Stegosaurus standing silently still...

'Twas in another lifetime, one of toil and blood, When blackness was a virtue and the Road was full of mud, I came in from the wilderness, a creature void of form. Come in, she said: I'll give ya shelter from the storm... 

Silver bracelets upon her wrists and nothing but a crown thorns upon my weary head and thoughts and desires lost in the mire and muck, so I entered.

Hello fellow LinkenIn'ers!

Timeless words above courtesy of Mr. Dylan, and such sure wordsmithing is tantamount to the movements of Lucy Herself.

"Who' Lucy?", you ask. Glad you inquired.

In the Hello Zig Zone of Humanity, wave your hands and hellos towards your cousin and mine, named unceremoniously yet respectfully so: Australopithecus afarensis. 

She is as equitably my sister as she is yours too.

Funny, and simultaneously ironic regarding that the entomology of her nomenclature, for "Lucy" is now recognized in the scientific community as the first version of a primitive initial version of what we identify as "human", this most earliest of Homo sapien life, that was discovered back in 1924.  However it wasn't until some fifty something years down the road, specifically in 1974, that in a little known area of Ethiopia called Hadar, that a rather enthusiastic group of dedicated archaeologists and anthropologists discovered this most exquisitely preserved fossilized beginning of the what is widely and concordantly accepted as the beginning branch of what would ultimately become what both you & I have become.

Human. 

Which is really to say a work in process, undoubtedly.  

To date, Lucy is one of the oldest, if not undeniably the oldest, of humanoid fossils yet found, that traces our origins back to what some may consider to be the Garden of Eden, back into the verdant fields of Africia which holds the cradle of Life Herself.  And ironically, and what I find most hilarious, is Lucy's name and discovery is dedicated by an eager gaggle of archaeologists and anthropologists who, while listening and jamming out to the 1967 hit by the Beatles "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", a song literally about LSD, an incredibly potent psychotropic hallucinogenic drug, was being being played ever so enthusiastically and blasted in the ancient lands of Hadar, Ethiopia, literally a paleoanthropological playground place, a discovery of understanding and unearthing, a land of purpose and passion that was being born, that they decided that the "First Human" who to be discovered would be appropriately named after a phantasmagoria chimera of drug choice.    

Interesting...

In their extreme and undeniable joy, continually rearing up this triumph in trumpets galore, proverbial promulate in hand, as they explored with this background classic Beatles song deep into the night and repeatedly so at full blast, brushing off the sands of 3 million years of time, they unearthed a connection, a bridge of sorts if you will, from the Past to the Present, and perhaps to the Future of Forward Fronts, a soft but solid understanding, for one cannot effectively evolve into the the evolution of what's to come without owning and accepting where one has once been.  

So what does this have to do with this article of my pre-midnight blueberry pancakes thoughts?  

Maybe nothing.  

Maybe everything.  

You see, Life is all about change, evolution, about motion, about becoming more tomorrow that what we were today, about movement and maneuver and motions moved deep, about oceans of understanding deeper today than yesterday, and offering help when we can, and humbly accepting the same when in need... and I hope we collectively continue to do just that, and despite my pride, I hope most especially for me, to accept help when needed and offer it back when I can.  

We're all on the same Roller Coaster of Life.  

Sure, we can land a man on the moon and bring him and his crew back safely.  Been there, done that.  And yeah, we've got our rock n' roll guitar riffs to destroy stadiums and eardrums equally so, and we can construct a tiny little intense computer, slide it into our blue jean pockets, addictive apps and all, and empower us to connect with one another {aka: a cell phone}, and then we're all that and a bag of salty chips, drones, nuclear submarines and satellites, and all as the expression rolls around.  But to put all of life here in perspective, let's toss all of that onto the chessboard of compensation and accomplishments, and recognize those that once ruled this land:  Dinosaurs. 

Dinosaurs?  Why bring them up?  They're nothing but fossils.  Exactly!.. but they roamed and ruled this entire Earth for over 3 hundred million plus years.  To put that into a perspective, Lucy, our first humanoid, gained and glanced, scraped scratched slashed and clawed the ground, and was birthed into existence for only some mere 3 million years ago, or better said, just a trifling slender slice of 1% of what it's in our Book of Humanity to that of the Book of the Dinosaurs. 

And now, if you want to behold a T-Rex, or a Stegosaurus, or an Allosaurus or an Ankylosaurus, and or my favorite, a Diplodocus, you've got to run to a museum and stand bewildered and beholden by what once ruled the Forests and Fields and Forces, but now only runs immortalized in the local glorious gallery of historic depositories.  

Yeah, they once ran the show.  Full of confidence and conviction, fields of flowers and pastures perfected bowed to their tremendous thoughts and wondrous weight.  Then came an unexpected event.  A rock, no bigger than 6 miles wild, give or take, came crashing into the landscape of what existed for millions of years.  Crushed and bruised, crashed and burnished burning branded forever, the Earth's story was forevermore changed. 

So therein perhaps lies the lesson, for those who are willing to listen.

Life is random.  Even when you feel that you are on the tip and top, something unknown, unedited and unexpected comes from out of nowhere. And necessary to succeed is owning the willingness to fall fumble fail and fizzle out when such moments inevitably come.

For in such failures, evolution catches It's breath, and if so inclined, so will You, and we collectively begin to understand what it means to succeed.  After all, you can not appreciate the "Light" if you haven't walked in the "Darkness". 

A man and woman will rise, and a man or woman will fall..

And why do we fall?...

So we can rise again.  

Learn from your mistakes, and perhaps it will take a twirl turn twist or two before it seeps in deep into your mitochondria, but once you embrace it, the Front Doorsteps of all that is Hallelujah Holy Heights will enlighten up!

Just ask a Brachiosaurus. 

From the previous Cretaceous Period, some 165 million years ago, to this very moment in time, hunted like prey ever unknown to one another, they offer up this simple truth:

Collision into the mountainside may destroy your so-called plans, but denying the inevitable crush will leave you empty inside. So crush into it you must try.

Yes, colliding into one another is hard.  Lowering one's defenses to reveal the proverbial light inside is awkward to say the least.  It takes courage.  Tossing one's shield and sword to the side takes so much strength. From innocent newborn babies, to veterans beaten and bruised, from wars that ultimately make no sense in the rearview mirror of Humanity, from the Eastern winds of your soul to the Western seas of your indomitable spirit, collide gently into one another gently.  Crush and cruise together towards the Light.  

... and I'll be standing with anxious enthusiastic breath to see you walk solidly into the Gates that have awaited patiently for your arrival.

So glad you're here...