The One Where I Say "Break The Mold!"

Let me begin with I'm a bad blogger.  I totally need a reminder to blog or something. I dunno, I tend to be a "subject matter" blogger.  I blog when I have something to say.

Today is one such day.

It's Fall Y'all in Texas.  Well it is for today anyway.  I should probably post pix of this... I won't because I need to dust.... but my house décor is "fall" related.  Oranges, purples, deep red hues.  Because I love Fall.  I was born in September and I think some of the best things  happen in September! 

Seasons change

Baseballs annual "Hunt for Red October" (is anyone else heartbroken over the way the A's have fallen apart, or how my Texas Rangers are in last place, when did we become "The Cubs" of baseball?)

Football season begins (Go Packers, Giants, Bears and Broncos - just cuz I'm in Texas doesn't mean I love the Cowboys...that's a blog for another day)

Oh and Seasons change.

I like the crispness of the air the way it ushers in a change in our focus.  Summer is over and we make this turn.... almost like a turn home after a long trip.  For me it's familiar, it's a settling in, a cozying up with a good book and a cool day kind of mentality.  It's not hurried. 

Noticing the décor in my kitchen today, as if I'd never seen it, I have these vines of leaves, on the tops of my cabinets, ya know where you put stuff, like greenery, plastic plants, decorative stuff that only gets dusted once a year. 

Anyway, the "greenery" at my house isn't so green, it's fall colors, red and orange and purple and hues that made me think of this place we're in as people.

These leaves are changing, alive and not dead, they haven't fallen to the ground, they are clinging to their life source.  They are fiery and bold and in your face, yet delicate and in process. 

Sometimes this happens in our own back yard, and other times we travel to see the beauty of the process.  There's an entire business of seeing this process and the viewers call it beautiful, breathtaking, phenomenal, vibrant, and beyond description.

Yet when that happens in life, when we're in process, we don't describe it much like that, do we?   We don't book vacations, charge the camera, pack a lunch, post to Instagram.  We don't marvel at it as though something beautiful happening before our very eyes.  Not in our self.  Not in others.

Stop and smell the roses they say!  I say Break The Mold!  Stop and watch the process of Fall, the delicate balance of becoming, the fragility of life, the boldness of clinging.  Notice it in yourself.  Be okay to proceed, become, cling.  Celebrate it in others.  Give them permission to proceed, become and the boldness to cling when needed.

Maybe to come on Instagram will be boring pictures of my stubborn Oak Tree, the one that is the last to lose it's leaves, still clinging to the old as buds of new life push them off and into the wind. 

Perhaps I'll have something more to say about it as we go into a new season.  :)  About the tree and maybe about me.

Some thoughts along the way

Was posting with a friend back and forth about this being a journey. its a journey not a destination. That is what this lifestyle is....when you get down to it, that is what LIFE is. 

You can't (ok, well you can, i can, we all can) live from destination to destination. We can all live by the "I'll be happy when...." bone. But why? Why will you be happy in the future? Why not be happy today! It's Happiness, not Happen-ness, right. I don't mean gleeful, I mean content. 

I heard someone say this one time and its stuck with me. "Its simple, not always easy." 

Being happy today, its simple for me to say. Not always easy to live out. I think, well I'll speak for me. I used to live by "destination." By the "I'll be happy when" bone. Ya know the "wish bone". 

I'll be happy when: 

I'm married 
have kids 
change jobs 
retire 
move 
have ____ $$ 

I'll be happy when my kids are outta diapers, walk, talk, can dress themself, feed themself, stop fighting with their brother, start school, get outta school!! 


I'll be happy when I'm 30, 40, 50. 

Oooh how about this....I'll be happy when I'm _______ pounds! When I fit into ____ size. 

Again, why be happy (content) in the future? Why not today? For me it was because I lived by destinations. 

I'm not Noah Webster (yes he really had a first name and an actual purpose for his book google Noah Websters 1828 Dictionary) But here are my definitions of Destination and Journey: 


A destination is where you pack your bags with all your baggage (and I don't mean leather suitcases with wheels or anything else), old junk, old stuff, old you, old everything. You go to your "destination" spot, have a good time, eat too much, drink too much, relax a bit, get sunburned, purchase souveniers (which will be baggage someday) to take back with you to allllll your old stuff. 

A journey is much different. Cuz you leave your "stuff" at the docks. Maybe you take a backpack, but otherwise, its just you, putting one foot in front of the other to the place where you become and when you get to where you "become" you continue on the journey, because becoming isn't a destination. 

Becoming: here i'll get a little bit "greek" on ya! In the greek they have interesting grammar. One part is a present active imperitive (meaning of uncertain affinity), its like this "I see and I keep on seeing." It doesn't stop. Its not on a "walk/run" program, its only running. 

I become and I keep on becoming, taking each change of the road on. The highs the lows, the turns, the rest stops, the places with no decent bathroom, the bumps, the hills, the valleys, the intercestion where the light is too long, the stretch of the road where I put it on cruise control and turn up the radio! Its all a journey. Enjoy your journey to becoming. :)