Category: accountable

The change is us!

by worrylessjourney, posted in accountable, choices, connections, control, friends, life changes, plan

What is it like when the day begins with no plans? Every day the same. Nothing going on. The sameness creates ennui…nothing creates the desire to do nothing. We have to learn a new way to live.

That is how I was feeling when I got up this morning. Then the light bulb lit up. It is nice outside. Why not have my knit group meet on my porch where we can distance ourselves?

We can talk and knit and discover what has been going on with each other. I am sure we all have stories to tell. So I called them and that is what we are going to do tomorrow morning. We will meet, have lunch, learn the news from each other and feel like life is somewhat normal.

Just sitting in the boredom was definitely not the answer. It was time to do something about it. We just have to do it ourselves and in a safe way because this is how we have to continue. Life goes on.

The life of dogs

by worrylessjourney, posted in accountable, animals, complacency, control, dogs

Like most dogs our two have interesting personalities. They definitely have minds of their own. Our female “Tillie” has decided that it would be a good idea to take pieces of her dry dog food and place them carefully on the rug next to my bed. Stepping on them unawares is not how I want to start my day.

The culprit and the rug

Our male dog “Crash” likes to go into the bathroom and pull down the towels from the towel rack and just leave them on the floor. I don’t know why this is so amusing but I guess it satisfies something that he longs for.

The towel and the culprit

Crash sleeps at night on the sofa and if we don’t remove one of the pillows that is in his way we get very dirty looks. Tillie sleeps in the bed and must have her own blanket to cover all but her head.

I am sure that our dogs rule the house. Everything must be done to assure their comfort. After all who is more important? Don’t they look innocent?

Violence is never the answer

by worrylessjourney, posted in accountable, consequences, decisions, fail, wisdom

The other night I caught the edge of some news. They were talking about somewhere that a protest was being held. Not us, another country. The protesters came out into the street and just stood. No words, no movement, nothing. Apparently people were stunned and paying attention. It was novel. It was different. It was non-violent. It piqued curiosity and questions and notice. It reminded me of the protests of Gandhi and Martin Luther King.

All this violence, robbery and chaos does not do the same thing. I was reminded of these quotes.

When will we ever learn?

Grief for the hatred

by worrylessjourney, posted in abuse, accountable, anger, grief, hatred

I am almost struck dumb by hearing about another incident with a black man. The first one was in a place I have been many times and had no idea what was under the surface. We suffer from blindness that must go away. Why is the hatred so strong? Have we not changed at all? I grew up with a father who lived out that everyone was created equal. He never tolerated looking down on anyone. He was much loved by all who knew him.

The daughter of one of my best friends (the friend sadly is no longer with us) is married to a Lakota Sioux. I have seen through her eyes and that of her family the same kind of selective justice that their people have suffered. It continues.

The Massacre at Wounded Knee

When will we being to see people as human beings….no different than us. Is it going to take DNA testing everyone to prove that in today’s world odds are we all have DNA in common?The world has become very small. Is it going to take invasion by aliens to make us see our commonality instead of our differences?

Surely this virus has made us see it is no respecter of persons. Everyone race, creed or color is at risk. Can we not move past the hatred? I grieve for those hurt recently and those hurt in the past. Not just here in our nation but in the whole world. We can’t seem to learn.

What is true and what is truth?

by worrylessjourney, posted in accountable, answers, belief, choices, comparisons, divided world, ideas, opinion, perspective

I was reading through my Quote Book (yes, I keep my favorite quotes in a journal) and starte thinking about this one.

In a time of universal deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act. George Orwell

What an amazing and true statement. I feel that we are living that right now. How much of what we hear is truth. Instead it is someone’s version of the truth. There is a big difference between those two things. When I was teaching a high school at the church one of the things I stressed was seeking truth…looking at all sides and any information available and making your own decision. Too little of that is done today. Most of what we hear could actually be classified as rumors.

It is important to teach our young people how to make assessments based on many sources before coming to any conclusion. There are too many talking heads and I am sure that there are no statesmen left…only politicians. That comparison can apply to any source from religion to politics to anything else. We must filter our information.

We must care!

by worrylessjourney, posted in accountable, caring, compassion, connections, help, important, kindness, responsible

Another Doctor visit today. One more step forward. Each one gives me a good feeling. At least we are getting things out of the way.

It is so frustrating to stay here day after day. I know that it is the same for everyone. Those of us who are risk will have to be careful for a good while. I am glad to see that some things are able to open and people will have jobs. To be out of work with lots of bills is a terrible place to be. My heart goes out to them. There are things that we can do to help. I hope you can find ways where you live to show caring. It is the most important thing to respect and have compassion for others. If everyone could do that the world would be a much better place.

caring is contagious

During this crisis we have seen examples of caring and examples of selfishness. I hope the caring wins out.

Making choices

by worrylessjourney, posted in acceptance, accountable, balance, choices, coping, life changes, medical, moderation, responsible, small steps

Another day of sitting in my house and outdoors on the porch. It is beautiful but warm out. May is when we usually start almost summery weather. The yard is a mess so I hope that the yard people come tomorrow.. We don’t have them come often. It is too expensive but once in a while I need help to catch up. After they come I must get out and do some things myself.

gardening

I do enjoy working out in the yard except when it is super hot. It try to get out early in the morning and come in before it gets to me. Good hard work is the best exercise and I have been bad lately about avoiding it.

The prediction for us here is that we will have a huge surge in virus cases as things open up since we have not had a peak yet. We stayed inside before it really came here and now the timing my cause us a headache.

risk

There comes a time where some things that have been put off by this virus just have to be done. My husband’s medical issues, though not life threatening, have to be dealt with so some Dr. visits are necessary. We do have to live our lives and do the critical things in spite of the risk.

Years ago my youngest daughter was going to Japan as an exchange student. Shortly before she was to leave a commercial place was shot down by mistake. I don’t remember the exact circumstances but I was afraid for her to fly so far. My husband made the comment that we can’t stay away from risk forever. We do have to take some chances….reasonable ones.

I think the country may be coming to that point. Some places have peaked and it may be necessary to go out for some things. Those of us at high risk will shelter as much as possible but there will be limits.

Blowin in the wind

by worrylessjourney, posted in accountable, advice, answers, belief, choices, music, remembering, Uncategorized

I was in college when the great era of folk songs came about. I have always loved folk songs. I learned them early from a 4th grade teacher who played an autoharp and taught us to sing many of them. I love that they tell a story about the life of the people during whatever era they lived in.

In the late 1950″s and early 60’s they became popular and so many of the ones I had learned were sung by the famous groups of the day. The Kingston Trio, Peter, Paul and Mary, Joan Baez, The Limelighters, Pete Seeger, The Mamas and the Papas…I could go on and on. Many new songs were written about what was going on at the time.

I find it sad that the problems they highlighted in the world are still there. Maybe we should listen to them again and really hear the message.

What will we learn?

by worrylessjourney, posted in acceptance, accountable, answers, consequences, control, coping, important, knowledge, learn, share, strength, understanding

problemsI feel awful about not posting yesterday. I lost the day. The night before I had what I think was food poisoning. I was fine by morning but exhausted. I was feeling sorry for myself. Here without my husband and feeling miserable. Later that day one of my friends called and her sister’s husband caught the virus while traveling and died at 44 years old. His wife, working as a nurse, had damage from a tornado that struck their neighborhood. Her sister cannot have her husband transported home or have a glimpse of him. He died with none of his family around. There are so many people who have more crisis than anyone should have to bear. It certainly put my life into perspective.

Each of us has our own problems. Even though we can see catastrophic things happen to others the feelings we have are still valid. Our own problems bring forth emotions that we have to learn to deal with. We may not have things wrong that seem more devastating than others but our own tragedies are ours. We have to absorb the emotions. We have to deal with the issues. They are important. They are ours.

learningcontinues

As each of us move through the things that cause us grief and pain we will learn things that we can use to help others when this is all over. Our experiences will help us gain new insights, new skills,  and new ways to cope. We will have much to teach others. Lots to share with those who come after us.

This crisis is hard but we can learn from it and share what we have learned with generations that come.