Blog #5

2)   My own life has been greatly influenced by relationships with others.  One of the coolest relationships I have is with an 83 year old man named Don Wooten.  Don is one of those people that you can consider "old and wise."  Don has been a teacher, an Illinois State Senator, a weatherman, a parent of 5, and he has traveled all around.  He also is very intelligent, and told me that he got an A on every test in high school until he went to college, where did on all but one test.  Don also has been conducting plays for over 50 years for the Genesius Guild in Rock Island.  Every Sunday I go over to Don's to do random things around the house. This can consist of things such as refilling the birdfeeders, splitting logs as winter fire wood, raking, and just about every other random thing that you could think of.  After I do all of this work, his mind always wanders off and he talks about his life.  He is really into nature, and studied all about it, and graduated with a degree in Biology.  I guess I am a pretty fortunate 16 year old kid for being able to hear such great life stories.  He sits on his porch and looks at the trees, and thinks it's amazing how trees can communicate with each other by roots.  He also likes seeing all of the birds chirp outside.

Not only is Don a great impact, but my family is too.  My brothers are 24 and 27, and with this they have gone through high school and participated in all of the sports.  They always tell me to watch out for certain things in high school, like drugs and things like that, but than again they grew up in a much worse high school.  Also, they have had some pretty unfair coaches, and that when a coach yells at you, to just let it go through your head. This is not even merely close to enough of the things that they have helped me with.  I wouldn't be half the person I was today if it wasn't for them, because who knows if I would be led down the wrong path or not if it wasn't for them.  Also, my parents have been great influences too.  They are in their fifties, and have gone through a lot in their lives, and it's pretty amazing to see what they are today, and I'm thankful that I have parents like them.  These are just a small amount of people who have had an influence on my life.  My friends, my teachers, my relatives, even just random nice people with a smile on their face all the time inspire me to be a happier person and to try to do random acts of kindness.

The World Around Us

Around me, I hear cars moving across the pavement, and even one honking.  The honking is an indirect emotion, because the driver did not actually wave at us, but he did honk at us as a way of a greeting.  I hear the birds chirping up in the sky, and also they cross my line of sight too, attracting two senses at once.  Privileged are the birds, because they get the oppurtunity to fly naturally.  We as humans get the oppurtunity to walk easily, and miraculously for that matter, because of the balance that we didn't even know that we had that grows and develops in us as an infant.  The fact that we can easily walk, and that birds can naturally fly, shows us how the world and life around us has so many different complex structures of life to it, giving life the amazing aspects that it really has. The sound of wind passes by my ears, as if it is almost trying to move me or take my emotions with it.  I can feel the sense of happiness around, and I can hear the peaceful thoughts going through my fellow peers' minds, saying "What a beautiful day it is outside!", in agreement to my thoughts as well, as I feel a peaceful tone in the village today.

 I feel the grass below me, acting as a pillow calling our names to comfort us.  I feel the humidity around us, but just a little bit.  I see the naked trees, with the leaves that once clothed it on the ground, that were once decorating the trees.  It is clearly autumn.

Ahead of me, I see a lifeless leaf.  It used to be part of a tree, which had life of it's own.  But, now that it is broken off of the tree, it is lifeless.  This can relate people; we are apart of the world as a whole, but than eventually, we break off from this realm, and enter into the next world above us in the Heavens, just as like a leaf breaks off from the world it had with the tree, and enters the rest of the world and can move freely by the wind. We are like the leaves, we are still moving and effecting the world, even though we have broken off.