Fond Memories of Inspiration

I spent a portion of my childhood living in West Branch Iowa.  I have a few fond memories of that place in particular I have memories of teachers who inspired me to do things that, looking back now, maybe I didn't follow through on.

Mrs. Hughes was a teacher of mine who, early on, noticed my interest in science Especially Earth Sciences and fossils. I remember one time in paricular stopping by her house. She invited me inside, and knowing that I like science she gave me a large rock that had hundreds of fossils in it. She also gave me examples of animal specimens in jars, and books to read that would continue to kindle my fire.

Why she took such an interest in this and me? I don't know but I appreciated then, and I still appreciate it today.

She lived part of her life in Alaska during the Great Earthquake that Anchorage what subject to in the 60's.  I always enjoyed listening to her tell stories of her kids playing baseball in the summer until the wee hours of the morning because it was still light, and also showing pictures and sharing stories about the earthquake itself. Seeing the devastation in pictures just fascinated me.

She was an interesting lady and wonderful teacher. Amazing how simple acts of kindness and taking an interest in a child can make such a difference in molding them as adults. That should be a lesson to all of us.

Things Turn Out.....

It never ceases to amaze me how things in life turn out......

No matter how carefully life is planned, something still goes wrong.  The saying "The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry" is an adaptation of a line from Robert Burns' poem "To a Mouse." In the poem, Burns describes how a mouse's home is destroyed by a farmer's plow even though the mouse thinks he has discovered an invulnerable site.

How often are we like the mouse?  For most of us, life goes on pretty uneventful most of the time. True, we all face challenges like illness, a death in the family, financial stress, but let's face it, for those of us living in the U.S. we have it pretty darn fortunate compared to the rest of the world.  So, the majority of us go along pretty satisfied, content, and secure in that the plans that we have lain are invulnerable.  What most of us forget is that in life, there is no such thing as "invulnerable."

The so called perfect marriage can become "not so perfect" before you know it with just a few missteps, or that bullet proof job can be shot down with a change in the economy, down-sizing, corporate buy out. Physical health, mental health, friendships, relationships, are all vulnerable. Usually, this vulnerability comes from forces outside of our control, and sometimes we unknowingly become our own worst enemy.

It's how we deal with these vulnerable moments that is key to how life truly turns out. How we react is really the only thing that we have control over.  Too often people run around like Chicken Little, professing that, indeed the sky IS falling.  Truth of the matter is that life events have a permanent effect, but the actual act is temporary.  The problem lies in that the permanent effect is what causes our best laid plans to go awry and that scares us. The vision of our marriage, job, health, relationships turns out to be, well, not what we planned, not what we expected, and certainly not what we wanted.

I'm not one to quote song lyrics, but in the Beatles "Within You, Without You," George Harrison sings that "Life goes on within you and without you."  It's a statement that has made a lot of sense to me and I have used it quite often.  It is a statement of how insignificant, yet significant, life really is.  It may not go according to the plans you have laid, but, life will turn out, it may just not turned out according to the best laid plan of mice and men.