It may hit you in the middle of the night. Or perhaps you’ll get that sneaky feeling when you are washing the dishes, or watching your favorite TV show.
It is that unexplainable notion. That voice. The feeling in your gut. The insight.

Yes…. those times when a little birdie told you so.

It is such a beautiful part of our human nature….. The Intuitive Mind.

But often, it is the case…. that we do not listen to those nudges. Those prompts.

We explain it away. We make excuses. We bake the four and twenty blackbirds right in the pie.

I wish I had a better relationship with my intuition. I think it is a powerful part of our psyche.

But on occasion….. I won’t listen to it speak.  So.  It pecks me over and over again…. until I finally get the message.

Yep. I am very glad for the little bird that tells me so. I need all the help I can get.

“The only real valuable thing is intuition.” – Albert Einstein

“Intuition is a spiritual faculty and does not explain, but simply points the way.” – Florence Scovel Shinn

Today… I had nudges and some pats.   As such….. I was reminded of a plethora of things which I like about this thing we call living.
Dang it… who’s to say that loving bleu cheese and tuna fish is wrong. If it is so wrong… well…. I don’t want to be right.
And…. and…. I like the way Link sways back and forth when he plays the Ocarina. Or how about the way it smells just after you cut the grass.
There are a million little things I’m fond of… you see.

I was also reminded of a couple of big “for instances” of the thinks I love. I’ve mentioned it here before…. that I love rocks. I would live in Rock City… if I could. Or maybe Rock Bluff, , Rock Forest, Rock County, or Rock Wherever. It would…. pardon the analogy…..  but it would totally rock.

I was also reminded of how much I love my friends.   You see.  I have some good ones. (Thankfully…. from sea to shining sea.)

When I considered the two things… side by side… I saw the similarities. Friends are a lot like rocks, I think. Some of us prefer to call them Precious Gems…. the diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and garnets. But just as much, I like the amber, and amethyst, and quartz every bit as well.

Sure enough. Just like those rocks…. Friends are worth more than their weight in gold. And then some.
They glimmer. They shine. They come in beautiful, and glorious shapes, colors, and sizes. And if the light hits them exactly right… they sparkle like fire.   Ahhhh…. ever so breathtaking.   Friends are.
There are times when they are cut a certain way. But that does not create a flaw. Nope. It makes them stronger and more valuable. They are solid. They are durable. Long lasting. Precious. Wonderful friends.

My rocking friends.

Yep. I guess it is no wonder I love rocks.

“Each contact with a human being is so rare, so precious, one should preserve it.” – Anais Nin

The wind said to the tree….
I shall break you in two!
And the tree said….
I do not wish to break. I will either bend… or walk away.

And the tree picked up its roots…. and danced.

“Tolerance implies no lack of commitment to one’s own beliefs. Rather it condemns the oppression or persecution of others.”  – John F. Kennedy

There are so many amazing and grand things in the world.
Consider this short list.
There are Grand Slam Home Runs.
Grand Prix.
Pillsbury Grand Biscuits.
Grand Champions.
Grand Father Clocks.
Grand Poo Bahs.
Grand Canyons, Grand Larceny, Grand Juries, Grand Dams, Grand Pianos, Grand Rapids, and even Grand Totals.

But I think…. the most Incredibly Amazing and Grand of them all………
…

.. Are….
Grand Kids.

“The world is like a grand staircase, some are going up and some are going down.”  – Samuel Johnson

This web made me think about how things connect.

I think we are all born on the same playing field. Pretty much just innocent little babies… without an agenda, or even a clue.   But ….through a series of events and influences, we begin to find separations…. things which cause humans to disconnect. To be departed from one another.

We as humans ARE connected though. Our human bodies are just containers of energy.

Everything we know in this world is made up of energy.  So yes….  Ourselves included.

And if we desire any kind of a harmonious future… then somehow…. we must figure out a way to embrace each other. Yep. Find a way to embrace one another for the things that make us similar.

These days… nevertheless…. it seems like there is a lot which is dividing us. Most of this is probably the result of “buying in to” whatever “culture” we think is the ONLY right ONE.

But I don’t expect that anyone has ALL the answers. I just can’t imagine how incredible that understanding would be. Science thinks it has all the answers. Religion/Spirituality thinks it has all the answers.

I bet they BOTH have pieces that are right on the mark. I also bet they have pieces that aren’t quite right. Somewhere…. I bet… there is a balance. Without unity…. without this reconciliation…..no one will be able to see the big picture.

Perhaps… we should look for the beautiful, strong connections…. which brings us closer to one another.  Not further apart.

“We are more closely connected to the invisible than to the visible.” – Novalis

I am not a big fan of the cold winter months. I don’t have anything against the actual months… I just don’t like cold weather. Here’s the problem. I’m always cold.

However, this time of year brings about one of my favorite things. Sweatpants. You COULD wear them in the summer time, but then they really would be sweat pants.

Sweatpants are like comfort food. They just make you feel good. Comfortable.

But they would not be so comfy it it weren’t for all the elastic in them. I mean if they had buttons, and snaps, and zippers… they’d be all confining… and not so cozy any more. Elastic is the fairy dust… the golden egg… the magic wand of sweatpants.

We have Thomas Hancock to thank for elastic. He was an English inventor who founded the British rubber industry. He came up with a machine called The Masticator… which took rubber shreddings and such.. and recycled them into the first elastic type strips.

In 1820, Thomas Hancock patented elastic fastenings for gloves, suspenders, shoes and stockings.

I’m not sure who thought to put it into waistbands. But many credit Nicholas Winthrop.

Winthrop thought up the idea in 1837….. after a formal dinner. He ate too much…. pants too tight .. and thought… Elastic would feel better. He told everyone about his ingenious idea that night.

However, that night turned fateful. His carriage went over the side of an icy bridge, and no one ever saw him again. BUT. To this day… when the moon is full…. people have witnessed an outline of sweatpants running on the bridge. And you can here a faint cry… “AHA…. elastic.”

But I got WAY off track. I like sweatpants because they are comfortable. And sometimes… in this life… we need a safe place.   Things happen that seem hard, or tough, or even unfair. So we look for things that might comfort us.  Somewhere that is gentle, and undemanding, and secure.

A bowl of ice cream…. or mashed potatoes.  A walk in nature. The hug from a loved one. Or… A spiritual moment. Heck. Even a pair of sweatpants. We all find our way through things…. in our own way. In our own time.

And that… to me…. is quite a marvelous invention.

Yep.  I love sweatpants.

“Cure sometimes, treat often, comfort always. – Hippocrates”

Most days, I think I am pretty weird. Okay…. weird… in a kinder, gentler way…. oddly unique.

I wake up every morning with the sneaky suspicion that something has been duplicitous since birth. You see, I didn’t come out of the womb by my own willful choice. I am  fairly certain I was pushed.

Now that you come to think of it… I was pulled too.
And once I got out… I screamed like a baby.
Well… technically… I was a baby. But they slapped me anyway.

In that moment of awareness… I decided I would have big thoughts from that point onward.

Sometimes my ideas are harebrained. I had an incredulous one tonight.

But don’t you ever wonder where the whole harebrained phrase got started? Well…. it has been around for quite sometime. Since the mid-1500s. It first showed up by applying the qualities of a rabbit…. to a human. It meant a “giddy or reckless person” (1540s)….. which came from the personality of a hare….. since they are both “flighty” and “skittish.”

Now if I were writing the etymology of the word… I would have spelled it Hair Brained. Meaning…. that your head is so willy-schnickered … there is hair growing straight through to your brain… and it is causing you to have loopy and ridiculous thoughts. Hair Brained.

I am not sure sure what we would call bald people though.

Makes no difference. Back to the conspiracy since birth thing. I’m pretty sure there is a reason I have these goofy-rabbit, hare-brained ideas.

I just want to live a hoppy life. Maybe even become a rapper… since I am so into hip-hop.

Honest to goodness truth.
This isn’t all just haresay.  I think I have rabbit ears where there ought to be full antennas.

“If the facts don’t fit the theory, change the facts.” – Albert Einstein

Today, is November 12, 2013. 11.12.13. Chronology. All in a row. And in honor of such, I bring you The Sock Monkey Chronicles.
Chronology and Chronicles both derive from the Greek word… Kronos. So it seems only fitting.

Kronos Chronicles:  The Monkey, The Dog, and The Squeaker.

Chippy Needet was a humble little monkey. Humble and hopeful. He could only remember his early childhood in Manufactia, where he rode conveyer belts, with lots of other little monkeys….

Yet. He was sure that he must have been born a noble Prince from Taiwan. They certainly had lots of servants… and lived in a huge castle there. He knew this.. …because…. stamped on his butt was an insignia which said that he had a “Maid in Taiwan.”

Anyways, these days…. he and all his hundreds of new sock monkey family traveled all across the United States from Cracker Barrel to Cracker Barrel.   They rode on the same trucks as the Rocking Chairs.  He liked it just fine there. He had lots of friends including Timmy the Plush Frog, Raggedy Ann and Andy, and The Magic Unicorn. Not to mention the weasel thing that rolled around on the floor and laughed.

It was all good. It smelled of bacon, and maple syrup, and corn fritters.

One day…. while in the likes of a Northern Florida Cracker Barrel …. two women grabbed Chippy from the shelf.. and laughed and laughed. They pushed his belly. His butt made a squeaky sound.  Again and again.  They laughed some more.
Then suddenly…. he found himself in a crumply paper bag…. and it was very scary and filled with darkness. He was traveling…. somewhere.

Late, late that night….. the bag opened. A strange woman peered inside and picked up little Chippy and hugged him with joy. She set him, softly on her nightstand, and belted out a huge Hoorah.

Suddenly…. out of nowhere…. a ferocious little terrier …. grabbed Chippy in its mouth and started squeaking him relentlessly. The woman screamed. … the dog dropped Chippy.

The woman saved Chippy from the slobbery jaws of the dog …. and made him at home with the other sock monkeys in the family.

The moral of the story.
Well… there is no moral. This is a chronicle… not a fable or fairy tale.

But I will say this. Life is full of ever changing circumstances.  A good surprise for Polly… turns into bad surprise for Chippy… turns into good surprise for dog…. turns into bad surprise for Polly.

“The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.” – Alan Watts

This morning, I saw the Matt Lauer Interview with Sarah Palin on The Today Show. While I do not speak of politics here on 16,010…. it did get me thinking a whole bunch of nonlinear thoughts. For some reason.

So…. I’ll just go ahead and yammer them all out here. If I had a yammer….

There is still such a buzz about bandwidth. Most people have a pretty fast connection speed to the internet… but for some of us.. it continues to be a challenge. I for one…. do not even play in a band. Marching, rock, blues… or otherwise. How can a get a bigger band width… without being in a band? I guess I better learn the trombone or something.

Rumpelstiltskin is not a very good fairy tale story. I’m not sure what the moral of that one is supposed to be. I’ve been trying to figure this out since I was six.

Glad is a funny word. It made me glad. I am glad to meet you. Gladys Kravitz. Gladys Knight and the Pips. Glad bags. Glad. Say it three times fast, and you will think it is an odd word too….
But if you don’t…. I’ll be just as glad anyways.

The first webcam watched a coffee pot. It seemed like a brilliant choice to me. I watch the coffee pot all the time. But the reason for the webcam was for researchers at Cambridge to monitor the coffee situation without leaving their desks. Smart and lazy.

Marie Curie’s notebooks are still radioactive. I thought I would highlight that one for you.

And…. speaking of highlights….. The last time a Republican was elected president without a Nixon or Bush on the ticket was 1928.

Everybody knows how I feel about monkeys. I love the little dudes. It all started with Curios George. (I found comfort in reading the stories… after being subjected to the likes of Rumpelstiltskin.) I am glad the stories exist… because they almost didn’t. Thankfully….. just before the Nazis invaded Paris, H.A. and Margret Rey fled on bicycles. They were carrying the manuscript for Curious George.

Finally…. a good roundout for the theme of these yammerings.

I am a misophonist. Many of us experience some form of misophonia. It is an extreme intolerance for certain sounds. There are many popular examples… nails on a chalkboard, or gum smacking, or… open-mouthed chewing, crunching on ice, or other sounds regularly heard in public. For me… it is the loud chewing thing. Ugh.

And if you think I am experiencing confusion this evening in my writing… I assure you I am not. I’m just putting the yammer where the yammer should be. Just like Moe. When asked about naming the Three Stooges….. Moe explained “We were three, and we were stooges.”

“I have never been lost, but I will admit to being confused for several weeks.” – Daniel Boone

I am frequently awestruck by the sights of nature. The “entirety” of nature appears to be… incredibly perfect by design. At least it seems that way to me. The things in nature do exactly what those things are supposed to do. At exactly the right time. Left to their own accord… they would go on “being” without any help from us.

I think it is pretty magical, really. Or superior. The notion that a small seed which falls into dirt, and somehow finds water… can eventually become something as grand as a tree.

The cell for instance… which is the basic unit of life…. is a design that is amazingly intricate and elaborate. It is far more complex than any man-made technological product.

Think about it. We humans have ideas all the time time. To bring them to fruition, takes a high level of intelligence, planning and design. A car. A house. A watch.

Heck… most of us can’t even bake a cake without a recipe.

I will never, in my little human brain, understand by what means all of this came about. It is far too Gordian for me to comprehend.

Yet. Yet, yet, yet. I feel very much a part of it at times. I am thankful for this.   And for the perfect balance which can potentially exist.

What isn’t so perfect, is when I am running and playing with the dog, and I don’t see that big tree standing there. Not until it is much too late.

I can tell you what bark looks like.
I can tell you what bark sounds like, as I am lying flat on my back… and the dog barks in astonishment at the force with which a human can run into a tree.

Ahhh… the beauty of nature.

“If the world was perfect, it wouldn’t be.” – Yogi Berra