Thursday, April 3, 2014

Smiling makes me feel like I look crazy, but I'm just smiling

I tried smiling while driving today. Not for any particular reason, just that it seemed better than frowning.
I've heard that it takes less muscles to smile than to frown, and even though I may not be smiling most of the time, I'm not frowning either. I usually find myself with my facial muscles relaxed because there is no effort in it. My expression is probably not interpreted favorably, though. I'd say I look angry, or empty, or unapproachable. Really I'm just focused, and maybe a little anxious. Just doing what I do, while going where I'm going.
I should smile more. Imagine, you're driving down the road and you slow to a stop beside me at a red light. You look over at me, and I'm just smilin' away. My windows are down, there's no radio coming from inside my car, it's hot as (insert expletive here), and I'm just grinnin' away. My cheeks are pushed up under my eyes and I'm squinting, but I'm definitely smiling. I probably look crazy, but I'm just smiling.

Whispers

Whispers, in the sunny light, guide my shadow.
Never think it'll turn out right; (I) fight my shadow.
Is it ever gonna be like my fellow?
What it is for you and me, only shallow.
And so I take a picture and hold behind a hollow wisher.
Cry beside a window - peek in! - see the empty fair of even.
Have you ever fallen through the light, just to have it lift you up?
At the moment you put up a fight, destiny had spilled your cup.
With the willow blowing in the breeze comes a small yet bitter wind.
Shake the past and reach into the freeze,
-------------------------------------time will help your soul mend.
And I will live on, live on; and I will move on, give on.
Though I may suffer for my chosen climb, I'm trying to make it mine.
There's no reason to be on the downside,
hesitation is holding you back.
Haven't we had enough of this, living like our lives are useless.
Does it seem like our only chance is to dance the dance
----------------------------------------------of those before us?
Step back from that ledge and see the edge for what it's made of.
Before our time is through, let's show them all what we can do.
And when you take that picture and hold behind a hollow wisher,
Cry beside a window - peek in! - see the empty fair of even.
And I will live on, live on; and I will move on, give on.
Though I may suffer for my chosen climb, I'm trying to make it mine.

Saturday, March 1, 2014

Live Today

Life is not just a series of days or years following a perceived passing of time. Life is a series of events adding up to one existence. The future already exists. Tomorrow is already here, and essentially, tomorrow is today. If I spend much of today looking forward to the moments in my life that I have not lived yet, I will neglect to live today. Perhaps this makes time move more slowly; perhaps time cannot be slowed. If when I am enjoying life the moments whiz by, then by simply tolerating life am I delaying any more the inevitable? I am simply looking to the moments I will enjoy, only to have them disappear as quickly as they arrive. Experiences I have so sought after are long gone, and memories exist, and feelings of those memories exist, and to be real the event is still going on, only at another point on our fixed timeline of life. We are born; we pass; life exists for one brief moment. James 4:14 It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.