Picking Up The Pieces

As we recall our Thanksgiving traditions and honor those who bless our lives, may we also take the remainder of this year to celebrate what matters most in our lives: health, love, relationships, place, and a sense of well-being.

There are many things in our lives but most do not magnify it. Mostly those things are ‘things’, items, possessions. I understand loving a home, a building in which we make a life with those we love and are closest to. But the things come and go. Even the house that we call home. These things pass away in time. We will recall them in memory and mostly in pleasantness.

The things, however, take work to obtain, to maintain, and to keep fresh and useful. Loving them is misplaced affection. It drains us of the energy better spent on things that last beyond our lifetime.

A car, other than transportation, is just a car. Fancy and elaborate cars are a joy for a time, they are fun to have or a pleasure to use, but they do not magnify one’s life or value. They are just things.

Same with homes that are beyond our needs. Comfort and dazzling fashion are lots of fun to have and to enjoy. But they too will pass. Our needs change and our spaces change, too. Our tastes change and we seek different relationships with those tastes as they are expressed in lifestyle. Complicated concepts here. We spend so much time in this American culture to have things we miss the point of having them. They are not extensions of self. They do not define us; or if they do, how sad!

No, I think it matters most what we do with and for others, and the ideas we explore that have lasting meaning and value for us all.

From www.Daveswordsofwisdom.com comes this thought:

            “They say you don’t know what you have got until its gone.

             The truth is you knew what you had, you just didn’t think you would lose it.”

In losing it, however, we see more clearly what it is that we had. Rather than lamenting the loss, use the energy to extol the richness that simplicity has provided our understanding.

Simplicity. Breathing in and out. Sitting comfortably at peace. Thinking thoughts that edify and enrich. Sharing time with others. Connecting with those ‘others’. Expanding horizons of kindness. Those are the simple things of life worth having.

A Facebook entry (PIF1DAY) offers this simple thought:

            “Let peace begin with me.”

It is easy and natural to react to others, especially if they are goading and nasty. If we are able to slough those negatives aside, we continue to be at peace. That step alone is letting peace begin with me, or you. Ridiculously simple, right? Yes; but it is the doing that is not simple.

As we bring 2012 to a close in a few weeks, maybe we can pick up the negative happenings and words flung in fear and anger and end the year in peace. It will take work by each of us to do this. The result, though, will be well worth it. Our chances for success in this endeavor are not good; but think of the benefit should we get it right! Oh what a difference we can make – for each other and so many we don’t know we are having an effect upon.

I think we can do this. Even if we are not successful, we will unloose a synergy that will change life for others. Even if this is done in tiny fractions, it will be a good thing.

Another offering from www.Daveswordsofwisdom.com is of value here:

            “ Isn't it strange how LOVE can be the happiest thing ever?

             But it also causes the most pain. And yet everyone keeps searching for it…”

How true. The search itself is an act of gathering up the pieces of life and making it more whole. It is worth the risk because it fills the sense of loss or void that we know needs to be filled up – with joy.  May you have that now and realize it. If not, may your search be a journey of discovery and ever expanding joy!

November 26, 2012