Petdad

It’s a beautiful mess, life. That’s just the way it is. We try to organize, rush, organize more in an effort to do more, and then we realize it is what it is. Instead of attempting to do more it would greatly benefit everyone to simply be more. If we could all be more, then life wouldn’t seem so messy in a sense that we need to do something about it. Then we could all share the experience of being in this beautiful mess of life, as one.

I’ve often thought that every day we have the opportunity to right ourselves, meaning take the high road, do what is right, and fix our wrongs. Along with that, I believe that every day we have the opportunity to write ourselves, meaning our lives are a story. A true story. We can ‘write’ a good story, or we can write a not-so-good story. We have the opportunity to do both every day, make the right-write choice.

Clearly distracted as of late, I find myself also distracted on why I am distracted. I hope I can just blame it on the latest Full Moon cycle which peaked a couple days ago.

Distraction isn’t good for anyone. It’s not efficient or effective. It diverts us from process or goals and thus is just a plain nuisance.

So I did some etymology research on the word to try and figure out origin of the word and it’s logical meaning when broken down. The prefix ‘dis’ I knew to be something negative of sorts. Sure enough, the dictionary defines dis as ‘expressing negation’, and ‘denoting reversal or absence of an action or state’.

Traction, on the other hand is defined as ‘the action of drawing or pulling something over a surface’, and ‘motive power provided by movement’.

Distraction is defined as ‘a thing that prevents someone from giving full attention to something else’ and ‘diversion’ and ‘extreme agitation of the mind or emotions’. Its origin is late Middle English, from Latin distractio.

It’s fascinating to me how the prefix dis, and the root word traction, are used together to form the marriage of meaning as it is used in our language today. Distraction is something with potential to cause counter productivity. Distracted is when we allow the ‘distraction’ to pull us away from process.

Nothing else needs to be said. I just posted an essay under the I Remember tab.

Just added under the Musings tab is a short essay titled ‘…Again’. I actually began writing it a number of months ago, but left it as a Draft because I didn’t know where to go with it after writing the first paragraph. Writing that is forced, reads forced. So I left it alone. Today when I opened the Draft to read what I had already written, I immediately knew where to take the piece. The idea flowed easily so then all I needed to do was select the right words. The musing is typical me, as I am always thinking, always pondering. Enjoy.

I have learned in my lifetime to never say “Never”.

Who would have thought that the horrific events of 9/11 would have ever taken place? Who would have ever thought that the January 6, 2021 Insurrection on the Capitol take place? Who would have thought a virus called COVID would change the entire face of daily society?

Never would I have ever expected my aging parents push back on every attempt to help them in, what should be, their Golden Years.

I have learned in my lifetime to never say Never. Reason being is that anytime I have done that, I am left eating ‘crow’ because at this point am in the position of doing what I didn’t expect I would encounter.

Parents…, we love them. Yet when parents behave in a manner where there is no logical decision making process for their own personal benefit, or they display distrust in their own children’s choices, things become a bit complicated.

Bummer. Here we are…, my brother and sister, and I in a position of being The Three Bad Amigos. We’re the bad guys right now, even though we’re just trying to do what’s best for them.

Much more to come, but unfortunately much less to be expected. Don’t ever do it. Don’t ever say “I will never….” As I believe ‘Never’ will be back in your lap at the time you never expect it to be. Today tell yourself, “I will never say Never.”

Sometimes you get the feeling that you are clueless in the matter, regardless of what that matter is. But, one needs to take any situation, any words, any person and view it from a different perspective. The world exists outside of our own little bubble.

Think of Georges Seurat’s painting titled A Sunday on La Grande Jatte. Pointillism. Created using countless colored dots to depict a scene. From afar, the image looks well defined. Up close, and the viewer sees that all definition is lost. Hence, the point of Pointillism.

We may sometimes feel that we are clueless in any given situation, but are we really? Give credit to where credit is due. We are all dots of color on the canvas of Earth. Together we form a ‘live’, dynamic, and ever-changing image of life.

Let’s keep to that way.

Just posted under the ‘I Remember’ tab is my longest essay yet. I knew it was going to take me awhile to write. Cherry Bomb has taken me weeks to write, for the sole purpose of I just wanted to ‘get it right’. There is so much more I could have written in that essay, but the time was right to include exactly what I have written.

We’ve all heard that statement before and hope to never have such an experience. The phrase is generally associated with the purchase of a big-ticket item such as a house or car. But the word ‘buyer’ can also be a reference to one who joined-in on an act and then felt regret over time. Or perhaps the buyer is one who makes a bad decision, then must accept the consequences, or fallout.

“God is good.” It’s written in quotes because not only do I believe this to be true, but someone once said that in reply after I asked “How are you doing?”

We go through life making decisions, some good and some not so good. With all good intention we truly want to do what is right, not only for ourselves but also for the greater good. It doesn’t always work out that way. It’s difficult to fully comprehend when others choose to not follow their stated beliefs. We may experience this sourness when someone says something that hurts our feelings. We may experience this when we are burglarized or robbed. Why does injustice occur?

Pity there are some who maintain childish and petty behavior in adulthood. So we move on. It’s the best thing we can do because we cannot create change in others.

Even the most deliciously baked goods go bad.

Some people come and go from our lives. Some people come into our lives and then leave by choice or circumstance. Some come into our lives and never leave by choice or circumstance. Then there are some people who leave and many years later are reconnected with us usually by choice, but not always.

Those who we reconnect with after many years of disconnect are often met with joy. I was reconnected yesterday with someone who I call my ‘Texas mom’. We spoke on the phone and aside from the many years of disconnect, it was like I just talked with her last week. We had a wonderful conversation and tried to catch-up as much as possible in the ten minutes I had left before the start of a meeting.

It wasn’t easy to find Alice, but I did. The voice and conversation was wonderful. Irene and I have so much to catch-up on with our Texas mom. We know her children who of course are all grown up now. We experienced a lot of life together and I am looking forward for the three of us to have our continued conversation, today.