Our Mothers are Daughters.

Chances are…  our Daughters will be Mothers too.

And that is how it goes.
From Generation.  To Generation.

Be Kind To One Another.
Love Each Other.

It makes life better.
It makes us whole.

Happy Mother’s Day.

“Live so that when your children think of fairness, caring, and integrity, they think of you.” – H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

So here we are.  Each day of our lives.  In our own little bodies, doing our own little things.  S0me people do for themselves.  Some people do for others.

Life.

Yet somehow…. I think that feeling connected to something outside of ourselves is important to our perception of life.

You see….. being alive assures us of many new situations.  All the time.   It could be anything anywhere.  Heck… fixing a peanut butter sandwich is a new situation.  And everything changes.  I’ve said it a hundred times before…. and yet… that is even subject to change.  Yep.  Things sure do change.

Nature has a way of  reminding us of change.    When we take notice of the cycle of life…. anywhere…..  in the trees and plants and animals …..  well… it helps.  The natural world gives comfort to many of us.

It helps us to remember that everything is in constant state of rearrangement and reordering.   Everything is in a constant place of transformation.   Beauty in these “life-things” is present if we look for it.   The natural world is a bit of a miracle, if you ask me.

Sensing something larger and external to ourselves can be very meaningful in connecting to… and accepting all this change which is about us.

Today I saw the deer pictured above.  She was in our meadow.  Both … the deer and the meadow….  much larger than me.

The universe…  much, much, much larger than me.   And I am reminded….

“The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature.” – Joseph Campbell

Who really gives a cluck?
Well.  I love a good chicken egg.  In fact, I buy my chicken eggs just up the road….  from a very nice family.  Thankfully, for me…. they have amazing hens.  Otherwise, I’d be right back in line at the grocery store.

I cannot begin to tell you how delightful it is to eat fresh chicken eggs for breakfast every morning.  (No worries friends.  I have low cholesterol.)

But here is the thing.  Eggs have quite the history, if you care to know it.  Both birds and eggs preceded man in the evolutionary chain.

And…. our human awareness of the egg begins a long, long time ago.  East Indian history indicates that wild fowl were domesticated as early as 3200 B.C.  AND… both Egyptian and Chinese records show that fowl were laying eggs for man in 1400 B.C.   I guess people back then were really jazzed about eggs to.  They made notes of it in history chronicles after all.

More recently….. Europe has had domesticated hens since 600 B.C.   Euro-Chicks.

There is some evidence of native fowl in the Americas prior to Columbus’ arrival. It seems right to me.  I mean, we have the Toledo Mudhens, and Colonel Sanders and all.

However, it is believed that, on his second trip to the New World, in 1493….. Columbus brought over some chickens related to those now in egg production. Aunt Henrietta, I guess.

But let’s put all that aside for a moment.  There have been two age-old questions concerning chickens.

1.  Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
2.  Why did the chicken cross the road?

While I have the answers to both of these questions, I just want to know who started these age old disputes?  And why all the calamity around them?  Nonsense, I say.

Especially since the answers to both are so very evident, simple, and clear.

But since I have exceeded the maximum number of words allowed in tonight’s project, I will have to go into this another time.  I guess it will just have to wait.

“Don’t wait. The time will never be just right.” – Napoleon Hill

“I made a funny son and you’re not laughin’ ” – Foghorn Leghorn

LOL.

In the early days of the internet, LOL meant one thing, and one thing only.

Laughing Out Loud.

Not…..
Lots Of Love.
Lots Of Laughter.
Loads Of Liver.
Land Of Lakes.
Little Old Leprechauns.
Large Otter Lips.
Living On Lactose.

Or even….  Lizards Of Louisiana.

But today, people throw LOL all over the place… out of context… to and fro.

It makes me want to say WTF (We Tasted Fondue).

You know… it is enough to make a happy sock monkey…… Lean Over Limply.

“The minute a phrase, becomes current, it becomes an apology for not thinking accurately to the end of the sentence.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes

We stopped by this house, about a week ago.  Of course I had to get my camera out and shoot.

I suspect it used to be a grand estate, in its day.  I imagine the people who built this monstrousity of a dwelling…. used the very best of everything … so that this house would last.

And last.  For their children.  And their children’s children.

Little did they know.

I couldn’t bring myself to get very near this house.  It made the hairs stand up on my neck.

You see.  It holds many old secrets.  None of which I know.

So now.

Little did I know.

And then on any given day, if you take the time to consider all that there is…..

When it comes right down to it…. little do any of us know.

“The more unintelligent a man is, the less mysterious existence seems to him.” – Authur Schopenhauer

The things that you know… or may not know… can change at any moment …..

Seashell fossils have been found high in the Himalayan mountains.  This fact suggests that the land was once underwater.  I sell seashells by the seashore…. and the mountain top.

The sailfish (the fastest swimming fish, which has been clocked at 68 mph) is faster than the cheetah (the fastest land animal, clocked at 62 mph).  Put your money on the fish.

The urine of patients with diabetes tastes sweet because the extra sugar in a diabetic’s bloodstream overwhelms the kidney’s ability to reabsorb it.  I do not know this from actual experience.  I am not sure who did the tasting.

It’s not widely publicized, but Mr. Clean has a first name: “Veritably.”   I love Mr. Clean.  Every dang thing about him.

While many think Hydrox cookies were an Oreo knock-off, those good ol’ Hydrox cookies actually came first. They were first made in 1908, four years before the Oreo. Dip that twice in your milk.

Black-eyed peas aren’t peas, but beans. And coffee beans aren’t beans, but seeds.  Cashews are not nuts.  They too are seeds.  Who the hell is naming this stuff?

Albert Einstein never learned how to drive. He knew that an object in motion, tends to stay in motion.  Relatively speaking.

And that is the way of the world.  It may surprise you.  It may not.  And all of that…. is subject to change.

Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are. – Bertolt Brecht

Never believe that a few caring people can’t change the world. For, indeed, that’s all who ever have. – Margaret Mead

Sometimes… I see things in nature, and wonder who was here before me. A crippled plant turning to dust.  An ancient tree.   I’ll pick up a rock, and wonder how many people through out all of time, may have come upon that little stone, by hand or by foot.

Today, I read a little excerpt, from an old newspaper article, which was attached with a friend’s genealogy collection.  Basically, it retold the story of how two of those noble ancestors were massacred by savage Indians.

Most people read that and don’t think twice.

I like to think twice.

Ohio got its name from the Iroquois word, “O-Y-O,” meaning “great river.” The Iroquois Indians had begun to settle between the Ohio River and Great Lakes by 1650.  Now… they could have named this place anything.  But Ohio, really, is a cool name.

But the Iroquois were not the first here. Not even close.

Ohio’s original settlers were tribes of American Indians, who first arrived in the Ohio, area during the Paleoindian Period.  Now for anyone who cares…. that rounds out to be 13,000 BC to 7,000 BC.   That, is a LONG dang time ago.  A long dang time.

As these tribes grew, their population became more concentrated in smaller areas.

Ohio had some very amazing Indians.  Groups such as the Adena and Hopewell began to create earthworks for burial or religious ceremonies. If you have not visited the enormous snake-shaped mound in Adams County… well… you are missing quite a site.

By the time the white people in boats got here, the native tribes were living in a network of highly developed communities.

But wouldn’t you know it.  The White People in boats… who were fleeing religious persecution…. decided that this new land belonged to them.  So…..tensions flared as the Europeans began to settle in Ohio, most notably during the French and Indian War during the 1750s.

It wasn’t just a little mishap either.  The two groups clashed over land throughout the next 60 years.  One man in particular…. the Shawnee Chief Tecumseh…. strove to unite the tribes in resistance to the new settlers.

The struggle ended with Tecumseh’s death during the War of 1812. History writers say that the last Indian tribe left Ohio in 1843.  I guess they did leave.  But not by choice.

I think if someone tried to come in and take my  home… I might try to defend it too.

But that is just me… thinking twice.

“If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.” – Mother Teresa of Calcutta

I know a lot of good people.

It seems like these good people are always trying to figure out a way to help other people.  They seek out ways to make this world a better place.  In big ways.  In little ways.

I am so very fortunate that many of these people are my friends.  I get the opportunity to share life with them.

And to learn from them… how to be a better person.

You know, I think there are a bunch of things that go wrong in this world.  A big bunch.

At the same time, I think there are a lot of wonderful things going on too.  So.  Better to be around the good things that are going on, yes?  If we all started trying to be around the good things that are happening… we might be able to take up more space… and squeeze out any room for bad things.

You know how the song goes… “There were 10 in the bed, and the little one said…’Roll Over.  Roll Over.’  So they all rolled over and the one fell out.  There were 9 in the bed, and the little one said… ‘Roll Over. Roll Over.’  So they all…. ”

Yep.  I know a lot of good people.

“The beautiful souls are they that are universal, open, and ready for all things”- Michel de Montaigne

Someone asked me today if I do any mushroom hunting.

Now, what do they take me for?  Some kind of sap?  Is that anything like Snipe Hunting or Cow Tipping?

Mushroom Hunting!  Anyone knows, if you were to shoot one of those things… you would certainly blow it to smithereens.   And besides that, I am not much of a hunter.

In fact… I’m not a hunter at all.

When it comes to eating meat and such… I sure do.  But I prefer to find it at my local grocery store.  In the Meat Department.  (Shout out to Marsh Supermarket!  Woooo Hoooooo.)  I’m not much for looking through the cross hairs at Bambi, or Thumper, Nemo … or even Elsie.

It is much the same with produce.  Those fine Grocers have a bunch of that at their stores too.  (And it is so much easier than all the digging and  weeding and such that comes with gardening.)

So there you have it.  I am neither a gardener or a hunter.

Let’s consider this fact for a moment.

Way back in history, there were different phases of evolution of the early people.  The Paleoindian Period refers to the time period when people were nomadic Hunter-Gatherers.

We’ve established that I am definitely not a hunter.  Therefore…. I think I evolved from the gatherers. You see….. when I need food…. I just drive to the grocery and gather the things I need.  That is how my people rolled.   So now… that is how I roll.  We gather.  I gather.

The Gardeners didn’t come around until the Woodland Period.

At any rate…. back to the mushroom hunting thing.   I decided to give it a go tonight.

So, I grabbed my camera…. went out… and shot this one.

And that…. is ALL I can gather about any of this.

“Before beginning a Hunt, it is wise to ask someone what you are looking for before you begin looking for it.”- Winnie the Pooh

Ah.  The Old Family Photo.

Have you ever found one, and thought…. Holy Crap. Holy Cow. Holy Heck.  Holy Genetics … …. these people look like the parents of The Children of the Corn.

I only knew a couple of these folks.   Really.  My Grandma and my Grandpa.

And they look scary enough.

But the rest of them?  Holy Smokes.

Now… the guy on the far left.  I think…quite possibly… he looks to be the most menacing of all.  His name was Bernard.  He turned out to be a pretty decent farmer.  He made good money at it and ended up owning a lot of land. And dairy cows.   He was born on a Friday, June 18th.  Way back in 1858.

Now… that would make him a Gemini.  And we all know about Geminis.  Imaginative, creative, flighty, superficial, spontaneous, wishy-washy.

Yes.  Although Bernard looks very stern and serious on the outside…. on the INSIDE he was charming, witty, funny, clever, talkative and creative.  At family parties… and such… he would be the one with the lamp shade on is head… doing a jig on the kitchen table.

He loved limburger and bleu cheeses.  He’d make an assortment of cheese sandwiches, homemade pickle relish, and lemon tarts… and take them around on a party tray. Old Bernie Boy sang Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star… all the time.  What a happy-go-lucky-guy.

Then.. in 1935… his appendix burst. Maybe from too much cheese and relish. He died that night, at the hospital in Celina.

And that is what I know about the guy on the far left.

I also can tell you…..  that I am here because of him… partially.  He is my Great Grandfather.

And now… I know where I get my love limburger and bleu cheeses.  And all my dang facial hair.

Now…. the lady third from the right.  They called her The Black Widow of Auglaize County.  But that is an ENTIRELY different story.

“I don’t think anyone has a normal family.” – Edward Furlong