TAKE THE STAGE - ENCORE! ENCORE!

Today this excerpt from MacBeth (William Shakespeare) will not leave my head:

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

It reminds me that we have a choice. We can go through life, day by day, existing, not contributing, just surviving. Until, finally, our time is up.

Exit stage right.

So many people are doing this around us.
The WALKING DEAD.
Letting life HAPPEN TO THEM.
Not INTENTIONALLY CREATING IT.

The real SECRET to THE SECRET
Is that we can change anything about our lives.
But it does take:
Decision Making
Focus
Passion
Perseverance
Faith
and, yes ACTION.

Do what feels right. But not to the detriment of others.
Live your life.
Pursue your passion.
Open your heart.
Let nothing stop your contribution.

We all want to see your time on the stage. We want you to WOW us, entertain us, make us laugh, let us cry in your pain. SHARE YOU with us.

Don't hide.
Get up there on life's stage and STRUT!

More than an hour, a lifetime.
And we will hear MORE from you.
And you will signify SOMETHING.

The authentic you.
The curtain is about to open.

It's time for you to take stage.
We're waiting.
And we want you to succeed.

Endless Conversing

Your friendship has become
Salve to soothe my troubled soul.
Who would have known
You were out there, knowing me
And I knowing you, although
We only now just met?
My mind and heart
Run rampant with things to say
To inform you of all details of life
And yet words mean nothing.
My soul talks to yours
In language all its own
Words are only punctuation
To endless conversing.

Fell from my Own Grace

I irresponsibly fell from my own grace.

The pedestal I constructed for myself

Lost its stability and I came tumbling

To the hard earth.

Setting unattainable standards

For myself and others

Yet always having hope

That neither of us will falter.

What is it within me

That strives to succeed, and then

Pushes the finish line further away

Just as my proud heart nears it?

Perhaps it’s the internal drive

To pursue, to challenge, to dream, and

Of never wanting to be someone

Who did not live up to their potential.

Stamping an Invisible Impression

I awoke from my dream state, bewildered.
Wasn't I just in another world?
Seeming so real, I stumbled back to reality.
Weren't you beside me, whispering in my ear?
What was it you said?
I only remember smiling,
Glad to have you by my side.
The wisdom of your words
Penetrating my mind and heart
It all made sense then, but now escapes me.
In the twilight of my dreams
Lies the altered world of possibilities
Where anything can happen -
Stamping an invisible impression on my soul.

Fuzzy Focus

Yesterday I was in the middle of a long drive on the South Florida turnpike. It was sunset on a beautiful day. The sky looked like it was on fire - stoked with low clouds, it burned dark red, burnt orange, and faded into dark shadows. I passed a lake and noticed the striking colors reflected on its surface, encompassed by the treeline's black edge and a large imposing mountain on one end. Being so beautiful, I savored it in my mind and captured the scene into memory so I could view it the rest of the evening. Such a gorgeous, unusual sight. Seconds after passing it, I realized that there is no such thing as a mountain in South Florida. I looked closer and realized I was driving by the landfills that boarder each side of the highway in this region. What I had considered a magestic mountain was a pile of trash reaching about seven stories high, and there was a good chance that the serene lake was not for swimming! How quickly my perception of the landscape changed. Then I realized, there really is beauty in everything, sometimes our lens just need to be a little out of focus in order to see it clearly.

Breathing Underwater

Overwhelmingly my heart screams - "STOP CHOKING ME!", yet my mind tightens its grip. Out of balance, neither works well. Internal yin & yang trying to co-exist in the same body. My heart must learn to think and my mind must learn to love, or surely I'm on the path to eternal sorrow. It's as simple as breathing underwater with an air tank - all about retraining the mind and body to feel when it would normally be wrought with panic. Perhaps cooperation is the key, with a dose of faith, and safety is the destination.

Hurried Heart

Another hectic morning was looming as I hurriedly ran out of the house, arms full of the supplies I would need to run my errands. I looked down as I locked the front door, and noticed an unwelcome gift from my cat – a large dead rat lay next to my front walkway. I knew I didn’t have the time to deal with it right then, so I made a silent promise to take care of it as soon as I returned. I also made a mental note to add a pet store errand to my list today to purchase a collar with a bell on it, so I wouldn’t have to handle this again in the future.

Upon returning home and getting settled, my mind travelled to the chore of disposing the disgusting, potentially diseased, dead animal, who quite easily matched the “rat” as opposed to “mouse” category, by my front walk. Shovel in hand, I opened the front door, facing a task I did not want to do. Rain was pouring down now, heavily, so I went back in to get a raincoat. When I reappeared, I looked down at the lifeless creature.

The rain had smoothed its soft gray fur in a line down its neck and back, appearing as if someone had made a gentle part to expose delicate white skin. Raindrops continued to fall on its velvety tender ears and they bent with the pressure of each drop, then back up again. I felt my heart start to soften for this hapless creature who met an untimely death after years of surviving on this planet. Its long black whiskers no longer twitched, and its dark eyes held no sight. In this moment, I realized that this little life, as all life, is sacred and in need of respect. I prepared the earth for its burial and sent a silent prayer to the heavens for its tiny soul.

In this experience I realized that there are still times when I judge the moment based on my own perceptions, my own reality. These usually happen when I am in a hurry, caught up in my world of things that need to be done, schedules that need to be kept, time that needs to be spent certain ways. When I take a moment to slow down, to breathe, to focus – awareness will creep in and whisper a life lesson into my ear. As we all go through our hurried days, are there not more times like these, when we can see the alternative to our own perceptions, our own way of seeing our world, and open our hearts to new insights? ---Angela Frisby