On the way home from work yesterday, the song "Breathe" by Anna Nalick was playing and whenever I hear it recently, it makes me very emotional. I know it's because my Dad's mother, who will always be "Mamaw" to me, passed away unexpectedly about six weeks ago and it reminds me of how life rolls right along whether we want it to or not. The chorus goes:

'Cause you can't jump the track, we're like cars on a cable
And life's like an hourglass, glued to the table
No one can find the rewind button, girl.
So cradle your head in your hands
And breathe... just breathe,
Oh breathe, just breathe

As I was listening I also thought about how if I really knew what the writer intended the song to be about, it probably wouldn't match what it means to me very well. I've often thought how we destroy meaning in songs and stories when we try to discover their meaning.

It may sound odd to think this, but just consider a time when you've been watching "Behind the Music" and the artist told everyone how the song you thought was a sweet love story was really about his obsession with heroine.

I don'k know about you but I think the beauty of art is that we are allowed to take it as it is and make it our own. And when I discover the back story, it seems tainted to me in some way, like being backstage at a play or on the other side of the camera. As an art consumer, I don't want to know how or why it came to be.

I just want to know that it can mean whatever is meaningful to me.

I've held out as long as I could.

Now it's time to talk about religion. I'm not at all talking here about doctrine or what I believe really. I'm just talking about the topic in general.

Doesn't it seem like it has just become another social exercise in our society? Do you really meet lots of people who are actively moved by what they believe? I'd say it's a rarity in my experience. Why do we care more about our Easter Sunday dresses than the worship itself?

Does everything we do have to be so superficial? Why do we care so much about what others think? The irony about letting others' opinions stifle our religious beliefs is that it really goes against everything true religion teaches us.

True religion is passionate and denies self. It frees us by allowing us to serve something higher than ourselves. It shows us that in the scheme of things, what people think is really unimportant in relation to doing right. Suffer persecution now and reign victorious later.

If all these things are true, why do so few people have the passion they need to do the right thing, regardless of what the guy next to them thinks?

I really don't know the answer. But I can speak for myself and say that in the times I've cowered it has been mainly for one of two reasons. (1) I didn't believe strongly enough to follow through, regardless of consequences. (2) I didn't want to do the right thing. I analyzed my choices and purposefully chose to do wrong.

Admitting that makes me uncomfortable but I think it's true of most of us at one time or another. How can we fix it? My only answer is to surround yourself in what matters most and it will become your greatest motivator.

Weekends are great because you get a chance to relax and rejuvenate before beginning another work week.....in theory.

My weekends usually do nothing but exhaust me and this one was no different. I was headed to a James Taylor concert Sunday night. I can't say I was overly excited, I'm not the biggest fan, but I do appreciate his music and thought, why not? I was going with an older sister, my parents, and a couple they're friends with.

My Sunday Schedule:

church....lunch with Dad's side of family....race to church in nearby city....dinner....concert

The day started with my husband and I running around trying to get to church. We had to take separate cars because of my schedule. We went to church and then went to my sister's house to change clothes before the family get-together. I asked my hubby to put the food we were taking (twice baked potato casserole & Mississippi mud cake) into the car we were going to be in. We changed clothes, and off we were!!!

When we got to my aunt's house where the family had gathered, I asked my husband to pop the trunk so we could grab the food and he got that look on his face. He had forgotten to transfer it to the car. I was on the verge of tears, but knew there was nothing to be done. I thought he was really distressed about it though, so we went back to get it. 30 minutes later, we were there with the food.

We inhaled our lunch...my schedule demanded we leave for concert-city in 30 minutes. We left and found out that there was no way we were going to make the rendezvous point with the other concert goers, so my sister and I rode together...I drove.

We made it to church just as the service was beginning. By the time we caught our breath, church was over and we were headed to dinner.

We went to dinner and had just arrived when I noticed my Dad squirming a bit. He said he was having pain near his back but it wasn't his back exactly. My immediate thought: kidney stone. I had one a few years ago and the symptoms sounded familiar.

Knowing I was the least fan among us, I asked if he wanted me to take him to the ER. Basically, we ended up in the ER, but my Mom wanted to stay with him. So, I ended up going to the concert with my sister and my parents' friends.

I can say that JT is truly talented and gives a good concert. I even appreciated his banter, although I 'm sure I would have more if the circumstances were different. All-in-all, I was completely spent. It was rush-rush all day and we couldn't even enjoy dinner.

I think the moral to this story may be to not try to plan a relaxing weekend involving family. It just never seems to work out.

At best, you'll end up totally exhausted and longing for the next weekend and at worst, someone's gonna end up in the hospital.

Spring is on its way.

I know because I don't have to drag myself out of bed anymore. The sun peers through the blinds and lulls me out of bed. It's kind of nice, actually. I am definitely not a morning person, but some Spring mornings...I could almost believe they are less than evil.

Living in the South, it's always bittersweet when the weather starts warming up. It's when you know that sweaty, humid days are right around the corner. If you've never understood a Southerner's obsession with sweet tea, live in the South for a summer. You sweat enough to drink a gallon a day and still thirst.

And just in case you've never visited the South and have only seen it portrayed in movies, we don't all walk around dripping sweat and wiping our brows with handkerchiefs. We do have air conditioning and most of us under the age of 85 prefer to use it.

As a matter of fact, I think I may just take this opportunity to dispell some myths about the South:

-We don't all have furniture and old appliances on the front porch.
-We don't all run around in overalls without shirts underneath
-We don't all produce enough sweat to bathe ourselves in
-We don't all chew on pieces of hay
-We don't all love Dukes of Hazzard and Hee-Haw
-We don't all think Vienna Sausages are suitable party hors d'oeuvres
-We don't all find our cousins undeniably attractive

Blah blah....

I am working with a non-profit in town for their major annual fundraiser. It's my third year and is usually lots of fun. I am the chair of my committee and doled out the responsibility of creating an invitation to the event to a new committee member transplanted from Arizona. The member said she and her spouse did graphical stuff......so I figured, why not?

I should've known when I sent a logo to her in Photoshop format and she didn't recognize it that we were in trouble. I received a comp this morning in two parts. (1) The front panel of the invite....in a Word document. and (2) the back panel....in Excel.

Are you kidding me?

Now comes my biggest challenge. How do I tell her this is totally unacceptable and useless without hurting her feelings? I 'm not sure how, but through this whole thing I am noticing something that is all too common.

People thrive on mediocrity.

How do people who perform so poorly in their fields survive? How can a woman actually think she is in the graphic design industry and send a Word document? How can executives and managers across the world exhibit less intelligence than their subordinates daily and still maintain their positions?

Maybe the rest of us are too scared of getting canned to say anything, or maybe we like feeling needed, or maybe we don't want to hurt their feelings. Whatever the reason, it seems like in our silence we end up right where we started....mediocrity.