Comfort

When I was little, I used to push the chairs of the dining room table out and lay underneath the table with all the chairs surrounding me. I say little, but I'm positive there were days I could come home from high school and do the very same thing. I would lay there on the floor, close my eyes and just breath. I have no idea why that was so attractive to me. Usually I would do that when I felt heavy and overwhelmed. It was my way of comforting myself. It was my way of getting back to even.

I thought about this last week, when I was having a heavy week. I guess I thought, at my age I didn't need that kind of comfort. I guess I thought I was tough and could handle whatever the world chucked at me without ever taking a step back. Maybe I forgot how relaxing it was to lay under a table. I was wrong.

Eventually, everyone learns how to comfort themselves. It usually happens when we are very small. We find a way to make ourselves feel comforted and safe. Eventually a crying baby will calm itself down. Eventually a whining puppy will curl up and fall asleep. (Even though I know it makes you feel like a horrible person waiting for them to do it.) Every creature eventually does what it needs to do to find serenity.

Our lives are so busy that we forget we need to take care of ourselves. We need to push the chairs away from the dining room table and escape to our fort for a few minutes. We need to remember to breath. We need to remember to stop. We need to remember that while we're rushing around living, resting is apart of life.

Find a comfortable spot and make it yours. Visit it often. Or, take my advice and crawl under the nearest dining room table. You're just going to have to trust me on this one.

This is Gus. He prefers under the desk.

Damned if you do

You just can't please some people. There are people in this world that no matter what you do, they will poke and prod and tease you. Do too much? You're a overachieving brown-noser who is desperate to impress your boss. Do nothing? You're lazy, and you don't care.

Seriously!

People who constantly pick are just insecure with themselves. It makes them feel better to joke and tease at the expense of others no matter what they do – good or bad.

Sadly, those people are all around us. Either they are unhappy with their own life and this is their way of elevating themselves above those around them, or they think they're funny and they're not. Either way, they are not worth your time.

You can't fix unhappy. You can't make someone realize how unfunny they really are. All you can do is ignore them. Refuse to let their snide remarks bother you and move on. They might feel time well spent involves calling someone out and embarrassing them in front of other people. I just think it's childish.

For the record, I am not in anyway above a gentle tease here and there. There is a time and a place for everything, but some people just don't know when to quit. It's those people I don't have time for. No one should.

Musings

If you start thinking about your purpose too much, you start to think, maybe I don't have one. Which is not the case. You just have to figure out what the heck it is.

Sometimes I wonder why I write these things down and post them for the world. My little musings don't really serve a purpose. Or do they? Today I logged on and saw that someone voted and someone commented. And although most people who read my blog don't leave a trace, I like to think that maybe people read it and are touched by it. Or amused by it. Or annoyed by it. But that's something, right?

Maybe that's my purpose – to try to reach out to people. I'm not sure. Maybe our purpose is to keep seeking a purpose. To explore our bodies and minds and souls and figure out what the heck we're good at or bad at.

So when you find those things that you're good at, hold on to them, nurture them and surround yourself with people who support you. And then...keep going. There's always something else to learn and new places to discover it.

Leave no trace?

It's easy not to matter. To let someone else do the talking. To stand aside. To get out of the way.

It's simple to sit quietly. To not raise your hand. To have no opinion either way.

Why care? That takes work. Why work? That takes thought. Why think? That takes energy.

Why contribute to life at all?

You got something better to do?

Walking through a forest is the only time that is acceptable, neh expected, to leave no trace. Not life. Not your life.

No one will remember your money. But they will remember how you spent it.

No one will remember what kind of house you live in. But they will remember how you lived.

No one will remember the long hours you works. But they will remember you missed their birthday.

Leave a mark on the world. Not by making more money or getting more things, but by living and loving. By raising beautiful good children. By changing the lives of people.

Leave your mark on the world by living in the world. Not living for it.