Does a pregnant pause give birth to little pauses after nine months? And how did it get pregnant in the first place? Was it, perhaps, inseminated by a break? A comma? Probably wasn’t a period. … think about that one for a minute.
I probably don’t pause often enough to contemplate how grateful I am for the life I have. Great friends, a loving family, a roof over my head and a boiler in the basement that works, enough food on the table and laughter all over the house. True, it’s not always easy. But I’m pretty content with it. Of course a warm sunny beach in my back yard year round would make it perfect…
So when do I pause? In the shower for sure. It’s really the only place I’m not pulled away from by the needs of everyone else. It’s rare to sit down to a meal without having to get up half a dozen times. Same with doing the dishes, cooking, sitting at the computer writing a SoCS post.
I’m back. See? You didn’t even notice the pause. 😉
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Yes, I’ve posted every day this month so far. No, I haven’t linked every day to NanoPoblano. Coz you know what? It feels like the first thing that goes when I’m stressed is the enthusiasm for anything that’s not deathly necessary. And a lot of things right now are deathly necessary. On top of that, it seems the world is in turmoil and there’s nothing I can do about it. So I offer you a picture. I’ve been waiting for the right time to post it and this feels like it. It’s not a dove, but they are white birds.
May you have peace this evening, where ever you are.
This is a post I’ve been procrastinating on all day, because … there is nothing to describe. It is, of course, about the attacks on Paris. The attacks all over the world, but understandably it is Paris we relate to because if it can happen at a concert somewhere in the “civilized” Western world then it can happen in our own back yards. But that’s not where my mind is going. Where my mind is going is how do we stop it.
I’ve spent the day considering how a follower of Tao, as I am, would handle this and the only thing I can come up with is this: teach by example. We must teach our children tolerance. We must be tolerant. Human suffering goes on everywhere. Yes, some suffering is more … extensive? That’s not really the word I’m looking for. Prolonged. Yes, prolonged. But suffering is a human condition. And until we can teach our children that we are all equal, whether we are disabled, or have different languages, or colour of skin, the truth is we are all human and we all feel the same things… until we can teach our kids that THAT is what is important and not what we believe is out there in the cosmos, or what might have created us or guided another human being to write a book – until we can teach our children that what really matters is that whomever our neighbour is that they feel the same things we feel and dream of the same happiness we dream of, until THEN, there will be wars and intolerance and discontentedness and hurt and pain in the name of that which only matters within the confines of our own minds and our own homes.
All lives are precious. ALL of them. This is not indescribable. It does not defy description. It transcends it.
Have you ever seen so many cat pictures in your life as you’ve seen since Facebook came into being?
What?
Of course not. They seem to be the world’s favourite animal now. When I was growing up I loved horses; I still do, I suppose. But they’re not all I think about the way I did before I had kids. I suppose my kids are my new horses… Yeah, stream of consciousness.
I still notice many little girls are saying horses are their favourite animal. But let’s face it, horses are something you’ve got to get off Facebook to spend time with, unlike cats. Horses don’t sit on your keyboard when you’re trying to type, so that’s a plus. And you can’t ride a cat. At least not a house cat. You could ride a lion, and you’d have something to hold onto. A mane. Hey, horses have manes. Did you know horses and cats have something in common? They both lay their ears back when they’re mad. They’ll both bite when you get them upset enough… but horses don’t scratch. They both need their nails trimmed though.
This is getting out of hand. Catapult me outta here.
Anyone who would like to try it out, feel free to use the “One-Liner Wednesday” title in your post, and if you do, you can ping back here to help your blog get more exposure. To execute a ping back, just copy the URL in the address bar on this post and paste it somewhere in the body of your post. Your link will show up in the comments below. Please ensure that the One-Liner Wednesday you’re pinging back to is this week’s! Otherwise, no one will likely see it but me.
As with Stream of Consciousness Saturday (SoCS), if you see a ping back from someone else in my comment section, click and have a read. It’s bound to be short and sweet.
Unlike SoCS, this is not a prompt so there’s no need to stick to the same “theme.”
The rules that I’ve made for myself (but don’t always follow) for “One-Liner Wednesday” are:
I’m not sure if this is going to come off as a tired rant, a tirade, or an attempt to show others that they’re not alone, but here we go anyway.
Advocating for one’s family is a ball-buster. Bureaucracy makes it so that the people working at the level the public deals with on a daily basis in the schools, and all the way up to the federal government, are in a position to simply throw up their hands and say, “Sorry, this is the way it is.” Which makes it necessary for us advocates to go above their heads. But it’s not as easy as just making a phone call. Oh no. There are “proper channels” we must go through. Forms to fill out and send either by snail mail or fax machines we have to drive around town to find and then spend money on. And then there’s the wait. The wait that is so damned long we forget whether we do indeed have to just wait or follow up. Follow up? Oh yes, start at the bottom again to get the right phone/fax/post office box number.
And while all that’s going on, something else has come up. It’s a lot of work and it’s stressful! Even if we do manage to talk to someone on the phone we have to go into “stand and fight” mode before we even start. Because nothing is easy and no one at the other end is going to give in. If we’re lucky (and I use that term loosely) we get transfered to the next higher up on the food chain so that we can go through our case again. And then what? Normally it’s wait and see. Or, “We’ll mail you the forms to fill out.” Again.
What I have on the go includes (but is not limited to) getting an aid to help my 20 year old Autistic son in class so he can graduate high school this year; getting the funding I’m entitled to for my other son’s eyeglasses; finding out what the hell is going on with the holter (heart) monitor his cardiologist ordered months ago; sorting which hoops I have to jump through for the nurse at his school who doesn’t want him to eat by mouth this year, this after a lengthy process (with a two year waiting list) of having a swallow study done, followed by a report which was discussed at a meeting with the specialists and the above mentioned nurse to explain that he could eat by mouth; finding out what happened to the money my mother was supposed to get back from the condo corporation after we sold her unit… The list goes on and on. And it’s all wrapped up in bureaucratic bullcrap.
Luckily I’m a stay-at-home mom, so I don’t do anything all day anyway… 🙄
I’m sure I’m not alone in this. In fact I’m sure there are others out there who have it even worse than I do. I have to wonder if there’s a better way to do things. Don’t you?
Is it possible to write stream of consciousness style when there’s someone screaming in your ear, stealing away your focus? I’m about to find out.
“Never expect anything and you’ll never be disappointed.” it’s a phrase I live by. I had hoped – half expected – to get this weekend away, but my ex came down with some kind of a bug so here I am with a disgruntled kid who doesn’t want me to pay any attention to anything but him. I had a back-up plan – his older brother – but he’s sick too.
It’s funny. I spend so much energy attempting not to promise the kids anything until I’m positive it’s going to happen but I don’t always put it into practice myself. But it’s really the same thing, isn’t it? I allow them to hope by saying maybe, or wait and see, but I don’t allow them to expect anything, and so if it doesn’t happen, they’re not too disappointed. It’s good advice, no matter whether you’re doing it yourself or doing it for someone else. Yet I don’t know if I’m actually teaching them anything…
It’s particularly important for someone like my son who is Autistic not to have unexpected events happen. Or for plans to go awry. Although I find as he gets older (he’ll be 20 next month) he’s getting better with change – more able to accept it. Still, there are certain things that can not, in his mind, be tolerated. God forbid anything ever happens to his computer.
I like surprises. Good ones at least, and most of the bad ones I’m able to roll with. Then again, I try not to expect too much.
As you may have read, I had to give up my paper route last spring because of the pain in my shoulder. I wasn’t very happy about it. Being a newspaper carrier gave me a reason to get out and walk every day, as well as the occasional reason to post about the adventures I had when I was out. In lieu of that, I started going to an indoor track when the weather was bad – either too icy, cold or rainy, or too hot and humid. But now that the weather is getting nicer again, I’ve begun exploring the neighbourhood in which I’ve lived for the past six (yes, six) years. This is what I discovered, less than a ten minute walk from my house:
There’s a turtle pond due south of my abode, complete with a waterfront trail that stretches about a half a mile in both directions (west and east) before it pauses to take up its journey again past houses and busy roads. The Waterfront Trail in its entirety goes all the way from Niagara Falls to the Quebec border, with breaks in between for roadways. Some of the breaks are vast, but in all it goes around the western end of Lake Ontario, through Toronto, and follows past Kingston (where the lake ends) and then all the way down the Ottawa River. Minus the breaks, it is 450km (280 miles) long. (Source, Wikipedia.)
I’m looking forward to taking lots of pictures as the trees change. There are herons and swans, ducks, cormorants, seagulls, and geese, and of course, turtles in abundance. The indoor track, though handy and free, is going to seem very dull when the snow necessitates it.
I had a weekend off but had very little sleep, but that’s not why I’m discouraged.
I got barely any work done on my novels, but that’s not why either.
I have a sink full of dishes that I haven’t the energy to do, but that’s not entirely what’s got me down.
I killed a fruit fly this afternoon by breathing it forcefully (by accident) up my nose and blowing it back out into a kleenex – that was actually the highlight of my day.
I want to go to bed but I have to wait for kids to go to sleep, but that’s not what’s really killing me.
I have so much to do that I don’t know where to start, but that’s not the worst of it.
What really has me discouraged? It’s all of the above combined. Except the fruit fly thing. That’s just funny.
How was your weekend? Please tell me it was better than mine.
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