The Great and Small of it All

Yes, I know I placed a picture of eggs on my blog earlier on, but they were not my chicken’s eggs, these are.

When I broke those two orange yolks into a bowl and added one #organic store-bought egg and saw the contrast, I had to take a picture. 

Gertrude and Victoria are not free-range hens as I would like, but their house is open to the ground, and I added a tiny dog kennel yard so they can get sunshine. The lower story opens to the ground, and I keep moving the house so they have grass. They get vegetable scraps, and their grain is non-GMO. My first-born daughter said that all kitchens ought to have chickens attached. You know what she meant.

After I turned the hens out into our little back yard, I watched them run, flapping their wings in exuberance, and thought of the big forest where we used to live. There I would free my two horses from their paddock and they would frolic in happiness, as the chickens were doing. My mare, Velvet, would jump off the retaining wall in a Lipizzaner leap, that is kicking out her heels while airborne. They had learned since babies to stay around the house, but they needed watched, or company, to make sure. Same with the hens.

As I changed the chicken’s bedding, I placed an egg on the grass, and Gertrude came up to it, and gently rolled it beneath her chest.  There I was stealing her egg and she was taking it back.

Animals freed take such joy in it—well, Peaches our poodle, doesn’t care, except for a walk that she does love, she’s happy sleeping on the bed.

This is my little world down here. I freaked myself out the other day when I contemplated the immensity of space, and now I am hearing of universes, not just one universe, but many.  It boggles my mind.

One day long ago, I took the elevator up the #Empire State Building, and had the same trepidation.  I had been in that elevator before with my family, but this time I was alone.  Normally I am not afraid of elevators since learning with my children that elevators have another parallel shaft beside them filled with a counter-balance.  (Is this like parallel universes?)

That day in the Empire State Building I lost rationality, and saw myself in a box hanging in a deep shaft that extended down 100 stories, a bottomless pit so it seemed.

Don’t do that.

And there in my yard, I thought of the immensity of space.  I felt the camera of my mind bringing its focus down to my yard, and to my chickens. The film went deeper still to see the bugs, and deeper to the molecules and atoms, and into the atom where the electron orbits the nucleus, as we orbit the sun. And there inside that atom exist sub-atomic particles that scientists are finding so many of, someone joked saying they should give a noble prize to someone who didn’t find one. Now they are finding the many universes of space…

I’m glad to be grounded here in the midst of it all. Of course I am left wondering if beyond the grave there is an expansion as well.  But then, that contemplation is for another day. The sun is shining—so glad for the sun. I guess the other planets have one as well, oh,oh, Joyce, don’t go there…yet.

Vladimer Kush


P.S. Check out my hub page if interested 

http://jewelld.hubpages.com/hub/Hawaii-Paradise-Found-on-the-Big-Island

Rant from an Old Codger

from Falling Up by Shel Silverstein

“FAILURE TO FOLLOW THESE SAFETY INSTRUCTIONS COULD RESULT IN FIRE, ELECTRIC SHOCK OR OTHER INJURY OR  DAMAGE.”—Kindle (Caps theirs.)

Gee, my good ole paper book never told me that.

Oh yes, and “Engaging in repetitive motions such as pressing keys or playing some games may cause you to experience occasional discomfort in your hands, arms, shoulders, neck or other parts of your body.”

As you may surmise, I am reading through the User’s Guide for my Kindle. That device is all over the place, bringing up things I don’t want, not giving me things I do. My husband bought a book on it (not mine) and it is still wandering in the Netherlands.

Maybe it’s just that my Kindle doesn’t like me. Maybe it’s jealous that I am using a Nook. (My book Mother’s Letters, is now available on Barnes & Noble’s Nook.)

This is not a plug, it’s a rant. Am I becoming as old codger or what?! Maybe I need to give that Kindle Ho'oponopono, which is a Hawaiian healing process. They say the way to heal is to say, "I'm sorry. Please forgive me. I love you. Thank you."

Maybe I need to Ho'oponopono myself.

I had a thought the other day—I do have them occasionally. My grandson said that drawing wasn’t creative and that he didn’t do it well. I told him that no one does it well when they begin. And drawing is not creative? Hum.  I thought about the Minecraft (creative mode) that he loves so much. It has given him an enormous vocabulary. It has given him manual dexterity, and memory for details. It has given him the ability to create worlds, and go to the moon, but  IT IS SLICK.  (Caps mine.) It has great pictures all there, all available on screen. Pictures ready to be manipulated.

It’s messy when one begins to draw or to paint, even beginning to play an instrument is messy. The first time you blow into a flute, (or other wind instrument) nothing happens. No sound, no beautiful notes. Just a  “Phtt.”

At first strum a violin sounds like someone stepped on the cat's tail. And a piano sounds like someone is playing the garbage can. The first time you try to make a pencil line look like the thing before you, it comes out as thought a muddy-footed chicken stomped on your page. Oh does anyone use a pencil anymore? Even the fashion designers use a HP tablet.

Could be that I am becoming an old codger, but the world needs us to stand up sometimes and yell. “WHAT ARE YOU THINKIN?!”

Ray Bradbury said, “You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.”

A Pirate's Battle?

After Walt Disney built the Pirates of the Caribbean he had all the workers ride the attraction and asked if they saw a way it could be improved.

The attraction was ready to open, and it took considerable time to have every worker take the ride, but Disney requested it.

One fellow said something was missing but he couldn’t put his finger on what it was. Disney told him to keep riding until he found it.  

 “Fireflies,” he said, “a bayou isn’t complete without fireflies.”

And so during your trip through a Louisiana Bayou preparing for the romping ride down a waterfall into a pirate’s battle, you see fireflies lighting the dusky darkness.

And so here, I’m asking, how could this blog be improved?

Keep riding you’ll find it.

What would you like to read about?

jewellshappytrails@gmail.com

Oh God, Please Give me a Sign

What’s the most ridiculous idea you can think of?

I’m trying, but my mind is oatmeal.

(I published this post on the 90 Day Millionaire Challenge blog, but decided to repeat it here.)

Pet Rocks—remember those? They came. They went. They made the owner 15 million dollars. It was fun and not so ridiculous.

Okay, I can’t think of anything so I will go into, “What do people want?”

Food.

Sex.

Sex.

Food.

Money.

A lesson on How to Get Rich

They might want a little companionship.

Some want a spiritual understanding.

Children.

If they have children, something to entertain them.

Advice to parents? Well, everyone has their own ideas, and who wants anyone to tell them how to raise their kids anyway.

Well, maybe they will listen to Dr. Phil.

Vampire books.

Horror stories.

Action films. Sports

Food.

Drink.

Sex.

How to be healthy.

How to get healthy.

How to have good eyesight, good hearing, and good bowel movements.

How to avoid the dreaded diseases, such as heart disease, cancer, strokes, Alzheimer’s, dementia.

A book on How to get Everything You Desire, would be nice, but who knows How-to do that?

I got too serious.

Remember gratitude rocks? The story is that an African man visited a friend in the US. When the African got home his son was quite ill. He worried and wrote to his American friend asking for help.  His friend in the US sent him a gratitude rock chosen especially for him. The African held the rock, gave thanks for the health of his son, and his son recovered. He wrote to his friend thanking him and asked for more rocks to sell to his friends.

I think I ought to follow suit and sell gratitude rocks.  One can always get their own gratitude rock, but if a rock is packaged well and comes with a quote as well as suggestions of something to be grateful for—so much the better. It doesn't always have to be the big things we are grateful for. We can be grateful for the tuna fish sandwich we had for lunch.

Rocks harvested from a mountain creek in Oregon would be imbibed with magical snow melt. I’m thinking of such a creek. Each day you could hold your rock and be grateful for one thing--or more. I would bless the rock, too, so you would remember to be grateful every day.

I’m excited about this. After awhile people could write about how the rock helped them, the miracles that happened, and I would happily post stories.

This is a test.

If I sell five rocks here, I will start a site and sell rocks.  Five rocks! This is a “God, please give me a sign,” exercise. 

The other day my daughter began writing “Give me a sign,” and her pen stopped in mid-sentence. “Was that my sign?” she said.

Let’s see, Rocks under two ounces would cost $2.00 to ship. That’s a small rock.

Packaging would be about 50 cents.

If I charged $3.50 I would make a buck.

I’m going to test this concept with my own rock and my own gratitudes. My rock, though, doesn’t count as one of the five.

What do you say?

Want to try it?

Hit the Buy it Now PayPal button that directly follows this post, and we will be on our way. (The button was there, then it wasn't there. I will try again.)

Ta Da. Here's to  miracles!

Joyce

jewellshappytrails@gmail.com

P.S. I won’t guarantee that the rock will be pretty. River rocks tend to look good under water, but when dry, not so pretty.

“Good Lord willin’ and the creek don’t rise”—Tennessee Ernie Ford