A Carolina wren had made its nest in a pansy pot hanging from the garage door.  The nest faced the inside of the garage.  I spied the birds repeatedly getting and bringing pieces of suet to their young.  I stood below the nest and still could not hear the young.  A while back I had shined a flashlight into the nest and spotted three eggs in it.

Today when I opened the garage door I flushed two young wrens out of the nest and they half flew, half ran into my very disordered, cluttered garage.  Their parents were squawking very excitedly nearby.  I left the door open so eventually the two birds would find their way out.

I did see one bird against the far wall, then flapping near the entrance of the garage door.  I assumed it got out.

Then I had another encounter with another local denizen later on.  I could not understand why all of a sudden six cats were congregating near the computer.  Suddenly I spied a small mouse trying to evade their grasp.  scaredmouseI quickly trapped it with two sneakers and released it outside near the woods.  It must have been terrified for I checked the sneaker an hour later and it still was in there.  I encouraged it to run into the woods.  These were my two encounters with the creatures around my house.

Tilla

I had a major struggle with a bipolar disorder (then called manic-depression).  And there was a seven year period where I was out of control (until I was stabilized on lithium in 1972).  It took even (???) years until I was properly diagnosed.  I went through hell and pain.

I never tortured myself with the question, “Why?”  There are no answers to that.  Life is not fair.  Every one has varying success in overcoming their hurdles.

But if you start asking the question, “Why or Why me”, there will only be silence.  God allowed the devil to take away everything from Job (in the Old Testament) including his family, his possessions.

Eventually the devil gave up on him.  God restored Job and his health.  I am not saying that if you are ill God will do the same.  But if you look at yourself and rail at God for your station in life, it will only make your life harder.  And make those around you miserable.

Accept the things you have no control of, change the things you can and have the wisdom to know the difference (really a paraphrase of the serenity prayer).  Stop asking yourself the question why and just move on with your life.

There are many characters in our house.  I will mention a few.  We have a menagerie here:  eight cats and four dogs.  And each pet has a distinct personality.  Let us start off with one of the dogs, the oldest–“Pax”.

“Pax” is a rottweiler/boxer mix.  He is one intimidating dog–almost an hundred pounds–scary as all hell.  He is really a pussy cat–all bark and no bite.  He will run out into the yard and situate himself in the furthest right hand corner and bark at his neighbor who had the audacity to walk out into his yard which is directly across the street.

“Pax” is a scaredy cat.  We have to bring him to the vet when his ears need to be cleaned out; for they muzzle him there.  He is a baby as big as he is.  It is difficult giving him antibiotics to clear up his ear infection.  We have to fool him.  Give him something he likes like bread, put a pill in one slice and then keep coming with the slices so he has to swallow one before he can eat the next.

When we were down to one dog, “Sweetie”, a female golden retriever, entered our lives.  “Pax” wanted nothing to do with her (did I mention “Pax” is a he).  It was hilarious.  No matter how many times he growled at her, she threw herself on him over and over.  Sweetie is one happy go lucky dog.

We planned to get her fixed as soon as possible; but the worst possible scenario happened and you guessed it “Pax” impregnated “Sweetie”.

The day we were supposed to be at my sister’s house in Plymouth, Sweetie had seven pups on our bed no less.  One died and we sold four and I did not have the heart to separate the last two.  So “Atilla the Hun” (“Tilla” for short) and Coco entered our lives.

I have to say “Atilla The Hun” is not vicious by by (???) means but is aggressive:  If you throw four scraps of food at the feet of our four dogs, he will get three.  I call him “Atilla The Hun” because others laugh at that name.  He is really a sweet dog although he does not realize he is all of sixty-six pounds for he will sometimes try to snuggle on our laps.

There will be more about theses two pups and you will see why “Tilla” was originally named “Atilla The Hun”. In fact he may warrant an entire blog or more to relate his antics. (to be continued)

dogshappy2

What Gives Me Hope….

Author: siggy

It was a simple realization:  the only person I can change is me.  I have no control of others.  In this case my wife.  Things had become a little ragged between us.  There was too much tension between us.  Tempers flared too often.  And I wanted it back to the way it used to be.

And this popped into my head:  I have absolutely no control of my “other”.  I do have control of me.  And that gave me hope, that our situation would improve.

Telling my wife you did this or that wrong was futile.  I had to figure out what I could change in me, how I could react differently to her.

Steven R. Covey in one of his books explained you always have a split second to choose your reaction to another.  There is that space.  You do not just have to react.

All this gave me hope.  It really was under my control.  I can not change another (in this case my mate) but I can change me, I can change my reaction.  All this gave me hope.

The question posed by the title seems odd: it is a paraphrase from the book “Walden” by Henry David Thoreau. The exact quote states “We do not ride on the railroad; it rides upon us.”

This book was written over one hundred and fifty years ago. Thoreau later on the same page asks, “Why should we live with such hurry and waste of life?”

His statements are more apropos than ever. We live in a world of instant communication. A tragedy in a different part of the world thousands of miles away occurs and the news reports it right away.

If you go to a mall you would think the cell phones of teenagers are glued to their ears.

What Thoreau was asking was do we use the technology at our disposal usefully or does it control us. This question is more relevant than ever before today.

In the days of sophisticated cell phones (and computers) that can almost do anything you have to ask is it all necessary. Teenagers got along fifty years ago without cell phones (and parents still kept track of them).

Not too long ago I was in a car that was navigating by GPS and its directions were wrong and the driver almost did not believe I knew the right turn to make.

You have to wonder how much true communication is really taking place? I still prefer talking to others face to face. Yes, I will use a cell phone occasionally. Nevertheless it does not run my life.

Now every household has a computer, multiple cell phones, a microwave and all kinds of other technology. And I do not care that cell phones can almost do anything except dance.

Thoreau was really asking another question, also, the need to go faster and faster and no one asks the questions why is this speed so necessary and why do we want to go there. We can fly across continents quicker than ever before but so what.

The world has become smaller but not really. True communication is usually not instantaneous. The new technology has not really made this any easier. It only gives the illusion it is. And don’t be fooled. It takes commitment and effort to truly understand another human being.

One author stated that every time you criticize a person openly (or even in your self talk) you lessen your ability to love that person. Every time I read that or even think about that statement I balk.

We live in a society where criticism is openly stated. The only questions is how kindly it was done. Very rarely is praise openly given. More likely governments, leaders are openly torn apart.

Every move by our president, our leaders is examined and commented upon repeatedly often negatively. We have supposedly a free press yet at what expense?

Other governments, their population, are not allowed to express any comments even remotely critical of their leaders, government.

If you were to overhear the conversations of parents directed at their kids you would be flabbergasted how critical and demeaning their comments often are.

I far too often criticize my mate and do not listen properly. Listening is a form of love. It is all too easy to go on a tear on your mate.

So when I read those words that to criticize another lessens our ability to love that person I balked. I know I mentioned this but I will again: Phil Jackson (who has won nine NBA championships) did not turn around his career until he realized for every negative comment he made toward his players he had to make nine. (???)

Encouragement in our society does not occur often enough. There are two ways to look at it: one person can accent the positive things a person does or simply correct the mistakes another commits. It is far easier to tear down a person than build up that person.

I know how far I have to go before I properly love my wife (and my kids). Our society has a long way to go including me. Proper Encouragement (another form of love) can potentially revolutionize this world so think really hard before you criticize some one around you. I know I have to retool my thinking. Love is everything.

Fatigue Is A Gift

Author: siggy

Fatigue is a gift whether you realize it or not.  It is an indication you are human, that you have limitations.  It can be caused by not sleeping and eating properly, stress or illness or any combination thereof.

It has a set of causes and forces you to do something to rectify it.  It is not only no fun being tired but also it is very hard to be productive.  You are often not able to meet the demands of others adequately.

Fatigue forces you to acknowledge you have limitations and you have to observe them or pay the cost.  Often (though not all the time) you can correct your chronic fatigue by simply taking better care of yourself:  sleeping and eating properly often do wonders.

These are simple causes of fatigue.  Stress can, also, wear you down and cause havoc in your life.  Chronic fatigue can be a result.

Illness, of course, can be (???) factor and there is so much you can do about that but, nevertheless, not observing your limits can lower your resistance to mono, cold and the flu and I am sure this is only a short list.  All kinds of things.

Most of the time fatigue is a indicator you have to take care of yourself better so do not ignore it.  Everything in our life has a purpose even fatigue. So listen to your body.

If you want to truly like yourself, it always starts off with self-respect.  And you can not do that if you consistently do not enjoy yourself.  When in your own heart you do not do the things that you know you ought to do you lose self respect.

I have been there.  I know what that is like.  I have not always liked me.  Not that you can all the time.  If you want others to like you, first you have to like yourself.

And that starts by obeying that tiny voice only you can hear.  When you do the things that have to be done, then you gain greater respect of yourself.

At the same time we are creatures of pleasure.  We have to find joy in our lives, we have to every day do things that give us pleasure.  I can not tell you what they are but you know.

Life is one of balance.  Yes, each of us has obligations to our loved ones.  And our life can not be just that although you always have to fulfill the most important obligations in your life.

But still you have to find pleasure in what you do and that means doing at least a few things every day you enjoy.

All this produces self respect.  And like.  Violate your deepest self consistently and you will dislike yourself.  Respect who you are and you are more apt to like yourself and in turn others will like you more.  It always starts with you.

A person who loves you, a person you care about, always has the ability to make you angry.  If the reaction you have to something a person does is apathy, it is far more serious.  A marriage (or any other relationship) almost never makes it back from that.  It is usually finished at that point so if someone has the ability to make you angry it is a good thing:  it means you care about the person and the relationship is still alive and has hope.  Anger is always an indicator.  There is not something necessarily wrong with it so learn from it.

You can never run out of love.  You can become drained, physically tired and feel as if you have nothing more to give but those things are under your control.

The well to draw from is infinite.  Love is God.  As long as you continue to tap the source you will never run out of love to give to others.  The powers of the Almighty have no restraints.

I have to qualify that.  Jesus, God, Jehovah however you want to call Him gives us free will.  And that means sometimes our ability to love others is blocked.  But you can always return to the source.  It is always your choice.

There is no one way.  There is but there isn’t.  View your salvation with fear and trembling.  Those words straight out of the Bible indicate not one person can tell you exactly how to find the Master (and follow His will).

So many people try.  It is futile.  Somehow you need to listen to that tiny voice only you can hear.  Love is infinite.  And the Source’s powers are infinite so draw upon them.  Listen to your tiny voice so easily buried.

Humans are masters of deception.  I am not telling you what to believe but to seek Him.  He is the only source of true strength.  The only bottomless well to draw love from.  So seek Him.  You will never run out of love.