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It is a Loss For All of Us….

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Britney and Crystal were a couple. They were young. Crystal had a 5 year old daughter. One of them was a security guard and one of them worked at Starbucks. Did I mention they were young? They had an entire lifetime ahead of them. They may or may not have spent that lifetime together….but they deserved a chance to live their lives and either make it as a couple or not. They did not deserve to die. 

I will admit I know few details about the murder of these 2 women. I did not know the women. All I know is what I have read. They were murdered…it is assumed because they were lesbians. The person currently sitting in a Galveston jail….suspected of killing these young ladies…was actually a person that should have laid his own life down to protect them. The suspect is the father of Britney….yes, the father of Britney is suspected of killing his daughter and her girlfriend. After killing them, he is suspected of transporting their bodies to another city and dumping them. He did not dump them in a lush green pasture or at the base of a rolling hill….no, he dumped them next to a dumpster. 

We know it is a dangerous world. We know there is a lot of hate in the world. We know people don’t like people that are “different.” 
But aren’t we suppose to find comfort, and protection from our family? Aren’t we suppose to feel unconditional love, kindness and acceptance within our family?

It breaks my heart that these 2 young women lost their lives, a little girl lost her mommy and quite possibly the world lost a future CEO, social worker, pilot, teacher…..maybe even a president. Sadly we will never know what greatness these young women were meant to achieve. 

All we know is they were erased from this world because they loved differently…because they were born to walk on a path the murderer did not understand.

Did I mention they were young?

Weekly Writing Challenge: Power of Names / It’s Tree

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As a child I never liked my name. It seemed clunky. It didn’t roll off my tongue. When asked to introduce myself I often stumbled and felt awkward getting the letters to exit my lips in the right order. Most importantly, it just wasn’t me. 

Then my name changed. My name became the name my parents might have given me had they been hippies. It became earthy, strong and rooted. It became me!

As a fifth grader I was quite tall for my age. I towered at 5’6” while my friends were still hoping to reach five feet. The winter of that year, my best friend Chelley and I walked to our local high school every Saturday morning to play in the girl’s basketball league. Competitive sports were still new for girls since Title IX had become law only a few years early. Mr. Montgomery was the dad of one of our teammates and he also volunteered to be our coach. He is the person that christened me with the name that would come to define me and remain with me for the rest of my life. 

“A kid as tall as you deserves a nickname.” Mr. Montgomery said this every Saturday and he would occasionally try out a name to see if it fit me. Then one Saturday it happened….”Tree.” My name, my identity, the name that gave me something special.

I wasn’t a cheerleader type girl, I was a big girl. Athletic, strong, competitive. I liked to play ball with the boys. My brother and I wrestled, boxed and threw each other around the house. He was older, but I was bigger. I was not a Teresa….I was a Tree!

The name Tree has stayed with me my entire life. Few people have ever heard my “real” name. The only people that still call me Teresa are people that knew me as a small child – mostly older relatives. My mother calls me Tree, my co-workers call me Tree and I always introduce myself as Tree.

People try to make my name fancy. They spell it with one “E” or pronounce it “Tray.” But it isn’t fancy, it is just like me. Big and strong and firmly rooted….it is Tree. 

Time….The Speed Machine

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OK….I have not stuck to my “once a week” blog post. I’m not always sure how it happens….you know, time just slips away and suddenly a month is gone….never to be seen again. No matter how much we regret letting time slip through our fingers we can never retrieve it.

We can’t stand in front of time and stop it. We can’t stick our foot out and trip it, slowing it down enough for us to jump on top of it and enjoy the heck out of it. 

All we can really do is accept that time is precious, time is fleeting, time is only with us for this moment. If we blink, the moment escaped and we will never recapture it. 

For those of you that have passed that magical age that causes time to speed up (for those of you who haven’t reached that age…you will!) you will understand when I say “Trying to keep up with time is like being trapped in a hamster ball.” Time, by its nature, is constantly moving. But something happens around the age of 35 (at the oldest 40) that causes time to rev its engine and quadruple its speed. The other thing that happens around this time is…20 year olds look 14 and suddenly your parents don’t look nearly as old as they did a few years ago.

So the lesson is….time is precious? Or is the lesson….run faster so you can keep up? I’m really not sure. The one thing I do know, for me time can be friend or foe…..I think slowing down and living each moment with purpose will allow us to appreciate time and hopefully, as a result, enjoy life. But no matter how perfect this ideal of meditative purpose is….rarely does my reality or my actions meet the required focus. I am much more likely to chase the squirrel until the butterfly gets my attention. 

So my life is out of focus with multiple distractions fighting for space and time in my head. Without strick study and discipline I will never meet the demands of meditative focus. However, I can find ways to relax and enjoy the time I have been given. I can dig in the dirt, walk through a beautiful park, sit quietly with my partner, breathe deep, pet my 4 legged children, laugh with my friends and smile.

Time is fleeting but maybe our job isn’t to keep up as much as it is to realize what a precious gift we have been given and not allow too much of it to slip by without noticing it and making the most of it.  

 

Trepidation

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For some reason I have been hesitant to start this blog. 

Why? I fear I won’t have anything to say. Well, anyone that knows me, knows I rarely run out of things to say! 

So here we go…my goal is to post at least once a week. I haven’t really decided what the true focus of this page will be. My goal will be to keep it positive and include others in conversation about everyday events and ideas.

Join me….

The Muffler Guy

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I’ve thought for sometime that I would start a blog. But I never quite knew where or how to begin. I created a page on WordPress several months ago, but had done nothing with it. Then I saw a message from WordPress about lessons on writing a blog. Zero to Hero: 30 days to a better blog, http://dailypost.wordpress.com/zero-to-hero/  I decided to commit to the 30 days of assignments and see if I could get this thing off the ground. 

So tonight my assignment is to use a new element (video, photo, tweet). I chose to add a photo. I enjoy finding odd and quirky objects to take pictures of. And today I tracked down this quirky little guy. I say “tracked down” because I actually saw him last week but didn’t have the time to stop for a picture. So today I returned to the area I had spotted him in and sure enough….he was still there, waiting for his photo shoot!

Image

I’m not sure what it is about these little guys, made up of welded together scrap, but I think they are fun. I often times notice them outside car repair shops and admire the skills involved to create them. Even though they are not pieces of art that will find their way to a cultured art museum….I do believe they are art.

I’m not totally sure how or if this little guy is going to fit into the overall theme of my blog….but I like his appearance and I think his smile is quite charming. So here he is, a man of few words and a snappy hat!

Why This Blog?

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After reading a daily meditation that challenged people to express their thankfulness throughout the year, not just during the month of November, I chose to start a daily “thankful” post on Facebook. A few people asked why Facebook? Why publicly? To me the answer was simple. I am naturally optimistic and I believe it is important to find the lesson or the blessing in all situations. But I realize not all people are able to see the good in situations that are difficult. My hope was to shed some light on the good things that might go overlooked in this crazy busy world we all are sharing. 

After several months friends began commenting on the posts and sharing with me how much the posts meant to them. As I closed in on the last few months of the “year of thanks” friends that had been following the posts were asking me to continue. As a result I started a separate Facebook page called 365 Days and Counting  with the intention of eventually starting a blog. At this time the daily posts are giving me a chance to find out what people like and what people react to. In the first 40 days I have gained 176 followers. 

As I considered whether to start a blog I spoke to several old friends. One of those friends and I have wanted to write together for many years. We finally decided THIS would be our writing project. We hope to create conversations based on topics that are important to us and hopefully important to those that choose to read the blog.