Don't get old...Get older

 No, I am not at all implying that y'all should try to defy or deny the aging system for it cannot be done...well, not entirely. The calendar will tell you down to the day how old you are but how your mind translates that news to your inner being and to your body is what determines if you will simply get old or if you will keep traveling along as each day makes you older. The difference is that old means we stop doing this or that at a certain age or this and that will start to hurt at a certain age...that, my friends, is a false bill of crap that will make you become complacent and to hold back on living your life with all of its capable contentment. Of course, the body changes and evolves into its next phase which is why it is imperative that you tend to your body well so that it is kind to you in later years. It's about prevention...if you stay healthy now then you will help prevent many bodily harms, or lesson their effect on you, if you are already strong when those older years come along. See, I believe in prevention, if possible, about many things in this life of ours. Prevention, just for example, is to make a wise choice of health today so that good health is your friend in tomorrow.

Now, getting older means accepting gracefully another day to continue doing what you have always done, those things that you have always loved doing. It is to keep filling the days with joy and to keep embracing all of the new things in life for no one, of any age, has "seen it all." The body takes its own toll but if you nourish it and feed it daily with positive thoughts and actions then the body will remain steadfast and perhaps only limit some activities instead of being old and telling the body "You just can't do that anymore." Every individual inch of us has its own set of ears and they hear what you think so, in essence, we have the choice to set some limits as we get older, or we have the choice to accept the "just can't do's" as we merely get old. It's a no brainer for me...you will miss so much if you just sit idly by, after the first part of your youth has passed, and watch the days click on while the second part of your youth; with the wise mind, still hungry soul, and a love of life that comes only in growth, gets stifled by some number on a piece of paper called a calendar. Think back, that very same calendar once told us all how much younger and more fearless we were so why not let it tell us now how much wisely older and more bountiful we are? Yes, it is a fact that we all came into this world with a birth date and with an expiration date but, hey since we have no say so on that final date then why not live it up and breathe your life deeply and fully and snatch every moment allowed to you here on this earth with sheer glee. Don't let some number dictate any day of your life. I once heard that, "age is a matter of mind and if you don't mind, then it don't matter." Look at it this way folks, the freshest half of the loaf of bread may be gone but, if you keep it right then the other half will stay fresh too!

Pam's sincere, late-night thoughts...

Mind-Dust...

Let's examine your mind-dust...

Don’t you ever have those thoughts about something, like how terrible broccoli smells when it cooks, and wonder if anyone else thinks of it that way? Haven’t you ever been some place new and yet it just felt so familiar that it seemed you had been there before, to the point, that you begin to question if maybe you had been there in some other time? Or haven't you ever met some perfect stranger somewhere and yet felt as if you had known this stranger for all of your life after ten minutes of conversation and just be awe struck at how you feel sure the two paths must have crossed somewhere? Haven’t you, at least one honest time, hung a rope of hope around that shooting star you made that wish upon and wondered quietly if anyone else did that? Haven't you ever laid down and stared at the blue sky and let your imagination make specific shapes and characters out of the big, fluffy clouds and wondered what someone else thought it looked like?

The answer to most of these is most likely an overwhelming “yes!” We think more alike than we think we do and those floating, flight-full, playful, oddity pondering thoughts are just swirls of mind-dust that we all have…much of it is simple curiosity and most of us have many curiosities about a slew of different things…it’s amazing how common the odd things can be. Let it always swirl and twirl about in your head for if your mind-dust settles then so may your curious questions, your keen observations, and your yearning to wonder settle as well. Keep your mind open with lots of space and freely welcome and entertain your own many whooshes of mind-dust.

Pam's late-night, mind-dusting thoughts...

The "financially less fortunate class..."

  Let me begin by saying that I am not much of a political person nor is this intended to be a political post but what I have to say is from the view of a person who cares and will hope others will or do care also. This subject is not rocket science nor does it really take any more than good old plain common sense to, at least partially, see the picture that needs to be painted. I have listened to the talk of what so many governmental talkers have talked about throughout the last too many years and there is one thing that has always troubled me greatly, for no political person or official or any department has ever uttered a single word mentioning this troublesome concern of mine. My concern always lies with that group of hardworking, underpaid, and bill shuffling folks in the system who are all the way down...the lower class as they have been labeled. First of all, let's knock out that label and address them as they are, the financially less fortunate class. 

I hear, and have always heard, about what things will affect the middle-class and/or the upper-class folks. I am afraid that until someone steps forth and acknowledges that we do have a less fortunate class then we may not be giving some of the eager people in the world a chance simply because they go unmentioned and quietly overlooked. Turning heads has never been known to make an issue just up and go away or miraculously fix itself. This is a large, sad, and personal saga of a concern to me for I know full well the plight of the less fortunate class and it is not some new wave group of folks, nope...been here all along. We have so much and yet we solve so little. We have so many homeless, we have so many that go hungry (including children), we have so many with zero health care of any kind. I find it more than a fair question to ask: how can those situations exist when we claim to have so much? Every person out there deserves a chance, deserves to be acknowledged, deserves an out reached hand, deserves to have a voice, and deserves to have that voice heard. To not acknowledge that, perhaps, we should begin building up the less fortunate class first, so that it may boost the middle-class, would be like throwing up a roadblock against prosperity. If you really do the math then you can see that the blood, sweat, and tears has almost always began with the less fortunate class but if harnessed properly and harvested rewardingly it could be the biggest domino effect of one rung on the low part of the ladder pushing the next rung (middle class) up to make room for that lower rung to finally climbed out of the less fortunate class. 

Well, it makes a point to me that it warrants acknowledging this class of folks and to entertain the reality that the less fortunate class is indeed the foundation everything else stands upon...they are the stone and mortar, and they are the spokes of the wheels that keep us inching forward. And please let me close by announcing that the less fortunate class are generally less fortunate financially, but they are some of the richest folks among all in so many fulfilling ways for they cherish dearly the little that they do have and the love of those they share it with. And times are a changing again, the winds are shifting so let them shift so that they swoop up and build up and eliminate this financially less fortunate class...it is time to embrace their important role in the overall success of the big picture of life.

Pam's serious late-night thoughts

What are our Fur-babies thinking?

Our Fur-babies and those looks we get when we talk to them or just kinda catch them looking at us…what are they thinking? Now my BIG boy Bo will sit perfectly so with back straight and head held high and ears cocked and slightly tilt his head from side to side with intent eyes while I ramble on to him. "The Bo Look,” as we all call it, comes in a variety of flavors depending on what I’m talking about. If it’s food, he’s all in already, then when I tell him “Good boy but you have to wait till Pammy is done first” the head begins to tilt first this way then the other like “Wait? Why?” or the ole “yea that’s what you said last time, and I didn’t get any, told me it was all gone gone!” And I love asking him questions because if I look at him very serious and talk to him and ask him what he thinks, the tilting of the head looks more like he’s thinking “I know some of what she said but I can’t get that last part!” It could go on and on because my boy has some looks that you can’t keep a straight face over and he actually gets feet bouncing happy when I get tickled at him. Sometimes I swear he understands every word I’ve said, better than anyone I’ve talked to all day, and that he wants me to know that he knows. We’ve got it like that…the silent understanding. And every once in a while, I think tilting of the head means “she’s nuts! Should I tell her?!” And then there is "The Dreaded Bo Look” when that knock comes at the door and it’s not a scent he recognizes…then it’s all business and his full big boy bark is on! He answers my door…I let him decide who comes in and who doesn’t. But if he totally digs you then just shake his hand, be his friend, and definitely scratch his BIG head! Our Fur-babies are well entertained by us I do believe.

Pam's evening laughs at "The Bo Looks"

Half Price! Clearance! BOGO!

 Okay Ya'll listen up and read on! Now you know the difference, the huge difference, between what a pair of most male eyes see upon entering any store of any kind versus what the female eye sees. Now most men walk in any store and if they see something they like then the search is over…most won’t even price it, just march right up to the counter with it and check out.

Now the female eye enters a store, and it goes on the immediate prowl by scanning, quickly, every sign on every rack and they will only move towards those that say “Half Price! Clearance! BOGO!” Now mind you the female eye as already checked ahead and knows this particular store has sales going wild and that’s why we are there instead of another store to begin with. We are professional deal finding, coupon scanning, and rewards points kind of shoppers. Even if it doesn’t matter, financially, if you have to pay full price it is just natural instinct to seek out the best deal for what you want! And don’t think we won’t bring up, at checkout, that so and so sells the same item for this cheaper price and work our way right on up to a “price match” and get even more of a discount.

Now, this explains fully why when you ladies shop with your fellows and then go to lunch together or dinner later that you are the only one who came out of the store with way more than one bag and still has money left to eat with while your fellow has one bag, two shirts, and is broke! Now you must explain “the art of shopping 101” to him and yet this same scene will play out every time. Trust me…Ladies know the art of the deal and that it all starts with our kind of thinking of “Half Price! Clearance! BOGO!”

Pam’s nighttime thoughts…

Cleaning out our closets...

We all commonly refer to the above as doing our "spring cleaning" but it is amazing how many limit that to tossing out that junk that is in the way 0f everything or cleaning off and polishing up those dust covered tabletops or grabbing the broom to attack those pesky spider webs. Spring cleaning doesn't stop at tidying up all of that stuff that we know company just might see. Spring cleaning can be an exhausting job but we all know that it HAS to be done and yet we will slam the closet doors shut to hide more junk than we just cleaned up. Think about your own closet...we all have clothes we can't or don't wear anymore, we all have shoes we have replaced but just can't toss the ones with the holes in them, we all have some box of overflowing stuff to which we only add more stuff to, we all have some piece of memorabilia from some point in time that there just isn't room for anywhere...and the list just goes on. But, one day we open a closet door looking for something particular that must be buried underneath this heap of things we have just shoved in there to get them out of the way "for now" and after enough digging we decide to grab up that trash bag and clean out our messy, catch-all closet so we can make some sense of it and see the inside much more clearly and orderly. During that "spring cleaning" we throw out, rearrange, donate, and so forth so that we can easily find the things we use and need most often that belong in our closet. But somehow new stuff will end up replacing the old stuff only to become old stuff itself by the next spring cleaning. Cleaning up one mess merely to make room for a new mess is not cleaning out the closet.

The inner closet can get much of the same treatment as the closets in our houses do...shove it out of sight and no one will be the wiser that it's there at all. Our inner closets hang with skeletons that clutter up any space for anything new to have a place to sit. Let's see...there are skeletons of secrecy that locked lips have kept hidden...there are skeletons of regret that serve no purpose to us in the here and now...there are skeletons of turmoil if ever we did the wrong thing for every right reason...there can be quiet a few skeletons hanging around for different reasons for which we choose not to discuss...and then there are those skeletons that are just best left alone and allowed to be that pile of bones that they have become over time. Our inner closets are sprinkled with dust and cobwebs and musty air that stifles the chance for us to finally breathe fully. Spring cleaning applies to those inner closets as well, only we must do it more than once a year...the job is a tad more intricate and takes more time of deep consideration. Whether we wish to admit it or not those inner closets will eventually bugle against their doors from the inside as those skeletons grow in numbers until one day the doors bust open and everything just tumbles out. Don't minimize the task of bagging up those skeletons and burying them properly and letting them go for it can be an emotionally taxing cleanup. Take the time to rid your inner closet of as much "junk" at a time as you can so you can throw the curtains back and finally let in some light. Remember this...no more than your company can see the mess inside your bedroom closet can anyone see the skeletons in your inner closet but that doesn't really matter for you know the junk is in both closets and it should bother you enough to put your gloves on, get out the cleaning supplies, and just make a day of freshening up the messes we hide and shove to the side. On the day we least expect it or see it coming is the day we will get deep in the dirt and start cleaning out our closets so that we feel better about having done so. Just knowing that things have been made neat and tidy and properly disposed of makes us feel better about us. Do that for yourself...demand it of yourself...owe it to yourself...and then reward yourself for a hard job well done.

Pam's late-night thoughts...

Celebrating my 100th blog...and my puzzle box of pieces

 Celebrating 100 blogs…

Tonight is a special night as I am sharing my 100th blog! WOW! Those 100’s are landmark numbers in many ways, and it is a landmark for me indeed. I have revisited every blog I have ever written from 2012 forward to now and it amazes me, with each one, at how much has changed and it amazes me more at how much has not changed. For me, these last 99 blogs have shown so many parts of my journey of life over the last 12yrs as my first blog entry was in 2012…seems impossible even as it rolls across my screen printing what I’m thinking. What a ride it has been, much of it chronicled here with every subject matter that came to my mind and that I sat up, unable to sleep, and wrote into the wee morning hours to post. I recall those restless nights when my mind wanted to write something down so badly that it won the contest over my body and up I got. I have always loved all things words for all of my life as they called me down this path at a very early, young age. It is, for me, not a case of me finding my destiny but rather my destiny found me. Sometimes in life we make certain choices and, equally on the other side, sometimes certain choices make us. I’ve seen life from more challenging angles than I can count, and I have also viewed it from as many beautiful angles that so many never take the time to see. Folks will say “it’s all about the journey,” and in part that would be correct but at the end of the day it’s more than that...it is about “what we learn from the journey.” See, way too many will stroll aimlessly through their journey with nothing ventured nothing gained and they miss so much of the ride. The journey has taught me, a few times the hard way, that we get it right by starting off getting it wrong but with a feisty spirit we can use those as stepping-stones of either what to do or what not to do. No one has ever opened a jigsaw puzzle box and discovered a completed puzzle inside…life ain’t a crackerjack box where we just reach in and pull out our prize. Those puzzle pieces all have a very firm fit in one specific designated place that helps join each of the other pieces together and it is that which we work on for the duration of time granted to us here on earth. We know what picture we would like to see once put together, but we don’t get to pick the box we want…we work with the box we are given, and we must study each piece as we place it. If we are wise and choose not to repeat mistakes, then we better our chances of becoming satisfied with the picture we are putting together. One day at a time is how we take life in stride and one piece at a time is how we build our puzzle with pride. I’ll have to wha-hooo on this one as the ride has been a slew and host of amazing events, moments, experiences, lessons, and memories. I try to offer up a wide range of things to share here and for anyone who has visited my page…I hope you fancied the read genuinely as I wrote them as so. Writing was the dream that chose me, it was inside my puzzle box, and I couldn’t be happier with how the pieces have fit together thus far…. sometimes I did nothing, they simply fit themselves together. I believe in lifting people up and plugging them into some inspiration…I believe people need that because I know I did and still do. So, having marked this moment as my 100th blog I am dedicating it to you and your puzzle box, your journey, and to all of the flashes of glee when the puzzle pieces fit snugly. No journey is unworthy, no traveler is unworthy, and no puzzle is impossible. It is always about the journey but not all about the journey…your participation in it is always an equal part of the journey. May we all continue to move forward, to grow as we go, to learn as we should, to enjoy our progress, and to be ever so content and proud of what we did with our own puzzle box of pieces. 

Cheers to #100!!!

Pam's late-night thoughts...