What exactly are the FFF Foods, you might be asking yourself? Let me give you more information to go on, otherwise, you’ll all just think I have a ridiculous way of saying that I like food. There are three types of foods for me…
When I say Farm Food, this should cover all fresh eggs, fresh meat, fresh Milk and cheese and butter… all that stuff! I was born on a farm and my tummy always goes back to what I knew from birth. I remember sitting in the strawberry fields, making myself sick on the berries that my mother was painstakingly trying to gather for making Jams.
Whatever we could not grow on our farm, we would get from all the other surrounding farms and visa versa… they bought our cows, and our milk and eggs. I was raised in the farmlands of Oregon, so there were plenty of farms to pick from, and pick we did… every year!
All these years later, I found that my body wants to go back to eating like I did back then.
I have distant memories of teething on carrots and green onions fresh from the dirt… There are very few fruits and veggies that I would turn away from… I like them raw, I like them steamed, and I even like them roasted… I will eat them by themselves, or as part of a dish… I am not partial.
Cotton Candy to make our fingers sticky…Caramel Apples with the nuts on top to pull out any loose fillings… Elephant ears, Corn on the Cob, Strawberry Scones, and who could pass up an Earthquake Burger! If you wish to have a visual that would better explain my love of fair food, I will leave you with this one…
Do you remember the rat in Charlotte’s Web? Remember that night at the fairgrounds when he did his wonderful song and dance about his love of going to the fair… That could be Me!
It takes a man using one piece of metal to pound out something strong and useful from another piece of metal. The only difference between the two is shape and heat…
Both metals are strong, but if you apply heat to one, thereby softening it into being moldable, it can be reshaped…
In the end, it comes down to the one wielding the hard piece of metal. If the one hammering does not use wisdom and skill, the end result would be quite different…
If you were to guess the meaning of the picture, then you would have your answer as to which one I am. The turtle or the hare question seemed so fitting for me, as I am an avid walker.
Most of my pictures and all my videos on my site are from my walks, some from the river and some from the park where our Acorn Valley squirrels live. I may not be able to run anymore at my age, but I can walk, and walk I do…
As a small girl I spent most of my time on the streets, running away from home at a very early age, and continuing to run away from every foster home they tossed me into. Running was my finest quality!
After all these years, with an accumulation of injuries, children, Fibro, and arthritis… I relinquished the running shoes and picked up walking. That was 2 years ago.
When I began this walk, I was 100 lbs heavier, on 6 different medications and still in pain from the time I woke up, until I went to bed at night. There I would toss and turn all night with that restless leg syndrome thingy. It was my lowest health marker I have ever dropped to, and it was not pretty!
I guess I began to walk because I wanted to run away from things at the time, and I couldn’t! I started walking just the same, figuring that it was either going to kill me or save me, one of the two. God took me on two journeys, simultaneously! He raised my spirit up from the ashes, and He set me walking! Both have saved my life!
I walk around 6 miles a day, not fast miles, but miles none the less. If the weather is too warm, I either go early or not at all… so I do take time off. But for the most part it averages out to around 5 days a week.
I may not be running out there, but I can walk. I walk through struggles and trials now, instead of running myself into the ground trying to avoid or run away from painful things.
By walking instead of running, I find that I don’t hurt myself by expecting more of ME than is possible. Had I not lived a life that exacted such heavy penalties, perhaps I would have more energy for running at my age now. Perhaps not!
At this stage of the game, I have to pay attention to where I put my keys… why would I want to spend hours out on the trail looking for my left kidney and self respect. Both would have dropped out on the trail about 1 mile in, from me thinking I could run it! I will stick to walking, thank you!
Now that this chatty Cathy rambled on for five minutes about walking, I think it is safe to say that you understand the reason behind the picture and title I chose for todays prompt.
Turtles are slow, but they never stop! They have long lives usually, and eat mostly salad… like me!
I like Turtles!
Have a treat…
Photo by Susanne Jutzeler, suju-foto on Pexels.com
There should be plenty to go around, but I wouldn’t eat the one in the middle… I think it’s taken…
If you ask any of my fellow band of rag tag adventurers, they will tell you that we already have a leader, and it’s not me…
If you look through my stories, you should find that I have a passion for serving… for helping others. I guess a better descriptor for my natural bent, would be facilitator. Being that I am such an emotional creature, I seem to gravitate toward those in need of love, compassion, and often some elbow grease. You could call me a worker bee, but do not take this as a bad thing. I prefer it!
I do not do well in situations where I am the one getting noticed, or being required to take charge of things. Again, I am a very emotional creature… I would not be the one you should put in charge of things.
For example, it would be a catastrophe if I were in charge of the power company, because when people acted like putzes around me, I would just turn the power off. I know how to get back at you for talking about me at the water cooler!
See what I mean? I made for a mean mom, if you were to ask my kids. While I did ensure that they went to school and became responsible adults, I was not averse to underhanded mom tactics to get what I wanted. You could say that I was great at putting the fear of God in them, but not the best at inner office relationships.
My point is, a leader should be someone with more than knowledge and skill, but also an even keeled temperament. Be grateful that I stay in the lobby because I am NOT even keeled… Wiwohka… raging water… It’s a no brainer…
Did I hear correctly? Did WordPress actually ask a mass group of WRITERS to pick a favorite word? When I saw the prompt this morning, my mind went straight to cowboys!
Why? I have no earthly idea… other than the fact, I have read all together too many books about Cowboys. I can say pretty assuredly, that if you asked John Wayne what his favorite word was, he would have called you a crazy pilgrim and then tied you to a fence post and left you there. I would be more careful with cowboys like Doc Holiday though… he would have shot you for your impertinence!
This fella has been around long enough to have an attitude…
If I could be a cowboy responding to this prompt, imagine me looking at you sternly, just like this cowboy(writer) in the picture above saying, “You might want to rethink that last question mister, or I might just hog tie you and leave you for the carrion…
But alas, I am not a cowboy… only a simple girl who has a passion for words… all of them! I am simply unable to decide on one, since words All have a way of being useful and full of meaning.
There is one word, however, that I adore… You! I will say in truth, it is not really the word itself, but all the emotions it fills me with when I read it, use it, or say it… hmmmmm…
A bacon and egg breakfast biscuit sounded yummy this morning. Keep your hands out of the cookies til your egg is gone…
Several things have become apparent to me over the last few days… four very exhausting and frustrating days to be exact! Since we departed the cave, it has become apparent to me that I know nothing about dragons! Not only that, but the little brute seems to bring out my impatient side… not a quality that I can say I’m proud to display. At the beginning of our trek down the mountain, I thought things would play out much differently than they did. Sitting here around the campfire, you all look just as exhausted as I feel.
There is simply no way we could have made it this far without each other, taking turns with sir grumpy pants! Had I not had an in-depth conversation with our Commander last night, as you slept, I very well might have strung the little heathen up by his tail this morning… he chewed both the laces off my favorite pair of shoes! In comparison to him nearly setting the camp on fire three nights ago, I know it should seem minor but the lack of sleep has taken its tole on my nerves. It didn’t help that he grew four sizes the first night, forcing us to walk him down the mountain. I did say in the beginning that we would only travel as fast as our slowest member… I just didn’t consider having to walk a 50 lb. dog size creature, with an attitude, down a mountainside!
The very first day we left the cave, he slept quietly within my bag, so my mind became lulled into thinking things would go this smoothly for the rest of our journey. We all made camp that first night, happily sitting around the fire, passing my bag around for everyone to take turns peeking in on the little one. He seemed blissfully unaware of all the gentle caressing and examining we administered to check and care for his injuries. My ignorance was in assuming that he was fine on the inside, since I found no major outward trauma. We all learned the truth of things around 3 am… what I will call the Awakening!
When laying down for the night in my tent, I propped my bag next to my pillow, where I could hear him gently snoring and soon dozed off to sleep. I was roused by a distant rustling sound coming from near the campfire. As I lifted my head to listen, I became aware that my bag was empty… the baby was gone! I sat bolt upright, and immediately began feeling around inside the tent to see if he was under my blankets or something. Nothing!
Scrambling out of the tent in the dark, I stumbled over something rather large and scaled, falling headlong into Bubbles tent. This startled her and caused her to jump up in surprise… tripping over me and accidentally tangling herself up in the tent flap as she fell. This caused her to pull the tent with her as she went down, turning both of us into a human burrito of sorts. Between myself and Bubbles caterwauling, the entirety of the camp came alive in confusion… everyone pouring out of their tents at the same time, tripping over one another to discover a giant dog size creature, with its head caught inside a bag of Potato Chips!
Once I was able to extricate myself from Bubbles and her tent flap, I quickly realized that the creature was, in reality, the baby dragon. He just got big… what did they put in those potato chips… good grief! While we had all been sleeping, this wee one woke up, snuck out of my tent, and ate through the entire camps left over foods from the night before. We spent the next 3 hours corralling and calming the baby, though he no longer seemed so cute. He was scared and mad! Crocket got bit, I lost my right eyebrow to his mini flamethrower (mouth), and I can honestly say that no one got away without a sting or two… no one that is except for Christine!
First lesson we got … he likes music! When Christine began to sing an old nursery rhyme, in an attempt to sooth him, the dragon settled and began to emit a faint purring sound. Second lesson we got… it was going to be a long walk! He would not let us touch him… at all! We spent the whole next day of travel walking painfully slow down the trail, coaxing him along with food or singing… even Bubbles was able to tease him along with her wand, letting him chase bubbles down the path. That second night in camp, he seemed happy enough to follow Carver around like a small child, watching as the man went from tent to tent offering assistance to others. When it came time for us to all turn in for the night, the dragon followed me right into my tent and curled up near my pillow. I was happily deceived as I drifted off to sleep…
When I awoke the morning of the third day, he was still fast asleep next to me inside the tent. While he snored softly, I became aware of several things rather quickly. The first thing was the smell… I knew I should have thought about a potty run before bedtime. The next thing was the wet feeling at the bottom of my sleeping bag. Not only did he wee in my tent, but he chose to do it on me! I was tired, frustrated and felt so very defeated by this oversized toddler! I saw in a flash how the day was going to be… not better but just more of the same slow painful progress. I felt resentful toward the little guy, as I was cleaning up yet another one of his messes.
That was yesterday morning, and the day was indeed, just as difficult as I had prepared myself for it to become. I let my lack of empathy set the tone for the day ahead. That is where I found myself last night, as I sat alone in front of the campfire… completely defeated! In honesty, I sat there because the baby was sleeping next to the fire peacefully, and I didn’t want a repeat of the night before, inside my tent. As I sat there watching him sleep, I felt the gentle whisper of our Commander take hold of my heart. In humility, I came to realize that I had been expecting this baby to recover at my pace, and not his own. How would I feel if others expected me to heal from hurts at a pace not my own? What if I was still in pain, but had to behave as if all was well… to satisfy others time tables and/or expectations? Hindsights 20/20, as they say.
So, as I sat on the floor of my tent this morning, looking from my little brute’s eyes to the destroyed shoes in my hands, I made a decision! I gave him the shoes! He sat there looking at the shoes before him, then looked up into my eyes… and promptly vomited the shoe strings into my hand, as if he were making a sort of peace offering by returning them. While one might say gross, I chose to look at things differently this time. By George, I think we made some progress! I believe that if you follow my lead today, as we move along towards our destination, the journey may go smoother than the last few days. Please forgive my rush to jump ahead of our purpose… let’s all use the rest of this time learning about our newest member, and showing him the empathy and love so needed for his road to healing.
While I don’t have any plans myself, I am sincere about answering the prompt each day, regardless of how personal some of the questions can seem.
If I do not have anything exciting going on to write about, I need to locate You and find out how You will spend the evening. I imagine that You could be going out to eat with friends or coworkers… You might want to stay in with dinner and a show on the old television… what if You were planning a party for tonight, inviting tons of people over to celebrate something… maybe You have to visit a loved one in the hospital, this search could last a great long while. I am not sure, so maybe I will ask You while I write about the evening ahead.
Now that I thought about it, there is a very big possibility that You won’t be doing anything tonight, same as me…
Yesterday was healthy so this morning I have a sweet tooth, so our morning cookie is gonna get wild…
I have no idea how well this will work, but I thought it might be fun to take you with me on my trail walks about once a week, saying a little hello in a phone with a view… this first one will be rough so please bear with me, if you would. I decided to use piano music for today, but in the future I will try to chat more.
Afterwards, I will select an inspirational song for the day to share with you. Fall is in the air… and I want to share…
Journey With Me! 