Wow, what a wild ride it has been this spring...

Wow, what a wild ride it has been this spring...

So we have the Corona-virus out there, highly communicable virus.  
Corona-virus can cause Covid19, which is a disease which can effect the person for the rest of their lives, it can take a persons life.  The population that is effected most include people with underlying health conditions, elderly people, people living in facilities, people who do not have easy affordable access to health care, as well as people of color.

Now, being as easily spread as this virus is, and the complications this virus can cause, we really need to bring into use all of the blocks to it's communicable abilities.  This means layering on several things we know which can hinder it's spread.  Hand washing, sneezing or coughing into your elbow,  not touching your face, facial masks, social distancing, not going to public places if feeling unwell, the use of hand sanitizers and the increasing cleaning of frequently areas, all of these help prevent the spread of the corona-virus.

We should all do this to protect each other.  This is a social contract we should all respect.  However, I have heard people, which I know personally, state this all a hoax. This is all a form of control of the population.  This is people giving their personal power away... To what end I ask, and I have not truly heard any answers. 

Now we have Black Lives Matters movement.  

We as a people, have been recently grappling with the underlying issues which we, as a country, have been grappling with my entire life.  Has there been progress?  Yes.  Is there more that can and should be done? YES.  In just my lifetime, there are MANY milestones: follow this link for a sense of what has occured:
 http://www.occidentaldissent.com/american-racial-history-timeline-2/american-racial-history-timeline-ii/

I grew up in a basically all white area.  I remember my first time seeing a black person as a kid. I remember this more because of my mother's reaction to my stating "Mom, LOOK!  there's a chocolate lady!"  I knew no better, I communicated what I thought I had seen.  I was quickly Shh-ed. and scolded because I had embarrassed my mother, and that I should be ashamed of myself.  But this was my first sight of a beautiful brown person, my statement which was not spoken out of hate, not spoken to hurt, but one that could have been used to educate.

From that place, to the place I am now?  I think I have learned a little bit.  Do I have more to learn?  Yes.  Do I understand what it means to be a person of color in America today?  Nope. as an example; I was appalled at the lady's actions in central park who threatened the black man who was bird watching in the park, when he had asked her to put her dog on the leash... I simply could not understand anyone using skin color, predetermined prejudices of police department, and using  this as a weapon!  I honestly never realized this belief that must commonly be held, could be weaponized.
I am shocked that I never realized there would be power in her statement. I am proud of the man's reaction of her statements, and the calmness of his reaction to her statements.  He showed empathy, and yet was smart enough to have his recording devise going thru-out this exchange.  And I am thankful for his recording of the event!  This woke me up a bit more!  so THANK YOU SIR!

But it is definitely a wild ride to open these old eyes...

Favorite Words...

My better half and I went on a short trip this past weekend.  It took a full day of travel due to a stop over of two hours.  We used the carry on option to save money and frustration awaiting bags at the baggage carousel at our final destination.  So this meant we were very tired from carrying all the stuff around to each terminal. We were tired and sore, and after hearing the boarding gate changed to the other end of the terminal, we were a bit grouchy. 

With this reference to my frame of mind, and looking around at each person, who most likely was in a similar mind set, one could absolutely see the worst of people during these times.  It really doesn't take much imagination to realize this as fact. I was looking around expecting the worst behavior imaginable, from so many tired, weary, sore and probably hangry people, and of course I was seeing what I expected to see, until I noticed something. 

At the end of our bumpy flight, luggage shifted a bit in the overhead bins.  A gentleman, a bit short in stature, found it difficult to retrieve his luggage.  Another person noticing his struggle, just as simple and as natural as could be, helped them retrieve it.  They weren't expecting anything from their action.  They were only interested at the time, in helping this struggling person out. 

This one simple act was so precious. Something so small it could have gone unnoticed.  Yet, with my current mindset, this was like a candle in the darkness.  I struggled for a minute to find a word for it. 
I decided, "if" I could find a word for what ever that was, that could shift my perspective to a brighter and more optimistic one, this word would be my favorite word. 

I would use this word as a sort of touchstone. When I found myself expecting ugliness of others, I would use this word as a focus, to sort of shift back to center, to a frame of mind where I could see life as precious, and to a place where I can see the good effects we can have on each other.

So far I have come up with the word GRACE... 

Spot Of Tea - Through My Looking Glass.

Through My Looking Glass...

I was thinking

About life. Everyone has one :)

Thinking about perspectives. About how one experience, shared by many individuals could hold so many different responses, and differing levels of those reactions.

Each one of us go through this thing called life.  Each with our own looking glass.  This looking glass becomes smudged by our own unique experiences, steeped with the build up of both the good and the bad of our lived life, which is also colored by our own sensitivities, creating our unique point of view. 

Just think about it.  Each person comes into a situation, each with a history of experiences, adverse and affirmative.  Layers of these experiences build up from living the day in day out, each day with adverse or affirmative things happening  Each with a history of experiences as unique as we are as people.  With repetition of each one of these, coupled by the size and frequency, compounded by the base nature of each individual, begins to create a sort of short hand on expectations. We begin to say to ourselves, "Since in our only experiences x happens = x will be expected - always" and so it is. 

If only we could see that each person is carrying their own smudged up, grimed up, looking glasses, maybe it would be easier to show a little kindness and compassion to our neighbors...   Maybe then we could also open our own minds up a bit, get our heads out of our asses and be seekers of the truth.

Or am I looking through a set of rose colored glasses??

OOOOO baby baby it's a wild world....

08/01/2019

Welcome to my little space in blogsphere land.

I am not so sure about things that happen on this planet anymore.

There is so much negative, damaging, hateful, destructive, thoughts and actions taking place.  

We used to be able to look for and actually find a greater good.  A place where, even in conflicting opinions, we could find a neutral ground, even agree to disagree.  We could value the fact that there are differences of opinion, everyone understood that it is a human right to hold individual opinion, and in fact, everyone highly valued that human right.  

Unfortunately, some examples of public debates of late have not been so constructive, and in fact they have been DEstructive.  Also some of the supports to their debates have been based on blatant lies and unfair debate rules.  These are the LEADERS who should by all rights be setting an example!  I mean, WHO vets these people to ensure they are worthy enough to be held as an example of America's best and brightest?

Sorry this is such a rant...

God Bless