Lyric Fire

Lyric Fire: Sapphire For September - Remembering the 11th

September brings us to the nine month mark of the year and as I think about the time that has passed since that tragic Tuesday in 2001, I always come back to one question. Why?

The sun was out and people were greeting the morning just like any other day. But when night fell and we entered into Wednesday September 12th, our world had changed forever. 

The way we travel has changed, our financial health is still failing even now, ten years after the attacks and certain jokes we used to tell are no longer funny. The infants of the men and women who were taken from us on that fateful day are growing up and learning more about the world around them, some of them without their mom, dad or both parents. 

Yes, we have learned a lot since then, our military intelligence has been enhanced, the key figure and mastermind of the killings as well as a lot of his network have been taken out, but we are still left with the memories of the people and the buildings that used to stand so tall. 

So how can we honor them? By loving one another each day like it will be our last. By putting selfish needs for fame, political offices and greed away. All around the world there is pain, hunger, strife, loneliness and war. With each senseless death we say how horrible it is, but access to guns has never been easier.

On Sept 11th as we honor our fallen, we will remember, cry and hug one another. We will read accounts that take us back to that day. We will remember heroes who just like the sapphire gem, showed just how tough and resilient they were. Just like the sapphire which comes in colors of white, brown, blue, orange, pink and yellow, people from many different cultural backgrounds and skin colors stood strong that day and helped when they could. They walked down numerous flights of stairs in the World Trade Center towers carrying people who couldn't make the journey on their own. They donated money and brought food, water and clothing to people who had been rescued and prayed over the ones who succumbed. For that day and days after we were one. 

In our socially and economically turbulent times we need to remember how we responded to a national tragedy. Two words come to mind.

SPIRIT

SOUL

Anyone who had a soul was touched by this tragedy and needed spiritual healing during and afterwards to cope and survive. The towers are gone and a memorial is taking their place. The rubble and ashes have been cleaned up and done away with but we still are standing in the wreckage. This time it is one of our own making. We need to work together to restore the strength of the United States in every aspect. How can we help others globally if we are still in fragments at home? 

So use this month to challenge yourself to be more loving, work harder and find solutions instead of tearing your friends, family or your government down. Remember who you were on September 11th and how you helped your friends, family, co-workers and nation to heal. Rewind the tape and tap into your best self. It shouldn't take a tragic event for us to support one another. 

Remember and never forget...

To read about the history of September 11th go here: The September 11 Digital Archive

My Blog Lyric Fire: The Changing Brain & Fading Friends

 

Sometimes I wonder where I've been
Who I am 
Do I fit in. 
Make believin' is hard alone, 
Out here on my own  

When I was younger the only early morning thoughts I had consisted of what I was going to eat for breakfast and what outfit I was going to wear. My mind was selectively quiet. It was a silent sponge, soaking up knowledge, only sparking my tongue to speak when it needed to and at other times it seemed like it was constantly at the beach. Riding the waves and soaking up sun rays. 

Not to say I'm not a deep thinker, I always have been, but I lived more outside my own mind if that makes sense. 

Now, it seems that my brain has diarrhea of the mouth! As soon as I wake in the morning, just like a sprinter, it's off to the races. I'm processing the dream I had the night before, writing grocery lists, plotting out future blog posts, remembering conversations from five years ago, asking why this and why that, pumping myself up over current successes or pondering why my phone doesn't ring as much as it used to. My brain never shuts up anymore. 

Look, I'm not complaining. I'd rather have an active brain than an inactive one any day, but I find it fascinating that as we get older the thoughts we suppressed or weren't yet mature enough to have ravish our cerebral cortex like two teenagers in heat.

We're always provin' who we are 
Always reachin' for the risin' star 
To guide me far 
And shine me home 
Out here on my own 

Then I remember. My life has changed dramatically. In the past few years my work situation has been invariably different. I've done more independent contracting as opposed to full-time work. I no longer have a large group of work friends to bounce my millions of thoughts off of. My circle of personal friends has also gotten a lot smaller and more digitized. When I do "speak" to a friend it's usually on Facebook or through text which makes for brief "conversation." Some friends have moved or gotten married and some have faded away altogether. 

When I'm down and feelin' blue 
I close my eyes so I can be with you 
Oh, baby, be strong for me 
Baby, belong to me 
Help me through 
Help me need you 

A natural occurrence, I know, but my brain seems to be speaking out over these losses. It's behaving like an angry pet whose family goes away on vacation and leaves him or her in a kennel. When the family returns, they bark or meow incessantly crying out for attention. They are sayin whoo hoo! Over here! Feed me, love me, hug me, talk to me. Make up for the time when you were gone!

Could it be true that all the time we spend talking to others makes our brains jealous? When those outside forces dwindle, the brain gets happy. Oooh weee mommy can come back out to play. Let's invade her mind with endless banter about horoscopes, recipes and politics. Let's beat her into submission by conjuring up thoughts of lost love and reality TV. Oh yeah, let's trick her and make her think she forgot to turn the oven off before she left the house.

The brain, so beautiful, yet devious.   

What about those friends and boyfriends and family members that used to be my sounding board? Where are they now when I need them to rescue me from my Chatty Cerebellum? Could they also be reentering a closer relationship with their own gray matter? Or perhaps they've moved on to create relationships with other humans that can lend a different perspective on things. 

Well, whatever the case I'm totally cognitive of the shifts and changes in my brain and friendships. It's fascinating and frightening, but very thought provoking!

I'm sure when I settle back into a regular work schedule and become more active this summer that my brain will settle down. I think I'll call the Mental Miles Airline and book a trip to an exotic location for later this year. My brain has been a very social and engaging partner lately. I think it needs a vacation. I think I'll also get myself a ticket as well and ask a few of those fading friends to come along. It would be nice to get reacquainted with the sun and sand as a backdrop.

What do you THINK?

Sometimes I wonder where I've been 
Who I am 
Do I fit in 
I may not win 
But I can't be thrown 
Out here on my own 
On my own

 

           

 

 

 

My Blog Lyric Fire: Taking Away The Technology Teat

      

Cell phones can now drive cars, vacuum floors and take dogs for walks. Okay, maybe they can't, but they do keep us occupied with music, movies and games. We can also read the paper, record TV shows remotely and keep track of our daily schedules and appointments all with the click of a button. Most of us feel lost without our cell phones and are starting to become way too dependent on them.

Some may think I'm exaggerating, but when you blame the loss of your job on a faulty iPhone, I think we have gone over the edge. I came across a story on the The Huffington Post this morning which featured an open letter to Apple CEO Steve Jobs from a displaced writer/actor complaining that she lost her job as a restaurant server due to an iPhone which alarm clock feature malfunctioned, therefore making her late to work. In her letter she referred to the iPhone as an alarm clock stating that: "An alarm clock is the only way to ensure that I am up on time to go serve brunch to people much like you, your friends, and your family."

Actually, an iPhone is not an alarm clock. It's a phone. Albeit it is a really cool phone that can do a lot of cool things, but in essence it's major function is to operate as a phone. Is it inconvenient when it malfunctions? Of course. Should there have been an announcement warning iPhone users about the alarm clock glitch? Absolutely! Should you blame the loss of your job on your iPhone or on Steve Jobs? No. As the writer expressed in her letter, a battery operated alarm clock costs $5. Better yet, a corded alarm clock (remember those?) can be found for under $20. These items are a fraction of the cost of an iPhone or it's monthly bill. You should never rely on a iPhone, Blackberry or Android phone to wake you up in the morning. If you do, it's not a crime, but you only have yourself to blame if a malfunction occurs. Alarm clocks are old school, but they are mostly reliable. Sad to say, but technology with all of it's bells and whistles has lulled us into a coma. 

Even highly paid professional athletes have seemingly fallen victim to the seductive charms of the technology teat. The Yahoo! sports blog Ball Don't Lie also featured a timely tale today about three members of the Los Angeles Lakers who may have been affected by the same glitch as the unhappy Huffington Post contributor. To their credit, none of them have taken their complaints about the glitch to Steve Jobs, but even admitting that you didn't wake up on time due to an iPhone malfunction  has to be pretty embarrassing. I am a technology aficionado myself, but some things you can't leave to chance. 

As adults we need to take more responsibility for our actions. Our mothers took us off the bottle or breast when they thought we were ready and we were the better for it. Now, we need to take ourselves off of the technology teat. It's way past time for us to: