Fingers – think of all they do. Think of what life would be like without them… Think of how awesome it is that they obey orders that start way up in your head without you even having to think about it. We are wonderfully made! Have you ever really looked at the hands and fingers of the people you love? These are fingers from my family and friends doing what they do for fun and for making a living.
The Natural World
I could feel the blisters coming up, but I couldn’t stop.
We have a beautiful tree in our yard, a somewhat rare tropical Kapok tree. It’s very tall, having grown up in a grove of oak trees – it had to go up to get the sun. Most of the year we don’t pay much attention to it, other than to admire the trunk.
But in the spring it flowers, and for two to three weeks the ground below is showered with the red blooms. These are not like the delicate white dogwood flower but the type that will put a dent in your car should it happen to land there. We put a parking area under this tree. What were we thinking?!
The mat of squishy, slippery rotting vegetation is hard to walk on or drive on and it creates a brown, moldy looking paste that is death to a car’s paint job.
I was considering all this while raking the debris into heavy piles of “stuff” and my usual outdoor thought surfaced. What is nature teaching me? Could it be that we are all parked in places in our lives where “stuff” is falling on us that is damaging us? I had no trouble connecting that to some relationally toxic environments that I’ve been in lately. And I had just read a blog post about dealing with self-absorbed people who drop words and thoughts on others without awareness of the effects.
I’m not exactly proud that this was my first evaluation of the nature flower bomb situation, because the next place my thinking went proved more valuable. What if I am the tree? What’s happening to the people who are parked in my vicinity during the hours and days of my life? What kind of clean-up chores are necessary after I’ve been around? Now there was food for thought. It gave me a whole new perspective on spending an afternoon doing crafts with a child, or taking time to shop for my quadriplegic client, or the contacts with people in my study group. There are a lot of people “parked” under my tree of influence and I can make decisions on how I affect them, for good or bad.
Yes, the blisters are there. On other days, it’s a sore back, or a sunburn or just being dog-tired. Is it worth it? I say yes, as I look at the results – a clean drive and parking area and new incentive to interact in a better way with my friends and neighbors on planet earth . Surrounded by trees, plants, sky, dirt and fresh air we open ourselves to hear some really valuable messages. I’m just sayin’, whoever created the natural world had a really good idea and today I get it.
I was speaking (writing) of rubber bands in my last post and this thought came to mind, Rainbow Looms. Now for those of you who are not frequently in the company of children and may not know about Rainbow Looms, let me introduce you to a new craft/toy craze that is sweeping the WORLD. It really starts with a very simple concept of stringing rubber bands of various colors and sizes together to make bracelets, etc… but goes on to some pretty complicated stuff. The loom itself is a small plastic apparatus with multiple upright pegs.
I first heard of it when my cousin who has a young daughter started buying rubber bands in bulk to sell in her flea market business. Honestly, I didn’t see the draw and kind of mentally passed it by. Later at our Thanksgiving celebration her daughter and another young guest spent quite a bit of time making bracelets. The other girl had been doing it for a while and was making some fairly complicated patterns – these girls were into it, seriously.
But I did not know the true power of Rainbow Loom craziness until we went to Cambodia. The Rainbow Loom “people” had donated a number of looms and bags and bags of rubber bands for us to take with us as gifts for the children in the orphan homes. There were a few extra so one day we gave some to the university students in the girls dorm. The next day we found out that one girl had been up till 3 a.m. making bracelets and hair bands to give away as New Year’s gifts for her friends. There is evidently no age limitation to the fascination.
Later we took the loom project to each of the orphan homes and our experts sat down on the floor to teach and demonstrate. Hours later the madness was still continuing… They catch on quick. Thank you Rainbow Loom for a really fun time.
I was debating whether to adopt the practice of having a certain type of post on the same day of every week, which seems to be common practice on many blogs, say like Silly Saturday. . But I decided no. This is my chance to not copy others. So I’m going to be silly whenever I feel like I need to be, which would be tonight.
I name things. Sometimes I name things because it is easier to remember a name than it is to remember what the thing is. For instance, Ted. Ted is a piece of furniture I’ve had for over 20 years. I’ve never been able to figure out what exactly Ted is but it sits in my dining room and holds dishes and tablecloths, batteries and flashlights. Not a china cabinet, not really a buffet, it became easier to just call it Ted. Especially when trying to tell someone like the husband where to find something in it. “Look in the drawer of the…. of the….. that thing in the dining room!” So much easier to say “Look in the top drawer of Ted.” And now, after nearly a quarter century he’s finally figured out who Ted is.
I also like to name my vehicles. They are with me for so long that they become disturbingly like family members – they may as well have names. My last vehicle, the Aztek, was named Sunny which was short for sunshine, being that it was bright, schoolbus yellow. I’ve had my new old car for almost three weeks now and have been unsure what to name it. I wanted something meaningful. Today I decided to call it LC (Elsie). LC stands for little car which is my first thought almost every time I interact with the thing. “My goodness, this is a little car!” I think, as I try to figure out where to put my coffee cup, my cereal bowl, my purse, my workbasket, my sunglasses, and my lunch. “My goodness this is a little car!” I think as the husband bangs his head climbing into the passenger seat. “This is a little car!” I say to myself as the pump only puts in 9 gallons on a fill-up and goes twice as far on that as the previous vehicle.
I have a daughter with the “naming gene” too. Her present truck is named Nemesis. We bought it for her rather hastily, without her input and she pretty much can’t stand the thing. The car she had before Nemesis was named Claire. I know she named her very first car too but I can’t remember it’s name, Patty or something like that. I didn’t really bond with that car.
I’ve named my houseplants (because I can never remember the word “hydrangea”), several notebooks, my kindle, and my property (the oneacrewoods). I have a cat I call Gray Kitty, which is a very practical name for a gray cat. So you see, naming things is kind of an adaptive mechanism as well as being a bit odd, and it serves me well. I’m just sayin’, I’m kind of proud of being silly when it comes to names.
Have you ever named an inanimate object? C’mon, fess up.
Dear John Deere,
I don’t know how it started, but I have an awful lot of your stuff. I have pictures of your tractor. I also have a small replica of your tractor that children play with when they visit me. Actually, I know you have more than one tractor too – I have a book with pictures and stories about ALL your tractors from the first to the last.
I have one of your tablecloths, a miniature gas pump of yours, a toothpick holder with your logo, a set of dishes, some giant soup mugs, numerous metal boxes, a clock, an outdoor thermometer, a rug, a shirt and a couple hats – all in various shades of green and yellow, and with your name on them. I honestly can’t remember everything in this collection. It appears that there aren’t many things that you won’t put your name on.
John, you are my link to the past and all that was good about life on the farm. I remember those days whenever I pour my morning coffee into the John Deere mug and toast the new day. That’s why I’m sad to tell you that it’s over.
Today there was a crash and an exclamation of anguish from the kitchen where the husband was cleaning up his breakfast. John, he dropped your mug and it shattered. It’s gone. I threw it in the trash. Please don’t hate me.
Wishing it could have ended differently… (but after all, it’s just “stuff” and I can find another one in about 30 seconds on the internet)
At least that’s what it says on the new magnet we have on the front of the fridge. 
For the last couple of weeks I’ve been finding jars of unidentifiable, thick brown liquid in my refrigerator. It’s the husband’s soup that he makes in our Vita Mix (the machine that pulverizes wooden blocks for demo). I haven’t tasted any of it because I’m pretty sure the man has no idea of complementing flavors. I’ve heard what he puts in there. He is on a roll.
Today we jumped in the truck and went to the Red Barn Flea Market to buy vegetables for the week. He isn’t normally motivated to shop with me but there is a new angle to it now that makes him eager to choose what he’s going to eat. He also helps prepare it for the fridge, and fixes a lot of his own meals. We spent $37 and filled two large bags with “stuff” to eat. Ready for this? We bought beets, radishes and cilantro, yellow summer squash, acorn squash, spaghetti squash, avocados, celery, tomatoes, cabbage, green and red peppers, broccoli, cantaloupe and grapes. The lady threw in two pears as a bonus.
We owe this new surge of enthusiasm to a doctor who lectured on public radio and inspired him (to put it mildly) to order a whole set of DVDs and educational material. I have not wanted to ask what it cost – after all, it’s in the name of good health and I’m sure it will be worth it, whatever the price.
My husband is of a scientific bent and is quite impressed and interested in any research done on health topics. The doctor who talks on the DVDs gives all kinds of evidence of the miraculous things found in vegetables. He talks about body chemistry in great detail and his findings are that we have been wreaking havoc on our bodies with food that is bad for us. One of the DVDs was of case studies of people whom the medical community had pretty much given up on, but who were helped back to great sounding health by eating a different way. There were lots of before and after pictures. With good nutrition their bodies were able to reverse the course of diabetes, high blood pressure, heart damage, fibromyalgia, ovarian cancer, multiple sclerosis, numerous allergies, and psoriasis. And of course, they all lost weight as a side effect.
Truth is, he will get no argument from me about this. I am totally in favor of anything that means less cooking for me, and this is a very simple way to eat. He carved up the cantaloupe, I cooked the beets for a cold salad we had tonight, and with the nutritious beet tops I made a soup for tomorrow. With all that other stuff we are set for the week. I made a list so we won’t forget to eat anything.
We have been moving toward this type of diet for a while now but this will be the fine tuning that keeps his interest up. He even wants to get other people interested in a group effort so he has someone with whom to share recipes and stories. And there is also the online community which his paid subscription includes.
As for now, I am his group. And I’m just sayin’ I can’t wait to feel better.
I Just Have to Say... 