wisdom via M.Dot
It's not easy to find special meaning in clichés, those tired-out phrases that long ago lost their ooomp and effect. Still, several have been running through my Generation X brain as I grasp the notion of aging icons; aging parents and a childhood far removed from my ever-graying crown. Oh, the world forgetting by the world forgot. Never before have these cliches seemed less like movable type.
Who’s Your Daddy?
Speculation swarms. Did Michael Jackson “father” his children? I have the answer and I don’t need a blood test. Yes, he did and here’s my evidence: his kids had a special name for him. It was Daddy.
Life is short.
Pretty much everyone is dying. Actually, we’re all dying. One of these days, I’m going to wake up and discover, assuming I’ve outlived them, that Madonna, Springsteen and the Eagles are all dead. Time is a wasting. I better get busy with my plan to change the world, or at a minimum, start enjoying it more. I’m not getting any younger, and excuse me, but neither are you. It’s time to start avoiding with great passion any and everyone getting in the way of God’s plan for your life. How to know His plan? I’ve come to believe for the most part that God’s will is most apparent at the intersection of willingness and opportunity.
Don’t Speak Ill of the Dead.
Kahil Gibran said it in The Prophet and I believe it is true: Like the mountain to the climber from the plain, people become more perfect in their absence from us. Michael Jackson has traveled the ultimate distance in the carriage of death. The journey has silenced (for the most part) the peanut galley of hecklers. Maybe we need a new cliché: Don’t speak ill of the living.
Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today.
Michael Jackson waited way too long to take back control of his life, career and reputation, and sadly, on the eve of his revival he died. The last people that need to be in charge of how much you give back to the world are people who don’t love you or think you are wonderful; who don’t believe in you or are the first to think the worst of you. Listen up: make a plan. Execute it. You can do this. You can start over. You can start up. And, you can start again.
You don’t know how much you love someone until they are gone.
Tomorrow, on your way home from work stop by the post office and buy 10 stamps. Write out 10 note cards to those 10 people you’ve been meaning to tell 1) Thank you 2) I love you or 3) You made a difference. When you are done, break your neck by looking up their addresses and then drive to the post office and mail these 10 letters. This could change your life, my friend. Here is the note I’ve been meaning to mail:
The other day, after we met for coffee, when I went to leave, I looked back and I saw you standing by your little blue car. Your white hair was blowing in the wind and you blew me a kiss and waved to me goodbye. I thought of all the places we’ve lived and all the things we’ve been through. I thought about how much I’ve loved you these 41 years, and how no matter many years I have you, it will never be enough. And, I imagined what I might do differently if this was our last goodbye. Would I turn around and run to you and tell you, “Mom!!!!!!!!! I love you so much! Don’t go yet!"
Can the child within my heart rise above? Can I sail through the changing ocean tides? Can I handle the seasons of my life?* You have, mom, so I know I will be able to, also.
What clichés are ringing true for you this week?
*From the lyrics to Landslide
11 comments:
Jen--
What a JOY you are. I had to catch my breath as I read this post. Thank you for your sweet note. It is the "Little acts of kindness" given and received that makes a differnce. We don't need to wait for that SPECIAL DAY to do it. EVERYDAY is a SPECIAL DAY!
Love you forever-- MOM
Oh, I don't know...Now I been 'fraid of changing cause I've built my life around you.
But time makes you bolder, even children get older and I'm getting older, too.
One of my very favorite songs of all times, sung by one of my favorite singers. Stevie.
So, what does come next? I am so haunted by this question lately, between this damn chronic pain and my children becoming more and more independent by the hour. What comes next when the "plan" I had for myself doesn't even remotely look like the one that I have been living in for the past few years?
Sometimes God speaks in such hushed whispers that it is hard for me to hear Him above my own internal chatter. That is something that I will need to work on.
Thought-provoking post, dear heart.
Hugs,
Debra
Lovely, Jen. You are on a roll of writing these days. Thanks for taking me along for the ride.
Peggy Johnson
Truly wonderful post. I particularly like #1
This is a lovely, thought provoking post - wisdom indeed, I'm passing it on to my friends :)
@MOM - Love you, mom.
@DEBRA W - One day, I was thinking on all these things - life rocketing by at breakneck speed and ALL the words to this Stevie Nicks song came to me. I didn't even know I knew it and I could recite the entire thing. In fact, I never even knew the name of it. I had to google it.
Your comment hits on something I've been thinking so much about lately and that is how does God speak to us? Sometimes, the whisper is so faint, the pain so great, the unknown so big. At least some answers seem to be in the song: Time makes you bolder. What purpose can that boldness serve? xoxo, jen
@PEGGY/OKLAHOMA EXILE - I first heard you perform in Kerr Park in the early 1990s. The ride has been longer and now more mutual than I'd ever imagined it would be. Thank you...
@ANDI - Thanks, Andi. I hope it didn't come off snarky.
@UNDERSTANDING ALICE - Thank you. What a blessing!
I like the comments about the cliches (how do you get that dash over the e?)My thoughts about MJ have been about his brain and the capacity and limitations a brain has to deal with life on a scale like what he must have experienced. We know the mind's potential is generally untapped in us common folk. But do we consider that global success and fame and power and influence experienced by our superstars, may push its capacities beyond some tipping point. I wonder if global success is like LSD. How much can the mind tollerate before it goes freeky?
@RANDY - I have seriously been wondering the same things!! Honestly, how much can one mind bear?
I love the note to your mom - tears welling ...
my fav cliche is and will always be ... what does not kill you makes you stronger ...
combined with ... this too shall pass ....
the second one has a flip side - the bad will pass and so will the good so you'd better be resilient ...
hugs le
thank you Jen, I just love to read here, you always make me think
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