Spend time every day...

Spend at least two hours every day doing each of these three things----Be productive. Work at something you want to accomplish. It can be your job, a project you want to finish or a goal you hope to achieve. Next, entertain yourself.  All work and no play leads to very dull life.  You HAVE to spend time every day doing something you really, really enjoy.  Third, spend time every day talking to someone you love.  The love between people is something that is meant to be indulged, and a good conversation with somebody you love is one of the nicest things life on Earth has to offer.  

Music on Youtube to go with todays post 

The Spark

The Spark

Hopeful as a lighthouse beacon
On a hurricane killer sea
Vengeful like a Kansas tornado
On an August night seethe
Powerful as an earthquake
In the city of Angels on mid-summers eve
Forever too small
For the big boys to see

Angry as a rap riot
Pounding out deeds
Sounds like Led Zeppelin and Cinderella
Or a Beethoven symphony
It’s on the breath of old farmers, children, and artists on fire
It’s in the passion of sailors just back from the sea
Tonight it sleeps with you and I
In spite of homeland security

Has coffee every morning
With code breakers hacking Windows XP
Stayed with the Jews at Masada
And the Sioux at Wounded Knee
Spends a lot of time in intifada city
Where it never dies
But often is the last gasp of those who are free

It can break the heavy chains of God
Keeps dying men alive
Lets blind men see
When Uncle Sam has a policeman in every pocket
And he shows us what to see on the wide screen TV
I’ll still see the spark in you
And you’ll still see the spark in me

Sometimes it’s the only survivor
When come packing the dogs of tyranny
Spark is the light in the wise mans eye
When he says ‘If I didn’t believe in love,
I wouldn’t believe’

Dewey Dirks Copyright 2003

A word for writers..

A word for writers---some of the best advice you'll ever come across is found in three minute rock and roll songs.  So, if you really need to say something, and you can't say it in the same space as four stanzas and chorus, you probably need to work on being a better writer. 

You just can't please all of them...

If a politician wins 55 percent of a vote they call it a landslide but there's still 45 percent of the people who disagree with him.  In your interactions with people around you—co-workers, family, and friends, you probably also rate around  55 percent approval.  Realize the truth of the idea that you can't please everyone all of the time and you'll lead a happier, more focused life....

After winning an argument....

After winning an argument with his wife or girlfriend, the wisest thing for a man to do is apologize.

There is no problem...

There is no problem so huge or bad that it cannot be ignored---Just look at the way the government acts.

Dumb man...cute legs...

Male chauvinism is still very real in this country.  Many men still believe they are much smarter than their wives and girlfriends...but you'll notice that a woman never seems to marry a dumb man for his cute legs...

If you could kick....

If you could kick the ass of the person causing ninety percent of your troubles, you couldn't sit down for a week.

Doctors say....

Doctors say drinking and smoking are bad for you...I don't know....Around where I live you certainly see more old drunks who smoke, than you see old doctors ;)

A lot of our Anxiety....

A lot of our anxiety and restlessness come from being taught from an early age that we all need to be doing something all the time to entertain ourselves.  Practice doing nothing for an hour a day and you'll soon find it doesn't lead to boredom, but a more fulfilled life. 

Twitter This....

Patience means being able to understand how trivial most things are going to be in the fullness of time.  The more patient you are in life the more you're gonna be able to accept life as it is when it happens, instead of being upset because it doesn't happen exactly like you planed.  When something upsetting happens, learn to always ask yourself  'In twenty-five years, how much difference is this going to make?'

Twitter This....

Make sure you understand others before you make sure they understand you.  If you want quality communication make the effort to understand someone else before you try to get them to understand you.  Being understood yourself flows naturally from understanding other people. 

Twitter This...

Don't sweat the details.  Stop trying to be so perfect.  Stop bitching at others for every fault.  No one EVER bats 100 percent.  What is important is that you and your loved ones are pointed in the right direction and moving a bit forward every week.  As a general rule success happens by inches at a time, not miles.

Twitter This...

If love were based solely on behavior, no one would ever have been loved as a teenager.  Loving someone means you not only care about who they are right now and what they do today, but also about whom they hope to be and what they have the potential to do in the future.

Twitter This...

If you're alive there's problems in your life. Happiness isn't having no problems. Happiness is learning what to do when problems arise. Are you happy?

Twitter This...

..It's pretty simple.  If you want your life to stand for bullshit, do shitty things.  If you you want your life to stand for peace and kindness, do kind and peaceful things.  The things you do every day are who you are.  I know who I am....Who are you?

Journey

Journey

Life is a long journey.
The time you enjoy along the way
is not wasted time.
Each day you spend in love is worthwhile.
Everyone teaches, everyone learns.
Life is a great circle.
There is a time to spend staying at home.
There is a time to move on.
Time to spend idle.
Time to love.
Time to be busy at work.
Time to return home again.

Each person is an endless series of moments passing by.
You can give each moment its own reason.
Make sure the moments that are you
lend kindness to others
and always give you good things to do.
Love life and others as best you can.
Let fame and fortune come and go as they may.
But forever dream to strive.
Always strive to dream.

Forgive others their mistakes the best you can.
Realize you make a few mistakes too.
Try to be as balanced as you can
and when you get off balance
remember, everyone falls down every once in awhile.
When you are fearful
remember things are never as bad
as you imagine them to be.

Everyone lives life the best they can.
Everyones journey takes twist and turns.
If my life draws memories to leave behind
that are uncommonly true
and spread a little happiness to others
I'll have lived my life
as I wanted to.
 

Dewey Dirks-----copyright 2010

Good at Something

Good At Something

Paula tends bar down at the Corral
If ever you go down there
She's got a long, tall Miller, a sparkle in her eyes
A good ear, and a friendly smile
And if you've got a problem big or small
Paula will even give you a welcome conversation

She'd be surprised if she only knew
How far what she's happened to say has gone
With the desperate and lonely, and the forsaken
Who've walked through her doors
On a thousand slow Wednesday nights
And not wanted to leave her till dawn

There's a guy who comes in every day
Paula fell in love with him a long time ago
He's a blue collar man, down to earth
With a good, honest way about him
But he's already taken, and happy
She's never said anything
Hopes only the best for him
It's no matter, she tells herself
She gets to see him every day
And when she wants more company
There are many very willing
To give her all the time she wants with them

Two blocks south, and four blocks west lives Emily Blair
She's got a husband and three kid's
'tween the ages of ten and nineteen
Been married going on twenty-one years now
She works hard for her family each day
All she asks in return
Is that you pick up your own socks from the floor
Give her a kiss on the cheek when it's bedtime
And make sure you clean up all your food
Before you ever dare get up from the table

If Emily could jump forty years down the line
She'd be surprised to find
Three adult's always telling their children
“You know, your grandma always used to say...”
And, “Your grandma taught me this, now I'll teach you..”
She'd see her words and her love
Echoing the long years away
And though Emily doesn't realize
While he's at work or at play
Her man talks of nothing but her all day, every day

All the Earth is a single town
A small blue dot in a very big sky
Men are mostly good or bad or in between
We all are small town born
And each grow up to play a small town part
In a small town play

Sam is Emily's husband
He's been a welder since he was fifteen
Every day at five pm he stops by the Corral
Chats with Paula
Has a drink, says hi to a few friends
Then along about six-thirty
Emily stops whatever she is doing
And smiles when he walks in
He's grins  back, and gives her a kiss
Says, “Hi babe, how was your day?”

If you live anywhere in the tri-state area
It's likely you've driven across a bridge or two
Held together with beads carefully crafted
Born of the blue arc in Sam's old welding rig
Sam doesn't know it
But a thousand times a day, Emily thinks about him
Hopes his job is going okay, wonders what he's up to just then

Find out what you ought to be doing
You have but to ask, life will give you a job
Everyone is good at something
Sudden and sweet or long and very slow
In ways you see and ways you don't,
All you say, all you do
Touch the ones standing next to you
Take care that you do what you should

Sam talks a lot down at the Corral
To the biker we all call Slim
From where he came, no one knows
Slim's fifty-five and never put down his colors
He's always got a good word
His laugh is big, his smile soulful and warm
He knows what it is to ride alone on a long, straight road
Knows what it is to walk the sharpest edges
Slim's got a story or two
Lord-God if you've got the time
If you look across the years, you'll find them peppered
With crossed-up kids bent straight by him
A hundred times he's been at parties
And talked cranked-out pairs of bikers
Out of knifing each other

Slim and Paula got a thing on the side
But he knows her eyes are forever on another
He says he doesn't mind
He knows the man, and he's a good guy
He tells himself it's an ideal arrangement
Slim says that love is just another tie that binds
And one of these days, he'll hop on his hog and ride

Paula and Slim, Sam and Emily
All good people without a single doubt
But every day down at the bar
Sam breaks Paula's heart
While Paula is busy breaking Slim's
Two blocks south, and four blocks west sits Emily
Never knowing her good love has caused so much mayhem
All the while, the four spread kind tidings
In ways that remain unknown and hidden to them

Paula and Slim, both so good
At handing out wise advice
Are flaming fools when it comes to their own love life
And Sam and Emily, who have a love that will never know death
Never tell how much each one means to the other
All of them make their own mess
All of them draw their own straight and crooked lines
I suppose it only goes to show
That even the luckiest and most astute
Can act like complete idiots some of the time
 

Do what you do best
And you'll do well as you can
Everyone in life can find a groove
Everyone teaches, everyone learns
Remember the ways that you act
Always have more than one side
Wise to know, we all tell two stories
The fable, good or bad
Of what we seem to do
And the secret tale
Of what life has put us up to
Quietly, and unnoticed

Dewey Dirks Copyright 2009

Fifty Summer Fling

Fifty Summer Fling

With people, love affairs, and seasons
All the world through time rolls
Come first tender and warm spring rains
Followed then by summer and fall
Comes next the indifferent winter
When ignorance and amnesia of better times blankets all
Then doing what’s right
Makes you seem the fool

But every so often
Once upon an uncommon time
Two are met of mischievous and heroic delight
All the universe suddenly moves as one
Eyes conspire, and an electric air turns
So schemes the summer to shine for a lifetime

In all the rolling world
There is nothing like the touch of rare lovers
Nothing so good as their fifty year fling
Nothing so passionate as their enchanted embrace
Nothing so charmed as the endless summer in their kiss
Lots of things make this old world go ‘round
But only a romance of which stories are told
Makes it worthwhile

Dewey Dirks Copyright 2010

Bravest Woman

Bravest Woman

I am a working woman
with children almost grown.
I'm nearly fifty.
I hope I still have a pretty face.
My husband died almost three years ago.

One cold winter day
a old man shot him dead
through our kitchen window.
He was the father of a thirty year old woman
and he thought my husband
was having an affair with his daughter
down at the bar where he used to go.  

Life isn't fair sometimes.
Oh God I loved my husband so much.
We were married nearly twenty years.
Lord God he used to like to talk
to people down at the bar.
He used to like to talk
to that woman down there.
He'd go down there and sit, I know.  
Lord God he used to like to talk.  

I stumble through each day.
I cry through through every night.
Sometimes I think I'm a broken woman.
Sometimes I think I'm broken.  
I don't know how I'll go on.  
But there's bills and bills
I've got to pay.
A home that needs cleaning
and dishes to wash.
Children who need lots of love.
Children who need advice.  
And a house with a hole in the window
that needs to be sold.  
How can I go on without my husband?
I don't know if I can carry the weight alone.
Lord God, I'm so alone.

I miss his voice.
He used to like to talk.
Oh God he used to like to talk.  
He visits me in my dreams at night
He cuddles me tightly. He kisses me softly.
He used to tell me,
“Jessie, you're the bravest woman I've ever known.”
Now I hear him in the night softly say,
“Don't miss me, please don't miss me.
I'm here with you now. Don't miss me.
Jessie you're the bravest woman
I've ever known.”  

I get so mad at him.
Lord God, he used to like to talk.
Liked to talk to the pretty young women.
Liked to talk to everyone.
Now he visits me in my dreams at night
He cuddles me tightly. He kisses me softly.
He says, “Jessie don't miss me.
You're the bravest woman I've ever known.
If you fall down, I'll help you up again.
I'll help you up.”
Lord God I miss my husband
He used to say,  
“Jessie, you're the bravest woman
I've ever known.”

Last night I dreamed of a great river
with a boat to carry me across.
On the river bank my husband was standing
I walked up to him and he kissed me
He said, “Jessie life is kinder than you think
Every night in dreams you don't remember
You travel to another land.   
There you and I are young again
And together we sit and talk and laugh
drinking iced tea
beside a great cypress tree.

When your days here are done
to that distant shore you'll travel
and if you still want me
I promise I'll meet you once again
beside that tree.  

Jessie, oh Jessie
You are the bravest woman I've ever known.
And the love we feel for each other
is that cypress tree we meet under each night
with roots so strong it will never know death.“


Dewey Dirks---copyright 2010