Boy oh boy.
I really wish I knew what all this is for.  I mean, really.
If anyone had absolute proof, everybody would be on board.  As it is… a wide array of theories, life visions, religions, and creeds exist.

Some people believe there is a heaven, and divine salvation.  Others believe that we are reincarnated and keep coming back until we get things right.   There is Nirvana.  Karma.  On and on.   Still others put forth that we are no more than dandelions.  Once we die… we just sink in to the ground… and become food for worms.  There are many other takes on this whole deal we call life.

No matter.  No one knows for sure.  We all have postulations, beliefs, faith, etc.  But none of the above has ultimate proof.

Me?  I just don’t know what the point is, sometimes.  I hope it is about good energy.  Doing good.  Keeping the flow of good energy greater than the flow of negative energy.  I mean, each and every one of our atoms is filled with energy and mass.  That much DOES have proof.

At any rate,  I suppose we just need to keep moving in the right direction.  You can mostly tell it in your gut when you are doing what is right.  What is good.   The next right thing.  Sometimes we have to change our direction, or our course in life, to achieve this.

The scholar Robert Chambers first wrote about our place in existence and our ability to follow the altruistic path  .. … …. “And, you turn yourself around.”   Yes. There you have it. The author of the Hokey Pokey, DID, in fact…. have it right.  All jokes aside.  Sometimes, you simply have to turn yourself around.
That’s what it is all about.   I think.

I better go shake a leg or something.

“If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.” – Lao Tzu

This is Rose, Agatha, and Bertha.
Rosie, Aggie, and Bertie.

They were sisters.

Rose married a guy named Ben.  He died right after they had three children.  She never married again.

Aggie and Bertie never, ever, married.  They lived together up in the country, on a farm.  For their whole lives, really.   Later in life, Rose moved back in with the other two sisters.

I can only remember meeting them once.  They were old women by that time.  As I look back…. I think I might have been slightly afraid when I met them.  But they seemed very kind to me.  As I recall.

They had chickens running about everywhere.
I was just a little city girl visiting the big country.

Clearly, I was out of my element.  It must have made me uncomfortable to be in a strange place, among “relatives” I didn’t know, doing things I had never done before.
Sometimes….. we get out of our element.  I think that can be a good thing.
It invokes change.  It broadens our realization of all the different existences right here among us.

Yep. This is a big world we live in.  There is an awful lot of realization to be had.

If we always stay within our own element, in our own little bubbles, in our own little worlds…. we only know what we know.

And although it may feel difficult at times…. there is a lot to be said….  for one’s ability to simple say…..

I just don’t know.

“Although our intellect always longs for clarity and certainty, our nature often finds uncertainty fascinating.” – Karl Von Clausewitz

Holy Smokes.  It was the flip-dingiest thing.  I was outside for a few moments today…. taking in the air around me.

Yep.  I was just sitting there, breathing in and out.  I knew I was out there all by my human lonesome.  No one was around…. I was pretty darn sure of that.

And then I heard it.
Mischievous.  m-i-s-c-h-i-e-v-o-u-s
Incognito.  i-n-c-o-g-n-i-t-o
Luminous.  l-u-m-i-n-o-u-s

On and on this went.  Well…. I will Holy Smoke it again.  I was getting nervous.

Was I hearing voices in my head?  What could be wrong with me?  Sure.  It had been a long day.  But I didn’t feel like I was losing it.  Still though.  That little voice.  It won’t quit.

Finally, I realized.  THERE……. right next to me…. was a Spelling Bee.

Yes.  My very first Spelling Bee.

“The only thing that should surprise us is that there are still some things that can surprise us.” – Francois de La Rochefoucauld

I can see and hear.  But sometimes I do not know how to look, and listen.

A long time ago, in a land far, far away, lived a great and  old wise women.  She was wise beyond the ages.  The old wise woman sat on the highest peak, on the highest mountain top….. on a little pink burlap pillow.  With her legs crossed over and such.  Like wise people do.

Travelers…. Seekers…..Vacationers…. Trekkies…., from all the world around….  made the long journey to see her, and learn from her wisdom.   Many of them had afflictions in life.  Some worse than others…. really.

One year, a certain journey man scrambled all the way up the big mountain, up to the very top of the very high peak.  The man was deaf.

Exhausted after climbing up and on to the edge…. he signed to the sage, “Oh wise woman.  Please give me the great words of wisdom.”

To which she spoke in a quiet voice….. “Listen to one another.”
He signed back to her… “I am a a deaf man, sage.  I cannot hear the words you just spoke.”

So she signed back to him… “Can you see the pasture below?  Go and sit with the cows, if they will let you.”

He shook his head…. and felt that he had wasted his time.  And away he went…. saying over his shoulder…. “Pink is NOT your color.”

IF he had gone to the pasture below… the cows would have let him sit.

“Each person has inside a basic decency and goodness. If he listens to it and acts on it, he is giving a great deal of what it is the world needs most. It is not complicated but it takes courage. It takes courage for a person to listen to his own goodness and act on it.” – Pablo Casals

See Big.
See Little.

And there you have it.
Life.

“When you open your heart by acknowledging the magnificent design of the universe that you’ve been given, with no mistakes, just positive and negative homing devices to guide you,  you start to be grateful.” – John Demartini

I think the first time it happened was in Jellystone Park, around 1968.  Yogi the Bear turned to Boo Boo, and aptly said….”Little Buddy.  I don’t think you can see the forest for my knees.”
And Boo Boo replied, “Yogi, I think you mean THE TREES.”
So then, Yogi said…”What trees Boo Boo?  What trees?”

Or something like that.
I am pretty sure how that whole dang deal started.

Yep.  Sometimes we stand too closely…… or maybe we are in the wrong place.   We can’t see the bigger picture, the ultimate cause, the greater good.

And it that case, altering our vantage point may be a good thing.

“You can become blind by seeing each day as a similar one. Each day is a different one, each day brings a miracle of its own. It’s just a matter of paying attention to this miracle.”  – Paulo Coelho

As you may have noticed, I have been in a bit of a writing slump lately.
Oh.  Why oh why.  My life is incredibly blessed.  In more ways that I can count or even imagine.  Blessed.
Yet lately, amidst all those blessings…. life lately…. has felt a bit…. well…….
….. ……. slumpy.

Slump.  From the Norwegian derivative….. To fall.
The trick about falling, is getting back up again.
Weebles wobble but they don’t fall down….. and all.  I am no Weeble.  So as you see….  I am slumping.  Slumpy.

When baseball hitters are on their game, they bat around .300.    Three times out of ten, they get a hit.  If they hit a dry spell…. they are in a slump.  Or just lousy hitters.  So, like the Major Leaguers…..  My objective is to write something decent here three nights out of ten.  Then I’ll be cracking….
But until that happens.  Slumpy.

As a word, slump is pretty versatile.  As mentioned, you can be IN a slump.  Or you might find yourself slumped OVER.  At times, we slump DOWN.  On Thanksgiving, our mashed potatoes run the risk of being slumpy.   No.  Wait.  That’s lumpy.  Nevermind.

At any rate, slumpy is all over place.  As luck would have it… slumpy is with me now.    I’ll let you know when my creative mind steps in the batter’s box again.   Just call me mashed potato head until then.

“Slump? I ain’t in no slump… I just ain’t hitting.” – Yogi Berra

Despite it all,  Joe was a pretty good guy, really.  But he had a time of it… I’ll tell you.  Joe’s Grandparents came to America on a big boat around 1825.  They left the Oldenburg, Germany area to seek a new life here in the states.

And so they did.  They settled right down in Ohio.  They did what they knew best.  They started farming.  They were very good at it.  Over time, and a couple of generations, they amassed a good about of farmland in Auglaize County, Ohio.

But fast forward to Joe.  Joseph Anton was his given name.  He was one of ten children, born in 1891.  He took to farming like a fish to water.  Or more appropriately, like a turnip to dirt.

But then trouble started happening in the world.  The first world war broke out and Joe enlisted in the United States Army.  And away he went.  While he was serving overseas, his dear mother, Mary Elizabeth… … (everyone called her Liza) …. died.  She fell victim to the flew epidemic of 1918.  The family took a photo of Liza in her casket.  When Joe came home from the war, they showed him the photo.  This made him sad.  He loved his Mom.

But Joe got back to being a farmer.  And a couple years later, he met a girl.  He was head over heals for her.  The girl’s name was Katie.  (Her real name was Katherine.)  Katie and Joe got married…. and… well…. they got busy.

They had five kids in just under five years, including a set of twins.  They were happy, and in love…. and all was good with the world.  But then another flu epidemic hit.  This time in 1929.  And Katie died, she did.    Joe was very sad again.

A few months later, he hired a housekeeper named Rose.  She took great care of the family… of Joe and the five children.  For a long, long time.  It was obvious that Rose loved Joe very much…. and the children as well.

But Joe could not bring himself to love another.
And that made Rose sad.

It is a true account.  I know of Joe…. I do.  I learned a whole lot of this just today…. the details of this winding and interesting story.

It wasn’t all sad though.  It had a few happy turns, here than there.  For instance …. Joe and Rose would go to Bingo every Friday night at the local church.  Joe was a real Bingo Wizard.  Mr. Lucky Numbers.  He won loads and loads of money at bingo, each and every week.  He kept Rose happy with an ample supple of Fanny Farmer Chocolates.  She liked the kind with caramel centers.

Joe was the inspiration for the book: Rose with the Big Fanny and Farmer Joe.

Yes indeed.  So many people in all the world, through all of history… each with their own lives, and their own stories.  We are all here together.  Bumping into one other.  Learning each other’s stories, and sharing one another’s lives.

It is limitless, and infinite.  That is the world.  That is the universe.  Lucky numbers,  chocolate covered caramels….. and silver linings.

“I have always believed, and I still believe, that whatever good or bad fortune may come our way we can always give it meaning and transform it into something of value.” – Herman Hesse

Some people say there is a reason for everything.  They may be right.
I am not entirely sure this is true.  I am not smart enough to know that for sure, either way.

Tonight I had a conversation with someone trying to figure out a reason for this, and a reason for that.  I don’t know why we humans have the need to do this.

The toast falls on the floor, butter side down….. sometimes.  And next Tuesday, it might fall butter side up.  For no real cause.  No blame.  It just happened that way, that time.

There is a word in most languages which explicates  this thought.  And that word is the……  unexplainable.

And that is how it goes, I imagine.  Some things just can not be accounted for, or explained.

It may some how “ease” our human minds… to think there is a reason for the way someone behaves, or the events that may occur on any given day.  And maybe that is good enough.  Maybe it is so.

But I will never be able to explain it all…. and most likely…. neither will you.

“Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.” (Sign hanging in Einstein’s office at Princeton)

Oh those pesky plumbing problems.
You just never know when a leak is going to spring up.
Good thing I know Perry.  He is a plumber.  I like the guy.  He is very smart, in The Ways of The Plumber.  (They have to take an Oath, you know.)   And boy oh boy… he knows his monkey wrench from a pipe threader.  I’ll tell you that much right now.   But, he really needs a belt.  Or a cummerbund.

Anyway…. he came out today, and fixed the whole shebang of mishaps we had going on.   It was a wrenching experience.
Yet… when it was all said and done, Perry the Plumber explained that the problem in my kitchen was just…….  water under the fridge.

Water under the fridge.

Thank goodness for that.  And I am telling you all about it.  Right here and now. … …. …. before the story gets leaked.

“A good flush beats a full house every time.” – Plumbing Proverb