{"id":60,"date":"2013-02-20T14:33:18","date_gmt":"2013-02-20T21:33:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.drivingprinciples.com\/?p=60"},"modified":"2013-02-20T14:33:44","modified_gmt":"2013-02-20T21:33:44","slug":"happy-trails","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.drivingprinciples.com\/?p=60","title":{"rendered":"Happy Trails"},"content":{"rendered":"

Samuel Langhorne Clemens – better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist.\"Comet\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Twain was born during a visit by Halley’s Comet on November 30, 1835, and he predicted that he would “go out with it,” too. He died the day following the comet’s subsequent return in 1910. Halley is the best-known of the short-period comets and is visible from Earth every 75 years.<\/p>\n

Larger dust particles are left along the comet’s orbital path while smaller particles are pushed away from the Sun into the comet’s tail by light pressure. The comet is made of dust and water – like the human body \u2013 and continually leaves a trail of itself behind.<\/p>\n

My Mom died on November 1st<\/sup>, 2001 \u2013 on All Saints Day. This wasn\u2019t too long after 9-11, so I merely added onto that hollow feeling of grief that that tragic event had elicited in me and the rest of the world. But this was an even greater blow to my world.<\/p>\n

I wasn\u2019t ready to leave \u201cMom\u201d behind. In a life filled with its own brand of sadness and loss, this seemed to be the biggest. I remember driving out to her grave in the days following the funeral and weeping. No words. Just tears. The greatest love of my life\u2026. Seemingly lost.<\/p>\n

The days after turned to months and years. My son kept me busy with new love and new looks at life. And still my Mom \u201creturned\u201d almost daily \u2013 correcting my grammar, reminding me to forgive when I didn\u2019t really want to, telling me to eat what\u2019s good for me, and what\u2019s in front of me. I used to argue about lima beans \u2013 \u201cI didn\u2019t put them on my plate, why should I eat them?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause you have to eat what\u2019s on your plate.\u201d<\/p>\n

We were both right. Life keeps appearing to me – coming at me \u2013 like light pressure from the Sun. And people and places and events keep streaming behind me in my wake like so much dust.<\/p>\n

I have 3 brothers and 3 sisters. They each have their own orbits. OK, Mom \u2013 \u201cEach of them has his or her own orbit.\u201d Our orbits intersect yearly and we reunite as a family at the next wedding… or funeral\u2026 or we just pick a date in the solar year and our lives intersect briefly. Our tails are shining like dust behind us, and we look at each other and see the bright comet\u2019s head and the tail behind.<\/p>\n

Occasionally when we return to my hometown, I see a friend from high school. They were great friends \u2013 first friends \u2013 Dave and Lee and Randy and Robert \u2013 the Mullen Brothers \u2013 the guys I learned to have fun with and to define what \u201cfun\u201d was! And on a special occasion I might meet the first love of my life! Lee Ellen. In my time with Lee Ellen I learned to kiss and hold and touch and feel\u2026 I learned to love\u2026 and to lose.<\/p>\n

Do we really ever lose, though? Aren\u2019t all of these people who have come and gone in our lives merely the light of our tail shining in space?<\/p>\n

I remember when I was very young \u2013 9 or 10 \u2013 sharing a room with my three brothers. There were two sets of bunk beds, parallel to each other. I was on the top bunk on one side of the room. My younger brother was underneath me \u2013 he didn\u2019t like to climb \u2013 my two older brothers shared the other bunk beds. It was my greatest pleasure when I was able to stay awake long enough to listen to the conversations that my brothers held just a few feet away. They thought I was sleeping. I learned a lot of things about life\u2026. Not all of them true.<\/p>\n

I recall especially one conversation that they were having about diets \u2013 what one should eat or not. I was thinking \u201cYou eat what\u2019s in front of you.\u201d<\/p>\n

David leaned over the edge of the top bunk to say to Phil \u2013 \u201cYou know what? I think if you ate just the right amount and the right kinds of food, that you\u2019d never have to go to the bathroom.\u201d<\/p>\n

Phil, ever the scientific one, responded \u2013 \u201cYou mean the body would absorb everything because it got just what it needed?\u201d<\/p>\n

I was fascinated. I held on to this idea as the truth \u2013 what older brothers tell you is the truth until proven otherwise \u2013 this was true, then, until I realized differently. I realized differently sometime after Mom\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

People shine brightly in our life and then fall away. Always we have to keep facing the Sun (even if we aren\u2019t supposed to look directly at it) \u2013 always we have to eat what\u2019s on our plate, allowing it to pass through us, nourish us, strengthen us\u2026 and then\u2026. To trail behind us like so much cosmic dust.<\/p>\n

We are the comet. Trailing behind us is all of the events and people and places that we have lived and loved, and learned from\u2026. These are all the very Light of us!<\/p>\n

Mark Twain said \u201cApparently there is nothing that cannot happen today.\u201d I know he was right.<\/p>\n

Happy Trails to you\u2026. Until we meet again\u2026..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Samuel Langhorne Clemens – better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist. Twain was born during a visit by Halley’s Comet on November 30, 1835, and he predicted that he would “go out with it,” too. He died the day following the comet’s subsequent return in 1910. Halley is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-toastmasters"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drivingprinciples.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drivingprinciples.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drivingprinciples.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drivingprinciples.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drivingprinciples.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=60"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.drivingprinciples.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67,"href":"https:\/\/www.drivingprinciples.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60\/revisions\/67"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drivingprinciples.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=60"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drivingprinciples.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=60"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drivingprinciples.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=60"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}