LongHairRandy's blog: "LHR's BS"

I watched as the birds flew overhead. Wondering if there was any true destination or just going to where the urge took them. Just as my life, the destinations not always clear cut. Willing to vary the coarse because what seemed off track was appealing. It’s these side tracked journeys, these courses, that have brought good times and bad. Much like the birds overhead, circumstances dictate the path I take. Be it the weather, nourishment, happiness or just free will. When I look at my journey, my destination is clouded. Clouded because of free will, the want of happiness, the pursuit of the easier softer route, all of these can have effect on the journey, but the destination is never known. Maybe I should look to the birds more often? It’s not I that decides where the journey ends or what the final outcome will be. It’s my choice to enjoy the good, accept the bad and continue forth.

Your beauty catches my eye, then wonderment, curiosity draws me closer. Wanting more I feel your pedals, soft, silky and making me want more. I draw you near, the fragrance has me closing my eyes and enjoying the sweet aroma and brings a calmness seldom felt. The thorns are many, some bringing pain as I forget that's your only defense against harm. Tho hurting something this beautiful is my last intention. These feelings brought out care not that you're only here for a short period. I step back and look at the whole bush. It's the bearer of this simple blossom, just one of many. That's when I realize it's the plant that has given me so much. Buds will turn to blossoms, those into the beautiful flowers. Many flowers over the spring, summer, and into the fall. Oh but the winter, what has become of my always giving friend? The moments of peace, the pleasures of it's being there when I needed it, it's softness, and mesmerizing scents? They are there, hidden deep in the soil that's provided it's birth. The only thing that's changed is that I have to look into myself, everything is there. All that's needed is to look into my soul, it holds all that you've given me. That, and knowing you're only hibernating and in a brief period you'll be bringing me all you have before and more. The beauty more appreciated, the thorns there as reminders that you need your defenses not against me but against the world. The calmness felt more frequently, the aroma sweeter than the season before. Yes rose, you'll always be there, giving and creating new thoughts and feelings just like the flowers you produce. Even when they are just memories to carry me over the winter.

I drive past the trees and admire the colors changing. Then when I park I hear the crunch of the death under my shoes. What started as a pretty site, turned to something that reminds me of the past. I see wild turkeys, squirrels, and deer in the fields. Only to see the carcasses on the side of the road, taken for reasons unknown. What started as a pretty site, turned to something that reminds me of the past. I give a dollar or two to a homeless person. Only later to see them lined up outside of a mission waiting for a meal or a warm bed. What started as a moment of gratefulness, turned to something that reminds me of my past. Life has given me much to be thankful for, lessons learned and mistakes to be made. It's when I forget about the past is when the moments of here and now are less meaningful. Remembering that the death of something is the fuel to power the future of another. Be it a decaying leaf to fertilize the ground or the carcass of dead wildlife feeding the crows and parasites that rely on it to prosper. That just because I helped for a moment doesn't mean that it couldn't be me needing more.

SUBMIT YOUR RESUME AND LIST 143 DAYS EXPERIENCE AND SEE JUST HOW MANY JOB OFFERS YOU GET! Subject: 143 DAYS > > You couldn't get a job at McDonalds and become district manager after 143 days of experience. > > You couldn't become chief of surgery after 143 days of experience of being a surgeon. > > > You couldn't get a job as a teacher and be the superintendent after 143 days of experience. > > > You couldn't join the military and become a colonel after a 143 days of experience. > > You couldn't get a job as a reporter and become the nightly news anchor after 143 days of experience. > > > > BUT.... > > > > 'From the time Barack Obama was sworn in as a United States Senator, to the time he announced he was forming a Presidential exploratory committee, he logged 143 days of experience in the Senate. > > That's how many days the Senate was actually in session and working. > > After 143 days of work experience, Obama believed he was ready to be Commander In Chief, Leader of the Free World.... 143 days. > > We all have to start somewhere! > > The senate is a good start, but after 143 days, that's all it is -a start. > > AND, strangely, a large sector of the American public is okay with this and campaigning for him. > > We wouldn't accept this in our own line of work, yet some are okay with this for the President of the United States of America. > > Come on folks, we are not voting for the next American Idol!

I looked out of the windshield and seen more than the rain pouring down. Watching it hit and form with the rest, forming a mass. Like my life has been it seems. Many small things hitting my surface, some grand and others minuscule. Some having a great impact others just a ripple, but when combined its become united and has more power than expected. Time was that this was never an issue to me. If it was more powerful than I, I ignored it or let it go away leaving it's trail of resentments that I would use to make me stronger. This served me well, learning as each obstacle tested me or not letting some things even have a chance to prove their power. I missed a lot by doing this for many years/decades. I've found that by facing my battles it makes me stronger. Granted those battles might seem small to most, but since I've learned that it's battles that win wars. All these years not facing the problems that have come at me had weakened me, emotionally starved it seems. These have since grown from the experiences it's gained as of late, into something that scares me somewhat. Not that they are wrong or ill, just the fact that these things make me who I am, the growing pains and the ways I express them. New lessons are learned daily. Sometimes I wonder if I'm taking the right lesson from the experience? One thing I do know is that my strength is finding growth and by at least facing such things, life has had many rewards.

Innocent in the beginning, snow on an open field or a leaf just breaking the earth's surface. Change occurs slowly, forming a base from the winds, sun and growing with limits unknown. Beautiful in every way, simple, harmless and constantly expanding. Obstacles are challenged, overcome easily at times others more difficult yet every one provides strength and knowledge. Over time innocence is losing it's aura, like the drifts growing and the thorns getting sharper. There's beauty there, maybe not as harmless and the expansion overpowering at times. This is only the forming of something much larger than you had thought and there's much more to enjoy or to fear. You might ask why I wrote this? Simple really, I've found people that have learned there's something good behind the sharp and drifting walls that I have. Granted, you might get hurt a little and I'm sorry, but as time goes on those thorns become thinner and finding your way through the drifts is easier. Thanks to the few people that read this and if you're one of the unfortunate ones that have gone through the drifts and been cut by my thorns, this is for you and THANKS.

PASSION Innocent yet detrimental you are. Bringing joy for most, then others just pain. Making some interesting, repulsive to others. Making rich your life, only to scare away those you desire. Driving some to glory only to see that unhappiness is their only friend. Thinking that alcohol, drugs, sex, and other vises mean so much. While money, friendship, and love are lost because of it. Bringing some into your life, only to make the ones you seek run from you. Healthy for the ones that are fortunate. Life threatening for the weak or unknowing. Bringing success at one moment, desperation the next. Some admire you for having it, yet they hold it against you. Something that comes so easily to some, tho others will never experience it. Why is something so natural so harmful? PASSION, like everything, is double sided, it must be appreciated yet feared.

SEASONS The north winds bring cold and snow like the feelings of some souls. Keeping beauty at bay for most, then others come happiness. Coming from the south warmth flows, bringing life and vitality, tho with a price. Heat and growth, welcomed for a period, then despised like the weeds in a garden. Between these are the rains that nourish the earth and later brings decay from the trees. Seasons change, like life. What is not seen as good has a purpose. What seems drab feeds the magnificent. Look deeper than the surface, for there's much to see.