The Birth of a Season

Time cannot be captured or harnessed, it can only be lived in and made the most of where we are with what we have. Seasons come into being as nature forms their very composition. Spring has come for the northern hemisphere in 2012, and not without the depth and variation that grew from winter's restless spirit.

As nature brings new days from the darkness of night, it also brings spring, from the seeming emptiness that is winter. Even the sun feels friendlier and less hostile as it begins to blanket the northern hemisphere with more of a gentle touch. Plants begin to grow again, and being among the life that is constantly taking shape opens my eyes and ears to what is about to become a memory.

Since time cannot be captured, aside from in photographs and writings. Maybe in the layers of flora that make the setting for our lives, we can experience what has come and what is yet to be found. It is in transition that life is lived, because even the seemingly static things change. Watch the stars in the sky for a few hours and you can see how they have appeared to move as Earth spins on its axis.

Yet in springtime, we can be in movement as we dance to the sound of the rain falling around us with the movement of our bodies with nature connecting us to this changing time. We can smell the aroma of violets grown wild and free and let their growth inspire us to live vibrantly and fully. We only have one life that we choose to form and react to in a multitude of ways. As colors form in nature, emotions flow in life, unexpectedly and beautifully as they transpire. With the expression of our connection, we can live in the changing times and see the opportunity to make something with the chance to reach to the steadier moments and let our choices fill our lives with wonder.

Growth nurtured by interconnectedness.

Wild vegetables grown by shade and sun, affirming the need for the dark and light.

Color bursting from the end of winter.

Last year's growth enriching the soil for a new year.

Reaching out of the ground that was scarred by winter's touch.

A Story Told Is A Life Shaped

One of the first gifts we are given is our voice. It is with our voice that our individual place in the history of humanity is understood by others and hopefully, by our selves. With the voice we're given, we forge an identity that becomes our very sense of what we're going to bring to life over the years we walk across this planet. As children, we are often exposed to the ways others live, the environments of our world, and the people who are our family and our neighbors. It is in a story we find others, we find life, and maybe most important, we find what we connect to.

Growing up, I heard stories that were illustrated by people acting out the actions that tell something about life and as I fell asleep while they were being read by the tender baritone that my dad was given to share with others. During this time, I connected to music that had lyrics formed into stories told as they were sung to a guitar strumming and a banjo twanging. It was the music that had its roots in the soil of gardens, its range across the heart of humanity's experience as the sun rose and set, and that found me connecting to others that are part of life with me.

In a story, we can grow with characters, hear the rhythm that pulses daily in our hearts, recognize our dilemmas and struggles, and continue to ask questions that lead to discovery. We tell stories to children so they can expand the images they have of life in their minds. Imaginations are formed through what we tell them through expressive, vivid, imagery that broaden a perspective and permit a new understanding to form and later be shared to the collective experience that is humanity.

Once a story ends, our place that we put in it, doesn't have to. A part of the story can light a flame or plant a bulb that we can kindle or nurture until it becomes a deep inspiration. We can sometimes only see other parts of life through story. In words spoken we can hear a story in harmony with illustration or in the rhythm that connects our lives to others.  The stories in our hearts from families, friends, other cultures, give meaning and color to the very purpose of life. Their essence touch our soul, reach our minds, and give depth to what we reach for when we sing together to unite as one people in a shared, similar experience, or awareness of what we can do to share life and a light through for each other.

In the story, we see the journey becoming the pages we illustrate. How we use our voice allows us to tell our story as we travel together. We need not tell the whole story of our lives. We can tell the parts that make us who we are, where we are, as we become alive as we relate and understand in new ways in new light whether it's firelight, flashlight, fluorescent light, sunlight, moonlight, or candle light. This is the light of a story, no matter how dark, that we begin to speak out of as our voice becomes part of our stories.

A story can be our bridge to the meaning of our lives built from imagination,
connection to reality, and new understanding.

Growing Up Together

As a kid, it felt like growing up would always take forever, and then once I became a grown up, life never seemed to stop moving faster. When I look at kids playing, laughing, stumbling, and being themselves, I see how precious they are. They have eyes that are full of wonder and awe, and it is the curiosity birthed with questions and open discovery that gives them their unique perspective on life. It seems that this perspective comes from an opportunity founded upon what we give them.

We can give the young people in our life hope by teaching them their importance by listening them We can teach them how to be alive by paying attention to them and then by living fully with them as they grow with us in life. Thus, kids have the unique opportunity to show us the gift of time. Time can be transcendent or it can be stagnant depending on what we do with it. Sometimes the only thing we can do with the time we are given is to understand that it is temporary, but a gift just the same.

Life's beautiful moments can happen as we live with those around us, especially those who will be on this planet after us. We can help them see what makes life worth living if we let ourselves see that it is worth it for ourselves, too. Are adults much different other than what we have already learned about what happens from day to day? Aren't we still the unique persons we were when we first saw the bright lights and stepped into life? Maybe then we can see life with others as all of life.

In hearing children singing together, I hear how young we all once were, and I hear the connection we have to one another. I hear the individual hearts that can work together to accomplish something great, and the hearts that can shape the world with their unique passions and dreams. Dreams, like children must be nurtured and cultivated with the realization that they can be squandered by fear, despair, and loss, although with assistance, we can see how these bring us closer to understanding what we want to accomplish in dreams -- while in children, they are signs that we can help them live and grow greater than the plights that can seem to threaten their futures. We can all learn from children as they grow and change faster than moments seem to contain. Memories are made, dreams are nurtured, and children are grown, and if we reach out to the child who needs us, we can touch their world, and ultimately our own and live beyond the confines of our own reality.

Three things I think everyone, especially children, need to thrive. Love, colorful surroundings, and nature.

Connecting Through Walking

All over the world people walk to get from place to place. If they can't walk, they can get from place to place with people who are walking along with them. Walking isn't something that can last a moment because it is something that gets us from place to place over a period of time, but it is something that brings us to experience places, people, and history in ways that are often transcendent.

People have walked on the moon, to represent their opposition to injustice, to bring attention to something that afflicts humanity, to grow deeper in a sense of spirituality or faith, to bond with a friend, family member, or partner, and often to be connected to something or someone important to them. Though many of us cannot walk, we can still experience its liberating power through the movement we make through life. The fluid motion of movement draws one into life and can transform someone's experience of their day or life. Walking along with someone in crisis or sharing in their company can be a way to tune into part of someone else's life, in their movements or even in their feelings when expressed in strides or other means. It brings people closer, more in touch with themselves, and often with each other, and becomes a common bond that has been forged because of what has been shared.

To me, walking is an experience that is close to the heart as it connects me to my soul by feeling the parts of life all around me. When walking with another person, I can hear them better, because I am doing something with them and this sometimes helps me connect to my own humanity. When walking alone, in sadness or in grief, I can feel the larger world reconnecting with me, and showing me more of the universe. In the same vein, I can often feel the parts of life expressed by what lies around me, through the hope expressed in a colorful mural that I pass, trees growing along a neighborhood street, the sadness of a neglected area that is just passed through, and joys of laughter I hear in people playing, dancing, and living near me. It is just a soulful expression of life to move and feel my senses feel and reach to this place of life.

In walking, I can challenge myself to know myself more, to grow through exertion, or to belong to a community or a friendship. It is the greater feeling of joining others in movement, hopefully forward, that allows for me to experience who it is that I am, and where it is that I want to be, amongst the many sights, sounds, and complexities of life.

People walking from place to place in 30th Street Station in Philadelphia

Language Bridges

We live in a large world filled with people who see differently, understand life in their own way as well as in the ways they’ve been raised. Culture is largely influenced by the language we speak, and how we use that language. It can be used creatively through poetry and music or formally through legislation and rhetoric, and  without it we would not share ideas, live differently, or appreciate life. 

As we live, we may have the opportunity to see language splashed onto buildings and boxcars as graffiti or in dishes of food offerings on menus. Across the globe, people speak, write, and tell jokes in their own native tongues that bring flavor and vibrancy to life just as colorful clothing bring expressiveness to our daily lives. In addition, we can hear language and accents in our music, radio broadcasts, and commercials. Language shows our priorities and our passions. It’s importance is understated and realized when it hurts us or lifts us up. 

Knowing we don’t all speak the same language can be difficult, but there are moments where those of us who speak two or more languages can connect how similar we all are or how we can learn and grow from each other’s unique culture. As part of our being is how we speak or write, we can connect to hear the souls of those who have known other climates, sounds, and tastes. 

Once we hear ourselves through language and hear how others live, we can see that language is a tool that brings us together in the best of uses to bring us closer to peace. We can work together, laugh together, and be most alive when we see how much larger life is while we are one earth filled with many people speaking languages about the moment that we have as the present. 

Every Person Is A Gift

This could also be phrased, every life is a gift, though a person becomes who they are by living their life. It's hard to imagine a world with seven billion people, seven billion lives and so many more that have lived on this giant blue planet. It is impossible to meet every person who is alive during one's lifetime, but it is possible to meet people who will change us, even if we meet them once and never see them or hear their voice speak to us again. When we see how people touch us, we can see how they gave us a new perspective, bring us together, allow us to smile, take time to be there, teach us something or show us part of life we had never seen, we can see what that person means not only to us, but to life itself.

Behind everything we enjoy is a person who helped form a song, a meal, a memory, a hope, or our very existence. There was a person who you didn't know that well who smiled at you. There was a friend who challenged you to do something you didn't know you could do until you did it, and then you realized how much it changed your life. All it takes is one person to realize how life changing another life is. We each have a wealth of experience from different places, different people, and different perspectives. Currently we have over seven billion of these to teach us, laugh with us, move us, and be a part of our lives.

While there are people who have hurt us, betrayed our trust, and threatened our sense of who we are that may not seem like a gift, they have things to teach us about adversity, reconciliation, and strength to overcome and rise above. For the challenges in life have been said to be there for a reason, they ultimately take us to who we will become, and who we need to be for tomorrow.

It is said that life is short, but it can be extended if we live moment by moment aware and mindful of just how exceptional life is. There are plenty of hardships that can make us appreciative of what we have, and show us how we need each other. Even the strangers in our life can offer pieces of existence forming the garden of life. It's hard to imagine, but many times in our lives, we are strangers to many people, and by giving others the benefit of the doubt in conversations we may have only one with them, we may receive something similar in return. Call it karma, what goes around comes around, or kindness, the person you meet briefly tomorrow can be a gift if you let them show you what life is going to be at that time.

  Standing in the water at Jones Beach State Park. 

Sitting in a park along the Genesee River.

The people in the photos above are people I never met, and may never see again. They may or may not have been a gift to me, but I'm sure they are to other people.

Eternal Skies

It's hard to watch the sky. It draws you into its breadth and brings you to a sense that everything is changing and moving so fast. How can we ever expect life to slow down? It is the sky that brings you into being with everything that is a part of our present reality because it draws us towards everything to the east, the west, the south, and the north. It is space and it is real.

At the same time, watching the sky as it changes becomes a chance to experience the patterns of the home we have here on our earth. While it's hue isn't always blue, it is a way to slow down and take it in. To me, I can sit there on a mountaintop or porch by a lake and see the distance covered by the sky. I can never reach the top by walking. As lightning cuts it open and lets the rain pour to the depths and the blueness seems to go up forever, the sky remains our canopy and that of all of life.

As the clouds change shape and form the paths to elsewhere, they are still for but a minute. As we can look up and become part of the earth we find the sky helps us live again.

Multiple layers of sky moving quickly as the sun sets.