This is a bit different type blog post for me – not trying to give advice or mental health counseling – just sharing some thoughts.
I have flosstube/YouTube on while stitching and earlier I was watching a guy and he said something like . . he felt like today many people lack a sense of purpose. I certainly don’t know (or need to know) whether or not those with whom I come in contact have a sense of purpose. I’m sure there are plenty of happy and fulfilled people out there who have never thought about whether they have a sense of purpose – they may or may not.
Without getting into some of my deeper thoughts, I feel like the world is changing and not necessarily for the better. I also feel like my grandparents felt the same way. One example a pastor from many years ago often shared was about accepting sin. He gave the example of a frog and boiling water. If you put a frog in a pot of cold water and turn the water on a low simmer, he will sit there. Turn the fire up and he will continue to sit there until he dies but put a frog in a pot of extremely warm water, and he will jump out. As I think on how things have changed since I was a child, because if I had been in that pot of water that slowly simmered til it has reached the almost boiling point, it’s seemed fine. I’ve had a good life. I’ve had opportunities my grandparents or many in that day never had. But, if someone had been asleep since the 50’s and suddenly woke up in today’s world, that would be like going from room temp into a pot of rapidly boiling water. It’s been that way since time began. Things change – sometimes for the better and sometimes not. But, it’s so easy to not even notice the small changes around us and then one day, something happens and we realize those small changes have added up to a huge change – sometimes for the better and sometimes not.
I’m not going to list all the change that come to mind – but if you stop and think about it, those in the last 20 years are pretty mind boggling. If I were to list some of those changes, some would think they were good changes; some would think they were not so good. This isn’t about right or left, Republican or Democrat – this is about things that change our lives and future. One thing that happened yesterday, and I’ve seen it before but to me, it’s an indication of a major change that isn’t good. It’s respect for the law. There was an incident in the news here where someone was riding an off road vehicle on the street – I don’t even know what it was or if the driver did something wrong but a police officer tried to pull him/her over and the driver fled on the vehicle and took off through the woods. There were a lot of comments such as “If he wasn’t hurting anyone, leave him alone” or “I’m glad there was no real crime that the police officers could have been dealing with.” It is against the law to drive an off road, non-licensed vehicle on the road unless you do certain things. I don’t even know what they all are but I think it’s have an orange triangle of a certain size on the back, along with a pole type thing of a certain height with a flag on it. A neighbor drives around the neighborhood on one and that’s why I know about those rules. I’ll never be driving one so I haven’t checked the rules.
My feeling is that we abide by the law. If there are laws we don’t like, work to change those laws. If the guy had stopped when the officer turned on his lights, this would not have been in the news (and probably less charges to deal with when he was eventually located). We don’t get to pick and choose what laws we choose to obey. Maybe the guy had a good reason for being on the off road vehicle. Maybe the battery in his only vehicle was dead and he was going to buy a new battery. Maybe he needed medical attention and didn’t have a car. I have no idea but being on the vehicle isn’t nearly as much of an infraction of the law as running from the police.
Here, so many drivers don’t pay any attention to the speed limit, stop signs or even red lights. They just seem to think it applies to others, not them. It isn’t even just young people.
When I was younger, I always felt that going 5 miles over the speed limit was ok. When Chad was about 2, I thought . . why is it ok to go 60 if the sign clearly says 55? How do I teach Chad that we obey the laws, except the ones we care to interpret differently. Is it ok to shoplift so long as it’s under $5? No! We always obey the law and since that day, I have not gone over the speed limit unless it was an accident. Some of those small towns, the speed limits change so quickly and if it’s the first time going through those places, I may have missed a sign showing a reduction in speed.
But, back to a sense of purpose . . as things get more stressful and chaotic, I think we all need to have a sense of purpose and be well grounded. We need to know what we believe and why; what lines we will not cross, no matter what comes our way.
What gives you pleasure? For me, it’s cross stitching, spending time in the garden, playing with the dogs and watching them play together. I enjoy canning and cooking and meal planning. Those are things I can do without leaving home. Those are things I can do without ordering or buying anything. We don’t know what may happen in the next 12 months or the next 24 months. We never have and never will but I don’t have a great feeling about several things for the next 12 – 24 months. Please think – don’t necessarily think like you’ve always thought but think maybe a little deeper, a little farther out – may like . . if this or that happens, what will be the repercussions and how will that affect me and my immediate family.
Here are two examples I want to share.
- There is someone in my life who is very elderly now. As we get older, things change in ways we never thought about before but instead of dealing with it and continuing to live her best life, through the years, she has pretty much become a recluse who sits in a dark room and cries. She is no longer a nice person, at least from what I can see. I could be wrong but she seems so miserable and so unhappy. I’m very sorry for her but I am thankful I have seen this and will always remember what I’ve seen in her life and work very hard to make sure that doesn’t happen to me. Every day of our life is a day that we can do something good. We can make life better for someone else, we can make a phone call to brighten someone’s day. We can “seize the day”. I have a very small journal and every night I write a couple of lines in it. Basically, the only thing I write in there is a response to this question and a couple of lines about what I did that was fun: Did I enjoy my day? I never write anything that wasn’t fun (I didn’t mention my finger and the blender!). When I first started keeping this little journal, there were days when I would start to go to bed and I had to really think to come up with something I had enjoyed. I think it’s a mindset. I think it’s easy to get into a habit of going to bed feeling like there was so much to get done and we failed to meet our goals. I will add that I still have garlic scapes in the fridge and I’ve been planning to make pesto for almost a week. I’ll never get everything done that I set out to do each day. If things get really hard, and life throws curve balls, I want to go to bed thinking about the good that happened that day.
- A day or so after I cut my finger, I got up to go outside. Vince said “Where are you going?” I told him I was going outside to the garden. He said “You CANNOT work in the garden!” I told him . . it makes me happy just to look at the garden. He said “Didn’t you do that and hour ago?” I laughed and said “I guess I need more happiness!”
I hope these rambling thoughts mean something to someone! 🙂
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