.
In this time when there seems to be so much news about, well, quite frankly, horrible events that are happening in the world today ~ it is easy to get the idea that “the world is going to hell in a hand basket”. That the only things that are happening are those things that make life harder, that are negative, violent, hateful.
When we allow ourselves to go along with that assumption, we may even find ourselves to become more negative. And pretty soon it becomes harder and harder to see the good things in life… Or to disregard to a certain extend the nice, beautiful, good things we may encounter.
Truth be told, when we compare that one nice, bright sunny day in the middle of weeks of dreary Winter weather with news we may see on TV about for instance flooding that is causing hardship on so many people; or a war ~ it seems clear that this sunny day just doesn’t measure up. On the other hand, it is the recognition of these ~ sometimes very small ~ bits and pieces of ‘good news’ that can keep us from spiraling down into despair.
So from that perspective it is important to keep an eye out for ‘good news’.
And suddenly there seems to be a lot more ‘good news’ showing up in the newscasts. Just this last week I saw a news item on a person who has been feeding and helping the poorest people in the area where he lives for the past 40 years; and he is still going strong! And it is driven by his desire to do so, donations, and volunteer labor. It makes me wonder how many lives he has changed over the last 40 years; how many live he has saved…
Another story is about a volunteer organization that raised money to buy their own ambulance because it makes it possible for them to fulfill the last wishes of terminally ill patients…
Or this documentary about this person who used his own money to set up a system of education and apprenticeships for those kids that are ‘least likely to succeed’ ~ and makes it a resounding success. His system works, the companies handing out the apprenticeships are eager for more ~ and most importantly for those that now have been given a chance of a life time where there was none before…
There seems to be a lot of good news being reported on ~ more and more, as it turns out.
And even when we are not directly involved with any of these ~ or other ~ stories, it can help us too as it changes our perspective from a negative into a positive.
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Friday, January 31, 2014
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Phones
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Spending a day and a half on the worlds biggest outdoor fair in Quartzsite, Arizona, is always a lot of fun. There is plenty to see, browsing the different venues.
Not having visited for a couple of years makes it easy to see the differences since the last visit. There are always a lot of rocks, gems, and minerals; just as there are all kinds of RV (Recreational Vehicle) related tools, gadgets, etc. as well as lots of RV sales lots.
This year the remainder of the fair seemed to be more reminiscent of a giant swap meet than what I remember from previous visits. The type of vendors that are really interesting to me were nowhere to be found.
It is interesting how fast a fair like the one in Quartzsite can change. The heart of the show is still the Pow Wow that started 45 years ago, yet even the Pow Wow is changing.
But the most obvious ~ and to me most certainly the most annoying ~ change, is the use of cell phones.
The first time I visited Quartzsite, use of cell phones was almost impossible as there was no way the only one tower, situated just outside of town could handle the demand of the enormous amount of people that descend on Quartzsite during the Winter months. With that problem solved, phone conversations are not only possible, but also frequent.
The good thing about that is that you can actually find one another when you want to get together for lunch or something like that.
The other side of it is that vendors seem to be talking on the phone continuously, making their customers wait when they have questions ~ or even want to pay for the treasures they have managed to find.
It is a ‘sign of the times’.
It is also incredibly rude.
It makes me wonder whether they are actually there to sell their wares, or if they are there to tell their friends and family that they are a vendor in Quartzsite.
When they then finally turn at least part of their attention to a customer, they seem disappointed they have to do so.
In the ensuing conversation it seemed that the reason for the phone call is their lack of customers.
It is a typical ‘chicken-or-egg’ kind of dilemma. Are there no customers among the thousands of people wandering over the fair’s venues? Or are the vendors pushing their customers away because their phone conversations are apparently more important than their customers?
One thing is certain; our phones most definitely have changed our ~ in person ~ interaction with others…
.
.
Spending a day and a half on the worlds biggest outdoor fair in Quartzsite, Arizona, is always a lot of fun. There is plenty to see, browsing the different venues.
Not having visited for a couple of years makes it easy to see the differences since the last visit. There are always a lot of rocks, gems, and minerals; just as there are all kinds of RV (Recreational Vehicle) related tools, gadgets, etc. as well as lots of RV sales lots.
This year the remainder of the fair seemed to be more reminiscent of a giant swap meet than what I remember from previous visits. The type of vendors that are really interesting to me were nowhere to be found.
It is interesting how fast a fair like the one in Quartzsite can change. The heart of the show is still the Pow Wow that started 45 years ago, yet even the Pow Wow is changing.
But the most obvious ~ and to me most certainly the most annoying ~ change, is the use of cell phones.
The first time I visited Quartzsite, use of cell phones was almost impossible as there was no way the only one tower, situated just outside of town could handle the demand of the enormous amount of people that descend on Quartzsite during the Winter months. With that problem solved, phone conversations are not only possible, but also frequent.
The good thing about that is that you can actually find one another when you want to get together for lunch or something like that.
The other side of it is that vendors seem to be talking on the phone continuously, making their customers wait when they have questions ~ or even want to pay for the treasures they have managed to find.
It is a ‘sign of the times’.
It is also incredibly rude.
It makes me wonder whether they are actually there to sell their wares, or if they are there to tell their friends and family that they are a vendor in Quartzsite.
When they then finally turn at least part of their attention to a customer, they seem disappointed they have to do so.
In the ensuing conversation it seemed that the reason for the phone call is their lack of customers.
It is a typical ‘chicken-or-egg’ kind of dilemma. Are there no customers among the thousands of people wandering over the fair’s venues? Or are the vendors pushing their customers away because their phone conversations are apparently more important than their customers?
One thing is certain; our phones most definitely have changed our ~ in person ~ interaction with others…
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.
Friday, January 24, 2014
Old friends
.
The term ‘old friends’ can have several meanings.
The most obvious one ~ which hardly ever is the one that is meant when we are talking about old friends ~ is the literal meaning: that our friends indeed are ‘old’; of advanced age; ‘seasoned citizens’.
More often what is meant is that we have known our friends for a long time ~ like that we have known our friends since childhood.
If we are lucky we have stayed in touch with the friends that we grew up with; friends from the different phases of our lives… As it turns out, we often don’t have to be in touch with our friends on a daily, weekly, or even monthly basis ~ with friends that we have known for a long time it can be enough to catch up every once in a while. In our often so busy lives that may mean only once or twice a year. And with really good friends, whenever we get back in touch ~ we seem to just continue where we left off the last time we had a chance to meet…
Yet ‘old friends’ can be much older than that.
When we are going about our lives, we may meet people for the first time, and still have the distinct feeling that we know them. That we have met them before.
It seems that we have a bond, a friendship, with this newly met person that cannot be easily explained as it feels like it stretches beyond time to a place that perhaps once was ~ a long, long time ago.
To me it is those type of meetings ~ even though they are few and far between ~ that make me feel that reincarnation is reality. The explanation for meeting old friends like this then all of a sudden is simple: it is a bond that was created in another time, another place when we met; spend time, built a friendship so strong that it never diminished over time. And when we met again in this moment; here, now ~ today ~ there is that spark of recognition. That flash of energy that brings back the memory of a friendship much older than we are; perhaps even older than time itself…
Meeting old friends like that is a precious experience. It is recapturing something that once was, and that may or may not be again. Because what we do after the initial recognition, meeting our old friend is up to us.
We may in this life experience never be very close with our ‘old friends’, and yet share something very, very special…
.
.
The term ‘old friends’ can have several meanings.
The most obvious one ~ which hardly ever is the one that is meant when we are talking about old friends ~ is the literal meaning: that our friends indeed are ‘old’; of advanced age; ‘seasoned citizens’.
More often what is meant is that we have known our friends for a long time ~ like that we have known our friends since childhood.
If we are lucky we have stayed in touch with the friends that we grew up with; friends from the different phases of our lives… As it turns out, we often don’t have to be in touch with our friends on a daily, weekly, or even monthly basis ~ with friends that we have known for a long time it can be enough to catch up every once in a while. In our often so busy lives that may mean only once or twice a year. And with really good friends, whenever we get back in touch ~ we seem to just continue where we left off the last time we had a chance to meet…
Yet ‘old friends’ can be much older than that.
When we are going about our lives, we may meet people for the first time, and still have the distinct feeling that we know them. That we have met them before.
It seems that we have a bond, a friendship, with this newly met person that cannot be easily explained as it feels like it stretches beyond time to a place that perhaps once was ~ a long, long time ago.
To me it is those type of meetings ~ even though they are few and far between ~ that make me feel that reincarnation is reality. The explanation for meeting old friends like this then all of a sudden is simple: it is a bond that was created in another time, another place when we met; spend time, built a friendship so strong that it never diminished over time. And when we met again in this moment; here, now ~ today ~ there is that spark of recognition. That flash of energy that brings back the memory of a friendship much older than we are; perhaps even older than time itself…
Meeting old friends like that is a precious experience. It is recapturing something that once was, and that may or may not be again. Because what we do after the initial recognition, meeting our old friend is up to us.
We may in this life experience never be very close with our ‘old friends’, and yet share something very, very special…
.
.
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
Watching the world go by
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At times it is time to just sit down and watch the world go by.
Just make a cup of tea or coffee, sit down and look out over life as it happens in front of you.
Sometimes, also depending on the location, it amounts to ‘people watching’. Seeing what people are doing, how and where they are moving. How they are dressed; what they are carrying with them… Is it a design purse, or a shopping bag? Are they alone, or with others? And either way, it is always interesting ~ at least to me ~ how they are interacting with other people. Is there a difference on how they approach apparent family or friends, compared to how they interact with people they may not know?
Just watching people may not tell you everything about their lives ~ yet it does give a fairly good impression about what kind of person they are…
Other times it is transportation that peaks my interest.
What cars are moving by, are there any idiosyncrasies in the license plates; like custom plates, or even ‘funny’ number/letter combinations? And have those cars traveled far? Where may they be coming from? And what type of person would get into a certain car ~ or get out of it, as the case may be?
When in nature, watching the world go by may involve birds, or critters. Sometimes just the way the wind is moving the leaves; kicks up some dust, or perhaps taking some time to listen to the way the wind may whisper in your ear.
Wherever we are, whatever is happening in our life ~ just sitting down, extracting ourselves from the hustle and bustle of our lives, and putting our focus outward at something we don’t have anything to do with; don’t have any need to interact with can provide a certain relaxation.
It is like we are watching a play in the theatre. Here we are sitting back comfortably, while in front of us the ‘play of life’ commences.
And doing this works almost every time…
Yet every once in a while we may find ourselves in a situation where things are so quiet, where everybody seems so introverted, that it seems that the world itself is taking a step back. It is like the world is frozen in that point of time that is ‘now’.
And when we are sitting back to watch the world go by, it may turn out to be one of those rare instances when there is nothing happening; nothing to see…
.
.
At times it is time to just sit down and watch the world go by.
Just make a cup of tea or coffee, sit down and look out over life as it happens in front of you.
Sometimes, also depending on the location, it amounts to ‘people watching’. Seeing what people are doing, how and where they are moving. How they are dressed; what they are carrying with them… Is it a design purse, or a shopping bag? Are they alone, or with others? And either way, it is always interesting ~ at least to me ~ how they are interacting with other people. Is there a difference on how they approach apparent family or friends, compared to how they interact with people they may not know?
Just watching people may not tell you everything about their lives ~ yet it does give a fairly good impression about what kind of person they are…
Other times it is transportation that peaks my interest.
What cars are moving by, are there any idiosyncrasies in the license plates; like custom plates, or even ‘funny’ number/letter combinations? And have those cars traveled far? Where may they be coming from? And what type of person would get into a certain car ~ or get out of it, as the case may be?
When in nature, watching the world go by may involve birds, or critters. Sometimes just the way the wind is moving the leaves; kicks up some dust, or perhaps taking some time to listen to the way the wind may whisper in your ear.
Wherever we are, whatever is happening in our life ~ just sitting down, extracting ourselves from the hustle and bustle of our lives, and putting our focus outward at something we don’t have anything to do with; don’t have any need to interact with can provide a certain relaxation.
It is like we are watching a play in the theatre. Here we are sitting back comfortably, while in front of us the ‘play of life’ commences.
And doing this works almost every time…
Yet every once in a while we may find ourselves in a situation where things are so quiet, where everybody seems so introverted, that it seems that the world itself is taking a step back. It is like the world is frozen in that point of time that is ‘now’.
And when we are sitting back to watch the world go by, it may turn out to be one of those rare instances when there is nothing happening; nothing to see…
.
.
Friday, January 17, 2014
Dumpster diving
.
At first glance there was a rounded, somewhat stretched, pair of jeans in the dumpster. Moments later I realized they were not just jeans; I just saw the behind of someone dressed in jeans sticking out of the dumpster. Obviously the person wearing them had jumped into the dumpster in order to give its contents a close look…
A couple of minutes later, I see the man stand up, jump out, and walk away.
What is garbage to one person, is a treasure to another.
From one perspective it definitely seems sad that there are people who are checking other people’s garbage, hoping to find enough ‘treasures’ that they can get by for yet another day.
And looking at the kind of ‘treasures’ some people collect and sometimes start carrying with them, it makes me wonder exactly what value they see in their collection.
But then a person doesn’t have to be dumpster diving to start collecting the specific brand of treasures they value most ~ even though to someone else it just looks like ‘stuff’ and have no value at all. The next step following this line of thought is that the things that are ‘just stuff with no value’ to one person are treasures worth collecting to the next.
To make it even more interesting, this seems to be true for attitudes and even emotions as well.
Where one person can be so full of her/himself that they come across as totally self involved, or even arrogant ~ something they may even be hoping to transform. Someone else might well be helped with that attitude; putting a little bit more value upon themselves. Perhaps even putting themselves before everybody else every once in a while.
And while anger is not an emotion that has a lot to offer to most of us ~ although it does have a valid function as a signal that something is not quite right in what is going on ~ for some people it can be incredibly helpful to, for once in their lives, actually get that signal that anger provides to them clearly enough for them to act upon it…
Looking at it in this manner, it could be useful to go ‘dumpster diving’. To see what other people are throwing out; what stuff other people are done with. And to ponder whether there is value in it for us.
Of course it would be a very good idea to ~ at the same time ~ look at the stuff we are done with, and to throw it out…
.
.
At first glance there was a rounded, somewhat stretched, pair of jeans in the dumpster. Moments later I realized they were not just jeans; I just saw the behind of someone dressed in jeans sticking out of the dumpster. Obviously the person wearing them had jumped into the dumpster in order to give its contents a close look…
A couple of minutes later, I see the man stand up, jump out, and walk away.
What is garbage to one person, is a treasure to another.
From one perspective it definitely seems sad that there are people who are checking other people’s garbage, hoping to find enough ‘treasures’ that they can get by for yet another day.
And looking at the kind of ‘treasures’ some people collect and sometimes start carrying with them, it makes me wonder exactly what value they see in their collection.
But then a person doesn’t have to be dumpster diving to start collecting the specific brand of treasures they value most ~ even though to someone else it just looks like ‘stuff’ and have no value at all. The next step following this line of thought is that the things that are ‘just stuff with no value’ to one person are treasures worth collecting to the next.
To make it even more interesting, this seems to be true for attitudes and even emotions as well.
Where one person can be so full of her/himself that they come across as totally self involved, or even arrogant ~ something they may even be hoping to transform. Someone else might well be helped with that attitude; putting a little bit more value upon themselves. Perhaps even putting themselves before everybody else every once in a while.
And while anger is not an emotion that has a lot to offer to most of us ~ although it does have a valid function as a signal that something is not quite right in what is going on ~ for some people it can be incredibly helpful to, for once in their lives, actually get that signal that anger provides to them clearly enough for them to act upon it…
Looking at it in this manner, it could be useful to go ‘dumpster diving’. To see what other people are throwing out; what stuff other people are done with. And to ponder whether there is value in it for us.
Of course it would be a very good idea to ~ at the same time ~ look at the stuff we are done with, and to throw it out…
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.
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