spirit Sundays

 PLEASE please listen to this video

Eyes upward, Feet forward, and hearts Homeward.... the five legends

you know the right thing, you can check facts, you know what is wrong, and it's up to you to make decisions to do the right thing. 

there are always consequences

T is for Tuesday

 

 Tuesday.... "chooseday"  

we are required to make so many choices each hour, each day each year. Some of them are small... what to wear today? (I know whatever I choose will be too hot or cold) 

Which mug to drink your coffee or morning tea from? 

I was adopted as an infant into an existing family with  16 and 12 year old daughters, who got married early giving me faux siblings (their kids) to grow up with. My "niece" came to visit me once bringing her kids along. One morning I asked which mug she wanted with her breakfast coffee. 

She was incredulous saying what does it matter? who cares? 

I blinked... I care, I thought. I pick the one that suits me each time, why not? Why wouldn't you care? 

choice.... a blessing and an annoyance at times. Increasingly these days of home cooked meals, I'm asked what do you want for dinner? 

People chow, so I don't have to choose what to have. 

I am an artist by temperament. I make a meeeelion choices with each design. I like the choices. Often with fabric I can audition different patterns before committing to them but with painting it is more of a commitment since I use watercolors. Mostly I enjoy the process of making a decision on art. It is not life and death, it won't impact many people and I have to primarily make myself happy. 

I remember having to choose from the car I really wanted and the one that was practical and affordable. With some sacrifice I could afford both. My head and my spirit were at odds... and I wasn't sure what to do so I asked my older sister. She said, if you tossed a coin, and it came up the practical one, would you be upset? then pick the fun one and make it work! Someone else told me once, if you have two choices and go back and forth then likely they are both good, and either will work so stop dithering! 

My sister's husband once told me, most decisions aren't right or wrong... they just are choices. Once you make a choice, you take that road and live with it... accepting the good and bad that come with it. 

Hindsight isn't 20/20 it's an annoying little brother who says nyah nyah! you screwed up! It is best friends with regret, the hateful friend who makes you question your actions instead of reminding you that you're capable of handling the consequences. 

 

chooseday... it's Tuesday... and I choose to link up with T is for Tuesday because it's a nice group of people and I need niceness. My drink of choice this week is iced tea. It is always iced tea, I grew up in the South. I steep cinnamon tea bags, with decaf green tea bags, then make a quart of tea with filtered water to keep in the fridge. 

Now that I'm older, I can't have the amount of caffeine I used to consume hence the half and half, but we like tea at lunch. 

I can drink it from my little goblet because that makes me happy. 

tell me about the choices you are making today... let me get a glass of tea so I can relax and listen!

linking to  all seasons

Monday already?

 

don't look back!

I've been feeling a bit angry lately... too many stressors and lack of safety, groceries arriving out of their date from the store, people making noise just for the sake of it, heat, failing appliances, my cursor hops around the page at random so when I type it wreaks havoc around the computer,  modern technology being a brat...

So it's Monday, again.  Old patterns define Monday as the start to the week, just like January 1st is the start to a year, and September is the start of Fall and school. All very artificial in today's world. 

But, artificial or not, it's how I look at it, and I make lists of things to do this week.

 lowering expectations during scary times....

 

I would like to keep ahead of meal time... suddenly we're "hangry" and have to do all the prep work to make a meal... again... all day long. I do not love cooking, but enjoy eating, so as they say, "it is what it is" 

I'd like to create today, to paint in the style of Braque but using a very limited palette. To sew using my painted fabrics. To write a chapter in my novel or start Milo's mannars which has been in my head and needs writing. I'd like to walk several times today, and not have maskless people walk/run/bike/skateboard, right. up. to. us. 

I'd like to make turkey reuben sandwiches for lunch using the turkey that came yesterday with today's use by date on it. (whole food is not careful here) and to make potato salad out of the leftover boiled potatoes. I'd like to talk with a friend by phone so we both remember we are connected despite distance. 

This week, I want to climb the laundry mountain to victory! 

The floors need mopping, the fresh peaches are going bad, the dining room table is still covered in random stuff no one really knows what to do with. 

I realized I have several elephants collected or made over the years. I thought my love of elephants was recent, from youtube videos that keep me calm enough to carry on... but apparently not. I'd like to draw out an applique pattern to make my own elephant quilt, then bead it all over, and do handstitching on it. 

I am slogging through an ebook that is just okay. Life is short, there are many books to read and some of them can be safely downloaded into an ebook. It takes perseverance to find them and I am a slow reader at night, but I do have one I could switch to... why does that make me feel guilty? (more left undone I think) 

So here's to Monday, with it's lists and expectations, it's chance to start again. What's going on with you?

LINKING TO

https://comedy-plus.com/ Awe Mondays

T is for Tuesday really strong coffee tempered with cream...

 

 yesterday, a friend of mine and I talked by phone... and during the lively conversation, we talked a bit about age. I am not good at telling a person's age. I guess it doesn't mean too much to me... some young people are old, some older people are very young, and I tend to see character in someone's face rather than age. 

For that reason, and some others, I don't much like plastic surgery just to change yourself. I don't think big lips or a smaller nose make you look better. 

I think I might have always felt this way... I'm attracted to people who have passion for the arts, music and dance. 

They see beyond themselves. 

I thought about things I've done, stages I've gone through, how I felt when engulfed in those stages... and would have liked to tell my younger self to relax a bit. I came of age with some mighty fine people. People who cared about others, about human (and living things) rights. People with a passion to do good. I went to college originally to become a surgeon, but moved into social work. 

Passion. I also loved to dance, act, sing, paint, laugh, talk, and feel ocean breezes cooling my damp skin while walking along the shore. I liked palm trees and flamingos, cochina shells under my feet, the smell of coppertone lotion, the sounds of the Doobie Brothers playing on radios...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZLY2ht9iBM 

 They are still here, still passionate, still using their talents. I still hear them, and am transported back to my college days when I worried about a career path, about being too pudgy, about what to wear, about what people thought about me, about where I'd go when I grew wings.

I'm still me.

I've been through so much in life, made a lot of decisions that were neither good nor bad, just needed to be lived with... 

The 20-something girl who yelled at me last week, has no idea who I am, what I know, what experiences I've had... she feels like she is the whole world and should be the whole world. She yelled at me because her dog got out and chased us, and we told her to catch the dog. 

My country is confused right now... values are skewed.... real beauty is ignored,  and purpose is too. 

Is it possible to really look at other people and see them, not their lips or other unimportant bits, not their color or age, but them... the part of them that is real?

and remember to listen to the music....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etGV7D3hYoY

Linking to:

T stands for Tuesday...  

we are the world

I usually try to entertain and uplift but today I'm so sad.... please love others enough to save them... we are all important and worth saving

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f31dWK_BS9o

if you still don't believe this is a "big deal" just look at that baby in the video... sick and reaching out to be held in the hospital

if you can wear a mask in public, do it. Everyone can wear a mask in public.
if you can keep your distance from others, including family members who live in other places, do it.
You can TOO do it, yes you can,  as it's passed quickly from person to person and one never knows who a loved one has contacted.

If someone is coming toward you on the sidewalk, veer away don't just keep walking within one foot of them because you don't think you can get this. Or give it.
And stop making nasty comments at me while I veer away in my big game of frogger.

The virus is contagious days before symptoms start, that's so the virus can live and continue, it has a survival instinct too.

I've heard people say they are pro life but they are okay with thousands dying a day from this

I also know most people who come here, are doing all they can to help...

a robin in spring

Earth spinning on Mother Nature's finger

She hops along carrying a wad of tangled string.

She stops periodically to gain control of the mess, wadding it tighter in her mouth, not willing to lose a bit of the building material that would become her home. Hers and the babies to come.

Hopping over to the breakfast bar, she carefully puts down the wad pushing it into grass up to her knees, and pecking away she finds a juicy tidbit to have for breakfast. Hop hop hop to another place along the bar she grabs another worm.

Satisfied she has eaten the last of the food for the moment, she hops back to her string and picks it up. It has managed to unravel enough to swirl around her beak in the breeze. She pecks it back into a manageable ball and walks away from the woman watching her from inside the house.

More robins come to take her place at the worm cafe but they don't affect the watching human as much as the first one did. They are not juggling needs, they are not under pressure to build a safe haven in which to survive, they are merely eating.

Eating is also necessary but when several necessary needs pile up, it forces one to prioritize equal needs and possibly give some up in the crunch.

A great thinker came up with a needs hierachy for humans. Supporting all the rest, is breathing




I don't know why some people prefer to ignore facts about the threat among us, and insist on having things their way while endangering others.

I've heard this a lot lately,
 "We're all in this together"
It's earth day... a day we set aside to consider how to keep house.
To breathe, eat, have air and water we need to clean house.

Most animal groups rely on others to survive.
I've heard a lot of statistics lately, such as in Colorado we have documented nearly 500 deaths from covid in the last 3 months. Nearly 500 people were alive, all ages, most loved by someone.

Only 500... deaths... and many were unnecessary deaths. If people were encouraged to believe facts maybe they'd realize the only way to stop the deaths is to stay far away from the virus. People who have bumper stickers that say "pro life" must only mean pro fetus because I've heard them say, the dying were on their last legs anyway.  I've heard them say grandparents are expendable and should give up their lives to keep commerce going the way it was before. (I believe people are smart and will figure out new ways to provide a commercial service to the country)

At what point does life have no further purpose or meaning? How many deaths are acceptable? If we could stop the spread of this illness, why won't we? Are we really that selfish?

 Ironically the ones who blow off the deaths are also older....

Babies and children fare better in this particular pandemic but they are also dying. Yes they are. Young viral men who work in law enforcement and on ambulances are dying too. Are they valuable enough to get the attention of leaders? I imagine the wife of a young 30 year old who died because this virus attacked his lungs, knows the pandemic is real. The mother of a 16 year old who died yesterday is begging people to take this seriously.

So many people report not knowing how they got it. That's because it's spread so easily from someone who's infected but hasn't shown symptoms yet. Someone just in front of you running and panting as you go for a walk, someone who just handled the groceries before you got there, someone who is not wearing a mask because they mistakenly believed a leader who said this is just a hoax.

I am one who believes we all have purpose, and something to offer the world. I believe we are all tied to each other, and to the earth, and to other sentient beings.
I feel I still have something to offer in life.
I am also at the mercy of the ignorant ones who choose to believe this is not a real threat just an inconvenience.
Earth day.... The earth is here to support us if we work with it, and protect it and each other.

I say this not for the many people who are doing what they can to support each other, I say it in case one person might open their eyes to what is, and puts on a mask, or better yet stays home for now.