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/

Six Sentence Story – High on Life

PROMPT WORD:  ZEST



They called her Exuberant Ellen.

“Wow! Cool!” was her ‘go to’ refrain.

She was equally zesty in sunshine as she was when she danced in the rain.

Fascination was her daily mindset.

Science always ‘blew her away’!

Using drugs just never occurred to her as she remains “high” on life to this day.



https://girlieontheedge1.wordpress.com/2023/03/01/its-thursdays-six-sentence-story-link-up-27/

Sunday Dawdle- 1/29/23 Who we are.

Rory, as usual, has offered a few interesting questions.



Should we fear the arrival of more progressive AI [Artificial Intelligence] or embrace it?

As with most things, cautious fascination is my default.
It’s the same way I approach thunderstorms.
They are wonderous, awe-inspiring, events but shouldn’t be met with careless disregard for their dangerous capability.
Given that…my worry mainly lies with the ‘all for profit’ type of human innovators who time-after-time throw caution to the wind.
A quote from Jurassic Park that fits this well is, “The scientists were so concerned with whether they COULD, they never asked if they SHOULD.”

How much time do you spend sitting each day?

Sometimes a lot (reading or blogging) and sometimes so little (from gardening or doing errands) that my body aches. I guess that balances out over time as a healthy lifestyle.

What is your proudest accomplishment?
[Having Children not included] 

Being an excellent childcare provider. I built a wonderful reputation and took my role of inspiring and teaching kids farther than what some might consider “babysitting”.
Kindergarten teachers approached me on a few occasions expressing how well prepared and skilled ‘my kids’ were and knowing new kids each September had spent their ‘tender years’ under my tutelage made them happy. Some family members of ‘my kids’ have also reached out to tell me how pleased they were by what they had noticed the kids had learned. That included manners, life-skills, and being curious.

Are/Were you the youngest, middle, oldest or only child?

I have been interested in ‘birth order’ theory for a long time. Some psychologists believe that one’s birth order plays a crucial role in each of our personalities. The little day care ‘families’ (keep in mind that many of the kids spent more wakeful hours with me than at home) that grew up in my care often scrambled that dynamic by placing ‘oldest’ children in a group where they were the ‘youngest’, and so on.
I was all in on “Birth Order Theory” at one time. And I DO think birth order plays a part in the rate at which kids mature. BUT, after years of my own curious study, I’m now convinced that most of our temperament and natural inclinations come from inborn tendencies. Our DNA has done much of the decision making. I could go on and on about my real-life observations, but I’ll spare you. LOL

I am the oldest child of three. I was also the oldest grandchild on BOTH sides. I got a slathering of attention for sure.



https://earthlycomforts.uk/2023/01/29/a-wild-aloha-to-you-8/

Reena’s Xploration Challenge #264- A Story of Arrogance Sponsored by Greed

Reena asks us a question this week:

Janus is the god of beginnings, gates, transitions, time, duality, doorways, passages, frames, and endings. He is usually depicted as having two faces. The month of January is named for Janus.

Source: Wikipedia

We counted backwards at midnight on 31st December 2022.

How should we go forward now? I need to know how many months, weeks, days I have to make my life or this world a better place to survive. I may not die at the end of this year, nor will the world end. But it will be criminal to lose time.

Or do you prefer going with the flow, and letting life unfold on its own?

I would love to see your take on this.

A Story of Arrogance Sponsored by Greed




Shelly was excited to get busy!
Her major in Earth Sciences had prepared her for a career in meteorology but her university experience had given her an unrequested minor in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
She was determined to make a BIG impact and “save the world”!

Immediately Shelly was inducted into a graduate program with a mission to ‘solve’ Climate Change. It was well funded by the U.S. government so Shelly knew her scientific energy wouldn’t have any barriers. She began at once.

The weather was after all primarily influenced by the winds, so she decided to chart all incidences of the doldrums-which was a name for the stagnating occurrence of a ‘pause’ in the flow of ocean winds. She felt that increases in that ‘pausing’ of wind currents was a crucial clue that could lead her to making an impactful discovery thus solving the Climate Change Crisis and saving the whole world.

Having spent the first morning in an induction mandatory “equity” training, she couldn’t wait to jump into her research!
But like an electric shock, her training’s ‘philosophy’ abruptly bumped up against her ‘scientific expertise’ and she almost lost her balance as she sank into a chair.

On one hand, she was supposed to make mankind ‘healthier’ by diligently working to produce equal human outcomes, but her wind flow studies clearly indicated that unequal forces were the basis for the wind which maintained nearly all of the Earth’s health.

Shelly felt numb but continued to examine that paradox. Was the DEI movement a cloaked, contradictory, cause with hidden motives? Why hadn’t she noticed that?!

Shelly paced while talking to herself.
“Diversity and equity can’t even occupy the same space much less the same cause! Either the mission is to embrace ‘differences’, or it’s seeking to produce ‘sameness’, it can’t possibly do both. Sameness is a ‘death sentence’ in Nature. I’m not sure human ‘sameness’ would automatically be good for the World.”

When she brought her confusion to the also well-funded DEI unit assigned to her program, she was told to never, ever, express her questions and concerns to anyone. The reason they bluntly PRIVATELY offered was, “We will most certainly lose our funding and YOU will lose your job!”

Shelly knew it would be “criminal to lose time in her pursuit of ‘saving the world’ ” but it now was crystal clear that that egotistical super-human activity shouldn’t have ever been her focus.

Feeling foolish and embarrassed, she handed in her job resignation the next day and decided to run for public office where she could have a better chance of saving her own community (perhaps her country) from being bamboozled into wasting valuable monetary resources on ‘pie in the sky’ goals. An arrogant human element was more immediately endangering everyone than Climate Change, and its name was GREED.




https://reinventionsreena.wordpress.com/2023/01/19/reenas-xploration-challenge-264/

Monday Peeve – TV Doctors

I try not to be a ‘complainer’. But I don’t believe complaining is bad as long as it’s not overdone. Paula’s Monday Peeve is always interesting. As my blog’s primary purpose is to serve as a future reference for my granddaughters, I think they ought to get a glimpse of things that ‘get under my skin’. What bothers us is a window into our views and values.

As I was reading Paula’s post, I was listening to TV. There was a popular doctor on talking about the pros and cons of the Covid shot. Fine advice when/if it can be ‘backed up’ with data. BUT there’s no doubt in my mind that much data is being collected with ANY efficiency.

The statements that really irk me are: “You won’t get as sick (as you would have) with Covid-19 if you’ve been vaccinated.” and “You’re less likely to be placed on a ventilator too.” [In medicine, every person’s case has many other variables!]

<WHAT A CROCK>

I have firsthand knowledge about the ‘helter skelter’ data collection on this virus. I personally know people who were ill and never actually ‘tested’ for Covid-19. Nobody to this day knows which variant they had because they weren’t tested, and also, no one used a “How sick are you?” meter, either. Who knows how or if those persons’ situations were reported? I hope you know that nobody is really interested in counting or compiling that kind of data.

So, any claim of “knowledge” by TV doctors, especially when it comes to guessing about what may happen or which variants are raging, is a fairy tale. They don’t even have a clear count on what has happened.

The claim that “you won’t get as sick if…” is pure fiction.

They should stick to warnings that they can back up like: “You won’t be a victim of shark attacks if you don’t swim in the ocean.” or “You’re far less likely to die from fentanyl poisoning if you don’t use medication that hasn’t been prescribed to you.”

The TV fortune telling, in the name of experts and science, ought to stop.


Prompt of the Week- Pumpkin Spiced Vaccine

Write a story or poem that includes the word ‘Pumpkin Spiced’.

I didn’t join the “vaccine” craze
Or trusting talking heads most days.
The endless pitch and bogus claims
Were clearly meant for dollar gains.
The tales of helping more than harm
By putting ‘stuff’ in every arm,
Selling fear to such extent,
I wondered where the ‘thinkers’ went?
Brightly wrapped or magic cures
Are a salesman’s perfect lures.
Now ‘science’ needs a fresh new look,
It’s found a cool new chichi ‘hook’.
This clever push of ‘shots’ sounds nice,
“Get yours now, they’re pumpkin spiced!”



https://ladyjabberwocky.com/2022/10/10/prompt-of-the-week-pumpkin-spiced-everything/