Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Burden Or Benefit?


BURDEN OR BENEFIT?

Burden or benefit
With every step of this
What do I hope to achieve?

Burden or benefit
Sifting the layers back
What should stay, what must leave?

Decades of life I have lived out
Filling spaces
Physical, mental and soul
Each  clinging close to me
How to know which empowers me?
Which harm, limit, damage, extract toll?

I need to be clever, to grow
 
I'll discard some grievances
I'll release some belongings
While some items and memories I'll keep

Burden or benefit
As I sort and I ponder it
More possessions, guilt, grudges ~ released

Burden or benefit
As I choose and decide thru it
Perhaps it's 'life-sorting' I seek...

Copyright - Issy - June 18 2013



Friday, June 7, 2013

Whichever One You Feed

Thru my office window




There's little that's simple or easy or fair about life.
There's much that's wonderful, amazing, enjoyable about life.

Which is true?

I won't pretend that things (in general) are/have been easy
in these parts recently. Challenge is a constant companion.
So is hard work and optimism.
As the saying goes, things are seldom as bad as I fear nor as good as I hope.
Life is far worse for many others, better for many others.
Little point in even going down that comparative road.

There is joy here. Progress here. Warmth and laughter here.

Still....

Sometimes in the wee hours of the nite when fevers and worries flourish
I have to decide. Other times when things (or people) place unexpected
issues at my feet I have to decide. There are points in time when I'm tired, discouraged, generally pissed off frustrated and again I have to decide.

That is when I remember the legend of whichever you feed....
Attributed to ancient native american lore tho I've never been able to source if for certain. It's been a standard of sanity for me for most of my adult life.
Thought I'd share it - 

The legends tells of a young adult sitting in a field talking with his aged grandfather. The discussion wanders pleasantly and ultimately touches upon dealing with human emotions. Joy and sadness. Anger and kindness. Envy and contentment.  The elder likens these emotions to animals they both know well.  The wolf, the bear, the eagle, the hawk, the coyote. He points out that each of these animals, much like each human emotion, is profoundly clever and powerful. His grandson asks "if each is clever and each is powerful, which is the strongest grandfather"?
To which his grandfather replies "whichever one you feed".

In the darkness of nite, in the moments of frustration, in the times of contentment and satisfaction I remind myself it is always my decision what I will 'feed'. What I will give more strength and power. It's harder for any emotion you do not feed to sustain. Harder for it to overtake you. Difficult for it to control you. Conversely true is the fact that what you 'feed' will direct you, control you, own you and the direction of your life, step by step. Inch by inch.

You often do not choose nor invite the pieces that are the puzzle of your life into the frame of your days and nights. The successes and problems, joys and agonies, delights and difficulties are largely random.

Your initial reaction is human, unscripted.
But which you feed is your decision, your choice.

It's such a simple yet complex lesson. A lesson that never fails to help me. I seldom have control over situations. I neither have (nor want) control over other people's point of view. But I can control what I focus on (feed) and how I react and interact. Step by step and situation by situation I can choose.

Every day I strive to pay close attention to which I feed...

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

What does it take to save an old farm?

  In a lovely blog email someone asked me:
"Does it require more
*Time, *Patience, or  *Money 
to rehab/save/repair an old farm"?

Easy question, because there is a one word answer:
Yes!
(lol - the truth is it takes all of those in ever-changing  percentages) 
*and a bit of inherent or acquired insanity 
is a mighty helpful fourth to the 'what it takes'
list of requirements :-)


Monday, June 3, 2013

Comments (which I love!) but a small change

Hello everyone! Lots happening - it's that time of year, lol  Strawberries and peas and onions and radishes and flowers that need planting and thinning. Crazed weather. Continual alternating of  90s blazing sun (requiring water ing to avoid wilt then days later freeze (yes freeze) warnings. So it's run about wildly spreading cover and drape as much as possible to protect from freeze. Then the cycles repeat. Odd, annoying and it wears one out a bit lol. Set amid the standard day to day routine and it's left little time here, sadly. Hopefully it'll soon change....both this weather and my missing in blog-action.

One bit of news related to comments is that I have finally,  reluctantly stopped allowing anonymous comments. I've resisted with vigor. Yet the time has arrived for that to change for various reasons. I'll spare you (lol) my normal pontification regarding the whys and wherefores (maybe some other time). Suffice it to be said too much time is being consumed by spam based no-name-no-contact comments requiring  evaluation and ultimate clear or delete. And there are some anony commentors I'd really like to reply to as they are legit - I just have no way of even attempting to locate them.

I hope each of you who takes a moment (or many!) to comment know how VERY much your comments/thoughts mean to me. This change should impact most very little and I hope anyone who has commented sans any ID in the past will continue to comment even tho it will now require some declaration of a blog or contact. If you're one who's commented previously (logged in) and encounter any problems please let me know and I'll look into it right away. I know how frustrating it is attempt to comment and have the system or settings be uncooperative and I do not want to create a headache you when you comment.Thanks for understanding - or at least working with me - regarding this change. 

I hope to be back to posting a bit more along with some stories and lots and lots of pictures I've been taking to share here with you!

I also can't wait to catch up on all of your posts  :-)