Happiness Needs Hope

It may be very small things that go right

Search if you need to

But find some things

Find one thing

Find any reason to 

Give Hope 

To

Happiness....
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TRUTH #32

 It was true pre-corona, 

It will be true post-corona 

IT IS TRUE EVERY MOMENT OF EVERY DAY

Something to consider

A year or so ago I began to be concerned (and annoyed) when I frequently had headaches

 or commonly just felt 'off' 

 

Then I began to correlate it to the times I used various cleaning products.

I started to research 'old fashioned ways' of cleaning on the Internet and found a treasure trove!

As I migrated to nearly exclusive use of natural/non-toxic products the symptoms dissipated.

Then they disappeared all together.

(and I saved significantly on my shopping costs as a secondary bonus)

I didn't think a great deal more about the value (and far reaching impact) of these seemingly small changes in my cleaning routine and products common around the house until I noticed these articles:

In the NEW YORK TIMES by Diane Lewis is a physician and the founder of the Great Healthy Yard Project

and

In the Journal of Environmental Health Perspectives - 17 chemicals to avoid

I'm not (at all!) inclined to the 'chicken little/sky is falling' approach to life

but rather the 'do what is reasonable and live your life' approach to life.

Still, two facts stand tall - no doubt about it. Facts I share with you here, from my life:

1) I see a profound decrease in bees - they are in trouble (and science points to pesticides as an issue)

2) I have seen, currently see and fear for more cases of cancer than I even want to talk about say.

 

I know this isn't a happy, chirpy post, but I'd rather risk the down side of sharing such info *hopefully*

  you'll take a few moments to read these two articles and consider the possibility of using less (or no) chemicals in your home/garden/yard. 

Consider it for the bees, for the water, for your pets, for everything and everyone you love

Consider it for yourself....

If You Can Read This

 

This is interesting...

Tell me, could you read it?

Age, Social Security And AP

 

So lengthy the list, so many concerns that the world
holds to worry over...

 

The massive (and unexplained) right whale die off.
Perhaps only 500 remain.

(perhaps if we'd not allowed them to be whaled into near non-existence
as a society of humans they'd not now be imperiled)

An article published eight hours ago by AP exclaiming Social Security
and Medicare are quote: 'shifiting money from younger generations to older ones'

Perhaps it should be mentioned in the article just how many thousands of
dollars each working adult was obliged to pay into these programs
And now, much like a deposit bank account seek only to access those funds.
Not to live as royalty.
But to live modestly.
To avoid eating cat food
(did you know elders are one of the higher poverty groups)?

 

I wish the article would have mentioned that a large (and larger) portion
of each elders' Social Security payments are
dedicated to paying numerous taxes.

*school taxes (benefiting the young not the old)
*taxes for WIC and CHP (benefiting the young, not the old)

 

Monies that were deducted (from every single lifelong paycheck)
returned via Soc Sec payments pay county taxes and state taxes

for roadways, snow clearing, improvements
libraries, fire and police

Services that benefit young and older adults.
Some that benefit younger adults more.
Road use for example as non-retirees are on the roads more than retired adults.
Much of what Soc Sec payees continue to support with their small checks
assist young adults, building their lives, heading to work
shaping and living their lives as those, now older, did.

 

I deeply wish AP would have mentioned that those
who have reached the milestone of Soc Sec and Medicare
are simply (as promised) accessing  those funds
  demanded of them from a lifetime of paychecks.

The fact this current retiring generation is large means that
there is more need. It also means there was (for decade upon decade)
more taken in, gathered, collected, stockpiled than any other generation.
The math should work. We, the graying, had no control over how
the funds were managed, handled, invested, borrowed or otherwise controlled.

Getting older, being older, should not be a cause for blame.

We, inching our way closer to retirement who have done as demanded
paid and paid and paid. With the agreement it would be there for us at a
predetermined age. It shocks and wearies me to find AP (or any group)
pointing to the aging as the villains, harming the younger, by now being old.

Easy tho we are to 'blame'

 

These are the mornings, the days when I gather my camera and my thoughts

and walk among the trees and fields. The sprouting crops, the nesting birds.
The blooms.
 

No accusations are called out. The young animals move more quickly than the old.
Young mother cows, goats and birds feed their young. The older graze, looking on
now in a different phase of life.
Neither thinks itself better or worse, more or less of value.
They contentedly co-exist.

I love these acres, this farm, these truths.
The cycles of life are understood here.

No anger. 

Just each life taking its turn.

 

Every living thing grows older
Grows old
Grows weaker

Needs a bit of help

 

In animal nature, the younger of the herd, doesn't begrudge
the elders their share of green spring grass
or their spot in the shade of the trees in July.
Nor their place in the barn in the winter.
The elders don't blame the young that they will die
or become freezer food for winter. Or food bartered for firewood or
a tractor repair or seed or manure
for next spring.
 

How tragic it will be if that can not be said of humans. If the young and old do not each support the place in life that we both currently occupy without resentment.
 

In Patagonia they suspect that one of the reasons the right wales are dying
is because recently the gulls have taken to pecking (and consuming) the backs

of the right whales (adults and calves) when they rise for air.

There is no known reason the gulls do so. It's a new behavior.

There is enough food, enough space for the whales and the gulls according to
the marine biologists who study this cruel new gull behavior.

There is a proposition to kill the gulls

to save the right whale mothers and calves.

  

I worry. I hope.
For the right whales.

For the gulls.
For all ages of humans.

 

Right whales rise to breath air.
Gulls scavenge.
 Humans live a full life and grow older every day.
With luck we all do what nature intends and live a full life.

 

We're all part of the intertwined cycle.
Part of the circle.
None escape age.

 

I wish AP, journalists, communities, humans in general
would talk of and write about the entire journey of life.
Of compassion. Of seeking solutions rather than pitting
gulls against whales, young against old(er).

If only there were discussions regarding the full and entire truth.
Elder social support is essential because everyone is (eventually)
going to be older and move slower. Sleep more. See and hear less clearly.
Hope (and need) to step away from work
 (opening up a job for someone younger). 

There is a quote that says we are only as good, as worthwhile
as we treat animals, those in need, those weak, those young and helpless,

sick and infirm. To that I would add also, those of age.

 

Advanced age is a doorway each of you reading has walked thru
or is heading towards...
There is no sidestepping it.

Points to  ponder as we have the opportunity to influence
our government, our representatives.
Points to ponder as choices and votes on Soc Security and Medicare

are put forward. Decisions made now that will touch each of us.

  ~~~

Now I'm heading out with my camera to take some pictures
and find some peace.

 

Thanks for reading....

 

She Wondered

 

 

When she was eight, she'd wander down to the barn
And under the Summer sky she wondered
Of which is there more.....
Happy or Sad?

 

 

When she was twelve, she wondered
Of which is there more
Challenge or Ease?

 

 

When she was sixteen she wondered
Of which is there more
Pleasure or pain?

 

When she was twenty she wondered
Which was stronger....

Cruelty or kindness?

 

At thirty, she wondered (often)

Which was rewarded....
Honor or deceit?

 

At forty, she pondered
The meaning of life
The paths she'd chosen

(and the ones she hadn't)

 

By fifty she wondered
How she's arrived

Where she found herself

 

By sixty, seventy and eighty

Her hair grey, her stature shortened
Her heart weary ~ but full ~
She now spent her days knowing
There were no right nor wrong answers

No correct paths

No love unworthy of the pain of loss

No challenge unworthy of effort

 

She smiled to herself as she realized
She'd had all the answers at eight

There are happy days
There are sad days

 

There is it turned out
(all wondering aside)

Just the living of your life...

(Text by Issy Copyright 2013)

 

Ain't it the truth?

  Again and again I am reminded

of one of the simple complexities

that is the key to living life well:

"Some luck lies
 in not getting
what you thought you wanted
but getting what you have,
which once you have got it
you may be smart enough to see
 is what you would have wanted
had you known". 

Garrison Keillor

OR

As the Rolling Stones lyrics wisely mention  :-)

'You can't always get what you want,
no, you can't always get what you want
but if you try sometimes
 you just might find,
you get what you need'

IT'S A GREAT LIFE (if you don't read forwards lol)

 There are days when I wonder why I am (not if I am lol) so neurotic...

The news did its part till I simply stopped watching it. No weather alert app either!

I'm decluttering (well, sort of - for me anyway). Love love LOVE my things, but
I'm far more discerning in regard to what stays and what's allowed in (well, mostly) :-)

Then the other day I discovered another culprit of anxiety - the 'warning' emails.
I know in my heart, mind and soul they are sent with the best of intentions - but
as I was weeding thru my emails I was amazed to see all the beware in my in-box! (I think I could hear Robbi the robot chanting 'danger Will Robinson, DANGER')***

Here are a few of my favorites as I was deleting my way thru them:
1) No lemon slices in my water/tea - worry over bacteria on the lemons
2) No sitting on any hotel bedspreads - when were they (ever) washed????
3) No handshaking with drivers - seems some pick nose when driving.
4) No touching the bottom of any purse! Could've sat on a public toilet floor.
5) No licking envelopes, and wipe all food cans! Rat poo in the glue & on cans.
6) No deodorants? (not going without, but now I worry, lol) possible carcinogen.
7) No longer do I chug a cold Coca Cola without thinking it removes toilet stains.
8) No more cling wrap in the microwave-causes seven kinds of cancer.
9) No using a public toilet - a big snake could be under the seat and bite my butt.
10) My favorite? If I don't tell at least 500,000 people all these things (via email forward) in 46.2 minutes a pigeon with diarrhea will hover over me at noon tomorrow afternoon and not only poo on me but also deposit the fleas from 120 alpachas on my body giving me Lyme disease.

Sigh......

THIS JUST IN! 

Keep your toothbrush in the kitchen because email says

that toilet water splashes six feet from the toilet.

 

~~~~

To be honest, some of what comes via email
in fact some of these above :-) are worth considering.
But for sure too much 'careful' can kill ya (from worry)
just as surely as not being careful will, lol

 

So tell me, what's you're favorite 'email-forwarded-be-careful' alert?

 

 

Thankfulness And Expectations

Thanksgiving.
The word, the concept and the holiday.
Each are seemingly straightforward (one would think).
One would be wrong.

Because amid the gray Thursdays, black Fridays, cyber Mondays and Plaid Saturdays
I put forward the possibility that we've grown a bit lost. And not only on
holiday-shopping-extravaganza-days....

 

There's no part of me that doesn't enjoy shopping, lol
For food or fun or vintage or material or (fill in the blank, lol)

And yet....and yet...

I can't escape the sound of chewing upon on the edge of my mind that says
"what about what you already HAVE"?

 

It seems endemic that the moment we 'have it' (whatever it may be)

it's counted as a given, irrevocable, permanent. No need to be

thankful for things one already possesses...Or is there?

Isn't that one of the foundation stones of Thanksgiving? Of life?

 

Life has shared with me that one of her profound truths is the transitory nature of everything.

Life itself, possessions, dreams, hopes, failure, success, power, health, weakness.
All things change, alter.
Yet it's so common within our society to expect what we have will remain the same.

One of the astounding, ever-present, beautiful and 'oft distressing aspects
of farm life is the dynamic day to day illustration precisely how life alters, changes.

Crops grow. Crops fail. Animals live and die. Hawks soar, animals they overfly become dinner. Winter snow and Summer rains become water in the well to sustain life for all on the farm.

 

There are times things go wrong. Things change.

Not enough water, not enough sun. Animal illness. Human illness. Insufficient firewood. It's perhaps easier to remain in touch here on this land,  depending upon nature and chance to see the truth that food, warmth, ease and contentment are not a 'given', not secured. Not permanent. Not by any amount of work or money or intention or hope. There are times things go wrong.

 

Those thoughts, the realities that I see all thru the year instigated the chewing, the wondering at the edges of my mind if it isn't important on Thanksgiving (and every day) to be thankful for the things we oh-so-casually are inclined to think of as permanent.

Because permanent is a word and an illusion, but is rarely if ever a truth or a fact.

 

I have never been desperately hungry or cold.
I have never been without decent clothing.

I have never been without a shower or tub.

I've never faced war or personal violence.

I have, thus far, had more to be thankful for

 than I tend to think of as often or deeply as I should.
I shouldn't think of any of these (or my other comforts and joys)
as permanent, as irrevokable as unchangeable, should I?

 

What I desire, what I seek can overshadow or eclipse

what I have if I don't pay attention.

 

Hey, I don't believe gray, black, cyber and plaid days can't coexist with thankfulness. I simply plan to remind myself things are not the foundation of Thanksgiving, nor of happiness, nor of life.

 

On All Hallows, Always

Each Hallows of my life

I shall stand for a moment, silently, amid the power of nature
And acknowledge her wisdom ~ respect her power.

 

Each Hollows my heart beats
I shall pause, remembering with honor, my ancestors.
Their lessons thru the ages, now mine,
As mine will  pass one day into the future.

Each hollows that I again gaze upon the last October night
The full and perfect moon above, icon of magic and mystery
I will marvel at things known only to those of ancient ways

 

Each Hallows as the earth gives the last of her gifts
Turning towards her harsher, harder side

Until she brings Spring again
I will pause

Pause to remember, to celebrate, to understand that I am 

One single thread within the fabric of time.

Within the ancient traditions

Of earth and sky, fire and water.
Charged with the gift of another year
Of striving. Learning. Sowing kindness.

Until Samhain arrives upon the calendar of days once again.
And once again I am reminded of precisely
How important ~ and unimportant ~ I am ~ amid it all
Single thread in the fabric that I am...