01.30.09
“I have spread my dreams…”
“I have spread my dreams beneath your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.”
-W.B. Yeats
I have been thinking about dreams a lot lately, dreams, and goals, and plans, and the future in general. My own and other people’s. Life’s work and life’s worth.
Can your dreams ever be just too big for you to ever grow into, too big for you to ever achieve? Does there come a time when you need to take a look at your big dreams and trim them a little so that they may actually be attainable? Or, are there ways that you can still go about reaching these dreams with the biggest question of all actually being how to figure out what it is you need to do differently?
It seems that when achieving a dream becomes so much of a priority, so much of a preoccupation, that not being able to reach it causes you to become aggravated or frustrated, something has simply got to give. But, what?
I can’t help but think that while patience may be a virtue, it is also the destroyer of dreams.
~Melissa 
11.29.08
“I like to think of life in terms of…”
Ironically, I made time for myself to read for a little while yesterday – following my own advice from the previous post – and what I ended up reading related exactly to the “out of control circumstances” that I referred to the day before. This is a long passage from Nicholas Sparks’ Three Weeks with My Brother, but I wanted to share it with all of you.
“I like to think of life in terms of a stream, rapids, and waterfall. There are periods in everyone’s life when things just seem to float along. You’re in your canoe, paddling leisurely, enjoying the view. One day flows into the next, everything gets done, and somehow there’s still time to relax. Then, ever so slowly, the stream starts to move faster; it’s still possible to manage everything, but it takes a little more effort. Next come the rapids, and all of a sudden, everything is more challenging. Maybe there’s a new project at work, maybe someone in the family gets sick, maybe you move or get laid off. Whatever the reason, you spend those periods steering the canoe, struggling to stay afloat. You wake up in the mornings feeling you’re already behind, and each day becomes a frantic race against the clock in order to get everything done. And then the rapids begin to roil even faster, and you go right along with them. You “have to,” you “need to,” you “have no other choice.” You go, go, go. And in the distance, you hear the roar of the waterfall, and you convince yourself that your only option is to paddle even harder. You’ve got to steer through those rapids and somehow get to safety. Otherwise, the waterfall’s going to take you.”
I put the next to last line in bold because I thought it was really important that he doesn’t say that though there are circumstances beyond our control (sick family members or being out of work) and we may feel like our lives are chaotic, we can still steer ourselves through and get to a safer and calmer place.
~Melissa
11.28.08
“Being rich is having…”
Being rich is having money; being wealthy is having time.
-Stephen Swid, executive (b. 1941)
Nowadays, with so many of us worried about the economy, and many of us trying to stick to tighter budgets during the holiday season, I thought that this quotation was appropriate.
The interesting thing though is that while there may be a limit to how much money we can make (at least in a short amount of time) we have much more control over how much time we can make – time for ourselves, our loved ones, and the important things in our lives.
It is important to remember that we do have this ability so that we do not let the circumstances that may be beyond our control take over.
I hope you enjoy this day after Thanksgiving, whether you are able to spend a lot of money in the stores today or not. Find (or make) time today for the people and things that you love.
~Melissa
11.24.08
A little post because it is almost Thanksgiving.
It is delightfully easy to thank God for the grace we ourselves have received, but it requires great grace to thank God always for the grace given to others.
-James Smith
Ooh, isn’t that just a remarkable idea?
It isn’t enough to find the things in our own lives that we are thankful for, we need to be thankful this holiday (and hopefully all year long) for the good things in the lives of our loved ones.
I like this idea.
Happy Thanksgiving!
~Melissa
10.25.08
What if our love…
What if our love never went away?
What if it’s lost behind words we could never find?
-Daughtry (What About Now)
I really like the song “What About Now” by Daughtry. Actually, the entire album, Daughtry, has songs with great lyrics. They’re so poetic and romantic. I was in the car earlier today when this song came on the radio. I’ve listened to it a bunch of times before, but today was the first time I really heard these two lines. I kept repeating them over and over to myself and thought that they were interesting.
I love words, of course, but to think that we can lose things (and especially something as significant as love) because of the words we don’t say (or find things because of words we do say) is a pretty powerful idea. It makes me wonder about all the things we don’t know or have because some words don’t translate from one language to another, or we never had the chance to share our words, or we just don’t know which words to use. It makes me think about how the different words that we each know shape our lives. Powerful, powerful.
I also really love the pure, pleading, vulnerability of these lines. I tried to search a little to see who wrote the song lyrics, but didn’t find anything yet. If anyone knows who wrote them, let me know!
~Melissa
10.12.08
“We are each of us angels…”
“We are each of us angels with only one wing. And we can only fly while embracing each other.”
- Lucian de Croszonza
This is such a beautiful idea to me. I don’t know why so many of us fight it, why so many of us are too stubborn or too proud to ask for help or let others be a part of our success.
I see it with my students, and even my own friends and family. The frustration that results when a person tries to do something on his or her own when help is clearly necessary is painful to witness. It does make sense to equate this experience with trying to fly with only one wing; it just can’t be done.
I like to think that I value the opinions of others and that I am receptive to help…now. This was not always the case, however. When I was younger, I fought my parents’ and teachers’ constructive criticism and vehemently argued against it. (I guess I thought I knew much more than I did!) I often refused the help or guidance that was offered to me and as I look back I realize how much smoother or simpler things might have gone for me over the years if I had accepted it. Instead, I tried to do things on my own, in my own way. We live and we learn – and this is definitely a lesson that I learned the hard way!
I seek help with so many things today like professional development opportunities as a teacher and workshops as a writer. I am happy whenever anyone takes the time to offer advice…and I make an effort to express my gratitude for the advice even if I don’t agree with it.
We each can only get so far with our one wing – and while some of us may do okay with that one wing, just think of how much farther we can go and more successful we can be if we let someone help us, fly with us. And, even more beautiful than this thing of our own success, is how much we can help others when we become their second wing.
~Melissa
10.11.08
“He, who every morning plans…”
“He, who every morning plans the transactions of the day, and follows that plan
carries a thread that will guide him through a labyrinth of the most busy life.”
- Victor Hugo
A while ago, I wrote a post in response to a poem with a very similar message. HERE And today, as I am beginning my own day with only a vague plan and so many things that need to be done, wishing I was a had a little more structure, or direction, I found this quote. Reading this quote reminded me of my own “thread” from before and suddenly, the day’s purpose is much clearer – even though nothing else has changed. (From that earlier post we discussed that every individual’s thread might be something different, but it is what guides us through our lives; it could be religion, love, family, a career, or something else.)
What I am hoping to say here is that I think it is important to remember the bigger and most important things in our lives even when the small and mundane activities seem to take over. If we keep the things that are closest to our hearts at the forefront of what we do each day and why we do those things, then we can’t really go wrong – even when we have responsibilities and obligations to do so many seemingly unrelated things.
Happy Saturday!
~Melissa
09.23.08
“Man’s love is of man’s life a part…”
“Man’s love is of man’s life a part; It is woman’s whole existence!” Byron
Comment and discuss, please!
~Melissa
09.21.08
“Remember there’s no such thing…”
“Remember there’s no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end.”
- Scott Adams
Random Act of Kindness and Gratitude #5 – This act is something that my mother does, but I only recently learned about. Many people clip coupons, but not all of us do. There is a lot of money that can be saved using coupons, but it is a time consuming process of sorting through them and cutting them out, (or finding them online and printing them out) keeping them organized and then remembering to use them when you are in the store. My mother is actually quite good at it. She collects coupons each week to take to the grocery store with her and has gotten the system down to a science. Since most coupons have an expiration date, that also has to be accounted for in the process because sometimes the coupon is not needed to be used before it expires.
What my mother does if she has a coupon that is not yet expired, but probably will expire before the next time she goes shopping, is find the item in the store and leave the still good coupon on top of it. For example, if she has a coupon for peanut butter, but does not need to buy it herself, she finds the peanut butter that matches the coupon, and puts the coupon on the item so that someone who is coming to buy the peanut butter will find the coupon and be able to benefit from it!
Apparently she has been doing this for a while, but I only just learned about it. It doesn’t take very long to do, but it may help out someone else and give them a pleasant surprise while they are doing their grocery shopping. I was so proud when I learned about my mother doing this random act of kindness that I wanted to share it and suggest it to all of you.
Again, this idea is an easy idea that requires no money and very little effort. We can do things like this in any (clothing, home improvement, pharmacy, etc.) store that sends out or offers a coupon. Before you throw away a coupon that you don’t need, stop and see if you can leave it for someone else to use.
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On a similar note, today’s Word of the Day from dictionary.com was beneficence. So, feelings of kindness and charity are already in the air…
Happy Sunday. ~Melissa
“What have you done for me lately…”
Posted in Quotations and Reflections tagged appreciation, blog, comments, Janet Jackson, song lyrics, writing at 12:02 am by Melissa Morris
“What have you done for me lately? Ooh, ooh, ooh, yeah!”
I have had this Janet Jackson song stuck in my head for days! Really. Days.
But, it has actually got me thinking about how we are all looking for the newer, bigger, better versions of everything – fashion, technology, and so many other things are constantly being updated and replaced. In all of the excitement of the new, I think we tend to lose sight of what we value sometimes because we are so busy looking to see what comes next. It is nice to slow down every once in a while and appreciate what we have right in front of us, right now. I think this is actually called stopping to smell the roses.
It has also got me thinking about some of my “older” posts on this blog. I know that the blog is still under two months old, but I feel a little badly for the first few posts and the ones that haven’t received very many hits or comments. So, I am just throwing it out there and suggesting that you click through the archives and take a look at some of the older posts. I know that I try to click on early posts when I visit blogs…I enjoy seeing what the first few posts were about and how the blogs have evolved – even in just a short time.
Happy reading!
~Melissa
PS…I apologize if the song gets stuck in your head!
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