saying, “There is light at the end of the tunnel” and some have added that it is the light of an oncoming train.  You now feel you are “Locked” into place, destined to a daily course, and “Loaded” so heavy you need some relief from this trapped destiny.

Rediscover you child like interests of fun.  Modify what you did as a child into what you can do as an adult.  Don’t let the “Locked” into paying bills and “Loaded” down with debt stop you from having some moments of sunshine inside your mind and heart.  For an example I loved riding my brother’s bike as a child exploring the roads near my home and neighborhood.  As an adult I took a refresher course on riding motorcycles.  Now, I get on my motorcycle or go in a car and explore the roads in my surrounding counties.  Each road with its curve, twist, and dip I see things I haven’t seen before because each person arranges their yard differently.  You see flowers, rock formations, waterfalls, various barns and sheds.  Around each corner of the road I have never been on offers a child like surprise.  It is like Christmas day when you really did not know what was inside that box wrapped so pretty.  Use your mind to figure out a way to enjoy life again.  Revive surprising yourself with personal efforts of fun goals.

“Locked and Loaded” thinking has its necessary place, but all things need to be unloaded, cleaned, and refreshed before going into the field again.  Find your place to unlock your happiness and unload your burden without damaging your spirit and others.  You will find a stronger and better you looking out your eyes.  Life is too short to go through it bitter and upset.  Have a great day in-spite of what comes your way.

Children’s Inheritance

Photo07281454     What did you inherit from your father, mother, or both of them?  I imagine some are saying vehicles, house, land, and other miscellaneous things.  You may be thinking about hair, eyes, face, body shape.  My question is based on “What have we really inherited from our parents?”  My Dad passed away three years ago this November.  I still have my mother.

Before I go any further I feel like I need to preface this post with I have two parents that I could not have chosen better if God gave me the chance to pick from the world in my opinion.  I also want you to know I am sorry if you have had bad experiences from your parents.  This is why I count it a privilege and honor to have been blessed with good parents – not rich possessions, but in character.  I encourage you to open your mind and heart to some good things that can be born inside of you making a better tomorrow for you and your children.  You can make a good difference and pass it on.

I was riding my motorcycle on a beautiful Monday afternoon through the rolling hills and mountains enjoying the warm breeze, blue skies with a few neatly shaped clouds when a thought came to me of “What did I truly inherit from my Dad?”  I cycled in my mind different things as I mentioned in the beginning.  I began to form a check list.  My Dad is not a vehicle that I can inherit.  It is a form of transportation.  My Dad is not a house that I can inherit.  It is a place that keeps you dry from the rain, warm against the cold, and cool from the heat.  A structure built for physical protection.  My Dad is not the clothes that I may inherit for they were for his daily events.  The check list kept growing in my mind with the same answer that they were only the things my Dad used to work with daily as all others use and do the same with, but still they were not truly my Dad.  I appreciate the things and the memories attached to the physical objects my Dad had, but there is much more to see past the surface than physical things.

My mind and heart began to focus on then “What did I truly inherit from my Dad?”  The first answer that came to me was “Memories”.  Memories are physically seen by others.  Behind my face invisible to others a memory of my Dad can be unfolding in my mind with the emotional effects coursing through out my physical system.  The movie pictures in my head of the times we did things together, and conversations, witnessing him interacting with others was one of my inheritances.  I began to search “Were there any more things I truly inherited from him?”  The check list began to fill up again with the true inheritance I had within me.  It was like the sunshine on the outside and the warm breeze from riding my motorcycle began to shine and blow inside my spirit.  I then saw within me I had inherited some of my Dad’s ethics and integrity.  It is hard to describe, but confidence and a feeling of soundness began to form inside me.  I had inherited some of the characteristics of strength I use to look up at my Dad as a small child.  The invincible and towering Dad I had grown up with as a child.  I know he was not perfect and I know that I am not perfect, but he gave me a blue print to build upon from his character to make a better person within me.

What I have truly inherited from my Dad is the memories and characteristics that no physical object can outlast.  He is alive in me through his living example I absorbed as a child, a portion from him on a daily basis.  A car will break down, a house will fall, clothes will fade and money will be spent, but in the end it will be the things I have within me that I have truly inherited from my Dad and my Mother.  Our spirit within us is the true inheritance.

Now, the next blog to think about would be “How do we pass on the inward inheritance to our children?”  Have a great day in-spite of what comes your way.