Simple Things

To find the beauty in simple things really isn't all that hard. If someone asked you about butterflies you would think, yes they are beautiful. Sunsets, The beaches of , well any beach, everyone would agree they are beautiful. Slowing down long enough to spend time in beauty is the key. Much easier said than done for sure.

There is so much to accomplish in this life. So much to do, so we can enjoy life. Balance is what it's all about, right? That's what we are all striving for. Striving for it in how much we work, shuttle kids to ball games, and spend time with friends. We strive for it with our spouses, our families and our hobbies. There are a lot of lives that run at break neck speed, most that run faster than mine, but we are trying to find that balance, so the sweet stuff doesn't get by us before we see that it's gone. I sure don't want to wake up one day to find that the finer things, the things that really matter have passed me by.

I think that will always be true however to some degree. I try to move through this life slower, spend time with family and friends. I share in great conversations around campfires quite often, spend time in reflection, and try to really engage the people along my path. Still it all goes too fast. I did slow down long enough to photograph the cricket shown here and spent time really marveling at how beautiful and intricate it is. I wish I did it more often. Life is a blur. We've heard it all our lives and now many of are sensing its truth. Savor the freshness of the morning, hug your loved ones like it's crucial for your survival. Look an elder in the eye and listen to his stories. Watch for just a minute the wonderment of a small child. The sweet stuff is around us all the time This is what I tell myself, I just don't listen as often as I should.

Faces

I have long been fascinated with faces. Just think about it  after you're done chuckling! Aren't they amazing? They tell such stories, such mysteries. As I've become older and I see my own face beginning to take the shape of its next stage, it makes me think of the time line. I look at pictures of people who have made the full circle here on earth, and now have begun the spiritual circles that will never end. 

The ones that were physically shattered and damaged here and will forever be beautiful and healed. I see the hopes and dreams of young people before, as Jackson Browne so poetically wrote in "Too Many Angels", "And upon their angel faces, life's expectations climb, where the moment has preserved them from the ravages of time". I also wonder how the photographs freeze us and perhaps in a way that was just one sliver of a moment but not the full moment. We then thread our dreams and thoughts into the photograph that is before us.

I see the infant in her Mothers arms totally dependent on her for her very survival. The teenager who has so much and yet still needs the wisdom that only comes with time. I see the 20 somethings geared and set to take on the world and to leave their mark. As the next stages came to me and I began to father my children, I found them teaching me much about myself or at least what I thought I knew about myself. I love the peace and contentment of my elders who have learned to let go of what isn't important and to embrace what is. I saw the hollowness in my Grandfathers face in his last days. I was looking at the shell of a man scared yet preparing for the fuller journey. 

I'm not really sure what all of this means. Perhaps it's a reflection that time comes for us all. That maybe we are to make the best of each day we are given. To understand that no matter how much we think we aren't taking this life for granted, the acute clarity of life will reveal itself in our own crossing over. 

So no worries, for what good do they do. Engage, love, and relish in the beauty of it all. Those are the steps for me although I fail daily, but it is no reason to stop walking or finding love in the faces in my life.

GS

 

A SIMPLE PRAYER

I wrote this on Easter morning. Without a doubt it is a prayer. A reaching out. A longing to be in a different space, to be the man I'm trying to be. I suppose it's all part of the journey in finding ones self amidst the wreckage of life. The time when looking for the answers, the real answers takes you inside yourself, inside your ego and that quiet desire for it all to revolve around us. I am many mornings from this being me, but I am aware that I can no longer find peace in the ways of old.

A SIMPLE PRAYER

Give me good ears and an open heart

Make my tongue slow to talk

Maybe then I'll truly hear

The spirit of you calm my fears

It's a simple prayer I pray today

I'm not asking to wash my problems away

I just want to feel you in the everyday

It's a simple prayer I pray today

Make me quick to love

Take my desire for the push n' shove

Make my touch gentle like the lamb

I don't want to stay the way I am

It's a simple prayer I pray today

I'm not asking to wash my problems away

I just want to feel you in the everyday

It's a simple prayer I pray today

Change will come from deep inside

And the love will shine where I hide

Glenn Simmons

copyright@Glenn Simmons Music