Let’s all be honest here, we’ve all done it at one time or another… you know… held on to that one bottle of shampoo holding half a tablespoon of liquid gold! I made it sound ohso valuable, thereby, softening the blow for everyone… as we know in truth, it wasn’t even that expensive of a shampoo.
I need you all to be on board with this, for me, because I don’t have too much of anything else that can be called clutter. Seriously… I don’t use make-up anymore, or any lotions or perfumes like I wore in the past. RV living, even in the best of circumstances, is not for the faint of heart! RV living should be renamed RV LIMITTED! Nothing has the freedom to be left just laying around… it’s either usable or losable! One has to choose on a daily basis, what is of value and necessary… and what has become dead weight! Space around here is limited and comes at a premium cost, so when I say use it or lose it, I really mean it!
I am certainly not wasteful, nor will I give up on a garment just because it is old or stained… some of my best hoodies have holes where my thumbs have worked their way through the seams, and are covered in coffee stains. If I am afforded the opportunity to get a new article of clothing, something has to go, to make space for the new item. With all of this in mind, consider how utterly ridiculous it is that I hoard extra bottles of shampoo, as if they were going to be the ultimate answer for world peace! Why don’t I just condense them all into one individual bottle, you may be asking yourselves? The only answer I can give, is that I’ve no earthly idea!
As I was writing my answer to the prompt, I had a question run through my brain asking, don’t I sometimes clutter my spirit with old bottles of memories and past hurts, just like I do with the extra shampoo bottles? Some bottles of shampoo, like a memory, have a specific fragrance that perhaps I don’t ever want to forget. Whether the memory was good or bad, I hesitate to put them all in the same bottle. Even if I could separate them into two different bottles… one for the good and one for the bad… have you ever caught a whiff of someone’s perfume that was so overpowering, it made you gag?
Not all shampoos are alike, so it’s not always a good idea to mix the one for dry scalp with another kind that helps with oily skin. What if I get rid of that last bit of shampoo for dry scalp, even though my scalp doesn’t need help right now? Which memories that were bad, will be useful for good now… and visa versa?
I didn’t say that I was going to answer these questions… I just said that this is what ran through my head while I was typing! I will be busy for the next week repeatedly bringing this topic up in my Overthinkers Anonymous Group, as I’m not even sure how to answer my own questions…
How often do we humans, as a whole, make assumptions based on our self imposed understanding? How many times have you or I come upon a situation, thinking we had an understanding of things, only to watch things play out in a completely different way than we saw coming?
Did you find yourself grateful to have kept your mouth shut, keeping your opinion and assessment of things to yourself, in order to see how things go?
or…
Did you throw your two cents in, as they say, only to regret it later on, after you see things play out and you realize that you didn’t have all the facts?
My point is… I think we have all been able to answer both choices, at one place or another in our lives. Sometimes, we chose wisely, responding in a way that brings healing and restoration… sometimes we didn’t do so good! At the request of our Benefactor, here at WTL, I headed out on assignment to interview a man who experienced first hand, the pain and sorrow of misunderstanding and misjudgment!
The man was a nobody, really… just a good man, a godly man who lived an upright and righteous life. Considering the spelling and pronunciations of many of the names found in the bible, the name Job does not really reflect much at all. Looks can be very deceiving…
By all accounts Job seemed to have simply been a good person, living daily with a heart and mannerism of one desiring to please his creator… he loved God with all his heart! I wanted to get a feel for who the man was before our first introduction, so I spent some time in the archives before I embarked on this assignment. I found no record of any misdeeds or nefarious behavior documented, anywhere! He was blessed with a large family, comfortable wealth and a community that greatly respected him. The only thing I could dig up on the man was how much good he always sought to do, for anyone and everyone in need. If I were his neighbor, I think I would be very grateful to be living so close to someone so obviously favored by God himself!
As I traveled down the path toward my upcoming interview with this man, I found myself already preparing a case against his supposed friends, as well as the mans wife! My first idea of a title for my column article was, With Friends Like These, Who Needs Enemies! While I was thinking how catchy the phrase was, JC began whispering words of council to my heart and mind. To truly report what I find, I must first ensure that my personal opinions, or assumptions, remain in my desk drawer back in the newsroom offices.
“A true vessel must pour out that which has been placed within its depths, while not attempting to add anything of itself in the pouring. It is simply the container, so necessary for the holding and pouring out of a thing, but not the one who does the placing of that which needs to be poured out for the good of the one receiving it’s contents.” JC
These words were floating through my mind, as I entered into the village of a man that was nobody, really… or was he?
I’m sitting here in my guest quarters, as I didn’t arrive here until after dark and the family are already preparing to turn in for the night. I am weary from all the walking I did to get here, so I will enjoy this respite and gather myself mind, body, and spirit to a place of readiness for the mornings interview. My goal is to present my findings and reflections gathered from this interview, to my boss, in the light of truth and without my own personal opinion. I plan to wrap up work here in several days, hopefully returning home with my story, by this time next week.
If, after my Benefactor places his signature of approval upon my work, my article will marked for release and I’ll be sharing it with you over a cup of hot coffee next Tuesday. You know… I just realized that I had not considered whether they had Vanilla Creamer around here. All I saw as I entered the village were large herds of goats… hmmmm. Oh well, it’s too late to worry over milk now that I’m already here. I’m actually feeling pretty lucky that I even found a courier willing to run this update all the way back to the office. I will send him off first thing in the morning and hopefully you get it in time.
While I could have done a rewrite, of what I will call, a Plethora of articles about my love of dogs, cats and most anything flurby… I won’t bore you.
What I will do is throw you a literary curve ball, with my love for anything Jim Henson. I grew up watching The Muppets, along with any and all of the movies to follow this show. Having and raising children gave me plenty of added years of enjoyment, under the guise of entertaining my kids… we’ve all done it!
How many folks will admit to buying Tickle Me Elmo, and never let our kids take it out of the package? While Elmo doesn’t fall into the Muppets family, per say, he is a puppet… is he not? I guarantee you, there are a large number of grown ups around the world, who sport stuffed animals from childhood across their bedspreads, or hidden under a pillow! Tell me I’m wrong…. I’m waiting…
Hey… new science idea… what if, instead of risking bites or rabies, I should fill my RV with stuffed animals, just like ANIMAL, to see if my space stays warmer during frigid temps… hmmmmmm… I could be rich and famous, while bringing warmth and comfort to the world.
Another idea would be for ANIMAL and I to sit in the doorway of the RV, offering sage advice and wisdom to those passing by… they could talk to ANIMAL about their problems, while I listen from the doorway and hand them candy… wait, I think I just turned myself into a current version of that creepy guy off of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang! Instead of kids, however, my RV would just fill up with exhausted parents that won’t go back home, unless they can take ANIMAL with them… uh uh, he’s mine!
Unlike yesterdays balmy 26 degrees, today is not as gloriously warm yet. It’s mid morning and still nowhere near what I consider comfortable. 22 degrees…
Yes, you heard right… 22 degrees at 9:30 in the morning… ugh!
I have opted to hang out with my compadres at the barnyard, as it seems to be much more comfortable than the frigid temperatures we still have outside the RV right now.
Yesterday, however, as soon as I saw the beautiful sun come up, I dawned my 7 layers of a Parka Shaped Bikini, and headed out to frolic at the park with my local squirrels. Aside from the loss of feeling in my toes, fingertips, nose and lips… everything else felt great!
No wind was available to infiltrate my bikini, so I was pretty content with my outing, though only 3 squirrels were brave enough to venture out to accept peanuts from this traveling State Puff Marshmallow Meemaw, passing underneath their trees. I couldn’t blame the tiny folk, as I was apparently the crazy one for being out and about in these temps. I wasn’t alone though!
I saw two of the strangest, yet, beautiful dogs that I have ever seen before! The dogs’ shape and size can only be described as a combination of Mastiff, St. Bernard and Bloodhound… one of them even carried those bloodhound colors, while the other was pure black. Both dogs had longer floppy ears like the bloodhounds do, massive wrinkles around the face and neck, massive feet and docked tails like a bird dog. Both dogs wanted to plant sloppy kisses on this Marshmallow Meemaw, making it a comical sight to watch their owner struggle to contain approximately 300 lbs. of dog flesh, between the two dogs. Where were these two when I needed a ride to the store for creamer, is what I want to know.
I also saw one of the most lovely Rottweiler breed, except that he was all the color of chocolate with ice blue eyes… fantastic piece of canine stock, in my humble opinion. As I have no flurby of my own, at this time, I peruse the trails to appreciate all the different pooches out there and dream of the future.
Can you imagine how much warmer we would have been over the last 4 nights, had we been sharing our bed with a 150 lbs. automatic heater… that snores… and drools? What do I care, as both my husband and I snore, and well, we all need to admit to the drooling thing once in a while………. we know we have all done it, at least once or twice.
I should run a science experiment the next time we get hit with a deep freeze, where I invite in as many stray flurbies and stranded squirrels as possible, to see if their fur holds the heat better than our skin can. For all I know, this could revolutionize both the Heating and Insulating Industry, as well as, solve the homeless animal problem! Oh well… one can dream…
Anyway, I think we are through the worst of the lower bitter temps, though it will be several days before the water comes back on. At this point, my husband and I know how deeply we love each other… as we haven’t bathed in a bit. When we first got married, he used to express how deeply he loved me, by telling me that he’d drink my bath water… well, NOT NOW!
I’m a writer, and as a writer I tend to write… with my fingers. My fingers are attached to my hands, which are attached to my arms, which are connected to my body at the shoulders, my body holds my noggin… which tries with all it’s might to oversee what the fingers do… write!
My writings are how I communicate with others, while in an online setting. My phone rings from only 4 sources… hubby… my chica… my longtime friend Christine… and the Doctor’s office! For the entire rest of the world out there, my fingers are the only form of communication, giving more light to the cause of why I right so darn much, these days.
In fact, the tougher life gets on me, the more I write! Did you know that while freezing my toenails off, I wrote another children’s book?! Go figure!
Online communications has actually been a Godsend for this ole girl… I used to have to write all this stuff down with a pen and paper, and quite frankly, my hands were really suffering for it. The keyboard has actually allowed me to write at a rate that seems unprecedented, compared to what I was capable of writing before modern technology intervened!
The only downside comes from mankind’s inability to create an autocorrect that functions properly… as we have all seen from some of the text massages we have all been subjected two! See how I did that… hehe!
One of my favorite things about all this online communication stuff… virtual cookies!
Here is a cookie with zero calories… all the fun without any guilt or unhealthy side effects… perfection! I do love technology when it works in my fingers… I mean favor!
As I sit down to write Live Wire this morning, all is right in the world… well, I have a steaming cup of fresh coffee, anyway, with my favorite French Vanilla creamer swirling into its depths. Oh, it’s still only 11 degrees out and life is still what it was yesterday, aside from us having fresh water and coffee creamer. Can you believe that something as minute as creamer or fresh water, made the difference between life and death, based on my re-reading of my own Note To Self last night. I think at one point, the night before last, I may or may not have considered riding a stray dog to the grocery store… either that or my husband was going to have to find a nearby cow to milk!
While looking over what I’d written only a day ago, aside from feeling like a big baby, I saw a thread of common ground surface between life today and life for the Israelites so long ago… change is never easy, and we all handle it differently. Just as I struggle to adjust to difficulties and changes in my life currently, so too did the Israelite struggle as they headed out into the wilderness to find the promise land! They left everything they knew behind them, following Moses into the desert with just a hope and a dream to spur them forward.
While my husband and I had this old RV to place our meager belongings in, for our journeys, the Israelites had to use livestock to carry things… or their backs… I’m already complaining to myself! Clothing, babies, food and water, shelter… and we shouldn’t forget, God had the Egyptians give the people all of their belongings as the Israelites headed out! That’s a large amount of STUFF! The wives packing for this journey must have been overwhelmed with this process, before they ever even left the house. These people had never camped before… they’d been slaves! From birth to death these people had only known the yoke of slavery, never given the right to think for themselves. Get up, serve the Pharaoh, go to bed… somewhere in there one best eat… this was their life!
When I followed the Israelites from Egypt, I found them at the base of Mt. Sanai, some time after they’d crossed the Red Sea and left the life of slavery and bondage behind… but did they? Do we?
Sometimes change can feel so foreign to a soul, it can easily be seen as the wrong direction… as the soul who is experiencing this change, possibly, only has limited experience or understanding of said change! If you’ve never experienced the pain of a needle, it makes trusting a stranger difficult, when they say it will be good for you and it’ll only hurt for a second… or two or three! I think this expressed my point in a round about way, without writing out some of the more painful changes most of us face during our lives. It would take days of writing to cover all the differing experiences that might be encountered by one person or another… why… because what one person goes through may not be that bad to another. Now put those two people together in a tiny home and wait… just wait… wait for it…
How would you know how I feel, says one… why do you make such a big deal out of a small thing, says another… See what I mean?! Now bring in a neighbor, who may live in a big cozy house, with lots of rooms and plenty of space.
Imagine how it must have felt for these people, during that actual period of time in history, traveling together, ending each day by setting up house among the dunes, in a sort of giant communal campground. You don’t really get to pick your neighbor, nor will you get to choose your own space in your tent, depending on how many were in your family unit. There were some strong, some weak, some young, some old, some youthfully healthy while others were suffering an illness or perhaps just the infirmity of old age. There were no parks for the kids to burn off pent up energy, no clinics to get easy medical care, no metro busses to run you across the campground to where the nearest healer was… we are talking hundreds of thousands of people… camping… together… in ONE spot!
Can you imagine the logistics alone, on travel day, when it was time to gather your belongings to yourself, get your family together and head out. What if a member of your family was sick… oh well, too bad! When it was time to move, everyone needed to follow suit whether they were ill, injured, or just emotionally exhausted! Life went on within these folks whether they were traveling or not… babies were born, parents passed away and had to be tended. Celebrations and grieving alike, had to be undertaken on the fly, so to speak!
When I started reading the part in Exodus, where Moses climbs Mt. Sanai to collect the Stone Tablets God etched for him, as well as all the rules and guidelines for governing the people and building God’s Tabernacle… no wonder it took 40 days! I felt like I was back in grammar school, as I steadfastly read through all the measuring, weighing and descriptions of the temple. Add to this time, all of the Order of Operation guidelines given for people to just plain get along… I was reading for a while.
I’m sorry, but the movies make it look like Moses took a trip up the mountain and while God just plunked a book of information down into his human form, all the folks that were waiting down below simply got bored and decided to have a party! I used to always get so mad and judgy towards this very young village, as it seemed that none of them had a blinking backbone for right behavior. It is so easy for us to sit here, with our hot coffee and French Vanilla creamer, pointing the finger at others for how they handle change, trials, and/or hardships in their lives. I consumed chocosyrupmallow watercoffee yesterday that left me wanting to hitchhike to Safeway with a complete stranger… ya… that covers my level of skill at handling things when I’m overwhelmed. I have a new understanding of Aaron, Moses own brother, who melted the gold down for the people. In desperation, he tried to pacify everybody by created the Golden Calf, only managing to make things worse. By the time Moses got back to camp, the party was in full force… if I saw what Moses saw that day, I would have tried to hit a few partygoers with the stone tablets being thrown to the ground!
This first major mountain that the Israelites found themselves before was a very life altering CHANGE for this young village. As I continued to read on through the parenting God did with these people, I saw an incredible transformation occur, within the hearts and minds of people just like me… they began growing up. By the time God called Moses to return to the mountain for another set of Stone Tablets, he left a completely transformed village behind to await his return. For the first time, from Moses all the way down the line to the youngest mind capable of understanding, everyone was ready to follow and obey.
Now I didn’t say everything was now working like a well oiled machine or anything, as that would take more time, more traveling, more mountains, and yes ladies and gents, more CHANGES!
What I will say, however, is that I saw reverence and growth begin to change the hearts of God’s people. The same holds true for us, living so many generations past that time, regarding change and growth…
It’s our attitude that effects how we cope with change, and if we change our attitude about the challenges we face… that is when the growth comes! Wiwohka
I don’t have to think back too far, as we are still living in an RV, living like nomads wherever we go, and for however long we stay. We don’t really have any home left, here on actual earth, so we rumble along on this road trip, taking safe harbor wherever it can be found.
If you think about it, everyone is on a road trip of sorts, and I would imagine that we all feel like it’s quite memorable. I appreciate the prompts use of the word most, while referring to the road trip, as they could have used best, worst, happiest or saddest… but they chose most memorable. Life IS most memorable, wouldn’t you say?!
Don’t we always say things like, it’s a wild ride, it’s gonna be a bumpyride, it’s a crazy ride, or Baby, what a ride? So I don’t need to think hard on why my thoughts drifted this way, once I began reading the prompt question.
Life is most definitely a journey, or road trip if you will!
It would take us all a very long time, to write down all of what we’ve seen, felt and experienced, along each of our personal highways… oh wait… that’s what I’ve already been doing, right here on WordPress… you’re welcome!
“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”Martin Luther King, Jr.
While I’m not sure if this is fitting for how I feel this morning, but it surely feels like it!
It is 14 degrees outside, as we usher in day 2 of a deep freeze in our region. I had to start flushing the toilet with an old jug of water I’d stashed away, but we’ve not had water since the night before last… even for that!
In honesty, the part that is more difficult for me, more than anything else in these bad weather situations, is water use and consumption! Things taken for granted, like water to drink, water to wash, water for dishes, and yes… water for flushing a toilet!
Yesterday, I found another resident that shared enough water for half a pot of coffee, in which I mixed chocolate Ice Cream Syrup and half a bag of marshmallows into the cup for some flavor… any flavor! Some folks may not have even had what I had.
Oh yeah… my husband has been a bit under the weather, so there has been no driving to the grocery store for necessitates. It will have to wait until he feels better. Yes, I can now see just fine, and yes we have a fully operational vehicle… but no valid drivers license means that I will not be going it adventure style, as the law is there for a reason.
Amidst all of this funnery, the doctors office called to schedule my follow up for the MRI I had done last week. If you are giving me the option of an over the phone appointment or regular… I just got my answer, as to whether or not the pain I constantly feel is a big deal to anyone other than me… apparently not!
All I am capable of saying about how I feel right now or what this particular Note To Self means, is what I just shared… I’m tapped today, and it’s not even 7 a.m. yet!
Of all the things someone might want to ask me… in a prompt of all places… as a way to elicit my desire to … oh, I don’t know… WRITE!
When given the opportunity to ask something that might bring people out of their boxes and bubbles of solitary writing… all you can come up with is to ask what I want to snack on at this very moment?????
Have I simply lost my mind, or did a bunch of I’s and Q’s just walk off the job, at where ever these questions are coming from?
If it’s an AI generated system, well then, I am confident that we have nothing to worry about with computers taking over the world! Please tell me that there isn’t some think group being employed to come up with these prompts, and they all happened to be hungry at the time of writing the days questions for us.
I suppose we can just wait til tomorrow and see if the next question is, “What do you like to drink after eating too many saltine crackers at one time?”
Maybe this question was meant to be directed at kids… the last I checked, the big thing was eating dry ramen out of the package… go figure!
I suppose if the question was being directed at us, by a physician or nutritionist, I might have a bit more patience in my answer.
The greatest feat they accomplished in this prompt was to place the word Would… not could, not can, not will nor want… but what snack would you eat right now…
Would I eat my snack in my chair or in my bed… would I share my snack with the people in my head… would I want my snack in a bag or in a bowl… would I use a fork or just eat it whole… would I like my snack or would it be bad… what if it were the only snack I really had… would I eat it or set it on the table beside me… trading it for a coffee with creamer is where you would find me!
The next time you start wishing that everyday could be Friday, think again!
What if every day were just like Fridays?
I know it might sound good at first, but after careful consideration, most would surmise that some things… like Fridays… are better left alone!
It’s like eating your favorite meal for breakfast, lunch and dinner… every day! Eventually, this would end your feelings of favorite about the once cherished dish. The things you thought you loved about that meal begin to become the things that displease you, causing you to either avoid or dread the next upcoming meal.
It would be awful for all our weekend Party Warriors, never getting enough time to recover from one bender before you’re encouraged to belly up to the bar again, for another round!
This one will blow your mind! Imagine what most children are like on Fridays, after a long week of alarm clocks, classes, bullies, homework and being generally bossed around by any and all grown ups in the vicinity. Trust me, they are very very ready for their Saturday mornings of sleep, cartoons, and cereal out of the box… no milk necessary!
Now have their parents wake them up the next morning for school, knowing that it’s again Friday… knowing that yesterday had been Friday also… AND knowing that their kids also know that yesterday was Friday and now today is Friday too… again! A lot of folks would be seriously rethinking many life choices, right about here!
Mondays would become a very moody MondayFriday…
Tuesdays would feel more like denial about the whole thing…
Wednesdays would be flipped on its hump, leaving us unsure whether we were coming or going…
Thursdays would just stop serving Happy Hour altogether…
Fridays would see a great many tantrums being thrown on the office floors…
Saturdays would be filled with grumpy resignation at the state of things…
Sundays would become like Ground Hog Day, where everyone tried to be on their best behavior and do everything they thought was good and upright… hoping and praying that they wake up to a normal rainy Monday morning…
Thank Goodness tomorrow is Saturday, for the greater good of all mankind, wouldn’t you agree?
Journey With Me! 