Bees…can’t live without them. Don’t you think it’s funny that EVERYTHING can live without us, but we need pretty much everything in order to exist. We…are unnecessary.
Picture: Pixabay
Archive for the ‘Life’ Category
Is this the next thing that will isolate us from each other? Six pictures.
Photo: Harsch Shivam
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Photo: Julia M Cameron
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Photo: SHEVETS production
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Photo: ThisIsEngineering
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Photo: fauxels
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Photo: Andren Piacquadio
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Okay, so…
Yesterday I went out shopping with my cousin. The only thing we bought, were string bracelets. Now, here’s the thing. The bracelets, considered, “charity bracelets,” were all for the benefit of those in trouble. One was for frogs, another for elephants, tigers, animal shelters, other specific animals, mental illness, girls and women, suicide prevention, and on and on. They were rather inexpensive, at $7 each. I asked how much of the cost went to the causes and the woman said 75%, which was amazing. We both bought the ones for animals and I bought the one for girls and women and a few others, two which were unrelated to any cause and cost a bit more. When I got home, I read the fine print on the back of the tags and found that only 5% of the money went to the causes. So, either the woman behind the counter just guessed at the percentage, or she outright lied.
A couple dollars from the sale of bracelets will not save the frogs or elephants. It won’t do anything, not really. It won’t stop habitat destruction, human carelessness, or climate change. We pretend that the little things will add up to big things but while those things might help, they won’t do much. Unless the BIG THINGS, things the government can change, are put into effect, things will continue to go down hill until we can’t dig ourselves out of the deadly hole we have dug for ourselves.
I would like to say that the public should demand that the government make drastic changes, but we all know the government doesn’t care what people want. They don’t care about diversity, be it people or animals. All that matters to the MEN in power, across the globe, is power, money and holding on to their position.
If anyone cared about the environment, or life in general, there would never be wars and scientists wouldn’t be working on nerve gas and other destructive things that could wipe out millions of people and animals. But life isn’t important…power over everything is.
As long as that attitude continues, as long as men are the only ones in charge, and have the only voice, we are doomed. The few pennies the frogs and elephants that will get from the sale of string bracelets will do nothing to save them, as long as they are hunted and have nowhere to live, nothing to eat. As long as we keep lying to ourselves, pretending that somehow everything will be alright, we have no chance of turning things around. None at all.
The people who control the money, and decide where it goes, are spending it on war, not poverty, or the environment. The things they are actually spending our money on, are the very things that are bringing about the end of everything.
Picture: Pixabay
Life…a short story.
She was in a hurry, as usual, and rushed down the street trying hard, not to run into anyone. She should have left an hour ago, but things always seemed to happen in the morning. Things that made her late. She took what looked like a shortcut, for the first time, dashing through an alleyway and onto a new street, a street that had a different feel to it. Different enough to make her stop and look around.
The light was strange, sepia, she thought, like an old photograph her grandmother kept in a box, tied with a pink ribbon. Everything looked old, worn, and out-of-date. She shook her head and looked at her phone. No bars. That was crazy, her phone was fully charged and there were towers everywhere in the downtown area. But she was no longer in the downtown area, so she turned to go back down the alley, knowing that she would never make the meeting now, no matter how much she hurried. But the alley was no longer there. In it’s place was a dusty looking shop that sold old things. Used things. Things no one wanted but hoped someone else did.
An old man turned the CLOSED sign in the window, to OPEN. He nodded at her and waved her toward the door. When she didn’t move, he waved at her again, pointing toward the door. She shook her head and backed up. It seemed dangerous. There were no people in the street and she was starting to panic.
The man left the window and went to the door. “Come in, come in,” he said, still waving at her.
“No, thank you,” she said.
“If you ever want to get back to where you belong, I’d advise you to change your mind.”
“What do you mean?” she asked, standing rooted to the spot.
“You’re out of time. Surely you’ve noticed that by now.”
“I…”
“Just come in,” he said, walking back into the shop. “The kettle’s on.”
“She sat in an old chair, surrounded by old things.”
“Some of these items are real antiques,” he said. “But those usually go quickly,” he added, putting cup of tea down in front of her. “Now, let’s try and get you home.”
“Where is this place?” she asked.
“Hard to explain,” he said, rubbing his chin. “Easiest way to think about it, is that you fell through time and landed here. And before you say anything, that’s what happened. No denying it.”
She stared at him. “Now what?”
“Now you look at a film.”
“Seriously?”
“Yes. That’s why you’re here. You need to see something that will make huge difference in the life you’re living in your timeline. Something you’ve missed before.”
“This doesn’t make any sense,” she said.
“Maybe, but you’re not the first one I’ve sent back.”
“Show me the film.”
The old man just sat there. “Hey, I don’t have any part in this. It starts when it wants to start and plays on that wall over there,” he said pointing to his right.
She sipped her tea and waited. Suddenly, black and white images started appearing on the wall. Someone who looked exactly like her, only younger, was laughing and running down the street. She was being chased by a boy her age, who was also laughing.
“You’ll never outrun me,” he shouted.
“I already am,” she yelled, over her shoulder.
“I’ll catch you.”
“No, you won’t. You’ll never catch me,” she laughed.
The boy stopped running. “Don’t say that. Don’t say that I’ll never catch you,” he whispered, watching her get farther and farther away.
The pictures on the wall disappeared.
“That’s it?” she asked, looking at the old man.
“Apparently,” he said. “Do you know the boy?”
“He looks like a friend of mine.”
“Okay then. You know what to do.”
“I have absolutely no idea what to do.”
“Not too bright, are you,” sighed the old man. “He’s the one you missed. You’ve been given another chance. He’s your happiness, your love. You told him he would never catch you and in doing that, you cast a spell. Now the spell is broken and you can be together, the way it’s supposed to be.”
“I…”
“Why are you still sitting here?” the old man asked, standing up.
“But…”
“NOW,” he said loudly.
She stood up and walked into the street, when she turned to wave at the old man, she saw the alley and took off running…again. Once back in her own time, where the sun was shining and everything was new, she pulled out her phone and called Jack.
“Jack,” she said. “I’ve stopped running.”
“Finally,” he said, relief in his voice “Where are you?”
She told him and ten minutes later she saw him walking through the crowd, toward her.
“I love you,” she said.
“I know,” he laughed. “I’ve loved you for what seems like a couple of lifetimes.”
“Did you see the film?”
“What film?”
“Never mind,” she said, pressing against him. “It’s not important.”
Sometimes, when we think we’ve made a wrong turn, it turns out that it’s really the right one.
Photo: Pixabay
Life…a poem
when does life start
not when we’re born
that might have been when we took our first breaths
but we weren’t aware of anything
or if we were
we can’t remember what
because the memories we come here with
are erased
so we can begin again
learning to do the same things
we knew how to do
through one lifetime after another
but when I think about the beginning
I realize that
each of us is a hero of sorts
to come here
completely helpless
knowing nothing
and we just kind of look around
and begin
there is no manual
no inner movie playing
nothing to truly show us what to do
where to go
how to be
we don’t even think about those things
we just sit up
stand
learn how to walk
and head out
to learn on the fly
trying one thing
then another
figuring out what we need and want
throwing out things that don’t fit
but we don’t see ourselves as courageous
as beings who meet each day
without knowing what’s going to happen next
we have to decide what’s good
or bad
we don’t know why we’re here
we don’t even know what we are
or how we happen to live on a rock flying through space
we just accept that things like planets and suns hanging in the sky
that bees make honey
and that people can be hateful and dangerous
or loving and kind
but we can never tell which is which
and everyday
we get up and see what happens next
everyday we live our lives
with no guarantees
no promises
no certainty
we are frail
short lived entities
who have no real clue
about what’s going on
yet here we are
that’s pretty amazing
if you ask me
Okay, so…
This is how I feel. I try reallllllly hard not to make my blog frustrating and depressing, but most of the time I fall short of my goal to bring sunshine into your lives. LOL I just cannot believe what we are doing to ourselves and to our planet. I mean, how insane are we? Pretty insane from the look of things.
This is kind of an apology for being who I am. I can’t look the other way. I never could. Pretending things are different than they are just makes things worse, as we can plainly see. Kids are starving, brutalized and dying, animals are killed, eaten, poisoned and dying too.
We have no idea what’s going on anywhere because there is not truth. I stopped watching the news a long time ago. I feel helpless in that there no longer seems to be anything I can do to change anything. People struggle, or try to do what they can for the environment while big business pollutes and pays fines instead of cleaning up their acts. Lives don’t matter, money and power do.
No one seems to care what people want or need and the horrific right wing rejoices over controlling the bodies of women and children who cannot own themselves, but are owned by the government.
The rich religious establishments pay no taxes but want people who work for a living and can barely feed their families, to GIVE to others. What a joke that is, and yet, no one seems to notice. Rapists are protected, art stolen, well, you know what the church is really like, and they literally get away with murder. And people continue to support them.
People are killed in the street by the men and women who are supposed to protect them. Our government is a joke and there’s nowhere to go. People are kept poor on purpose, price gouging, babies dying at a higher rate, according to the color of their skin.
NO ONE WHO CAN DO ANYTHING ABOUT ANY OF IT…is listening. Officials being bought off by the NRA, and all the other groups who pay protection money to the government, who happily takes whatever they can get.
People working two jobs to put food on the table. Farmers forced to pay the government for seeds, rather than produce their own…it just never ends.
But I want to tell you happy things. I really do. I look at Beth’s blog and Resa’s and Holly’s…all fun and beautiful words and phototgraphs, and then there’s mine.
I guess my sunshine is in the chicklets who live in a world of equality, cooperation, love and joy. I mean I’m really a happy person. I have everything I want. None of the bad things are directly aimed at me, well, other than being a female in a woman hating society, and that’s the same for all of us.
But I can’t stop thinking about all those who are suffering NEEDLESSLY. The cruelty of humans is so INSANE and HEARTLESS that I can’t understand how it just goes on and on. The hatred and disregard for each other, for the planet and all life on it, amazes and sickens me. I am furious and there’s no place for my rage to go, because we have all become helpless. I used to have outlets for my anger. Used to demonstrate, fight back, write newsletters, lecture, do all kinds of things, but those things no longer work. We are slaves to a system that does not care about what we want, need or think. I don’t know what to do about that.
No matter how I try and be the sunshine…LOL…this is who I am and I want all the bad things to STOP, so that people can live, create and leave each other alone. Hatred is taught, the Klan and the right wing, religious conservatives are threatening to a free society where people can make their own decisions and be free from the control those people pose to all life.
Anyway…I can’t promise to do better because I don’t know if I can. I do want to thank you for sticking by me and putting up with my doom and gloom so often.
It would be nice if we could all meet in Vegas and have lunch, go to a show, listen to the violin players outside at night and enjoy the lights. But, that’s probably never going to happen. If it did, perhaps we could come up with ways to make things better. Or maybe we could just have fun. I mean it’s always fun in Vegas. But some of you would probably like to go somewhere quiet, maybe to a rain forest, or spa. So, our differences would show up immediately, as those who hate noise and crowds would hide in their hotel rooms and those of us who got bored in a silent glen would start pacing and looking for bookstores. Well, it was just a thought, after all.
Have a good day, no matter what you do. Dance and sing a little, hug your companion animals if you have any, and eat chocolate. Read, snuggle under a blanket, if you live where it’s cold and go to the beach if you live where it’s not. Have an eclair, or a bowl of non GMO cereal, if you can find it, nap, if you like that kind of thing, write the great American novel, or the great novel wherever you’re from, and have a salad, or pizza by yourself or with others. Be your normal introvert, or extravert self, because those things are hard to change. Go after what you want without fear, because, really there are no mistakes and you can never tell what’s coming, if you don’t take the chance. Tell people you love them, if you do. Be sure your bed is soft and your pillows are the one’s you need and like, unless you can’t afford either. Drink a lot of water and lay around, if that’s what you feel like doing. NEVER do what other people want you to do, if it’s not what you want to do, no matter who those people are. If someone doesn’t make you happy, walk away. I think we’re here to have fun. No one knows you but you. Just have a good day and be as happy as a chicklet.
Photo: Pixabay
Rethinking Life 
Written
on February 9, 2023