Life Is a Perfect Storm

Sunday Stealing with Bev Sykes Thought-Provoking questions
I love the meme this week. I'm going to try to answer without too much deliberation. We'll see how that goes...
 1. Is it more important to love or be loved? To love
2. If you had the chance to go back in time and change one thing would you do it?
Yes, and because the laws of the universe consistently demonstrate cause and effect, that one decision would change many more things in the blink of  an eye. 
3. If a doctor gave you five years to live, what would you try to accomplish? Doctors don't dictate life and death. I would ask God for a life sentence and carry on.

4. What is the difference between innocence and ignorance?
In the context of being judged, none.   If we could all learn to talk to each other without condemnation, the difference wouldn't matter.
5. What is the simplest truth you can express in words?
6. What gives your life meaning?


7. Can there be happiness without sadness?  Pleasure without pain?   Peace without war?
Yes to all three. 

8. What’s the one thing you’d like others to remember about you at the end of your life? That I loved them wholly and unconditionally
9. Is there such a thing as perfect?
No, because life is always fluctuating. Even the cells of our bodies rejuvenate and replace themselves every seven to ten years. The perfect storm is always moving. 
10. What do you love most about yourself?
My self-awareness and my sometimes eerie penchant for clairvoyance.  Friends call to tell me things and I'll say, "Yes, I  already know."  If it would only work for the stock market.  
11. Is it more important to do what you love or to love what you are doing?
Do what you love. I have a Bachelor of Music Education with a concentration in voice/piano and a minor in English.  I've taught music my entire life. Full time writing is my second career. This question is tricky because for me "doing what I love" was difficult to enjoy within the convoluted politics of public education. The work is stressful and exhausting and it drains the life right out of your first love.  While I'm proud of what my students accomplished, I cringe when I describe myself as classically trained. That sounds so restrictive and while I performed in opera as a coloratura/lyric soprano and sang German Lieder (because it was required) that's not really my preference.  So I did what I loved while doing some things I didn't love. Make sense? 
I'm ready now for the days when a piano and a boom mic fed my soul....when I'm singing just for me.  Somehow the real musician in me got lost in academia.  I need to find her again.

12. What do you imagine yourself doing ten years from now? Doing what I love with someone I love
13. What small act of kindness were you once shown that you will never forget?
There have been many kindnesses through the years, but I want to talk  about this one: When my dad was dying, he sent me to the hospital cafeteria to get some real food for him. He was craving a hotdog with all the trimmings.  I placed my order with a quivering voice and tears streaming down my face. 
"I want you to make the best hotdog you've ever made in your life," I told him. I knew it would be the last time he would be able to have one.  He said, "I'm honored to make this for your father." The cook came out from behind the counter, handed it to me and gave me a hug.  "Now you go give this to him and tell him to enjoy it."  I will never forget that kindness because of the look of compassion in his eyes.   Daddy loved every bite. These are the moments that matter in the world. Not your bank account, not your car, not your house, not your job. But hotdogs and hugs and kindnesses.
14. To what degree have you controlled the course your life has taken?  In reality, perhaps 50%. This is probably true for most baby boomers. I'm learning as I get older that no matter how carefully I plan, life keeps throwing me curve balls. But I'm wise enough to know that this time I will do what makes me happy.   
15. If you looked into the heart of your enemy, what do you think you would find that is different from what is in your own heart?
Strange the meme should ask. The past year, enemies sprang up like dandelions in a field of deceitful daisies. "The mouth speaks what the heart is full of" or so I've heard.

Which brings me back to question #7...happiness, pain, and peace.   Peace love and understanding is too much to ask for all at once. That phrase is tired and backwards.  So, I'll just aim to keep myself in check.  Start with unconditional love, move to empathy,  Peace will come. Even with enemies
Images: Pixabay Follow Me

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