When you spend your time alone (or work at home), you have no reflections, no mirror or validation from others.
We may not even realize how important it is to your equilibrium to have people - and successful dealings with them - to let you know you are alive. And functioning.
A trip to the grocery can stretch out as you smile at and make comments to other shoppers. You may even find yourself asking the workers the locations of things you don't really need.
When your spouse gets home from work, you can't wait to spew the thousands of saved up words. To see the expressions of awe or gratitude, agreement or doubt; emotions to reflect your own feelings and experiences.
I love my time in the quiet house to write, to do my computer work, to contemplate. Yet sometimes, I feel like the child who calls out in the dark and gets no answer.
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Change
You want change? Then change!
Change yourself!
This country is made up of people like you and me and the government is not the agent of change regardless of what you have been sold.
Change yourself!
This country is made up of people like you and me and the government is not the agent of change regardless of what you have been sold.
What Value a Life?
We human beings are so temporary, so fragile, so transitory in this life. In the past few years, at my age, I've known too many who've died.
Today, I think of my stepfather who married my mother 46 years ago. I sit in his house and see the things he's left behind; things that evoke memories of other times and things that had meaning to him. I see objects that represent his interests and his values.
I have to wonder, like the song, "Is that all there is?"
No, these things cannot be all there is to stand as testament to a life that spanned seventy-one years. If nothing else, they are even more transitory; these things will have to be given their own final resting place. My own widowhood has taught me that you must eventually dispose of them or they become like an extra set of clothes worn over your own.
A very few people will leave a large mark on the world when they leave. Heroes and statesmen; the famous and infamous, may be recorded as having an impact. For most of us, however, our legacy will be the lives we touch daily and directly. Our value will be to the people we encounter, the ways in which we change their lives and the memories we leave behind .
(Note: my stepfather gave us many wonderful good times, took very good care of my mother and left her financially independent. He served his country for 20+ years; had many, many hobbies; and, unknown to most, wrote some pretty good poetry.)
2006
Today, I think of my stepfather who married my mother 46 years ago. I sit in his house and see the things he's left behind; things that evoke memories of other times and things that had meaning to him. I see objects that represent his interests and his values.
I have to wonder, like the song, "Is that all there is?"
No, these things cannot be all there is to stand as testament to a life that spanned seventy-one years. If nothing else, they are even more transitory; these things will have to be given their own final resting place. My own widowhood has taught me that you must eventually dispose of them or they become like an extra set of clothes worn over your own.
A very few people will leave a large mark on the world when they leave. Heroes and statesmen; the famous and infamous, may be recorded as having an impact. For most of us, however, our legacy will be the lives we touch daily and directly. Our value will be to the people we encounter, the ways in which we change their lives and the memories we leave behind .
(Note: my stepfather gave us many wonderful good times, took very good care of my mother and left her financially independent. He served his country for 20+ years; had many, many hobbies; and, unknown to most, wrote some pretty good poetry.)
2006
Unconscious?
Driving in the rain without lights
Pulling in front of other cars without checking to see how fast they are approaching
Hurting someone's feelings without noticing
Not cleaning until the mess is overwhelming
Talking so loud that everyone can hear
Tracking in mud
Making rules that hurt the business
Forgetting people's birthdays
Not voting
Agreeing when you don't know the ramifications
Never wondering about the source of the information
Pulling in front of other cars without checking to see how fast they are approaching
Hurting someone's feelings without noticing
Not cleaning until the mess is overwhelming
Talking so loud that everyone can hear
Tracking in mud
Making rules that hurt the business
Forgetting people's birthdays
Not voting
Agreeing when you don't know the ramifications
Never wondering about the source of the information
Nothing Out of Place
I have GOT to have a place for everything. Could that be because there is so much Everything that it must be catalogued? Maybe. Maybe not.
I just had an epiphany! I spend an inordinate amount of time every day putting things back in their place. Ooh, what a concept, "place".
Come on now, ladies, don't you automatically put things away every day, too? Men, with their compartments, probably don't even see any objects out of place. Many don't even see what they are looking for when it is right in front of them. (Sexist remark, I'm sure, but it has borne out with every male I've encountered. But, that's another topic altogether.)
Just plain old walking through engages peripheral vision and the stuff that is not where it belongs such as a piece of clothing, drinking glasses, junk mail, project goodies, receipts to be filed - catches my eye. Yells at me.
It is a seemingly small deal in the larger scheme of things yet that "inordinate amount of time" is when the activity gets your attention.
I don't have a houseful of kids on a daily basis anymore and my husband is not particularly messy. Quite clean, in fact.
I think my sense of well-being is attached to living in order. I can better focus on what's needful outside of my realm when nothing at home is calling for my attention.
I just had an epiphany! I spend an inordinate amount of time every day putting things back in their place. Ooh, what a concept, "place".
Come on now, ladies, don't you automatically put things away every day, too? Men, with their compartments, probably don't even see any objects out of place. Many don't even see what they are looking for when it is right in front of them. (Sexist remark, I'm sure, but it has borne out with every male I've encountered. But, that's another topic altogether.)
Just plain old walking through engages peripheral vision and the stuff that is not where it belongs such as a piece of clothing, drinking glasses, junk mail, project goodies, receipts to be filed - catches my eye. Yells at me.
It is a seemingly small deal in the larger scheme of things yet that "inordinate amount of time" is when the activity gets your attention.
I don't have a houseful of kids on a daily basis anymore and my husband is not particularly messy. Quite clean, in fact.
I think my sense of well-being is attached to living in order. I can better focus on what's needful outside of my realm when nothing at home is calling for my attention.
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