Time Flies

When you are having fun.

I've noticed lately how time has gotten completely away from me. It is here one minute, then in the blink of an eye, it is a month later. Technically, more than a month in posting time. How does this happen?

I will not get into the scientific and revolving explanation of the sun and earth and stuff. Rather, I will shed light on this second slipping reality by blaming it on a “someone new” disrupting life’s routine. Assuming you are genuinely happy with this someone new, time can sneak away without warning while you rearrange your life to include this extra body. Nor do you mind taking that time to blissfully dance around this new lifestyle. (Right cuz?)

But it does bother me to think about this in relation to the inspiration aspect of writing. Why is it we are only really inspired to write when we are stressed or bugged or depressed or in a negative frame of mind? In other words, why, when in lags of writing, do we (I) resort to that excuse of happiness disrupting the muse? Are optimistic thoughts not worth the time to write and read about?

Why must creativity be motivated through melodramatic misery? I know it is not always this way, but there are so many good things to talk about…like unicorns and rainbows and little dancing gophers.

Ok, so happiness can tend to lack in motivating topics and skills. I still think it sad that society can lean more towards the negative aspects of life than the good stuff. When you read the news, there are stories of people dying, war raging, children hurting. Folks inflate drama to gain pity for some misfortune that has befallen their space. Games seek unhealthy modes of competition so one can feel good through the defeat of a weaker link. TV emphasizes the losers in reality based shows. It is no wonder we forget the good out there when we allow this negativity impact our days.

I mean really, it is truly amazing waking up to a blue sky lightly dotted with cotton ball clouds. It is amazing how sliced apples and cheese can tickle the senses. It is amazing feeling the breeze of spring tussle the hair from a car’s open window. It is absolutely amazing running through the smells of mountain air. It is even amazing admiring the bruises incurred from a great game of soccer.

Admit it: life is much more fun to live when you look at the world through rose colored glasses. Seemingly mundane moments now erupt with the simple shape of childlike joy. Then the time passes and you realize it is a month later. The memories are still in connection, and your past days look more like a photo album rather than a blob of wasted time. Not to mention: YOU ARE STILL SMILING!!!

So, the dance of trying to reconfigure this happiness is not necessarily a bad thing. We are just going to have to look to new directions for inspiration…like that class I took this past week, making some amazing knife handles.

Dear Prudence...

Won’t you come out to play.
Dear Prudence,
Greet the brand new day
The sun is out, the sky is blue,
It’s beautiful and so are you
Dear Prudence,
Won’t you come out to play.

Prudence: Wisdom. Insight. Knowledge.
Not the action, but rather the motivation for appropriate action at a given time and place. The exercising of sound judgment.

Should I stay or should I go now? (Clash)
With or without you? (U2)

Three songs, all relating in someway to the same question we all face from time to time: now what?

Should I stay or should I go now?
Have I been in the same place so long that it is now time to move on, to go out and play? It is so easy to want a change of scenery. Possibly Prudence is here to show me that where I am is where I need to stay, perhaps a move is not in the picture…yet. Or maybe that is Prudence packing my bags, hinting to me that it is time to go.

With or without you?
Do I go it alone? Am I in a life that needs another to help, or will the other hinder? Do I seek this other for comfort? Is it love or am I settling because I have not yet found a Better Man (Pearl Jam)? Perhaps Prudence is holding up a mirror to show me I am beautiful enough a person to continue it solo. Or maybe Prudence is singing out so I recognize the person in front of me is truly my mate, sans mirror of course….

Dear Prudence,
Open up your eyes
Dear Prudence,
See the sunny skies
The wind is low, the birds will sing
That you are part of everything
Dear Prudence,
Won’t you open up your eyes.

Prudence is inside each of us…docilitas…an open mindedness. Prudence helps us to recognize true variety of things and situations. We turn to others for advice because Prudence needs the input of others who have lived, who have the experience and authority of a given idea.

Dear Prudence, open my eyes so I too may see the sunny skies. I need that clear day coaxing me out with promises of warmth and adventure. I need to hear the birds calling me out to relish in beautiful surroundings. Dear Prudendce, I want to know where it is I need to be, so I can truly be a part of this life.

Dear Prudence, open up my eyes.

Look around, round, round, round, round….

Choices. Bombarding from every direction. Dear Prudence, open my circumspection. Help the battling choices creating chaos in my mind work out a way to peace. Make the answers more clear just as the days for which you want me to join. Dear Prudence, don’t make the day sunny and bright, yet cold and crisp… the sun’s heat better felt through closed windows. One choice may seem simple, yet wrong, like shorts on a blustery day. Close my eyes to those tricks. Dear Prudence, Look Around. Where can I go?

Do I stay inside today, or do I go out into the world?
Where are my sunny skies? Where are the birds calling me to be?
Like a little child on a new adventure...
Open up my eyes to see where it is I can go to play.
Dear Prudence, I would like to smile again.
Dear Prudence.


(Dear Prudence - John Lennon; The Beatles)