Cats are very aware of their surroundings. Put an open box in the room and invariably one will hop in it. If it is big enough, you may find two or three cats in it. Put a new chair in the dining room a cat will, also, jump on top of it. Any physical change in the room the cats become immediately aware of it and have to investigate it and explore it. Put a bag on the floor and one eventually finds it and goes inside it. Cats are always found in the oddest places.

 

If we are not our brother’s keeper continue to house most of the mentally ill in jails. After all, who cares if they get put in isolation wards when they misbehave there. So that is a form of torture. They usually are put on the cheapest medications not always the proper ones. Families are being destroyed not to say anything of the individuals there. I am sure the suicide rate is high.

I saw this coming decades ago when the states started closing down their state hospitals. The money did not follow into community services but just “evaporated”. Hospitalizations are very expensive. Partials are very cost effective. There is no way a person can be stabilized in a few days. At least in a partial you can be monitored over a long period of time. The therapeutic level of a psychotropic medication is often one to two weeks.

Are we our brother’s keeper? Yes! Yes! We are commanded to take care of the weak, the infirm, those in poverty and the mentally ill. We can not turn our heads to them. Each individual must do his/her part to alleviate their suffering. Our society has become so far away from that. So do your part no matter the role you take. It is never too late to start.

 

 

The red bellied woodpecker was back.  When the grackles took over, they disappeared.  After I figured out how to discourage them, the downy woodpeckers returned.  It has been several months since I last saw the larger woodpecker come to feed on my suet cakes.  I could never figure out why they call this bird a red bellied woodpecker.  The red markings are on its head not its belly but in back of their head.  Anyway, I was thrilled to see one today and hope it comes back.

 

I made sure the turtle made it to the other side.  I almost ran over it.  It was on the right side of the road.  I decided to turn around after driving an hundred feet.  It had walked a little further towards the center of the road.  It was about a five inch long box turtle.  I grabbed it and carried it safely to the other side of the road.  It stood motionless for about sixty seconds, decided it was safe and disappeared into the undergrowth.

 

Such diversity in our world.  An example is the black-eyed Susan.  They come up every year–in different spots in our yard.  They seed themselves.  They are fighting for space with other weeds.  If you look at one bed, the flowers are at different heights and even at different angles.  I love looking at them.  The flowers last a long time–weeks in fact.  They come up a little later in the season.  Every year I await them and they never fail to please me.

 

I like wearing out my clothing.  I have a favorite tee shirt that has holes in it.  I want to wear it until I can’t any longer.  I remember my friend giving me a hard time for my tee shirt had some holes in it.  I really don’t care but he did.  I had to remember he worked his whole life for one company as an engineer.  He simply threw out clothing that had holes in it.  He never lacked for money.  I am torn between being concerned about what other people will think and simply being comfortable.

 

 

“Noah’s Ark” was gone.  It was a big boat, over forty feet long — really a small yacht — that sat, raised up high on a platform, in a meadow at the crest of a hill.  We passed it every time we drove home from town.  I started calling the boat “Noah’s Ark”.  It was a landmark.  I have lived in this town ten years and my wife even longer, and she always remembered that boat sitting there.  It stood, surrounded by high weeds, for years–maybe several decades.  She told me that the owner and his family had at one time lived in it, down in Florida.  He died recently.  Now The Ark was gone.  I wonder what will happen to it.

 

It Is So Easy To Take Your Blessings For Granted

January 25, 2012

It is so easy to take your blessings for granted.  Today I was grateful I could also buy some bananas along with a gallon of milk.  It is near the end of the month and we are running out of cash.  I was grateful I could buy what I could.  It is always revealing what you would buy if you are down to your last dollar.  It is so easy to take your blessings for granted.  God owns everything.  I had to remind myself of that.

 

Pinball Machines and Inflation

December 17, 2011

I used to be addicted to playing pinball machines.  I would be coming home from collecting money from my paper route customers.  It was 42 cents for a week of newspaper delivery and many of my customers would give me two quarters and tell me to keep the change so I often would have a pocket full of change, particularly quarters.  Before I went home, I would often play pinball at the local candy store.  That is what you called them back in those days.  You know it was a long time ago.  Playing a game of pinball only cost a quarter.  And not only that you got five balls per game.  Today one game costs 50 cents and you only get three balls.  Inflation, indeed!  Of course the days of five balls per game and a quarter each game go back almost fifty years.  I am dating myself.  I, also, remember when gasoline was 33 cents a gallon.  All those days are long gone.  Of course, those days you made a whole lot less a week.  In 1970, I made an $100 a week and thought that was a lot.  Then tickets to the Fillmore East were $3.50, $4.50 and $5.50.  Those were the days.

 

‘Your window to the world might be your own front door.  Your shiniest day might come in the middle of the night.’  Two lines from the Blackhawk song “That’s Just About Right”.  I identify with those two lines.

I am not sure I will ever do any thing earthshaking.  Nor will I ever be the President or some CEO of a corporation.  I realize maybe what I do in my own backyard might be important.

Notoriety or fame is overrated.  I remember reading in Bob Dylan’s autobiography how he wanted fame early on and then got it and wished he didn’t have it.  He wanted his children to have a normal existence and they could not.

Some weirdo was always showing up on his doorsteps.  Anonymity is really a gift.  And the famous lose it.  Dylan bemoaned its loss.  And realized fame was not what it was cut out to be.

I will continue to do what the Lord has called me to do.  Whether or not others recognize it.  The words I write if they impact at least one person they served their purpose.  I will continue to reach out and love the people around me.

The words from this song remind me to continue writing for it still matters to me no matter how many people read it.  So I continue for I know I have to.

 

Love is everything.  Strip away everything from you–all your material wealth, your health.  That is all that remains–love.  And some people are so stingy with it.  You can not run out of love.

It comes from the Source–a bottomless pit known as the Almighty.  He never runs out of love to give.  If you continually tap the source, you will never run out of love.  There is not an finite amount.

Never give up a chance to love another.  This world is full of people who are starving for love, people who never had an ear to listen.

Never walk away when you could have given something valuable to another.  That is all any person remembers–how much they were loved by you.

It really does not matter how much money you made, or how many things you accumulated.   People always respond to genuineness–honesty and kindness.  That is all they remember from you.

You can never have too many friends or ever turn down a chance to make another friend.

That is all that remains when everything is stripped from you–love.  That is all people respond to and remember.  Love.  So be careless.  Scatter your love like Johnny Appleseed did his seeds all over the country.