Have you ever had the pleasure of standing in line to see a famous mouse? That same Person in the character breakroom is not the same as they were on Main Street. There is a huge difference between the Personality and the Person. The Person has a job and gets paid well to present a Personality to a kingdom of visitors. What about us? Are we known better as a Person or a Personality?

With today’s social media, people create Personalities that can be far more entertaining than a famous mouse. As for me, I would much rather speak with a Person on break, than a Personality in costume. We all have things we wish were not part of our resume of life. Between People those parts on our resume make us unique and all the more beautiful. So as you meet People in your world, try to look beyond the Personalities presented, and get to know the real Person. The result will be blessings for all involved.

One of the current desires today is for people to go to the source of many things in life. An example is with our foods. We not only desire to know the farm but also the method of how it was produced. This time of year I reflect back to Holidays with my extended family. Yes, there was food, but there was also gratitude for all we had. One cousin asked why we said thanks before the meal. The reply was that we will not be as thankful for dirty dishes as we are for full ones.

We are blessed people and often do not realize how blessed we are. At the time I write this article many people have lost all or some of what they have worked all their lives to gain. It is said that gratitude is easier to realize in times of want, than in times of plenty. Being “much obliged” as my grandfather use to say, must not only be expressed, it also needs to be taught. So look around, what is the real source of your blessings? 

Growing up we learned many life lessons from Saturday morning cartoons. We found out there were at least two seasons, duck and rabbit. Cartoons also proved that Martians existed, and one was named Marvin. One of the best lessons was that the chances of Coyote ever catching the Road Runner was slim to none. The powerful lesson for us as kids was that Wile E. Coyote never quit trying.

What Road Runner do you have in your life? We all have those things we wish we could bring under control. Habits, addictions, and struggles we want freed from. Coyote’s constant failures never stopped his focus to get the little bird. He continued to try and was even successful on one occasion. So do not give up with your personal road runner. Keep trying, we learn best from our failed attempts. Help is out there, but you need to ask for it, sometimes through prayer. 

In the relay of life I am closer to the finish line than to the start. One thing that occurs with aging is a reevaluation of life. There is an ability to acknowledge regrets, release resentments, and worry about only those things that we can impact. Another benefit is seeing what friendship, and true love look like.

Love in today’s world is often attached to an action or behavior. “I love you because”, “I love you as long as”, or “I love you if”. True love has no strings. It runs life’s race with you. When that illness is diagnosed, when that death occurs, or when an addiction draws a loved one back to the depths. Loving through the race and not for the victory is what true love is all about. True love is also not something we can copy. It must flow from the Creator of true love. The One who loves us even when we fall on our face. It is the best love possible.

One of the enjoyable features on my camera is the ability to zoom in on something. I can photograph bees as they arrive and depart the beehive without fear of being stung. Not all camera shots need the zoom feature. If I am in the mountains our watching a sunrise at the beach I want full view, which allows me to take in as much as possible. 

There are times in our lives when we all get stuck in zoom mode. Life’s troubles, a doctor’s diagnosis, or more month than money. These all cause us to zoom in on the issue and reduce the full perspective of our life. I understand that these times of focus are required. We also need to step back and take in the full panorama of life. Staying continually focused is exhausting. The view of a valley from the mountain top is refreshing and reconnects us to a bigger world and a loving Creator.

Graduations are complete and summer camps are in full swing. It must be that great time of year for vacations and long weekends. For the most part these trips are done in two different styles. One types is to plan every detail and go by the schedule. The second is to go with the flow and just plan as you journey. No judgement, both are valid and both can be times of enjoyment.

What I have observed is that both types can also end in total exhaustion. You find returning to work is a sweet relief. No matter the destination please take some time to unwind, reflect and evaluate the direction of your life. Make new dreams, or enjoy the success you have achieved. It is difficult to dream while facing the daily routine. Thank you for all you do each and every day and enjoy the journey.

Does a butterfly remember what it was like as a caterpillar? That is a question that was recently asked. A butterfly can cover a distance in seconds that use to take days. A butterfly is a desired guest in a garden, unlike its previous form. Once it has finally taken flight it is free to take new and exciting journeys. While in flight it can look at life from all angles, unlike a caterpillar. Finally, I have never seen a butterfly caring a cocoon. Why would it want to remember?

 As people we change from infants to adults. It is a slower process, but the physical process will occur. Many of us fight to carry our cocoons through life. The issue of keeping the cocoon is not physical, but spiritual and emotional. We see the cocoon as safe. If you really want to take flight, here are some tools that will help. Vision, Hope, Forgiveness, Love and Freedom. Take flight, it is what God created you to do.

I love storms. Not the destructive storms, but the ones that bring darkness to the daylight and a clean smell to the air. At times I need to remind myself that clouds do not alter the sun, they only block the light. Above the dark and stormy cloud is a sunny sky. Just because we are unable to see the sun does not stop its warming glow.

When adversity enters our life, it is often like storm clouds. We feel that hope and joy have been darkened or totally removed from our lives. Reality is that hope and joy are still there, only blocked by our troubled season. Like the storm cloud, troubles and difficult times will pass. Everyone has times of adversity in their life. When those times arrive remember that weeping may last for the night, but joy returns in the morning. 

Where in your home is your catch all located? For some it can be as small as a drawer, for others it can be an offsite storage unit. The location is not the major concern. The contents of what you are storing is very important. I have found that our catch all’s are filled with our yesterdays that we refuse to release. These objects represent memories of times and eras of our life both good and bad.

We can become so loaded down with our memories we can never move from where we currently occupy. These memories can actually limit our possibilities and future. If we are not careful the bad memories can totally consume our lives. Well I have a question for you. Is it time for a spring cleaning? Purging our yesterdays can be painful, that I understand. That however is a required price for the freedom you will gain. Release the old and enjoy the possibilities of a better tomorrow.

The Dead Sea is a body of water that is filled by the Jordan River. The reason for it being a Dead Sea is because it has no outlet stream. It is basically a stagnant body of water. As people we are the product of what other have poured into us. We allow people to pour in love, education, and time into our lives. It is through that filling that we move into adulthood.

What lives are you pouring into? You have valuable wisdom and knowledge, and experience that others need. Through your efforts others can grow and become self-sustaining.  Your benefit is that your life will blossom as a result of you becoming a conduit of life for others. Pass it on. 

The stores have replaced confetti with heart shaped boxes of candy. We must have arrived at February, the month of Valentine and love. In my youth, the movies taught that love meant “never needing to say you were sorry”. Well that may be true when you have a script, but real life does not work that way. Experience has taught me that love is difficult. Love is much more Huey, Dewey, and Louie than it is Mickey and Minnie. It is a life lesson that we never fully learn. It may not be an easy lesson, but the result is worth the effort.

Everyone could add to the definition of what love is to them. For me some of the best examples are: an older couple finishing each other’s sentence. It is in the giving of yourself when there is nothing to give. I have also seen pure love in the face of a special needs child looking at their parent. We can learn a lot of things in our life time, but the greatest of these is love. 

Do you have movies that you never get tired of watching? In those movies there are favorite parts that are the reason you watch it repeatedly. There are other sections that you hit fast forward, or go get a snack. The same is true with our own lives. If your life was available to be replayed, what parts would want to avoid? We all have them. We also have parts that we would watch in slow motion over and over.

With life none of us know what the next scene holds. We do not have the script. When the phone rings it could be that we are entering a great slow motion time, or a difficult painful time. That is the great adventure of life. Try to watch life with family and friends at your side. And know that through pain or joy you are not alone.