Pick up the pace...the slow pace 2024

This is a blog from 2013 but I have been noticing that it has been receiving many new views, so I thought it worthy of revisiting this test of picking up the slow pace with only a light dusting of a facelift.

Oh yes, here we go starting our new day already caught up in some kind of rushing flurry: we forgot something, we are running late, or we didn't get this or that done. We have no clue at what we miss each day or how many things we just rush right on by. There could be some glorious thing we missed because we were too busy running on the fast track at the fast pace. Going through your days like that adds up to many things you have simply passed by. How often do you take the time to watch a sunset or listen to the song whispered by the wind through the leaves of trees? People are in such a high-speed rush now to go everywhere and to get everything done; right now! Why? I think that "why" is a fair question to ask? I mean do we really HAVE to be the first one to arrive or be next in line? Folks rush to save time...hmmm. So, explain this one cause I love it when folks burn up 15 good minutes circling the full parking lot just waiting on someone up front to pull out and give you front row parking...never mind you could have settled for "okay" parking and be leaving by now! People have forgotten how to slow down, how to take deep, healthy breaths, and to just live in one moment of time at a time. Gaze around at the simple things right before our eyes and put the brakes on this rushing around trying to win some rat race. There is far too much wonder out there for us to embrace the race constantly; slow down for some days we are not meant to win...it is designed so that we do not always win. We are, however, meant to absorb the hidden gifts of the day; we are meant to seek them out. I know that life can come quickly, strongly, and unfairly but we can react to that calmly. Try something new today by taking full stock of all of the tiny treasures in your life as all of that stuff that we rush about to get to...you have my personal word that it will be right there whenever you get to it! Put that hurricane, that is your life, on "pause" and take some nice long deep breaths and then abandon the rat race and pick up the slow pace instead.

Pam's nighttime thoughts...

Your spirit animal...

 I recall well the evening I learned about one's spirit animal...I did not know exactly what it meant and that was my exact reply when I was asked, "what is your spirit animal?" I simply said, "what do you mean by that?" The lovely meaning was explained to me that we each had a spirit animal that was a very personal relationship between it and myself. I inquired further in asking, "how would I know what my spirit animal is?" And another simple reply came forth in the form of a question, "if you could have only one animal, from now on, to stay with you that comforted you and moved you, made you happy. What animal would you choose?" All I know is that my answer came quickly and with full certainty as I nearly proclaimed, "a horse." I have always loved horses and thought them as poetry in motion as they run wild and free across an open field or the trails of the mountains or the sands of the beach for, they run with an unabashed freedom...a freedom I do not believe we mortals could ever fully know. They are majestic and mystical...they are magnificent creatures with gentle souls. 

The next few days passed as normal until I received a very special gift from my bestie forever...I was given a beautiful blanket with a black stallion on it; my spirit animal could now comfort me in my sleep. She is a beauty indeed and I named her Blaze. Having discovered what my spirit animal is has made me appreciate what they represent even more and my awe of them has grown. Just pics of horses comfort me and capture me. I encourage you to discover your spirit animal and explore all of the many reasons that make up that special connection.                        

My bucket list hopes that I get to go horseback riding and just at least get up to a nice quick trot so that, for that moment, I could have a small taste of that worriless freedom they feel as they see only open space to run in. Just me, sitting in the saddle, on Blaze's back, the sun behind me, and the breeze across my face as she trots me on as a guest on her run of freedom...it would be the best thing ever.

Pam's late-night thoughts

Harmless Fun!

 Let’s talk about a few lighthearted, kind of comical, thoughts for this blog and wash away seriousness for a short read at least. So, I will start the ball rolling and y’all feel free to leave a comment and keep it rolling. Let’s have some fun…

I love shock value…there’s just nothing like laying out a comment that is one of those “didn’t see that coming” kind of things. Exhibit A: At one of my local convenient stores, I frequent there is always the same 2-3 folks hanging around the corners waiting to ask you for a cigarette or a quarter or just change in general. So, I stopped the other day and as I was walking across the lot here he came, same guy, and I let him ask me if a I had a quarter and with all of the seriousness I could muster I replied “man I was about to ask you if you had any change you could share and you ain’t got a cigarette I could get do you? I smoke Newport's.” His face was priceless. He just walked away looking back at me with a look of pure surprise and I KNOW he didn’t see that one coming! But it was just some harmless fun. 

Exhibit B: When someone is just going to be downright insistent on creating a tense situation or conversation about something that really boils down to one of those “to each his own” kind of things, I will just not waste my time dealing with that which will refuse to be dealt with so I look them in the eye and shake my head a little in fake thought and say “you know what? You just might be right.” And I turn around and walk off with no reply to that statement except that question going around in their head “what did she mean by that?” It ended a “going nowhere” conversation before it got started but I did get the last word, so to speak, and left the other person pondering that same question all day, “what was she trying to say!” It is harmless fun though. 

Sometimes when I’m cruising along and maybe a favorite song like Uptown Funk is playing in the car and it’s a good mood kind of day, I suddenly want to give a few folks something to ponder all day long about over a complete stranger. I’ll pick out a car at random and as they go by, I just toot my horn and roll the window down and wave like we know each other well. I look in the rear-view mirror and I see them brake lighting and I know for the rest of the day they will be trying to figure out who in the world I was and from where would they have met me and who do they know that drives a car like mine? Ya know stuff like that can get on a person’s mind so bad they think it to death trying to figure out who that was and I guess I really shouldn’t do that, but it really is just harmless fun. 

Have you ever just been walking a busy street or out in a full parking lot full of people, at the mall or such, and just started looking up at the sky? Really studying it and point a time or two for good measure, at absolutely nothing, but all it takes is one other person out there to see you and observe you a moment before they begin to look up and try very hard to see whatever it is you are looking at and before you know half of the parking lot is still looking for “it” after you’ve walked off and gone on the store! Again…it’s harmless fun. 

Folks y'all know there is not enough lighthearted thoughts floating around as there should be, so the above 3 things of harmless fun things are still enough to give yourself a good chuckle and someone else something to think about all day. I won’t share anymore from my bag of very harmless fun shenanigans, but I do encourage y’all to be creative and give it a try!

Pam's late-night laughs...

The Forgotten

 Those who have visited my blog page know that I do not dabble in or speak of politics or religions, but I have a concern that hits a political cord and causes a spiritual unrest in me. It is about a group of people we seem to have swept aside, thrown away the key on, and just plain forgotten about and that’s our VA Vets. It has taken way more many years that it should have for avenues of help for those who, were fortunate enough to make it home. I have met with and spoken with many men who returned from this war and their experiences they shared with me are images that will never leave my mind and I cannot begin to fully know their insurmountable inner sufferings. Images, unthinkable images, that are seared into the lives of those who didn't ask to be sent off to war to have young bodies broken and young minds branded with horrors we could not know. These young BOYS were patted on the back and sent off with great support to defend their country and fight for “the cause” by telling them it was their job to follow orders of destruction. So many of them died for their country and our only acknowledgement is a wall bearing their names. I have walked the length of that wall, and I can only say that they were at least honored. The greatest honor should have been open arms when they returned to their homeland shattered in so many ways and dragging burdens we cannot fathom. 

     What about those young boys that came back broken down into men with scarred minds, severed limbs, and tattered souls…what about them? I will tell you…I watched a documentary of where, upon finally making it home, people actually spat on them. The support was gone. Today, still, way too many are jobless as employers see them as not viable. Too many are homeless, no families, no avenues with an out-stretched hand. We have come a long way in offering aid but it’s not near enough. We offered up no help to these that served their country when they returned to find a shell of a home. I honor those men, hold a hand high and grant them their due attention, their due respect, their due aid for a decent life. They are people too, just like me and you, and they deserve, they have earned the same chances as anyone else for putting things back together and finding a happy place to be. I think so much more could be done but seems like our money is just always needed for something else. I cannot understand how so little is actually available to those courageous young boys who now, as broken men, are looking for some peace in a country they watched so many die for and that somehow seems too much to ask? How sad. In my own personal opinion, I cannot understand the concept of winning by who killed off the most people. No one wins when so many die. It’s never too late though to set it right. So, for the folks calling the shots on such matters I sure wish they would implement some humanity and remember the cause themselves when considering what they could do to help. Time is wasting so let us no longer turn our heads or close our eyes and allow those of honor to continue to be the forgotten...

Pam's late night thoughts

The unbreakable bond of "bestie's forever."

Nothing can compete with the true, solid, steady unbreakable bond between two friends who were destined to meet...whose paths were set to cross. There is just no other relationship to compare it to. My bestie forever is my comfort zone, my sounding board, my fun and laughs, my thoughts shared, my magical moment memory maker, my forever solid anchor...she is absolutely the berries. It is having that feeling of some part of you being completed and fulfilled. She is a breath of fresh air and my finest rolling buddy ever. Don't let the chance go by for one day that you don't appreciate the worth of that friend of yours...it is important that you share what they mean to you. And on that note, this is for all of you "bestie gals" who have signed on for the long haul and to memories uncountable and to memories awaiting...CHEERS to every second of shared time. And to my bestie forever, Lula Morrow, I look so forward to adding to those countless days of almost too much perfection. 

My cup runneth over.

Pammy and Wuwu

 

For both our Heroes and our Unsung Heroes...

 As crazy as things are all around us in every direction it is still very true that it does not take much at all to be a hero. You can change a person's day or even a whole life direction for another just by extending yourself. To make it simply put a stranger having a tough time may need nothing more than a smile to lift them up...you can do that can't you? Surely, we could each spare a simple smile. Share a thought of wisdom to one who is on an unfamiliar ground that you have been on. Pass along personal advice from the "I have been there point of view." There is so little of it out there anymore that having that personal touch approach is such a welcomed thing. Often times folks can get blinded by the view of only one possible avenue so always try to offer someone another side to consider, another route they may not have thought of. Share the flowers from the garden growing within you and hand someone a bouquet of happiness. Listen to another even when there is nothing you can say for lending an ear is oftentimes what one truly wants, to have nothing more than a sounding board. For each of those instances you are, to the other person, their absolute hero for that moment in time. And I am willing to bet that neither of you ever forget that "hero moment."

You may know many of the lives to whom you are their hero just by any acts of kindness you do that mean a mountain to another. Do not ever fear or ever be afraid to touch the life of as many as you can for that life will touch us back and two people end up winning. We get immediate rewards for our efforts and our humanity by having our hearts full and happy. There is also a stream of folks that we somehow touch that we do not know of or realize that what we said in the grocery store line is exactly what someone else needed to hear and that may have shed positive light on them. In those cases that we managed to bring about good vibes to any stranger then we have become their Unsung Hero...

In a world of technology try to maintain the human touch...

Pam's late-night thoughts

Revisiting this topic... "To whom does your identity belong?"

  We enter this world with our own special identity, things that separate us from other people and allow us to blossom into our own unique selves. This journey takes a lifetime to build and yet it can be swept from underneath you by some silent thief of the night. Your entire world can now be turned upside down and inside out by the fastest growing, and yet least paid attention to, crime of Identity Theft. People out there have become experts on being able to steal who we are and we, sadly, are the last to know it. And by the time we do know it the damage is done. And once the damage is done there is a long, muddy, uphill road waiting to climb to try to untangle this web of a mess. Through some research I have found that not even the IRS will give the police authorities any information concerning any identity theft victim or case even as they are being asked questions about an open investigation with proof of criminal activity. All words fall on deaf ears and people hide behind policy to abandon the innocent.

       The IRS and other governmental departments know who the perpetrators are through fraudulent tax returns and duplicate filings and yet they still withhold any/all information from the victim and authorities. I have been told that victims of this crime spend years spinning their wheels and doing their own leg work while the "powers that be" sweep this ever-growing invasion of one's life under the proverbial rug. This deserves full due attention. Imagine the devastation of waking up one day to find that, on paper, your identity has been stolen and you have no clue where to turn. It is a sad fact, but the avenues of help are 95% closed. Oh, it is acknowledged that this crime does exist, but I have never heard of one proposal or plan to bring down an iron fist on this spreading theft of people's lives. We should not only feel protected, we should BE protected. Hackers are sneaking in and dissolving what one has worked so hard for, and no one offers a hand toward a solution, nor do we hear of anyone suggesting ways to implement a better, stronger system. The government itself is being hacked and yet they do not seem on high alert, nor do we hear much about the corruptness striking even them. No one is beyond reach in this epic saga of technical robbery. Any one of us could fall victim to having our identity stolen on any given day.

       It is a time of true "beware", but it will never be broadcast on the news as such; might alarm people as opposed to looking at it like informing them. In my research, and with talking with many victims, I was astonished at the number of people who appear as new cases each day through the Fraud Investigative Department. A Detective shared with me that identity theft is his main case load now and cases can lay dormant for long periods of time due to a tall wall of shut down from those who should be helping by providing information so that the perpetrators may be brought to justice. The "powers that be" just close the door and draw the blinds as if it will just go away. It is a far larger problem than I have heard admitted. How can a continual blind eye turn to yet another slew of screaming and obviously intrusive attacks against innocent people? Is it really that easy to think that if it just isn't addressed out loud then it will quietly find a way to fix itself or that it will just go away? There are extreme measures that are long past due to be taken to fight for the victims instead of protecting the criminal. Ask anyone what price they would put on the tag for all the trauma and discord a situation like this causes and they would have no numbers to offer for so much of the violation took irreplaceable things. Heads should be hanging down for leaving a person hanging out to dry and letting them try to figure out how to recapture who they are. Beware and make sure you know to whom your identity belongs...

Pam's evening time thoughts

Coffee and Conversation

 Coffee and Conversation

Nothing like it…a nice hot cup full of gourmet coffee and a keg full of spicy conversation! Oh yeah…and the perfect setting that is in some hole in the wall, way off the beaten path and away from anyone that just might know you. If you drink thru a pot of coffee without realizing it because you were so immersed in such capturing conversation, then that is like the best berries ever! Much better than having to drink a pot of coffee trying to find some way to stimulate any conversation…that is not enjoying either thing. I’ve had some of the best coffee and coolest “all over the map” coffee and conversations with my bestie at some of the best unknown spots. A couple of them I think we actually had to almost get lost to find but one of them made a seriously mean caramel latte! Me and bestie, Wuwu, are very much coffee hounds and we seek out those spots you have to google to find and get ourselves a back booth and order a latte and a snack(maybe one of those $10 slabs of cake) and just drop anchor for a bit. Or we swing thru a drive-up window and hit the road with lattes rolling right along with us. We have had some of the best talks over more lattes than one could even guess at, and we do hereby claim many many more of the same. My very first real latte was with Wuwu and she said it was a cinnamon latte, and she’s probably right, and somehow, we became connected that day…and boy oh boy at the talks that have followed since that first latte over 15 years ago. See…if you have that great cup of coffee and that spicy keg of conversation well…you have it all; all that you need right then at that moment anyway! And we do fully plan on having coffee together forever…and I feel no doubts about it for I know we will.

Lula Morrow(Wuwu)…I love you infinitely. Cheers ☕️☕️