Every Day Above Ground is a Great Day

Remember That.

Why would anyone write, you might ask, if you can paint? Well, I can’t, that’s one reason. At one time, I’d like to think, I was a pretty good photographer, but the frustration of missing shots eventually got to me. Stop the car, grab the Bronica, point, wait, get out of the car, shit, it’s gone! That’s why I write! Because once in a while a moment arrives and it’s a sparkling jewel of a moment, and if you can keep it together long enough to write it down, you can preserve it.

That’s what this is about.

People say, shit happens, and brother, that is so true. It just keeps coming, falling from the sky, boiling up from somewhere below, crap from anywhere, messing things up. You’re good if you can step out of the way, but sometimes the turd trajectory is just unavoidable. It happened to me, gotta face that.

But the road of life is extensive, thank you, and the path behind me is getting to be pretty long. Admittedly there are always new situations to dodge, and thus I am never bored. You think you’ve seen or heard it all but you can never really get there. Someone or some thing will always step up and prove you wrong. And so once again, someone and something has.

I can tell this piece is destined to be a short one, but it’s an important one. At least part of the point is that nothing is ever completely controllable, even those few things that are a part of your life and no one else’s. It has honestly been decades since I’ve tried to reach beyond the events and circumstances of my own life, but I can see I won’t get credit for that. Have I tried to change things? Of course. Have I tried to help people? You bet. In my present state of mind, I’m afraid I can see a bit of harmful futility in even that. Yeah, I got hammered. For a full day and night, I felt like the shit that had hit the fan. Splattered.

However this evening I found myself dancing to Latch while I prepared my supper. A series of thoughts and notes had gone down on paper, so to speak, in my brain. And I knew for sure, everything was gonna be alright. In fact, life is truly great. It was a shining moment.

If anyone at all knew the challenges, that statement would carry a lot more weight than I’m sure it does. I’ll spare you because I’m completely sure you have your own. For my part, some things have just fallen into place like the tumblers in a high-quality lock. That happens too, thank God. Actualities? Not all of them, but if they aren’t then they are attitudes, and in my experience that means the actualities will follow.

Now just in case someone I know happens to read this, which admittedly is somewhat unlikely, nothing else has changed. I have friends and family and I still care about each and every one of them, quite likely much more than any of them will ever know. I wish I could do things or say things to bring that point home, but honestly, I can’t manage even that. And yet, be advised...

The distance between a problem and its resolution is always much less than it will initially seem. I know there’s a plan, I know there’s a place, and I am on my way there, as surely as everyone and “every thing is on its way to somewhere.”

I’ve lifted the last few words of that previous line from whoever wrote Phenomenon, a 1996 movie that starred John Travolta. I’ve lifted my title from a song by Pitbull and Ne-Yo, along with part of my point, that “everyone is goin’ through somethin’.” I wish not to plagiarize in any way. Both are part of the beautiful resolution that has enveloped me like a huge velvet glove.

Whether you know it or not, that big glove is a fit for you, too.

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