Time
Drifts
Floats
Suspended
Irrelevant
Still
Focused
Nothing
Unaware
Lost
Faded
Grey
When
When
gone
When?
Category: appearance
illusions are dangerous
One of my favorite bloggers posted today about illusions. It reminded me of this quote from the movie Sabrina “Illusions are dangerous people. They have no flaws.”
This is so true. We can easily elevate someone into being a saint. All it takes is distance…or being dead. When we are not around someone they can take on qualities that we give them. Falling in love can make the loved one something they are not. We can give them positive or negative qualities either one being an illusion.
Everyone has good and bad qualities. We need to see people realistically. Believing a false image can cause us to be badly hurt. It can also cause us to hurt someone else. We are flawed creatures and make mistakes. No one is perfect. Remember that.
The Box Lady
My home has become a storage area for boxes. All sizes and shapes. Boxes from Amazon, Hello Fresh, Chewy, and wherever else I need to order to keep our house going in this distancing time.
The boxes are piling up because my husband was the one who broke them down and took them to the recycling place. I have not done that. There are boxes in the back stairs, on the front porch, in the garage and in the house. I am starting to feel like a hoarder.
I know, I know, I just have to get them broken down and removed but somehow it has not been something that floated to the top of need to do things. Now it is beyond that. Does anyone need boxes? I have about any size you need. Small ones, big ones, square ones, flat ones, some with filler so things don’t bounce around inside. Maybe I could go into business selling them. Probably not since I imagine many people have been ordering also and may have their own supply.
Oh well, I guess I will have to bite the bullet and get on with cutting them down and getting them out. If not soon they will be popping out of windows and lifting the roof.
Pariahs
Yesterday I had the oddest thought. As people begin going out as they want, many without wearing masks, it will be us elderly and the sick who will stand out. We will become the stigmatized group. We will stand out like a sore thumb. I doubt that we will be able to feel the slightest bit safe until there is a vaccine and that will be quite a while coming.
There will be a point where we have to continue to live our lives and know that there is a risk. That has been true for those in war torn countries forever. Going out of the door in the morning does not guarantee that they will be safe. It’s just that we have never suffered that experience since the long past flu epidemic.
So if you see us out with our masks until next year and see us obsessively washing our hands and safe distancing from people please don’t see us as lepers. We are just trying to survive.
A different time
In one of my journals I found this note. I think it was a quote but I don’t know from who (or is it whom?). “When we see a star we are seeing time.” That star’s light is coming from long ago. What we are seeing is actually gone.
It is so amazing to think that what we are seeing is not happening in our time. The scientists of our day have talked about time. It truly is a mystery. There are days when time seems to fly and times where it drags. Time for us is flexible. It has to do with the mind. When I was at work I always wanted to be doing something. A bad day was when time dragged.
This covid crisis has been time out of time. I wonder what we have learned. I see many families experiencing things that they haven’t done in a long time …if ever. I hope that meaning is found in those experiences and that they remember joy found in this different time.
See the earth change
Today the smell of the Jasmine is glorious. It is so beautiful. Early for it to bloom. Maybe it knows we need its scent to lift our spirits. I do love flowers with scent. When I was a child my grandmother had a amazing garden with hundreds of roses and other blooming things. We always had flowers in the house. The roses had such a wonderful smell. Today, if you buy roses, there is really little smell. It has been bred out to make the blooms bigger. Such a loss. I never want roses of the kind available today but prefer something with scent.
It’s funny how when you choose to change nature’s plants what comes out always sacrifices something. Nature does it best.
In spite of the horror of this pandemic it is wonderful to see what happens when we stop polluting everything. There are now fish in the canals of Venice and the air is clear over Los Angeles. Think how it would be if we could keep this going.
I can only suppose that it won’t but I hope that something will have been learned from this.
Flowers and friends
Nobody sees a flower—really—it is so small it takes time–we haven’t time—and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time. Georgia O’Keeffe
We often hear the phrase “take time to smell the roses.” The truth is we seldom do take the time. There are some people who do but most of us don’t. Georgia O’Keeffe painted the flowers and she took the time to really see them….on a level most of us never will. Do I ever see the beauty? Do I ever experience the smell or the shape of the petals? Not often.
O’Keeffe compared this to the time it takes to have a real friend. Seeing all the things about a person and understanding them takes time. Accepting who they really are takes more time and the ability to see beyond the surface. We don’t often take that time but that is how we find friends who understand and accept us as we are.
Stop and really look at that flower. Absorb everything about it. Take the time to do the same things with those who could be real friends.
Success at last
Today I have been working on communion bread for my church during lent. Since I make bread all the time you would think that this would be easy. Not so! I lost my original recipe and have been hunting for another one. So far I have tried two that didn’t work for me. They both tasted fine but looked awful.
So I gave up and came up with my own recipe. Here’s hoping that this one works. If it doesn’t it is back to the drawing board and next week is Ash Wednesday. See what we get when we volunteer. Something that is usually easy can turn into a nightmare.
If this one works I will post a photo of it. Here’s hoping.
All Hallows Eve
I have occasionally taken photos of the wonderful mail box in my neighborhood that gets decorated for every holiday. This is the latest. I love the Manatee even when he “au natural” but it is really fun to see what is coming next. Hope everyone enjoys(ed) All Hallows Eve and a blessed All Saints Day!
Looking at acceptance
Acceptance. A mighty word. Merriman Webster says:
1: the quality or state of being accepted or acceptableHis theories have gained widespread acceptance.
2: the act of accepting something or someone : the fact of being accepted : APPROVAL
The two perspectives listed here show two sides of this word. One is the act of us being accepted by someone else. The other is from our perspective. Our acceptance of someone else or something else. Both of these are important.
How many times have we wanted to be accepted by other people. How many times have we wanted to belong to a group, join a club, or some other organization? We worry about ourselves. Will we meet the standards they want? Are we good enough? We may experience a feeling of angst while waiting for an answer. Sometimes we are too concerned with what others think. We don’t think well enough of ourselves. It can cause us to be afraid to try things. We may not think that we are good enough. We can have the sense of being an outcast or that we don’t belong.
The other thing is having the courage and wisdom to accept the things that happen to us in life. Acceptance can bring us to a place of peace and calm. Knowing that there are some things we cannot change is an important fact of life.
The other side of the coin is our acceptance of others. How many of us have been in a group that rejected other people. My youngest child while in high school was asked to join a prestigious club. She discovered that her best friend was not also asked to join. I was so proud of her when she turned down that invitation. Her concern was for her friend and the judgment of others meant nothing.
It is so easy for us to reject others without any knowledge about them. We too often take outward appearances and don’t look deep enough. We may find that someone who we deemed unacceptable is actually one of the best people we know. It is so easy to pass by the homeless person on the street. We make assumptions about their life, their intelligence and their perspective. When I worked for the church there was a man who was homeless. After having several conversations with him I discovered that he was quite brilliant and homelessness was not the norm for him. It helped to show me that judgment is not always based on reality.
When we think about the word acceptance we have to look at both sides. We have to remember the times that we were not accepted and also the times that we rejected someone else. Be careful with the choices that you make about other people and understand the mistakes others can make about you.
worry-less-journey 