From the time he was very, very, young…. in fact… from the time he was just one of three-thousand eggs in the egg-string out of his mother, Floyd dreamt of being the All-Mighty Pond Filler.

As a little Tadpole, he made sure he became the fastest and most furious swimmer of his 2,978 brothers and sisters.  Many of them became fish food.  But not Floyd. He swam swiftly, and hid well.

He had a dream.  Pond Filler.  The One and Only Pond-Filler.  This was King of All Things. It was far more important than the Lilly-Pad-Fairy, or the Fly-Catcher.  The Stories and Legends of all the Pond Fillers at Frog Pond were … well…. quite legendary.  Despite popular belief, those ponds don’t fill up on their own.

There was Ferdinand, and Frederick, and the most famous Filler….  Fritz. A close second is Fabian, but Fabian was blonde, so that was one big ding against him.  BUT…., but Fritz was the First.

Yes, Fritz was the original Pond Filler.  He was given charge to watch over the filling ritual, by a Human 12-year-old boy, named Jan Van der Heiden, The year was 1652, in Amsterdam. Van der Heiden invented the Hose.
Since that time, Pond Fillers are second to none.  The Royals.  If a girl kisses a Pond Filler, her lips get wet with pond water.  The whole “turning into a prince” thing is Frog-Wash.

So, on Floyd’s Second Birthday, he took part in the Pond-Filler Contest.  Everyone thought he was much too small… and a little bit over ambitious.  But despite the world’s misgivings….. Floyd won with ease.  He has been Pond-Filler since and…. now at the ripe old age of 11 years…. defends his Title annually.

He is a kind and benevolent Pond Filler, smiling and waving at all the Pond Residents as he fills.  He never spares a drop.

Anyway… the job of the Pond Filler is to watch over the hose while the water goes in.  The human turns the water on and off, but the filler watches.  He guards that hose.  And that is Floyd’s proud and glorious job.

He stands Guarding Hose.

So the reason I tell you this story is because….. all these years…. you have been saying it wrong.  It is NOT called a Garden Hose.  It is called Guarding Hose… because of the Pond Fillers and their Guarding of Hoses.

I learned this on the World Wide Web-feet.  I always leap at the chance to share this life-bending information with you.  Better than the TED Talks, I’ll tell you.  And the TOAD Talks.

You’re Welcome.

“A great man is always willing to be little.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson

You can grab something by the reins, and do your best to drive it.  But sometimes, the team of horses have a mind of their own.

At any moment, the “anything” can happen.

People say it all the time.  “Well.. anything could happen.”  They are right.

It is impossible to harness the unexpected.  Because it is just that.  The unexpected.

I know. I’ve said it all before, in a hundred different ways.  But it is true.

Here is the moment.  This moment.  Take notice.  See the sights, and smell the smells.  For it has never been this exact way ever before, and it will never be this exact way ever again.

And above all, believe in the impossible.

We all need to laugh.  It is good for the soul.  It is good for your fish if you have sole.  In fact… I like to have a good belly-laugh.  But it takes a lot for me….

Hey, You want to hear a pizza joke? Never mind, it’s pretty cheesy.

Maybe I shouldn’t tell any jokes tonight, because….. actually, I am not feeling very funny.

Let’s talk about Preble County and all our good farmers.  We have a lot of them…. here in this county, I’ll tell you.  Today…. I met a farmer in a field pretty near us.  He was with his cows…. and counted 196 of them, but when he rounded them up…..he had 200.

Alright, alright.  A good friend of mine is the sheriff here in town.  And YES… we have a pretty good sized jail.  The other night… I was going up to talk something over with Sheriff Mike.  Just THEN….. there was a prison break and I saw a midget climb up the fence. As he jumped down, he sneered at me, and I thought……. well that’s a little condescending.

Also up at the jail was a guy they recently caught.  Did you hear about him.  He was The Mexican train killer? Well…. he had locomotives.

Okay, enough about the county.  Let’s talk about me.

You all know I love music.  Well… here’s a new deal.   I started a band called 999 Megabytes — we haven’t gotten a gig yet.

I wrote a song about a tortilla. Well actually, it’s more of a wrap.

Okay, enough of this silly soup.

It is getting late and I love to have a snack before bedtime.  Always fruit.  I love fruit.

Tonight… simply got away from me.

Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like banana.

Every reality we know is simply…. our perception of that reality.   Each one of us has our own perspective.  Everything which has happened to us in our lives, from the moment we were born (and maybe even before) has shaped those perceptions.

Every moment, every experience, idea, sight, sound… all influence our next awareness of our next moment.  And for each and every person on this planet, there is a unique and distinct method of percipience.

We can’t help it.  That’s just the way it is.

Truly, it is a wonder that most of us can agree on any given situation.  But for the most part, people’s realities come close to matching up.

But every once in a while, you will meet that very SPECIAL someone…. who is way off the charts.  Over the edge.  Not quite getting the channel to come in clearly.  The very nice picnic is missing a couple of sandwiches.  Maybe that entire discussion if for another time….

But even though there are things which are “agreed” upon…. there are many things which are not.

Yet… as we stand there, so sure of ourselves, that we are absolutely right …. there is no such thing as a one true reality. There is only ‘our’ version of it.  Again, that which is essentially our perception. What we believe to be true…. is only as true as our worldly experience.  And… and…. that is as far as it goes.

There are new discoveries… made by some really smart scientists… that are shaping new ideas about “how everything happens.” As much as we think we may know how life and the universe works I will bet my favorite Sock Monkey, that MUCH of this limited knowledge will be re-written over time.  Again, and again, and again.  You can count my Sock Monkey on it.

There is no truth. There is only perception.  —  Gustave Flaubert

There are things known and there are things unknown, and in between are the doors of perception.  — Aldous Huxley

Miracles happen everyday, change your perception of what a miracle is and you’ll see them all around you.  —   Jon Bon Jovi

Every once in a while…it is fun to go out on the town.  We were so excited about seeing the show.   I truly love Broadway Shows, and the Theater in general.

We had a few friends join us there.  We went to see another friend of ours…. John Matthews… also an actor in the play.  It was his big break in an acclaimed theater performance.  His character’s name was Mr. Coyle.  He played an attorney of all things.  He was so great!  The play was really entertaining too.

All of the actors and actresses were right on.  Timing was perfect.  The play was hilarious.  And then, just as Harry Hawk delivered on of the funniest lines of the play….  It was something like….

“Don’t know the manners of good society, eh? Well, I guess I know enough to turn you inside out, old gal; you sockdologizing old man-trap!” Hysterical laughter began permeating the theater.

And then I heard that sound.  It sounded like a huge firecracker… or … a gun shot.

A man leaped from the balcony above, and right onto the stage.  He yelled something, but I couldn’t make out what he said.

The next thing I COULD understand…. hit me like someone sucker-punched my gut.  “President Lincoln’s been shot!”

I loved President Lincoln.  I thought he was doing so much good for our country, and for the rights of the black people in the South.  Well, everywhere really.

But not everyone agreed.

I guess that is one way it might have happen…..on April 14, 1865.   John Wilkes Booth, a famous actor and Confederate sympathizer, fatally shot President Abraham Lincoln at a play at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. The attack came only five days after Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his massive army at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, effectively ending the American Civil War.

Lincoln could not be saved and would die during the night.
He was officially pronounced dead at 7:22 a.m.

One of the saddest days in American History.

And today…. 150 years later… we are still struggling with simple human rights.  Here in the U.S. …. and abroad.  Abe, we sure could use another round of you.

Dag nab it, I’ll tell you.  I couldn’t solve the puzzle “Fast-Forward” on the Wheel of Fortune tonight.  I think I was standing WAY too close to the TV. You see, I was fixing dinner, and was rooting around in the cupboard below the counter…  I looked up and saw the blank squares.  But I couldn’t see all the parts which were filled in.   And then…. it happened….. …Mary beat me to the draw.  She got it first.

I was standing TOO dang close.  (Ohhhh… never admit defeat… always come up with a creative excuse.  Right?  Not right. …..  …But that is another story for another night.)

To continue with my first observation.

All of a sudden it hit me.  I really was standing too close.

Sometimes we are faced with puzzles in our lives.  Or problems, or situations, or things we have to figure out.  And sometimes, we are just standing TOO whip-nilly close to the situation.  We simple can’t see the bigger picture.

As the old saying goes, you can’t see the forest for the trees.  I get it now.

I have a few things in my life right now that I think I have to figure out.  Maybe I am standing too close.  Maybe I need to take a few steps back, and take in the big story, the entire show, the whole shebang.

Yet, I know sometimes it is important to get way up close and augment things too. Like when you are trying to fish a splinter out of the skin on your little finger, with a needle and a magnifying glass.

The trick of it… for all of us… …. is to know the difference.  Do w get way up close, or look at something from afar?

I guess it depends on the size of the matter in front of us.

If and when it happens ….. I wish we could all see it clearly, no matter  “the what” of it is.

Like on a clear day… you can see for ever.  And ever.  And ever.  And ever more.

It can’t all be easy.

As much as we’d like it to be… it just isn’t.  I guess it truly is a matter of perception.  Some things seem very hard to certain people, and quite easy to others.

Yet, we all meet circumstances in life which are difficult.  To us.

It is kind of like taking a pill… …. maybe.

You see. We need the pill to get better.  In the same way, we need things in our life which are difficult.  If it were all bright happy sunshine, and good smelling feet…. we wouldn’t have appreciation for ALL the good things in life.  The sweet times.

So here is this bitter pill.  And we have to take it to get better.  To grow.

It is probably a lot smarter to swallow it whole, don’t you think?  I mean… crunching it up in little pieces… and tasting all that bitter, horrible, cat-puke taste in our mouths.  Well… there is nothing pleasant about THAT.

In the same way, if we face difficulties in life… in some circumstances… it may be better to take them whole.  Swallow it whole, and let the learning process, start to work on us.  But if continue to prolong the pain, for days… months.. or even lifetimes…. all we have is a bitter taste in our mouth.  The medicine never quite got down.  Our lesson never learned.

I wish it all could be easy-peasy… domineasy.  But when that hard thing comes to us, we do our best to get by.  We do our best to learn and grow.  And begin to appreciate the good things, once again.

The sun’s going to shine again.  We are going to feel better, eventually.  But first we need to get past the hurdle.  We need to swallow that medicine.

You may not believe this.

But here it is.  YOU are a very important part of this Universe.  
I know I have said this before, but a lot of people before me… who are a lot smarter than I… have been saying the same thing.

Sometimes, this is hard for me to believe, or perhaps… difficult to comprehend. Sometimes, I consider all the 7.15 billion people in the world, and I begin to feel very small.

Yet, many people subscribe to the idea that each one of us… YOU, ME, WE…. are significant in this existence.  This Universe.

There is a great paper written by a guy name Charles Eisenstein.  He talks about the Story of Separation vs. the New Intention.  This New Story is one of Interbeing; meaning that we are all basically in this together… this big thing we call life.

This study has many Principles and Levels to it.   But essentially it is this.  Our very being is connected with all beings.  Our very existence is relational.  Because of that, WHAT we do to one another, we also do to ourselves.  Each one of our acts, is significant to the overall effect on the cosmos.

You know, we also, each one of us, have a unique and necessary gift to offer the world.  I believe a big part of our purpose in  life is to express our gifts.  We truly all are connected… in our humanness.  In our spirituality, recognized or not.

If you still don’t believe it, think about things in scientific terms.  The interconnected and interdependent nature of things is the heart of ecology.  The big farm pond is dependent on the fish, the frogs, the insects, the rocks, the plants, each little part of the water…. and they… all dependent on each other and the pond.

That is us.  The fish.  Except, I want to be the frogs.

But back to it….

So our existence is not a distinct and separable phenomenon. Genuine compassion, should be easy for us.  Theoretically.  You see… again….. our actions effect everything, including ourselves.

The 19th-century conservationist John Muir sought out the VERY same principle: ‘When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.’

For ecologists, it is the fundamental rule.  For us too.  Our spirituality, our being, our heart….. whether you call it connectedness, inseparability or, equal association…. there we are.

We may feel like we stand alone, as a singular person.  But in fact we stand together.  Like drops of water in the pond.  Every ripple, moves to the next… and back again.

Be kind today.  

It helps the world.  It is good for the universe.

We are all hitched together, after all.

Some words in our vocabulary…. get pulverized.  They used to mean something good and wholesome.  And all of a sudden…. a perfectly good word like (or name) gets plastered.

Like.. …. awesome.
Or… …  totally.

But on an entirely different plane, is the non-slang.  Take this word, in fact.  Enable.

Now years ago it was a pretty good dang word.
Enable.
Enable the verb.  It meant (and still means)…..  to  give (someone or something) the authority or means to do something.  OR it meant you make something possible.

Now how great is that when you give someone possibilities?

But now… these days… it is almost always associated with addiction, or bad behavior.

“Oh, he enables his son’s drinking.”  Or…. “She enables him to act that way.”  Not so snappy.

So.  I must fess up.  I am a bit of an enabler.  You see…. my 91 year old Mom loves (and I mean LOVES) Lay’s plain potato chips and Diet Coke.  Seriously.  I buy her lots of Lay’s Chips, and Diet Cokes.  In fact, I give her one of each …. everyday.  She doesn’t just remember that she has had one 10 minutes ago.. …. so … somedays she gets two.  And that is just from me.  Heaven only knows how many more she gets in a day, where she lives.

But the way I figure it… at 91 years old… if it makes her happy…. I will enable away.

I’m a bit of a Chip Pusher… the “Guy on the Street”…. the Bagman.  The Supplier.

But we all have our own Lay’s Potato Chips and Diet Cokes… I think.  Some have it with food… like ice cream or chocolate…. or chicken eggs (and Diet Cokes).  Some people have their addictions in other areas… like alcohol, drugs, shopping, or even vanity.  It all depends. I guess.

I think it is okay to enjoy our “things” as long as we can somehow do it in moderation.  Yes.  I think moderation is the key.

As long as those things don’t keep us from reaching our greatest of heights.  Because of all the things we do in life… probably the most important is to reach our highest best.  We can still have the things we love.  It is called enjoying life.  Heck….  it may even make us better people.

And with those highest heights….. I’m not talking about success in the way of jobs, or riches, or fame.  I’m talking about the the success that lies within finding your innermost spark, and taking it all the way.

Singing at the top of your lungs.  Dancing your happy feet left and right, and back across the floor again.  Helping someone find their way.  Feeding a hungry person.  Sharing your wit and intelligence.  Smiling at just the right minute.  WE all have our own sparks in life.

Wave to us all…. from your best height.
AND….. Be ….. uhhhmmmmmm… be Totally Awesome.

Do right. Do your best. Treat others as you want to be treated. —  Lou Holtz
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In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.  —    Theodore Roosevelt
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The only real failure in life is not to be true to the best one knows.  —  Buddha

It is not easy being green.  At least, that is what Kermit the Frog said.  In fact, he sang about it.  When you think about it, though… some days it isn’t easy to be you.  Some days it isn’t easy to be me either.

But here we are… and here it is Spring.  Things all around us are turning green.  I wonder if it easy or hard for them?  Everywhere I looked today … I could see green.  The grass is growing, some fields are sprouting, leaves are coming on trees, algae is beginning to grow in the pond.  Green.

However, I must tell you, there is a lot to this color… green.

The color green signifies nature, life, youth, safety and hope… in the psychology of colors. Or so the lab coats say.

But it is not our favorite color here in the U.S.  That goes to Blue.  Green comes in a close second.  I like them both.  But I like orange, and purple, and red.  Yellow’s not so bad either.

We all know that green represents ‘go’ in traffic signals, railway signals and ship signals. Well… MOST people know about this.  There are a bunch of dudes in hats…. driving cars…..  that sit for a long time at green lights… until prompted by a horn.

Green is the color used for night vision goggles.  That is  because the human eye is most sensitive to the color green and we are able to distinguish a bunch of shade variations in green.  Think about THAT tonight while you are out slinking around with your goggles on.

The color green is often used as a symbol of sickness.  Mostly in cartoons, and such.  Characters often have a green face when being sick.  And puffed out cheeks.

Speaking of sickness… how about the “morning” variety of sickness?   Green has long been a symbol of fertility, and was once the preferred color choice for wedding gowns during the 1400’s.

And more Historical Green.  I’ve seen the pictures, but I don’t remember this.  Before the 1950’s Santa’s suit was originally green.  That is…. until Coca-Cola bought him out…. and changed his suit to red.  That’s because it is not easy being green… and Santa needs a Coke, and a smile.

And don’t forget the other sorts of green things… like peas, money, hoses, jade, ferns, envy,  broccoli, geckos, moss, tennis balls, shamrocks, emeralds, seaweed, cucumbers,….. oh…. and…. frogs.

Which brings me back to Kermit.  Smart frog.  You know, he starts out all downtrodden about being green, but three verses later… he is singing a different tune.  In fact… “Why Wonder, I am green and it’ll do fine, it’s beautiful!  And I think it’s what I want to be.”

So on those days… when it doesn’t feel so “easy” to be us…. perhaps all we need to do, is take the time to sing a little song… and three verses later… we may be thinking that WE “are beautiful”….

…. which … in fact….  we ARE.  And we’ll do just fine.  We are exactly who we weren’t meant to be.  Like the smart green frog.

It is not easy to find happiness in ourselves, and it is not possible to find it elsewhere.  —  Agnes Repplier

Have patience. All things are difficult before they become easy.  —  Saadi