Are You Hard on Others?

"I try to be harder on others, I feel it improves them. People need periodic beating down to help them better themselves. I specialize in assisting addictive personalities finding their bottom. Then they can begin the healing."
-Alendar

Too often the journey to the bottom is a slow and painful one for self and others. Your words here Alendar, have definately registered with me this morning. I have loved ones that I have "helped" to assure they don't hit bottom, and my "help" is only prolonging the inevitable, thereby, not helping them at all.

Old Trees

We recently had a storm that produced straight-line winds that uprooted 9 trees in my yard. Tall Pines and Oaks that provided shelter and beauty for many species, for many years, had been destroyed. As the storm passed, I found myself walking through the wake of the storms wrath to take inventory of the damage. Trees, older than I, which had survived Mother Nature’s fury for many decades, now laid helpless on the very ground they came.

Chain saw in tote, I proceeded to begin the clean up process. While cutting the branches, I could not help but feel sad that my old friends would no longer be around. Daily icons would no longer be part of my daily inspiration and my daily walk.

Trees are amazing for many reasons, but for me, they are amazing because of the visual history they contain. Tree-rings (Dendrochronology) not only date the tree but also take us on a historic climatic journey of temperature and moisture availability. In addition, the tree can tell us what people, some older than my grand parents, did to the tree. Scars formed from the tree being used as clotheslines, fence post, swing, and even target practice (arrows & bullets) is present in the rings, as well as signs from floods, fire and more.

I have many pictures of family members where trees are present. Sometimes I look at an old majestic tree and see a very young tree, with ghosts of people from simpler times, enjoying their lives, side by side with the tree.

While most of my fallen buddies will be heading to the sawmill, I take my axe, my strength, my sweat, and split the remaining segments for firewood. Each fire will rekindle old memories, while new ones are made.

What does friendship mean to you?

Friendship means being able to accept & support one for what they are, what they could be, and what they are not, while championing their cause.

How much control do we have over our own life choices?

If control is the child of choices we make, then we have 100% control. It's the choices available to us that have been filtered due to circumstance. A commitment to another is based upon the facts as we know them. We cannot control the misrepresentation of facts that may have been communicated to us.

So, I believe, we have 100% control over our own life choices, while control over a commitment to another is proportionate to the truth in the "facts" presented.

How do you find ways to keep going and persevere?

I have "manufactured my own money" since I was 25, when I decided to be self employed. Three children and a wife, and she was a stay at home mom. The only butt I could kick was my own, and many times I kicked way too hard. Looking into the eyes of my children, petting their little backs while they slept at 2 or 3 am literally saved my life a few times. As trite as it may seem, I haven't started a New Year in 20+ years without watching "It's a Wonderful Life".

As the children grew older, poverty that had always existed, became magnified. Poverty angers the hell out of me. While I know I cannot provide an overall solution to it, I can, and do find strength to help little segments of the community, directly, to faces I can see, people I can touch, and lives that I can influence in a small way.

I'ts rather ironic, there have been many times that I cursed the thought of having so many dependant upon me that I couldn't die, but they are also the reason for any success I have had, and for my perseverance.

You have a 10 minute speech to give at a high school, what is it about?

That every single student can be anything that they want to be. There are no restrictions - NONE. The key is in the management of their own daily, 24 hour clock. Nothing of value is ever really accomplished by sleeping, gaming, texting, MTV, or partying in excess.

To simplify, the time left over after your 8 hours of rest and 8 hours of school/employment will be the time in your young lives that will determine the quality of the rest of your life.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Legend of Saint Patrick
Good St. Patrick travelled far, to teach God's Holy Word And when he came to Erin's sod, a wondrous thing occurred He plucked a shamrock from the earth and held it in His hand To symbolise the Trinity that all might understand The first leaf for the Father And the second for the Son The third leaf for the Holy Spirit All three of them in one.