Category: Going Another Way

Posted on

Opportunity to Learn

I am grateful for opportunity to learn, to grow, and to become more and better.

I, me, myself and I, and maybe you, dear reader, are not stuck in the time of ‘whatever ignorance’. For certain, no one can know what they do not know. Yet. Once they know that ‘whatever ignorance’ is gone away, to zip, zero, nothing.

We can simply recognize the lacking, make a choice, or ask a question, or make an effort, a really tiny, little bitty teeny effort and by so doing move into a whole new world of knowledge and wisdom and ways previously not known.

Posted on

Perseverance

Perseverance is my invisible power!

A Celtic Proverb insists, or maybe promises, “Patience will wear out stones.” Of course I’ve learned that is true.
Also, the cat who meows often and long enough is let out of the door. If many meows does for some reason other than death, not rouse the human to action then the cat must resort to a quiet and sudden jump into the human’s bed and stick the very cold feline nose to the back of the human’s ear, just below the lobe. Ta-Da!
I am grateful to have learned perseverance. I do not know which try will be effective. The second maybe, or the twenty-second. But I do know that perseverance will succeed.

Posted on

Helpers Along the Way

Wow! The temperatures are climbing. Whew!

A spritz of water up and down the body, especially at my ankles and on the nape of my neck, es[ecially cooling while standing in the fan’s breeze.

Outside the shelter and shade of one hundred feet tall Sycamore trees.

An oriental hand fan, or two.

Cooling stations: libraries and shopping malls. Lots to see and do in those.  My favorite places for my favorite past time: people watching.

Sitting on the porch and rocking in my rocking chair behind a panel of Mornings Glories and Sunflowers. I watch the bees and butterflies in their busy work and I am grateful.

 

Posted on

To Be Able To Help

There were many errands to be done. I didn’t quite know how I would get them all done in such a short space of time. Then, one thing went away. Another thing, my husband took over because he was going to be there anyway.
Suddenly I was all dressed for public viewing and nowhere to be seen. A breathed a deep sigh and realized my phone’s screen was glowing. A call had come in, no sound, a glitch of some kind, but I had missed a call. Checking Voicemail, I heard the voice of a Dearheart needing a ride to the pharmacy.
No big deal. Dressed and with the car ready, I called her back and made plans for us to leave in a few minutes on our journey.

The morning’s news was full of things I could do nothing about. But the one thing I could do meant a whole lot to my friend. It could solve some problems, minor problems blessedly, but problems nonetheless.

I am so grateful to be able to do something.

Posted on

Personal Liberty

Today and for many days past, I am grateful for the opportunities to choose my way of thinking in any and every life event,

To choose the ‘Light Hearted’ instead of the burdens of dread and darkness.

To salt my conversations with words of expectation: ‘this will be fun’, ‘that will be an enjoyment’, ‘how entertaining that is’,  are thoughtful approaches of choice in the presence of things, people and events that at first occurrences may be on a razor’s thin edge between; ‘good’ or ‘bad’.

What an awesome opportunity.

Too, with people, we each have opportunities to uplift, inspire, and encourage. With the briefest of glances, we can uplift and support another person’s experience.

There are so beauties and so many fine people in every situation. This is each person’s option to practice personal liberty.

Judging the glass to be half-full or half-empty is not the point. The point is: there is a glass, without holes, with a smooth flat  bottom and it has something in it.

Be grateful.

Posted on

My Gratitude for Other Walkers

At bare daylight, I am pulling on my walking socks and shoes and whatever other garments that might make me more visible.  If they are hideous in color, puce with Pepto Bismol pink, for example, the atrocity in fashion makes people see me.  I want to be visible to drivers who are more and more frequently looking away from their phones for scant nano-seconds.

The presence of other neighborhood walkers is a constant reassurance. If I am in trouble there is a walking friend nearby. While I do not know them, by name or address, I know them from passing along our ways every day.

They are clean, attired for the weather and the activity. Often, one and sometimes two dogs trot along with their human. These too reveal their clean state, brushed glossy- coated health. Many are the times the other Walker will be picking up after the dogs. All that speaks to a person’s respect responsibility and maturity of conduct.  Within sight of my route is a deep creek. Sometimes the dogs get to go for a swim and seeing their frolic is a special joy with laughter.

Within sight of my route is a deep creek. Sometimes the dogs get to go for a swim and seeing their frolic is a special joy with laughter.

Daily there are the pleasantries, such nice words to begin a day!

Amidst all this,  there is the confidence of other folks nearby. And their dogs. But not too close to intrude on my reverie.

I am so grateful!

Posted on

The Many Facets of Education

Education for the most part of my life has been of the free but priceless kind. At one time we had to buy our books in our home state, but it was a modest amount and there were programs to assist the kids who didn’t have the price of their books.

Too, there was the learning from observation as much as from practice, all kinds of social conducts, academic subjects and experiences of the planetary resident kind.

By that, I mean that interstellar travellers might not know how to walk in the woods or drink from a stream or how to be cautious at the edge of a wind blown precipice.

The diversity and thoroughness of a background education in Art, its techniques and mediums and history boggles my memory to consider that I know it, but it is as familiar as scratching an itch.

I am beyond words grateful for all of it.  There is no imagination that could take in all the might not be it not for education.

I often find myself saying aloud I am grateful, I am grateful.

 

Posted on

To be included

To be included is perhaps the most special thing in a very long time, for which I am grateful.

Truly special to me, that people would plan and send an invitation and call and ask with genuine hope in their voice.
“Are you coming?” And then with genuine care and interest in their voice. “Is there anything I/ we can do to help?”

Once there, introductions were made all around, and they spoke of me in glowing terms to the new people I met.

The ages of the gathered were from three-ish to ninety-ish, and the respectful interest in one another was a quiet joy to experience.

Later, after the event, there was a meal. Long tables with cloths beneath breeze bounced globes.

I was asked to say the Grace. Every person there became quiet and still and bowed their heads. A fragrance from the hanging flowers seemed as a blanket dropping over us all together at once.

The ease and manner of all those people showed me that Prayer was A common event for my friends. And remember to consider, and plan, and specifically, invite their friends to share their joys.

Posted on

Helpers here, helpers there, helpers everywhere……….

My original intent was to change this blog’s theme. But, I looked and I liked it the way it is.

My day has been one of many people along the ways I’ve gone. There have been helpful pleasantries when I originally planned to be cranky. There have been entertaining stories and helpful ideas.
While driving, I passed the police and I am reminded of these brave and caring people who go into challenging situations to help people. On my Facebook newsfeed, there was a video showing firefighters successfully rescuing animals from various horrific situations.
Now my thoughts are a bit like a pinball machine ball bouncing around touching on the many, many ways people have helped me. There have been teachers who taught far more than I took in, there have been people who helped understand compassion and patience from my point of great need of those very things.
There are people who want me think about tragedy or sickness and disease or some kind of trauma. Yet for each one of those, there are thousands of efforts every hour, EVERY HOUR, to bring comfort, healing, correction, and improvements; also known as help.

I am grateful for helpers.

Posted on

The Joy of a Pet

In my thoughts at the moment: my cat Grace.

A stray abandoned and left in a boxwood bush at my creative space a year and seven months ago, everything about he has changed since that time.

As I develop skills to upload photos I will include one of her. To describe her in words, she is a Tabby-Torby with strong markings and large patches of rust on her coat. Her eyes are now yellow and she has one wonky claw that is frequently snagged on something. The carpet has many places where the thread has been pulled.

Grace was an answered prayer that I had prayed the day before.  Not having asked for what to do with her after I got her, her arrival sent me scurrying to the dollar store for box and litter and food, and then to the Veterinarian to have her checked and given the necessary shots.

Then, because she was covered in fleas, ticks and dirt, a Dawn bath was called for. One tub of warm water for wetting and lathering in Dawn.  Wow O Wow how the water surface was covered in dead fleas and ticks while the dirt sank to the bottom. My how she howled!

Then she was rinsed in another tub of warm water. It browned immediately with more dirt and more fleas and ticks. Dead. Amazing stuff that Dawn.

Across the days and months from then until now, she had more shots, was spayed, and got to know her home, and me and the few visitors we have every so often.

Each and every day she has made me laugh. There is a reason cat videos get watched two million times an hour. She has made me calm. My heart has swelled with Love. Every day she shows me some something that reminds of an immensity

Every day she shows me some something that reminds of an immensity of the Cat’s intellect.  The encyclopaedias report that the most average of average cats has two hundred million olfactory cells so it would go on to reason that there must be an intellect to go with that nose’s ability.

When Grace sees that I am about to leave, she hops into the seat of a chair near the door. Her tail is wrapped around her paws, and in one smooth move she stretches up and tips her nose as if seeking a scent. I bend and briefly we touch noses.

The heart swell from that nose bump will last until the next time we see one another.