“The World Needs What You Have to Offer” *

 

                                       John F. Kennedy 1937

 

I challenge you—I’m doing it—this is my fourth day, and I’m still going strong—write 30 things you love for 30 days. And you can’t repeat yourself.

 

 

Daughter Dear challenged me. At first, I went, “Thirty things a day for 30 days! And I can’t repeat?” It seemed monumental, but then I sat on the front step and noticed all the Johnny-Jump-Up flowers re-seeded in our front yard. Daughter Dear said she saw 30 things just sitting in her bedroom. 

 

Maybe we will begin seeing all the things we’re missed while obsessed over the current pandemic. 

 

We often wander around with an open head letting all the yammering of the marketplace seep into the gray matter. Instead, we could choose what to look at. Weeds will invade the yard without tending: degrading thoughts will invade our minds if we aren’t careful to pluck them out. 

 

You might ask how to do that.

 

We are so used to reacting to what is, instead of seeing how we want it to be. Even the idea of it stumps us.

 

I know it isn’t possible only to see only the good, and not get hit with some bad, but we can aim for it. What if we were happy even though our nests aren’t feathered to our satisfaction?

 

First, the energy we would give off would be monumental. That would probably set the dolphins singing.

 

Second, happy people aren’t controllable. They smile and say, “You’re nuts.” I’m not going to give up my happiness because you like to pour venom in my ear.”

 

 I have begun tuning in to my body when a conversation comes up, or a subject, or an issue. How does it make me feel? We have an internal barometer that tells us hot/cold. You’re getting warmer—go that-a-way. Whoops, cold. Don’t go there.

 

If we listen to our hearts, gut, and nervous system, they will steer us in a positive direction. Have you noticed the look on a persons’ face when they disagree with you? And now with politics. Hey Howdy, what a mess. 

 

“The world needs what you have to offer.”

 

*--Marie Forleo

 

Consider this: you have gifts the world needs. To withhold those gifts is to deny the world.

 

“If I waited for perfection,” wrote Margaret Atwood, “I would never write a word.”

 

I was heartened last night when I read Marie Forleo’s take on “The Gap.” We have taste, and we value our perceptions. We know within 15 minutes if a movie is good or not. However, when we try to paint, write, or begin a business, we see where we are compared to where we want to be and feel discouraged. 

 

Many times, I have said that I want to write like I’ve graduated from college, but I’m still in the first grade.

 

That’s when I’m in the gap.

 

Don’t compare yourself with others.

 

Marie Forleo has a word for this comparisonitis: “Doing shots of Comparschlager can kill you.” 

 

I have little regard for the word “talent,” for then others think that this particular person has special powers hidden from them. Instead, I’d say they have a propensity toward something like music. However, they still work their asses off to develop that “talent/skill.”

 

I’m encouraging creativity because it’s something that everybody has, and doing it makes us happy. It is a divine gift to have something you love to do.

 

We need that now.

 

Many people have become depressed, despondent, and disheartened. Look to your creativity.

 

Do what makes you happy. If nothing makes you happy, do nothing.

 

I suggest, though, that you offer your something to the world. 

 

But, you say, “Yarn Shops have been done.”

 

Not by you.

 

Books have been written. Not by you.

 

“The world won’t like it,” you say. No matter. You’ll like it. Besides, remember, “You can’t please all the people all the time.” You can, however, take some feedback and make whatever you are offering better. 

 

Nobody starts at the top of their game.

 

And don’t take feedback from anyone who wants to open a wound. Be supportive of each other.

 

I can only offer my take on things and honor those who dared to put out their work and thoughts in books, speeches, and other writings. I learned because they were willing to take the leap and risk slings and arrows.

 

Some of these people have been labeled as kooks, and some are. I try to weed them out, but even kooks sometimes drop a kernel of truth on us.

 

Let’s awaken to a new understanding, a new thought, a new way of looking at the world.

 

Who are we?

 

We are the people.

 

We’re the ones to make a brighter day.

 

I’m from a time when we believed we could make a change--The Freedom Marches, changing the dress code in schools (Long hair and beards were looked down upon for heaven’s sake). Gays were bashed, Blacks couldn’t swim in public pools or drink from public fountains. And still, race is an issue?

 

I thought we learned.

 

Silly me.

 

So, let’s go back to our creativity. That’s where we sparkle.

 

We need sparklers.

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.