It's Not the End but What is It?

There's a darkness settling in.

No matter how bright the sunrise or how beautiful the sunset, people are becoming more and more mean to one another. This is my recent observation and not inclusive of areas of the world where humans are behaving well toward one another, if there are any.

Is anyone else getting to the point when they feel they don't want to read anything on websites, especially comments, watch the news on television, or read a rare newspaper?

It's enough to make you question if you really heard or read what you just did? It isn't that the world has always been perfect until now. It isn't that it's just become bad in the last few months or years. I think I'm just noticing it with new eyes these days. Everyone has a 'chip' on their shoulder. Everyone seems to want to have someone 'lesser' than them in order to feel better about their lives. They aren't afraid to show it, either. Mostly, they show it from behind the anonymity of a keyboard on the Internet. Here in the States, they show it outright, upfront, and smack in the face of justice, fairness, kindness, and consideration of humanity. Oh, yeah. It's the same almost everywhere, now.

Tonight, I read the following comments about a college football player's television interview. First question is, how many people who are not professional speakers could get in front of cameras and, not nervously, express themselves at their best? Second, he has no more of an 'accent' than many of the Southern U.S. citizens do. Finally, this is a young man that is apologizing for poor behavior, not criminal, just poor judgment for which he is being appropriately punished by his university. Why the 'cruel' behavior? Why the direct insult of him AND every student entering college on a scholarship....on an athletic scholarship?

The comments were as follows:

Tom G X How is winston passing his classes lol

D.j. XXX

 

 

Troy XXXX What an illiterate ass hole he can barely speak English lol

D.j. XXX unfortunately thats 75% of college and NFL the only way these guys get into college is bc of their athletic ability not reading ability smh

Tom G XXX But only 1% of college quarterbacks 1% off the top 100 teams that is.

(This statement is incomprehensible without punctuation or context.)

Samantha XXX I couldn't help but yell at the tv while watching this....absolute idiot! Lol

Now, I'm not the designated Facebook Grammar Police and not taking on the role, permanently. But, if you look at the postings, which I included exactly as written, there seems to be a problem with grammar, punctuation, and writing skills that a child could point out.

As a line on Friends went, "Hello, Kettle, this is Pot. You're black.".

Another would be known as throwing rocks in your glass house.

Another would be pointing out the splinter in someone's eye while ignoring the plank in your own.

Another would be every time you point a finger at someone, three more are pointing right back at you.

I joke. I have a sense of humor. I'm guilty of having a sarcastic nature (which I'm working on!). I'm no angel. I do feel anger at insults and criticisms aimed at those who are not there to defend themselves. It is mean, harmful and shameful.

People don't like to discuss shame, though. We want to keep it inside and locked up. We ignore it like it doesn't exist but it's there and will pop-up when we least expect it.We all have experienced it and it's uncomfortable. It's very uncomfortable. Acknowledging our wrongs feels bad. It can feel worse than the shame, itself. However, it is a sign of growth and maturity to admit to it and to ask forgiveness. It's something to strive for, not ignore. It's what we need to teach our children. It makes us stronger, kinder people. It makes us see what we need from ourselves AND others. Forgiveness. And that brings Peace.

While we are all living on this planet, with technology that allows us to do and say whatever we want without regard to feelings of others, without accuracy or politeness, surely, we can be honest about who and what we are and what we think. Every thought that comes into our heads does not have to be put on the Internet. It doesn't have to be yelled in traffic. It doesn't have to be on our face to the person who 'looks' different or is dressed differently than we are. If it's unkind, then as it's said, keep it to yourself. I would say no one's interested but, apparently, that's not true as evidenced by the added comments above and in every Yahoo News story that comes out daily.

We may not all believe the same, live the same, or have the same experiences, but we can respect one another, still. Can't we?

 

Will Your Boaz See You?

I'm going to let someone else do the talking for this particular blog. Hope you don't mind.

 

 

 

I'm actually not sure there is more to say than what...and how, this lovely lady expresses it. Dephne Madyara (www.DephneMadyara.com) has taken it upon herself to do a series of video logs on YouTube based on a Book of the Bible and study and discuss it for the month of September. It's not a ploy to purchase anything, gain subscribers, or push ideas into anyone's head that they can't hear and understand.

I started watching her videos surfing for vain reasons regarding hair, beauty, and health. She has gorgeous hair, exudes beauty and is in good health. She spoke with common sense and knowledge, and, mostly Faith, which I appreciated. I became a subscriber.

I should explain that she is referring to the Book of Ruth from the Old Testament. Ruth, you see, was a non-Israelite woman married about 10 years into an Israelite family. Her father-in-law, husband, and brother-in-law all died, leaving no one to care for her and her mother-in-law, Naomi. Rather than be anywhere else or with anyone else, she chose to go with her mother-in-law to Naomi's former home of Bethlehem. She had accepted Naomi's God of Israel and provided for them both by working in the fields. I was blessed with a darling of a mother-in-law, so I can see this happening.

Ruth is working when Boaz, who turns out to be one of Naomi's relatives, notices her and inquires about her status as a damsel in the fields. One like her, you did not see in the fields, but married, or having a good time while waiting for marriage.You see, as this young woman, Dephne, explains in her video, Ruth had experienced her share of heartache, stresses, troubles, challenges, but it did not show. Her face was one of peace, not a reflection of the darkness and storms, she'd survived.

It is a true statement of how your face can reveal your life to others. We don't need to reveal every hardship on our faces to prove we have or had them, any more than while fasting we have to wear worn clothing, cover ourselves in ashes, and look pitiful! We walk around, at times, with anger or sadness, clearly written on our faces. Will your Boaz notice you like that and want to be around you? Most people will walk right by that! It's when one notices your Joy that people stop and wonder.

I used to hate it when people (men!) would tell me to not to look so mad, when I was just walking innocently down a street. It wasn't that I was angry. I just wasn't smiling at the time, maybe lost in a thought. Now, I find lots of reasons inside me and outward to smile, despite what may be happening in my life, and it's attractive to those who want to know WHY. I'm always willing to tell them why if they are willing to hear it. Most people I encounter already know it. God bless them! There is no insincerity about it and it is not fake in any manner. I choose peace and joy because I feel it. If I'm not feeling it, if I'm losing it for some reason, then I can usually find it again in a short time. Prayer definitely works! I like to think that although I have some horror stories that would put you under the blankets of your bed for days, it isn't visible. Want to know why? It's been left behind me. It is a gift of grace that enables this and I would love to see everyone experience it.

So, long story short (too late!), this 'mixed' marriage of Ruth's takes place after a series of issues are settled, and Ruth gave birth to Obed, father of Jesse, father of King David. Dephne will get to that later in the series, I'm sure. I encourage everyone to subscribe and see what other contemporary thoughts she has from such ancient inspired writings!

That's enough from me. Seriously, please listen to what Dephne says here as she makes wonderful points that many women (and a lot of men!) need to hear.

I did start off saying someone else was going to speak, didn't I? Oops!

Have a blessed week, All!



Here's MY Water Challenge!

Does anyone else think Corned Beef Hash smells like dog food?

Back to the smells again.

I have been such a good girl. Yesterday, I had my lovely fruit/green smoothie and a tasty cold veggie vegan soup for dinner.

This morning, corned beef hash and grits! (Please, no one ask me what a 'grit' is.)

The smell turned me off so much, I couldn't eat it. That's a first, People!

So, the plan tonight is zucchini spaghetti and tomato sauce. I get to use my new Spirooli! It's a contraption that makes spiral shapes, slices, etc. from vegetables and fruit. I wasn't going to buy it because I have NO room for any more appliances or kitchenware in my tiny kitchen. However, this called my name (it did!) from Bed, Bath, and Beyond's clearance bin. It was missing one blade for making chips (no biggie!) and cost me a whopping US$7.98. A employee even handed me a 20% discount coupon to use so it was even less. Color me happy!

It seems to be the latest thing to make "spaghetti" from anything besides spaghetti. That's intriguing to me. But then, I don't get out much.

I'm not too off-topic today. It occurred to me that there are so many vegans, vegetarians, gluten-haters, and more who are trying to make the foods they 'used' to eat from foods they are allowing themselves. Why? What is the point? I've tried fake bologna. Never again. There's fake beef in a can. I don't even want to imagine what that looks like (or smells like!). Tofu is big enough of a stretch, in my book.

Meanwhile, companies create colorless Frankenfoods, processed foods, and pseudo-foods that trick our bodies and minds into thinking they are real and we all starve and are malnourished. While we drop ice and water over our heads, others have no clean water to drink or to use for safe sanitation.

Downer? Yeah, it's meant to be.

Usually, to the average American the term "water shortage" brings to mind poor, dried out, drought-stricken areas in Africa and India and the "not my problem" and "why don't they move?" mentality. What is not known by many is that the water shortages include parts of Spain, Turkey, areas between Nebraska and Texas AND California. This should make us a little more concerned as it is closer to home, eh?

Still not convinced?

About 95% of our fresh water is underground. We use that water to drink, bathe, and flush. Even more of it is used in agriculture, oil and coal extraction (the two largest) and watering the multitude of grassy golf courses in places like Arizona (it's a DESERT!). I read that Mexico City is essentially sinking because of the water being pumped from it's foundation. Lake levels are decreasing and even disappearing. Rivers are slowing. Streams and creeks have dried up.

The farmers who previously over-pumped our groundwater from places like the Ogallala Aquifer (North America's largest)  got a clue and stopped irrigating their crops. They finally realized the rainfalls weren't keeping up. Ogallala is still being depleted at a rate of 12 Billion cubic meters per year, or more by the time you read this. We are safe from Keystone pipeline for now but there are others that have been making their way across for years now on the 'chance' of no or very little leakage or spills into the aquifer. This information is brought to you by the letter O. Oil companies and our government reassure us that we will never have a problem that threatens our water supply. (Anyone else see the fingers crossed behind them?) 

So, forgive me if I don't jump to the Ice Water challenge which has pervaded our sense of common decency and murdered the phrase, "Waste not, want not". Forgive me if I scoff at the latest diet's bandwagon of intermittent fasting, trying not to eat 2 days per week and feed on the other 5. Try not eating for 5, as many do weekly.

Not eat? Have you lost your mind? I'll starve!

No, you won't.

The human body can go long periods without food but only 3-4 days, typically, without water.

Please consider this the next time the water runs while you turn your back on it in the kitchen, while brushing your teeth, or when there's a drip in your sink or a toilet that 'runs' constantly. Fix it. Think of it when over-watering your lawn...maybe give desert landscaping a shot. Are you pouring out that water bottle your kid didn't finish or that thermal cooler that held the drinks at the party? Water the plants. Lastly, does that shower really need to take that long? There are many ways we can look to avoid wasting what is desperately valued in other places on Earth today.

Let's look for them. Make it a challenge.

And, now that I have sounded the alarm.....

Yes, of course, if you've been following this blog, you know I'm doing the 5:2 'dealio' but keeping others and our planet in mind and using the 2 fast days as prayer days for us all.

Happy Back-to-School Days for the young 'uns! Wishing them all a good and safe year!


 

Smell it Again, Sam!

The scent of butter melting in a pan makes me picture my father making breakfasts of scrambled eggs or French toast.

The scent of butter melting on pasta and I see my maternal grandmother in her kitchen.

The scent of bacon and coffee and it's my maternal grandfather leaning across the kitchen sink looking out the kitchen window waiting for his 'lunch' to be done. He worked nights at a steel mill.

The scent of a baby's head and I get teary thinking about my little one as an infant.

The scent of Chanel No. 5 is my mother's purse as a child and watching her dress prettily to go out.

I can't walk into a hospital and smell that atmosphere without recalling my many stays.

The scent and look of a can of corned beef hash and I see my grandfather, again. This time, he's feeding his dog, King, a can of dog food. Ugh.

They can't all be pleasant memories. Just memories.

And, in writing this, I realize a lot of them are food-memories based on smell. This has to do with the amygdala, I guess. Or with the fact that I'm a foodie to my heart!

"The amygdala is an almond shaped mass of nuclei located deep within the temporal lobe of the brain. It is a limbic system structure that is involved in many of our emotions and motivations, particularly those that are related to survival. The amygdala is involved in the processing of emotions such as fear, anger and pleasure. The amygdala is also responsible for determining what memories are stored and where the memories are stored in the brain. It is thought that this determination is based on how huge an emotional response an event invokes."

I just had to find an explanation for this morning.

I decided to treat myself to an old recipe of buttermilk pancakes this morning. Not on the diet. Not supposed to have it. Not caring. Not one whit. The butter hit the pan and I was zoomed back! It's a great feeling in that case. Where the dog food is concerned, not so much.

What was happening last night to me, then? I spent hours listening to old music. For each song I found, I was back in my father's apartment, rifling through his albums and finding old and new songs to enjoy. He worked nights, too, coincidentally. On his nights off, he'd DJ for parties. Yeah. I had the cool Dad all my girlfriends wanted to marry. I spent my preteen age listening to every funk, rock, jazz, blues, soul, and classical album I could find in his enormous collection. I'm grateful that I can 'tune' into YouTube and find, not all, but certainly a lot of them. 

I hear Lawrence Welk's voice on PBS and I'm lying on my grandparents living room floor watching the show with my grandmother in 'her' chair on a Saturday night.

I hear a bus and I'm with my big brother riding the No. 4/Cottage Grove bus from the Southside of Chicago to the end of the line at the main library on Randolph and Michigan Avenue to meet Mom for dinner and a movie (and comic books!) after work.

I hear a key in the lock and I jump slightly to put back what I'm not supposed to play with or have out. I'm an adult, for goodness sake!

If I hear an ice cream truck, fuhgedaboudit!

I see snow on television and remember freezing mornings trying to get to school or back home and the burning sensation of my feet and legs as they struggled to warm up again once I got indoors.

I see a large tree and I'm on their back porch wondering just how old that old apple tree actually is in the yard.

I see a clothesline and I'm transported back to using it for jumping Double-Dutch, even resorting to tying one end to the fence for my cousin to turn the rope for me so I could practice. I was goooood!

I straighten my hair occasionally with heat and the smell makes me jumpy. I keep thinking some woman is going to say, "Hold your ear!". Days in salons were NOT my favorite as a child.

I used to drink chocolate milk and have thoughts of being surrounded by my schoolmates in the cafeteria in the days of actual 'lunchrooms'. They've now been taken over by cafegymatoriums.

There's still something about the smell of ink, paper, books, the sound of kids playing, kids giving you your 'birthday licks' including one to grow on, the taste of Bazooka Joe bubble gum or a Chico-Stick or Payday candy bar, rubbing alcohol on a mosquito bite, the feel of the air on your hand hanging out of a window on a road trip, the scent of fresh cut grass and rolling around or running around in City parks, animal smells being school field trips, and all of it brings back memories. I need those memories. I need to know that it all happened. There may come a day when they are clearer than what happens daily. I rarely remember today if I ate and what!

I used to joke that there are entire blocks of life-years-that have been erased from my mind. It's just occurred to me that that's not completely true. Thank God!

Old memories aside, new ones are being created everyday. I hear my husband's vehicle pull up and my heart skips a beat. I smell him on his shirts. I have the photos, videos, memories of friends and family to keep me on target and fill in the blanks, too.

When you realize that as amazingly complicated as our bodies and minds are, we are able to pull it all together with the slightest hint given to our senses.

We are pretty cool creatures, aren't we?