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!!

Tell Me a Christmas Story?

You never know what you’re going to find at the library.  Stick with me, it's worth it... I recently checked out a book called The Solstice Evergreen: History, Folklore, and Origins of the Christmas Tree, by Sheryl Karas. (1)  It has been quite an enjoyable read!  My favorite story is a little gem called ‘The Two Pine Cones’.  The story comes from from Finland.  

Photo by Me and used with my own permission

The tale is seasonally appropriate and would be lovely to share with any miserly type one may come across *cough* Mr. Trump *cough*.  Perhaps he can find some young apprentice to read it aloud to him.  

And it summarizes a bit like this… 

An old weary traveling wizard needs a place to rest for the night.  He passes a small log hut thinking to himself that he couldn’t possibly ask the poor family for anything, since they have so little for themselves.  He proceeds to a large ‘well-kept’ home instead and knocks on the door.  He is insulted, threatened, and turned away.  He returns to the log hut to humbly ask for a place to sleep.  He is invited in, fed, and given the only bed in the household.  To repay the kindness the next morning, the wizard gives the woman of the house a pine cone, telling her it will help her prosper in her first task of the day.  The woman’s first task is to measure the linen she had woven the day before.  It took her three days to measure all she had, as it kept multiplying.  She had enough to last the rest of their lives.  

The story of the poor family’s luck spread and the well-to-do family anxiously awaited the wizard’s return.  When he did in fact pass through town again, the rich family invited him in and treated him luxuriously.  In the morning, he offered a pine cone in gratitude and the woman of the house accepted it.  Her plan was to count her coin purse and reap the magic benefits.  Unfortunately, she sneezed first, and went to retrieve her handkerchief.  She spent the next three days sneezing and running to her handkerchief.  

Bless you, Mr. Trump, if you get my meaning…  And a Merry Xmas to the rest of us!

(1) Karas, Sheryl. The Solstice Evergreen: History, Folklore, and Origins of the Christmas Tree. Boulder Creek, CA: Aslan Pub., 1991. Print.

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!

Why?

Why...

Gig Bless Us, Every One...

Image courtesy of geralt at Pixabay.com

Once upon a time 

I traveled store to store.  Nowadays I one stop shop:  veggies aisle one, curtains aisle four.

When I lost my way I'd consult giant maps, which I never could fold, only wad in my lap.  

Now I can make calls or send texts, while I drive

Multitasking technology keeps me alive.

When I get where I'm going the car does its own parking.

It charges and self navigates each embarking.

If I get home late and it's past dinner time, I just send emoji and pizza is mine!

What's on tv I never need know, because magic devices record all my shows.  

For every desire there's most surely an app

All our wishes, whims, wants with simply a tap

Instant gratification is our new motto

With the time we're all saving, Oh the places we'll go!

I'd like to go camping but there's no wifi 

What good are pictures of a brilliant night sky

If I cannot tweet them or share them for likes?

No Snapchat of marshmallows?  Seems a bit trite.

Off I must go, I've no more time for typing.  While I'm writing this poem, I could be off Skyping.

Thank the batteries and chargers that make my life happen

And may gigs bless this grid we've so foolishly fastened.

A poem by Gen Clever

How Do I Get My Happy Back?

Image courtesy of PixArc at Pixabay.com

Stressful day at work?  Loved ones struggling at the moment?  Financial woes?  Another shooting on the news?  Life is grand.  Sometimes life is a grand piano falling out of a third story window… towards your car… that you are still in, digging for change to feed the expired parking meter.  So what do you do to get your happy back?  Try doing yoga, or taking a walk.  Wait, what?  Seriously?  Let’s face it, those things require a certain amount of motivation and/or special pants.  But here are 5 dirt cheap easy things that maybe, just maybe will help you get back up:

1) Hug your dog.  I mean get down on the floor and really hug your dog.  My dog loves this.  I can tell by his top speed tail wagging, and hissquinty-with-pleasure gooey eyes.  Ahhhhhh…

2) Watch the movie that you and your best friend obsessed over as kids.  This is probably the same movie that you and your best friend still obsess over.  Pop some corn, melt your cares, or at least some butter.

3) Play a retro video game.  Super Mario Brothers comes to my mind.  Play whatever you like and/or have access to.  Turn up the volume and remember, buttons are for mashing!

4) Go outside and look up.  If it’s dark, find pictures in the stars.  If it’s cloudy, find pictures in the clouds.  If it’s both dark and cloudy, try out an app that will show you the stars you would see if it wasn’t.

5) Get crafty.  Cut out paper snowflakes.  Slice up a magazine and make a collage.  Get glue and glitter all over the place, and go to bed without cleaning it up.  That’s right!


The point is to change the scenery in your mind.  Stop the film reel in your head from playing the same scene over and over again.  Stop watching what happened.  Stop watching previews of what could or might happen later.  Turn off your mental picture show.  Step away from technology and electronics (except for that cloudy and dark scenario from number 4).  Breathe.  Put your stress in coat check and pick it up later.  Are you ready?  I’m asking…

Image courtesy of D Sharon Pruitt 

Are there SHARKS in these waters?!

Image courtesy of skeeze at Pixabay.com

What is it about sharks that fascinates us so?  I myself am not a surfer.  I don't own a boat.  I live two hours inland for Pete's sake.  And yet every year, Shark Week will conquer my DVR like Genghis Khan. Those Xmas movies I never got around to watching last year are about to be replaced by 'The Great White Serial Killer'.  No really, that's one of the shows this year.  It was captivating!

People watch a lot of murderous programming.  We certainly don't mind viewing the darker side of humanity from the safety of our living rooms.  Besides, they always catch the bad guy so we're safe to roam about the city.  But let's talk about sharks.  The planet is 70% water and we have devoted an entire week to scaring ourselves out of it.  That's morbid.

Image courtesy of alondav at Pixabay.com

Can we also talk about the divers that don't use shark cages?!  They built that cage for a reason.  They call it a shark cage for a reason.  You refusing to use it demonstrates a lack of reason.  And that my friends is called entertainment value.  Will he or won't he get eaten?

Might as well just pin a medal on that dorsal fin because the sharks always win.  When a pedestrian almost gets hit by a car, that's called a near miss and everyone goes on their merry way.  When some dumb lucky human successfully fends off a shark, the shark still wins because it will come back, only a bit more pissy.  Does anyone have a bigger boat I can borrow?  I'm asking...



http://www.discovery.com/tv-shows/shark-week/