life

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Stepping Back

Many of us enjoy and strive to live by a simple lifestyle. It doesn’t mean it will be easier, but living with intention in life. Getting out and visiting the ‘Brick and Mortar’ stores, actually going to the market to get groceries, taking care of business in person, and having physical leisure time. Spending less time in front of a screen and getting back to spending more time outdoors, getting involved with community activities, sitting around the dinner table in the evenings and sharing a meal with the family.

Over the last several weeks, I have slowly removed myself from time on a device and removed the apps on my devices (cell phone). I started using the cell phone for what it was intended for, and nothing more unless I have to. While at work, keeping the phone in my bag and not in a pocket or where I can have it at hand. Instead, I give my job the time that they are paying me to do and stay focused on that job. If there is an emergency my kids know to call the company and have someone come and get me. Most companies do allow breaks and lunches, and that is the time to check for calls. It really feels good as I have become more relaxed, and doing more and using the devices as they were originally intended to be use.

Yes, it takes a little more effort, but it really feels good mentally and physically. Instead of over-use of the devices and burning out the brain, I now started picking up a book to read in my free time, keeping a journal and planner with me to keep notes and journal as I go through the day. Basically, functioning as we use to do before the day of every household having a computer or mobile phone.

Too many have lost the ability to know how to verbally communicate to one another, anymore.
We have become so dependent on modern computers to do most everything for us that we struggle in a lot of areas of life like reading, writing, spelling, mathematics, and problem solving. We have lost the ability to personally socialize, and get out and meet people. People are always in a hurry to get to and from, without a simple hello. I remember how nice it was to receive a letter and/or a card in the mail. Having a pen-pal and waiting for that response daily. It’s nice to have something real and tangible in your hand that you can go back to to look at and cherish those moments.

We have lost a lot of simple ways of life that has carried us through decades of joy… And it is real in the sense that it can be touched by the hand. We are so quick to support the eCommerce that our family started stores and smaller stores are closing their doors. Even strangers are picking out our groceries, and all we have to do is pick them up.

I have observed what is around us for a very long time, and have started taking back control in my life and not giving it up to online robots. No, we may not be able to get completely free of some online activity like work, but I am doing as much as I can to remove my footprint and do things in a real world sense. Having something to look forward to through the day as I go about the daily routine. It’s becoming a more dangerous world online as the robots become more sophisticated and learn more and more about the user. With all of this being said, my goal for the future is living life in the real-time as we talk about and hear, and spend less time online.

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The Gift Of Life

The greatest gift that an individual can receive is the ‘Gift of Life’. There is no other earthly gift that can surpass this one. Without it, we would not be able to receive any other gift. And that is where I can say, “I am grateful for my mother.” There are no words to express the love of our mothers… My mother. The sacrifices that have been made to insure that I had the best upbringing that was possibly given all the way to her last breath. In her last moments she didn’t want to be bother, she was busy praying for those she was leaving behind. She didn’t want to leave us and she fought all the way, but finally the last words that stood out was, “God has this!” She knew she was leaving the rehab facility to not go to her physical home, but she was going to the greatest home of all. And then, as she was dying she was still being my mother and watching out for me and making sure I knew she loved me. A mother’s love cannot compare to anything else.

Life is a gift. And in life we have chooses to make, we have responsibilities, and serious decisions to make. That doesn’t mean we won’t make bad chooses, mistakes, or really fall short in what we do or say, but even in that we do have the choose to try to make things right. We can bring joy and love to another or sadness and heartbreak, we have a choose. We are given the freedom to choose, and it is up to us to make the right one.

Life is complex, but within it it is still our gift from our (my mother) mothers and ultimately from God. It provides us with plenty of twist and turns through it. It offers the chance to grow and become something better than before. It allows us to have disagreements large or small, and behind it the opportunity to work out those differences. My mother and I didn’t always agree on each others chooses, but we respected each other and knew in the end that God had control. Love always overcame our differences. And love can still overcome anything difficult that we may face, today.

I miss my mother very much! I lived and grew in her womb for seven months. When it was time, I enter this life on the outside to grow, flourish, and learn life’s lessons. That happened only because she was willing through love to share in that gift of life. She was and still is my best friend. We did most everything together as we were getting older. We had ongoing daily dialog beginning very early morning before the sun was up, and our night closed with a phone call to say good night and I love you.
On the way to work one morning, I realized that one day I will take her hand and leave this life to go to a greater life. I think about the song, ‘Oh What A Day That Will Be’.

Posted on Beauty and Health

Do We Have Play Time As Adults?

As children, we run and play as we should. We have our favorite toys to play with, our favorite friends, favorite activities, and sports. As we get older, what may and will change is our toys as they get bigger and more expensive. Our friends may stay the same, but activities and sports usually change with some exceptions. As adult life, we pretty much have the same pattern, but with more responsibilities.

Playing as an adult measures up to a multiple ways in having fun. Which, young adult kids can really spice the fun times up! I went through college with my oldest and youngest son. We had so much fun! We enjoyed sitting in front of a monitor, going hiking, falling into the lake like I did on a hot day, going out taking photos in nature, or some of us sitting out at a lake prepping for an exam. But some of our greatest times was in the classroom together and competing against each other or other students. Seeing who would get the better test scores.

We all worked on campus and got involved in different clubs. So, our life was busy, but never so busy that we didn’t have time to get out, go to the movies, or travel to theater to theater across our state and other states on college trips. Meeting new people, and even sat at the capital of our state listening to the debates as new laws were in the process to be passed or denied. We had some of the best learning opportunities that was building who we have become today.

We had study groups as well, and not between the walls of a building. Some of us had to work a little hard to achieve our goals and grades, but mission was accomplished. No time was wasted!

After two years some of us graduated, went into the military, and continued education. Over fifteen years later, we still talk about those days with some little giggles. No matter the age, it is
never too late or too old to still play and have fun. Age is only a number as long as your body can keep up with the activities. And even then, it is fun to relax and play a card game, take a walk in the woods and enjoy nature, sit along a shore and read a book. Play time is limitless!! It’s all in the wording.

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The Way We Were

Have you ever just stopped and looked around or listen to the old stories of people that share what used to be? As I get younger, I often think about the young newspaper boy getting up early in the morning to make his newspaper route, building a community of neighbors watching out for each other and getting to know one another, being able to go to bed with the windows of the home open as you sleep, and the doors to your car and home unlocked. These were times of beauty, when you didn’t have to worry about uninvited guest walking through your door, young boys trying to earn a little spending money with a newspaper stand or bike, and people simply helping each other on there street. There was no fear or shame, just good ole conversation with a few laughs.

When I was a child and young adult, my family would gather together in one home for a meal. We would sit on the front porch swing that hung from the ceiling of the porch with our cousins or roll down the little hill of the front yard. My grandmother or aunt would drop the laundry down the laundry shoot from upstairs or in the kitchen and land in the basement where the laundry was done. We all would sit around the table to have our meals, talk about the day, and sometimes one of us kids would get into trouble. We were never allowed to talk back to our elders… There was a large paddle with our names on it!
No matter where we all met up, it was always at one house, and the same activities would take place. One of my uncles loved to get us kids in the kitchen and teach us how to cook different foods, or we all would sit in the backyard taking our turn to turn the handle on the manual ice cream maker… Oh, these were the days!! A lot of laughter shared!

My father was very much of an outdoors man, and it was bred into my brother and I as we were growing up. We didn’t take trips that only lasted a weekend or a holiday that lasted a week or two. We were gone at least a month at a time, traveling coast-to-coast, border-to-border and sometimes visiting Mexico and Canada.
We camped in Death Valley a month at a time and learned how to survive in the heat to getting stuck up in the mountains in four to five foot of snow, and burning blankets to make smoke signals to get help. We always travel in a small station wagon with 3 adults, seven children, and two dogs. It was a blast!!

When I sit on the front porch early morning or take a long drive these days, I am reminded of the joys that were share when I was growing up. Yes, there are material items and situations that makes us feel nostalgic, but more than anything it is more of what we did as a family. When my kids and grand-kids all gather today, I am reminded of the past, but more so in what is ahead for the future. Family is so important… Stories of the past can enrich the mind of the younger generations. And I call that a blessing.

Daily writing prompt
What makes you feel nostalgic?
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