A Well-Lived Day

Look for this day, for it is life, the very life of life. In its brief course lie all the realities and verities of existence.
The bliss of growth, the splendor of action, the glory of power.  And yesterday is but a dream, and tomorrow is only a vision.  But today--well lived--makes every yesterday a dream of happiness and every tomorrow a vision of hope.  Look well, therefore, to this day.
       --Sanskrit proverb--

A well-lived today!!!  How many of us can honestly say that we live each day well?  I try my darndest, but, I'll admit it,  sometimes that's just not enough.  Things happen.  The unexpected.  And life has gotten faster and faster.  We do more and more--both a work and at leisure.  It's almost as if there is a competitiveness about who is going to be the busiest person.  Don't get me wrong.  There is nothing wrong with being busy.  It is a natural rhythm of life.  The problem comes when we increase our activities to a high level and try to maintain it long term at an unsustainable level.

That's when we fall out of balance with the natural world, out of balance with the natural rhythm of the earth.  When we live in cities, as I do, we spend much of our time in offices, and it is easy to get out of balance with the natural world. Especially here in New York.  We've got a reputation for being fast-paced, and live here long enough, and it rubs off on you...no matter where you were born, it is just far too easy to get caught up in the materialism and modern day society and need that we need to be busy to sustain this way of life.  

I know, myself, I consciously have to tell myself to slow down when I find myself speeding up.  Of course, that's gotten easier now that I've grown older and don't move as quickly as I once did. But, I can still catch myself walking down the street sometimes, my mind on something that happened at work or the things that I have to do when I get home, instead of paying attention to the beauty that surrounds me.  Work is something that I have to do.  We have to survive, but there are certain things I try to do on a daily basis to harmonize with the rhythm of the earth. I make it a point to get out in the fresh air every day...even if it is only for five minutes each day to breathe in the air and take in all the beauty around me.

And speaking of beauty.  This is one of those days that you really do not want to be inside.  It's cool and refreshing after a hot, humid weekend.  The storms predicted last night did not occur, but it grew so windy, it was almost like a fall night. 

Tornados are rare here, but we do get them once in awhile.  The last one was in 2008 not too far from where I live.  It pulled trees up from the roots, overturned cars, and pulled some roofs off, but fortunately, there were no deaths.


Hoping you all have a well-lived day.

 

Imagination.

"Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under the trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time."--John Lubbock

Who doesn't remember kicking off your shoes, lying on the soft summer grass, and watching the big puffy clouds floating by.  Sometimes you could see shapes in the sky...a dog, a butterfly...a scary dragon.  The power of imagination allowed us to see the clouds in our own unique way.  What we saw was not necessarily what are best friend was seeing.  Sadly, we adults have lost much of that sense of wonder we had as children.

Fortunately, it doesn't have to be lost forever.  All you have to do is slow down some.  Today we are so busy with our jobs, our chores, and all of our other commitments that we rarely take time to stop and look at the clouds.  It's never too late.  Our imagination is still there; we just have to learn how to use it again.  We have to ignite it once again; we have to stop always thinking as an adults and start thinking as a child.   So, kick off your shoes, and think about doing something out of the ordinary. 

Look beyond the obvious.  Try seeing new possibilities.  Take up a hobby that requires some sort of creativity.  Act like a kid.  Play games.  Race through the sprinklers.  Instead of reading the newspaper, read the comics.  Laugh.  Have fun. Dare to imagine.  Believe.  

Hoping you all enjoy the rest of your Sunday.  We're under a tornado watch...yes, a tornado watch...until 8 pm tonight so I am feeling a little tense.  It could be so devastating here in the city.  

Plant A Million Trees

I think that I shall never see

A poem as lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest

Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day

And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in Summer wear

A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;

Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,

But only God can make a tree.

 --Joyce Kilmer, 1914

That has always been one of my favorite poems.   Trees have always symbolized the country, the wilderness from whence we came; their tall, stately beauty has overwhelmed me since I was a child. Wandering through grandma's woods was one of the greatest joys of my childhood. I used to love imagining that I had stepped into another world; in reality, I had.  The woods represented the earth before man stepped in to clear and settle...and even though they may first appear devoid of life, in actuality, they were so full of life...in the animals, the birds, the reptiles, and the fairies.  Tree fairies sure were plentiful in those woods.  

And then, I grow up and that 18 year old restlessness sets in, and suddenly, the country life is not for me anymore.  Now I want that fast-paced city life...where 99 percent of the time, your feet hit nothing but concrete.  No wonder I have so many problems with my feet.  Oh, there are trees and grass and flowers and gardens here, but not enough.  There still remains street upon street, avenue upon avenue where nothing but glaring concrete stares up at you on these hot, steamy summer days.

I am blessed in Brooklyn.  I have a yard and there are plants and flowers all around me.  Once I turn the corner to head up my block, I complete my walk home in a wonderful, tree-lined street.  The area around my office is tree-lined...baby trees who still have a ways to go.  But, there are still so many more that are needed.

That's why this "Plant a Million Trees" program has me so excited.  For those that don't live in the city, this is a city-wide public/private program to plant and care for one million new trees in the city's five boroughs over the next decade.  It's such a wonderful program.  Trees are being planted in front of homes, businesses, parks, parking lots, along streets.  Trees are being paid for by city grants and private donations and are being planted by volunteers, members of the park's department, and what I find especially hopeful, is by the children who are being taught all about trees and how to take care of them.  Individuals can call in an 'adopt a tree'; that is, volunteer to take care of one of the newly planted trees.  

 Wonderful, right?  But, you know, you always have those party poopers who do nothing but complain about the state of the city, but are against anything the city does to try to improve.  Take over here in Brooklyn, for example.  For many years, there was this abandoned lot over by Coney Island.  It was nothing but a dump...probably filled with rats. Coney Island, itself, was pretty bad back; hubby was always against my Sunday visits. Well, the New York Mets wanted to build a minor league ball club there, and all of the residents raised such a stink about it.  Well, the Mets won, the stadium was built, and, wow, I cannot describe how the neighborhood was cleaned up after that.

Well, we are now going through the same thing with the trees...stupid reasons...the tree will block my view.  Of what?  The projects?  Or, I have allergies...what if a branch falls off and hits my car?  People have actually been harassing the tree planters. And I shake my head and question why.  But, I already know the answer.  Many of these people who are complaining know of no other life.  The inner city was where they were born, and where they will die...and they want nothing to interfere with the status quo.  They know nothing of the beauty of the country, and what you don't know, you fear.  How said that is!  How said it is for one never to truly experience the beauty of this earth!  

"He who plants a tree, plants a hope."--Lucy Larcom

Friday Ramble

"Will urban sprawl spread so far that most people lose all touch with nature?  Will the day come when the only bird a typical American child ever sees is a canary in a pet shop window?  When the only wild animal he knows is a rat...glimpsed on a night drive through some city slum?  When the only tree he touches is the cleverly fabricated plastic evergreen that shades his gifts on Christmas Morning?"--Frank N. Ikard 'North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference, Houston, Texas, March, 1968--

Pretty powerful message, isn't it?  I woke up this morning not knowing what I was going to say here today...my mind was a blank.  And then I watched the news and saw those horrid pictures of the poor animals in the gulf...covered with oil...some dead, some almost dead...and I began to cry.  What humankind is doing to this Earth and all of its creatures is criminal.  And when a species cannot survive or reproduce in its environment, it dies out and becomes extinct.  Today, at least a third of all plants and animals face extinction. And, it has been estimated that by 2100, half of all the animal and plant population will be gone.

Yes, extinction has always been a natural feature of evolution.  The fact is that for some species to survive, others had to fail, but today, the extinction rate is increasing far too rapidly as a result of human interference on the ecosystem of the planet.  Primates, birds, and many amphibians are particularly threatened, but we continue to invade and build up in their natural habitats.  The above quote was frightening, yes...but it IS happening right now.  There are American children who live in our inner cities who have already lost all touch with nature.  

Our ancestors knew; they were so much smarter than us; they understood the interconnection between all life on Earth, and they respected it.  We as a society feel entitled...as if everything there is belongs to us. Some say that this is a result of patriarchy, that matriarchal cultures value the world around us.  I happen to agree with that. We don't own the planet earth and all that we find upon it; we co-exist with the animals in nature, in the wilderness; and, if we don't stop now, we too may become extinct as we slowly disrupt the eco-system on this planet that we live.

Procrastination

"Procrastination is like a credit card.  It's a lot of fun until you get the bill."--Christopher Parker

Good morning, everyone.  Couldn't figure out what I wanted to call this post...."Procrastination" or "Be careful what you wish for."  Actually, either will suffice.  Remember back awhile ago?  When I was gloating about how I got out of going to a training?  Well, my friends, it's time to pay the bill.  Yup, it caught up to me so later this afternoon I'll be sitting in some boring training which could have been over with two weeks ago...had I not thought I was getting over.

Some of us never learn...and I am sorry to say, I am one of them.  I am a procrastinator.  Not with everything.  There are a lot of things I am on top of.  My work, for example.  An auditor can walk in today and find all my charts in order...there's two week's worth of food cooked in the freezer...a clean house, ironing done for the week...but things I don't like to do?  Well, suffice it to say, I've never been one of those people who 'just do it and get it over with'.  I think that somewhere, deep in my subconscious, I feel if I put it off...maybe it will just go away. Look how long it took me to get my dental work done...and I am still not finished.  I am still procrastinating.  

Everyone procrastinates.  We put off things because we don't want to do them, or because we may have too many other things on our plate. Putting things off is part of being human. It may simply be a matter of poor time management.  Typically, procrastination is not viewed as a problem unless it disrupts some area of a person's life.  Do you have something important that remains unfinished?

"A wise person does at once, what a fool does last; both do the same thing, but only at different times."--Lord Acton

Now, let's see, I can always put this training off again...but that is what makes the difference between the fool and the wise person because each time I put it off, the next one gets further and further away.  The one I so deviously talked myself out of had a bus that dropped you off right in front of the building.  The one I am scheduled for today is quite a walk in the 90 degree temperature...and the next one coming up is way up in the Bronx...over an hour train ride away.  So, let's see...will I be a wise person or a fool?  

Weekly Rant

Morning everyone.  Well, I made my way to work today.  Don't think I mentioned it, but I just couldn't make it in yesterday.  Had the worst sleeping night ever, so when I climbed out of bed at 6 am, I climbed right back in and said "the heck with it."  Felt good having the day off, and I feel somewhat rejuvenated...at least rejuvenated enough for my weekly rant.


"Childhood is a short season."--Helen Hayes

So, why be in such a hurry for it to end?  When I was growing up, and people would remark that today's children were tomorrow's adult, tomorrow was a long way off.  When I hear it said today, it literally means 'tomorrow'.  I've been riding the subway in the morning with a woman and her daughter.  Now, if you take a good look at the daughter, you can see that she is about 12 years old...13 at the oldest...definitely not in high school.  I look, and I shake my head.  I was still playing with dolls and paper dolls at that age.  Yet, here is this 'child' dressed in a pair of fancy patent leather heeled boots (adult oriented), ultra short skirt, blouse, an armful of bracelets, rings on almost every finger; her hair is pinned up.  She wears eye shadow, tons of mascara, rouge, and lipstick.  Sadly, she is today's child.  And if you really take notice, you see that her mother is makeup free.  What is wrong with this picture?

"Childhood is short; maturity is forever." 

I remember becoming an adult, maturing, was not on my 'wish list' at 12 years old.  I enjoyed being a child.  I loved to play. And  boys?  Boys were for beating up. Yes, I was quite the tomboy.  If only....if only the youth of today would get it through their thick heads that maturity is forever.  You can never really go back.  Oh, you can keep your childhood memories in your heart...you can play...you can romp...swim...even get out your coloring book and crayons as I still do...In essence, you can do whatever a child can do...but you can never be 12 years old again.  So, for the youth of today....treasure this time of your life...because once it is gone...it is truly gone

"There is a garden in every childhood, and enchanted place where colors are brighter, the air softer, and the morning more fragrant than ever again."--Elizabeth Lawrence

Welcome June

(I wonder what it would be like to live in a world where it was always June.)--L.M. Montgomery

Good afternoon on this wonderful June day.  Hard to believe, isn't it?  Seems like Christmas and New Year's was yesterday.  Heck, I can't even remember my birthday; it went by so quickly.  

June is the sixth month of the year, and Spring will end and Summer will begin on or about the 21st.  June is named after the Roman Great Mother Goddess, Juno.  The full moon this month is called the Hot or Strawberry Moon.  June is known as the 'door of the year', the pathway to the inner realms.  The Rune Dag which rules the middle of the month is the Rune of opening, representing the door that excludes bad things and admits only that which is beneficial.  The Celtic tree Calendar month of the Hawthorn will end on the 9th and be followed on the 10th by the Oak Moon...which, by the way, also stands for Duir...opening to let the sun shine in. This is the month of the rose.  The precious stone of the month is the agate.

"O, day after day, we can't help growing older,

Year after year Spring can't help seeming younger,

Come, let's enjoy our wine cup today,

Nor pity the flowers fallen."

--Wang Wie "On Parting With Spring."

Ah, so many special memories...Back when I was growing up, summer recess usually began about June 4th or 5th...pretty early in the month.  And, even though we said good-bye to our classmates, it wasn't really a good-bye. We'd be seeing them throughout the summer.  School itself was so different back then.  I remember I went to this little house for kindergarten, then the following year, the grammar school on Canfield Avenue in Mine Hill.  There was no such thing as 'middle school'.  We went to grammar school right on up to the 8th grade when we graduated and moved onto the high school.  And, all through grammer school, we stayed with the same classmates.  I came from a small town to there were actually only two of each grade.

So, when summer recess began at 3 pm for that's when the day was over, (we went to school a full day, not this part-time stuff of today), we said our good-byes and walked gleefully down the mountain.  Oh, we could have taken the bus, but, hey, to us it was the beginning of summer.  And, oh, there was so much to look forward to...unlike today's youth who stay locked in front of the television or their computers.  We had FUN things to do....bike riding from morning til night, camping out in the backyard, Bertrand Island Park on the weekends, an amusement park long since gone, but so many wondrous memories.  Mom and dad both worked so I was left with lunch money...and each day I would have a meatball hero from the corner store...It was by far the best I have ever eaten, and to this day, I try to get my meatballs to taste like theirs, but, alas, there is always something missing.

Then, there was swimming at the lake.  Gosh, what fun.  It's always been strange with me and the water.  I can swim, but as soon as I know the water is over my head, I sink.  So, one day I got tired of going to the small raft and wanted to join my friends who went to the big raft...where the water was over your head...so I used my inner tube and swam on over there.  Well, once on the raft, I began pretty brave and decided that, if I was going to be like the others, it would be all the way or not at all...so I jumped...without my tube...and I went down...and down...and down...and for the first and only time in my life, I realized what true fear was. Eventually, I did rise to the top, but even at that young age, I was already my independent self and refused to ask for help.  I remember clearly how I was sure I was going to drown as I swam towards the shore...and instead of getting closer, it felt like it was getting farther and farther away.  I'll tell you one thing, it's the last time I did anything like that.

So, with the month of June upon us, I take this time to celebrate summer's past and present...the season of the light.  May we once again experience that special joy we felt as children as we usher in the new season. Happy memories!!!!