Thank You For Lettin' Me...

The world gets crazy.  Our brains get full of worry and what-ifs (ironically except for "what if I stopped worrying about what-ifs?").

Our blood pressure rises and before we know it we are starting our heavily caps locked social media posts with words like: 'RANT' or 'WARNING'.  Seems more like anti-social media at times...

What I'm trying to say is, we get caught up and we forget to say thank you.  I don't mean thank you as in 'please and'.  I mean we straight up forget or downright overlook the good stuff, which is just down wrong.  Am I right?

So, I'm going to say some thanks and hopefully you'll  see some of mine that apply to you too.

 Image courtesy of Felixco, Inc. at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Thank you for allowing a reasonable distance between your car and mine.
Thank you for letting me in front of you in line.
Thank you for picking up the phone.
Thank you for laughing at my awkward jokes.
Thank you for commenting on my post.
Thank you for the likes, shares, and pokes?
Thank you for accepting my pizza coupon that expired.
Thank you for the concern when I look tired.
Thank you for the extra napkins.  It's as if you knew what could happen!
Thank you for bringing chocolate candy.
Thank you for reading my rambling.
See how full of thanks we could be, 
Just by me seeing you and you seeing me?
Strange or familiar we're much the same
When we remove the busy and the pain.
Thanks for giving ourselves the chance
To see beyond our circumstance.


Happy New Year!!

How Many Parents Do You Really Have?

Image courtesy of supakitmod at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

You may think that most people have no more than two parents.  Could you possibly be wrong?  I'm asking...

Perhaps you have one or more voluntary parents.  What constitutes a voluntary parent you ask?

A voluntary parent is an adult that loves and nurtures a child (or a grown-up child) with which they share no blood relation.

They are adults that care for us out of compassion, rather than obligation.

Sometimes the voluntary parent holds a potentially meaningless title or prefix like ‘step’ or ‘in-law’.  These mean different things to different people and often require an explanation of the relationship. 

The voluntary parent does things without thanks and with acceptance of the fact that you’ll probably never send them a birthday card.

The voluntary parent can teach you a lot about yourself because they see you more objectively than perhaps the rest of your family does.

The voluntary parent rarely plays the guilt card.

You probably won’t become a duplicate of your voluntary parent as you age, but you will miss them fiercely between visits, sometimes even more than your ‘real’ parents.

The bonds between you and your voluntary parents are very special and cannot be broken by time or distance.

So here’s to the parents who are just as important as... your parents.  Here’s to the Steps, the Aunts and Uncles, and yes, the In-laws.  Thanks for the love, the laughs, and the lessons.  I cherish all of you.

I miss you, Dad!

What Don't You Know?

Image from page 317 of "The brain as an organ of mind" (1896) Identifier: brainasorganofmi00bast
 Title: The brain as an organ of mind Year: 1896 (1890s) Authors: Bastian, H. Charlton

Knowing something means nothing.  Sharing something means everything.  It takes two people to truly know something. This is because one person obtaining new knowledge changes nothing.  The magic happens when the carrier of the new knowledge or idea passes it on to another person.  

Every week I strive to post a new blog entry.  I do this in the hopes that one person laughs or two people learn.  Two heads are better than one, unless of course they share a body. Seriously though, how futile would a secret single person mission to Mars be?  How evil to cure yourself alone of an incurable disease?  Would we love Ben's ice cream if there was no Jerry?  

The one exception to this rule of course would be invisibility.  If one person discovered how to make themselves invisible, they could singularly affect the world.  However, if the discovery died with them, the impact would be significantly reduced. So you see, sharing is caring.

Image Courtesy of FreeMediaGoo.com

Invisibility aside, science, medicine, arts, and the humanities all require a second mind to be validated or even fully experienced.  If someone reinvents the wheel, they'd better share it with the rest of us or it means nothing.  We need each other - as a species.  That's my latest discovery.  Pass it on.