Question

One day, my niece asked me this question:

"Suppose a couple has driven their car out on one of those desolate roads in the middle of nowhere. They come to a four-way intersection and stop in the middle of the road.

What happens next?

Possibilities:

1.     They contemplate a moment and say, "This is an adventure, let's go that way. One points, and they laughingly go on their way.

2.     From out of the blue, another vehicle crashes into them.

3.     A devil appears and says he will give them their heart's desire (Maybe a recording contract), but in return, they must promise to give him their soul.

4.     They continue straight ahead in the direction they were going without much thought about it. They were only stopping for a breather.

5.     Can you think of another?

I'm thinking this is a road trip across the US, so there are many choices along the way.

If you are a writer, you might want angst like the crash. Or you might have been conditioned to expect the worst.

 You might be a person who thinks they must pay or suffer to get what they want.

You might be a person who takes a chance, or one who doesn't.

You might be part of a couple that gives in without expressing your opinion. Or you might be a couple who will argue endlessly and never come to an agreement. One person might give in to the other, then fume for the next 50 miles.

All this came up for me from this picture from an old blog, November 27, 2023

This picture struck me. It's of our yard, a Japanese maple, a fig tree, a St John's Wort. (The one with red berries.) Yet where did our eyes go? To that one little dead leaf up high in the fig tree. That's the way with people. We can't help it, we are built to find the broken, the moving, the different. It has survival value. 

It's the way our mind works.

"My mind is boggled." I wrote on that 2023 post. "I'm frustrated, disenchanted, disappointed, and when I tell my daughter of this, she says that others feel the same way.

"After all my grumbling, complaining, and ineptitude, I couldn't stand the News. And, as I like to keep a novel going most of the time, I was tired of trudging through pain, anguish, and grief to get to the happy ending. I was tired of movies that made me sad and publishers that want tension between lovers and angst in life because, without it, they have no story.

"I remembered a time when we were proud to be Americans, and when GI Joe was a good guy."

That gripe is two years old. That night, divine guidance led me to Louise Hay's book You Can Heal Your Life.

 She speaks of Affirmations. Well, Affirmations and I have a long history. I remember getting assignments to write an affirmation 100 times before bed.

That was penance.

I understand that an affirmation is meant to drum a new thought into our heads. (You never change an old thought without replacing it with a new.) But what if you plant the seed and then leave it to grow? A seed has its own internal guidance system, and that is, given the right conditions, like soil, minerals, and water, it will sprout. Love can help. But do not dig it up to see if it sprouted. (As with repeatedly writing the affirmation which is saying you don't believe it will happen unless you drum it into The Source.)

Trust that the seed will grow.

Think of affirmations this way: Every thought is an affirmation. (I know we have unwanted thoughts; don't beat yourself up. Be kind to yourself. We have a screwy brain. Yep, there are dead leaves, for heaven's sake climb up there and pluck them out, or wait, they will fall.

And remember, every moment is new. If we choose to believe we are helpless victims and that all is hopeless, the Universe will support that belief.

Every cell in our body responds to every single thought we think and every word we speak. Continuous modes of thinking and speaking produce body behaviors, postures, and ease or dis-ease.

Last week, I suggested that we get happy. And I was using Joseph McClendon III's definition of happiness:

"Happiness is a mental and emotional state of being where your internal focus is optimistic and the body produces positive energy."

It doesn't address Ha ha happy. It doesn't say  "Just think happy thoughts." It doesn't say that sometimes we need friction to get us motivated and off our butts. (or buts.)

Neither does it ignore that we read, hear, or see dire things. And we also see beautiful things. It means having the mental and physical capacity to carry us through.

To quote McClendon:

"Inside you is a warrior ready to conquer the world.

"You were wired for happiness, adventure, and abundance. Those attributes were embedded into your soul from birth. You didn't enter the world with a whimper. You entered it bold and defiant!"

Now sit up straight, hold your head up, look straight ahead, and put a big, stupid grin on your face.

Do you feel better? 

 

 P.S.

Do you have any suggestions for josnewsletter.com/

It is a babe in the woods barely digging its way out of its den, oh no, and with winter coming, well maybe we can snuggle in someplace else. Even Timberline Lodge at the base of Mt Hood in Oregon, has a gorgeous huge roaring fireplace.

This Was a Real Nice Clambake

Hello,

 I dug for clams once, my first and only time, so why in the world am I naming my memoir THIS WAS A REAL NICE CLAMBAKE?

 Because once I wrote of it, I had Rodgers and Hammerstein's lyrics from Carousel (1958) stuck in my head until I gave it as the title.

  "This was a real nice clam bake

We're mighty glad we came

 The vittles we et

 We're good; you bet

 The company was the same

 Our hearts are warm, our bellies are full

 And we are feeling prime

 This was a really nice clambake

 And we all had a real good time."

 

--Public domain: "Published in the United States between 1928 and 1977, inclusive, without a copyright notice."

There are strict rules about using song lyrics, but to my surprise, this song came up public domain. So, I'm printing the lyrics because they pretty much sum up my life. And after being around the college performance of Carousel, in which my husband sang, those words were right on top of my brain.

 I wrote this memoir while drunk. Maybe that explains that while in an altered state, anything can come up. And you know about the brain, it zigzags all over the place, one thing leads to another and sometimes you go, “Huh? Where did that come from?” However, I was not drunk on alcohol or any other mood-altering substances. I was drunk with inspiration. 

 It's Natalie Goldberg's fault. 

 In Old Friends from Far Away, Goldberg said a memoir doesn't have to be an old person's story; I was born in, went to school… Boring. It's for those moments that take our breath away--like on that hot day, you stopped the car by a creek, stripped off your pantyhose, waded into the stream fresh off an ice flow, and felt alive. (Guys, take off your socks, and who wears pantyhose anymore?)

 

I put the above copy on Facebook. I joined this week; after doing the famed stalling to sign on the bottom-line bit, I decided if my publisher is on it, I ought to be. So, you can find me at https://www.facebook.com/Fuzzy7Feathers

 

I keep talking about my memoir, for it has been the object of my attention for a couple of months now. Before those last two months, I hadn’t planned on writing a memoir—I didn’t want anyone adding up the years, but finally, I threw discretion to the wind and felt it was something I had to do.

 

I think everyone ought to write one, to take stock of one’s life and decide what you want to keep and what you want to throw away.

 

It can even be like “Morning Pages,” where you write out all the crap, gripe on paper, then stop telling the same old sad story over and over. For you know the saying, “Neurons that fire together wire together,” meaning you will fix them in your brain.

 

Free up your brain to be ready for the next adventure.

 

Ta Da!

 

Live long, be happy, read my Memoir/autobiography/travel/adventure/special interest book when it comes out.

 

 

Just Between You and Me

 

 “Sing of good things, not bad.”*

—” Sing” by Joe Raposo, written for Sesame Street, performed by many.

 

 

* I’d quote the entire song if copyrights would allow. Songs are picky.  

 

 

Tell me PLEASE why this media slogan: “If it bleeds it Leads.”

 

This became a battle cry for newspapers back in the ’70s trying to up their ratings. Now, not only are we used to it, but writers, journalists, and pundits must up the ante to get our attention. As time goes by, adrenal hits need more potent thrills, shocks, controversy, to get the same shock value.

 

I must admit my adrenals like the log ride at Splash Mountain in Disneyland. It’s 10 on the terror scale of 10, said my 11-year-old Grandson when we visited the Park in January.

 

You sit in a log, used to be with your partner’s legs around you, now you have your own seat. You travel through calm waters, gentle music fills the air, suddenly, you stop. You look down. A 50-foot waterfall is raging beneath you, and you are looking straight down.

 

Holy Moley, I was scared out of my wits the first time I sat on that precipice—about 20 rides ago. (We used to live in Southern California, thus the frequent Disneyland visits.) Now I’m a veteran, but it still gives my adrenals a jolt. Amid screams, we are dropped over the edge and plunge into the water below. Drenched and laughing, we float among the strains of “Zippidy-do-da,” to the exit dock, and get out on noodle legs and say, “Let’s do that again.”

 

We like thrills, but the idea of slamming the world’s ills into our faces daily is not healthy.

 

We’re worn out.

 

Gone are the days of tuning into the media to find local and national issues.

 

Deborah Scani Psy D, says that if you are depressed, watching the news is a risky pursuit.

 

Sadly, once a glorious, needed, and respected profession, journalists, instead of getting to the story first, and getting the facts right, are now forced to look for the spectacular, the stirring, and the controversial.

FEAR is the teaser to get you to read the article or watch the presentation. Secondly, we watch or read with the HOPE that a solution will be forthcoming.

 

How often does that happen?

 

And why in the world, in a land that touts “Free Speech” are voices, news, articles being censored?

 

I’m really into this, for my daughter is a caregiver. Her client watches the news on the hour, or maybe continually. Daughter Dear tries to do something else during that time, but the lady will draw her in, “Come here. Will you look at that!”

 

Daughter Dear is worn out.

 

The lady remembers that there is a Virus/Danger “Out there,” but she doesn’t remember that she just watched it. (Poor dears—both of them)

Once upon a time—true story: I’ve written of this before, but I have new readers, so please forgive me if you’re read this before.

 

I was cursing up I-5 from San Jose, California, aiming for Oregon. Gabe, my Rottweiler, was asleep in the back seat, the radio was on. 

When I was in the San Francisco vicinity, I was startled by an “All Good News Radio Program.”

 

They had clips of motivational speakers followed by a story about a teacher who saw a kid in the playground do a good deed. She wrote out, “Good for you,” on a slip of paper, and gave it to the kid. The news soon spread about the “Good for you” slip of paper, and all the students wanted one.  

 

The teacher said that a piece of paper couldn’t blow across the playground without a kid running after it to pick it up.

 

I think the slips of paper graduated into tee-shirts.

 

We are good people, and we like being rewarded for our actions.

 

Happiness can spread.

 

Oh, speaking of good stuff, yesterday I saw that a chocolate factory in Switzerland had an explosion and covered the city in cocoa powder.

 

Got a good slogan for a tee-shirt?

 

I’ll print it and sell it.

 

If you would be so kind as to look into my store with its new name and new focus.

 

"On the road, on the trail, on the couch."

 

 

 

Thanks,

 

 Keep checking in I’m adding new products daily. (Take a peek at my "ribbit" sink strainer, too cute for words.)

 

https://jewellshappytrails.com

 

(Can you believe I got Jewell's Happy Trails as a domain?) 

 

Thanks,

Jo, Joyce, Jewell

 

 

P.S. A shout out to a reader in the UK;

https://munster.co.uk (GPS tracker)

 

My mother should have had this tracking device when I was a kid, for I rode my horse into the forest, and she never knew where I was. She worried that I would take a fall and be lost. “Stay by the road,” she said. “Then,” I countered, “if I fell off, someone would run over me.” 

 

We both survived my horse forays.

 

This device can be used on cars (get a 40% reduction on Ins.,) dogs, cats, bicycles, motorcycles, humans. I should have had one attached to our propane tank that ran off.

 

Thanks, UK

 

*Bad?” I’ve heard if you are an aficionado of country songs, listen long enough and they will cure you or your ills.