MAYBE IT'S JUST THE GRAY DAY

I am often my own best entertainment. I get myself into crazy situations.
And so does my husband who recently drove down the street to the supermarket dragging our granddaughter's pop-up tent playhouse behind his car, happily waving to everyone who was madly waving at him! Yep. Bright red,yellow and blue five feet by five feet playhouse. It didn't tumble so we just lost the floor!!! 

But I have temporarily lost my sense of humor. It happens. I know it will come back. I just hate this darn election season. I was going to say I feel grim or sober or something worse. But that's not it.

For one thing, I am bored even with the extraordinary weirdness of election 2016. It's not the personalities or character of the candidates. It's that is all feels so stale. Even Bernie. Even with a woman candidate. We need a new process for election. We may need a constitutional redesign (it was meant to be an ongoing evolving document and experiment). Left/Right, Conservative/Liberal, Trust/Control Naivete/Skepticism, True/False, Evil/Good. We are polar thinkers locked into a polar system that thinks only in 'yes' or 'no'.

 A friend told me of her neighbor who had printed out copies of the Republican and Democratic platforms and intends to give them to people--and--who thinks they won't be read because people don't want to think. They want relief from fear (which never produces thinking) or to enjoy a vile celebrity kind of competition of personality that satisfies the need for entertainment and excitement. Boring, boring boring, stultifying,and soporific. You know it's bad when danger and extreme behavior become numbing.

We need a new governing system that has a global strategy with global goals and principles and accountability's. More than NATO, more than the UN, more than treaties. 

We need a world wide group of thinkers willing to address dilemmas and then the ability to go out and get support for the ideas. We either have a good revolutionary transition or an unimaginable messy chaotic revolution of the disenfranchised everywhere.

How do we allow for cultural differences of each country and still have a unifying global point of view?

How do we avoid being paranoid but still be vigilant about sick people doing damage to us all?

How do we unite and strengthen the energetics among people with a new vision so that it begins to permeate at the DNA level and through day to day decisions

How do we begin to shed the divisions among religions and within so that the essence of compassion and tolerance is fierce and compelling with no violence needed.

How do we create equitable economic systems that give good abundance to all or most and limits the too much extra that is global waste?

How does each country and culture be proud without being more proud than others? Better than. 

What if every jerk (and you know what I want to say) that exhibits too much jerkiness is sent to a jerkdom on a newly discovered planet? Maybe my humor is coming back.

But I want to be in a room with people who now how to wrestle with these kind of dilemmas. So not boring. So not defeated at the get go. So idealistic.
So what!!!

REMEMBER THE QUESTION: WHAT WOULD YOU DO WITH 24 HOURS FREE TIME?

That question used to be asked in workshops and interviews all the time.
Not the most innovative question, but revealing.
I just had the gift of 24 hours to myself. I'm not surprised at what I chose to do but it was telling.

First I reveled in the open space I had. I was carbonated and kind of giddy with well being. Sounds sort of 7th grade doesn't it, but I was beyond pleased with the prospect. The day was more perfect Summer on a plate. I decided to follow my own nose for the day. No plans. Just the question, "Are you happy now?"

The upshot is that I read and read and read changing where I sat periodically so that I had a new view of Summer. I had two moments that always pop up when I have extended solitude. In early afternoon I began to feel like I 'should' go to the beach or walk to the nearest lighthouse and kind of wanted to do both. 
In late afternoon I began to feel just a little lonely. I vaguely thought about calling someone to go to dinner. No,no,no,no. My show stopper question (for life actually)is, "Is this the best way to use time?" My heart beats are limited. (So are yours.) 

And so I sat and and read with tiny breaks to feed my work horse/nag by watering a few plants and putting in laundry. I followed no clock but my internal impulse. Carrying my red cup of coffee with me. 

I kept a diary for the day. One line says, "Indulgence is so good for the soul.
Maybe not the body, but what a happy soul I have today!

For my crazy details of the day; see diary at www.iprayanyway.blogspot.com

BEING LAZY MAKES LIFE WORTHWHILE

I was visiting my Portland Oregon

daughter a couple of weeks ago and I had a ‘truth burp’. (My adult kids are used to it and either moan or write them down.) Kayla said,

“Stop. I want to write this one down. I need it as a mantra.” 

I often don’t remember a ‘truth burp’. Here is what she said I said-- “Laziness makes life worth living”. It came out when she was bemoaning having a huge garden, fun to create and horrible to maintain and beating herself up for being lazy. The timing was just right and we a good spurty laugh together.

So BEING LAZY MAKES LIFE WORTH LIVING and I mean it.

Lazy=”lack of effort, lack of activity, unwillingness to use energy”.

There is no creativity or production without an equal and opposite amount of inactivity. 

Yesterday I had a lazy Sunday morning.

I read a book about Mexico for no good reason.

I Played a game of Farm Heroes

I read the New York Times Book Review

I wrote a reflection/poem for new book.

I wasn’t pushed to do any of that.  Four hours of meandering.

Lots of staring into space.

It fueled me for now where I am now, meeting a writing deadline while babysitting for my granddaughter who I stashed into a water-filled storage bin so I could write out under a tree. I got three new ideas and made one important decision. AFTER some lazy time.

It’s Summer for Pete’s sake. Hurry up and get lazy. (There’s an oxymoron.) So, try a little lethargy.

HOW CAN I HATE YOU? LET ME COUNT THE WAYS!

Yes, that title is fueled by recent heart sickening killings in the United States this past week. And, yes, it is fueled by my feeling of impotence to cause the deep world wide shift needed for this dear globe of ours to survive much less flourish.

How Can I Hate You? Let Me Count the Ways:
I can hate you for loving people I think you shouldn't love
I can hate you because I was taught to hate you
I can hate you because your skin color scares me
I can hate you because you live on the wrong side of a borderline
I can hate you because your family wronged my family
I can hate you because you broke my heart
I can hate you because I'm jealous of your undeserved abundance
I can hate you because you hate me
I can hate you because you eat funny foo
I can hate you because I'm scared you might take what is mine
I can hate you because I'm right and you are wrong
I can hate you because you chew with your mouth open

We are so good at hate. It is a learned skill. So easy to learn. And easy to justify.

The skill of love over hate is so much harder. I'm not talking about the easy joyful pleasureful love. I'm talking about a tough to create pause for love, that nano-second in which we decide to love or hate. That moment of allowing someone to be equally important and as real and as human as we are even if we don't think so at the time. Idealistic? Very. Scary? Very. Possibility of being a victim? Yes. Therefore,  we need to love like warriors and train like warriors. Black Belts in love. Able to defend, never to be the aggressor  and able to shift the energy. Think Star Wars.

WHAT HAS TO BE PRESENT FOR IT TO BE THE 4TH OF JULY FOR YOU?

For my USA readers, I wonder how you would answer the title question.
I love to ask it for all kinds of special days. What has to be present for Christmas, Ramadan, Cinco de Mayo, birthdays, name days-------
More than the question, I love the answers.
I wish we were all in a room together to share responses to any and all of these questions.

My answers?
--Memories of childhood 4th of July have to be present
  * Flags on every porch
  *Sparklers that were big and fat and burned for a long time
  * Snakes!! An odd pellet that burned and turned to a snake like ash and left a
   scar on the sidewalks which drove my dad nuts
  *Punks! Punks looked like a sparkler but burned slowly and smoked and kept
   mosquitoes away--if any were left after big trucks spread DDT from a blower 
   (which we kids followed down the alley as it covered us in poison fumes,
   happy and dumb).
  *Blueberry pie made with a Crisco crust
  *Electric Fans going in every room
  *Dads at home for a holiday respected by blue collars employers
  *Sweaty games of flashlight tag at dusk as we waited for fire works and could
   stay up later than usual.
  *Fire works that were up close and loud and scary with everyone laying on
   their blankets giving out loud oohs and ash at the same time.

--Today's permutations?
  *Strawberry shortcake for sure
  *Sparklers that still delight me even if sort of puny
  *A discussion about whether to go to see fireworks and then always going
    even if the fireworks are muted and far away
  *Chalk to show grandchildren to play hopscotch and to teach them what a
    lagger was. (A lagger was your special rock or object to use to throw in the
    right box to get the right for your turn. Mine was a piece of a tar roof shingle.
    We did not mess with one another's lagger)
  * Ladder golf
  * And, probably, at least one kale salad!!!

We are a country based on a shocking experiment of self-government that many questioned. May we become better selves so that we may have better government and realize what a privilege it is to self-govern.