Even when your dog gets to your beanie and eats most of it; even when the room is colder than you’d would like; even when you practice for one hour on the same piece with little progress; even when there are still many jobs to do in the house; even when you have a bad dream; even when others become upset with you; even when there is not enough time; even when your favorite television show finishes it’s season; even when your vehicle run out of gas; even when the item you wanted to purchase is sold out; even when you didn’t prepare for a rainy day; even when the music is too loud; even when you can’t remember something; even if you lose your job; even if your child becomes ill; even when bills pile up; even when the computer is running slow; even when you didn’t get enough sleep; even if you fail…

Even if.., Even when.., Even… You fill in the blank.

Remind yourself, these are all first-world problems. The glass is half-full.

There is a Bible verse that keeps popping up in my life, Romans 8:28. In essence, it says that ‘all things work together for good’. This mantra is difficult to comprehend at times, but then we are reminded of His works…right on time. A few days ago I watched a live video performance of Brandi Carlile with her new song Right On Time. I have seen that video over and over since then because it is SO powerful and moving to the soul. While I understood the song’s message, I hadn’t yet connected it’s current relevancy to my life. This morning I was granted a simple gift that came right on time. And with that gift, I am humbled and reminded of the truth in Romans 8:28.

It’s a beautiful mess, life. That’s just the way it is. We try to organize, rush, organize more in an effort to do more, and then we realize it is what it is. Instead of attempting to do more it would greatly benefit everyone to simply be more. If we could all be more, then life wouldn’t seem so messy in a sense that we need to do something about it. Then we could all share the experience of being in this beautiful mess of life, as one.

I’ve often thought that every day we have the opportunity to right ourselves, meaning take the high road, do what is right, and fix our wrongs. Along with that, I believe that every day we have the opportunity to write ourselves, meaning our lives are a story. A true story. We can ‘write’ a good story, or we can write a not-so-good story. We have the opportunity to do both every day, make the right-write choice.

Clearly distracted as of late, I find myself also distracted on why I am distracted. I hope I can just blame it on the latest Full Moon cycle which peaked a couple days ago.

Distraction isn’t good for anyone. It’s not efficient or effective. It diverts us from process or goals and thus is just a plain nuisance.

So I did some etymology research on the word to try and figure out origin of the word and it’s logical meaning when broken down. The prefix ‘dis’ I knew to be something negative of sorts. Sure enough, the dictionary defines dis as ‘expressing negation’, and ‘denoting reversal or absence of an action or state’.

Traction, on the other hand is defined as ‘the action of drawing or pulling something over a surface’, and ‘motive power provided by movement’.

Distraction is defined as ‘a thing that prevents someone from giving full attention to something else’ and ‘diversion’ and ‘extreme agitation of the mind or emotions’. Its origin is late Middle English, from Latin distractio.

It’s fascinating to me how the prefix dis, and the root word traction, are used together to form the marriage of meaning as it is used in our language today. Distraction is something with potential to cause counter productivity. Distracted is when we allow the ‘distraction’ to pull us away from process.

Nothing else needs to be said. I just posted an essay under the I Remember tab.

Just added under the Musings tab is a short essay titled ‘…Again’. I actually began writing it a number of months ago, but left it as a Draft because I didn’t know where to go with it after writing the first paragraph. Writing that is forced, reads forced. So I left it alone. Today when I opened the Draft to read what I had already written, I immediately knew where to take the piece. The idea flowed easily so then all I needed to do was select the right words. The musing is typical me, as I am always thinking, always pondering. Enjoy.

I have learned in my lifetime to never say “Never”.

Who would have thought that the horrific events of 9/11 would have ever taken place? Who would have ever thought that the January 6, 2021 Insurrection on the Capitol take place? Who would have thought a virus called COVID would change the entire face of daily society?

Never would I have ever expected my aging parents push back on every attempt to help them in, what should be, their Golden Years.

I have learned in my lifetime to never say Never. Reason being is that anytime I have done that, I am left eating ‘crow’ because at this point am in the position of doing what I didn’t expect I would encounter.

Parents…, we love them. Yet when parents behave in a manner where there is no logical decision making process for their own personal benefit, or they display distrust in their own children’s choices, things become a bit complicated.

Bummer. Here we are…, my brother and sister, and I in a position of being The Three Bad Amigos. We’re the bad guys right now, even though we’re just trying to do what’s best for them.

Much more to come, but unfortunately much less to be expected. Don’t ever do it. Don’t ever say “I will never….” As I believe ‘Never’ will be back in your lap at the time you never expect it to be. Today tell yourself, “I will never say Never.”

Sometimes you get the feeling that you are clueless in the matter, regardless of what that matter is. But, one needs to take any situation, any words, any person and view it from a different perspective. The world exists outside of our own little bubble.

Think of Georges Seurat’s painting titled A Sunday on La Grande Jatte. Pointillism. Created using countless colored dots to depict a scene. From afar, the image looks well defined. Up close, and the viewer sees that all definition is lost. Hence, the point of Pointillism.

We may sometimes feel that we are clueless in any given situation, but are we really? Give credit to where credit is due. We are all dots of color on the canvas of Earth. Together we form a ‘live’, dynamic, and ever-changing image of life.

Let’s keep to that way.

Just posted under the ‘I Remember’ tab is my longest essay yet. I knew it was going to take me awhile to write. Cherry Bomb has taken me weeks to write, for the sole purpose of I just wanted to ‘get it right’. There is so much more I could have written in that essay, but the time was right to include exactly what I have written.