Tag: quiet time

The Quest For Simplicity

Color Photography

I spent most of the day listening to the soundtrack of my youth. Specifically, Simple Man by Lynard Skynard. It’s an anthem for young men of my age group who grew up in rural Appalachia. The lyrics speak of valuing the truly meaningful things in life like love, family and time spent experiencing life. I’ve considered the concept most of day and decided to add a few thoughts.

A trophy is meaningless if it wasn’t earned. No struggle means no victory.

Never confuse lust for love. Lust goes away eventually. Love will carry you for a lifetime.

Don’t confuse a simple life with a life of poverty. It’s okay to have stuff but don’t value your stuff to the point it rules your life.

Don’t spend too much time climbing the ladder. The best thing you can ever give your family is you.

Don’t mistake complaining for a plan of action. Simply pointing out a problem won’t make it go away. Learn how to see the roots of the issue and put action into resolution.

Don’t confuse quality of life with quantity of life. This one is a little hard to nail down. Everyone has their own idea of what quality they admire. One person might want to travel to exotic localities while another just wants to care for a family.

I guess my point is that it’s good to examine your life and ve sure that you’re not being so busy building a life that you miss out on living. The noise and pressure of voices on tv and such trying to define what our goals should be can get a little overwhelming. It’s good to push them back and make sure we actually value those opinions.

We Are A Reflection Of Others

Color Photography, Thoughts and Musing

As humans, we tend to be a reflection of our friends and family. We absorb into ourselves the perspectives of those around us. I’m not certain where the quote came from but I’ve heard it said that, Just as water conforms to the vessel which holds it so does a man conform to his peers.” This why it’s important to surround yourself with people who have the right outlook on life.

If you surround yourself with people that constantly negative then you will eventually become negative yourself. But, if you can find those people who rise to the challenge then you yourself will began to rise. Subconsciously you will reshape yourself to fit the group.

I’ve been blessed with the best peers that life can offer. And I appreciate each and every one of you and I hope that I reflect you well!

Tonight’s image is on the Kanawha River. Looking out over Kanawha Falls in Glen Farris West Virginia.

Final Hour

Color Photography, Thoughts and Musing

Tonight’s blog post is going to be straight to the point. I ran into lifelong friend today at a restaurant. We decided to share a table and take time for a visit. The conversation eventually came around to dealing with mental health issues. As a medical professional she posed the question, “What if I told you that you only had one hour to live ?”. On the surface that might seem to be pretty bleak perspective. But, it’s a question that makes you examine your priorities. You see, whatever it is that you would spend your last hour on Earth doing is the thing (or things) that are the most important to you. Everything else is secondary.

Nobody is promised that they will live into old age. Every hour that passes could be our last. But the odds are that most of us will live for at least a while longer. We can either let that time slip away until there is nothing left or, we can fill each passing hour with as much of the things that are truly important to us as we can grasp.

And one more thing. Those things that are beyond our control. Let them go. You deserve to be happy. Don’t let yesterday’s regrets prevent tomorrow’s joy.

The image above was chosen for a reason. It’s the intersection where I had my life changing accident. I was given a second chance to appreciate the here and now. Just a few feet away from this spot is my crushed and broken pickup truck. Today, I’m giving you the green light. It’s time to leave the broken things behind and continue the journey.

Be Still

Color Photography, Thoughts and Musing

If you haven’t guessed by now my dear readers, I really crave quite places and time to think and reflect.

Our modern world is full of artificial concerns, pressures and deadlines . Sometimes we just want to collapse and think about nothing. The word amusement literally means to stop thinking. However, I believe it’s more fulfilling in these quiet times and places to push back those modern world concerns and contemplate deeper levels of thought. It’s not that our world suffers from too much thinking, we suffer from the lack of free thoughts.

It’s more than just learning the structured teachings of learned masters. It’s more than equations and mathematical prowess.

cogito, ergo sum ( I think, therefore I am) – René Descartes

The popular phrase was one that we learned at a very young age. I have forgotten if it was in history class or literature class. But it wasn’t until recently that I began to realize the full implications of what seems to be a simple concept.

If my thoughts are what makes me then what happens if my thoughts are not my own? What if I allowed my thoughts to be influenced by distraction from the media, or peer pressure, or any number of competing ideas? Like a virus, some ideas can come in from a outside source and replicate themselves in our hearts and minds. If our thoughts are no longer our own then we are no longer ourselves. We become a copy of whatever ideas are planted.

“For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.” – Proverbs 23:7

This is why it’s so important to be able to take time and contemplate the ideas we are exposed to. Our minds have a natural filter that must be cleaned and refreshed on a regular basis. If bad ideas are allowed to linger for too long without active examination they can be absorbed by the subconscious and work their way into our hearts.

Take charge of your quiet time and don’t get so busy that you forget to check your filters.

The Lost Art Of Being

black and white photography, Thoughts and Musing, wildlife

I watched this bumblebee working on the thistle and became enamored with the simplicity of its life. She isn’t in a rush to complete a quota. She isn’t distracted by all the activity of the other insects. She’s just being a bee and doing what she was born to do. She seemed to take pleasure in her small uncomplicated life.

“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.” ~Lao Tzu

I sometimes wonder if the reason why everyone is always in such a rush is that we have left our natural purposes.

Somewhere, deep down inside we all know who we were born to be. It has nothing to do with jobs, social status or the expectations of others. It’s the thing that you do that causes you to lose track of time. When you look up and you’re amazed at how much got done without effort.

When you are just being what you were truly meant to be. That’s what happiness is.