Now and Then

So what happened to the good old days?

Well - when I was growing up in Joliet Illinois, a father could earn a living that allowed him to support a family of five. Mom went to work when I was in fourth or fifth grade.

My parents told me the rule of thumb was that your rent should be no more than 1/4 of what you earned in a month.

Here are some of the shifts I see...

• Most people kept automobiles until they wore out.
• Most people wore shoes until they wore out, they had dress shoes for more than one season and same with everyday shoes.
• Most people wore clothes until they wore out - and the "good stuff" shoes, clothes, purses and coats - were mended and repaired.
• Most people washed their own cars, cleaned their own houses and did their own laundry.
• Friday and Saturday night were spent with family and friends more often than "going out".
• Fast food was a rare treat - not the norm.
• Coffee shops were places that served breakfast 24 hours.
• "bottled water" ? That was when people drove to the well at the park and got bottles of the stuff that smelled like eggs to drink for health reasons.
  
• Breakfast was cereal and juice, lunch was a Bologna sandwich - maybe with lettuce and tomato in the summer. And dinner was a meat, a vegetable and potatoes. Except on Friday.
• The only time someone went to a "specialist" was if they say broke their arm in a bad way- then the saw an orthopedic... Maybe.
• Most people who wore glasses had one pair.
• Most people went to the dentist once a year - got fillings and extractions all in the same chair - by the same Doctor.
• Women did not attend classes to learn how to give birth.
• Hair products were: Shampoo, creme rinse, hairspray, VO5 and brillcreme, a brush and a comb.
  
• The "Gym" was the YMCA.
• A bike was a reasonable form of transportation and cost about $25 - you did not need special clothes or shoes to ride it. An high end one had hand brakes and three speeds.
• Phones were found in most homes - and most had two jacks - one line.
  
• If you were away from home you used a pay phone. These were found in phone booths that had phone books and doors that closed to block out the street noise.
• When you went to the grocery store you found fruits and vegetables that were in season in the produce department.
• The contents of most medicine cabinets were: Iodine (or merthiolate), aspirin, pepto bismol, tums, rubbing alcohol, deodorant, hand cream, vasoline, vicks vaporub, witchhazel and a thermometer, maybe athletes foot powder. Prescription drugs? Only if you were sick - and only for a week to 10 days.
  
• People had picnics in parks - brought food they made at home.
• We played more sports than we watched on TV.
• We got most of our books at the library.
• Everyone did their own yardwork.

Feel free to add to the list!

So have we become happier, wealthier, and more joyous?

I want to live more abundantly and with deeper appreciation for everything.

My parents and their generation seemed to have a profound appreciation for the abundance after the depression. They made things last and sought more out of life. They had a deep appreciation for quality and things that lasted and were well made.

They had a vision of prosperity for us that they held fast to and we became the baby boomers - the free spirited joy filled children of abundance that they dreamt us into being. Oh they had the fears that we might become too wild and we obliged and manifested that too!

I believe in collective consciousness. I believe that thoughts become things. I believe that what we fear comes at us with the same velocity as all other things we focus intently on.

I also believe that as humans we can and do fall a sleep at the wheel of our dreams.

My intention is to live more intentionally. To have great visions for my next manifestions today and tomorrow, next year and next month and in the coming year.

Please join in the thoughts of goodness and prosperity with me!

Take a moment here and think purely of what you really want.

Let the thoughts flow until you find yourself grinning.

Follow the thoughts that bubble joy from within.

To write a though - a dream, or a vision is a powerful commitment.

Leave a comment - of what you want - share your dreams!

Pay attention to appreciating everything you love and spend a few minutes very day revisiting what you want - the things that bring you joy.

Enjoy!

The Art of Showing Up

The Art of Showing Up

We are born into undeveloped bodies we must learn to control.
With minds that are thirsty - and somewhere a unique "I Am".

We spend years learning the language and maintenance of the vehicles we are born into. We make assumptions of our surroundings when the ability to process the details gets overwhelming. So much to take in - so much to process - so much to learn, to absorb into who "I am".

We begin to organize our framework from the morsels of truths we assimilate from our experience. We set a foundation on input from all around us - a gentle voice, a warm hand on our tiny back, safe arms holding us.

Our world develops before us like a tapestry on a loom. We add colors from our feelings and mark off lines and add images and begin to fill in the fabric of our life story.

There can be small breaks in the threads - a death of someone close - an experience that all but tears the fabric from the loom. There can be times of intensity and times of imprint - falling in love, orgasm, laughing till your face hurts, deep sorrow at a great loss.

The continuity is the "I AM"

Every moment in every day - you are at the center of your own universe. You are providing the interpretation of every existence you encounter. You alone experience the pain, the pleasure, the fear, the joy of your moment. You can not do so for any of the others that you observe in your encounters.

Empathy is an Assumption
"I feel bad for you" or "I know what you you are feeling". Each phrase is understood for the intention, but there is an assumption of accuracy in interpretation.

Because you are in the unique time space placement of being you - no other person will ever have the exact interpretation that you have. For no other person will have had the exact stimulation and environmental exposure that you have had in your life.

Who you are at this moment is a culmination of every experience you have had up to this this moment. Your own records have been defined by your interpretations and your own chemical responses to every moment along the way leading up to this moment.

Perhaps it is the nature of our uniqueness that brings us joy when we find others with whom we resonate. When we read words that are arranged in accordance with the way we think, we read them with ease. When we meet others who think like us we feel "at home".

When we read something that states the way we feel or think in arrangements of words that say it more clearly we sometimes feel joy. Perhaps we feel validation.

If you don't show-up nobody can resonate with you.

If you only show what you think will be well received,
you are making assumptions.

Showing up is your gift

Answer with honesty
Offer your opinion
Express your view
Celebrate your uniqueness

If you know yourself then show yourself.

Sometimes...

The only thing that keeps my chin above the cesspool line are the concepts of hope I cling to:

This too shall pass

There but for the grace of God go I

There is no lack - only the appearance of lack, notice the abundance

Appreciation


This too shall pass

This too shall pass comes from years of experience with running into situations where I have know idea how I am going to make it... usually through the month... sometimes through the week and at others (thankfully less frequently still) through the day.

In the passing of those times I realize that while I experienced a range of discomfort from pain, to loss, to shame, to panic, to being frozen in darkness with no idea of the way out. And yet... I always survive... I live through it and later look back to the moment as the valley before the next hill... all a part of the process.

There but for the grace of God go I

When in the darkness I see others whose loss is greater and whose pain is deeper and whose circumstances are more dire - and yet they find the will to persevere... that sometimes helps to instill in me a sense of perspective. Although - there are times when this one can start me back down on a spiral into hopelessness about life having too much pain and struggle to be worth much...
That is when I call in the bigger guns of my soul...

There is no lack - only the appearance of lack, notice the abundance

This one holds the premise that what we perceive is our reality and our emotions are how we feel about it. Wether we perceive the glass as half full or half empty is emotions - reality says that there is a half there and half not there. Our emotions do not control the quantity. Nor do they impact the quality of what the glass contains. But if we focus only on the loss and only on the pain we can fill ourselves with it.

Appreciation

Which brings me to the thread of appreciation. One of the truths in life for me is "appreciate it or it goes away" This does not really have to do with the losses that get me in the swamp in the first place - the ones like the loss of a friend or loved one or the loss of a job or a client - but the part that is still there while all of that is happening. My health... if I have my health I need to appreciate that and nurture that. If there are people who are supporting me through my darkness I need to appreciate them and nurture them.

This thinking seems to bring all the other thoughts to a blending... and while the process kneads my soul into a sore and sensitive place I start to feel the next rise of hope. A place where the tears are bittersweet and the emotions and ability to feel so deeply are embraced as now... not bad not good - no judgment... I am.

I am this pain.
I am this joy at having cared enough to feel any of it in the first place.
I am still here.

Do blogs get found... and why?

I wonder how long it will take this to be found - do Blogs just get discovered - how - by whom?

What were you looking for that brought you here?

Welcome

This is My Blog Space

This is my first Blog so I probably will start off slow and work myself up to being profound.

Well, I have yet to get to the profound part...
But I am working on it.