When Did We Become Weird?

Many people have taken on religious fervor, the very thing we have championed against in earlier years. 

We have global warming where we can divide ourselves and beat each other with our viewpoints. Some say, “Pollution has done it.” Others say, “It’s the natural earth cycle.” Oh yes, there is another: it doesn’t exist.

 We have vaccinations where one side says it will save us from this blasted pandemic. We have another side that thinks the vaccination will turn us into zombies, implant devices into our bodies to be controlled by whoever has their finger on the button.

 We seek out material, especially on the Internet (Well, that’s where we can find it), that supports our point of view. In the process, we become enmeshed into a rock-solid belief system.

How far can we go down that rabbit hole?

 If we watch the news on TV, we will be swayed by rhetoric that deliberately slants toward the horrific, the fear, and the desire to keep us watching--thus ratings. (Do you see any bias here?)

 We know some of these things like fear sells, that’s common knowledge, but still, we can get pulled in. I don’t know why that is so; it’s something about our makeup. We hate that car wreaks happens, but we can’t help but look if there is one.

 We’re drawn to the drama, the excitement, the adrenalin rush. I guess we need it. Our lives are too enmeshed in the minutiae of life. (I suppose there was more value in the hunt than bring home the bacon. Perhaps the thrill of the hunt kept the hunters hunting and the village fed.)

If we continue to be stimulus/response individuals, we will be programmed.

 We need to get back some healthy debate, to consider that maybe, just maybe, we are driving our own evolution, and we have a choice as to where it is going. 

 Perhaps the “truth” lies somewhere in the middle.

 Maybe you do have a point that the earth is naturally warming.

 Maybe we are driving it faster with pollution, emissions, hair sprays, aerosols, and etc. 

 It scares me when I see a picture of the earth from space, and it shows how thin our atmosphere is. Heavens, we can’t climb the highest mountain on earth without carrying oxygen with us or heaving and puffing, with little energy to climb to the top. I remember being a kid where our family would drive up toward Mt Hood in Oregon for a picnic. I would get out of the car and wondered what was happening to me that I could hardly climb the embankment. After I acclimated, I was okay. Doesn’t that tell us something? Like maybe we should all work together to ensure that thin film stays surrounding us. (Like not exploding bombs in it.) and we ought to make sure those life-giving elements continue at a ratio beneficial to all life.

 Would you prefer to look at a desolate planet like Mars and consider a colony there when we can play on this gorgeous planet?

 If we pollute the oceans, we’re goners. 

 If we don’t look at the coral reefs and realize they are telling us something, we are stupid. There is a phenomenon in corals caused by the warming ocean and the pollutants, where the coral blanches white. If it stays white, it will die. However, in its desire to survive, corals can produce a sort of sunscreen to help them recover. It will recolor. But given enough stress, that will fail.

 Not interested in coral reefs? Not into scuba diving? The purpose of corals to not to provide us with beautiful photographs but to support life. 1,500 species of fish live within the coral reefs. 

 They are called “Barrier reefs” because they form a barrier to protect the live-forms that live within the reef and are protected by it. Reefs stabilize the ocean floor so grasses can grow. Those grasses feed large creatures like manatees who nurture their babies within the protection of the reefs. 

 Over 500 million people depend upon the reefs for their food. Not only is food sustained there, but medicines have been made from the coral to treat heart problems and for human bone transplants. 

 You know about the food chain. And we ought to know about the ocean. For example, plankton provides 50-80% of our oxygen. One photosynthesizing bacteria within the plankton, Prochlorococcus, produces a whopping 20% of the earth’s oxygen. 

 While we are speaking holistically, dust from the Sierra dessert blows across the African continent, is dropped into the ocean, and fertilizes the plankton that grows there. 

 I notice, this year, that while the flowers are abundant, they came, flourished beautifully, but are gone within a day or two. I’m not sure the apple tree kept its blossoms long enough to be pollinated. No flowers, no bees, no apples. It could be that we have drought conditions, and they know it. And strange that one of the first things affected by change is the reproductive cycle. If we don’t have enough food or water, we don’t have babies or fruit or vegetables.

If a polar bear doesn’t have enough food to grow her young, she holds a fertilized egg in her body until such a time that conditions are right. Better to not have children that to have them starve.

 In our lack of having a holistic approach, we forget that one thing affects another. Even doctors will treat that one booboo without thought of how it is affecting the entire organism. (Some insurance companies will forbid the doctor from addressing more than one issue.) Now, I ask you, is that good doctoring?

 There is pollen in the air,” you say, “It gives me sniffles and itchy eyes. Take an allergy pill, and get with the program. (See, technology can help us be more comfortable. It can cure diseases and thus make our lives more enjoyable. Maybe that’s why God gave us a big brain. It’s up to us the help make life easier for its inhabitants. And don’t get after me for using evolution and God—I believe in both.) You know the grasses need pollen. You like grass-fed beef, don’t you? You like corn and grain, and pasta, and muffins. You like fruit and many other foodstuffs that require pollination. 

 I’m an earth child, as you can see. I want to see it thrive. I’m not waiting for aliens to come and save us or to find another planet to colonize. (Living on Mars would drive me crazy.) We need to focus on our own home. Oh yes, the earth can outlast us—it’s gone through a molten stage and evolved into the beauty we now enjoy, but we don’t want to go back to barren moltenness. (I make up words too.) 

 What about walking around, breathing clean air, drinking pure water, laughing with our neighbors no matter where they came from, what color their skin is, or how rich or poor they are? 

 We are primates—sorry, all the creationists that will be offended by this, it is no insult. I’m honored to be an animal. They have a loving side like us, but they can fight and kill--like us.

 We are getting smarter now. We know some of these things, and we can dialogue with each other too. And why in the world, when we lighten the pandemic controls, crazies go out and shoot somebody? We’re not taking care of the crazies either—but then that’s another story.

 It used to be the printed word was the way people attained knowledge. They found the news of the world in the printed word. And perhaps you stopped reading after the first paragraph—that’s common in books—but then maybe they are boring. 

 Now, most information is presented visually. (Maybe I need to get with the program—maybe I’m old-fashioned.) I know that we are frenzied, angry, upset, nervous, and taking tranquilizers—well, Jo, you have a glass of wine in the evenings. Yep, I do. 

 I also know that reading is a quiet venture. It gives us a moment to pause. You can rail back at the printed word, throw the book, disagree or cry over the wonder of it. However, it gives us time to do that. Have you ever laid your book on your chest and looked out the window and thought of not much, simple things. You look to the horizon and give your eyes a rest. You come back to the book to feel a warm glow encircle you.

 When we try to keep up with a talking face, we are deprived of that moment. Another frenzy to add to our discontent.

 I know I laid out a lot here, and I thought I had nothing to say.

 Probably I have not said things you do not know already. If you’re anything like me, though, a reminder once in a while works wonders. I’m taking a course where I know most of the information, but it can get me fired-up.

 Do I meditate when I know it is good for me? Not much. Do I stay positive when I know that is the best way to live? Ha.

 I want the earth cared for, such as the seventh generation the Native American’s spoke of. We thought they were ignorant savages. Ha.,

 I want happiness for the people. I want them to see that we are little energy packets walking around affecting their surroundings and each other, and that snowballs to all of us. I’ve heard that we are all together in this, but many times people won’t even give you the time of day. Of course, I don’t meet those people.

 Our attitudes, thoughts, actions have some effect on our electrical/magnetic field. We are in touch with the Great Force that surrounds us, sustains us, and is affected by our wishes. Don’t believe me? Give it a try.

 I heard a wonderful story last week. There is an elderly man working at one of the Retirement communities who escaped Germany during WWII. He told the story of 300 Jewish people who escaped a concentration camp. They overpowered the guards, confiscated their weapons, and left. Not all the prisoners left, they were afraid. And they were all killed.

 This is true story that was hushed up by the ones who wanted to maintain control. My daughter verified in on the Internet.

 Be courageous.

 

 Here is my week in pictures. I am grateful to see all of them.

This old pink dogwood, in our backyard was chopped back to a stump and basic limbs when we moved here. I didn't know what sort of tree it was. Now, look at it. 

Apple blossoms
Duckies at the Farm Store

One coon hound who knows how to get his inspiration..

Lilacs in back yard

Crains in Coburg, Or.

I tried to show the humungous moon we had about a week ago.

How did you read this? On the side of a Pub in Springfield, OR

Live long and prosper,

Jo

P.S. What in the heck is "Low Fat Half and Half?" The store caught my husband trying to buy good old high fat half and half. Daughter inadvertently opened in. I can't take it back. Yuck.

Let's Talk Turkey

 

I’m posting what I feel, not to get numbers, but I’m have enough ego to want someone to read what I am written.

I know with a blog, you need to produce something people want.

Sometimes a blog is for information, often it is to inspire, sometimes for entertainment. Some people blog for self-indulgence. However, I prefer to say it is for self-expression. I encourage people to do that, to find whatever floats their boat and do it. That gives life its juice.

I have read that your demographics are into what you are into, and I would like to supply what you are looking for, but I must admit it is a shot in the dark. Thus, I must provide what I’m into and take my chances.

I found out today that more people watch YouTube than they read blogs, and while I’ve have been reticent about going on YouTube, now I find I don’t have to put my big fat face on it. (My face isn’t fat.) I’m thinking of filming forest trails, for I love the forest, and I live in Oregon, where there are forests to share. While walking along the forest trail, filming, I could talk about how we attract what we want, how we can have a happy life, and get what we want out of life. We are here for a reason, and I see that frustrated and unhappy people abound. We all need a picker-upper once in a while. Hell– we need it daily.

Having someone admit it isn’t all a bed of roses is essential too. (I’ll try not to use too many clichés.) It’s okay to acknowledge where you are. If it’s in the dumps, admit it and move on from there. Rarely do we jump from absolute misery to absolute happiness in one quantum leap. We climb up incrementally. Like anger is better than depression. What comes after anger? Maybe some resolve, some insight. Calm even. Acknowledge where you are and move from there. The idea is to not allow the minutia of life to overshadow the grandeur of it. (You see, I talk to myself as much as to you, for I have noticed that once I express my feelings, I am uplifted.)

I want to celebrate life. Is that what you want?

Upward and onward,

Love from Jo

P.S. I placed wild turkeys for the picture above, for they have enough smarts to survive, among coyotes, dogs, raccoons, and whatever else likes turkey for dinner.

A few years ago, we rented a lovely home on three acres in California. After a time, the owner moved in chickens and turkeys. They were out of view from the house, and as I had some experience with chickens I offered–for a reduction in rent, to feed them for him. It was a great arrangement, and the turkeys were young and thus became attached to me. They would sing out a chorus of gobbling when I approached their pen–of course they knew food came with me, but even the owner said they liked me. The trouble was we also had coyotes that would break in during the night, I would see the evidence come morning. So, I kept calling the owner to shore up the fencing. Finally, he got it rather coyote proof.

And then, can you believe it? I guess turkeys are inquisitive creatures, and would go up to the fence to meet Mr. Coyote, and zap off with the head.

I tried to tell them, but would they listen?

I’ll try to steer you right.

The Gap

 

*

“What you think you become. 

“What you feel you attract. 

“What you imagine you create.” --Buddha

 

Well, well.

The Gap is the space between where we want to be and where we are. 

You’ve probably heard a lot about The Law of Attraction—that we draw to ourselves what we resonate with. The above quote of The Buddha pretty much describes it. 

Some days my resonating stinks, so it’s a good thing the Great Spirit is forgiving, or I’d be in deep doo-doo. 

Elon Musk is in the Gap with Starship Rocket prototype. That rocket takes off, a glistening silver sliver aiming for the sky, nose up, a blazing trail behind it. The rocket goes to its designated height, beautiful. It lays on its side and slowly descends back to earth, like a little flying squirrel with its side flaps extended. Right before touching down on the launching pad, Starship pulls itself together, turns its nose up again, and slowly descends. Unless it lands squarely on its feet, BAM! It explodes.

Four have exploded. One sat on the launching pad for about ten minutes after flying, with a slow burn happening around its perimeter, then Bam!

You see, each time a rocket doesn’t work, the scientists learn about what isn’t working.

Thomas Edison said he found 1,000 ways not to make a light bulb.

I’m in the gap with a little notebook I wanted to print. My thought was to Print a blank book, people like those little books with pretty covers. 

I do. I use bound booklets for my computer data. And they can be journals, or whatever you want to record, an address book, press plants between the pages, whatever you can think of. Add a few quotes, and they are more fun. 

I wanted lined pages, ha-ha. Trying to get lined pages formatted for a physical book is another story. I’m learning 1,000 ways not to make a booklet. Either the lines are screwed up, or something is wrong with a page, and the launcher shows that I have a blank page. 

Fix it.

I’ll get it. I’m determined.

I’m in the Gap.

On www.bestdamnwritersblog.com, I spoke to writers. If you’re a writer, you know what I am talking about. You have good taste. You recognize exquisite writing when you see it, but then you look at your own work, “Uh oh. Rats!”

You’re in The Gap. 

Keep on. Keep practicing. It isn’t all talent, and what in the heck is talent anyway? Einstein said it’s 90% hard work.

Apparently, people are interested in this old principle now called The Law of Attraction. The Buddha tried to tell us. Ancient scriptures said, “Ask, and you shall receive. Seek, and you shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” The Secret tried to tell us. Justin Perry regularly talks about The Law of Attraction on YouTube, and he has over a million followers. 

I used to hate it if things were going badly when someone would ask me, “What did you do to create that?” 

“Well, if I could create my current situation, I certainly could create you not being in my face.”

That question was rubbing salt in the wound.

If The Law of Attraction was as simple as some make it out to be, we’d all be rich, beautiful, and abundantly happy. My twelve-year-old grandson scoffs if he hears us talk about it, for I think he has the idea that we mean just ask, and it will show up at your door. Maybe it will, perhaps it won’t. It is not as simple as that.

We’ve thought or asked or prayed for many things that didn’t happen, and a good thing too, sometimes we change our mind. And then we thank the great powers that be that that asked for something didn’t happen. 

Gaps help sometimes.

Contradicting thoughts, exist in the gap chasing away your desired outcome.

In the gap are subtle, unconscious, emotional components. That’s the reason attracting what you want is so tricky.

The Buddha said, “What you think you become. 

“What you feel you attract. 

“What you imagine you create.”

He said that about 500 years before Jesus, before Mohamad, before Krishna. Before, the new thought gave us the idea that thoughts create.

 

We know, stories become exaggerated over time, but perhaps there is still a kernel of truth. It is said that Prince Gautama, who become the Buddha, had a favorite white horse named Kanthaka, who it was said to be 18 cubits in height. (Eighteen hands in measurement is a tall horse—18 cubits would be outrageous.) No matter. Kanthaka and the Prince proved to be a formattable team in contests such as horse-rider ability, archery, and sword fighting—a prince had to prove his metal. Kanthaka pulled the chariot Guatama, and his servant Channa used to ride through the city while Channa showed the Prince the ways of the world.,

 The Prince had been sequestered in the Palace for 29 years, hidden from all misery, age, or ugliness. It had been prophesized that the Child Guatama would either become the most powerful of all leaders or leave the ways of the world and seek his enlightenment. His father wanted to keep him to be a leader and so imprisoned him. 

Who helped him escape?

Kanthaka.

Kanthaka leapt the gates and fled with The Prince from the imprisonment of the Palace. 

Further embellishment said that the gods held their hands under Kanthaka’s feet so the clatter of his hooves against the stone pavement would not awaken the guards.  

In this story, the role of Kanthaka illustrates the reverence, respect, and dependence between horse and human that has endured for centuries. 

(Hee hee, I got a white horse in here.) 

Although I ascribe to the idea of the Law of Attraction, I know we are still in a physical world. We still have a pandemic; we still have situations, not of our choosing.

We’re in the Gap.

All I can say is, “Be a person worth saving.”

 Astronauts made it home safely in a recycled rocket.

P.S. I have 17 blank pages in my booklet, augh!

*The  picture at the top is of Gautama riding Kanthaka with Channa running beside them.

Why Do Things Fall Down?

Dear Readers,

 

I’m struck with a need to appreciate life.

 

One might say we do, but mostly appreciation is not the most circulated sentiment.

 

There is a lot of complaining and fear, so it would appear that there is not much to be happy about. We’ve hunkered down for some time, and it has changed people. From what to what? I don’t know.

 

Let’s look out there at spring bursting with sunshine and flowers. 

 

Yesterday I needed to drive to Florence, Oregon and became so hungry, it seemed that a hamburger was the one thing that would fix it. It did. I relished every bite, as did Sweetpea, who ate a hamburger patty all her own. We sat under this magnificent tree so full of flowers I could almost hear it laughing. 

After my appointment, Sweetpea and I found a strip of sand by a bay—not the open sea, there were only a couple of other people there, and she could run leash-free. She ran in circles, laughing as doggies do when they are having fun, and chased balls of sand kicked up by her toenails. When we reached the giant boulders that marked the end of the beach, both of us sat and looked out over the blue water and blue sky and watched a border collie, the white tip of his tail flashing, down the beach running after a ball, and chase it into the water.

 

“Chasing ball, good,” said Sweetpea, “ball in water, not good.”

 

We were lucky to have been born.

 

I remember Ray Bradbury once said if after you die and you were granted a moment back on earth, which would you choose. He would say,” Any one.”

 

I say some moments are better than others, but I appreciated that he loved life that much.

 

 

 

You know how you will have a book lying around unread until one day you decide to read it and go, “Wow, why did I wait so long?”

 

It is a strange phenomenon with human beings. We often resist the very thing that is best for us. Maybe it’s “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear”…or maybe it’s procrastination. 

 

I am talking about a specific book loaned to me by my nephew, and I let it sit until I was about to visit him and figured it was time to return the book. Driven by the desire to see what I was missing, I picked up the book, and began to read.

 

The book was Seven Brief Lessons on Physics by Carlo Rovelli. It sounds a bit heavy, but it’s not. It’s fascinating. The lessons were written for those who know little or nothing about physics.

 

It begins with one way to create genius.

 

As a youth, Albert Einstein spent a year aimlessly loafing.

 

 How cool is that? 

 

He was in Pavia after abandoning his studies in Germany and joining his family. Einstein was reading Kant and attending occasional lectures at the Pavia University—for pleasure, not for grades.

 

Thus, are geniuses made.

 

He did eventually enroll at the University of Zurich to study physics. A few years later, he sent three articles to the most prestigious scientific journal of the period, the Annalen der Physik. The first shows that atoms really exist. The second lays the foundation for quantum mechanics. The third was his first theory of relativity which shows that time and speed are interrelated. All, according to Rovelli, worthy of a Nobel prise.

 

Einstein became a renowned scientist overnight.

 

Rovelli, the author of the book I was reading, in the last year of his university studies, spent a vacation on the beach at Condofuri in Calabria emersed in the sunshine of the Mediterranean Sea. He was undistracted by school, which, he said, was the best way to study. The book on his lap was mice-chewed, for he had used it to block the holes in his hippish-house on an Umbrian hillside. 

 

Every so often, he would lift his eyes to the glittering sea, and it seemed that he could actually see the curvature of the Earth. As if by magic, as if a friend were whispering in his ear, he understood that reality is not what it appears to be. Another veil had fallen.

 

He thought of Newton’s desire to find out why things fall down. Newton, in a moment of enlightenment, determined that space is no longer something distinct from matter—it is one of the “material” components of the world. It undulates, flexes, curves, twists. “We are not contained,” wrote Rovelli, “within an invisible rigid infrastructure; we are immersed in a gigantic, flexible snail shell. The sun bends space around itself. Earth does not turn around it because of a mysterious force, but because it is racing directly in a space that inclines, like a marble that rolls in a funnel.”

 

All things fall because space curves.

 

Have you ever thrown a penny into one of those funnels they often have at fairs? You throw it in, and it circles round and round, gently rolling down the walls of the funnel until finally, it drops into the hole.

 

See how magnificent the Universe is, and we are a part of it.

 

Remember The words of the Shawnee Chief Tecumseh:

“When you rise in the morning, give thanks for the light, for your life, for your strength. Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason to give thanks, the fault lies in yourself.”

 

“When you were born, you cried,

And the world rejoiced.

Live your life

so when you die

the world cries and you rejoice.”

--White Elk