Musing About My Life

Ever hear of the phrase "Tit for Tat? " As kids, before Mother intervened, we five children might have tried to do that. On a grumpy day, one of us might say to another" "Go ahead, hit me. See what happens. If you hit me, I'll hit you back."

I decided years ago, or was it decided for me by my higher power, that I would always be an "actor" and not a "reactor." People may speak unkindly to me. I will not return a similar reply.
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I don't ever want to be as one of those balls on a spring. One can bat the ball away and immediately it comes back. One can hit harder and find the same results. No matter how hard one hits the ball, the ball comes back, and with a greater force. In the presence of an object on a spring, or any, other reactive experience, it is considered wise to walk away.

SONGS LIFT ME UP

Right this minute, words of a song have come to me. Why? Is it because I was raised to live by the philosophy the song espouses!

You gotta accentuate the positive,
eliminate the negative,
don't mess with Mr. "in-between."

Jonah and the whale?
What comes next? Google will know.
*******
As I have done regularly throughout my life, and more often in my mature years, I like to recall and celebrate ideas that guide us:

"Look for the silver lining
Whenever clouds appear in the sky.
Remember somewhere the sun is shining
so the right thing to do
is make it shine for you.

A heart full of joy and laughter
will always vanish sorrow and strife;
so always looks for the silver lining
And try to find the sunny side of life.

I am glad that around age ten, I learned those songs
and how nice it is for those songs to
have stayed in my mind.

I have come to believe that people who managed to live through the Depression, relied on hope to keep themselves going. One of the spiritual gifts that God supplies to all life, is hope. Hope, I once decided, is like a fishing bobber. Life may push it down, but hope always bobs to the surface again.

Hope is expressed in the growth and challenge that lives face to reach their fruiting: (trees, dandelions, woodchucks, and us.

As I think of challenge in earlier years, I remember the late Marie Gaudette, of the National Girl Scouts. Marie came to Syracuse to help Girl Scout leaders find safe ways to teach advanced outdoor skills. When asked, "Would the activities, such as fire building, and using sharp tools, be safe for the Junior Scouts?" Marie answered, "We supervise, and very carefully, the use of tools." We also want to remember that "A beaver doesn't get sharp teeth by eating marshmallows."

I was introduced to Marie, and liked her immediately. I found her to be a person of substance. I still keep handy, a book that she wrote. Ahem, with my Girl Scout days so long ago, where is that book now?"

In the book, Marie tells us that others communicate their needs to us, but in different ways. She said, "As with puppies in a litter, people don't all respond to other people, and to life in the same way. To learn about another life's needs, we must pay attention to that life. Trial and error, can guide us."

I met a graduate student, once, whose schooling had been in child development. She said, "My field of study is so complex, I don't know whether, even now, I am qualified enough to work with children. If I marry, do I know enough to take care of a child? "

Remembering Marie's teaching, I said to the student, "Did you ever take care of a house plant? Or a kitten?" She said, "Well, yes." I said, "How did you know what the plant or the kitten needed?" She said, " Do you mean to say that we care for a child in the same way? A child will "show us her needs, or his needs?"

I said, "Marie, our Girl Scout professional said she had lived her whole life with that trust!" She said, "To help any life, we pay attention to its needs, and take our cue from what we learn."

Marie Gaudette, in her later life, lost her eyesight. I wanted to send her a gift, but was puzzled over what kind of gift she could enjoy. I decided to see how many different rocks and small stones I could find for her. I thought she could handle those and think about their variety.

A friend wrote that Marie did find pleasure as she handled the stones. She thought of their differences: "smooth, rough, round, odd shape, small, larger, light, or heavy. Her friend said Marie even enjoyed just holding the various stones in her hands. Some would warm to her touch.

Acceptance
In the presence of frustration, "if we choose to accept whatever is at hand, each day and look for the good we have to be grateful for, contentment will find us, too."

Mother told my four brothers and me (and followed the rule, herself,) "We shouldn't fret, but be thankful for what we have."

I am thankful for a clear mind and for a nature that allows me to be myself, and without the need to have to do more or be better than I am. "

It seems I do have an inner mandate to "carry consideration, and acceptance" into the byways I travel, and wherever I find myself give those to every heart.

I think if the experiences that my brothers and I had in our early years, were available to this generation, life would be found more satisfying. With simple and shared experiences, maybe we people of the earth could learn to live together in peace.

I am grateful for the good that is mine. Every day, I place my empty cup before God. I ask for nothing. Yet, I am given all I need.

The joy of God's Presence may not be known by every created life, but God's provides equally for each life to wake, to grow, to multiply (sometimes with deeper love, and to reflect His Presence.

God's love supports every creation. The joy of God's presence comes to us with His gifts of our breath, our body heat, our will to be and to do, our beating heart, our minds to guide us, our feelings of love and caring, our sleep and the wonder of waking to a new day.


marylee manson armour,
writing from another year
found again and simplified,
December 30,2004
February 28, 2009