new year - C.E. Lemieux Jr

January 2, 2022December 5, 2021

Don’t Look Back!

Don’t look back, ooh, a new day is breakin’
It’s been too long since I felt this way
I don’t mind, ooh, where I get taken
The road is callin’, today is the day

I can see, it took so long just to realize
I’m much too strong not to compromise
Now I see what I am is holding me down
I’ll turn it around
Oh, yes, I will

Songwriter: Tom Scholz, Don’t Look Back lyrics © Pure Songs, Hideaway Hits

Forever one of my favorite albums. This cover song works for both a Monday morning pump up and a windows down, volume cranked, get-out-of-town exit after work on Friday. But, for this post, it’s all about the end of 2021.

March 2, 2019March 2, 2019

Time

12/2010

With Thanksgiving becoming a distant memory and Christmas having come and gone, we stand at the threshold of a new year. It’s hard to believe we are about to let 2011 slip into the record books. Wasn’t it just a few months back that we were saying goodbye to 2010? Time is a squirmy little concept. Years seem to fly by. You close your eyes and it seems your kids have grown and flown from the nest. On the other hand, yet you stand in line at the checkout counter and your patience can find itself stretched to capacity in a mere matter of minutes. Crazy how it works, isn’t it?

Think about it. You start off the work week; get bogged down in the stress and find yourself wishing time would slip into high gear and bring those days off flying around the corner. You hit the weekend and you’re putting on the brakes trying to slow the clock down so you can have just a little more time! You wake up an hour before the alarm clock goes off, glance at the time before drifting back off to sleep and it seems that last hour just wasn’t enough. You sit in the waiting room of the doctor’s office watching the second hand tick tortuously around in a circle and that hour seems like an eternity.

How can a single measurement of time cause so many different reactions?

I’ve talked about time in many different ways in the blog articles. I guess it’s just something which intrigues me. I’ve talked about trading time to our employers for money and sharing time with family and friends; time as a commodity. The thing is none of us really know how much time we have, so we simply don’t know how valuable it is. When something is in short supply, the value goes up; like a shortage of fuel or a limited collector’s item. If we really knew how much time we had, we would probably be spending it on the things which we valued the most.

We’re at the beginning of another school year. Wow! Those kids have no idea how fast their time will pass them by. Most of them live with the idea that they have plenty of time ahead of them. Parents will be talking about managing their time so they have enough time for school work. They will need to balance the amount of time they devote to sports, friends, and work. Above all else, how do we teach them that their time is valuable and limited?

Of course, their carefree spirits towards time and life in general will allow them to live life more fully. They’ll take more risks than we’d like them to take. They’ll see life as an adventure and an experience to be savored. In short, many of them will want to use their time for fun and we want them to enjoy being kids. One day, however, they may find themselves wishing for time to slow down so that they can do all they wanted to do. They will hope for enough time to spend with the people they care most about. And, they’ll stare at that clock on the office wall hoping for time to speed up so they can get off work and have time to themselves. They will see their own kids wasting their time and they’ll encourage them to use it more wisely.

March 2, 2019March 2, 2019

The New Year Begins Today

02/01/2012

Well, here we are 31 days into yet another year. I find myself reflecting upon what that means to me. With the passing of 2011 growing more distant with each day, I am faced with the question of what I will do with each sunrise of 2012.

So often we hear or even speak comments as we near the end of one year and look toward another which reflects a hope for a better year. But the truth is that we have no year to plan for, we have only today, this moment, perhaps even the very breath within our chests. With the routine grind, the day to day struggle, and the constant opportunities we face, it is easy to lose sight or to lose focus on the fact that we needn’t wait for a new year which may never come to start looking for a better day. I speak from a clearly hypocritical point of view if I fail to admit that I too struggle with this revelation.

Our presence of mind is stolen by work, bills, distractions and distortions. We fall into the spin cycle and life overtakes us, rather than taking over life. We make resolutions to improve and find them swept away by the realities of daily life. We dream dreams and allow them to dissipate into the air before we have even had time to get a grasp upon them.

In looking for a topic which related to the New Year and fresh beginnings, I found this quote:

“For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin-real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be gotten through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life.”
Alfred D’Souza

I had no idea who Alfred D’Souza was and after I Googled him, the answer wasn’t much clearer. As near as I can tell, he was a philosopher from Australia. It doesn’t really matter, who he was. What matters is what he said and it was something with which I could easily relate. Life doesn’t begin when we get our act together. It doesn’t start when we pay off all of our debts and are free from the wolves at the door. It doesn’t begin when the kids are grown and move off on their own. Life begins with each day. We are living it every moment and if we aren’t happy with the life we are living, it is imperative that we make the necessary changes to live it as we would like it before we have no more time to make those changes.

Largely, when writing these blog posts, I look for something of substance to share with you, the reader. I try to find a way to relate to you, or a piece of my life to offer to you. This post is as much for me as it is for you. It will be a challenge for me to follow these words. It will be difficult to remember them when I step into my daily grind. When I’m trying to pursue my dreams and I run into that wall, it will be easier to allow myself to think about that day in the future when it will all magically come together. But that day will never come, if I am not living for it now.

Do you have dreams you have forgotten? Are they lost to you or are they merely buried beneath your burdens? Take a moment to reflect. Find those dreams within you. Set out to make them happen. Are they too big to happen in a day? Take a baby step forward. And if you are offered a tomorrow, take another step. With each sunrise, be thankful that you are able to take those steps and remind yourself that you only have the life you are living.

Life is lived one day at a time; it is lived one sunrise… one sunset… one breath at a time. Here are a few more quotes which may provide some inspiration or motivation:

“Nothing is predestined. The obstacles of your past can become the gateways that lead to new beginnings.”
Ralph Blum

“Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.”
Henry Ford

“Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Everything is affected by and is part of everything else, changing constantly from one state to another. The rain becomes the river; the river surrenders to the sea and the cycle begins over again. Nothing is ever lost. The melody changes – the dance goes on.”
Connie Harrison

“Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” Isaiah 43:18-19 ESV

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11 ESV

Live for the day my friends. Live for the moment. Dance your dance. Sing your songs. Paint your pictures. Write your novels. Kiss your kids. Hug your spouse. Watch that sunrise. Share the sunsets. Play in the rain. Build those snowmen. Chase those dreams. Find yourself. Love another. Have a Happy 2012! And thank you for sharing just a tiny moment of it with me.