In black and white
Why do we have to measure success....with diplomas, and salaries, and material things? Why the endless search and destroy mission for more and then MORE! The temporary joy fades and leaves you disenchanted, unsatisfied. The real meaning of life, discarded and passed by, while you flounder to climb higher and higher....
We all take different paths, and that should be OK, shouldn't it?
Part of me is feeling fine with my accomplishments, and another part of me so defensive, so willing to PROVE myself at one probing glance, an implication that I may not have done enough with my life so far. What have YOU done? What are you doing NOW? We do that you know, scramble to achieve things on paper, jot them down, keep record and check it twice....I've made something of myself see! See it is right here in black and white!
Ahhhhh.....but how profound to look through those documents after someone has died, and measure their life with these accomplishments. How morbid but too how enlightening to know their whole story, their whole outlook and then hold their accomplishments in your hand.....and what to do with them now? All these great things in black and white.....
What impresses me instead is the way you held me when I cried, or laughed until you were hysterical, the way you brought family together or hosted a great party, the way you loved God with all your heart or found ways to bring out the very best in anyone.....your awesome cheerfulness and your encouragement. These things I admired in you were not written down on the list of accomplishments, they were not acquired by getting your degree or written out on your resume. But I see then in your eyes captured in a photograph and I will remember them in my mind...Forever. What we are remembered for is in the essence of who we were, not what we did. Our lives are in HOW we did it, and WHY, but not in what we actually did. That is just a list.
So challenge yourself to greatness for the sake of accomplishment!
Do it all for your own driven need to succeed,
but do not size up others or compare yourself....
That only leads to empty greed!
So who do you do it for?
Do you do it for you,
or do you do it to prove it to me?
~C
We all take different paths, and that should be OK, shouldn't it?
Part of me is feeling fine with my accomplishments, and another part of me so defensive, so willing to PROVE myself at one probing glance, an implication that I may not have done enough with my life so far. What have YOU done? What are you doing NOW? We do that you know, scramble to achieve things on paper, jot them down, keep record and check it twice....I've made something of myself see! See it is right here in black and white!
Ahhhhh.....but how profound to look through those documents after someone has died, and measure their life with these accomplishments. How morbid but too how enlightening to know their whole story, their whole outlook and then hold their accomplishments in your hand.....and what to do with them now? All these great things in black and white.....
What impresses me instead is the way you held me when I cried, or laughed until you were hysterical, the way you brought family together or hosted a great party, the way you loved God with all your heart or found ways to bring out the very best in anyone.....your awesome cheerfulness and your encouragement. These things I admired in you were not written down on the list of accomplishments, they were not acquired by getting your degree or written out on your resume. But I see then in your eyes captured in a photograph and I will remember them in my mind...Forever. What we are remembered for is in the essence of who we were, not what we did. Our lives are in HOW we did it, and WHY, but not in what we actually did. That is just a list.
So challenge yourself to greatness for the sake of accomplishment!
Do it all for your own driven need to succeed,
but do not size up others or compare yourself....
That only leads to empty greed!
So who do you do it for?
Do you do it for you,
or do you do it to prove it to me?
~C
girlfren, your blog is amazing. your writing is so beautiful and so profound. i am so glad you started a blog. I love "in black and white" ...the part about your mom is so true, so her. i love you girl and am so proud of you.
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