Behold the Stars

Put Some Living into Your Life August 5, 2008

Architect Frank Lloyd Wright told how a lecture he received at the age of nine helped set his philosophy of life. An uncle, a stolid, no-nonsense type, had taken him for a long walk across a snow-covered field. At the far side, his uncle told him to look back at their two sets of tracks. “See, my boy,” he said, “how your footprints go aimlessly back and forth from those trees, to the cattle, back to the fence and then over there where you were throwing sticks? But notice how my path comes straight across, directly to my goal. You should never forget this lesson!”

“And I never did,” Wright said, grinning. “I determined right then not to miss most things in life, as my uncle had.

~ John Keasler

Oscar Wilde said, “Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.” So stop getting up at 6:05. Get up at 5:06. Walk a mile at dawn. Find a new way to drive to work. Study wildflowers. Read to the blind. Subscribe to an out-of-town paper. Canoe at midnight. Teach some kid the thing you do best. Listen to two hours of uninterrupted Mozart.
Leap out of that rut. Savor life. Remember, we pass this way only once.

~ United Technologies Corp. Message

When I did and my life passes before me, I’ll replay the tapes of many experiences I had during my life. I’ll remember the time I spent as a literacy volunteer for a Korean immigrant or hiking in New Mexico and the Grand Canyon. I’ll remember the impromptu solo tour given to me by the elderly caretaker of Exeter Cathedral one cold day when I wandered in alone. I’ll remember the time I kept a promising student from dropping out. I’ll remember the quiet stream hidden a few hundred yards behind a subdivision. I’ll remember taking a long, circuitous route across campus because it passed all the pretty spots. I’ll remember getting a plunger caught in a tree (don’t ask) with my daughter. I’ll remember finding out that thunder isn’t caused by two clouds bumping together. But I doubt that I’ll look back on that day I crossed tons of things off my to-do list.

We often confuse productivity with living. Of course, we need to be productive, but the truly amazing parts of our lives are the things that go on around us all the time — if we take the time to notice. Today’s quotes are a reminder that life is all around us in the smallest details of our daily lives. We often need to work deliberately to see them, and we do that by poking our head up out of our rut and seeing what life has to offer.

How about taking some time today to figure out what you’re missing? Get up early and watch the sun rise. Stay up late and count the stars. Volunteer some time to someone who needs that special something that you have to offer. Do anything differently; in fact, do everything differently: brush your teeth with your left hand, drink tea instead of coffee, draw a picture of the weed that’s in your lawn, or read a magazine about a topic you no nothing about (better yet, read a magazine about something you hate). Stop, look, and listen.

The point is this: get out there and bring some life into your life. Once you’ve done that, you can share what you’ve seen, heard, or learned. Maybe the person you tell will start to look, too. Then what do you have? A trend. And you’ve always wanted to be trend setter, right?

Make a great day.