Life can be like the weather, I think.

Sometimes it is bright, sunny, and downright cheery.
Other times is is cloudy, dark and rainy.

And on occasion, it can be quite foggy.  Yep.  As clear as mud.

“Everybody experiences far more than he understands. Yet it is experience, rather than understanding, that influences behavior.” – Marshall McLuhan

I get to spend time with my Mom almost every day.  I like spending time with my Mom.
I feel fortunate to be able to do this.  You know, we just sit and talk.  About regular old Mother-Daughter kind of things.

Mom?  Do you think there are any giraffes who are afraid of heights?
Honey, I wouldn’t know.
Mom?  Do you think Michael ever finally rowed his boat to the shore?
Honey, I wouldn’t know.
Mom?   Do you think Alphabet Soup comes in different languages?
Honey, I wouldn’t know.
Mom?  Do snakes poop?  Cuz’ I don’t think they have butts.
Honey, I wouldn’t know.
Mom?  How come Men’s shoe sizes are different from Women’s shoe sizes?  Like, doesn’t all one same size make more sense?  That way, if a man likes to wear women’s shoes, or a woman likes to wear men’s shoes… they wouldn’t have to do the math?
Honey, I am sure I wouldn’t know.

Yep.  Just regular old Mother-Daughter Talk.
Mom is always happy to see me.  But she always gets very tired while I am there.
I guess I’ll have to ask her why, tomorrow.

“I think, at a child’s birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift should be curiosity.”  – Eleanor Roosevelt

There is a barn in the middle of a field.

And in the barn is a farmer.

Not farming.  Standing.

In the middle of that barn.
A cow stands with the farmer.  They do nothing but stand there quietly.

In the middle of that barn.
They can hear each other breathing.  The can look into each other’s eyes.

They do not know what one another is thinking.

Yet they both think.  At the same time.
The farmer, thinking farmer thoughts.
And the cow, thinking cow thoughts.

“Cow.  I sure do wish I knew what you thinking.”
“Human.  I sure do wish I knew what you were thinking.”

“Cows are amongst the gentlest of breathing creatures; none show more passionate tenderness to their young when deprived of them; and, in short, I am not ashamed to profess a deep love for these quiet creatures.”  ~Thomas de Quincey

“All the really good ideas I ever had came to me while I was milking a cow.”  ~Grant Wood

“As for butter versus margarine, I trust cows more than chemists.”  ~Joan Gussow

I used to think I understood free will.

As it turns out, I do not understand it, at all.

I thought what differentiated humans, was this wonderful and amazing gift of free will, which we are given at birth.

Yet sometimes, it seems, certain people are stripped of theirs.  Deprived of it.

Once again, I am reminded that I know very little about anything.

“We must believe in free will, we have no choice.” – Isaac  Bashevis Singer

For all practical purposes, this time around, I think I’m going to blame it on gravity.

You can always place blame safely in one of two places.

a. Blame it on the Gravity.
b. Blame it on the Monkey.

In this case, I’d say it is gravity.

But let me back up for a minute.

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I am truly blessed in a thousand different ways… tens of thousands of different ways.  Infinitely, really.

But amidst all those positives…. every once in a while… things just feel topsy-turvy.

Don’t get me wrong.  I have absolutely no reason to complain about anything.  Some people have truly topsy-turvy lives.

So for me, when things feel a little out of whack, I either blame the monkey, or gravity.

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Now.   Why would anyone blame anything on a cute little monkey?  I think my realization of this came early on….. from all the old movies.

The scene would be some crowded mid-eastern bazaar, and there was hustling or bustling, and shoulder-to-shoulder people.  Invariably, something would get stolen, or someone would get poisoned, or kidnapped.  And it always…. ALWAYS… came back to the Organ-Grinder-Guy, and his little smiling monkey with the fez.  Always.

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But not this time.   You see.

My first clue that things were askew came last night.  I was at a Graduation Party for someone very dear to me.  As I enjoyed BBQ, Cheesy Potatoes, and a rather large helping of Baked Beans, I heard the little girl next to me say… “Mommy.  These are the BEST Chocolate Beans I’ve ever eaten.”

Chocolate Beans.

And all this time… I never, ever knew.

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It gets even more sideways.

This morning, as I was driving to visit my Mom, I just felt out of sorts.  Beside myself.  Upside-down and Inside-out.  Topsy-Turvy, and then some.

Yet, as I drove, the music playing on the Satellite radio was soothing.  Even healing.  The song was familiar to me, so I glance down to see the exact name and movement of the piece.

And that’s when I saw the image above.  Now I am quite familiar with Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, but I always attributed this work to Ludwig Von Beethoven.

Yet, to my surprise today, I learned that… NO…. NO… Not at all.  It is not Ludwig’s Song.  No.  We owe this one to his obscure, and little know brother, Fred Beethoven.  Topsy-DAMN-Flopsy-Turvy.

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I am telling you.

It’s gotta’ be the Gravity.

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“You will find truth more quickly through delight than gravity. Let out a little more string on your kite.” – Alan Cohen

“Hey, hey, we’re the monkees
And people say we monkey around,
But we’re too busy singing
To put anybody down.”

-The Monkees

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