Thursday, March 17, 2022

"Time To Molt"

 A molting crayfish has to shed the exoskeleton to make room for a bigger body, or it will die.

“Actually, it would be no exaggeration to say that molting is the most stressful and important time in a crayfish’s life. This is the time when they are the most vulnerable and are prone to die.” ~ Aquariumbreeder.com article by Michael

Animals survive by instinctive behaviors; humans survive with higher intelligence.

After what the world has had to endure the last three years due to negative mental pressure pushed continually from outside influences to subjugate us through confusion, it is time for us to molt. Let’s agree to shed the old confusion and embrace a bigger understanding of the media world and how it can subliminally influence unsuspecting minds.

My advice: Reduce TV, social media, and Netflix viewing.

We may be vulnerable and stressed a short time while sorting things out, but if we focus on reality and take care of ourselves, all will be well on the other side of this chaos.

Humans are amazingly resilient like this: nature made us this way.

If nature creates crayfish to molt and heal without thinking; why wouldn't nature help us with higher intellect to think and restore clarity of mind? 

Ask any crayfish. It feels good to shed the old and grow into the new.

(I know you say Molting Crayfish? What is the Quail Writer thinking? What can I say? I love wildlife and nature videos; today, the beautiful blue exoskeleton molting was so exciting to see. I had to share it with you. There's a connection in there somewhere. Wink, wink.)

Look how cool is this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZP1fFKZ2Fs

Wednesday, February 9, 2022

The Elected President Of My Life

Freedom to think for myself does not include you. Freedom to think for me does not mean I have the right to deceive you, control you, harm you, or influence you to follow my lead. We can disagree about almost everything, and we can each choose to follow our chosen path. What I know from living over half a century is that the majority of everyday people are kind and good and have no need to deceive anyone.

We can learn to know those that deceive and cause harm to others by the results of their actions/decisions. It takes years of living and interactions with others to learn this. If these individuals are in governing positions, including families, and these speak negatively constantly, these individuals need to be removed from their place of influence in our minds. 

Peaceful co-existence concerning diversity is a more profound commitment than surface disagreements. Co-existence is the calm acceptance of social differences in every community. Kind people worldwide like to help one another every day.

In the self-discovery of my love for the people of the world, I first had to love myself. Negative judgments about me, whether spoken by you or "thought silently" by me, cause fear and anger. When I stopped judging myself as "perfect," I stopped believing others are "imperfect." I learn to listen to different opinions and compromise on living with others in peace. No violence is needed.

If I am to think for myself, I have to decide what I think, which takes time. Time to listen to opposing views and assimilate the facts with MY logic and reason clarifies my mind. Another opinion cannot easily persuade self-confidence. Will I change a viewpoint once proven incorrect? Yes, if I see the facts, these facts agree with my accumulated knowledge. 

What a relief to know I am NOT perfect, and no one can be. What a relief to know I do not need to be afraid once I have confidence in my ability to make sound decisions.

Knowledge-based facts have eliminated much anger in me. I have found I can scare myself to death through my fantastic negative stories that are not valid.  

If our children are to learn "How to THINK" instead of "What to think," we, the parents, have to be on the front line of teaching them to question everything and discuss their concerns at home with us. Parents are the people that are supposed to love and protect us most. If you were not taught this at home, you would have to prepare yourself for these skills. So I had to teach myself as an adult. 

Now, this is scary to have to learn these necessary lessons out in a world that does not have my best interest at heart. We enter the school of hard knocks. Life lessons will be repeated until learned. I write to hopefully help younger people find their own answers in this confusing world. Teaching HOW to think, NOT to be told WHAT to think, is more important to know.

The more you know about a subject, the more you know when to question opposing views. Question everything and do your research to find the truth through facts. If someone tells you something and you feel confused, don't do it. Instead, slow down research through multiple sources, including but not exclusively  "Google" and "Wiki." Remember, anything digital can be easily manipulated. (Snopes and Wikipedia have proven to be compromised.) Who is tampering with this, and why? Someone is trying to influence your mind and opinion to cause you to think WHAT THEY want you to consider. I read books and listen to others to formulate my beliefs.

We have free will to think; that is one thing we always control. So we need to dig deeper to discover for ourselves what WE believe.

Experienced minds gather wisdom and know personal research finds the truth. When you do find facts, your answers will help you have the confidence to choose wisely. You can breathe a sigh of relief. Calm will come to your senses. Now you can move forward with confidence that today you made the best-informed decision for your life. 

Whatever you choose, allow others to do their research and choose their path without your fear of them being wrong.

We can choose to stop listening to negative fear-mongering stories from media, family, and friends. WE can love without being loved when we have knowledge and confidence.

If we choose to control our emotions with facts, we become the elected president of our life.

WE win.  



Friday, December 31, 2021

What Are Your Favorite Moments in 2021?

1) Luckily bumping into an artist that is excited to illustrate my book

2)      Relaxing at a wine orchard and meeting a web designer to design my new website

3)      Deciding to start a flag business and getting set up with a computer router (Thanks to my son and   husband) so I can create many

4)      Happy to discover family members that survived Covid

5)      Having all our children visit for a long time as they transfer to other states, priceless!

2021 has been a good year and 2022 can only get better.

Listened to the audio book “Walden” by Henry David Thoreau with the study. Thoreau was a great man his wisdom is as true today as ever.




 

Tuesday, November 2, 2021

Eleven Lovely Things

The refreshing feeling of an ice bath

 

The first aroma of a fire in the cool air of Autumn

 

Watching Maple tree wing seeds whirl round and round to the ground

 

Walking on a nature trail enjoying colorful leaves

 

Seeing the vibrant orange, blue, and yellow sunrises and sunsets

 

Dreaming of seeing loved ones at the holidays

 

Seeing turkeys, pheasants, deer, groundhogs, eagles, and more…

 

Standing on the edge of a lake breathing deep with fresh clear air

 

The taste of home-made pumpkin soup

 

Family fun picking apples

 

Enjoying a cup of coffee and a cider doughnut

 

*Beautiful life, good times, easy living, life is good.




 

                                           Thank you, November, 2021 

Wednesday, October 20, 2021

Every Question You Have Has An Answer

Where you go to get the answer depends on who thinks for you.

Once you think for yourself regardless of outside influences, you will research many sources and take notes to see the bigger picture. Do you take the time to listen and read multiple sources even if you think you disagree at first glance?  Do you accept the easy answer so you can tuck that question away and get back to your regular programming?

When anyone disagrees with you, do you want to MAKE them do as you dictate, or do you embrace diversity and independent thinking? Your answer to this question reveals your hunger for power over everyone.

My life has many questions, and I do not have the time to research all my questions, so I focus on the things that concern me personally. When a question affects me deeply, I examine closer until I get to the bottom of my confusion. I find this rarely involves anyone's opinion; the research will influence my decision. To live with such continual negativity under the surface of my conscious mind of anger is emotionally exhausting.  This inability to admit "I could be wrong" creates a hostile attitude towards opposing opinions. I used to be afraid to admit I was wrong, not so much anymore. I know better. I do not want to be the fool in the room that thinks "I know it all."

"Ignorance is NOT bliss!" Ignorance is a pandora's box of weapons to be deceptively used against the unaware when specific forces of power are in play.

To make the questions dissipate, if I go to the regular programming, the familiar, I don't have to take action. Most people placate these confused feelings with any defense, such as arguing, silent obedience, exercise, food, alcohol, drugs, violence, spending money, etc.  Any of these are more accessible than seeking an answer that may require me to change.

And if I have academic or material wealth, I may tell myself "I" don't need to change. THE uneducated  do!"  My academic degrees and peers with wealth agree I'm right! I'll MAKE EVERYONE ELSE CHANGE to suit my answers. After all, it is for their own good. Now I can eliminate any debate to my authoritarian thinking by manipulating monetary influence, forcing "others" to obey me! 

Except... "the others" have questions.

Money and power to influence laws and confuse people with convoluted rhetoric will not work long term for freedom thinking people worldwide, like me. We all have intelligence, and we are free to think. It costs nothing to use the intelligence you are born with.

Individual independent ability to think can only be eroded little by little when we fear speaking up to question anyone. When we give up and give in, we allow others to control our lives. If we disagree inside but do as told outside, we go back to our regular programming.  How to respond positively takes quiet contemplation before action. 

To live free is a responsibility to have all information available to decide the decisions we make. We can take a chance and let others think and answer for us, and we might be OK for a while if we are lucky. However 'My" life is not yours to rule; it is mine.

And, if I choose to investigate any issue myself, it costs you nothing; it costs me, my time. Can I do that? Yes.   

I can honestly tell you some answers I sought took decades for me to find the truth of it, but if we are willing to question and stick to it, the puzzle pieces eventually come together. You will say, "I see the answer now. What took me so long?"  Ignorance of how the world works is a big one.

Sometimes "I" was wrong. I had to change or remain angry for no reason. I found I was programmed not to question authority figures as a child, especially male authority figures. Then, as an adult, I began to read books and experience life. I found that society has programmed me to believe things that are not true. It was not until I stepped away from traditional expectations that I trained myself to be free to think differently. 

I do this through daily personal research of every topic that interests me.

Therefore, for those who prefer knowing the truth that brings clarity of thought to have confidence and peace of mind, we must be brave enough to ask the right questions to clarify the confusion and remain stubborn enough to educate ourselves through research until we have the answers we seek.

I am grateful to now have the patience to listen calmly to others and then research to answer my questions. It will be harder for anyone to lead you down a primrose path that benefits them more than you when you learn to think for yourself. 

It is a beautiful thing to be alive, enjoy your life. Your ability to think is legal.



 

 

 

Thursday, September 23, 2021

We Can't UNSEE the Light

When a light is shined in a dark corner of our mind, we can choose to correct or NOT. If we want to update the misunderstanding of a fact we thought we understood but did not, good. If we decide not to investigate further, understanding will go unanswered, and a division is created. Still, we can't "unsee" the flicker of light that made us question that thought, if only for a second. It nags.

I have revisited the questions in my mind many times until I decided to look closer and remove my confusing thoughts one thought at a time. If questions involve someone I love, we talk until we resolve our differences. What I learned; confusion in our minds causes stagnation, and we will not move, physically or mentally, until we see a clear path. We wisely decide NOT to move until we are ready to make a move in the right direction.

Exploring the corners of my mind is the most frightening voyage I ever began, for there, I found my true self, and there I found fears I did not know I had. To rid myself of these fears, I had to change. I was scared, at first, I did not want to change. The unfamiliar scared me. I was ashamed to let anyone know I was not perfect. I had to appear in control of myself even when I knew inside I was faking control of my life. I wanted to change without others knowing my struggles. I did not want to let another person see my weaknesses. My appearance of perfection was more important. I did not want to let another person help me. Anyway, another person may help me by giving advice, but only I could CHANGE myself. The first step is to shine a light to see the need to change, the second step wanting to change. Life experiences will shine a light whether we like it or not.

This voyage has been one I chose to take decades ago because I wanted to get free of automatic negative opinions about everything that led me to anxiety and depression. If I felt guilty or ashamed when I did nothing, I had to dive deep to discover why I felt this way. When bad things happened, I had to figure out what part did I play in this? Maybe I played no role in it, and perhaps I created the entire story. I wanted to become confident that I could see the truth. I tried to calm my mind and learn to enjoy my life. It was challenging to change.

I had much to be thankful for but found I  had a blockage and could not feel grateful. I used to pick things apart to find a complaint. Today I am free of automatic negative thinking, depression, and continual anxiety. It was a choice, and I will always discipline my mind to remain free of both. It is a formula I discovered that worked to free me from stress. I choose to practice this every day. It takes conscious effort, brings change, and is hard at times, but I choose to make an effort every day because it feels great to have clarity of mind with a positive attitude. I am so grateful to have come this far and look forward to the future with positive expectations. The best is yet to be, I may not know the future, but the world is full of so many good people it is sure to be brighter.

We can choose not to change. Everything is a choice, and choices have consequences. People that add to my good life are welcomed. People that use me, I don't have the time or space in my life anymore. It has taken a long time for me to learn to enforce healthy boundaries that allow positive influences in my circle of trust as friends. Now I know there is "no perfect normal life," I can thankfully get on with the one I was born to live.

Thankful for everyone that loved me enough to help me get here. Now may I be a light to love others.



Monday, August 16, 2021

How to Be Powerfully Dangerous!

 If you can learn to write your thoughts in grammatically correct sentences, then you can think. If you can think, you can control your thoughts. Turn off radio, TV, iPhones, media and see what comes to mind. Can you think outside of what you see, touch, feel, or taste?

If not, create space in your mind to think independent thoughts? How? Learn to meditate with silence. Once you make space through meditative silence, YOUR thoughts will appear.

Once you can articulate your thoughts in words on paper, you can state your case. Once you can think things through to make YOUR case, you can listen and counterpoint. Read, research, write, and speak to be powerful. You are not easily misled when you know the facts of your research.

To be dangerous, truly dangerous, and powerful simultaneously, take the time to learn to write YOUR thoughts. Did you know most people can’t do this? Most people do not know what they think unless they are told. Be bold, be brave, be different, dare to think outside the box, and write your thoughts.

If you can read, you are ahead of the game, and if you can write your thoughts, you are the winner.