A family member graduated recently. We shared these words.
"Good strengths and energy along your journey. Remember that you are the only person you will/can ever be. So be your best in your own unique way.
Don’t compare yourself to anyone! Always be open to learn from others, but never compare yourself; it will distress you and sap your energy. Each and every person – even identical twins, are separately unique.
You will discover your strengths and your limitations as you progress down your road. Build on your strengths and use them with humility, because nothing and no one lasts forever, that wonderfulness might disappear tomorrow. Strengthen your limitations, when and where you can; but mostly - embrace and respect them. That respect and acceptance of yourself – of all and everything that is you, will energize and sustain you, and keep you strong.
Be ever so particular about the person you choose for your life partner. Make sure they can be your best and life-long friend. Chemistry can sometimes wane as you age, but friendship won’t. Friends hold you when you cry, stand by you when everyone else is gone, understand you in your anger, support you with your dreams, and respect and take care of you as age plays its horrid game.
A solid work ethic is a good and necessary precursor to any success as very little that is worthwhile, comes easily. But do schedule in some healthy fun and play into your days. It will energize you, keep you young and keep you smiling.
Work hard at holding hands with Nature. She affords us unlimited avenues of beauty and constant opportunity for learning and humility. Revere and respect her, and use stewardship with the Earth she provides.
Search your heart and spirit for a Creator of some sort, be it a higher power within you, Nature, or some other form of spirituality. It will sustain you in your hopeless moments when no human can; it will teach you a respect and understanding of the universe, a universe that can give and take life in the same breath, and seem unduly cruel at times. A spiritual belief system can engender your inner peace; it may be your leaning post, your inner strength when sometimes…life just doesn’t make good sense.
Love and care for yourself, your family and your friends, no matter how intolerable or unbearable they may seem at times. Love is not easy; contrary to modern culture, you do not fall in Love. Rather - you choose Love. And Love - real Love in any of it's myriad of forms, takes work, respect, energy, patience and perseverance. As elusive and beautiful as the hummingbird, Love is the glue of life. For the times when your human nature will abandon Love in favor of ego, always keep a hug and sincere I’m sorry available. Pride never won a war, but I’m sorry and a hug…are always a sure victory! You can’t buy these two treasures any where in the universe; but they are yours for the taking – anytime, anywhere. Don’t lose them. You will lose your way without them.
All creatures, no matter how small, are part of Nature and deserving of basic care and respect. How we choose to care for entities smaller/weaker than us is a direct statement about our capacity for Love, respect and understanding of the Universe.
Learn all the lessons afforded you along your journey, bar none! For it is only you and yourself that must ultimately dance to the music of life.
Take good care. Congratulations on your graduation, one of your first major accomplishments!"
As always, in youth and in age, Nature prevails.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Monday, July 20, 2009
Bumpy Chicken Trails OR Chicken Track Trails in Trouble
For those of you who are fortunate enough to have an e-mail subscription to the newsletter from BackYard Chickens, you may have noticed that there are over 20 linkable references to cities across the country that are hearing increasing noise from owners of backyard chickens...within city limits - cities that have codes against these quiet, friendly, egg-producing animals.
I just wrote an e-mail to a reporter of such an article from Salem, OR. My points are simple - even easy to understand for city council members (who seem as a rule, to have hearing difficulties when in the vicinity of citizen's opinions with which their may personally differ). Government anyone?
Keep in mind please, that dogs are everywhere! And certainly allowed in cities (to my continuing chagrin).
Dogs are not usually a quiet animal; they can bark incessantly. Hens quietly cluck.
Dogs can and occasionally do, bite people - which on rare occasion, can be lethal. A hen can try to peck you if she is setting on a clutch.
Dogs have a genetic feud with restraint; they are challenged by fencing of any kind, digging under, climbing over or simply leaping them. Hens (with an occasional necessary wing-clip), respect their fences.
Dog poo is more repulsive to me than a year-old chicken coop! And cities don't 'crow' too much about it, interestingly enough. Hen coops are easily cleaned - AND - hen poo is a welcome addition to a compost pile as well as a great fertilizer for gardens, trees, etc. Haven't seen much dog poo on anyone's Azaleas lately...
Dogs give a lot of Love; point taken. Hens...give Love too...and eggs.
Dogs don't seem to have a hankering for grasshoppers and other insects that plague back-yards gardeners. Insects are a hen's caviar!
When dogs die, (I lost 2 lifelong pets last year and still deal with the painful loss), they go to doggie heaven. When hens die, they can pass through the dinner table, first.
The price of food at my grocery stores has doubled, generally speaking; how are the prices at yours? An increasing number of people are turning to their 'backyards' to supplement their decreasing buying power. In addition, considering the detriments of eating increasing amounts of 'high fructose corn syrup', 'monosodium glutamate' and other unpronounceable chemicals added to store-bought foods, I look longer and harder at my 'backyard' lately, to feed me in a cheaper, healthier manner. Plus, I can use the exercise!
Nature may have her temper tantrums and bad moods, but overall, she provides for all our needs from medicinal herbs to edible wild plants to animals that can add protein to our diets. Nature is all around us, ready to support us in this life we live.
What are your thoughts? How do you feel about having a couple hens in your backyard? Please leave us a comment.
As always, Nature prevails.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Nostalgia Trails; Oris George
It's ready folks; push a few buttons and a touching, newly published e-book by Oris George is now available at http://orisgeorge.com/books/man.htm.
Oris George writes nostalgic stories of his boyhood, many years ago, when milk came directly from the cow out back, eggs were only as far away as the coop out back, and hours of chores to keep up all that entailed "out back", made up the responsible person that looked back at you in the mirror.
Life was not as easy then, but dinners and homemade apple pie were something to crow about, the grate in the corner of your bedroom in the old farmhouse grew you up sometimes, and strangers along the side of the road...became life-long friends.
THE MAN AT THE SIDE OF THE ROAD, by Oris George, will not only keep you turning the pages, but will also leave a warm and memorable footprint on your heart.
For $6.95, (temporary, introductory price), this e-book is a steal you don't want to miss.
As always...Nature prevails.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Nature Prevails
Whether you study the comeback of an endangered species or patrol your park on your morning run as a park ranger, keep up the grounds in your summer seasonal city park position, dig up fossils for your next book on Dinosaurs, head your scout troop on a trek through the high Sierras, film a documentary on volcanoes at Mauna Loa in Hawaii, take rafters down the Colorado River, pick up trash along the road, drive semis long haul, fly emergency supplies to a hurricane struck New Orleans or serve on a search and rescue ski patrol, Nature is your guide, your worst enemy and your avenue of travel. There is no avoiding Nature in this Universe; she is everywhere, everytime, everyplace...so long as we continue to breathe her air.
Accepting Nature in her complete attire takes understanding of her pervasiveness, acceptance of her power and our minute position in that schematic, as well as preparedness for her more grand gestures such as frigid temps, high winds and tsunamis. Nature is high-maintenance; boating in the afternoon sunshine under gentle breezes may evolve into a powerful thunderstorm in a matter of minutes, packing tornadic winds and killer lightning. Skiing down an expensive, blemish-free slope in the high mountains may instantly turn into a life and death avalanche. Basking innocently on a beach in India may be your last vacation as you realize the ocean that just rose 100 feet in front of you leaves you no avenue of escape. Living at the base of a volcanoe may end your life.
Nature also warms us, quenches our thirst, provides our food, calms us with her breezes, protects us from the ravages of space, keeps our feet planted firmly on the ground we call home, and most certainly provides the profound air that keeps our heart pumping.
Nature watched over the microbes as they blossomed into life in our oceans four million years ago, she applied her creativity as she continually rearranged her continents into their ever-evolving shapes and positions, she cried over the millions of lives lost during the history of wars, she surely smiled with pride as her myriad forms of life rebounded on Earth after thousands of years of planetary disasters.
Nature surrounds us in the vegetables of our gardens, the butterflies on our flowers, the breezes in the trees under which we rest on a hot afternoon; she brings us peace and relaxation as we enjoy the tapping of a gentle summer rain on a tin roof; she certainly feeds our soul in the gentle embrace of a friend as we mourn a Loved one.
Embrace Nature in your life. Help a turtle across the road; separate your recyclable items; plant a tree; leave your car parked once in awhile and walk. Look around occasionally and count your natural blessings. You'll improve your blood pressure, slow down your heart rate, bring a little peace into your soul and last...bring joy into your life.
As always, Nature prevails.
Accepting Nature in her complete attire takes understanding of her pervasiveness, acceptance of her power and our minute position in that schematic, as well as preparedness for her more grand gestures such as frigid temps, high winds and tsunamis. Nature is high-maintenance; boating in the afternoon sunshine under gentle breezes may evolve into a powerful thunderstorm in a matter of minutes, packing tornadic winds and killer lightning. Skiing down an expensive, blemish-free slope in the high mountains may instantly turn into a life and death avalanche. Basking innocently on a beach in India may be your last vacation as you realize the ocean that just rose 100 feet in front of you leaves you no avenue of escape. Living at the base of a volcanoe may end your life.
Nature also warms us, quenches our thirst, provides our food, calms us with her breezes, protects us from the ravages of space, keeps our feet planted firmly on the ground we call home, and most certainly provides the profound air that keeps our heart pumping.
Nature watched over the microbes as they blossomed into life in our oceans four million years ago, she applied her creativity as she continually rearranged her continents into their ever-evolving shapes and positions, she cried over the millions of lives lost during the history of wars, she surely smiled with pride as her myriad forms of life rebounded on Earth after thousands of years of planetary disasters.
Nature surrounds us in the vegetables of our gardens, the butterflies on our flowers, the breezes in the trees under which we rest on a hot afternoon; she brings us peace and relaxation as we enjoy the tapping of a gentle summer rain on a tin roof; she certainly feeds our soul in the gentle embrace of a friend as we mourn a Loved one.
Embrace Nature in your life. Help a turtle across the road; separate your recyclable items; plant a tree; leave your car parked once in awhile and walk. Look around occasionally and count your natural blessings. You'll improve your blood pressure, slow down your heart rate, bring a little peace into your soul and last...bring joy into your life.
As always, Nature prevails.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Healing Trails
I have to confess; I copied this saying from Jan Verhoeff's blog this am, a friend who wrote a profound article yesterday on changing hurt...into healing.
“A pearl is a beautiful thing that is produced by an injured life. It is the tear [that results] from the injury of the oyster. The treasure of our being in this world is also produced by an injured life. If we had not been wounded, if we had not been injured, then we will not produce the pearl.”
Stephan Hoeller
If you harbor pain in your heart, or stress in your soul, go over and take in the words of healing and Love available on Jan's site.
Nature feeds us in surprising ways and angels take many forms. Maybe your rainbow's end lies in a few simple words today that will give your soul the wings it needs to take you through this day, week, year.
Nature prevails.
“A pearl is a beautiful thing that is produced by an injured life. It is the tear [that results] from the injury of the oyster. The treasure of our being in this world is also produced by an injured life. If we had not been wounded, if we had not been injured, then we will not produce the pearl.”
Stephan Hoeller
If you harbor pain in your heart, or stress in your soul, go over and take in the words of healing and Love available on Jan's site.
Nature feeds us in surprising ways and angels take many forms. Maybe your rainbow's end lies in a few simple words today that will give your soul the wings it needs to take you through this day, week, year.
Nature prevails.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Freedom trails; false alarm, this time
After receiving numerous calls from all the messages left at Senator Michael Bennett's office last Friday, it seems the bill S2099 is dead. As one clerk told me, "When a session of Congress closes, all bills that did not go into law are dead." S2099 died in committee in 2000.
For anyone following this, Bennett's office directed me to www.thomas.gov for any further information on bills. Seems one can find just about anything related to bills on this site.
FYI, Senator Mark Udall contacted a fellow blogger Jan Verhoeff and confirmed the same information on S2099 as Senator Bennett's office did above.
We all (yes, I've learned yet another lesson in responsibility), might check the Thomas site on a regular basis to keep abreast of legislation in progress. Being current with our information makes it of course, easier to make our voice heard...before the fact!
This human nature of ours is wondrous and deep and worthy of respect. Our capacity for learning and growth are unlimited.
Nature prevails.
For anyone following this, Bennett's office directed me to www.thomas.gov for any further information on bills. Seems one can find just about anything related to bills on this site.
FYI, Senator Mark Udall contacted a fellow blogger Jan Verhoeff and confirmed the same information on S2099 as Senator Bennett's office did above.
We all (yes, I've learned yet another lesson in responsibility), might check the Thomas site on a regular basis to keep abreast of legislation in progress. Being current with our information makes it of course, easier to make our voice heard...before the fact!
This human nature of ours is wondrous and deep and worthy of respect. Our capacity for learning and growth are unlimited.
Nature prevails.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Nostalgia Trails; Ol' Blue and Charlie
As we celebrate this fourth of July, 2009, Oris George’s new story brings you back to a time frame when the fourth of July also meant learning how to grow up.
Some say freedom is about speaking your mind. Others say it’s all about moving anytime you wish and living where you choose. Freedom includes the ability to choose your career, the size of your family, the books you choose to write – or read. Living in a nation that allows public gatherings without fear for your safety as well as being able to safely walk the streets of your town at night, are also part of America’s freedoms.
There is also something to say for the freedom to think and learn and grow and hold events and ideas and yes – people, dear in our hearts.
Ol’ Blue and Charlie, takes the reader into the heart of a young man trying to grow into his ‘man-full-grown’ view of himself even as he also struggles with the pains of being ‘only’ eleven. Here are some excerpts:
-"I don’t care what your dad said. You have no business up there alone.”
What did she know about anything anyway? I had my donkey, ol’ Blue, and Ring, my trusty black dog going with me. I was eleven years old and didn’t need anyone telling me what I could or couldn’t do.
-“Thanks for the lunch, Mom. You make the best lunches.” I figured it wouldn’t cause me pain to elaborate on the lunch. (Moms like to hear those kinda things.) “Don’t worry. I’ll be home in time to do chores.”
-I responded by saying, “You don’t look like much of a cowboy to me.” As soon as the words dropped out of my mouth, I was sorry I’d said anything. (All at once I didn’t feel very smart.) I could tell at a glance he was in bad shape. His right leg was twisted and lying at an awkward angle. A trickle of blood showed at the left corner of his mouth. I felt as dumb as the knots on a potato. I knew he needed help.
-That September morning in 1945 started like any other Saturday morning – out of bed by 5:00 a.m. Mom snapped from her bedroom, “Quit clattering around and let the rest of us sleep.”
Don’t let this nostalgic peek into the past slip by. You’ll leave this story (as with all of Mr. George’s stories along the backroads of yesterday), with a refreshed feeling that times past really do matter and growing up in the harsher times during WWII may leave you with a broader, deeper sense of what life really means…to an eleven-year-old who believes he is a man-full-grown.
"A mule is everything a horse wishes it was!"
Oris George
Visit Oris George down his backroads of yesterday at orisgeorge.com.
Some say freedom is about speaking your mind. Others say it’s all about moving anytime you wish and living where you choose. Freedom includes the ability to choose your career, the size of your family, the books you choose to write – or read. Living in a nation that allows public gatherings without fear for your safety as well as being able to safely walk the streets of your town at night, are also part of America’s freedoms.
There is also something to say for the freedom to think and learn and grow and hold events and ideas and yes – people, dear in our hearts.
Ol’ Blue and Charlie, takes the reader into the heart of a young man trying to grow into his ‘man-full-grown’ view of himself even as he also struggles with the pains of being ‘only’ eleven. Here are some excerpts:
-"I don’t care what your dad said. You have no business up there alone.”
What did she know about anything anyway? I had my donkey, ol’ Blue, and Ring, my trusty black dog going with me. I was eleven years old and didn’t need anyone telling me what I could or couldn’t do.
-“Thanks for the lunch, Mom. You make the best lunches.” I figured it wouldn’t cause me pain to elaborate on the lunch. (Moms like to hear those kinda things.) “Don’t worry. I’ll be home in time to do chores.”
-I responded by saying, “You don’t look like much of a cowboy to me.” As soon as the words dropped out of my mouth, I was sorry I’d said anything. (All at once I didn’t feel very smart.) I could tell at a glance he was in bad shape. His right leg was twisted and lying at an awkward angle. A trickle of blood showed at the left corner of his mouth. I felt as dumb as the knots on a potato. I knew he needed help.
-That September morning in 1945 started like any other Saturday morning – out of bed by 5:00 a.m. Mom snapped from her bedroom, “Quit clattering around and let the rest of us sleep.”
Don’t let this nostalgic peek into the past slip by. You’ll leave this story (as with all of Mr. George’s stories along the backroads of yesterday), with a refreshed feeling that times past really do matter and growing up in the harsher times during WWII may leave you with a broader, deeper sense of what life really means…to an eleven-year-old who believes he is a man-full-grown.
"A mule is everything a horse wishes it was!"
Oris George
Visit Oris George down his backroads of yesterday at orisgeorge.com.
Friday, July 3, 2009
Freedom Trails
Consider this: a world where our words are our greatest weapons. And the word 'stranger' is unknown. In 2009 unfortunately, this reality can only be found on bookshelves, under fiction.
I was jerked awake and fearful when I read a "letter to the editor" in The Local Buzz by Jim Faull, the Prowers County Sheriff. After contacting a fellow blogger Jan Verhoeff who writes the local Lamar site, lamarco.us, we spent our first few waking hours searching the internet and firing up phone lines researching the authenticity of this SB-2099. In part, I quote Faull's "letter to the editor":
Senate bill SB-2099 if passed would require us to put on our 2009 federal tax form all guns that you have or own.
it may require fingerprints and a tax of $50.00 per gun.
Mr. Faull's heart was in the positive place of concern and caring as his letter urged citizens to fight this potential travesty of American rights granted under the Constitution, (remember that little document that is sometimes referred to as 'out of date' and other insanities?). I particularly appreciate and respect a law enforcement person who outwardly agrees with the 2nd amendment.
Checking Snopes, about.com and other internet sources, however, the bill was apparently introduced in 2000 and the wording may be different than stated above. It may be that there is no current bill as such; we'll know more Monday, hopefully, as I left messages on all 9 of Senator Bennett's phones and 1 of Senator Udall's 3 numbers (2 of his voice mail boxes were full). I also have a call into the bill's sponsor, Sen Jack Reed, Md: 202.224.4642. BIG NOTE HERE folks; if Sen. Reed were to receive a taste of Colorado "opinion" on Monday, he - and other people's reprsentatives of like mind - might think twice before ripping away at our 2nd amendment rights!
Look up this bill folks; it'll spike your B.P. and aggravate your heart arrhythmia's! The never-ending push to dis-arm Americans and leave the weapons in the hands of criminals and government, continues. I am not aware of any time/place in history when/where this tactic strengthened a country's citizenry. Comments are welcome.
FYI, I quote the 2nd amendment to The Constitution of the United States of America;
A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
Please watch the video listed below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeiK8tEtLv4
This 4th of July, give some time and consideration to the life we lead in America. We are here because some very wise folks early in our history as a nation, realized the need to prevent any future oppression as we had endured in our beginning struggle as a new nation, as a young America. They wrote a document, The Constitution of the United States. How do you feel about this? Did it serve our purposes for the first 200 years? Will it stand the test of time? Is it 'fanatical' to stand behind the backbone of our freedom? You decide.
http://www.jacquielawson.com/viewcard.asp?code=1221321706636&source=jl999
Nature prevails.
I was jerked awake and fearful when I read a "letter to the editor" in The Local Buzz by Jim Faull, the Prowers County Sheriff. After contacting a fellow blogger Jan Verhoeff who writes the local Lamar site, lamarco.us, we spent our first few waking hours searching the internet and firing up phone lines researching the authenticity of this SB-2099. In part, I quote Faull's "letter to the editor":
Senate bill SB-2099 if passed would require us to put on our 2009 federal tax form all guns that you have or own.
it may require fingerprints and a tax of $50.00 per gun.
Mr. Faull's heart was in the positive place of concern and caring as his letter urged citizens to fight this potential travesty of American rights granted under the Constitution, (remember that little document that is sometimes referred to as 'out of date' and other insanities?). I particularly appreciate and respect a law enforcement person who outwardly agrees with the 2nd amendment.
Checking Snopes, about.com and other internet sources, however, the bill was apparently introduced in 2000 and the wording may be different than stated above. It may be that there is no current bill as such; we'll know more Monday, hopefully, as I left messages on all 9 of Senator Bennett's phones and 1 of Senator Udall's 3 numbers (2 of his voice mail boxes were full). I also have a call into the bill's sponsor, Sen Jack Reed, Md: 202.224.4642. BIG NOTE HERE folks; if Sen. Reed were to receive a taste of Colorado "opinion" on Monday, he - and other people's reprsentatives of like mind - might think twice before ripping away at our 2nd amendment rights!
Look up this bill folks; it'll spike your B.P. and aggravate your heart arrhythmia's! The never-ending push to dis-arm Americans and leave the weapons in the hands of criminals and government, continues. I am not aware of any time/place in history when/where this tactic strengthened a country's citizenry. Comments are welcome.
FYI, I quote the 2nd amendment to The Constitution of the United States of America;
A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
Please watch the video listed below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeiK8tEtLv4
This 4th of July, give some time and consideration to the life we lead in America. We are here because some very wise folks early in our history as a nation, realized the need to prevent any future oppression as we had endured in our beginning struggle as a new nation, as a young America. They wrote a document, The Constitution of the United States. How do you feel about this? Did it serve our purposes for the first 200 years? Will it stand the test of time? Is it 'fanatical' to stand behind the backbone of our freedom? You decide.
http://www.jacquielawson.com/viewcard.asp?code=1221321706636&source=jl999
Nature prevails.
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