Do you remember being a kid and playing outside until dark all summer long. We drank out of a hose, ate fruit off the ground, and off the trees. We laid under the stars at night just watching for a shooting star so we could make a wish?
We even watched the clouds and tried to find shapes we recognized. That’s called pareidolia, and I still look for shapes in everything. Roots from the trees sometimes have the most interesting shapes.
We walked all over the place with friends, and many times we were alone. We even rode our bikes everywhere, probably to places that if our parents knew they would be shocked!
Did you ever do any of these things? How did we survive childhood? How did you survive?
Today it isn’t safe for the kids to do any of these things. Why is drinking from a faucet so bad now, and wasn’t in the olden days? We clearly have more people, more traffic, more congestion….and even more germs!
We sure are living in an interesting age. One where there are more cars and more grumpy people trying to get to their destinations. With all that comes road rage, people pushing their way around. Neglecting to be courteous on the road. How about the people that push their way around with shopping carts in the grocery stores? Ignoring children patiently waiting to get to the front of the line to pay for something they have saved up for? I’ve witnessed so many people shoving aside a child in line so they could be first.
Suffice to say, a perfect world would be less traffic, more space, more parks and trees, and more people to be positive regardless of their surroundings. Wouldn’t all that be nice?
We need to start a Happy Movement! That’s right, we all need to be more courteous, more forgiving, and definitely more Kind! Smile at strangers, help one another, maybe if one person is kind to someone, that someone will be kind to someone else. Maybe kindness will spread…. We can only hope!
Maybe I’m ranting, and just maybe I’m fed up with all the angry people that want everyone else to be angry too! I’m not angry, I’m always happy and I love people. Even the grumpiest person can find a bit of happiness in themselves. Sometimes they just need to be reminded.
I could go on and on, but that isn’t healthy either. I want to stay healthy by not buying into the grumpy hole.
Thank you for reading my post, be positive and live longer.
Do you ever have an off day? A day that for whatever reason doesn’t go smoothly. No matter what you do, try as you may, nothing goes right.
Well, that kind of a day makes you want to go back to bed….for the rest of the day. Am I right? A wasted day without a solution, or any hope. It sounds so grim, but I have a solution for those ugly days!
Cookies, any kind of cookie will do. I say go back to bed with a large box of yummy cookies of your choice. You also must grab a cup of tea or coffee to wash down the crumbs just in case there are crumbs.
There isn’t anyone in your household that will understand, not even the dog or cat. But who cares, it’s your Personal Day for care and recuperation.
You may feel guilty, but don’t. Ask yourself how many times you have put someone else first and yourself last. You deserve it.
You could also send yourself flowers….just because you deserve it! Who else will?
Well, I appreciate you reading my blog, and putting up with my silliness.
Take good care of yourself, I’ll see you soon. Karen
We’ve all had dreams of being on a tropical island while Pepe the Cabana boy waits on us hand and foot! But what if we really were stranded on an island, and without Pepe, what would you need to survive?
It might be a far stretch to think you’d be comfortable, however your resourcefulness would be a determining factor on this adventure. Maybe you have a friend with you…that would be fortunate. Someone that could take care of everything you couldn’t. And, you could do the chores that they were unable to. A division of necessities!
What would be the essentials you might just happen to have with you that would help surviving be just a little more comfortable. Maybe how you got there would be a factor. What could you salvage, presuming your boat ran aground, or drifted off course….Or maybe, an emergency (soft) landing on the sand was necessary, and unplanned!
What would you do for food and shelter? We are going to say, this adventure would be on a tropical island, with lots of fruit dripping from the trees. Then food clearly wouldn’t be an issue, but what about water? With all the lush fruit, there must be a water source. But where?
This is where your resourcefulness comes in. Remember when you were a child, and you had a very active imagination? Pretend you were once again playing with your friends in a big wooded back yard. Your imagination soared, and you could come up with all kinds of things to do, and games to play. This is the time you need to pretend you were that age again, and find water, food, and something to build shelter out of. Shelter might be the easiest thing to do. What would you need to do all this?
There are things to be salvaged from a boat or plane. Maybe pillows or a blanket or two. There could be all kinds of things to salvage that had never occurred to you as being of necessity. But then you’ve never been stranded on an island before.
Ok, so a knife, preferably a big knife, or a machete. That would come in handy cutting fruit off trees, and cutting palm fronds to make a shelter. It would probably take a bit of time to get organized and put all that together, but once you did…just think of how good you would feel to have accomplished shelter for yourself. Maybe while you were at it, before you collapsed out of exhaustion, to help your friend put together their shelter as well.
If I were doing this today, it would take me years to accomplish. But remember this is fantasy! And both or all of you will have enough energy to face each day, harvest food, make a shelter, and, still look for water.
While thinking about this, never go into the jungle alone! Mother was right, always use the buddy system. “Safety comes in numbers,” Mother would say, and I now believe Mother was right. This trip is not for sissies, and we are all bad ass women, but safety really does come in numbers.
Just about the time you’re about to give up, you hear something. It sounds to me like a waterfall, or running water. Thank heavens, water! Did you find anything to put fresh, clear, cool water into? It might be a good idea to keep something with you to keep water in should you actually find clean water to drink. So that’s another thing we will most definitely need….a container to keep fresh water in.
The last two depend on how resourceful we can all be. What can you salvage? Think about the possibilities, think of your younger self, and how you use to play for hours on end just being a kid! Playing in a total fantasy. Kids are good at this, and I remember spending hours just playing with my sister in our huge back yard. We were always pretending we were in a jungle with wild animals lurking behind the big trees. We were clever though, we were never eaten or even attacked!
I’d say rope or at the very least string would be helpful to tie together the palms for our shelters. With enough fronds we might even be able to make sides for our shelters.
Has anyone found a radio, or a phone that might be of help getting us off this island? That too would be a huge help. It’s possible at the moment we have not been labeled as missing!
Sooner or later it would dawn on us that being able to catch fish to eat would increase our choices for food. So a pin, or paperclip, even a fish hook might help with a string tied to a pole so you could fish, that would help! None of this would be easy, survival isn’t easy. It’s stressful, and scary, but I have no doubt that each and every one of you if challenged with a survival situation would be able to survive. You’d have your moments, but it would pass, and soon you’d pull your big girl panties up, and get it done! Yes! Each and every one of you!
Before you get rescued, and you will get rescued, you will have pulled it all together, and set up a fairly decent, and comfortable camp.. It might take a few weeks to be found, but you will be found.
When the whole thing is over there will be dozens of opportunities for talk shows, and news hours will want to interview you to find out how you did it. You might even be offered a book deal. How cool would that be. It all sounds overwhelming, but again I promise you it can be done,…..by you! It could help to get your friend or friends together and write a book together. Collaborate on a book, make it fun instead of reliving a nightmare.
I thank you for coming along on this fantasy journey. Just remember, you can do anything even at our ages. Hugs to all of you, Karen
Why are we afraid to age? Is it the perceived lack of mobility, or having our drivers license taken away, the fear of being sent off to “Shady Pines,” or fear of the unknown?
For me, I’m not afraid of the unknown, but I don’t want to be sent off to Shady Pines either. My license, well I’m sure I won’t like not being independent any more than anyone else, but I certainly don’t want to run my car into the side of a building like you hear on the news that some geezer did either. So, I’ve told all my kids (all means 3) that if they see me do anything that is dangerous, please tell me. They all watch me like a hawk!
But I think the worst thing is that we can worry so much about getting old, and how much time we might or might not have left, that we miss the sweet moments we need to pay attention to. Yes there are moments, but we need to look for them, and appreciate the small little things that are all around us. Sure it’s easy to focus on the negative, but what about the positive? That’s what we need to pay attention to.
Life isn’t always kind, and many of us have had very real disappointments, and losses, that won’t ever change. Life can be cruel, but we don’t have to let the cruelty take over our lives. Loss is real, and heartbreaking, but we are still here and alive. Not one of the loved ones we have lost would want us to grieve, and suffer forever.
I have learned not to look back, unless the tales of the past will help someone. Do not worry about the future, because inevitably it will change, and you will have given all your energy to something that won’t ever happen. Live life in the moment, enjoy what you have and not what you have not!
Life will be so much sweeter that way. That doesn’t mean you forget the past, you have just chosen to not let it define you. That doesn’t mean you aren’t aware of the future either, it just means you are aware that all things can change, and it isn’t worth wasting time and energy on things that change, and you don’t have control of.
You are all part of my tribe, and I wish for all of you a healthy, happy, and fulfilled life. Thank you for taking time to read my blog. Remember we need to stick together for the love we share, and the support we can give one another. Until next time, Karen
Shortly after we returned home from the hospital, my mother decided to pack me up into the large black English Carriage, and walk into Detroit. Now I haven’t any idea how far that might have been, but it couldn’t have been far for mother to have taken on that day trip on foot. This proud new mother was headed to J.L.Hudsons, a very large and prominent department store of its time, and she was headed there specifically to find her new baby daughter (me), a teddy bear. It’s hard to believe I didn’t already have a teddy Bear, but I guess it just wasn’t the bear she thought I should have as a best friend! Turned out Mother was right!
As the story goes….
Can you even imagine pushing this large black English perambulator into a department store? Can you just see things go flying left, and right as the carriage bumped into racks, and displays? Mother would never admit to any of this, and maybe it never happened, but it’s difficult to believe anyone would be able to negotiate any department store with a carriage this large without incident!
Anyway, that day I was an angel of course, and we went straight up to the toy department. Mother searched for the teddy bear section, scrutinizing each and every bear with very careful eyes. She showed me dozens of bears without any redaction from me at all. So on to the next…..Pink, brown, gray, multicolored bears were shown to me. Mother waited for a reaction, and when I didn’t respond it would very gently go back into its own little pile, and we’d be on to the next bear. Finally, we were about to run out of bears when mother picked up the most gorgeous of bears.
Teddy as I later named him, was the best teddy bear any little girl could have. He was about 18″ tall, his arms, and legs were sewn so he moved freely. His ears were floppy, and they moved freely also. Maybe he wasn’t as floppy as he is now…kind of the opposite of me. I started out floppy, and now I’m stiffening up! But we’re still great friends, he’s been with me my entire life through all those moves, marriages, kids, and surgeries. Oh, I don’t take him to the hospital, but he’s with me anyway. Teddy is all wrapped up, and put away, but he still is dressed in diapers, and a one-sy just like he was when I was little.
You can’t have a friend more dedicated than that, can you? Daisy our dog is pretty dedicated to me, butTeddy is my very, very, very best friend!
Old as Dirt and Proud of it! 
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