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March 21, 2006
The Simple Wonder of It All
Have you ever thought about what it must be like to be a little child? I know we, obviously, were all little children at one point in time - for most of us that was probably many moons ago. For me, too many moons to count without removing my shoes and socks and using them for extra digits.
But, regardless, I've been thinking over the last several days about how admittedly most adults are attracted in some unforeseen way to small children. And this 'pull' is especially so when viewing infants and small babies.
One would be hard-pressed to not be positively affected after seeing a small cooing newborn being cradled in her mother's arms or propped up on Dad's shoulder all wrapped up in a blanket.
Oh, to be a child again. The innocence of youth.
Have you ever wondered about how children do have it so easy, as compared to us grown-ups?
Think about it.
It occurred to me several days ago that children don't have the mental preoccupations that we adults do. Of course, obviousness aside, I'm not talking about bills, jobs, and children - but rather the simpler things in life that we toll over endlessly like sex, time, love and so-called onerous life 'responsibilities'. With these aspects of our adult lives we're in a circuitous race to either figure them out (i.e. love) or 'get more' of it (i.e. sex, time).
Let's detail this so that it makes a little bit more sense for you, my dear reader, as to where exactly I'm coming from with this funky life perspective.
You see, we spend the vast majority of our days, whether we know it or not, thinking, planning, and/or figuring out how to get life to go the way we expect, and usually demand, it to go. And when it doesn't go the way we want it to go, we become irritated, angry, or rageful. Essentially, our expectations haven't been fulfilled and our life doesn't contain the activities, events or things that we figure it should.
It's all pretty complicated isn't it? But yet it's also completely unnecessary.
If you detail what people do to get their lives to turn out the way they expect you would find that most of an adult's day is spent in pursuit of these so-called goals and expectations. That is, these 'needs' that one 'just has to have'.
Whether that be sex, more time, more money, love, or any similar such aspects of the grown-up human being's lifestyle.
Now this all sounds pretty complicated doesn't it? Well, that's because it is. But life doesn't have to be that way.
Life can be much simpler for all of us if we so choose it that way. Now, I'm not talking about some New Age teaching that states that all one needs to do is spout a rote saying eighty-seven times every day and all their life's wishes will be granted.
Rather, I'm bringing up this topic to show you, my dear readers, that our lives REALLY don't need to be this difficult and complicated and 'full'.
Think of children.
Think of their lives.
Think how they live their lives.
Think how they go through their days.
They're in the moment.
They're now.
They're present to what is, whatever that may be for them.
They're pure.
They're innocent.
Their spirits haven't been bastardized and destroyed by the wants of adults and society at large (that occurs at a later date as the child matures.)
You won't hear a four-year-old hitting herself on the side of the head and reprimanding herself for 'losing that money-making opportunity two years ago'. She's more concerned with her big brother playing with her toys.
You will be hard-pressed to find a ten-month-old infant worrying about 'tomorrow's meeting with the boss'. She's only concerned about how her basic bodily needs are going to get met as she gets hungry and wets her diaper.
Ever seen a toddler wonder how he can possibly 'get everything done by the end of the day'? He just wants to play hopscotch with the neighbor's kid from across the street.
You see, it was all this simplistic and completely enjoyable for all of us at one time. We just don't remember it because we're all so busy and, sorry to say it... full of ourselves and our so-called 'importance'.
Think about this. How many ways do we adults configure our lives and daily activities to get sex or get someone of the opposite sex (or same sex) interested in us? Let's see...
- we cut our body to change our looks so we're more 'attractive'
- we exercise to look 'better'
- we buy new clothes so we 'appear' more appealing
- we eat foods we don't like so we can think we're 'healthy'
- we portray ourselves as 'together' so we're more interesting
- we put our physical body and life at risk at times seeking out a sexual experience
And how do we configure our days so we can do more to 'have more time'? Again...
- we sleep less
- we work more
- we spend less time with our families
- we work harder
- we neglect our health
- we do things faster and sometimes more unsafely, like driving
- we rush
- we multitask and create more stress for ourselves
Why? That's the question that makes this all confusing at times because it doesn't have to be this way. Our days don't have to be structured this way. At least for the vast, vast majority of us.
So what can you do with all of this?
Realize it.
See it.
Grasp it fully.
Allow yourself to remember it whenever you get the chance.
Make time for your self, make time for you.
Tell yourself that in 50 or 100 years we're all going to be dead so what does it matter anyhow who wins that argument or comes out on top during that 'important' meeting at work. Really. Think about it.
See this whenever you look at a child. See the wonder of life in their eyes. See how they don't have to 'work' at being simple, yet full of life. See how pure their every waking moment is.
To do that would be a good start. Then, after that, realize that you too can be that way. You were once. You can be again.
It will just take time and effort with you clearing space during your days to make time for your-self.
You really can be child-like again. And this is the formula to do so. Work at it and one day you will have a brief moment that is unclear of everything 'adult'. And, oh, how sweet that moment will be.
Written by Andre Best
President, Ultimate Results, Inc.
http://www.andrebest.com
'Learn About Life From Another Perspective'
(Author's permission is granted to share this full article with others. Just leave the signature line intact, please.)
Posted by Andre Best at 9:47 PM | Comments (0)
March 16, 2006
Martha, Look! There's Snow in Them Thar Hills!!
This past weekend in Phoenix Arizona we broke a record. Our first measurable precipitation in almost five months.
Yes, you read that right. We haven't had rain, snow, or any other form of moisture falling out of the sky for almost 150 days (and the U.S. says global warming is a fallacy that we shouldn't worry about now.)
But even though we had precipitation we didn't have just any ol' rainstorm. It rained for 24 hours straight and it also snowed in the mountains surrounding the city. That's rare.
I was lucky enough to travel during the weekend and I took some pictures of these atypical weather conditions surrounding Phoenix.
Now, just note that these pictures may not seem all that spectacular to folks living north of the 49th parallel, or south of it for that matter.
But remember, Phoenix is in the DESERT. Snow in the desert. Talk about an oxymoron that only used to occur here about once every 100 years. Now we get it about once a decade.
Enough rambling.
Enjoy the pics.
(click on any picture to open a LARGE window)
Again, I hope you enjoyed learning a little bit more about how Arizona weather is no longer just about tropical monsoons and heat waves. Add snow during March to that list.
Thank you kindly.
Written by Andre Best
President, Ultimate Results, Inc.
http://www.andrebest.com
'Learn About Life From Another Perspective'
(Author's permission is granted to share this full article with others. Just leave the signature line intact, please.)
Posted by Andre Best at 5:03 AM | Comments (0)
March 8, 2006
When the Mind Seeks Stillness
You know, right now I find myself in a rather odd state wondering how the mind works and exactly how it goes about maturing and changing over time as one ages.
In my case, recently, I've noticed that I've begun to actually seek out classical music. Not opera, or new age classical, but actual classical music from the composers of centuries ago - Mozart, Bach, Handel, Vivaldi.
Now, this may not seem like such a ground breaking subject worthy of mentioning, but you have to understand something first about the author writing about this new epiphanous moment in his life here on this physical plane.
Let me do a dual-purpose digression and explanation to ensure that you have a reasonably decent grasp of what it is I'm trying to portray here...
~~~~
I vividly remember the weekends I spent in my parents house growing up from a child during the 1960's all the way to my moving out to go to university in 1981. I can summarize them in one way with regards to music: essentially, not to my liking whatsoever.
What happened every weekend, and I mean EVERY weekend, in that household was that I was exposed to two types of music that I had absolutely no interest whatsoever in paying any attention to. But since I wasn't audibly challenged (with the exception of when my parents were talking/yelling at me to get me to do something) I had no choice but to listen to the music that was routinely and regularly piped throughout the house on my Dad's large stereo system.
That is, on Saturday's my Mother had her way with the records and record albums. And every single one of them was country and western music. Why? Because that was what my Mother listened to as she grew up on the reservation and throughout her younger adult years.
Now, I'm not talking the achy-breaky country western fluff that is played on most radio and satellite stations nowadays and trying to pass itself off as 'Country Music Favorites'. No. Uh-uh.
What I was subjected to over the thousand Saturdays in that household were old-time country and western tunes put out by the (mostly dead) artists of the early- to mid-twentieth century. Hank Williams Sr., Johnny Cash, Johnny Horton, Charlie Pride, Hank Snow - to name a few that came to mind.
Every Saturday. For years. Over and over. And I was only a KID.
I think you get the point.
Now, let's move on to the Sunday routine...
~~~~
That was Dad's day. And my Dad was born and raised in Germany, the country with a history dating back to the classical (music) era. So it's no wonder that classical music is all that he listened to virtually from birth. I assume in Germany during the mid-twentieth century there weren't a whole lot of other choices for music deep in the heart of Europe. So classical music was what flowed in my Dad's blood. And it showed.
Every Sunday. Classical music. Again, the great classical composers were blasted through the small house we lived in throughout my childhood. Every Sunday. To no end. Non-stop. Again, I think you get the point. And my take on it too. Non-stop...classical.
So, did I learn to love country and western music? No.
Did I learn to love classical music and seek it out wherever I went when I was old enough to do so? Not by a long shot.
Instead, I rebelled. In my own way. How?
By the time I was a teenager I sought out 'hard rock' and 'heavy metal' music. Genuine 'headbanger' music, as it sometimes is called - even today. And I avoided even thinking about liking any other type of music, especially country/western and classical.
And you know what? I actually enjoyed that music. I wore the AC/DC t-shirts. I went to the Van Halen concert when they were in town. I listened to the Ted Nugent cassettes and adored ZZTop. It was all pretty cool. Or so I thought.
Then I went to university and I was exposed to a whole new genre of music. Pop. Light rock. Easy listening. Christian. Punk. Disco. This time really opened my eyes and I found myself rapidly drifting away from the likings of my teenage years to some of these new sounds.
And, again, as I matured more into my twenties and towards hitting thirty, I began to listen to New Age music, acoustic music, light jazz, and light rock. The shift of that time was interesting as I found myself in disbelief and asking myself 'what I ever saw' in hard rock.
But now that I'm, er, more 'mature' in years I'm undergoing another shift in auditory tastes.
Prior to now, I pretty much only listened to light jazz and very light rock with vocals. No intensity needed here. Just-keep-me-calm-and-don't-yell-at-me-or-I'll-turn-you-off kind of music.
That was my taste for almost the past ten years. But, as I said, things recently started to change.
Now, I find that I'm seeking out music that is both relatively calming and isn't 'speaking' to me with vocals as I don't really care right now to be forced to hear the lyrics and words that someone else wrote. (Why? Because I'm finding that I focus on the words and lyrics instead of the beauty of the sound. I guess that might explain why Enya is such an immensely globally popular artist. In my opinion, Enya is today's version of a classical composer.)
So, what is all this resulting in? Well, as I stated at the beginning of this article - I'm actually starting to seek out...classical music. Yes. Weird. I know.
After twenty years of kind of doing whatever I can to avoid it, I'm now seeking it out.
And it's as if I'm discovering it for the first time. I listen to the songs on the radio and on the cable television's classical music channel and I find that I know about one-quarter of the songs being played because I heard them played so many times by my Dad. They're like a distant sweet memory from my childhood coming back to tease me.
In a way, it's very amusing to me. I know that my Dad will get a kick out of this when he reads my words here and knows that this isn't just a 'phase' his youngest son is going through.
Instead, like a fine wine, it's a maturation that has been ever so slowly and quietly occurring over a few decades now. But it's only now that the wine has begun to offer a taste that is ever so appealing to this, ah, 'enophile'.
Life is funny sometimes how it goes, isn't it?
Written by Andre Best
President, Ultimate Results, Inc.
http://www.andrebest.com
'Learn About Life From Another Perspective'
(Author's permission is granted to share this full article with others. Just leave the signature line intact, please.)
Posted by Andre Best at 4:56 PM | Comments (1)