From the End to the Beginning?

You hear about people ranting and raving about their kids spending too much time in front of video games or computers, and how cell phone use while driving or walking is dangerous (or not), and how kids have bastardized the English language by texting (and sexting) all the time. I’ve been known to throw more than a few choice words through the windshield of my truck at dipsticks more concerned with their phone conversation than the direction and speed of their vehicle too. But, as a whole, social networking has proven to fill in a lot of holes in a lot of lives, with the benefits reaching even into the realm of life-saving. The drama about the use of cell phones, one networked gadget out of many, will more than likely die down as time goes on.

Social networking, for me, has filled in quite a few of those holes. I blog, I share my photos and the tidbits I find in the news. It’s all give and take, and I’ve come to know many wonderful people who share their thoughts, photos and opinions too. Blogging has not only broadened my world view, it has brought true meaning to cultural, religious and political variations on life’s theme as I get to know people from all over the world. Facebook brings another dimension of depth to the people behind all my favorite blogs.


But, it’s all backwards!

Real Life vs Politics

If you were asked to describe your ideal boss, what would you say? Have you ever worked for your ideal boss?

I did. I had a boss once who pushed me on, who supported my efforts to push past my self-imposed limits, who respected me as a person and as his employee, who trusted me to always act in the best interests of the program; who knew my values and respected them even if his were different, and respected me even more for respecting him. If I ran into an ethical conflict, he supported my decisions, again, even if they weren’t the same ones he’d make. He was the one I’d always turn to for moral guidance, and I always felt he valued me and held me in high regard. That regard was returned in kind. I wasn’t the only one that felt so highly of him. The feeling was shared by thousands of people he had touched over the years.

That is about as close as I can come to defining a good leader. It is what I expect to see in leadership at any level, whether it be a manager of a small corner store, a worldwide corporation – or an elected official. But, as soon as the word “politics” enters into the equation, that all flies right out the window.

Meaning in a Mess?

I’m speechless. I’m astounded. There’s some major lessons here, if only I could step back enough to put it all into words. For now, I am amazed.

If you’ve been reading along, you know about my last huge bump here at the house with the electricity going out. Flabbergasted by the outrageous – and impossible – amount of money an electrician wanted to fix things back up again pushed reality right up in my face. No way.

So, I adapted. Once I got going with it, broke the rust off the squeaky wheel, it started to get easier. I could continue to function with all the various modifications to the way I do things, sans electricity. One thing is for sure: I’m not likely to flip a light switch and take it for granted that the light will actually come on again.

Sidesteppin’ the Sideswipes

… or, sideswiping the sidesteps. Confused? So am I. I think it has something to do with change and adapting and rolling with the flow. Here’s the tale of my latest bumps, and they are doozies.

I’ve never said this before, so it’s a bit strange to say: Last year wasn’t such a bad year for me. I landed a state job that allowed me to keep on as a stringer (cool word, I like it, but it just means freelancer) for the local newspaper. That part of things came together nicely.

Not everything was wine and roses, though. The chickling flew the coop, left the nest and me behind, and that took a major adjustment. I got off my ass and put myself back together again.

Already this year, I have different bosses, not only on the state job, but my editor at the newspaper flew the coop and took a publisher’s position in another state and his position has yet to be filled. More major adjustments on the way, and a lot less comfort. It sure does taint things a bit gray, if you know what I mean. Great bosses are few and far between.

Break Into the Moment

It wasn’t until I stopped thinking about being around Odin that I began being with Odin, and that is when our relationship began. The result was a profound change in myself and my life because my interactions with people evolved too.

In the Thinking

Thinking is a constant thing, and it is a great, boundless power we have. It’s what we egoistically flaunt as our superiority over the rest of Earth’s life. Positive, creative thinking builds our world; negative, destructive thinking destroys it. Would we be so destructive if we could stop thinking long enough to notice how much we have lost?

Yes. And we know it. We meditate, pray, lose ourselves in a book, in music or making love; we scare ourselves out of thinking on roller coasters, and we sleep. Then we go right back to thinking, in a straight line; linear. We have a past and a future, but rarely do we anchor ourselves in the present.

Crawling Out of the Woodwork

Hello. My name is Theresa, and I’m terrified of bees.

There. I said it. It’s out in the open now. I’ve admitted it. Step 1 is done.

Why am I thinking about bees now – in January? Because I was chased by a bee yesterday, that’s why. That danged thing had me running in circles trying to get away from it.

Put me and a bee in the same location and it means that my fight/flight response is all flight. There’s no thinking, no time for my brain to register that it’s just a little insect. No, I am out of there. No ifs, ands or buts about it. The whoosh of a breeze left in my wake overflows with expletives and four-letter words that would curl your hair. It’s like Tourette’s Syndrome with its own flair.

Between a Rock and a Hard Space…Again. Help!

The other day, a friend and I took a trip down to Little Rock to take care of some things and have lunch. Part of the trip is on a 4-lane highway, and as usual, the traffic was slightly heavy. I turned my head to face her as she was driving to catch a glimpse of a blue SUV type vehicle coming up on us in the passing lane. At that moment, I hear a screech of tires, see the nose of that blue vehicle dive out of sight, and the next thing I see is that vehicle spinning a 360 in the highway’s median to come to a stop facing the other direction in the other two lanes.

I yelled “Stop! Pull over and stop. Stop now.” Not having any idea what had just happened, my friend questioned me instead of pulling over and stopping, so again, I repeated, “Just stop! We have to be sure she’s OK.” Now looking in her rear-view mirror, she saw the blue vehicle get out of the way of traffic then drive on in the opposite direction. Whew. Then, my friend points out how crazy some people get and overreact, and I thought she was talking about me. Yeah, I got her rattled, but she was talking about the driver that spun and ended up going back the way she came, not me.

For me, it was one of those things where I go into crisis mode and act on instincts. I wanted to be sure that driver was OK, and that was a very powerful, driving force in those few short moments that the whole thing took to happen.

Taunting the Tail-less

“Lookatme, lookatme, lookatme!”

Flying around, nothing but a yellow blur with a black nose to cut through the air like butter, Saki ran circles around Jake. After a few seconds, Jake just stopped to see where Saki would touch down.

In contrast to Saki’s lithe speed and allergy to gravity, Jake is stocky, solid, and yes, tail-less. He lost the length of his tail last spring. The vet couldn’t tell what had happened to sever the bone and tissue almost completely through. The end result was a docked tail. He looks buff, and he knows that’s his forte. Buff, and ground bound.

The final trip around and Saki takes a flying leap, landing atop the half-eaten round bale. He stands still, ears and tail up, eyes fixed on Jake.

A Week of Winter is Enough

Do you see that …that stuff… on the ground? Sure, it’s January, it’s cold, it’s not much, but folks, this is Arkansas and it’s not supposed to snow here. I know I said that change is in the air, but…

That little bit of snow was slickery and slippery. Since snow is such a rare thing, there are no snow plows or sand trucks, and salt isn’t thrown onto the roads at the first flake falling from the sky. That little bit of snow pretty much shut everything down on Monday and gave kids an extended winter break from school. Even government offices opened two hours late, so much was shut down.

The World in My Pocket

“I’ll do it on the Internet, on my iPhone,” he said to me with a twinkle in his eye. “I love my iPhone. I do everything on my iPhone. My computer is now just a standby. I’d rather use my iPhone.”

And I thought I was bad. But, I do know where he’s coming from. I love my iPhone too, but it has yet to replace my computer. Ever try to write an article on an iPhone? 

I’d probably get pretty good at it, typing away on the iPhone, if I had no other alternative. People get good at texting using 10 numbers on regular cell phones, right?

I do love my iPhone. It’s my computer when I’m away from my computer. I read email, text people, keep up with Facebook, keep up with my money, keep up with my schedule, and keep up with the news. I now read books on this handy-dandy little gadget of mine, talk on the phone, get directions to where I want to go, surf the Internet and listen to tunes. I tune my guitar with it, write blog posts with it, take photos with it and then fix those photos with it before sharing.

Change is in the Air

I know it’s supposed to happen, this marking the beginning of a new year, but I’ve had the growing suspicion that change is in the air, and a lot of it. Change is a constant, flowing right along with time, and it’s a given. But, I wish I could say what’s in the wind are only small things like changing a baby’s diaper or changing out blown light bulbs or getting change back from a dollar or changing your underwear.

Change is good. The less money people have in their discretionary spending fund, the more time they will spend on things that are actually worthwhile, like time spent together instead of at the mall and doing things that don’t have a price tag, like taking a walk or reading a book from the library. How the continuing recession affects us in the long term remains to be seen, but there can be no doubt that many more changes will happen before it ends.