Category: consequences

Help us find Hope

by worrylessjourney, posted in accountable, choices, community, consequences, frustration, hope, problems

Well, here I am again trying to get back into a routine. I need it. I have not been giving my voice a chance to be heard nor have I destressed by sharing frustrations and thoughts. For my own well being I need to get back to writing. I haven’t even written anything else. I have sunk into a low and it is time to move on.

There are so manhy things going on in this country for the first time in my life I am frightened for us. Our leaders and the press spread fire and dissent. We grow further apart. My grandson who is 21 does not expect to live past thirty. He reflects the views of many of our young adults. They have lost their hope and sense of safety. The suicide rate is rising exponentially. Japan has seen a decline in births. We may begin to see the same thing since there is no concept of permanence among those in their twneties and thirties.

I have no objection to those who want to just live together except that it has less sense of committment and it is the children who suffer when someone decides to just step away.

Arnold Toynbee, a history phiilosipher, says that when a nation’s morality, culttural norms, and governement dissolves into chaos that nation is on the way out. I consider us there.

My greatest wish is that we can recover from this but the signs are not favorable. I want my grandchildren and great grandchildren to have hope for the future.

Connections

by worrylessjourney, posted in accountable, connections, consequences

I’ve been reading the book “the Song of the Cell” by Siddhartha Mukerjee and his owrk has morphed into connections with other things I have been reading. I am stunned by the number of times I have been made aware of the importance of connectivity.

Connectivity is the central point in the thougths of Brene Brown and others and now I am seeing it in the book by Mukerjee. Connectivity goes from its importance in the functioning of the human body and every other living thing to connectivity we see in each society. It has made me realize that all of what we are relies on being connected. From the smallist examples to societal groups, countries, continents, to earth and beyond.

The problem is that we don’t see the importance of it. We are unable to see that when even the smallest parts of cells don’t communicate nothing works. Society is so compartmentalized that we believe that our part can function forever without the rest. But if the cells in the heart don’t communicate and work together the whole organism fails. I so wish that there were some way that we could realize that this applies to everything in the world.

Crisis and Hope

by worrylessjourney, posted in complacency, consequences, hope

I am working hard to get back into the habit of posting. I know that I am doing too many things to keep myself from thinking about the changes in my life and the world. Posting is such a good way to vent feelings and share hope.

We have been through so much and now there is another war to think about. So many people are at risk and they did nothing to deserve it. Hitler started by just hopping into Poland and then kept going. I know so little about Putin and how much his personality could influence what happens next. In WWII we learned too much about how one person’s mania can destroy so much. Let’s hope we learned enough to do what works to end it.

After several plus years of dealing with a pandemic and now war it is so easy to get depressed. We are in a fragile condition emotionally. I don’t know there are very many people who have not suffered some deprivation since covid began. Most of us are not at our best to handle a new crisis. We have not yet recovered from the last one.

However in the midst of all of it we have to trust that somehow things will change. We cannot turn away from hope. It is the lifeline that we cling to and a gift from God. Over all the catastrophes we have endured throughout history we are still here. I pray that we will be able to push away the darkness and let in the light.

Hope! Continue to hope but don’t forget to “act as if” we can change things. We cannot sit by and do nothing. Small acts of hope and love matter. Act!

Is there no chance?

by worrylessjourney, posted in accountable, choices, consequences, Discernment

Today there has apparently been a lot of conversation about the Jeep commercial on the ball game last night. This whole thing is such a mystery to me. People are taking sides and giving their opinions of what was meant and why it was done. What about just considering what was said and how the words themselves have make people think. The fact that there has been so much discussion certainly lets us know that it struck a chord whether good or bad.

Instead of just fussing about each side what would happen if those talking could think about why this brought out so many opinions and thoughts? What if real discussion could take place and questions could be asked about what could be done to change the reality of so many splits today and why everyone has taken a “my way or the highway” position. When I was in my 20’s and 30’s people were allowed to take a different position without is causing anger and vituperation. Is there any going back? Is there any way to change? I hope to God there is.

Experience

by worrylessjourney, posted in becoming, consequences, learn

Experience is a brutal teacher but you learn. My God do you learn. C.S. Lewis

Lewis is so right. The things that teach us the most are usually uncomfortable and sometimes outright painful. We learn so much from those lessons. The things that I regret the most and remember the most have been painful lessons. They changed me. Usually for the better.

Frequently those experiences had to do with hurting other people. The result hurt me. Maybe even more than the person involved. The trick is to not make the same mistake again. The important thing is that we learn from it. It is sad when we don’t learn.

We must continue

by worrylessjourney, posted in accountable, consequences, speak

The number of covid cases here continues to rise exponentially. Yesterday there were more than 1200 new cases in Austin. That is truly frightening. I guess people are so tired of all of this that they are just going about their business and not caring about being exposed. I so look forward to the time when we can get the vaccine.

Life in the apartment is fine and cleaning is easy but I do miss the view. There is something about water flowing that soothes my soul. I keep fighting depression and homesickness and some days are fine…others not so much.

This virus and the kind of life it has brought to all of us has been and continues to be challenging. Life has changed forever and we just have to learn to adapt to the new reality. Sometimes I am glad that my parents didn’t live to see these changes. They would have been appalled by how our country has changed.

We must continue to speak out about how things should be. We can’t be silent for that is what leads to bad outcomes.

I am now living in a third world country

by worrylessjourney, posted in consequences, divided world, hatred, life changes

I feel as if I am living back in a third world country. When we lived in Panama we couldn’t drive across the country without fear that anything we did wrong could cause us to be arrested and jailed. The police were also the army.

Now in my own country insurrection is real. And it seems that it is possible that this was incited by our own president. I am not very political but I do believe in obeying our laws and that the best form of protest is non violent.

I guess I am not as surprised as I should be since our divisions have been sending us that way. There is no way for people to agree. I used to volunteer where we tried to teach teens and even younger that there were ways to resolve differences without violence. I guess we need to focus on teaching the same things to adults.

When we ever recover from this.?

How do you see it?

by worrylessjourney, posted in change, children, consequences, morals, values

Today I have encountered several things that bring into focus some major issues plaguing our culture today. I think we may be beginning to see the result of changes in the precepts for raising children. As we began an era were in most families two parents were working the parents, trying to spend “quality” time with their children were lured into the idea that everything should be as perfect for them as they could make it. I am not accusing the parents. The changes in society brought this about.

Now if things aren’t perfect for that group of adults they feel deprived and entitled to more. They grew up thinking that everything would always go their way and want to insist on it in their adult years.

At the same time we began to change how children were treated in society as a whole. We fretted about feelings so that there ended up being no winners or losers. Everyone was treated “the same.” Unfortunately everyone is not the same. That is actually a good thing and learning early that things aren’t fair prepares you for what you face later in life.

Because children were the most important thing in the world they would naturally not care about others but only look at continuing to get what they expected. Others don’t matter. Many times money was used to get them what they wanted as in the case of the parents who bought their children into colleges. What did they learn from that?

We have lost values. Values are “a person’s principles or standards of behavior; one’s judgment of what is important in life.” (dictionary) Unfortunately I sense that this may be the beginning of a major change in our way of life. The decline of morals and the change of values to “me” and money is a bad trend. We have to correct this direction.

Ever heard about FUD?

by worrylessjourney, posted in abuse, aggravations, anger, confusion, consequences

Today I was talking with my daughter and she mentioned a term that is used in business a lot to describe what competitors do. The term is FUD an acronym for Fear, Uncertainty , and Doubt. I realized how true that phrase is and how often it is used

It is certainly the way of life for the press. If they can spread FUD on a subject then they will get everyone’s attention. In today’s world it may be the only thing we hear both from the news and from politicians running for office. I don’t think that I have heard one positive ad for anyone….have you?

The Black Live Matter issue uses FUD also. In fact some proponents of that movement use it physically with violence. If enough people are afraid maybe it will work.

Today I was watching a British crime drama called Endeavour. Something was said that immediately caught my attention and I was quick to write it down and add it to my quote book. It does relate somewhat to all of this.

“Cruelty is like cancer. It starts with one cell and grows until the whole body is riddled with it.”

The cancer is growing egged on by FUD. What are we learning today?

Violence is good? Fear is good? Hatred toward others is good?

Compassion, love, kindness are bad? Acceptance, understanding and respect toward others is OK for some and not others?

It reminds me of a quote from Benjamin Franklin. “All men are created equal but some are more equal than others.”

What are we to do?