The Ramblings of a Redhead

A dance with echoes. Echoes of memories past dance through my mind as I sat this evening surrounded by nature watching the sun sink below the horizon. Echoes of laughter and adventures, heartache and tears, lessons learned and victories celebrated. Each swirling around the other in an endless dance. I feel it a little more tonight than most - that all too familiar pang of emptiness when it hits you all at once that some of those you held closest are no longer here. The void that is left by each one of them that nothing on this earth can fill again. The ache of wanting to hear their voices one last time squeezes my insides sometimes to the point it hurts to even breathe. To be able to pick up the phone and call them just one more time, or to go back to that last time I saw them just so I could hug them each a little tighter and a little longer before that moment slips forever from my grasp and becomes forever lost to my fragile memory. The strength and truths they instilled in me have b

In a world where people seem content to simply exist dare to dream big and live bigger. Believe in fairy tales. Do something to make someone smile. Don't be afraid to be goofy. Go off the beaten path. Strive to see the good in all situations even when a situation seems too dark to possibly have any light in it. Laugh louder. Forgive always. Give someone a compliment. Be kind. Listen. Believe in happily ever afters. Get lost in the pages of a book. Go for a walk. Find beauty in the everyday. Take a moment to actually see the people around you. Be the spark that ignites a fire and pierces the darkness. The gift you have to offer the world is yourself. So let your light shine!

What an astonishing thing a book is. It is a flat object made from bits of a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny looking dark squiggles.  But just a single glance at it and you're suddenly transported into the mind of another person - maybe someone who has been dead for thousands of years. From across the millennia the author still speaks clearly to you with their silent voice inside your mind. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, it spiritually binds people together - two souls who never crossed paths in this physical life, citizens of distant epochs.  Books break the shackles of time and space. Holding within their pages memories and fragments of a million different stories. Books are proof that humans are capable of working magic.

If today is a little bit rough, and you are finding life difficult I want you to take a brief moment. Stop. Close your eyes. Allow your mind to quiet  and then, Think... ...about the smell of brewing coffee and the warmth against your hands as your hold the mug tight. ...how it feels as your heart beats inside you and your lungs as they expand filling with air and then as they contract setting the breath free. ...how the sunlight bounces off the blades of grass, trees, flowers, windows, and clouds and how bright and warm it feels against your skin. ...about the coolness of night and how the stars twinkle in the sky, and then in the warm summer months the lightning bugs in the grass and trees that mimic that gentle twinkling. ...the sound of laughter from those you love most, whether they are still here or gone from this world, let the sound fill your soul along with all the memories and lessons that come with them. ...how it feels when you hear the first few notes of your favorite song

Shadows dance in the green grass reveling in its soft promise of a warm spring day. I feel the cool blades under my feet and between my toes. The cool soil where millions of roots take hold and plants climb upwards towards the glorious sunshine. I sit in the stillness. Yet...it isn't still. I listen to the wind rustling the leaves of the trees I am surrounded by.  I hear my friend the bumblebee as he buzzes by stopping to say a quick hello before flying off on his way to find more flowers. The birds sing back and forth to each other every song unique and beautifully sung. A cardinal couple has joined my little party. I watch as they flit from branch to branch chittering as they gather food to take back to their little ones.  I can smell the herbs and flowers that are growing in the garden nearby. I close my eyes and allow the smell to transport me away, but I stop realizing I dont need to go anywhere to find this amazing enchanted forest. I

The sound of birds singing as they fly from the bird feeder to the trees and back again, the smell of coffee and homemade biscuits and gravy permeate the whole house. That first sip of coffee and the warmth it brings. The world slowly begins to awaken, a new day is dawning, but for now stillness, peace, reflection, quiet, existence. Take a breath, feel that? Life. A new day. Adventures waiting to be had. Dreams waiting to be fulfilled. People waiting to be loved and heard. Go and live. Go and love. Today is your day.