Thoughts About Life – Page 4

What would you be before your distant end?

One of my favorite bloggers just posed an interesting question. Rather than listing five things you would like to do before you die, what are five things you would like to be before you die?

Here’s the post, if you’re curious:

https://minimalistgunluk.wordpress.com/2017/06/04/5-things-to-be-before-you-die/

I thought this sounded like an excellent writing prompt. Thinking of things to do can be useful and great, however actions and tasks usually have an ending and being something doesn’t have to. I’ve been thinking a lot about who I really am lately, and I’ve been disappointed with the results. So who would I like to be? Setting my course toward that so that I can become a better version of me is something I’m working on.

5 things I’d like to be before I die

To be known as a writer and make a good portion of my income from it

To be a far better artist than I am, as good as some of my favorite artists

To be someone who lives mindfully and thinks before every action

To be someone who contains both compassion and strength

To be fit in both mind and body – meditating and exercising daily

There are my five. Do you have any you’d like to share?

via Daily Prompt: Distant

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/distant/

Not yet the day for detonations

Thoughts About Life

We aren’t quite to the point where everyone sets off fireworks for the US Independence Day, but today is still a day where we honor the men and women who fight for us.

Today is Memorial Day in the US. For many people, that means the first day of summer, a day for camping and barbecues. It’s also a day for giving respect to the armed forces.

Most think only of the dead, as they fly flags, lay wreaths and put flowers on the graves of our fallen soldiers. However, there is another aspect to this day. Traditionally, the time from dawn until noon is devoted to honoring the living men and women of the armed forces, and only the time between noon and sunset is devoted to those who have passed from this life.

In that tradition, I want to highlight one very special part of the US armed forces – the Marine Corps.

I am not a member of the military, but every Marine I have ever met, even the ones I didn’t like, has been a special person with unique and valuable qualities.

To do their jobs well, Marines must be brave and steadfast. They are taught to think on their feet. They are also taught to never give up and that attitude carries through all aspects of life. They have a drive to make sure things are done right. They value their friends. They are loyal. They make great friends. A Marine is always a Marine, even after they retire.

My uncle is a Marine. He still keeps fit and trim even though he’s in his sixties. I never got along with him but I can appreciate his tidy house, his physical fitness, his success in life, and his sense of mission.

A good friend of mine is also a Marine. She entered in the seventies, and even though she was a female Marine she learned the same Core Values that other Marines learn. She’s brave, loyal, trustworthy, intelligent and dedicated.

My wife is an honorary Marine by virtue of training, and she learned much from her grandfather, who was a Marine. She’s taught me a lot about what it means to be a good person. I value her insights about life.

Today, I want to raise a toast to Marines everywhere. The Corps is the US’s oldest armed force. All volunteers, they’ve protected this country since the beginning. The few, the proud, the Marines!

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/detonate/

Infusing sense into grocery store management

Thoughts About Life

Has anyone else noticed how hard it is to find some things in grocery stores that were once common?

Today was the Great Battle of the Mushrooms and Pearl Onions.

My mission: to make pickled eggs with pearl onions and mushrooms.

I needed pearl onions and loose mushrooms.

My grocery store, which is otherwise pretty good, absolutely didn’t have pearl onions. I recall when they were easy to find, nestled in their little net bags. Also, there were no loose mushrooms. Instead, all they had were those prepackaged cardboard trays, covered with plastic wrap that holds condensation!

Does anyone else remember when the mushrooms were all loose and they had little paper bags to put them in, because everyone knows a damp mushroom is a sad, soggy mushroom?

I searched across three grocery chains and didn’t find better. I had to buy “knob onions” at three times the price and some of those odious little cardboard trays.

The spouse was mad, I was mad. Nobody listened when I complained.

More and more, grocery stores (and other stores too) choose what they want me to have, in what quantities they want me to have it in, all in plastic packaging. If I want to get away from that, I have to go to the incredibly expensive high end stores, even though bulk food should cost far less because there’s less packaging and less waste.

The real problem I have is not so much the food, but the fact that I can’t get anything to change no matter how many managers I talk to. Even as I submit my feedback forms and am thanked for my opinion, nothing changes. I make calls till I’m blue in the face and still nothing changes. What’s a dissatisfied shopper to do?

I shouldn’t be surprised. After all, customer service is a barrier between you and the people who make decisions.

The real key here is to get to the decision makers.

I realized there is a potential solution here. I am going to take it higher, and if you share my frustration, you can too. Enter the old fashioned letter! I’ll be searching for corporate hierarchy, finding names and addresses to people who really do make decisions. I send letters by registered mail, so that they actually get into the hands of the people I’m sending them to, instead of getting lost in the mailroom.

Little by little, that gets results.

I found that if I can get past the ramparts of customer service, past the corporate donjon, and into the actual throne room, then my letter lands in the hands of the actual rulers of the corporate kingdom – and my lonely letter heads arrow straight to the place where all the calls, forms and emails couldn’t reach.

The more we all do this, the more we will make ourselves heard. The actual views of the customer will be infused into the corporate system and be heeded, perhaps someday even more than any number of useless focus groups.

via Daily Prompt: Infuse

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/infuse/

Unmoor from emotion, find mental peace

Thoughts About Life

So many times we yearn for peace. We want a true serenity that makes our problems seem far away. This is possible – though meditation, it can be possible. Walks in nature, a good back rub, time with kids or pets, a good book that takes you away. All these things can help.

It is quite possible to live much of your life in a calm and harmonious way. Eastern traditions often teach this. The key is mindfulness. To be mindful, observe your emotions. Watch how they work. Think about why they are. This practice, in itself, will help you to be at peace.

If a person lets their emotions run them, their life can be highly turbulent. It can be difficult to relax or get going, relationships suffer, projects only are worked on when the person is “in the mood.” It’s also much easier to be angry or offended and it’s far too easy to feel threatened and lash out verbally or even physically.

Emotions shouldn’t rule things. They are a fickle master. If a person observes them and notices what causes them, emotions can be beneficial. After a time, emotions add spice to life but don’t make up the whole dish. Who would eat a meal that was all spices? Better to have a good solid base with spices as an accent. Put another way, being ruled by emotion is like being tossed on a stormy sea when you have no oars.

An analytical mind may sound cold and unfeeling. It isn’t. An analytical mind merely decides what the person is going to do, using emotions as information but not letting them run the show. The best place to start is, as mentioned before to be mindful and observe how things work. This is a great way to face fears, ease emotional difficulties, banish anxieties. If attention wanders, refocus. “Failure” is okay. Giving up isn’t.

One of the best parts of living mindfully and thinking about everything is not only will you feel more peaceful, you will learn faster. Your life will run more smoothly. People’s opinions won’t sting as much. Fears won’t loom as large. You will know peace that is based on fact not fantasy. Your brain is your greatest tool, the more you use it the better.

Being guided by your mind and not your emotions is like getting two oars and a motor in your boat tossed on a stormy sea. Suddenly, you can move about and get to calmer waters!

via Daily Prompt: Unmoored

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/unmoored/

A wonderful cat rescue

Thoughts About Life

https://youtube.com/watch?v=sP0f0FWSSfA%3Fversion%3D3%26rel%3D1%26fs%3D1%26autohide%3D2%26showsearch%3D0%26showinfo%3D1%26iv_load_policy%3D1%26wmode%3Dtransparent

The featured image and the one below shows our latest rescue from Bulgaria. She is the 9th cat we have adopted from Eastern Europe and we haven’t regretted a single one. They are all intelligent, incredibly loving and they get on together like a house on fire. We just bring them home, open the cat…

via The Cat House — Katzenworld

Temporary Profit – an open letter to department stores

Thoughts About Life

Many of you are rightfully concerned by online competition. Retailers such as Amazon have taken a lot of your market share. So I have a suggestion to increase your profitability in a way that will endure.

Instead of doing more of what you already do, or engaging in progressively more intrusive and annoying advertising, how about capitalizing on your strengths? The strength of a local store is responsiveness. Workers at a store can answer questions, find things for customers, and set up orders for things not in stock. Knowledgeable, personable employees are the difference between a successful business and a faceless set of walls and aisles.

Central planning is the bane of many shoppers’ existence. How many shoppers have gone into a store to buy something and discovered that it wasn’t available in the style they liked because Corporate didn’t carry it? Usually, that just sends shoppers online because comment cards and suggestion boxes do nothing to put the goods they want in the store.

As a business, why not put the human touch back into the department store and be truly responsive to customers? Then they will have a reason not to send all their money to online retailers. Engage your workers, encourage them to become experts about what they sell, and encourage them to order what customers actually ask for. The result may be a slightly lower, but more enduring profit, and more importantly, customer loyalty.

Customer loyalty can be all too temporary when they aren’t getting what they need. Move with the times and with customer demand, and your future will be secure.

via Daily Prompt: Temporary

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/temporary/

Blogging from the blanket – feline telepathy

Thoughts About Life

Mom changed her password again but I figured it out.

How did I figure it out? I can read her mind. Today I’m going to share a great feline secret. Cats, you see, are telepathic. There aren’t always a lot of thoughts to read in the average two legged, usually boring stuff like buying food and going to work and when the mail is coming, and hardly ever anything about mice or birds, but we can read them all the same. That’s how we know it’s time for bed, or time to get up, or time to go to work, or come home, or when our two-legged isn’t feeling well.

Mom is somewhat smart sometimes. The other day I was worried about my friend Thomas. He wasn’t in his usual spot in the window and every time I tried to talk to him I just got hurt-sick feelings. And then he went to The Vet. He even stayed away overnight! Feeling what he was going through made me feel pretty bad myself. But Mom figured out why I was sad, and she came to talk to me. She petted me and she told me Thomas would be okay.

Sure enough, a couple of days later, Thomas was there again, looking out his window at me. Our front windows are kitty-corner from each other, so we can see each other to talk. He gave me the slow blink to let me know he was okay. I purred and purred. Mom saw me looking and purred too, in her own way. Even Thomas’s Mom and Grandma were happy! I heard Mom tell Other Mom about it.

Mom did such a good job worrying about Thomas and understanding me that I figured I’d give her a break and write a blog entry for her.

Cat-Mom’s Note:

Our girl Nezumi really did act sad when Thomas was sick. Was it a smell? A half-heard conversation? Simply his absence in the window, that really is kitty-corner from us? I’m not sure. I do know that she was moping for a while, and really did perk up when I told her Thomas was being cared for and would be okay. He needed a night in the hospital but he’s back to his old self again.

On another occasion, I had a very old dog. She was mostly blind, mostly deaf, and was at that sleeping-most-of-the-time stage. We loved her dearly but she was nearly at her end. One night, she woke up from a sound sleep, barking with all her old fervor and running to the back of the house. All the doors were closed. I went out, because it seemed she was barking in the direction of the chicken coop. I opened the back door, ran the fifty yards or so to the coop, and found raccoons attacking the hens. How had the old dog known? Closed doors, closed windows, senses nearly gone. Yet, she knew.

I could go on with stories of how my cat Orion used to wait for me, looking to the east, when I was away to an eastern part of the state, several hundred miles away. Or how he always knew when I’d be home, and was there to greet me, even if I was early or late. Keen senses? Perhaps. Who knows?

via Daily Prompt: Blanket

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/blanket/

A Harmonious Job Interview

Thoughts About Life

Quite a few people are frightened of job interviews. Here’s how I got over that fear.

I started thinking in a more harmonious way. I realized, once and for all, that the employer wanted to hire me almost as much as I wanted a job. All I had to do is show the interviewer how I fit their position. This doesn’t work a hundred percent of the time, of course, but it removes a lot of stress from the interview process and increased my success rate.

When I go in to interview, the first thing I do is keep a small smile plastered on my face. My head is up, I’m looking around, I’m friendly with everyone. If anyone asks how my day is going, I say “great, how’s yours?” or something similar. I move like I belong there.

When I actually speak with my interviewer, I’m warm and friendly, and I keep in mind that they are just doing their job. I am thoughtful about my interview responses and I try to inject just a bit of a sense of humor into them. When I have done the job before, I use that to ask good questions and build rapport.

Yesterday I used this technique to get a job offer. Not only that, but it was a pleasant, even fun experience, both for the interviewer but also for me.

via Daily Prompt: Harmony

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/harmony/

Murmurations of Art

Thoughts About Life

Mindflight is, above all, a site for artists. I recently had a short discussion about what “Life is Art” means. Being in a philosophical mood, I started thinking about it. A fellow blogger and all around cool person, StreetPsychiatrist, said “just imagine if one could infuse art into the most mundane of activities… that would be something of a masterpiece.”

I agree!

I started thinking about all the ways art has been incorporated into daily life across times, across the globe. I recalled aboriginal dot paintings that are beautiful but tell how to find water holes. I thought about beaded bags and knife sheaths among the natives of the American Plains. I thought about the delicate laquerware of old Japan, and the paintings on their paper room dividers. I thought about the beautifully turned furniture of Victorian England. I thought of murals in my own city. I thought of tea ceremonies and singing during work. Art has murmured throughout people’s lives since humans started walking across the savanna.

Art is everywhere.

It might be that today our art is mostly of the commercial kind. A lot of thought goes into every plastic product that we use. However, our disposable life often makes many (myself included) forget about the possibilities to incorporate just a little more art into our daily routine.

It’s easy for me, I’m an artist! My instinct is to adorn. I know not everyone is the same way, though. What should a person do if they don’t feel like they have an artistic bone in their body but wants more art in their life anyway?

Plenty! People can collect art, whether original or copy. They can do something as simple as picking out a really inspiring wallpaper for their desktop. A friend of mine has Van Gogh’s Starry Night as her tablet cover. They can also collect beautiful things from bygone eras, where there was more care taken in design. They can incorporate those things into their daily lives. My mother collects hand painted china. I have just started collecting antique pocket knives. For me, restoring those old blades to a new life is another way of inviting art into my world.

Using older, more elegant or interesting items is not only fun, but it also helps reduce modern waste. So, if you have time and inclination, why not haunt the second hand shops for that perfect blue glass canister to hold your spaghetti noodles in? Or find a fine old wooden plate stand to support your tablet or phone? Or learn to make art, some kind of art, to enliven your daily round?

Life is Art. It’s also an adventure. Adventure calls!

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/murmuration/

via Daily Prompt: Murmuration

My gender is not abstract, I am not an “it!”

Thoughts About Life

Nezumi here again. I’ve taken over Mom’s keyboard because there’s something that’s been bothering me more than the yappy dog next door. I’m really tired of being called “it!”

Yes, I’ve had The Operation. But, I am still very much a girl cat. You should hear my high pitched meow! Anybody looking at me can see I’m a girl cat. I’m not an “it.” If someone calls me that, they are calling me a “thing.” Do I look like a “thing?” So what if I don’t have my kitten factory? I still act and feel like a girl.

My adoptive father had the Operation too. He didn’t chase girls but he was definitely male. He didn’t think he was a female. And he was one of the best cats I’ve ever known.

It bugs me when other Two-leggeds do that to Mom, too. They call her an “It” if they can’t figure out if she’s male or femal. She’s not a thing any more than I am! She gives me gooshy food and skritches and everything a cat could want. She’s not a chair, or a scratching post, or some other thing that doesn’t move that might be called “it.”

Wait, here she comes, I should lie down and pretend to sleep again.

via Daily Prompt: Abstract

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/abstract/