Not Their Life

It is good to acknowledge that each of us has our own life to live. If I choose to live my life in a way that dissatisfies you, I'm sorry, but you'll have to admit, it is my life to live, not yours. And what suits me may not fit you at all. I might enjoy sleeping outdoors on air mattresses and in canvas tents, while you prefer relaxing in plush suites at the Hampton Inn. I might take a late night stroll through a dimly lit village, while you would never dream of taking such a risk. Each of us is different, which is why each of us is so interesting. I guess Karle Wilson Baker captured the crux of the issue in a poem she wrote called, Creeds (Macmillan 1938).

Friend, you are grieved that I should go

Unhoused, unsheltered, gaunt and free,
My cloak for armor – for my tent
The roadside tree;

And I – I know not how you bear
A roof betwixt you and the blue,
Brother, the creed would stifle me
That shelters you.

Yet, that same light that floods at dawn
Your cloistered room, your cryptic stair,
Wakes me too – sleeping by the hedge –
To morning prayer!

So enjoy who you are, who you were meant to be, and don't worry if some don't get it. It's not their life to live.

Fake Love

Lately I've reconnected with Blende’s Chordashian Remix of Fake Love, released in September 2012. The vocals are sung by Rebecca of Sweden’s Rebecca and Fiona.

 

In the song Rebecca believes that people who fake love can take love, but then she warns the predators to not go messing with her heart. If they do, it’s gonna come back to them. She’s known boys who have pretended to care, awhile, then they show their true selves, and it’s not quite true. So she says, “Don’t go messing with my heart, cause it’s gonna come back to you.”

 

In the scriptures, the principle of coming back to you is called reaping what you sow. If you offer your concern or respect to someone, when all you want to get out of the arrangement is something for yourself, beware! One day it will come back to you. Maybe when you least expect it, the tide will change and someone will tinker with your emotions, go messing with your heart, leave you feeling misused, abandoned and alone.

 

Rebecca says we can’t erase the hurts we bring on others, and the hurts can always be traced back to one who lies.

Atmosphere

In the chorus of Kaskade's Atmosphere are the words, All my life I've been a star, holding a light up in the dark. When I look around I feel like I sense a great crowd of people wandering around in the dark. Either the bills are piling up, work is going badly, relationships are strained, or the losses seem insurmountable.

In The Ancient Mariner Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote:

A man all light, a seraph-man, On every corse there stood. This seraph-band, each waved his hand: It was a heavenly sight! They stood as signals to the land, Each one a lovely light.

We don't have to fix things – or people. Shining a little light with a kind word, a personal gift, or a moment of a busy day will go a long way toward lifting someone's spirit. We can be a heavenly sight for a person who needs to know they're loved.

Check out Kaskade's Atmosphere, and shine your light today.