 This blog has helped make me feel like a citizen of the world in many ways. Having people visiting from all over the world is something that fills me with awe. I read a number of blogs and I normally do not spend a lot of time wondering where the blog originates. Maybe I would be surprised if I knew where some of the blogs I read are from.
This list may not describe where you are exactly, but it is as precise as the company that I pay to host my blog chooses to be. If you are not from one of the places listed, drop me an email of where you are, and I will either edit this post with your country, or place it as a comment.
This is my big thank you no matter where you live, taking the time to read what I write, and learning what I enjoy and think. Thank you for returning too.
In the order my web host lists visitors:
US Commercial (.com), Network (.net), Unresolved/unknown, US Educational (.edu), Turkey, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Old Style Arpanet (arpa), Canada, Indonesia, Brazil, Argentina, South Africa, Belgium, Sweden, Poland, Russian Federation, Australia, India, Ukraine, Mexico, Singapore, Finland, New Zealand (Aotearoa), US Military, Hungary, Lithuania, Seychelles.
This is quite a list! I am always surprised with how many people know English as a second language. There are so many of you who are way ahead of my language learning ability. I have a tough time with English as a first language, speak Spanish like a two year old on a bad hair day, and can carry on very simple written conversations in one or two languages from Europe.
Beyond that, I do not seem to have an ear for languages other than listening to the music in them. For musical Languages, Farsi is the prettiest language I have heard. No idea what is said, but the way the language flows is pretty.
I know like me, your time is important, so once again I want to say thank you for stopping by, and thank you for hanging around. I write what I write because I went a long time fighting with my life, and learned how to be happier.
I hope what I write helps everyone enjoy their life more with less pain in the process. When I think of all the people like you from all over the world reading my blog, I am humbled. My grammar and wording is not all it could be, so I know you are not here to learn good English grammar skills but rather because I offer something that helps you in some way.
For the last time for now, thank you again for taking time to stop by. Blogging my thoughts is one way for me to do some small thing for others. Big thing happen in small steps.
When the economy is good we never think about having a plan B for our income source. We never think about taking college level classes, starting a new job in a new field, or doing something that fits our interests and talents. We go to work, and we do our little job. Some days some of us find great satisfaction in doing our job whatever that is.
When the economy is unhealthy, as it is right now, we start reaching for straws. Suddenly whatever plan B we have, if we have any, does not look too promising. Our current job suddenly increases in value both internally and externally for us. It becomes enjoyable to get out of bed in the morning and have a job to go to. We may realize that we enjoy parts of our job, but we were so busy complaining, and/or thinking how unsatisfied we are to realize just how much our little job means to us.
As time goes on our little job has lost its luster, and soon our little job is back to being as bad as it ever was. Once again we are dissatisfied with what we are ‘forced’ to do for a living. We are starting to dislike getting out of bed in the morning, and heading off to work. We do not care all that much for what we do, and we think about doing something different.
Those key elements that make our work or our job so important in the present moment with a bad economy were also present when the economy was good. I do not think it is that hard to find satisfaction in our present job – if we are lucky enough to have a job right now. I do not think it was too hard to find satisfaction in our work before the economy took a nosedive.
Whatever we do for a living is called work. Work by definition means physical or mental effort in order to achieve a purpose or result. It does not mean we enjoy every moment of our day. The idea that we enjoy even a part of our work is something to be thankful for.
 We need to look back to the day we were hired. What made us excited to be working at the job we now have? What feelings were present which we killed off, or allowed others to kill off in us? What extrinsic things is our work doing for us? Is it paying for our home, and car, and the food we eat? Does our work allow our children to be in college, either presently or someday?
Every emotion that was present when we found out we are going to be at what will became our job, whether external or internal to us, are reasons we need to be mindful each morning the alarm clock goes off. The mere fact that we hear an alarm clock in the morning is a luxury. Everything our work provides for us, after the shutting off our alarm clock continues through the day and into the night. Bring them back into your life, and reflect on them daily.
Make your job meaningful once again, which is the least it deserves if consider the alternatives. Take a quick check of your situation. If there was better work out there for you to to do, you would already be doing it. Because you are not doing something different than the work you have, it probably does not exist. Or possibly or you are satisfied with your work.
Look at yourself in the mirror and see look at your clothes, you earned them with your job. Your first meal, no matter how simple or elegant was paid for with money from your job. Look at everything in your life that costs money, your job paid for it. Take a little pride in your job, it is the only job you have. Treat your work with respect, whatever it is. Everything you have is likely a result of your job. Be proud of your work, and it will give you many more returns.
I had the pleasure of giving out some candy again this Halloween. As I remembered the people who one way or another put up with me as a “Trick or Treater’, I am blessed to be able to give out candy to the kids who choose to show up at my door step.
When I was young we did things a little differently. We carried fire crackers, soap, and wax, and eggs with us. It would be a bad time for anyone who did not give us what we thought was our rightful share of candy. Houses were egged, or toilet papered, windows were soaped or waxed, and occasionally a fire cracker was dropped inside the entry way.
Perhaps I did not run with the best crowd on Halloween, but that is how it was where I lived as a child. Some adults were just as bad. They would go out of their way to terrify children who dared come to their door. This year was amazingly different.
It started with an almost two year old in a fluffy golden suit, sort of like a snow suit with a fluffy golden hood with ears. Next to him was a little boy of about four. The little boy told me, “I am a scarecrow”. I had noticed he did look a lot like Scarecrow from “The Wizard of Oz”, but how could he know about that movie.
He repeated that he was a scarecrow. I replied, “Yes, and a fine looking scarecrow too!” He was not put off by me. He is a Lion pointing at the littler boy. “Oh, I see that now, and he is a fine Lion”, I replied. Then a little girl stepped out from behind them, and the little boy said, “And this is Dorothy”. It became clear to me, they did know about the Wizard of Oz – which happens to be one of my favorite all time movies.
I told them they looked very nice, and someone worked very hard on their costumes. From farther back, the Father and Mother stepped forward, and I repeated to them what I said. The Father said something agreeable, and the Mom smiled and beamed with happiness. They too were in costume. I asked if they wanted some candy too, and they politely declined.
Their visit and the time they took be sociable filled me with warm fuzzie’s, and I thought what a wonderful family, how creative, thoughtful, and how polite, letting whoever answered the door to be a part of their family, if only for a moment or two.
I was even more taken back as older kids without parents showed up for candy. Thank you sir, have a nice Halloween sir. Good evening sir, thank you for the candy. Even two older girls who looked a little risqué, thanked me for the candy, wished me a good night, and a happy Halloween.
What I experienced this Halloween led me to thinking; perhaps my generation has done some good in the world after all. I also realized I felt grateful for such a magical time, and on one of my favorite nights of the year! I almost felt guilty for the way my friends and I were all those years ago, almost….
I want to take time to write about being grateful for everything going on in my life. I am usually grateful for every day that comes along, but verbalizing feelings is something special.
I am grateful for the way I have come to view my work. My job is not that important in the larger scheme of life, but I feel good leaving most days, knowing that I did the best I could. I believe the world will be a better place for what I accomplish each day I work. It took years to arrive at a place of being happy to do my little job every day.
I am grateful for those of you in food service who make my life better. When I buy a cup of coffee, or something to eat, we both are in a unique relationship for those minutes we interact. I appreciate your taking care of me the best you can. Some of you are very good at what you do, and I think it makes my coffee, or meal taste much better because you are happy doing what you do.
I am grateful the new bean and chili crop is here. Living in New Mexico means beans and chili are a staple food. In a few weeks the apple orchards will be harvesting their crop, and I will also have fresh apples to eat.
I am grateful to the folks who make my blog possible. The last programming I was any good at was basic on Radio Shack and Commodore computers. If I had to design my own blogging platform, and themes, I would not be writing this now. I would have given up in frustration. At times as I am update my blog, I think about how creative and talented you coding artists are.
I am grateful that you are taking the time to read what I write. I hope something I write either helps make your life better, gives you a knew perspective, or brings a smile to your face for a moment or two. I know your time is precious, and I try not to waste it by filling space with words. Thank you for your time spent reading. Thank you for sharing what read with your friends, I hope they enjoy it too.
Other posts of possible interest:
Grateful for a bowl oatmeal with coffee or tea
Thank you for reading!
Some nights like tonight, when things are quiet, and the music is just right, I can feel my end approaching. I know it will be tomorrow when my world will be changed forever, and everything I know will be taken away. Strangers will be my family, and if I have any mind left, I will live in a world where none can enter.
A world of memories returning. Thinking thoughts I haven’t thought in decades. Old friends and family members I have all but forgotten will become my closest companions. If my body is wasting away in a corner, or perhaps a bed, waiting for me end, my memories will help comfort me.
If I am very lucky, I will go to bed one night, lay down, turn out the light, think about those most important to me and how much they mean to me, how perfect the world is, and go to sleep. Never to waken again. Someone will find what is left of me, and go through the motions that we go through at times such as those, but my race will have been run.
I can not be sad about it, I have spent my life knowing death waits with me, marking time behind me, over my left shoulder. I am grateful for this knowledge. Death has been my councilor and guide for many years, and there is nothing to fear in death for me. Whenever I question what I should be doing, all I have to do is look over my shoulder, and I see that little swish, the flash of what is visible changing into what is not.
I make my best decisions at that moment. Decisions are easy to make in that instant, because everything I have done up until that moment is weighed, and my path is laid out before me. I can move forward confident that the path I take is the correct path. Consulting death brings me calm, knowing what is important and what is not.
Life is what is important. Making decisions that benefit others without impairing or causing harm to myself is important. My life is my most important possession. Something I do not own, and have so little control over is the most important thing in the world to me. Without my life, I can not do those things I must do. I am not even a spec of dust in a sunbeam.
So when the music, darkness, and my thoughts are aligned, I can feel death behind me, marking time. I know my time is not this instant. I also know that I can not waste what little time I have. Time is too precious, and there is too much to do.
When you look at me, and it looks like I am doing nothing, wasting my time, remember that wasting time is not something I do. I may be resting, or collecting my thoughts. I may even be consulting my final end, to determine how whatever weighs me down at the moment ranks in importance to my final end.
Even if I am lounging about, taking naps between sips of now cold tea, know that I have received my guidance from an honest source. Even now as I type this and listen to the music dancing through the air, I know this is exactly what I should be doing. I also know that when I am done with this task my most important tasks of today are almost done.
The dishes did not get washed, the grass and weeds did not get cut, and dinner did not get cooked. But none of that is important when weighed against those things I did that really matter. If tomorrow I do not wake, I will have passed over knowing that I took care of those most important things in my life with all the thought and care and attention to detail that I was capable of. If I do wake up in the morning, it will be a wonderful day, because I will already know those things which are most important and which things do not matter.
Stepping away from myself, these are the things I wish for you too. It is my desire that you too finish each day knowing that if you do not wake in the morning you have completed those things which mattered the most in your life. If you do wake in the morning, I pray you know what matters most, and what is idle distraction at best. Unfortunately, and it makes me sad to write it, but your time too is short. Make the most of each minute, and when it looks like you are wasting time doing nothing, you and I will know the truth of your actions, and how well your time is spent doing what is most important in your life at that exact moment.
I was thinking of all the smaller things I am grateful for that are normally overlooked or ignored. So much of the time when reflecting on what is good in life we always tend to think of the big things, and the little things fall by the wayside. I thought this may be a good time to reflect on the small things that are as important as the big things. As a cook that taught me how to cook many years ago said, “The big things take care of themselves, we have to pay attention to the little things.”
I am grateful for my Dentist, and one other Dentist that proceeded him. As someone who spent more time in a dentist chair in school than most people do in their lifetime, I can say, my dentist is a great Dentist and, and a great person too. On one of the fingers of my right hand, I have a scar where a ‘dentist’ jammed the broken remains of a Novocain vial into my hand because he was angry. Most of the other dentist’s were not much better. The Dentist I see now is light years beyond them all!
I am grateful for my Doctor. He is not a pill pusher, and he actually listens to what I have to say and models whatever I need around me whenever possible. I know many people have doctors who hand out pills like they were candy, but that is not medicine to me, that is hiding problems. There was a doctor I had to see due to my job who wanted to do a prostrate check on every male patient he saw. Doctors like him used to be the standard, little knowledge and little caring.
I am grateful for the mechanics that work on my car. The job has become so specialized tool equipment wise, that the days of shade tree mechanics are about gone. Over the years I have listened to and watched customers be taken advantage of by mechanics. It is a sad thing to see, the greed in the automotive repair business, I am grateful my mechanic is honest, and recommends used parts whenever possible.
I am grateful I was given the opportunity to travel around the country and see some of the world when I was younger and mostly single. There is nothing like going to another country and actually living in it. Understanding peoples lives in that area of their country to help me appreciate how good life is here. We want for little that we need, and for almost all of us, we live much richer lives than we need to. This kind of life is not possible for most people in some other countries, even those countries we see as aligned with us.
I am grateful for the person delivering my mail, and the person picking up my trash. They do excellent jobs, and are rarely if ever recognized in their line of work by their customers. I have never delivered mail, but I have family members who did. Often they were out in the worst of weather, working like dogs in the Christmas seasons, and generally working harder than most of us on most days. I had been a garbage man for a short stint, and it is a hard nasty filthy job when dumping cans by hand. When trash is picked up by one person and a truck, it becomes a job something like the person delivering the mail. So much work, and sometimes not enough time.
Finally, I am grateful for the wonderful people that check me out at grocery stores. They stand in one spot all day, talking to hundreds of people a day…and most of those people are complaining. They listen to complaints about the store, or the prices, or the parking. When it is not complaints about the store, it is about something that they have no control over, the traffic, someone’s neighbors, kids, dogs, on, and on, and on. I think these people should be paid by the minute for listening to complaints.
My list of things I am grateful for goes on and on too, but I think I have mentioned enough big small things I am grateful for this week.
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