SOMETHING I FOUND IN A DRAWER

Sometimes I (and everyone else, I presume) find something interesting, a clipping or whatever, and slip it into a drawer to go back to, one day.  This is from a newspaper clipping that I don't know the exact date of, but know that it definitely predates 1989, the death of the author, the Reverend Gaston Foote.  It's called "Looking for God," and has a really good view point:

"Sir Julian Huxley, a distinguished scientist, told us 40 years ago that we were entering a new era in which God would be completely abandoned.  I quote:  'Man must stop creeping for shelter to the arms of a father-figure whom he himself has created and stop trying to escape responsibility by sheltering under the umbrella of divine authority.'

Is this a day for the eclipse of God?  In this connection may I suggest three things.  First. we may be looking for the wrong kind of God.  If the God we seek is the one who directs us against our wills, manipulates us as though we were puppets, pulls on our leash when we go in the wrong direction, we may not find that kind of God.  God is not so much power, but person; not force, but Father.

In the second place, we may be looking for God in the wrong places.  We often speak of tornadoes, floods and plane accidents as acts of God.  Are they?  Or simply the result of the laws of cause and effect?

We think of God as being in the unnatural, the unpredictable.  Is He not more realistically in the natural and the predictable?  I seem to find God in the laboratories where men work to eradicate disease, spot tornadoes, predict earthquakes and overcome floods.

Finally, we we often look for God in the wrong direction.  He is not out there in space on cloud nine sending thunderbolts to frighten his children.  God is not so much a noun or an object as he is a spirit of love, truth, understanding, respect, friendship.

I believe I had a glimpse of God on a recent weekend in a city park.  A young couple had taken a group of underprivileged children out for a day's outing so they could become better acquainted with them, help them feel a sense of personal importance, let them know that they were, one by one, deeply loved by the creator of the universe.  Have you not seen God lately?"

BY MY COUNT

 Well, last year was a roller-coaster year for most of us folks on this planet, beginning with the beginning of the Covid pandemic, and ending with the fraught election, which did not relieve tensions but seemed to heighten them.

Now, by my count, and still counting, we have at least six (6) pandemics to deal with:  Covid; Trumpism; Political Divide; Climate Change; Racial Divide; Domestic Terrorism.

Like most folks who put their thoughts out here, in a blog, I wish very much I could reassure everyone who bothers to read this, with solutions.  Alas, like most folks, I wake up every day trying to figure out what to do next, and what world concern must be dealt with next, along, of course, with the every-day concerns of trying to keep, for instance, a stock of toilet paper and peanut butter and basic emergency stuff. We have, apparently, five different brands of toilet paper, since we buy a package when we can find it, and of course, using it along the way.

We are among those still waiting to be summoned for a Covid vaccination, carefully registered and definitely in the mature classification.  We are as perplexed as the high percentage of the world's population that an individual who incited violence at our nation's capitol should maintain such loyalty.  We are surprised that one of the founding parties of our nation should become devoted to a personality cult among other apparent devotions to so much except the country it purports to represent.  We are both grateful that racial disparity is coming to the forefront and horrified that it still is not nearly close to being resolved. And as to those who simply do not wish to be governed by the federal, state, and local governments in their areas, well, how about this:  they live as they wish and they let the rest of us live as we wish, in quiet, respectful, accepting style.

So there they all are: the problems we all face, the examination of all the attitudes, the general hopes of the majority, the resigned acceptance that we must continue to take one day at a time, do our best to stay steady, and take care of each other. Oh, and keep looking for toilet paper.

PLEASE NOTE:  THIS WAS WRITTEN IN FEBRUARY OF 2020, JUST NOW GETTING POSTED!

SOME DAYS

 We all live our lives the same:  moment by moment, hour by hour, and so on.  We all eventually figure out that we cannot change the past or figure out what the future is.  Period.  Like it or not, that's simply the human condition.  And by and large, we all accept it.  

But there are some days when, even if the sun is shining, our day is so gloomy that we lapse into what might have been, or worry about what's next.  Some days are simply too full of stress and/or demands and/or frustrations, and we want to sit down, like a small child would, and say 'No!  I don't want to!' We want to go outside and just start running (or walking, depending).  Or we want to kick and wave our arms and shriek.  Loudly.

And there is no magic I have found to help deal with these situations, what I call 'down days'.  Except.

Except to figure out maybe just one thing to look forward to.  Like eating a cookie or a spoonful of ice cream, or picking up the cat for a brief hug.  She doesn't like long hugs but she does love the short ones.  

Or to just hug a loved one, if one is around.  Or to look outside and see what is there.  

A dear friend once told me we all are entitled to moments of self-pity.  She called those moments a pity-party.  And said we could have one any time we needed one, but only for fifteen minutes.  Which gives one time to indulge in a bit of despair and then perhaps figure out what they are going to do next.  Perhaps figure out what kind of cookie.

GOODBYE, GOODLUCK, AND GOOD RIDDANCE

 After the end of 2019, which was disastrous for us personally, from the standpoint of serious and multiple health issues, we thought, as we always try to do, that 'next year will be better'!  But that was because we were thinking only of our on personal issues.  

Actually, since the day after the presidential election in 2016, we had held to ourselves the concerns and fears of damage that a totally incapable president might do, but we also held tightly the thoughts that there are checks and balances written into the US Constitution that would protect us as a country.  Wow, were we mistaken!  

Now at the end of 2020, we find ourselves still dealing with personal health issues, living extremely quiet lives to avoid  exposure wo a world-wide pandemic, and every day seeing the current president break a Constitutional rule.  Disregarding every sort of effort to help our country (except for an ignorant proposal laced with selfish interests).  Apparently even more ignorant, if that is possible, of how real life in our country works than when he won office.  

Yes, we have to believe that things can begin to get better.  Yes, there will hopefully be accountability for the massive wrongs done to our country.  But the death toll is so unimaginable and so real, the damage to our economy is so heartbreaking, and the failure of one of the two major political parties to support their country rather than support whatever description one could apply to the president's current pattern of behavior:  this is stress beyond measure.  Sorrow beyond measure.  Disgust beyond measure.  

Let us hope we can still find hope.  

THE CRUELEST THING SO FAR

 Since the day after Election Day in November 2016, we have been dreading what someone such as the current president could do to our country.  However, we suffered from a failure of imagination when it came to the president's completely disastrous response to the pandemic.  Only just behind the president in horrific response has been his party's response to the suffering of our people.  Now, on the very eve of a pitiful, too late, too inadequate plan of assistance to desperate need of most of the American people, our tax money back to us for food and shelter, this president, this hollow creature with no ability to care, is threatening to hold the current plan up until who knows when.

If this were a movie, no one would believe it.  We shake our heads all the time, trying to figure out what to do.  We ourselves have basics, but the families, the children, the elderlies, the majority of Americans, are caught between a do-nothing Senate majority and a do-everything-bad president, and coming at the darkest time of the year, at the traditionally holiday season, there is only certain things that can be done right now.

We can help each other by sharing what we have.

We can hope that the new administration will be able to eventually hold accountable the people who are failing us.

And we can make sure our votes are made and counted and that we bring to office more people who care.

THE THRILL OF IT ALL

 This year, this year, has been a year that cannot be described in ordinary words such as 'difficult' or even 'horrific'.  As a planet, we passed 'horrific' back in the summer.  BUT there are still so many small, sometimes very small things we can find to give us joy, to give us a moment of peace.  We cannot compare the stress and inconvenience and frustration and yes, even fear, that most of us are experiencing'  with the stress of front-line workers, the desolation of loss of so many, the fear of loss of shelter and food.  These are terrible, unacceptable experiences for all our fellow humans.  

But if we can, and when we can, we can find a moment of laughter, a bit of relief from reality, in such very small things.  A dianthus plant blooming in December, tiny and fragrant:

And just today, a daughter calling and wondering if perhaps, just perhaps, we would like a gift of her wonderful home-made chocolate and peanut candy.  Not just the offer, but the priceless look of total delight on the faces of her father and brother, gave us all a few minutes of laughing and celebrating the offer and the anticipation.

There are many moments to mourn, just now, but there are also moments to rejoice, to listen to Christmas songs as if for the first time, to hope, to plan, to believe in the future.  

WHEN I'M JUST THINKING

 Like most folks, my mind wanders all over the place, pushed in one direction by something I read or see, pushed in another direction by a memory.

For instance, even though we in this part of the world have experienced mild winters before and known roses to bloom in December, this year has been unique in its own way.  Here it is in late November, and there are zinnias and Mexican tuberoses and potted periwinkle and clibrachoa all blooming in the garden, as well as pots of impatiens and pentas.  It's a  big awkward for me right now, because I have pots of pansies that I planted, ready to put out in the outside pots for the winter.  But to discard the impatiens and pentas when they are flourishing is something I cannot do right now, although I may have to simply transplant them to a space in a flower bed, so that I can settle the pansies into where they will be belong, before some arctic blast comes along (and we always have to be prepared for one).  

In the meantime spring-blooming bulbs are sending their spears up, so at least I know where they are so I can plant some perennials around them.  I plan every year to mark open spaces that don't contain bulbs so that I can slide some daylilies or whatever into the open spots, but as I have said, my mind wanders and/or events overwhelm me.  Maybe next year!