A month ago I stopped writing on my blogs. I just was no longer driven by my love of words and I needed the time to assess whether I even wanted to continue blogging. I’m not sure that I’m totally ready to begin again because nothing seems to draw me in to explore or discover like it use to, but I think I need to at least test the waters once more.
As I sit here this evening I’m listening to Radio Celt and the wonderful traditional tunes they share all the time online. Music has always been one of the real passions in my life. The notes from the strings, the pipes, as well as the heartfelt words the balladeers and instrumentalists are the only thing holding tight to my heart and mind at the moment.
You see, that is the extent of my life today…well, not quite because I am still a grandmother and mother and I’m spending quite a bit of time serving those little ones who need the ride to school or I’m there as the occasional babysitter, too. I have only a few moments to write and I am sad to say that I really don’t miss it as much as I thought I would.
Like many these days I find my heart is in the music and usually find myself working out daily difficulties through some fiddle tunes as well as the jigs and reels that flow to my ears and heart through my iPod Shuffle.
So, this is my long way of saying that I will be by my blogs to share a note or song from my heart, but it will not be as often as I use to because my life and its purpose is in flux and changing daily. I’m not yet sure where this new path will take so I hope you’ll bear with me.
Oh, and Go raibh maith agat as do chuid ama, (Thank you very much,) - for being a listener to my past written madnesses and also for the scribblings that are to come. I hope you’ll still be with me as we move forward and try to discover how this hand plays out, together.
Showing posts with label who we are. Show all posts
Showing posts with label who we are. Show all posts
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Friday, April 16, 2010
Friends...
Friend.
We use that word so loosely today to describe anyone from a business contact, people we see at church once a week, exercise buddies, and even to neighbors we share a lot line with, but there is really little understanding for the word and what it has become over the centuries.
The word seems to have originated in the Germanic language and has had a long and varied history. The changes in what and whom the word stood for as the world entered the feudal period drastically shifted when the idea came to mean those whom a person could trust to watch your back in any fight or war. That definition carried on into the beginnings of our country's first steps and on into our expansion across a continent when the pioneers discovered a similar meaning for those who lived close by (Within 20 miles) and found that since they had no choice but to share the support system of people that just happened to be neighbors, friendships were created - often they were very strong relationships out of necessity.
Among those men and women who shared the prairies there were many close friendships that developed. Friendships that could weather calamity and distance. Quilting bees, barn raising, and dances were often the only times people who lived so far apart got together. Friends were made but they were not always the ones that might have made in a city full of people. In the end, they were friends that shared a love despite their differences, and often because of them as well.
The one thing these people had in common was a commitment to relationships that went beyond personal differences and focused on a strong respect for the rights of those people which allowed them to simply be themselves. If we are honest we have to admit there are few of us who believe exactly alike. We are not identical in most of what makes us who we are and logic suggests that most of us certainly didn't agree on everything, then or now.
So why the is there such a strong I'm right and you're wrong attitude that seems to be splitting even the strongest relationships today? We certainly aren't identical pieces in this puzzle we call life, so why is it a must that we believe everything the same to become, or remain friends? There really are no easy answers to that question. We usually believe as we do as adults because of the way we were taught and raised. Life has never created identical cookie cutter people and we seem to have lost an important part of who we are because of it. The ties that bind us together will only win out over our world's present beliefs in the end if we accept the diversity the world has to offer. Changing what we believe is not a necessity - changing how we deal with those who think differently is.
We use that word so loosely today to describe anyone from a business contact, people we see at church once a week, exercise buddies, and even to neighbors we share a lot line with, but there is really little understanding for the word and what it has become over the centuries.
The word seems to have originated in the Germanic language and has had a long and varied history. The changes in what and whom the word stood for as the world entered the feudal period drastically shifted when the idea came to mean those whom a person could trust to watch your back in any fight or war. That definition carried on into the beginnings of our country's first steps and on into our expansion across a continent when the pioneers discovered a similar meaning for those who lived close by (Within 20 miles) and found that since they had no choice but to share the support system of people that just happened to be neighbors, friendships were created - often they were very strong relationships out of necessity.
Among those men and women who shared the prairies there were many close friendships that developed. Friendships that could weather calamity and distance. Quilting bees, barn raising, and dances were often the only times people who lived so far apart got together. Friends were made but they were not always the ones that might have made in a city full of people. In the end, they were friends that shared a love despite their differences, and often because of them as well.
The one thing these people had in common was a commitment to relationships that went beyond personal differences and focused on a strong respect for the rights of those people which allowed them to simply be themselves. If we are honest we have to admit there are few of us who believe exactly alike. We are not identical in most of what makes us who we are and logic suggests that most of us certainly didn't agree on everything, then or now.
So why the is there such a strong I'm right and you're wrong attitude that seems to be splitting even the strongest relationships today? We certainly aren't identical pieces in this puzzle we call life, so why is it a must that we believe everything the same to become, or remain friends? There really are no easy answers to that question. We usually believe as we do as adults because of the way we were taught and raised. Life has never created identical cookie cutter people and we seem to have lost an important part of who we are because of it. The ties that bind us together will only win out over our world's present beliefs in the end if we accept the diversity the world has to offer. Changing what we believe is not a necessity - changing how we deal with those who think differently is.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
The Real America
I have been ranting and raving for years about about the lack of real statesmen in our government these days, and like many of you I listen to the political punsters and get frustrated or angry about the side I am presently against or for whomever they are these days. But today, I watched one of most literate and funny men in the pulic eye these days on a PBS television show and he made a really profound statement - When we rise to sing together our national anthem The Star Spangled Banner politics does not matter.
We usually sing it together either just before a game, or else at the beginning of a concert. If we think about it, the song truly celebrates not the country or the land, but the people of this vast land. From the very beginnings of those small 13 colonies with those rag-a-muffin revolutionaries who despite their difference came together as one nation, right up to today and those who change our world here in the 21st century.
Whether we are Republican, or Democrat we are always first and foremost Americans, together.
When Garrison Keiller said that, I heard it reverberate through my mind and it made me realize that when we all stand, no one single voice stands out because it takes all our voices to sing it together to make us sing those words as one.
Now, granted there are often just that one famous voice who is asked to sing these verses but it becomes so much more, if we sing them together and sometimes it is in way too high a key or sometimes it can also be with tears that we sing those words.
This year, as we raise our voices remember we are drawn together as one nation. Afterall, this is the season to celebrate who we are and what we have as Americans with all the fireworks, as well as in singing our national song. Let those words wash over each in our nation and help us to celebrate our diversity, and fellowship as Americans.
Happy Fouth of July 2009 everyone!
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Kindness, a Necessity of Life
Kindness is the highest form of intelligence. - Wayne Teasdale
Honestly, I'm not one who appreciates quotes. They touch certain people, but are usually geared more for the generalities of life. They hit home because we want so badly to be one of those people who is thought of as one who does those good, or important things. But too often our world of running at high speed all day every day, and not getting enough sleep helps to create the kind of people we really don't want to be - despite our very best intentions.
But this quote isn't encouraging or cajoling, it only makes a simple statement that in a world of high level genius, and great thinkers a simple action is truly the highest form of thought…the act of being kind to one another.
Honestly, I'm not one who appreciates quotes. They touch certain people, but are usually geared more for the generalities of life. They hit home because we want so badly to be one of those people who is thought of as one who does those good, or important things. But too often our world of running at high speed all day every day, and not getting enough sleep helps to create the kind of people we really don't want to be - despite our very best intentions.
But this quote isn't encouraging or cajoling, it only makes a simple statement that in a world of high level genius, and great thinkers a simple action is truly the highest form of thought…the act of being kind to one another.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)