“Make The Ordinary Come Alive” by William Martin

Do not ask your children
to strive for extraordinary lives.
Such striving may seem admirable,
but it is the way of foolishness.
Help them instead to find the wonder
and the marvel of an ordinary life.
Show them the joy of tasting
tomatoes, apples and pears.
Show them how to cry
when pets and people die.
Show them the infinite pleasure
in the touch of a hand.
And make the ordinary come alive for them.
The extraordinary will take care of itself.

ALS Challenge and Glass Houses

I’ve watched the phenomenon of the Ice Bucket Challenge over the last few weeks. I laughed when Laura Bush didn’t want to mess up her hair & George got to write “her check”. And I’ve been “entertained” when celebrity after celebrty has accepted the challenge, not to keep from making a donation, but normally in addition to making one. I even read a Linkedin article about the great marketing components of the challenge. (Read the article here) And I’ve had more conversations in the last week or 2 about ALS, what it is, how the disease has affected someone who knows someone…

Then came the negatives. I was so irritated when I read some of the comments on that same LinkedIn article about how horrible it is that we are “wasting” water when there are people in desperate need of water in other areas of the world. And I threatened to stop reading any more internet comments after I read an article about a Christian pastor who after being asked to say a prayer at a national event got blasted because of a sermmon he’d preashed 15 years earlier and NOW the comments were OFFENSIVE to some.

WAIT! When did we stop accepting GOOD as good? And what message are we sending when NOTHING can just BE good?

“Little Timmy that was a great score, but you should have swerved left, not right.”
“Jane, great piano recital, but you missed a note in the 3rd bar.”
“Great donation to a good cause, but you know, there are thousands more important causes you should have paid attention to.”

That is a message in defeat. Nothing can be good…ever. So why try? Why do any GOOD?

While I don’t argue about the need for clean water in areas of the world, and perhaps if this was occuring in those areas, I could understand an outcry. But let’s look at the futility of nothing ever being without detraction.

I know. I know. First amendments rights. I.KNOW. And I want to protect those rights, but not by giving a voice to criticise everything…everyone…every time. Is this a right we NEED to exercise?

Think about this a minute….before you post a negative comment on a blog post, or about a magazine article or to an ALS challenger or about one single aspect of a person who’s inspired others in many good ways. Is it a comment that’s needed? A comment that contributes? One that needs a voice?

Remember the story about those who live in glass houses? Can your words from 15 years ago or yesterday…or your every action stand the scrunity…or will you become the next negative?

“What made her strong was despite the million things that hurt her she spoke of nothing but happiness.” j.a. (Pinterest)

Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional. ~Chili Davis

My husband turned 58 last week. Not sure when we got old enough for him to be that old. (I’m the child bride, you know. At least that’s my story and I’m stickin to it.) I remember when he turned 40, I just couldn’t believe I was married to “someone that old”. Then I turned 40 and it didn’t seem quite so …well, old.

I was thinking about it today. I still think of myself as about 27. I loved being 27. And if I’m not paying attention, I still FEEL 27. Did I get stuck there somehow? So I started wondering about it. Does everyone “stay” a certain age in their life? Is it because of where you were or an event, like a marker, that occurred? Was it just because I liked being 27?

I think it was because that was a really pivotal time in my life. I was really an adult: I was married, had my first child, had a good job, had a confidence about who I was and who I was going to be. (Maybe that was born from youthful ignorance.) But it was also a happy time. I loved watching my daughter grow up. The changes in babies are so fast and myriad that it’s just awesome to observe. There were lots of possibilities.

Maybe it’s because I’d just lost my mom. Maybe I stayed there with that emotional scar. I don’t think about it being sad. I LIKED that time! But maybe it was a combination of things…maybe that was the best of me? Like a peak prformance?

I know I have fought growing older. No growing old gracefully for me! I HATE not seeing without 1.50+ readers (glasses, whippersnappers, glasses). Having to chase a pair down & Fred making fun of me having 6 pair laying around in various rooms. And the middle age spread! Yuck! And I’m not exactly proud of the gray hair hidden under my color (that is a secret we’re not going to talk about.) Mark Twain said in Following the Equator, that “Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been.” That’s a really nice sentiment….until you see the wrinkles in the mirror and then you’re thinking: Not.

Well, I think I’ll just go on feeling 27. But trying to remember the bonus of the years from then to now. I’m so proud of the years Fred and I’ve spent together..and the children we raised and the adults they’re becoming. And the future. Good grief! There may be grandbabies in a not too distant future. And a second career! One that I do because I want it, because it has a purpose. Just remember though, “Age does not diminish the extreme disappointment of having a scoop of ice cream fall from the cone.” ~Jim Fiebig

Now I ‘m hungry for ice cream!

Does that happen to you? Do you feel like you’re still a certain age? Why is that? And why does that dang mirror lie? That can’t be my old face in that mirror!