posted on March 19, 2001 01:20:08 PMI received this e-mail today:
Are You A Reason, A Season or A Lifetime??
Pay attention to what you read. After you read this, you will know the reason it was sent to you!
People come into your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime. When you figure out which one it is, you will know what to do for each person.
When someone is in your life for a REASON. It is usually to meet a need you have expressed. They have come to assist you through a difficulty, to provide you with guidance and support, to aid you physically, emotionally, or spiritually. They may seem like a godsend, and they are! They are there for the reason you need them to be. Then, without any wrong doing on your part, or at an inconvenient time, this person will say or do something to bring the relationship to an end. Sometimes they die. Sometimes they walk away. Sometimes they act up and force you to take a stand. What we must realize is that our need has been met, our desire fulfilled, their work is done. The prayer you sent up has been answered, and now it is time to move on.
When people come into your life for a SEASON it is because your turn has come to share, grow, or learn. They bring you an experience of peace, or make you laugh. They may teach you something you have never done. They usually give you an unbelievable amount of joy. Believe it! It is real! But, only for a season.
LIFETIME relationships teach you lifetime lessons; things you must build upon in order to have a solid emotional foundation. Your job is to accept the lesson, love the person, and put what you have learned to use in all other relationships and areas of your life. It is said that love is blind but friendship is clairvoyant.
Thank you for being a part of my life.
Work like you don't need the money, Love like you've never been hurt, And dance like no one is watching.
posted on March 19, 2001 03:27:00 PM
So, you are saying that all is temporary.
Everything near becomes far...forgot who said that maybe Tolstoy?
Maybe I'm looking on the dark side but it's
all about losing.
Elizabeth Bishop wrote a poem about it
called One Art.
The art of losing isn't hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster
Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent
The art of losing isn't hard to master.
Then practice losing farther, losing faster.
places, and names and where it was you meant to travel. None of these will bring disaster.
I lost my mother's watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.
I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster.
--Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture I love)
I shan't have lied. It's evident
the art of losing's not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.
posted on March 19, 2001 04:29:33 PM
Helen: We really do have quite different attitudes towards life! For me, any type of friendship that enriches my life is something to remember with a smile. I don't dwell much on the loss of what was... that's part of life - I like to focus more on what lies ahead.
posted on March 19, 2001 05:49:15 PM
KRS's first protest against fluff threads (in the summer of 1999) was to start a thread about bubble wrap and the controversy about whether bubbles should be "in" or "out". Much to his chagrin (I imagine) it was a very, very popular thread. Every so often I used to post a link to it, just to rub it in. ...Pity all the old threads were deleted.
posted on March 19, 2001 06:00:47 PM
Hi Stockticker, I kept coming up with some real zingers but I've already spent my time in the barrell. As a result I will be looking forward to a reprise of the bubble wrap, or what kind of a Tree HJW would be.
posted on March 19, 2001 06:45:52 PM
Sometimes I like to put a layer of bubble wrap with the bubbles out and then another one with the bubbles in. Works really well.
"Much to his chagrin (I imagine) it was a very, very popular thread"
You couldn't be more wrong!
The thread was a play on other threads, of course, but I loved every post. That one and the back and forth that BobbyK and I enjoyed for a few days are two of the best of my experiences in AW. There was a quality seldom seen here anymore; the people involved were brighter and much less petty and self protective/absorbed than now, and all of the credit for the thread goes to the posters, many of whom are long gone now.
After the first post it wasn't my thread. No thread belongs to any individual. I was just delighted to have been lucky enough to have received whatever inspiration possessed me at that time in this place which caused me to start the thing when I did.
posted on March 20, 2001 04:44:16 AM
Bubble wrap is a reason thing. Here to entertain children, to step on in the middle of the night and scare yourself. To protect things, to clutter up the landfills, to save and reuse.
Yes, that was the biggest irony - that you ended up enjoying your fluffy thread. As far as people is concerned, you have a selective memory as to the past. Along with the wit, there was a lot of viciousness - a seeming enjoyment in seeing others hurt. I used to think that many of those people led unhappy lives and played out that unhappiness on the board by beating up on others.
"As far as people is concerned, you have a selective memory as to the past. Along with the wit, there was a lot of viciousness - a seeming enjoyment in seeing others hurt. I used to think that many of those people led unhappy lives and played out that unhappiness on the board by beating up on others".
I'm sure that Amy will be surprised to hear that you feel that way about her.
But whatever her surprise, I have to wonder at your own selective memory when I hear you say such a thing as you just have done. In a portion of your analysis you admit that that thread was a piece of rollicking good times yet nearly within the same sentence you deride certain unnamed posters as being vicious and thus unhappy, or vise-versa.
Whatever the case of your long standing resentment, I'd have to say that you are missing the easy truth that now though there has been no lessening of viciousness there is a near abscence of ongoing wit.
But it's a matter of preference isn't it? While one may chortle in happy glee in a virtual 'funny farm' of idiocy another may be twiddling thumbs in frustration and abject boredom.
posted on March 20, 2001 06:55:43 AM
You know quite well I wasn't talking about that specific thread when I was speaking about the behavior of unhappy posters. It was still a fairly calm time back then.
BobbyK as I recall, was often found in fluff threads rollicking with Undertakeress and Pocono. Just plain good fun. I often lurked. (BTW, what happened to BobbyK? He went off on a gig for a couple of months around Christmas time as I recall. When he came back, in February 2000, he started an "I'm Back" thread one Saturday afternoon. There were a few postings and then the thread died. He hasn't posted since.)
posted on March 20, 2001 07:14:07 AM
Furthermore, Irene, I have to tell you that I object most strenuously to your continual characterization of that thread about bubblewrap and it's correct use as "mine" and "fluffy" as you have just done again with "Yes, that was the biggest irony - that you ended up enjoying your fluffy thread". I have already disclaimed any ownership of the thread and I do not agree with you that it was fluffy. It resulted from a serious question fairly asked of the forum by me and was never intended to be airy, idiotic, or fluffy as you seem to think that it was. Please don't disapoint me by allowing me to think that that is all that you gained from it, for I would then be forced to include you amongst those chortling fools about which I've already refered.
posted on March 20, 2001 08:07:49 AM
I believe I've been all three.
For a reason - There have been a couple of times in my life when another has been able to better understand and help me with a life hurdle than others didn't understand as they had never experienced what I was going through.
For a season - Where I've experienced this most is during a time in my life where I was in total admiration of strong, assertive women in managerial positions. I was totally in awe of the strengths they had. They shared our friendship to them was because they admired my softer, caring, seeing both sides of issues. They looked to me for the same, but different, reasons I was learning from them.
For a lifetime - These are the friendships I can only count on one hand, but feel honored to still have them involved in my life. They know all my strenths, weaknesses, and are always there for me, and I for them. There is a special bonding when each can be so very open with every thought and feeling one shares, knowing there will be truth, love, honesty about all issues. Whether they think I'm on the right track, at any given time, or not. That's love.
posted on March 20, 2001 08:13:12 AMPlease don't disapoint me by allowing me to think that that is all that you gained from it, for I would then be forced to include you amongst those chortling fools about which I've already refered.
I could start one entitled,