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Sometimes words have a different meaning than the obvious. I came across some and I’d like to share them with you. PUSH---Persist Until Something Happens; MOVE---Make One Valuable Effort; FALL---Fight Again, Learn & Lift; PEACE---Pain Ends And Clarity Emerges; HOPE---Hang On, Pain Ends; TRY---Take Responsibility Yourself; RISE---Repeat It, Start Everyday; ROAR---Rise Over Any Regret; FREE---Forget Regret, Enjoy Everything; BURN---Build Until Results Notice; FRIENDS---Faithful Reliable Inspiring Encouraging Nurturing Devoted Souls; KISS---Keep It Simple, Sweetie.
Brenduhh came over pretty upset. I finally was able to get her to calm down and tell me what the problem was. “Oh Trudy, I’ve fallen and failed so much,” she wailed. “Oh honey, it’s not about how many times you fall or fail; it’s about how many times you get up and try again. You’re not going to fail if you keep trying,” I soothed her. She sniffed and cried, “That’s not how field sobriety tests work, Trudy!!” I went to make a pot of coffee and get out some cinnamon rolls.
One of my favorite books is TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, a classic novel by Harper Lee about racial injustice and the loss of innocence in the American South during the Great Depression of 1929-1939. It’s sad to say and know that there are some school districts which have banned the book and teaching the story. I was blessed to be able to teach this book\story before the banning. I guess the banning was on charges (or dreamed up ideas) that the book teaches racism and prejudice. HA!! Far from it, in my opinion and the opinion of others. These aren't just lessons from a novel, they're moral blueprints for a broken world. ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ doesn't just tell a story---it teaches us how to be better humans when the world forgets how. It looks like the world of some people, who want the book banned, has forgotten how to be better humans. I found a chart on what To Kill A Mocking Bird teaches. Here are the 10 points: It’s important to have courage. It’s important to fight for justice. It’s important to be compassionate and understanding. It’s important to have hope. It is important to know everyone has something to teach us. It’s important to stand up for what is right even if it’s difficult. Be kind and compassionate to others, even though they may be different from you. It’s important to not judge others too quickly. It’s important everyone deserves to be treated with respect. And finally, it is important to know the world is not always fair.
As I approached the porch of the little house, I could hear voices, mostly the young one who’d come to visit and seek wisdom from our lady of the holler. I knocked on the screen door. Aint Daisy called out, “Come on in, chile, I know it’s you. I can smell that sweet perfume you always wear.” I smiled and entered the tidy living room with an overstuffed, floral couch and matching chair. In between the couch and chair was Aint Daisy in her rocking chair listening closely to what the “youn’un” had to say. At the end of his monologue, came this question, “Aint Daisy, how’d you get so much good judgement and smart?” She smile, smoothed her flowered, bib apron, and squinted her right eye. “Chile, imam mighty old an’ through all them yars, there were lessons taught to be larned. Now, I haint gonna tell ye I learnt ‘em all, nor was it easy. Sometimes I was contrary and didn’t pay no attention t’ the lesson. But, eventually I learnt the lesson and kept it in my mind. Good judgment comes from experience, and a lotta that comes from bad judgment. Yep, I made a lot o’ mistakes along the path of my life, but when ye make a mistake, learn from it. Find out why ye made that mistake, learn that, and use it t’ make yerself bettah.” She smiled, and I could see her eyes as she remembered times, trials, and lessons learned many years ago. Once again, there was the wisdom from our lady of the holler.
HIRAETH: A homesickness for a home to which you cannot return, a home which maybe never was; the nostalgia, the yearning, the grief for the lost places of your past.
I’ve opened a can of worms. They just sit there, the worms. They are hardly the chaos that’s been mentioned. A can of fleas is more like it----uncontrollable, nervous, searching for blood, annoying to the point of wanting to kill. THAT’S more like it.
Neil deGrasse Tyson, a popular astrophysicist, published this. It’s fascinating to me. So, I’m sharing it. On 31 December 1899, the passenger steamer SS Warrimoo was sailing quietly across the mid-Pacific, on its voyage from Vancouver to Australia. The navigator finished checking the stars for the ship’s position and gave the result to Capt. John D.S. Phillips: Latitude: 0 31 N (just north of the Equator); Longitude: 179 30’ W (near the International Date Line). First Mate Payton realized something exciting: “Captain, we’re just a few miles from the point where the Equator and the International Date Line meet!” The captain saw a chance to do something unforgettable. He slightly changed the ship’s course and adjusted the speed. The night was calm, the sky was clear, and the timing was perfect. At exactly midnight, the ship was positioned to that: The front of the ship (bow) was in the Southern Hemisphere, enjoying summer. The back of the ship (stern) was in the Northern Hemisphere, in the middle of winter. The date at the back was still 31 December 1899, and the date at the front had already become 1 January 1900. All this meant the ship was in: Two different days, two different months, two different years, two different seasons, two different centuries---ALL AT THE SAME TIME!!!
I’d had a rough time with some colitis one day. It was getting close to the time to take my daughter to work…she doesn’t drive. I knew I wouldn’t be able to do it, so I asked her to call my other daughter and ask if she could come take her to work. She said she would. I called her the next day to tell her thank you for the favor. She told me she’d had a horrid day and to top it off, 5 minutes before the request call, she’d knocked over a large container of seed beads on her carpeted, craft room floor. She said she was beyond upset. I told her how sorry I was it happened. Without thinking, I said, “I so appreciate you dropping everything to come over here and take Tara to work. Thank you so much.” I heard a scream, and then, “Oh Mom, I literally did drop everything.” We both laughed…..even went for the snort.
Recently a friend came to me a bit perplexed, but smiling. She said, “Trudy, I think I’ve just won an argument with a very determined person, but they don’t know I won.” I asked her what made her think that. She said, “I took your advice on how to end an argument. I said to her in my best Southern drawl, ‘Well, bless your heart. Possibly you’re right.’ Then, I walked away.” I told her she chose the right words and POSSIBLY was perfect. “POSSIBLY is a word of ambiguity or inexactness. Your opponent probably doesn’t know that and thinks they won, but in actuality they lost. They’re all proud of themselves because what they heard was ‘you’re right’ and were deaf to the actual implication of they really aren’t. Carry on, girl.” She told me she hadn’t thought of it that way and walked away with a big smile.
“Hate has 4 letters, but so does Love. Enemies has 7 letters, but so does Friends. Lying has 5 letters, but so does Truth. Cry has 3 letters, but so does Joy. Negativity has 10 letters, but so does Positivity. Life has two sides; choose the better side.”
My friend asked me, “What’s the dumbest thing you’ve ever done?” I thought a few minutes reviewing my 80 years of life and said, “How sweet of you to think I’ve peaked dumb actions.”
I was watching a clip which someone had filmed. It was
a flood happening in front of the person.
As the rushing water was coming down the path, the person started to
say, "Holy smokes! Holy smokes!"
The water kept coming and was increasing it's speed and volume. As the
camera started shaking,
the man's exclamations went from "Holy smokes" to "holy
sh*t!" I guess HOLY SH*T trumps HOLY SMOKES.
Here's a question: if I'm minding my business, and you're minding my
business, who is minding your
business since we are both minding mine?!
Listening to some kids "case" others about intelligence, they came up
with some funny ones. "He's as
smart as a broken rake." "She's so dumb, she wouldn't know
what apple pie was." "He'd get
lost in a round room." "I've seen gnats smarter than she is." But, the one that made me laugh out loud was,
"She has the intelligence of a bubble."
Smiles and blessings to you, Trudy J
