Roots of Life

Yesterday my phone rings and "surprise" it was my son. Ummmmm, as with most children one must wonder, why the call today??? What's up, what's wrong....why as parents to we do that? Well, that is another thought and not the one I have for today here. It seems that my son has been doing lots of landscape work at his in-laws and one of the requests was to remove three 22 year old rhodadendrum plants. Well, you can imagine, that after 22 years these plants were not longer plants, but trees. After much work of removing these trees and then loading them into the back of his pick-up truck he couldn't figure out what to do with them. OK, that's it, that is why the phone call. "Mom, would you like these trees, I don't want to just have them die?" Of course I replied with a "yes". The trees then begin a long journey from their original home to a new home. Down the highway at 70 miles per hour and the leaves were looking like they had gone through a tornado, or at the least a huge wind storm. With that I get the call that the delivery time would be longer, as he felt bad for the "poor little guys" and had changed route to a country road. The trees are now in our yard awaiting huge new holes to be dug and to once again stretched their roots in the ground. I know, this is a long story to get to my point. If everyone showed the same compassion for the "roots" of their lives as my son has shown for these trees. How is it we so often forget that our families are our roots...that those roots are what gave us the balance to be able to stand on our own in life. Sometimes our roots go deep into life and other times they run shallow to the surface, but we all have roots. Our roots of life come from friends, teachers, and people that just affect our lives. We have strong roots, cause when the wind blows hard, we still need to be able to stand. We are often like "the poor little guys", and wonder how we can survive what life has handed to us....but we always manage to...so for today...think about your life roots and be grateful for all your life has gone through to be the strong person you are today.

Silence

Wow, have you ever taken the time for "silence"? I mean...quiet...no radios, no TV's, no kids in the background, no cars...yes, I mean a moment for yourself that is silent. A time, when you sit down your cup of tea and the only real noise you hear is your tea cup nestling onto the the table top. Well, as a amazing as it might be, that is what I have this morning. I can hear all the birds and squirrels reaching out to my ears and the tender breathe of the wind rustling the new leaves on the trees. It amazes me that some people never experience silence of the natural things around them and that others never take the time for hear it. For me it is like the moment of all moments. I can hear my own heart beat without anything interupting it. I can't imagine living in a city where there was was constant noise controlling my every thought. How can anyone have a thought without a silent moment to ease their minds. How can one even begin to relax. So many people run, go to the gym, etc., to relax when all they really need is that moment of quiet. It is so funny,as stress is one the of the top killers of people in the US and we have doctors prescribing meds of all kinds to ease the stress. What if insurance companies were to pay for silence...for relaxing a moment each day without meds. Meds that can mess with minds and actually cause suicides and violence when back to basic living would mend most all of our stress. Have you ever asked a teenager why they play the music so loud???? Most of the time the answer is "so I can be alone", ummmmm....alone....or is it just to drown out all the other noise that control their brains? So that is my thought to ponder today....take a moment of silence for yourself!!!