It’s just one day, but
one is all it takes to change
everything. Today.
.
Today is just one
day, but one is all it takes
to change everything.
.
One is all it takes
to change everything. Just one
but it’s today.
.
To change everything,
just one is all it takes–just one,
It’s one day: today.
.
♥
This is my 900th post on this blog! Yay!
Thanks for being here with me to celebrate the moment!
‘
I’ve been thinking about this in terms of mid-life crisis (or mid-life analysis, if you prefer). It seems a lot of people reach a point where they look around at where they’ve been, and just decide to toss out the societal constraints that ruled their earlier decision making. After years of youthful striving for ‘normal’ (that boring conformity), they’re now stepping out. Whether it’s tossing a twenty year marriage, starting a new career, or leaping into the bucket list with heretofore unobserved enthusiasm, there does seem to be a change that comes with the ‘middle years.’
I find myself that a lot of things I ‘always wanted to do’ have gotten done in the last year or two. It’s not that I conscientiously aimed to accomplish those things; it just seemed that the stars aligned and they happened, almost without me noticing. I found myself somewhat astonished to recognise the accomplishments or changes. So now I’m thinking, if I was able to do those amazing things without intent, what could happen if I make an intentional effort? To be honest, my past experience suggests that intention tends to lead to failure for some reason, so perhaps I should just let the universe take care of things? At any rate, staid and normal are out. I am getting whackier as the years go by. I will be an amazing, creative, and crazy little old lady eventually, I think, and I’m embracing that. How about you?
The song of the chimes
should be ringing from the porch
but you like silence
Nazarene preacher W. T. Purkiser said,
“Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of our thanksgiving.”
So let us be thankful for our meal, our lives, our friends and our many blessings, and then let us use each to fuel positive change around us.
.
(c) Shawn Bird 2011 Free use within Rotary. Please credit Shawn when you share this in your club. Please also leave a comment to document your club and when you intend to use it, for your members’ information. With thanks
March on
there is no going back
to the poverty of that place
the weakness of spirit
the negative helplessness
that grabs and pulls at rescuers
like a frantic drowning man.
March on
to the sunrise over the hill
to the success that awaits
to the skilled craftsmen
No more wasted hours while poor work unfolded
and you bought things you didn’t need in kind charity.
No more frustration at the
self-imposed and self-declared uselessness.
March on
and shake the dust off the sandals.
♪ There will be poor always,
pathetically struggling ♪
You have done what you could
and now you are free
to stomp over the bridge
march on.
Sun blinded
I squint at a horizon
so bright it can’t be seen.
I walk blythly toward
the brilliance
wondering what lies beyond.
Behind my back
has been brewing
ill wind.
Without warning
a blackened sky
belches uncertainty
and change,
but beyond
the black clouds
blow breaths
of a new day.
Nothing ends
that isn’t a beginning.
She had stood in one of those rare border crossings between the past and the future where one is aware—so aware—that the decision about to be made will change everything. (Charles de Lint’s Memory and Dream, p. 69)
I’m just thinking about milestones. You know, the mid-life crisis kind of moments when you look at your life and you think the crucial questions:
If the answer to any of those questions in no, then it’s the time to stand on the corner and study the other directions that you could go. If you don’t like where you’re headed, if you don’t like what you’re doing. if you don’t like what you’re feeling, then it’s time to take charge of your life and head in a new direction.
Sometimes your heart in your throat and the weight on your shoulder try to force you to stay on the familiar, painful path. If you’re not happy there, why keep walking it? If you’re not the person you want to be, you are the only one who has the power to transform into the true self lurking beneath the surface.
Take hold of your future. Put your feet on a new path and embrace the adventure of discovery. Despite all the fears that have held you back from attaining the true connection and the true joy you hve longed for, you may discover a world of fulfillment unbelievably better than what you had before. Even though you couldn’t imagine more, your new path may lead you to a bounty of joy that you couldn’t conceive of previously.
Look around the cross roads, step over the border into a new life.
In science, a catalyst causes a reaction in other substances without being used up itself. In history, a catalyst is the precipitous event that causes other events to unfold.
Sometimes people we meet have a great impact on our lives. While we are changed in amazing and dramatic ways, their lives go on much as before we met them.
The impact can be positive. Perhaps the person was a teacher who inspired us to believe in ourselves. Perhaps it was a celebrity who had a dramatic weight loss. Perhaps it was an author whose words transformed our morals.
The impact could be negative, though. Perhaps a stranger spoke cruel words that led to rash decisions. Perhaps following a celebrity’s high life, we were led into alcohol and drug abuse. Perhaps bullying leads to suicidal depression.
In all cases, the person is blissfully ignorant of the results of his or her interaction with you. Will you tell him or her? Will you put an ad in the paper or post a poem on a wall to announce it? Will you write poetry? a novel? blog entries?
If you’re a writer, you probably will. Send the person a letter and let them know. Teachers love to get those letters, I know. Authors toiling with their typewriters are eager to distract themselves from their writer’s block with a return note to you. Everyone likes to be appreciated.
Now consider, if small throw-away encounters can change your life, how much more can years of encouragement and highly charged encounters influence you? How much can you influence others with loving attention and respectful interaction year after year?
Catalyst.
The power behind change: for better or worse.
Shawn L. Bird 
everything in an instant July 15, 2012
Tags: change, instant, life, next, what's, writing
Brian Keaney in The Cracked Mirror p. 15
In an instant, everything changes. You meet eyes with a stranger. The baby is born. The car swerves into your lane. You make the phone call. You send the email. You drop the manuscript in the mail. The child dashes into the street. The news arrives. A letter arrives.
Whether it’s real life or whether it’s fiction, in an instant, everything changes. What happens next? How you choose to respond creates the next chapter of the story.
In an instant, everything has changed. What’s next?
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