Month: February 2020

Quote For The Day 2-26-2020

“One only understands the things that one tames,” said the fox. “Men have
no more time to understand anything. They buy things all ready made at the
shops. But there is no shop anywhere where one can buy friendship, and so
men have no friends any more. If you want a friend, tame me. . .”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince    

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Retro Tuesday 2-25-2020

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Question of the Day 2-23-2018

Please feel free to answer these questions on your blog or in the responses. If you leave me a link to your post, I will re-post it on my blog. You can also feel free to forward these questions to anybody who might be interested. Thank you to those who have already shared their thoughts.

What are you waiting for?

What am I waiting for? In my life? My day? Moment to moment? Am I waiting for some assumed future event to make all things in my life right?  To be able to say, “Now, things are going to be okay.”

If I am waiting for those theoretical events in my future, then I will be waiting my life away. The time when I say, “Everything in my life will be perfect now,” will never come. The most I can expect is moments of perfection, moments when I can sit back and go, “Right this minute, I know what happiness means.”

I had moments like that this past weekend. Flashes of perfection. Moments of happiness. Moments when I was at peace.

Of course, I also had moments (or longer) of panic. Mainly when I had to drive home from my friend’s house in the dark and my phone wouldn’t connect with Maps. The reason I panicked was because I’ve had to drive without Maps help before and I got so lost and panicked and angry and…and…and…. so I came into this latest instance of driving home at night already nervous.

At that moment, I was waiting for Maps to help me get home. What I was really waiting for was somebody to take care of me, to tell me things would be fine, that I would get home fine, wouldn’t get lost, that everything was okay. None of that happened.

I finally drove back to my friend’s house and her husband got my phone working with Maps. They wanted me to stay the night and head home in the morning, but I knew I had to go. I had to overcome this fear paralyzing me. I had to drive home in the dark and not get lost, not panic.

Well, I didn’t make it without some panic. Maps and I don’t communicate well at times. Most of the times. Every time I go to their house, Maps tried to take me into a Military Base. Not where I want to go and not when I’d have to say, “Oh, sorry, Maps wanted me to come here, but I really didn’t want to.”

But, the bottom line is that I found my way to 64 and home. My panic was for naught as they say. (Hypothetical ‘they,’ whoever they are.)

But back to the question. There was a question right?

What am I waiting for?

Let me think on it.

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JSW Prompt 2-24-2020

Feel free to join in and respond to the prompt. Please try to keep your response between 200 – 250 word (recommended, not law). You can write a story, poem, essay, anything which strikes your fancy! Link your work back to this post so people can read it.

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Retro Tuesday 2-18-2020

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Musings on the Universe

The beep beep sound of Sputnik (mp3)

There is something indefinably magical in space. Mankind has looked upwards for centuries, always wanting to know more. Where did we come from? Why does the rain fall? What Gods make lightening? What have we done to make the Gods angry? What are stars made of? How did the universe begin? How will it end? How can we see further and further into a mystery always just beyond reach?

Ancient civilizations had cause to fear the sky. In the modern world, however, we have lost any sense of fear and wonder about that which suspends our tiny planet in the vastness of space and time. The ability for the majority of us to experience the universe first hand is small. Astronauts are heroes because they dare to step into the vastness that has frightened and awed and puzzled mankind since our first ancestor rose onto two legs and looked towards the sky.

Did dinosaurs ponder the wonders of space? Fish? Lions? Horses? Even the small one-celled amoeba? The creatures of this world don’t need to ponder space because they are space. Instinctively, they know their connection to the universe, something we forgot long ago when we chose to divide and accept ‘he’ is different than ‘me’.

So why does the sound of a machine beeping in space open up such a vast emptiness inside me? Awe that, even though the sounds were recorded over 40 years ago, makes me shiver, forces me to admit I, too, am part of the wonder of the universe. Sounds which make me feel something opening inside me in a way I have never experienced before;  connects me to the universe in a way I never imagined possible.

I am, you are, every living thing in this world and beyond, not to mention rocks and chairs and books, and computers are made of starstuff. We see solids when, in reality, the atoms  from which we are made are simply gathered together and pretending to be the solids called ‘me’ or ‘you’ or ‘Fido.’ The same as a star 40 million light years away is pretending to be the solid called ‘star.’  I am ‘me,’ but I am also Sputnik, forty years ago, sending the sounds of infinity back to the’ me’ on earth listening this very moment.

What awe would fill this world if we all understood, down to the tiniest particle of our being, that we aren’t different.  We are all made of the same stuff as the stars. We all feel that deep instinctive pull towards knowing, understanding, who we are and where we belong in this infinite universe.

Perhaps that is what the beeping of Sputnik reminds us. Somewhere out there, beyond our sight, in the blackness both outside and inside us, there is an emptiness we all understand – loneliness, fear, death –  but we do not need to be afraid. We are one. No matter the vastness between the stars, or between two neighbors, there is always a bridge, always a connection of starstuff binding us together.