600 count sheets

Today I changed my sheets on my bed. This doesn’t seem like a big deal, but a few months ago I spent my discretionary money for new sheets. The 600 count ones that feel like silk. I sink into them like melted butter and fall fast asleep.

This would not be such a big deal if I expected to have such comfort. But since I have had my share of 200 count sheets, scratchy wool blankets or no mattress at all it is a real treat.

All my life I have been between poverty and the expectation of abundance. At times I have been so out of resources as to be sleeping in a tent on the side of the freeway. But, with always a since that there was something better I should have had.

I look back on the thunderstorm that drenched the tent forcing us out into the rain and the days wondering where I would be the next minute as a learning experience. Which, of course, it was, but did I need to learn to enjoy 600 count sheets by not having them? Maybe, I don’t know. But very often the lack didn’t let me enjoy the things I have at the time.

The since of expectation of abundance also made me envious of others that had more and ashamed of what I did have. This is a terrible predicament--half way in between and not happy with either.

But today I love my 600 count sheets, my garden that is makeshift chicken house of old fencing and used 2X4’s, and old wooden ladders painted bright orange, blue and purple and my house with the leaky roof, my dog that got fleas, my chickens that are not laying and that are sneezing, my trees that are dropping leaves all over the place and the beautiful pink fall flowers that are blooming in my bedroom doorway!

I barely can pay the price for this home, but while I have it I will enjoy the smell of the night blooming Jasmine, the sweet fragrance of the orange blossoms and the colors of the 40 roses that are scattered around my garden, the feel of the grass, and the smell of the rain. For today I will slip into my 600 count sheets and melt away to rest and dream of all the sweetness in my life right now, and let all the envy and contempt for not having, not doing, not living another life leave my soul.

I should have done this all along.

Berry Good Experience

Today I picked my first bowl of Marian Berries. I had been waiting for the day when the tiny green, then bigger pink, and then even bigger red berries would be a luscious black and today was the day.

I had been digging the trenches for another part of my watering system when I glanced up and saw the shiny bumps of the black berries sparkling in the morning sunlight. I went into the enclosure and picked one soft but firm fruit off the vine. And slowly put it onto my tongue. The berry was firm, smooth coldness in my mouth. The little balls of juice popped as I squished it with my tongue. The juice was first sour, then sweet, and then came the fragrance and flavor of flowers! What a treat!

I held out one hand and piled as many berries as I could hold, stopping to pick a few raspberries along the way. When I could not hold any more I carefully walked into the house, rinsed them off and put them in this bowl. I just happened to have some whipped cream I had bought in anticipation of the fruit harvest.

I love my garden!

Why I still watch Star Trek

Tear jerkers, cause proponents, emotional point makers, interferance with relationships, violent disrespectful relationships, violence, seduction, greed, avarice, covetousness, exploitation, murder, rape, fear mongering, you name it are all on TV 24/7.

It seems like no one has a good simple life with honorable friends and a good feeling about their life's work.

I don't like to be tearful for someone else's problems or joys. I have enough of both in my life. I don't like to be afraid, duped into thinking that my life is not good enough, or be exposed to murder, violence, sexual explicitness, etc...

Star Trek doesn't have these emotional effects on me. All the series were contemplative, realistic, and applicable to real life situations with the added effect of detachment. I don't mean that I live in space or want to. I would just like to think that there is a place for kindness, respect, honor and a since of duty to those around you. Is there?

I still watch Star Trek regularly and the movies too. Why? Because all the "Treks" have content I want to put in my mind and nothing much else does.

Today a 80 year old singer of old Celtic legends, Sean O'Duininn said:

"The only thing we have in this world is our way of thinking.

There is nothing stronger than our way of thinking."

What are "They" wanting you to be thinking by putting all that on TV?

Now, What do you have?

I have the Star Trek way of thinking. Thanks Roddenberry!

Behavioral Secrets

Definition: Confession is the telling of a secret behavior to another with the intention of wanting to change it.

Behavioral secrets stay with us

They run our lives

But confessed to another

Can be examined

And sometimes

Disappear in the light of the telling

"Confession is good for the Soul"

A few days ago I told a friend that I was having trouble keeping up with the dishes. I don't have a dishwasher and sometimes I just don't want to do them. It bothered me for months! Piling up until I just could not stand it. But since I told her I was having a problem with it, I have rinsed out the dishes and washed them as I use them.

Sometimes behavioral secrets disappear in the light of telling!

What Will You Do If you Don't?

Today is the precursor to tomorrow.

What if this Walnut tree did not bloom in the dead of winter? What if it said "I am too little; the best I can do is a few walnuts anyway. Why bother?!

Would I have these lovely little walnuts growing on it in June? Does it care if I may eat them or not? No, but the squirrels will, I am sure. The nut may even be planted by one industrious little squirrel thinking it will be a nice snack only to find later a small walnut tree instead of a good meal.
What if I did not plant a one foot thin little hedge in the front of my garden bed in 2005 with the sun beating down and the wind blowing and drying out this little parcel of my yard? I did not know if I would be here to see it, but what if I didn't plant it? What would I have now?

Would I have this lovely 5 foot hedge in 2010 protecting my vegies from the late afternoon wind and the beating summer sun? In 2005 I really did not know if I would be here in 2010 but I am AND SO IS MY HEDGE.

If I had just said "It's too hard. It's too much work. I don't like dirt anyway. I won't be here anyway." Or my little walnut had said "It's too cold! I don't have what I think I need to make fruit. Who cares if I make walnuts anyway?" Would I have a hedge or would my little walnut tree have great big walnuts on it?

If you don't do what is in front of you--school, home chores, learning how to take care of you body, or practicing things that are hard, scary, or one of the small steps toward a goal--you will not have the fruit tomorrow will you.

Will you?
Then what will you do? What will you have? Where will you go?

TODAY IS THE PRECURSOR TO TOMORROW!

USE TODAY WISELY

OR LOOSE THE BENEFIT TOMORROW!

How to never need to clean up your room.

First of all

DO THINGS RIGHT AWAY

It usually only takes a minute or two so... Don't put it off. If you do whatever it is just when it happens you will never need to go back and do it when you are busy doing something else.

These 2 rules pretty much sum it up:

1. Don't put it down, Put it away.

2. If it drops, Pick it up.

Rule # 1 Don't put it down, Put it away.

Cloths

As the dryer finishes fold the laundry

It will only take a few minutes each time the dryer stops and the cloths will not get wrinkled and pile up in a dozen baskets to be folded as you watch the 2 hour movie it takes to get it all folded. Taking that few minutes to put them away keeps it from being the daunting task at the end of an endless laundry cycle.

You will always have laundry, always! So, make it easy on yourself and do it a little at a time.

Take it off and...

put it in the laundry

this keeps the floor uncluttered and your room smelling good. The laundry room, well, that is another story.

put it folded in a drawer or on a shelf

Clean folded laundry will look nice when you come to ware it instead of all wrinkled up and messy. Don't put dirty cloths in there!

put it on a hanger or hook

Larger items like coats and jackets can pile up really fast because they are big, but if you hang them up they seem to disappear as well as dry if it has been raining. You will also know where they are--a bonus.

You will never hear "Go in there and clean up that mess!" because there never will be one!

Oh! Change your bed once a week. Put your sheets in the laundry. You sweat during the day and if you go more than a week without changing your bed your room smells like sweat and dirty socks. Yuck!

Dishes

Wash them as you finish using them. You would be surprised what a little water and a soapy sponge can do for your kitchen. If you don't put things in the sink, rinse them out then put them in the dishwasher it is so easy once a day to start it up and all you need to do is put them away. How simple is that!

Every day big meals will be cooked or a project will be made which sometimes means bigger a clean up job. But, if you rinse out things as you finish using them and put them in the dishwasher the cleanup will be almost done. Plus you will not have cross-contamination, germs, bacteria and other yucky stuff all over the nice food you just cooked. This will keep colds and flu from going from one person to the next too! How cool is that.

Rule #2 If it drops...

Pick it up

So many times we miss the trash, let a paper, a toy or just something dirty drop then just ignore it. Just pick it up and put it where it goes. You will never need to touch it again. (this is particularly nice when it is something really yucky.) No worries, guilt or someone yelling at you because you dropped your bike in back of the car and it is now SMASHED!

Wipe it up!

Spills are particularly dangerous. Wet stuff can cause slips and falls not to mention damage of the surface it falls on. Stains and mildew look and smell really bad. No one needs their house to look and smell like that!

Vacuum it up!

Sugar, flour, and other dry stuff can be slippery too. So just get out a broom, vacuum cleaner or mop and clear it up. It only takes a few minutes when it is all in one place, but wait an hour or two and the flour is all over the place and the whole house needs to be vacuumed!

If you learn these few rules you will only need to vacuum and dust once in a while because no matter how close you follow them dirt will come and it will need to be cleaned. But, you will never need to spend the whole day cleaning again!

Yesterday I found out why I do what I do

I have a friend who has taken years to get close to. She has been alone for years and finally had made a cognitive leap into her imagination to create a reality that is really different from any of the rest of us. She was unable to be touched. She took offence at the smallest things. She was combative. She was plain rude at times totally rejecting any sign that she was cared about. As I endured she began to soften.

It has taken years for her to expose her reality to me. As I validated her perspective, yet stayed separate from this construction, she became more and more friendly first finding ways to "take care of me" then just plain affectionate responses still not wanting to be touched however. One day a while ago she spontaneously hugged me. A surprise for sure, but a welcomed change in her.

Yesterday I saw her opening her perspective to a gift I made her. The look on her face of gratitude and genuine love was delightful and the best Christmas gift I could have gotten. Bless her heart--some hope has entered her world.

I have no intention of intruding on her, but because I endured her negative behavior, took her prospective seriously, accepted her ideas, trying to understand where she had developed the construct of her life and genuinely wanted to care about her anyway, She opened her heart to being loved. I am grateful that I did not give up.

It may seem at times, even to me, that who I am is a mistake, that what I think is so far out of step with what the world is doing now that I must be wrong, but yesterday I found out why I do what I do just by the look on her face.

Wow! Merry Christmas