Anticipating a Vernal Equinox

I promised I would make my next blog positive, and I’m a man of my word. First I will provide a brief redress of my last post. I read a short blurb last night in yesterday’s Salt Lake Tribune that addressed the recently ended, 45-day general legislative session. The main topic was that even though legislators fulfilled most of their constituents’ desires, the public would focus on the negative products of the Legislature. The Tribune said it was “human nature.” Even though I don’t believe I am included, necessarily, as a constituent of the average Utah politician, this article caused me to reassess my attitude.

This is an especially big deal because I have recently been posting angry and flagrant messages of unhappiness on my blog – a space I usually devote to positive messages of hope. I noticed I was getting significantly more readers when I ranted on about what makes me mad about the world around me. While I can’t guarantee that this won’t happen again in the future, I can say “Shame on me.” I apologize to the few readers who enjoy my inspirational words. I will continue to write these things, but perhaps I will mix things up from time to time. After all, a writer needs readers.

Yesterday was a lovely day. The sun was shining all day, until it went down at seven o’clock. The beauty of daylight savings in the springtime is that even though we lose that hour of sleep, we gain an hour of daylight. I anxiously anticipate the vernal equinox and, with it, warmer weather, longer days and happily chirping avian creatures. This will be another year filled with road trips, river trips and long hikes in the mountains – hopefully with beautiful friends.

I decided last night that I was able to go to sleep before midnight, so I took advantage of it and did. I was able to wake early this morning, thus fulfilling the first sentence of Benjamin Franklin’s adage, “Early to bed and early to rise…” Now if I can live up to the predicate of that statement, I’m in good shape, “…makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.”

I really don’t have anything more to say right now. I just woke up, Spring Break is over and it’s time to crank out the last six weeks of this semester. I promise to be more positive throughout my smatterings of political commentary and thoughts on text messaging 🙂

On This Big Round Rock

I can’t count the number of times I’ve closed my eyes and aimed my face at the sun, but I can remember what it feels like to have that warm light radiating down on me. The tighter I close my eyes the wider my smile gets. I’m 30 years old and I still get happy every time I see the sun shining.

In the depths of depression, it’s impossible to walk outside and even see the sun, let alone feel its warmth. There sets a glaze over the eyes of the depressed soul. The existence of love within, the fullness of spirit, the magic of life that causes wonder – all of this becomes lost. The deception is that it is right there around us all the time, we just lose track of it, we become wrapped up in the distractions of the world. As we gain one thing that we desired, we decide that it doesn’t make us happy enough, so we look for something else to make us happy. This half-life of happiness, that worldly objects barely afford us, is what causes the gradual decay of our ability to love life.

I used to tell a girl, “Living life loving you makes loving life easy to do.” The problem was that if that person ever went away (which she did), loving life would, by default, become harder to do. I now assert that living life loving, makes loving life easy to do.

To find solace in the mundane things, by remembering all that we have and have achieved, is the answer to overcoming the foolish ruses of the deceiver. The world is God’s creation but it can certainly be the devil’s playground if we allow it. Stripping down and letting go of the chains of remorse, wanton desire and greed, will help us to ford that mucky river and find that shallow, narrow path once again!

No matter your geographic location, you can always close your eyes and be in the same place every time. Within your mind, heart and soul is where the love is that you keep for your loved ones. Your family and friends are all there collectively. We can all look up together, at the night sky, and see the same sky. We’re all on this rock together!

Is This Road Long Enough for the Trip I’m On?

Equilibrium is a myth in a world like this, at least in the case where the human mind is concerned. Never will your world come to a complete balance. If this standstill were achievable would any of us want it anyway? How boring would it be to simply have things exactly the way you want? Most of us have already had fleeting moments in our lives where we’ve experienced just this. It’s that moment your travelling in your car, the streetlights racing past, the night sky a faint blur, that perfect song playing on the stereo, your hand in your lover’s, and you think to yourself, “If I died right now, it would be alright…”

This moment of serendipity fades quickly as you think of all that would be lost if you were to die off then and there…so much life to be lived, only a small percentage of it the exact way you want it to be. Choices lead to change and change leads to more choices. Cloudy skies lead to rain, rain helps the flowers grow, flowers lead to loves gained, and without flowers maybe the sun would shine that much less. The sun always shines, even behind a cloudy sky. Today, tomorrow, next year may not go our way, but eventually, God will give us our day!

Requiem For a Joyful Journey

What a joy it is, this wonderful place! To get away alone for a day, only a faint trace of the human race. To live in Utah, in this mountainous wonderland…I hear the sounds of a distant stream, the subtle crackles from firewood, the flicker of light in the distance…

Sitting in the back of the Cherokee, writing down simple thoughts, thanking God for who I am, and forgetting about what I am not. The bright future lies ahead, and I remember the river…flowing as it did and I followed it. She cleansed my life, once in shambles–yet now there is a glimmer, a reflection of light on the other end of a long tunnel…

Mission: Sunset, Day 2

Lately, I’ve decided to hunt down the primo spots in Cache Valley to catch a view of the sun as it sets. This all came about from weeks of seeing that the sunsets have been really beautiful, but I haven’t been able to see past the houses in my neighborhood.

Yesterday was day one of my search. I belatedly got into my Jeep at 8:55pm and rushed towards downtown Logan. My initial destination was the Logan Temple lawn, but unfortunately the gates were closed. Driving like a maniac, I hurried to the USU campus and hiked up Old Main Hill to see what I could see.

Alas, I got there minutes too late, however, I discovered that this was the spot. In fact, there were a few spectators there who apparently already knew that Old Main Hill was a great vantage point.

Today, I coolly jumped into my Jeep at 8:30pm and had plenty of time to get a purchase on the real estate. The cool evening air and plant-perpetuating sprinklers reminded me of humid, yet cool summer eves back home in Pennsylvania. As I stood atop the hill, framing my picturesque viewpoint, it dawned on me that these moments before dusk at Old Main are tenderly romantic. I made a mental note of this in case I get a date some time soon.

I got my camera ready to shoot the syrupy sunrays, as the giant ball of flame made its slow descent below the western mountain peaks. With my earbuds in and my iPod on, Thank You by Led Zeppelin began to play. Robert Plant poignantly mused, “If the sun refused to shine, I would still be loving you.”

I am happy that at that moment, the sun was not going away for good, in fact I am 99% sure it’ll be back in the morning. I will agree with Plant on this, Cache Valley, “I [will] still be loving you!”

Still New to Cache Valley…Still Lovin’ it!

I love this place. The new world meets the old world. Agricultural enterprise fills the air with smells of hay-grass and fertilizer. I drive through my neighborhood and on either end are horses, cows, and wild turkeys. This makes for precarious driving at times when the animals want to share the road.

Mountains in all directions to remind us of how small we are…to remind us of how we are only important as parts of the bigger picture. So much to see, all of it making each day a new and appreciable experience. The mouth of Logan Canyon calls me, whispering its beckoning on the warm summer breeze.

This place radiates with hope and incubates my intrigue for new adventure. Look out Cache Valley, here I come!