We still have gentle rain
amidst drought and floods
we still have gentleness
amidst war and famine
We still can love
when others hate
we still can share
when we hope for enough
We still have gentle rain
here and now
where we can plant and we can plow
Praise him in beautiful
Warm and sunny days
Gentle rain pours down
We need the rain, but I am grateful it stopped
so many areas have flooded recently and so many are flooding now
or hailing
I praise for gentle rain
after a summer of drought
in the face of all this climate disaster is to take care of each other.
A. Feed the Hungry
Feeding the hungry will keep our minds off our disasters and nourish others. These others are much more likely to grow up and not become terrorists. Terrorists occur when others feel they have been unjustly treated by another group or the system.
B. House the Homeless
These disasters are destroying many homes. Many of the people were average and middle class until their homes were swept away, now they are a refugee. If we can house them they can begin building a life and community again, which prevents terrorism.
C. Medical Care/Emotional Care
#2 Rebuild/Build for Resiliency
Set up systems and make it easy for people to bounce back emotionally and physically. It also includes building in ways that can either handle nature's furry or can easily be rebuilt.
#3 Stop Funding Disasters!
This means wars, and this means capitalism that makes a buck at the expense of the many.
These things start with me and you- doing it for our neighbors, and reaching further as we can. It means getting to know our neighbors, and others we hang around. Extend help and friendship.
We can also elect people with these attitudes and encourage them in the face of opposition to keep voting, creating laws to support reaching out with caring kindness.
It is the only way through the challenges ahead. Groups that form for caring for each other are going to make it. Those that destroy each other for resources are going to get destroyed (while taking a lot of innocents along with them)
I hope
when asked for another story at bedtime,
that she was read 2
When asked to play another 5 minutes
I hope he was given 10 more minutes to play
I hope that they put extra bubbles in the bubble bath
that Mom deeply inhaled the scent from her child's hair
enjoyed the weight and warmth of his cuddle
Smiled at his delight of learning new things
Watched as she twirled around with song
Gave an extra last kiss at bedtime
I hope
One of the challenges of mortality is balancing preparing for tomorrow and living life today because tomorrow is never promised.
If I absolutely knew I would have no tomorrow, I would be home playing with my babies, doggies, soaking up every ray of sunshine, taking one last sweet shot of sex with my hubby. I would drop all worries and go for comfort and experience, squeezing every golden drop I could from the last rays of light, and feel gratitude for the life I have had. I'd tell my children "Tomorrow, we go home to Christ."
Somedays, as the world tilts more into making tomorrow less likely, you begin to question the drive we have to carry on, as if nothing unusual is happening. Especially when that drive seems to eclipse both the actual preparation for tomorrow and the living life today.
Why go to work, go to school, when it reduces my current joy nor prepares me for what tomorrow will most likely bring? Why are we so good at pretending that tomorrow will just be another today?
This is a collective pretending. If enough of us pretend, it generally works, unless a disaster of man or nature actually befalls us, today will lead into tomorrow and be mostly normal. But as soon as enough of us stop pretending, it will fall apart. The lack of pretending tomorrow is normal will actually allow tomorrow not to be normal.
This is a two-edged sword. We do need tomorrow to be different if we want any hope of having enough resources to prepare for the future if we want to forge it into a liveable shape, but we also need tomorrow to be the same enough that we can use our current skill set to get things done as we prepare for the future.
Therefore, I submit the following advice (to myself)
1. Carrying on is important, but not in the "everything is normal" category, it has to be a carrying on that is designed to create a tomorrow we can/want to have.
2. This requires a focus shift. Stop pretending. Willingly acknowledge that tomorrow ought to be different. Figure out how you want it different and make plans how to get there. Ideally, our leaders should be doing this on a local, state, national, and worldwide scale. They are failing because big business requires our collective pretending. Without large-scale leadership, you will have to forge the best you can with whatever community you can join with. Find that community. Start plans and prepare.
3. Accept that you might have work to bring in the money you need to prepare for tomorrow ( and yes, paying your bills counts here). While you are working, you may have to pretend all is normal to do your job, or maybe your job is help prepare your work for this future we want to forge.
Sick and Tired?
Then Tired yet Boared?
What to do when you are stuck in a Covid quarantine, with no energy.
1. Sleep- I know if you are reading this then you are all slept out (at least for the next 5 minutes)
2. Read- novels are good, some nice fantasy, obviously you are not up to anything that takes real brain power, so don't pre-read your next semester's texts- just enjoy something fun
3. Watch something funny- the old saying laughter is the best medicine- some nice 1980s comedies might be right match for your brain power right now- maybe something with Leslie Neilson?
4. For the two minutes every hour you can handle standing- wash a dish or change a laundry might be nice. I've been trying to clean little messes. I got under 1 chair with a rag, and maybe tomorrow I'll get that pile of dirt and debris at the top of stairs (that has been waiting on me much longer than I've had covid).
5. Movie Marathon: like these quarantine days are great for nice long movie marathons, especially thing you can sleep through and not care about- every Lord of the Rings, every Star Trek, whatever floats your boat.
6. Write a string of really bad blogs, nobody will care anyways, except google, then they can pop up in somebody's search results and look promising until they realise it was nothing more then a direct phrase match.
After global warming proved to be an extension-level event; the rich; the billionaires, set about using their money to ensure their survival on a MARs colony. They leave Earth after the seas have officially started boiling. And after their arrival on Mars, they have to become pioneers and have to learn how to do daily chores to ensure their own survival. They learn the essential survival techniques of putting their nose to the grindstone, from the underclass they brought with them to do the cooking and the cleaning. Because the cost of hauling the underclass to Mars, they only brought a few. But the cleaning lady rises to prominence as she becomes the source of essential knowledge and character. By the third generation of human Martians, she is regarded as the only reason they have survived. The billionaires forgotten.
"Prepare, oh prepare"
she sang as she planted her garden
"Prepare, oh prepare"
she sang as she hung her solar panels
"Prepare, oh prepare"
She hummed as the wildfire smoke made her eyes tear
That wasn't fun
plague and earthquakes elsewhere were enough
but for it to come home
that was not fun
But she ate her saurkraut
as the world burned around here
tried to stay grounded
doing daily chores,
of which there were never any lack
New she sang songs of redemption
as she hung on
waiting through the dark
waiting for the light
I'm not done with my old nonsenses
I've got stars to watch and clouds to name
I've got flowers to befriend
asparagus to apologize to
before devouring it
I have toddlers to make messes with
kid to hop stone with
stream to majestically ford
and wet feet to let dry in the sun
mullin to pet
dirt to dig
spontaneous somersaults to perform
trips out of the blue
so many things to do
I'm not ready for something new
I smiled today as I walked in the storm
covered in snow
wind whipping my jacket and hair
was it the beauty of a winter storm that made me smile?
was it the wind pushing me backward on the snowy ice?
or was it the beauty of weather living up to its legendary forms?
maybe, it was peace in Christ?
