Passion Makes All the Difference

I agree completely with Ms Graham. It is passion that makes a dancer great. I would extend that to any kind of artist. Great musicians aren't great because of their technique, they are great because of their passion. The same for great singers, painters, writers, any kind of artist. Which is not to say that technique is not important, it is. But it's the passion that makes the artist stand out.

I was never by any stretch of the imagination a great musician or dancer, but I have done both. I miss both greatly and want to do both again.

I was very good at both, not great, but very good. One thing I learned has really stuck with me over the years. There were songs I knew by heart and loved to play on the piano. I practiced them over and over and over until I didn't need music.  I didn't think about it. I just put my hands on the keyboard and played. It was at these times that I was my best.

Snapshot Moments

There are things I wish I had paid more attention to over the years. There are happy moments that I didn't know wouldn't happen again or wouldn't happen again for a long time. Moments of love or comfort, moments of pride or excitement. Experiences I regret taking for granted. It's one reason I write.

I try to pay closer attention. When I have an experience that touches me in some way I try to notice details about it and burn it in my mind. The first chance I get I put it on paper. I've come to call these snapshot moments. Those moments that, if I could, I would capture somehow so I could go back and experience them over and over whenever I want. 

In the Blink of an Eye

That's all it takes - the blink of an eye. 

Sometimes you see the blink coming because you are the cause of it. Sometimes you know you have to tell someone something that is going to hurt them or disappoint them.  It gnaws at you until you tell them and tears you up once you do tell them. 

Sometimes you are blindsided by the blink. Something happens or something is said that you didn't see coming at all and in an instant your feelings are turned upside down. One moment everything is fine, the next . . . not so much.

Part of life I suppose. We can't prevent being blindsided. No matter how careful we try to be, it's going to happen now and then. 

And try as we may sometimes we will unwittingly be the cause. We are human and sometimes we mess up.  Sometimes we mess up really big.  Sometimes it's with the person we care most about. 

It sucks to be on either end. On the receiving end we have to decide how to react. If it has shaken our emotions that means it involves someone we care about deeply. That's tough.  When we are the cause, we have to offer our apologies, acknowledge our mistake, and then wait as the person we hurt decides what happens next. Ugh! The waiting!

Life is an adventure! Sometimes it's high mountaintops and sometimes it's Death Valley, and there's a lot of in between.  
 

Sunday Morning Coffee

Another week behind us my friends and another about to begin. I don't know about you but this one was a tough one. I'm ready to start anew! 

Let's start with some art this morning shall we? 

Oh, pass me the coffee pot if you don't mind please, my cup is empty. Thank you.

Where were we? Oh, yes. The young and very talented Dutch artist Thijme Termaat.  This is a very cool video from YouTube but you can find this and much more on his website. I love this statement on his website page - "Why only the finished product? The creation is equally beautiful!" Absolutely! Take a bit of your Sunday to view more of his work. You won't regret it.

And an appropriate comic for this weekend after Valentines Day - chocolate!

 

Up: Love Story

Gets me every time!  Every *#(@ time! 

"I am about to let you see something I have never shown to another human being. Ever! In my life!"

And so begins one of the sweetest love stories ever.  

  

"Up" has many lessons, one is that life itself is an adventure.  Like Ellie, as children we all have heads full of dreams of places we will go and things we will do.  If we are lucky, we find someone like Carl who wants to help us make those dreams happen and wants to go on those adventures with us.  

In this film life gets in the way of Carl and Ellie making these dreams come true, and Carl feels immense guilt.  His heart breaks at his perceived failure to give his beloved Ellie the life she dreamed of.  He discovers, however that she didn't feel this way at all.  She had adventures with him, just not the ones she dreamed of as a child.

Single on Valentine's Day Sucks

I’m not normally one to complain.  I try to look on the bright side of things, find the positive, the beauty, but today I make an exception.  Today is Valentine’s Day and I’m single and it sucks. 

The being single part has it’s good points and it’s bad points.  I’d rather be single than with the wrong person. When I was married the SOB gave me a dozen long stem red roses every Valentine's Day but treated me like crap the other 364 days of the year.  You couldn't pay me to go back to that. I have grown and become stronger in many ways as a single person because I have had no choice. But on February 14, being single sucks.

I will see flowers delivered to others at work today.  I will see co-workers go out with their significant others for a special lunch.  Tomorrow I will hear about the fabulous night they were treated to tonight.  My daughter will come home and tell me about the fabulous gift that her boyfriend gave her.  Even my 13 year old son will come home and tell me how much his girlfriend liked the teddy bear and candy he gave her.  

I will have no such tales, no such gifts.  If I turn on the TV tonight there are bound to be love stories on and I will likely click right past them and pull out the very good horror story I’m reading right now! (Review coming soon!) 

I won’t be a grouch today though.  I will smile and celebrate the happiness of my friends and family right along with them.  I will “Ooo” and “Aah” over the new jewelry that my co-workers bring in tomorrow to show off.  And I truly will be happy for them.  But I will also secretly feel lonely and left out and wish that I had similar experiences to share about this year’s Valentine’s Day.  Have I mentioned that it really sucks?

Chase Fulfillment, Not Happiness

"There's More to Life than Happiness" - so says a recent article on theatlantic.com.  What do you think?  Is there?  It does seem to be frantically pursued.  Everyone is looking for that one thing that is going to make them happy.  We are told to hold on to what makes us happy and ignore or get rid of what does not make us happy.  Is this the best path for us to take?

The article I referenced above includes this quote from the book "The Meaning of Life" by Viktor Frankl.

"Everything can be taken from a man but one thing,the last of the human freedoms -- to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way."

LIVING IN THE PRESENT TENSE

Olin Morales has a great blog named Courage 2 Create.  I read it often.  He recently had a piece about choosing in which tense you live your life - past, present or future.

We all know people who live in the past.  Many of us are guilty of it.  We long for days when things were better and more simple.  Or we wish we could go back to times in our life when we made a bad decision that resulted in words being spoken that we regret or actions being taken that we regret.  

Many of us live in the future as well.  "I'll be so happy when . . . ".  We focus on what we think we need to have in the future in order to be happy.  We spend a lot of time thinking about how great things will be down the road when the bills are paid off, we have that dream house and dream car, lose 20 pounds and marry the perfect spouse.  I think it's healthy to want more than we have, it motivates us.  But it is not healthy to allow our preoccupation with what we hope to have in the future to create present unhappiness.  

Living in either of these tenses prevents us from fully experiencing today.  We must strive to live in the present tense.  Yes, there are things about life today that suck.  No doubt about it.  But there are also many wonderful things about life today.  There is beauty all around us if we take the time to look for it.  There is so much to be learned, seen, experienced.  We shortchange ourselves when we fail to fully experience the moment we are in right now.

If you would like to read all of Mr. Morales' enlightening article, you can do so here.