Wax on, wax off…these four little words have been on my mind daily for over a week. Does that ever happen to you? You get something stuck in your head and you don’t know why. I’m not talking about songs you hear like the Diamonds by Rihanna that my dear friend Fraulein Von Prude and I would torture each other with. I am talking about a word or phrase that drops in your mind for no good reason or so it seems.
I remember watching the original Karate Kid and I watched the newest version with the Fantastic4 last year. I can’t say that I remember a whole lot of detail about either movie but this quote keeps popping up in my mind. I did what I do when this happens to me, I contemplated what it means to me and mine. Then, I top that with some research to determine the true or implied meaning.
See the video here.
I could go into a long monologue about doing the small things consistently and diligently will lead to a greater reward. I could talk about the importance of following directions. I could tie this into being a good mentor or teacher. I could even reference my own life as both the teacher and the student. But I won’t. Instead I will talk more about listening to your inner voice. It’s the one that gives you ideas or inspiration. For me it also provides direction, poetry and blog ideas.
When these words pop into my head and won’t leave, I know I need to stop and take a look at my life. I see this as an opportunity to grow and develop personally. Wax on… wax off, I can’t say that I have a full understanding of how this applies to me right now but I do know I will keep contemplating until I understand how it applies to my life today or in the near future.
Category Archives: Family
Dating Advice
* Make sure his or her dream is bigger than your reality.
* Clingy may be cute early on but not so much years later.
* Love is a four letter word that deserves its own category.
* If you are making excuses for their behavior early on, back away slowly then run.
* Take your time to get to know each other.
* Chemistry is a class you take.
* Believe what they say and do.
* Expectations are not a bad thing.
* Show the day to day you early on.
A Box of Chocolates
My momma always said, “Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.” – Forrest Gump
I can remember every year around Christmas time my mom would have a box of Sees chocolates sitting around. Back then, they didn’t provide you with an easy to follow illustration that helped you determine the type of filling. I did what some of you did, I bit a tiny piece off of bottom of the candy until I found one I liked. You know the routine, you bite one and if it’s not what you were looking for then you put it back.
Although the original intent of this post was to bring back a fond memory, I feel compelled to ask, is this how we treat relationships today? Take a sample, then put it back when we realize it wasn’t what we wanted. The chocolate that is left in the box is now incomplete and not as desirable to the next person. If you were the next person, how did you get past the incompleteness of the chocolate? Maybe it’s not that big of a deal. Maybe…
As my honeygirl contemplates divorce
One day, not too long ago, my honeygirl asked a question. She asked, “if God knows everything then why did he allow you to get married knowing you would get a divorce?”
What would you say to that? How would you answer that question for a ten year old?
I answered her but I wonder what you would say.
Resilient?
Have you ever looked a picture of yourself and asked something along the line of, “is that what I look like?” Is it true that pictures don’t lie? Then I guess mirrors are deceptive. Or is my mind playing tricks on me? I have this theory that we don’t see ourselves as others see us. My theory goes beyond the physical.
In recent days and months I have been described as a perfectionist (gasp! not me!), quirky (the person who said this is head of the quirky is us club so I don’t give it much credence) and then as recent as yesterday someone said I am resilient. I must say this one has me perplexed even more than the others. Resilient…in my mind, resilient is what you call an object that can withstand being tossed around not lose its shape or form, like a tennis ball.
I believe the dictionary is my friend so I looked up the word resilient. It is defined as springing back, rebounding, returning to the original form or position after being bent, compressed or stretched. The word buoyant was also used in the description. The definition of buoyant is cheerful and optimistic. Now that is a word I can identify with.
Back to my theory…
If you made a list of 10 adjectives that describe you and had family, friends and foes do the same, how many common words would you find on the lists? I can tell you perfectionist, quirky and resilient would never had made it on my list.
A few months ago, after being encouraged/harassed by a friend, I joined a popular dating site. I did not walk away with a love connection but I did develop my theory and lots of supportive data. On the site I joined, you develop a self profile. What I was able to determine in a short amount of time is people wrote one thing but their lives didn’t necessarily reflect those words. Now being the buoyant person that I am, I chose to believe they weren’t being deceptive, but they believed what they saw in the mirror and had not taken a recent snapshot of their lives.
As I take a look at me from the perspective of other people, I still am not sure that I am resilient. I just press on in spite of obstacles and choices and circumstances. When I make it through to the other side of stretching situations, I hope the experience does not leave me the same but better. Resilient? Not really. Pliable? Definitely.
Questions
If you are of the faith that believes there is a heaven and hell once this life is over, I have questions for you. Is there a get into heaven free card when you die a tragic death? No matter your previous choice to believe or not, whether you wanted to be reincarnated or just wanted it all to end at the end. Do you make the list to get into heaven depending on how you die?
I ask these question because of posts on Facebook, the media and other conversations I have heard or had concerning recent tragedies. Everybody assumes the people who were victims of the senseless tragedies all went to heaven. Dare I say it is presumptuous of us to think the adults all wanted to go to heaven or the families of the children want them in heaven. Are the assumptions more about comforting those of us who are here and needing reassurance they are in a better place? Is this thought a disregard of other faiths as a result of arrogance? Or is it simply our default way of thinking and reacting?
I am sure there wasn’t any malicious intent. However, there doesn’t appear to have been the conscious acknowledgment that maybe, just maybe they wanted a different choice for their afterlife.
Mary did you know?
One of my favorite songs of the season is Mary did you know. I wonder what were some of the things Mary thought when Jesus was suckling and looking at her with a sweet smile.
Not every mother knows she will carry a baby that will change the world as an adult. Klara Hitler didn’t know. I’m sure she never dreamed of the tragedies that would occur at the hands of her baby boy. When she first felt him move and when she prayed he would not die in childhood as some of his siblings did, I’m sure she didn’t know.
When we as parents hold our breaths and wait for the first cry. When we smile broadly at the first steps. When we celebrate the milestones of childhood. When we shower our offspring with words of encouragement and rebuke, kisses and hugs, I’m sure we don’t know. We hope they will become productive citizens of society. We pray they will live a life that is reflective of our love. But, we don’t know.
My heart is heavy for the mother’s and father’s whose children don’t live a life that reflects the love they were given. I’m sure they didn’t know their children would grow up to kill a room full of children or a theater full of people or an airplane full of passengers. I’m sure they didn’t know.
At the same time that I grieve, I rejoice. I rejoice that Ruth Patton encouraged her son and that Barbara Bush supported her children and that Alberta King put a dream in her son’s heart early on. But I’m sure they didn’t know when they carried those babies they would grow into world changers.
Mary may have known some of the story but she didn’t know the entire story. As she watched her son grow into a man, I’m sure she didn’t know how his life would end and that his story and her story would be told and sung throughout the world.
Mary did you know?
All That Chatter 