Well, It’s Been an Exciting Week in Junction City

Sign at the local Coastal Farm Store: “Stay one horse length away.”

I loved that sign and the sense of humor that went with it, although a horse length is usually considered to be 8 feet, not our social distancing of 6. Consider this, the racehorse Secretariat in 1973 won the Triple crown (All three races, the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, and the Belmont) by an amazing 31 lengths. A feat unsurpassed.

Secretariat

I know, this has nothing to do with my blog, it just struck me. And I like horses and Champions, and being thrilled when some animal or person steps out of the commonality of life.

Okay, my week:

On my way to create a blank book, I found it was more trouble than writing one. I wanted a journal/notebook with lined pages, but I refused to sign up for another subscription to allow me to have them. “I’ll do it myself,” I said. “Hee hee,” said the Universe. “I will jerk you around first.” (Just to see if I was serious, I guess.) 

It’s easy to do a Kindle book, but formatting for a hold-in-your-hand’s-paperback book is another story. My first try of putting lines on every page of a 250- page booklet failed to comply with Amazon’s formatting specifications.

Okay, try putting in a table and erasing unwanted lines—that worked until I added quotes. And Amazon requires a page break between every page. I kept losing page breaks, losing lines…

It’s like a game you want to win and refuse to give up. I’ll get this. 

Sorry, this story is longer than you want to hear… 

I found it fascinating, however, reading quotes.

Don’t you love little notebooks with pithy quotes?

I do. I like a motivation a day, although I have not placed a quote on every page. I just broadcast them throughout the booklet like seeds. It will be an Easter-egg hunt. 

Oh, the fascinating thing I found with quotes is that some work, some don’t. Now, Mark Twain was a master. His quotes are simple, poignant, and to the point. No wonder Hall Holbrook received raves dressed and speaking as Mark Twain.

“When angry count to four, when very angry, swear.” Mark Twain 

“Give every day the chance to become the most beautiful of your life.” Mark Twain

Other motivational people or teachers run on too long…their words lose their punch.

Zig Zigler is another great speaker who creates pithy quotes. His motivations are top-notch “Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude.”

You might have to read that a couple of times.

And, you know my favorite Zig quote: “They say that motivation doesn’t last. Neither does bathing, that’s why we do it daily.”

Other than the booklet I was formatting for Amazon paperback, life was going beautifully. Suddenly, Wham! The manufacturing company whose items I was selling shut down advertising on Amazon. “Company policy,” they said. You cannot sell their product on Amazon or eBay. Well, darn, and I had a good thing going. 

Time to make that timeline switch.

This is something I have praised about people during our recent shut-down. For many, when one avenue closed, they tried another. When businesses needed to social distance, they sent their workers home to do remote work. When restaurants were required to cut back and social distance, they set tents outside and started carry-outs and curb service.

One thing daughter and I are contemplating: It’s her invention. What if someone created a computer game with no rules. The people were on some remote place like Mars, where a big mistake would blow a hole in their dome or some such thing. The people needed to work together or perish. Where would that go?

Would we pull together or argue ourselves into obviation?

Last night we watched the newest remake of the movie The Day the Earth Stood Still. Basically, the moral was that there is more to people than first meets the eye. The grand moral was that people change only when they reach a crisis point. 

Let’s imagine this: Momentum says that an object tends to travel in the direction it is headed, and with speed behind it, it is next to impossible to stop. (That’s not exactly the law of Physics, but my interpretation.) One would think that the world would continue in the way it is headed. And that people are predictable. But what if—and this has happened repeatedly—along comes an individual who causes a shift in the timeline. Didn’t Martin Luther King Jr do that? Didn’t Jesus? Didn’t the Buddha? Didn’t John F. Kennedy? 

Well, they got killed, but they changed the world.

Oh heck. Let’s have a happy ending.

The Gist of It

 I was struck this morning by something I read, and now for the life of me, I can’t find where I read it. The interview I copied and saved is not it.

Here’s the gist of what I read:

Often, wrote my unknown author, in times of trouble people band together, but this hasn’t been the case with the Covid19 pandemic.

Why is that?

And then my brilliant author who shall remain nameless, came to a brilliant conclusion. Death frightens people, and this lockdown made the thought of death up close and personal. Usually we don’t think death will happen to us. But this virus experience jammed it in our faces.

Not only were we at risk of sickness or death, or but we had to protect everyone else.

The brilliant author’s conclusion was that the real presence of death causes people to circle the wagons. It causes them to find their own kind, and band with them. Then they fear outsiders.

That pretty much explains what happened this past year. 

And then I moved to another author, Ryan Holiday, talking about his book “Stillness is The Key.”

“We’re trying to get to a place where, as crazy as things are on the outside, we can be calm and clear on the inside.”

Quiet, calm, meditation, stillness, these aren’t new age terms. Spiritual disciplines throughout the ages talked of quieting the mind. Buddha was determined to acquire enlightenment so he sat under a Bodhi tree for God knows how long.  Jesus went to the wilderness for 40 days. The Muslims speak of it, the Greeks, the Bhagavad Gita speaks of “evenness of mind—a peace that is ever the same.”

Perhaps this pandemic was to teach us something—to slow down, to look out for our neighbors, to stay firm in times of trouble, to enjoy nature, to take care of it. Perhaps the lockdown was saying we should teach our own children instead of letting institutions do it. Maybe it’s time to know we are divine beings.

Maybe this year was to tell us: “Don’t let the rabble of the marketplace knock you off your steady and firm stillness.”

Yes, the marketplace “rabbled” a lot this past year—not only that, but our livelihood was in grave danger, as wages were cut and lay-offs occurred. We didn’t know where to turn.

Did we lose our stillness, our confidence that things would work out? Did we lose our own internal knowingness?

I have found that it’s easy to stay centered when things are going well. When trouble comes…well, that’s a different story.

How can we help each other?

I will keep reminding you that you are a divine being, that you have a strength within yourself stronger than you know, that thoughts are powerful and to watch what you are thinking and saying. I will try to be upbeat even when it appears that things aren’t working according to plan. I will remind you to follow your own guidance system, and to notice how something makes you feel. That is a barometer.

You know the old game of hot/cold. When you are getting close to your good, it feels better (hotter), when you go away from it your tummy tells you so. (colder).

I know, sometimes indecision can stir you up. I’ve had that-- knowing which way to turn.

Go back to the stillness, your quiet place, and let the divine speak to you.

 

Holding the baby and watching "All of Me," with Steve Martin and Lilli Tomlin--it's a kick. Watch it. You need a laugh, and maybe a baby chick.