The Garden Dawdler 3/26/23 -My Dog Has No Nose Hair

Rory’s asked us quite an assortment of questions.

Is the WHY to everything important?

It’s the most important one IMHO. But it’s the hardest one to answer.
When you consider that as the most frequently asked question by little kids, there’s obviously an innate need for us to ask it.
For people who retain the child’s inquisitive nature, it is THAT question that leads them to a belief in God. There’s a point at which the exhaustive layers associated with “Why?” can’t be answered any other way.

What would you list as your Top Five Fun Things?

Number One is to laugh, and number two, is to make others laugh.
There’s almost always a humorous thread to be found in most topics. It’s not that a topic isn’t serious or sad, it’s that the human element involved is , itself, almost always comical. I took an English class in High School with a unit on comedy. The most profound idea that I came away with was the knowledge of the thin line between comedy and tragedy.
If you are old enough to remember the “Chuckles the Clown” episode of the Mary Tyler Moore Show, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Here’s a clip but I’d recommend looking up the whole episode:

As for my number 3,4, and 5 favorite fun things they are;
3. Hanging out with kids.
4. Being around animals.
5. Doing something creative. (gardening, painting, writing, etc.)

Should we care about the dreams of others or only our own?

Our own dreams are the only ones meant for us to interpret but hearing about other people’s dreams is interesting. As an outside observer, we can sometimes help them to interpret them.

How well do you deal with criticism from others?
I do very well. I basically don’t care what others think. I love hearing “why?” others think certain things, though. There’s a lot of knowledge to be gained from that.

Do you say YES or NO more often, and which is it?

I’m notorious for always saying “yes”. Once while I was associated with a childcare center, the group who bought gag gifts for us at Christmas, found a book for me about 1001 ways to say “Yes” because I so rarely refuse anyone who asks for help.

What is nose hair for?

I can’t say for sure other than some kind of a filter for catching impurities BUT this question inspired me to examine my dog’s nose. What the heck? She has no visible nose hair. Ugh! Now I’m bound to explore this question more. Thanks for nothing. This is worse than an earworm. LOL

What is the funniest comment you have ever received?

Well, there are SO many, but my day care kids offered many off them. In order to be brief, here’s a cute one:

I was teasing a 4-year-old about the rivalry between our favorite football teams. I told him one Monday, “Sorry about my Giants kicking your Patriots’ butts on TV yesterday.” and his immediate response was, ” At MY house, on My TV, the Patriots won.”

Novels or Netflix?

I don’t very often (maybe 5 times) watch Netflix. So, I say “novels.” even though I enjoy a good movie now and then on TV or on an old VHS tape.

Do good things come to those who wait?

Yes, most definitely. I could go on and on about the lack of any ability to “delay gratification” in today’s society! It is actually the main ingredient in most of our current troubles, some of which are: debt, drug use, unwanted pregnancies, and jumping from one job to another.
Waiting and working for things gives all people a sense of purpose and satisfaction like no other.
And… if you’re a gardener, you already know that because gardening requires a belief in ‘tomorrow’.

Morning Dawdler 3/17/23 Looking for Miracles

Rory asked these questions a day ago. It seemed a fun place to start the day.



Do you think being outside is good for a person’s wellbeing?

It is absolutely essential. When I’m outside, all my problems seem smaller. The immense beauty and expansive wonder of Nature (something I cannot fully explain) speaks to me. There are forces so much bigger than I. My favorite personal explanation is “It’s a place where I feel comfortably insignificant.”
Once when my granddaughter, at about 8 years old, was having a ‘meltdown’, my cure for it was asking her to go and sit outdoors. It worked. It always works.
I don’t consider it a distraction, but rather a reconnection.

How much of a sensation seeker are you?

This is a good one. I am a bit of a daredevil. But the path I take is usually testing my own limits. As an “eyes wide open” person when it comes to assessing physical danger, I don’t as often take safety risks as I test the “rules”. I think most rules are arbitrary nonsense. Remember the 6-foot distancing during the pandemic? Yeah…that one was actually an IQ test and most people were sadly scoring in the double digits. lol 😉

Do you believe in blind luck?

No. Since I decided to center my life around gratitude it has been even more beautiful. And to feel gratitude, one needs someone or something to thank. I am thankful to God for his grace and love. By finding that life direction which increases my perception of beauty and calm, I haven’t regretted the decision… and I truly don’t care what others think of it. Faith is absolutely a daily decision and no different from deciding what you’ll wear.
Since I’ve looked for miracles (I even did as a child), I’ve recognized SO much. It’s quite like the saying, “You can’t win the lottery if you don’t play.”

https://earthlycomforts.uk/2023/03/16/a-wild-aloha-to-you-27/

Unanswered Question: Why not spend more time teaching kids how to cope?

It appears to me that there’s a great amount energy spent trying to ‘cure’ the World of unpleasantness and ‘evil’. That’s quite a heavy task. It’s almost as absurd as humankind supposing they are empowered to “Save the Planet”, but I digress.
When I had a group of preschool kids in my home on a daily basis, the pleas for ‘justice’ and my intervention were sometimes incessant.
“Susan! He’s in MY spot!”
“Susan! She’s taking MY blocks!”
“Susan! He won’t stop looking at me! “…”Susan! Susan! Susan!”
My approach to those complaints was to offer them a self-initiated way to cope or compromise.

“Does that ‘spot’ have your name on it? Find another one.”
“If there aren’t enough blocks for you to work with, you can choose to come and draw for now, then I’ll give you time alone with all of them later.”
“You must be looking at him to know that. Stop looking at him.”

I pity the current kindergarten teachers. Kids, today, are routinely taught to lodge complaints rather than resolve their own problems. On top of that, mere irritations have now been given “problem” status. This is a sad situation for all involved. Many, many, people have opted to label themselves as victims, and few realize they have the ‘power’ (and responsibility) not to be one.

We can agree that many of us have been true victims of crimes, and wrongdoing, at no fault of our own. But by instructing kids to ask, “What might I do differently?” or “What may I have done to avoid that?”, I assure you the ‘victim’ statistics would be cut in half in no time. That would happily allow for more attention to ‘real’ victims too.

I’ve gotten a lot of push back and ridicule for asking people who are complaining about their problematic situation, “Could you have handled that better?” Those people ‘triggered’ by my question seem to think there’s a ‘side’ to be taken more than a ‘problem’ to solve. I suggest that the most prudent first step in solving all of our own problems is to ask questions of ourselves. Your problems don’t just belong to the world ‘at large’.

“But unkindness is BAD, and evil is destructive!” I totally agree. Yet I realistically understand the only power I have, when facing those things, is my own reaction and approach. Throughout life I’ve learned I’m a participant in ‘goings on’ not an irritated, aggrieved, observer. News Flash: Those “evil and unkind” dynamics of life aren’t going anywhere.

So why don’t we spend more time teaching kids how to cope? Complaining is an overall waste of time compared to taking a personal initiative.

To adults who were raised as individuals, the online ‘bullying plague’ could be solved by suggesting teens turn selected apps off, opt to “block” offensive content, or ‘unplug’ all together. Those options are readily available. The kids who feel that they ‘can’t possibly’ do that, have already IMHO shown they place a stunning level of importance on “What others think.” and those kids could have used more early intervention and instruction in “How to handle yourself safely and confidently in life.”

My final note is about the Big Picture of “individualism” versus “victimhood”. Free countries can only exist with one of those mindsets. I have no doubt that Marxism is currently winning the battle between those two.


The Sunday Dawdler 3-5-23 The Likeness of Souls

Rory asks more interesting questions of us today. I’m in …

Before I start, I want to express my delight in Rory’s use of snail images. This comes from an impactful book I read called, The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey. It remains a personal favorite for its beautiful investigation of an unseen and rarely explored part of our natural world. All you fellow “nature nuts” might enjoy it as much as I.

How long will you be remembered for once you are no more?

During an introspective investigation I had many years ago, I came to the conclusion that those who involve themselves with children have a subliminal interest in being remembered. I am delighted when I reconnect with adults who I knew as kids, and they share a memory of our time together. If they end up passing on ‘lessons learned’ from me to their own children, my impact ‘lives’ on…
Recently, at a ‘wake’ for a deceased former neighbor, I stood in line waiting for my turn to offer my condolences to her grown children. Each person ahead of me in turn embraced the family and tears flowed freely. When it was my turn, the eldest daughter smiled, and we hugged. She’d only been sobbing all the while I had waited. Her comment, accompanied by twinkling eyes, was that she and her siblings had just been reminiscing about making Christmas Cookie Houses with me. I added my own memories of Halloweens we had shared from our side-by-side front porches. The grins and giggles continued as I addressed her brother and younger sister down the line. My heart has yet to recover from that scene. Their smiling faces during that terribly sad gathering would have pleased their mother who was the reason for all of us being there.
I can’t imagine a better way to impact people while being remembered. ❤

Considering that only 5% of the world’s oceans have been explored and charted, what do you think lurks in our world’s hidden and unknown waters?

I really can’t imagine what we may find. From recent reports, there’s increasing evidence of “life” (even in bacterial form) being discovered in what scientists ‘assumed’ to be totally inhospitable conditions in our oceans. To quote Jurassic Park, “Life finds a way.”
That alone is a mind-blowing yet comforting truth.

Are soul mates a real thing?

I’ve never come fully to terms with what that phrase means. Does the “mates” part mean compatible ‘marriage’ partners?
I think, on the “soul” part of humans, IMHO …we are the most intrinsically compatible already. [I use the term “souls” a lot in posts for the ‘oneness’ it conveys.]
But as the term “soul mate” is commonly used to describe a higher level of ‘alikeness’ that we can find in a person, I’d say “yes”.
We can find people with strikingly similar appearances, and we can find people with similar temperaments, experiences, and viewpoints. I believe that mathematically there are simply a finite number of combinations of those physical, emotional, and external things, so near ‘matches’ happen. We who consider likeness-on any plane- a connection, have more ‘soul mates’ than others. 😉

https://earthlycomforts.uk/2023/03/05/a-wild-aloha-to-you-24/

Unanswered Question: May I have your attention on occasion?


This post was inspired by a comment that I made on another post. It was about my opinion that our media is complicit in a larger global campaign of stealing our freedoms and futures by promoting an almost daily “crisis” and/or a new focus of outrage. You can totally disagree with my assessment and still learn from this post, so I ask you to continue reading.
Let’s start with a cute childhood riddle.
“What’s worse than discovering a worm in your apple?”
“Discovering half of a worm in your apple, of course.”
This is funny and a perfect segway to my next question:
“What’s worse than being fooled?”
“Not knowing that you’ve been fooled, of course.”
If you’ve never watched the TV series called Brain Games, I excitedly suggest it to you. It explores the human brain’s limitations and strengths. It’s science, folks!
Many of you already know how frustrated I get when I’m shutout of a conversation. Some of you expect conversations to be a competition to conclude “Who is ‘right’?” and avoid them because who has time for ‘battles’ these days?
What if conversations were a means to gain knowledge and understanding? That’s how I ‘see’ them.

We are not physically nor mentally equipped to pay attention to more than one thing at a time. That’s a fact. Multi-tasking is actually a state of busyness not a super-human mental ability. We may jump from one task to another with alacrity, but our efficiency suffers for it. Sorry for popping that bubble. 😉
So, what I am trying to point out is that no matter what YOU believe, you can be distracted and fooled by others who are able to get your attention. I certainly have been fooled and it not only ‘stinks’ it can be costly. The best attention getters are passionate or fear-based media reports. We’re wired to protect ourselves and preserve our values so, of course, we ‘drop’ everything else we could be paying attention to, in favor of self-preservation.
If we’re ‘busy’ in this fast-paced world, the available amount of our attention beyond our tasks is limited.
Do you know people who just read headlines and/or listen to media ‘warnings’ and leave that ‘ugly’ topic of “politics” to the zealots? I do. I can’t blame them. What bothers me is that they are being ‘played’ by censorship and misdirection when they do.
But, lucky for us there are retired, thoughtful, concerned, citizens who DO pay attention because it’s our “politics” that, whether we like it or not, directly affect our prosperity, freedom, and futures.
So, I ask, “May I have your attention on occasion?”
That request comes with no expectation of agreement or argument. It is a matter of “food for thought” in a busy world.
Below is a segment from Brain Games that may ‘open your eyes’ to how easily we can be fooled (and robbed) when our attention is diverted… many times it’s diverted for unseemly purposes. [In my humble opinion, our language, institutions, and futures are being ‘pick pocketed’ and twisted, while we’re being told in the media that we are each other’s adversaries by calling us racist, unkind, and uncaring, according to our political positions. We’re better than that. 😉 ]
We’re all in this together, friends!

Unanswered Question: Can’t we all admit that we’re silly?

I’ve had an ‘aftertaste’ that my recent posts were too repetitively ‘salty’. We all know too much of anything isn’t good for anyone. So, I decided to poke fun at myself and anyone else who may want to identify.

Gosh… there’s so much material.
My current most frequent ‘silly’ behavior is attempting to exit my car before I release the seatbelt. The gathering of my pocketbook, phone, and car keys, keeps jumping ahead of the basics. Every time I get that tug of “wait a minute pal” I start giggling. Then I spastically twist around trying not to put my ‘load’ down while gaining my freedom. In my head, that scene is hilarious.
Something I also do and immediately think, “DUH!” is stop at a railroad crossing with a single track, watch a train pass left to right, then proceed when the gates lift and look both ways before crossing. Um… a train could absolutely not be traveling right to left at that moment, silly.
How often we operate on what I call “autopilot” is something I find simultaneously frightening and comforting.
On occasion, I’ll drive a few miles (while in thought) and realize I have no visible memory of that part of my journey! My first instinct is to pull my truck over and slap myself. (I’ve yet to act on that one. lol) But not being fully aware of one’s surroundings is NOT a safe way to drive. It’s a “wake up” call when that happens.
Before you beautiful souls take up a collection for my incessant ‘thinking’ and do an intervention with “Overthinkers Anonymous”, I want you to know that my days hold a large amount of giggling precisely because of my affliction. It’s not all about “What ifs?”, it often times is “Look at that!” and takes on a humorous flavor actually more often than not. {I am a ‘silly frog’ don’t cha know.}

My granddaughter felt ill the other day and as she rushed to the bathroom to vomit, let’s say she ‘didn’t make it’. Knowing that ‘being sick’ is bad enough but being ill all over the back door is worse, I asked her what she’d had for lunch.
“Only a few blueberries and raspberries.” she gasped.
My answer was, “Wow! That’s what made this so colorful!”
Then we laughed together.

Yesterday, my mom sent me a photo of a quiche she had made labeled “Quiche Lorraine”. I responded with, “How were you able to tell it was a girl?”

You see? I’m able to annoy people with all kinds of questions and they don’t need to be the serious kind either.

Today, I would like to ask, “Can’t we all admit we’re silly?”
Incidentally, I don’t mind being ‘laughed at’. No one could do that more than I tend to do it to myself!

God bless.






Morning Dawdler 2/26/23 Know Yourself

Let’s see where the questions take us today.

Which behavioural trait describes you more – introvert, ambivert or extrovert?

How I describe myself is quite different from how others might describe me. I find that curious in itself. If you’re lucky enough to have a large dose of introspection, then IMHO you probably know yourself pretty well.
I have never heard of ‘ambivert’. Is that new? Sounds like one of those ‘I can’t decide’ places that seem to rule our conversations today. “Fence sitters” are IMHO just ‘hecklers’ in a world of people who dare to take a position on anything. I hope you know that “taking a position” isn’t a ‘forever’ deal. You can move when more information becomes available. But it certainly is a ‘boots on the ground’ thoughtful experience. To me, those who don’t want to ‘take a position’ are subliminally projecting that they really don’t want to examine that idea in any detail.
I believe that I am an “introvert”. My ‘happy place’ is exploring my own mind and experiences. I’m a wreck if I don’t get enough ‘alone time’. I seem to require more solitude than the people who I know personally. [I chose a ‘stay at home’ career. I think that speaks volumes.]
But I am outspoken and gregarious when around groups of people or blogging. How can I really be an introvert? Well, I believe that someone who feels that they know themselves, and their own intentions, tends to feel more comfortable in their ‘own skin‘. That can be either an ‘off-putting’ or a very ‘charming’ trait in mixed company. It is the epitome of self-confidence to feel comfortable with yourself which seems contrary to the ‘mousey’ loner stereotype usually attributed to being an ‘introvert’.

How often do you clear out free space on your phone, and how often does your storage space fill up? Also, how many apps do you have that you use daily?

I only have a few apps that I use daily. I don’t care to count them. Why would that be important?
As for keeping my phone organized and storage space open, I’m a highly functioning ‘clutter bug’ in all parts of my day. LOL
Procrastination looms large in my life. It works out for me too many times.
After describing myself as someone who spends a lot of time thinking, I hope you can see how the clutter completes and even augments that place. 😉

Are you easily annoyed, and your temper continually snaps? If so, what irks you the most, or are you the calm one who only blows occasionally?

Beware of those calm ones! If they blow, it’s going to be BIG! LOL
I’m not inhuman. I probably feel waves of frustration and irritation as often as ‘hot heads’. What’s different with me (and keeping with a developing theme) is that I choose not to ‘give in’ to those feelings. I think losing one’s cool often makes a person appear immature and unhinged. As someone who wants to learn and think more than argue, exhibiting those traits would be conversation enders and therefore a real bummer. But like they say, “everyone has a price”, there are moments when I choose to ‘show ‘ my anger. You can bet that I have thought about, and can list, MY reasons for doing that too! LOL

https://earthlycomforts.uk/2023/02/26/a-wild-aloha-to-you-22/