People before Nature

We live in Cadillac Michigan. It’s called the tree city, yet people want to cut down perfectly good trees!

Why? I hear you ask.

Not because there is anything wrong with the trees but simply because of self-interests. The tree is inconvenient to them, little thought for others in the neighborhood little thought that the boulevard of trees is what helps make a scenic community.

Not to improve the neighborhood but to improve their own life style.

The tree has been there for 50 years yet…. it seems its ok to simply kill it, get rid of it…. it’s in the way of nothing!!!

So the tree will go and the neighborhood will be a lesser place. Indeed Cadillac will have to decide its character as a community and whether indeed it is a tree City or simply a city that has trees that have no value.

God made trees, people often destroy them

HRMexplorer

 

Harvest Time in Michigan!

A time for helping each other and remembering who we really are and what life is all about. When different lives come together.

This holiday weekend, with the end of summer nearing, I observed families, friends, teens and children together in this time of uncertainty, and it was great to see them enjoying themselves.

We live our lives in different worlds and at this year’s Harvest Festival we were all in one place in a small rural community in Northern Michigan. A town that cares, one of many such towns all over America. God Bless America!

For a brief moment in time this community came together for the “Harvest Festival” we need more moments like this.  It rained a little but no one noticed, everyone determined to have fun!

We came together in one place to see the parade, play at the carnival, watch the games, remember our troops, see the vintage automobiles, laugh at the Clown and watch with delight children picking up candy thrown from the procession. The expression on those kids simply “Kodak moments”.

We shared our stories and our food, we witnessed families and friends come together and we were as one.  A community of people from different places together determined to have a good time rain or shine, poor or rich, the young and the old. Some who had not spoken for years coming together over old photographs that told stories of other times.

It was Harvest Festival and I saw the children of the unemployed and the employed, blissfully playing with friends having a good time, without a care. Ah, we can all remember those days in our own lives!

I didn’t see a laptop computer, I heard only a few inevitable cell phones ring, alas a sign of the times, and there were no video games in sight.

Only dirty faces and hands, smiley faces and kids happy, playing games with bat and ball and getting dirtier by the moment playing in the sand.

Knowing tomorrow each of us go back to uncertain futures, uncertain times, children teach us that the really good times are made from friendships and not moneyships.

Children teach us that happiness comes from the friends we make, the toys we share and who we are and not what we have or who we know.  “Clothes do not maketh the man” that’s for sure. I saw much fortitude and passion and desire and hope.

It had been a great Harvest Festival this year… it didn’t matter that it rained we were with friends and it felt good.

 

 

A Community “Developing a oneness and a calmness”

It seems that much of what we do, is related to who we know, what we learned, our interests, who our mentors were along the way, the trials and tribulations, our loves, they are all some how related and develop who we are.

After all the life we lead is the life we make.

The friendships we have experienced lead us to develop awareness and learning they also breathe life into how we go about doing what we do.

I am always sad when I hear people say that they leave their personality behind when they go to work. Alas it seems that is life. What is character when we have to have two masks?

I look at life as a community, being authentic and mindful of others needs is what we do, or should do, it defines us.

As I look at the new “decade” I look to sharing knowledge, paying forward and simply serving. A pretty old concept but not one that is followed much

After all life is not about us, its about what we do, who we are – character

So, often when I reflect and ask, when I am long gone, how will I be remembered? Who will be there to cry at my side when I leave this world?

Sobering thought maybe, but a great way to ground what we do and, make us think of what really matters in our lives.

True contentment can only be achieved when heart, mind body and soul join together.

So looking forward it’s a life of serving others and helping them reach their greatest heights.

We all have gifts to give, it is a lesser world should we not share them. It’s a lesser world when we don’t cherish those that are dearest to us.

It’s a lesser world when we simply don’t give of ourselves to the fullest.