We Just Disagree, One more day...

Sweetheart wants to let our cat die naturally no matter how painful it is for me to watch, he believes animals want to live until they cannot anymore and animals suffer pain come what may. Animals are not human.  Cats live in each moment, happy to be here until not.  His beliefs are valid.

I believe once a disease is terminal and there is no turning back, to let anything I love die a painful death is unconscionable when we have the power to euthanize the pet to go out pain free.  Our son visited and patiently wiped the bloody mouth of this cat with mouth cancer.  Patiently mixed every type of baby food and cat food to help the cat eat to no avail.  Sat with, slept with, petted, and walked with this cat he loved as a child. He stayed the week ad had to get back to his life knowing he would never see his cat alive again.  Now our daughter wants to come see the cat and say good bye. A beloved niece came to say goodbye to the cat and we see an animal is really a family member not just a pet.

The eldest son came last weekend thinking like me, we were putting him down and burying him, until Sweetheart objected.  This impending death of this cat has brought many unsaid emotions to the surface of our relationships.  So I step back as I always do when disagreements get heated.  I let things settle, I do not make any moves.  I do not want the cat upset either.

I have studied Byron Katie and Eckhart Tolle for a while and I go to the process that is taught to get centered again.  There is no peace outside, only inner peace.  What is the most loving thing to do for all concerned?  So today my peace inside is knowing what my wise daughter told me a week ago, "This is a process and must be allowed to be played out for Dad (Sweetheart) and Baby."  

So I rest, saying "Let not mine, but thy will be done."  These people I love so much are dealing with this death in their way and I am not the big "I" that knows best.  The cat is on meds for pain and comfort antibiotics.  As my youngest said before he left, "See, Baby enjoyed another evening on the deck, looking out one more day that he would not have had if we had put him down last week."

True, every moment Baby lives another moment is precious to the humans but is just life as it comes to this Zen creature. One more day...Peace to this house.

How a Movie Script Made People Believe a Line that was not True

In the movie Pollyanna, David Swift wrote the screenplay.  In it he has a locket with an inscription on it that Pollyanna wears around her neck as a constant reminder of words her father told.  The inscription reads "If you look for the bad in people, expecting to find it, you surely will." Reverend Ford then says, "Abraham Lincoln." Pollyanna did not confirm his answer, she just told the Reverend her father gave her this locket and let him read it. (And why she plays the "Glad Game.")

Now David Swift made that line up for the movie but many people believe Abe Lincoln said it. If you google Lincoln's quotes, there it is.  David Swift admits he made it up but a movie seems to have made it true when it is not.  All these years later no one questions it.  Now it may be a detail that really is not important in the movie because the meaning is a positive one but the point is "if you tell an untruth enough, people will start to believe anything."

Makes thinking for yourself more important.

 

Let me hear your unusual cat stories...

The farm had a cat that was deaf and his neck was crooked to the left because of a sickness he had as a kitten.  The sickness seems to have made his neck muscles paralyzed on that side.  He walked in circles always going to the left.  You always knew eventually he would come back to the same spot if you waited long enough.  His name was "Lefty."

500 years ago heirs could not choose, today we can and do...

Times are changing.  500 years ago when one person started a farm, a business, and it was successful the next generation was expected to follow in father’s footsteps.  Starting anything in this country was hard.  There were no transportation, no cars, no railways, no bridges, roads, airplanes were an unfathomable phenomenon.  No banks or investors stateside... Success took pure ingenuity, education, slave labor or political connections. Inventions here all new.

So the generation that made it through prohibition, entertainment, gambling, saloons, brothels, lying , cheating, robbery, acted out of desperation to be millionaires and live an opulent life only heard of in other continents.  Desire, want, need.  Some figured it out, others did not.  So we are the descendants of a collage of reverends and horse thieves.  Some relatives were both. 

Today, the goal to be millionaire is no more.  Billionaire is the new millionaire.  Why? Because many have figured out how to make a million and the opulent life is now the one of trillionaires.  The reality is that this generation has available to them choices like never before in history.  Opportunities for all to go to school regardless of a wealthy family.  Anyone can put a business together and try to turn a profit regardless of race or religion.  Anyone can run for public office.  This country has great opportunity for men and women.

So out with the old, in with the new ideas of this generation. This generation is not desperate to be millionaires.  This generation wants to make money to give to start foundations that help mankind.  This generation wants to extend a helping hand to all and not focus on materialism.  And because the world is changing for the better, heirs can leave the farm, leave family businesses, go out into the world to pursue individual goals and be successful at it.  They can choose their life based on their desires not the last generation’s business, possessions, expectations.  Freedom is choice and choice is here, now. What a wonderful world…

Samuel F Morse an American Leonardo?

There is a house in Poughkeepsie I ride by often.  At first I noticed it was "Locust Grove."  The traffic races by the estate so swiftly it was a while before I noticed the name "Samuel F Morse" on an adjacent plaque, of course I knew he was the inventor of the telegraph and Morse code.  I decided to stop in and discovered his first ambition was to be a world famous artist with all the fame and fortune that would come with that.

His father like most successful artists, scientists and inventors' fathers (of history went to college) received a divinity degree from Yale.  His parents sacrificed and supported Samuel to help him achieve his dream of being this artist.  Samuel also went to Yale and used his contacts there to introduce himself to wealthy families to obtain a commission to paint their portraits in oil.  Not getting the work he thought he would, he decided to go to London to the Royal Academy, maybe he would find his fortune there.

To raise money for the voyage, he decided to do oil reproductions of the famous painters of the day and he sold these for $300 each.  ($6000 in today's currency) When in Europe he made friends with many new age thinkers.  In a conversation on a voyage back to America he first had the idea to make conversations transmittable across distances.  Together with friends the telegraph was invented and Samuel finally received the fame and fortune that he so desired.

With the royalties he built the Tuscany Villa estate at Locust Grove and bought a penthouse in NYC.  His family preferred the city, Samuel preferred Locust Grove. Summers were spent in Poughkeepsie with the family but upon his death the family rented the property.  In 1902 the renters(Young family) purchased the property and displayed their own artwork and collections from their world travels.  The Young family had two children who worked to preserve the site for public enjoyment and used their inheritance to form a foundation to fund the restoration and upkeep of Locust Grove.

Today the house has hiking trails to the Hudson River which I did hike and listened to see trains going back and forth to the city and Rensselaer station on tracks in front of the river.

My many tours and books read by me, on the lives of people who made a significant difference in the world has lead me to see that starting out in life with kind and supportive parents that give their time and money for each child to realize their dream, alongside as much formal education as possible is key to a successful outcome. It is rare, really rare for a person to rise to their fullest potential without the love and support of a relative and an education to point out the possibilities as well as introduce one to the many other people in the world.

It is a lot easier to find your interest and explore what can be when you start out with structure, a moral code of ethics, supportive and positive parents with opportunities to an education.  And if you did not have this, you first begin with learning you are enough.  You begin with being "thankful for what you have so you can have more" in the future.  Anger, bitterness, victimhood, martyrhood, will sap the energy of your creativity until you make peace within yourself and move on.

Foundational needs such as food and housing must be established by individuals to move forward in education and interest.  It seems if emotional needs are not peaceful, all else may bring physical satisfaction but life will be fraught with sadness and loneliness.

The only peace on earth we'll ever have is within ourself.  I have been on this road my entire life. Because I have found much peace, I write to possibly help others find theirs.

Believing your thoughts can make you crazy, even make you think you are better off dead...

Sweetheart says he has never thought of ending his life no matter what happened.  There are those who say,"Everyone thinks of checking out at some time or another, simply is NOT true.  Some people like the slow death caused by their addiction, food, alcohol, drug, sex, water, exercise, anorexia, negative thinking, rage, anger, whatever is done in excess will eventually kill you. The human body heals with right thinking, right foods, right exercise, enough sleep, the body will live. The problem is we think our thoughts are our body but in reality the two are connected only if you believe it.

The minute you come out of your desperate thoughts, peace.  The minute the mania passes, peace. The fantasy that you are your thoughts once realized as not true, the beginning of the healing process. Many great teachers of the mind and how it works teach this but few of us accept this and try to live it.  This attachment to our ego's thoughts causes depression, anxiety, and every dysfunctional behavior we display.  Genetics throw us a curve ball at times, and maybe we cannot overcome an inherited disease easily...maybe we can learn to manage it, but so much of what we endure is caused by stressful thinking. Byron Katie helps relieve this stress through her teachings. (YouTube)

Can managing our thought heal mental illness? Some say "Yes" some say, "No."  I think it is up to the individual.  Want to live a life on pharmaceuticals? Or find a way to manage your life by not succumbing to them?  The choice is yours.  Not easy, takes discipline and focus.

I study everyday to manage my thoughts.  I'll let you know what develops for me, so far, much better.
Food for thought.

20 things to save time and make your life easier...

I made these up as I go and after 60 years find this just makes MY life easier.

1)  Put one sock on followed by the shoe every time you put on socks and shoes.

2)  Put toilet paper on so that the fold comes over the top.

3)  Close toilet lid after each use before flushing to prevent spreading germs, especially in public.

4)  Always end teeth brushing by brushing the tongue for fresher breath.

5)  Never leave food in cans, transfer to plastic blickkies with cover, store in frig. (Glass w/ tops ok.)

6)  Always clean out lint trap BEFORE starting the dryer.

7)  Use cat litter bags with litter, throw the whole thing out each time rather than scoop.

8)  A potato peeler is much easier than a knife.

9)  A tomato knife with serrated edge is much easier when peeling a tomato.

10)  A serrated scoop works fast on onions to get the core out.

11)  A Williams Sonoma vegetable chopper is a must for chopping onions with speed and no tears.

12)  Buy a tall plastic water bottle on the road?  Keep it, refill it at home, use it again and again.

13)  Keep a protein bar and a pack of cheese crackers w/ p-nut butter in your car for emergencies.

14)  Put Rainex protectant on your car windshield on dry days, enjoy the benefits on rainy ones.

15) Keep a roll paper towels in your car, handy when you really need it.

16)  Keep Rainex 2in1 window washer fluid in car winter time, keeps windshield clear in snow.

17)   If out of beef or chicken stock to make soups, use bouillon cubes. Melt one per cup hot water.

18)   When low on money, always buy food for your domestic animals first, they depend on you.

19)  Spend every available minute one on one time with your animals and children. They will be gone         soon enough.
20) When buying any outdoor wear for any activity, ask for assistance from a veteran outdoorsman, otherwise you will get hiking boots too small as in the opening scene of "Wild" the movie.  Soon as she pulled her toenail off, I said, "Her boots are too small, who fitted her for this hike? The girl has enough trouble without ill-fitting boots!"