I met a woman years ago I consider more of an acquaintance than a friend. We met through a mutual friend but have never gotten together on our own. Perhaps we feel we wouldn’t have anything in common without her, the elastic band that stretches between us. Or, maybe we fear it would be unfaithful to get together without our mutual friend. Whatever the case may be, I’ll never forget a particular conversation we had one day, the three of us, while meeting for lunch downtown. The mutual friend and I were discussing our families, particularly our daughters who know each other well. Suddenly, the acquaintance blurts out, “I feel like a tree with no limbs.” We looked at her with questioning eyes. A tree with no limbs? What was she talking about? She went on to explain how sorry she was she never had children. Regardless of anything else people may or may not have in common, nearly everyone can talk about their kids. It’s a topic that guarantees conversation. She said it doesn’t matter where in the world a person lives, where they work or what they do, women with children have something in common and it’s a…
Month: July 2011
Nothing Like the Auroma of Fresh Coffee!
When our son was a toddler, he followed me to the coffee maker every morning. He waited for the beans to be freshly ground and then he’d give me the signal which was a tug on my leg. Before anything else could happen, I would bend over to offer him a good long wiff of the fresh ground beans, then I’d make a pot. We always knew he’d be a coffee drinker. For years he poked his nose in the grinder and inhaled all the way to the bottom of his toes. He’d smile and walk away having his fix. When he was about nine or ten he asked me if he could have coffee with us. We explained that he couldn’t for many reasons. The poor guy was going to have to wait. Now days he makes his espresso nice and fresh every morning and revels in the luxury of rich gourmet blends invading his senses. I don’t know what it is about the aroma of fresh coffee dripping in the pot every morning, like a welcome mat set out for a fresh new day. I think it has a lot to do with holding…
Energy
It’s all about how we use it. Energy is energy. Weather it becomes positive or negative…well…that’s up to us. The surprising thing is how many people use it in a negative way. The question is, why waste good energy on the negatives? Let’s use an example. Your are stuck in traffic and will be late because of it. Most often our reaction is to fume. Fuming takes energy. When arriving at your destination, you notice you are exhausted just from getting there. What if sitting there stuck in traffic, you decided there was a reason for it. Maybe there is an accident up ahead that you would have been a part of if not for the slow traffic. Or perhaps you would have been speeding and gotten a ticket if not for the inconvenience of the traffic. I don’t believe there are any coincidences in life. Everything happens for a reason. If you decided to accept that philosophy and accepted the circumstances instead of fuming, you would arrive late, but relaxed and still full of energy. The energy would not be used up on negativism and would still be available for positives. Now, take the example of wind.…