Listen to? While I appreciate the innocence of the above question, one might seriously begin to worry about the profiling going on around these here parts…
What kind of shenanigans can we get into if we simply change a single word in the prompt question, for example:
Who do you listen to while you work? That asks for a name, but it offers the choice of what comes out of their mouth… music, literature… the list goes on and on.
Why do you listen while you work?
or
How do you listen while you work? Are you wearing a headset, listening to a radio, or maybe you work outside or even in a library… that would change things up.
I will bend your brain a bit more by switching to the end of the question. One can come up with even more rabbit holes in this prompt by changing the last word a few times.
What do you listen to while you play, sleep, eat or work?
Let us not forget to change the middle while we are at it…
It might not just be for while I work, but also where or even if I work?
The point is, I have no intention of sharing personal information about what I am doing and I am stalling long enough to put out this plate of cookies for anyone who was actually curious, in any fashion, as to what I listen to while I work… maybe I just whistle!
Spanish 21 for me… and my kids, of course! Yup, I will confess that I did, in fact, teach my children to gamble. Don’t Judge… you can be judgy after you lock YOURself up in a camper with three loud, and very bored children… and no electronic devices… none! No cell phones, vcr’s, radios, or the like… Just us, all trapped in a camper during a rain storm.
All we had was a deck of cards, a heater for warmth, and a bag of M&M’s and one of Skittles. What’s a mom to do? I doled out a pile of each candy to my kids, and us grown ups, and we all separated our candy currency into color coded piles based on value. From there it devolved…
The game was hilarious, looking more like a game of go fish, or spoons, with all the yelling and grabbing. Right in the middle of the game, one of my daughters began teasing me with her sticky little candy fingers, as if she was going to wipe candy on my face. You know how when you are playing with a child and teasing them like you are gonna nibble on their fingers or something like that?
Tears sprang to both our eyes… her tears were obviously due to shock and pain, while mine were of shock and sincere sorrow for causing my baby girl pain. I want you to know that what makes this story so good, is not that I bit her finger, but the moments right after… I do not think it was more than 5 seconds of the shock tears before the entire table erupted in laughter. We were all looking at her and she just burst into rolling laughter, pointing at all of us, and hiccupping through tears, “you should have seen all you guys faces, it was so funny”. That was what broke the shock part, for us all.
Never fear, she has all of her fingers to this day, and just so you know, I didn’t ever break the skin when I bit her, but her fingers did taste like cherry… and I liked it!
Though I may be cooking with just a Ninja foodie nowadays, living in an RV and all, I have always loved to cook. I must admit, I am quite average when it comes to the savory side, but on the sweet side… I knock it out the park! My first love is Cheesecake! I make an awesome Snickers one, and an Oreo one, but one time my husband and I did an Old Fashioned cheesecake and then poured a galaxy colored glaze over it… so much fun!
I learned how to make Indian Fry Bread when my kids were small, and their favorites were Banoch Burgers and Indian Tacos… good times…
I could make an awesome salsa that was delish, though it melted your face off!
BROWN SUGAR BURGERS…MMMMMMMMMMMMMMM…
My mother’s homemade chili and cornbread…
My husbands favorite is those cool bread bowls and then I make either homemade clam chowder, or a thick potato soup.
I will leave you with just these few, because, I am a writer and I love to cook so this could rapidly become a lengthy novel…
My all time specialty happens to be enormous Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter cookies… gooey on the inside, but lightly flaky on the outside… now you know why I like to leave everyone cookies all the time.
I know that a book is a thing, not an activity in the sense of the word. Now that I know that you know that I know that you know, we can continue on…
Though a book is just an object, what is within its pages draws us inward. Once there, one can disappear into any number of activities that will make one lose track of time. I did not have an easy childhood, and reading became the only safe place I could find to survive things I was not equipped to experience. I began reading as early as I can remember; reading books from authors like Louis Lamour when I was only seven or eight years old.
The beauty of books lies in the sheer number of different available choices… from adventures, histories, poetry, and music, our adventure (activity) can take us anywhere we want to go. I clung to books for all of my younger years, and as I grew and matured into the woman (writer) I am today, I have continued to read. I don’t read so much to get lost anymore. Instead, I am now reading to get where I am going.
Though I only have one good eye that is willing to cooperate with me at the moment, I still spend at least half my day reading…
Reading blog posts…
Reading comments…
Reading the weather report…
Reading my own blogs or projects that must be edited…
My favorite book, as you know, is the Bible. I say this because, as I have grown into my own skin, I discovered that among all the books I have ever had the pleasure of reading, this one is the only one that gives me comfort when I need it the most. When people do and say things that make absolutely no sense at all, I take solace in the word. When the ugliness of the world pushes me down, I discover strength within its pages. When I find myself in fear and doubt of how things might turn out for us, I shelter within the pages of the only living breathing Book I know exists.
I know, I know, it got a bit deep there for a second… see what I mean, I can even lose track of time talking about the Bible. I will not ramble on any more, but I will leave you with this…
I know that it might seem that you are a bit creepy, weird, or are in need of content. Though you might simply be attempting to come up with some nefarious plan to replace me with a robot, I will play along and think it’s because you like me to some degree.
Photo by Harry Cunningham @harry.digital on Pexels.com
Admit it, you know you like me! You always ask questions that a caring friend might ask… what are my fears, what I like, what I don’t like, and how I feel about so many different things. At first, I thought you were stalking me… taking my measurements for a skin suit, or something. But now, after today… I think you are so nice to ask such an intimate and personal question as I sit here in pj’s with my coffee still brewing…
Since you asked, I will admit that my morning started off with missing the garbage man… He looked right at me as he passed by, not making even one attempt to stop and give me a sec to get it to him… nope!
Oh yeah, and I smacked my forehead while holding the cupboard door open while retrieving the coffee to brew… the latch that holds it open is broken… has been for several months. I am still tired, I feel crabby cause my arm is killing me, I have no intention of walking in this ridiculously hot weather, nor do I plan on cooking, cleaning, or doing any constructive anything today… Waaah Haaaaaaa… Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa…
Hunger… Hunger is for sure a real certainty, and I know that if I put food in my mouth, it gives me energy to get me through the day, so that gets me to another certainty… sleep, eventually…
Tears… Tears are a certainty, as they absolutely do come out of my face and fall down my cheeks… but the thing to remember about tears, they are a result of differing causes… happiness, sorrow, pain, or fear. I will still only consider tears as a single certainty.
Sweat! Yes, it is too a certainty! We sweat from the heat, from hormones, from exertion, and from screwing up and being called out for it. It’s a thing…
Blood… Blood flows in our veins, keeping us alive by delivering oxygen throughout the body. It has been pretty certain for a good bit now, that you need blood to live. We all have a heart to pump this blood, so that is a certainty, though whether the heart is good or evil, one cannot say.
CHOICES… Choices are a certainty… every human soul has free will to choose each step they take in life, from start to finish. Sure, the world can effect us, but we still get a choice as to how to react or respond.
Well, that was 9… I do have a 10th certainty, but really it overrides all of the others… I am certain of where I am going when my body gives… I am certain of where HOME is…
I wonder what it must have been like in the time of Jesus and His disciples. Throughout His years of ministering to people Jesus, as well as the disciples, lived by the charity of others… no homes of their own, no beds of their own, and no belongings. There were places that welcomed Jesus and his disciples, and there were places that Jesus shook the dust off of his feet as he left… ummm… trust me, you do not want the lord or those who He sent ahead of himself to shake dust at you… its not good!
Anyway, living on others charity could not have been easy for them, especially after Jesus was crucified and then risen from the dead. The reactions were profound! Some were good and some were bad!
Sure, there were churches beginning to form, due to the dedication of the apostles and all the others who followed and believed in Him. These churches, however, took a lot of time to grow, both in faith and spiritual maturity. I do not envy Paul and the others who sought to teach everyone what God wanted. Sometimes I wonder if it would be more difficult for me to live like the disciples back then, relying on charity and mercy of others for my every need. Then I wonder what it would be like on the other side of things… to be the one offering my home and belongings to them, Jesus and the disciples I mean.
Here is where I found myself after a few moments of pondering the prompt question. Right here, and right now, if a complete stranger came to my door in need, would I let them in? This is a question that can take off down many rabbit holes of what if’s!
Instead, I want you to go easy on yourself, and me for that matter, as I am not about to ask you to bring in some guy off the corner. We do not live like the apostles did. We live in a time where our doors need to be locked, so its not so easy to let a stranger in without sacrificing our personal health and safety, I get it!
So after my ponderings over the prompt and what my answer might be, I thought …
If I could host a dinner, and anyone I invited was sure to come, I would invite everyone who tried to help us when the shut down cost my husband his job, allowed us to be evicted, and left us empty handed and homeless. In the last 3 years, there have been those that reached out to help my husband and I survive, pulling resources that they did not have to give, but they did it anyway. Strange as it might sound, there would be a packed house at my dinner party, but most of them I would not even know personally.
Don’t feel sad… My party is going to be awesome, and there will be so much hugging and laughing among us… whether stranger or friend, God uses us all in different ways to help each other. Sometimes, we do not even know that we did it… it comes down to a matter of the heart. God just wants us willing and able to love and serve others with grace and mercy. He will take care of the rest! I got all the way to the end of this and realized that I guess I DID invite Jesus to dinner… hmmm…
The flavor improves, along with the alchohol content and value. The more age and quality of the wine, the more people will want it. One might buy a bottle and then not drink it, hoping to age it more for the best taste.
What about with people…
The similarities to an aging person are kind of interesting. I think people improve in flavor, content, and value as they age… All those years of living produces the sweetest flavors of life. The bruising and crushing that occurs from our own life experiences, results in much of the richness and flavor one might taste. We also can end up on a shelf, stored away for a later date when our experience and wisdom might be useful.
If people can be like wine, that means they can be treasured, valued, and a pleasure to enjoy…
I am nowhere near aged enough to hold the flavors of those that have been bottled before my time. I am fairly confident, however, that when the cork is withdrawn from the barrel of my soul, there is gonna be a party, because I want to be 120 proof baby…
If you must know, I tried to go to sleep at 9 but it was a no go… fell asleep around midnight. Then I woke around 2 a.m. and lay there in pain, due to my arm bothering me lately. I fell back asleep around 3 or 4… not exactly sure… and then I got up about 7 this morning.
This is a ridiculous question, and I am leaving a huge plate of cookies for any poor soul that took the time to even care about the prompt, let alone come in here and read my silly answer…
Journey With Me! 