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The New Year

January 2, 2011

“Spruce in Winter” © R.L. Herron

I’m sure I’m no different than most people when it comes to making resolutions for the New Year. There are the typical weight-loss promises, exercise plans and a host of other self-improvement ideas I start the year vowing to do.

Usually, they are forgotten by about the seventh day of the year (although I think I set a personal record this year by dumping one of them already, only two days in).

I’ll probably drop the others by Tuesday.

However, there are a couple of things I’m actually planning to accomplish this year. I plan to write and publish some short stories. I’ve already got six ‘in the can’ with several more in various stages of completion.

I even have an idea for a novel.

There are also several writing competitions I’m ready to enter, both for short stories and poetry. The entries for those will be going out this week.

Those are all things I’ve been ‘planning’ to do for years. This year I’m finally going to get real about it.

I’ve made another resolution this year, too. Another one I always make. I’m going to work for a better world.

That sounds like so much ‘pie-in-the-sky’ and I have to admit it’s a pretty nebulous resolution to make.

But I figure I have a jump on it this year.

Instead of looking for something from others, I’m going to work on making myself better. More tolerant. A better listener. A better father and grandfather. A better husband. A better friend.

I’m not sure the larger world will take any note of it. But I hope my friends do, and my kids and grandkids, and maybe a few of my friends and neighbors. Who knows, maybe even my wife. I figure that will make this tiny corner of the world better.

And that’s a start.

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Giving Thanks

November 24, 2010

“The Harbor at Cavtat, Croatia” © R.L. Herron

It’s that time of year again.

We celebrate a holiday here we call “Thanksgiving.” The myth behind it is just that, a myth. But the reason for the celebration has come to be more than the original story.

It’s really a time to be thankful for the good things in our life.

Friends, family, health. The ability to support ourselves and contribute to society. The opportunity to share our good fortune, however meager some of us may feel it is, is paramount. Our charity toward others will always come back to us.

I’ve been extremely fortunate in my life. There have been ups and downs, to be sure. Everybody has them.

But I have a wonderful family, widely dispersed now, but loving and giving and close. I have a beautiful, generous, big-hearted wife whom I love more each day.

My friends are all people I know I can count on to be generous and supportive with their time, who know they can also count on me.

Plus, my wife and I have been able to visit a lot of places on this planet of ours. We know how fortunate we have been.

Every time I look at the picture above, I am reminded of the beautiful places available to all of us, and I rejoice in the thought.

It only seems proper, now that the weather is turning cold and we start venturing outside less often, to have our thoughts wander to these good things again.

I intend to consider very carefully all the things that are special in my life and give thanks for them.

The crises and troubles that seem to dominate media events that pass for “news” these days will be moved to the shadows, at least for the moment.

There is joy in the world and there is abundant love available. That seems to me something much more important, something to celebrate and be enormously grateful for.

Posted in Lifestyle, Non-Fiction Writing | 2 Comments »

Nuturing

October 25, 2010

We planted a lot of tulip bulbs earlier this month, adding quite a bit to our garden.

Looking at all the freshly dug earth when we were done, it seemed like a lot of work with little to show for it. Once the ache in my shoulders and hands subsided, it was tempting to forget the flowers altogether.

I know there will be a riot of color next spring, but it didn’t seem like much comfort right now.

I couldn’t help thinking it might be better to just wait and plant something already blooming next spring, than to go through the effort of planting, nurturing and weeding in the hope something would grow.

That thought came to mind again last weekend at, of all things, the retirement party of a dear friend … and I realized I was wrong.

I looked around the crowd gathered for the event and realized the seeds of so many friendships – just like those flowers – had been planted years, or even decades, ago.

Many of us now live in cities and towns quite separated from those where we first met. We don’t see each other as often as we used to, occasionally going years between meetings.

Yet, when we gathered for this special event, it was as if we merely took up where we left off long ago. The friendships blossomed again, just like those tulips in the spring, and once more there was color and laughter and joy.

Made me glad we keep planting and nuturing all those beautiful, perrennial things in our life.