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Tired! Well What of That…

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Nacho Cheeks at the Vet

Nacho at the Vet

Tired! Well, what of that?
Didst fancy life was spent on beds of ease,
Fluttering the rose-leaves scattered by the breeze?
Come! rouse thee, work while it is called to-day!
Coward, arise–go forth upon the way!
Lonely! And what of that?
Some one must be lonely; ’tis not given to all
To feel a heart responsive rise and fall,
To blend another life into its own;
Work may be done in loneliness; work on.
Dark! Well, what of that?
Didst fondly dream the sun would never set?
Dost fear to lose thy way? Take courage yet,
Learn thou to walk by faith and not by sight,
Thy steps will be guided, and guided right.
– Unknown.

You gotta love it when your morning e-mail puts you in your place. At the very least, you have to appreciate the irony in spite of yourself.

This past month has been kind of nuts. N-U-T-S.  We had work done in our kitchen that involved a week of emptied cabinets and drawers – with contents spread here, there, and everywhere. When you could short out a pedometer simply by rounding up things to make supper, it grates on your nerves.

I was accidentally “glutened” (long story short: for health reasons I can’t have wheat or gluten because they make my body think it has been poisoned – ugly stomach pains, fatigue, bloating, weight gain, headaches, etc.. when gluten/wheat accidentally make their way into my diet, I refer to it as being “glutened”). Most of the time when this happens (which is rare, thank God), it makes me feel like I have the flu for anywhere between 3-7 days. This particular time, it has caused a lot of respiratory distress – which my asthma is kind of panicking over.

Worst of all, we had a very sick cat on our hands for about a week. We spent the better part of the day with one of our outside cats, Nacho, at the vet yesterday and when you love your pets like family, the whole experience takes its toll. Thankfully, he has his prescription and is expected to make a full recovery within a week.

If only our nerves recover in that time. He gave us a real scare.

There were a few other minor annoyances thrown in here and there, as well. Just suffice to say it has seemed like May was trying to pick a fight with me since day 1!

This morning, I found myself sitting and thinking about yesterday. When you love someone so much (yes, even when that someone is a cat), you risk great pain. Comes with the territory, of course, but it’s a risk nonetheless.  I kept telling my coffee, “I am so tired…” Seriously, I must have thought those words at least 6 times over the course of 3 hours.

Thankfully coffee is an excellent listener.

After I finished the morning chores and sat down at the computer in my home office, I opened my e-mail. I subscribe to several daily inspirational newsletters and I always go for them first. The poem at the top of the post (from the Leaves of Life Daily Devotional) is the first one I saw.

Well played, God. Very well played.

After re-reading the poem a few times (to let it really sink in), I started thinking about the lyrics to one of the catchiest songs in the world:

I beg your pardon I never promised you a rose garden
Along with the sunshine there’s gotta be a little rain sometime
When you take you gotta give so live and let live and let go oh oh oh oh
I beg your pardon I never promised you a rose garden

I could promise you things like big diamond rings
But you don’t find roses growin’ on stalks of clover
So you better think it over
Well, if sweet talking you could make it come true
I would give you the world right now on a silver platter
But what would it matter
So smile for a while and let’s be jolly love shouldn’t be so melancholy
Come along and share the good times while we can
I beg your pardon I never promised you a rose garden
Along with the sunshine there’s gotta be a little rain sometime…

Like the poem, these lyrics are worth reading a few times through, too!

Roses don’t grow on stalks of clover. Cats aren’t healthy every single day of their lives and we won’t feel great every single day of our life.  Along with the sunshine there’s gotta be a little rain sometime.  Every day of the year isn’t going to fall under the heading of “normal.”

I guess sometimes we just have to stop and think it over. We shouldn’t make life so melancholy… it was never meant to be a 24/7 walk in a rose garden, after all. The good times far outnumber the bad and the more energy we spend thinking about the bad times, the less time we’re spending thinking about the good.

Very often the bad is just a fleeting moment, when all things are considered. Take Nacho for example. The picture at the top was taken yesterday at the vet. That was one miserable little boy. But, in no time at all, he’ll be back to his old self, like the picture below. Healthy, happy, and actively looking for something to get into!

I beg your pardon, but think the song nailed it – let’s smile more and enjoy the good times while we can! Even in the rain, a rose garden is still a rose garden.

~  Joi and Nacho

Nacho Cheeks May 3, 2016
Nacho: King of the Jungle

Life is A Lot Like a Jigsaw Puzzle

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My oldest daughter Emily and I have a great love for jigsaw puzzles. We came by it honestly. My mom and aunt seemed to always have a jigsaw puzzle going when I was growing up.  Each of them had card tables set up expressly for their puzzling passion.

When Emily lived at home, we often had a jigsaw puzzle going.  We always got a big kick out of working on a masterpiece, even though it was a bit of a struggle – thanks to our cat Alexa who loves to lay right in the middle of everything, swatting pieces onto the floor just because she can. Her involvement actually added a whole new level of difficulty to the process, but that’s okay, we like a good challenge.

Working jigsaw puzzles is actually an outstanding stress-relieving activity. Whenever we have a puzzle set out, every member of the family gets in on the fun.  Whenever any of us passes by a puzzle in progress, we feel compelled to try to find a few pieces to magically fit in place.  I haven’t had a puzzle going in a while – it  seems to be one of those things that I do more frequently in seasons other than summer. Like updating blogs!  Summer cuts into my writing and updating like a sharp knife cuts into a watermelon.

The last jigsaw puzzle my family and I had going was a real beauty. There were six big, colorful hot air balloons against a blue sky with just enough fluffy clouds to make it one of the most puzzling puzzles ever.  The only one I can remember being tougher was a Times Square one that was just vicious… it’s actually still too soon to talk about that one.

One afternoon Emily and I were hard at work on the Hot Air Balloons puzzle, sipping coffee and strategically trying to find pieces of the sky that would consent to fit together.  We got tickled once because we caught ourselves trying to enforce our will a couple of times.  I mockingly acted like I was pounding one in with my fist. It, of course, didn’t see things my way – no matter how hard I pounded.  I decided to accept the inevitable and took the “difficult” piece on the same tour the last pieces of a puzzle get… a visit to each open bay or available peninsula.

Please tell me I”m not the only one to think of puzzle pieces geographically.

Life, interestingly enough, is often like a jigsaw puzzle.  Sometimes it hums along beautifully. All the pieces fit perfectly. We see the big picture of our life the way we see the big picture on the front of a puzzle’s box.  We have money in the bank, food in the refrigerator, the kids are being down-right saintly, our spouse is so close to perfect it scares us… all’s right in the world.

The pieces fit effortlessly.

Other times it seems like we can’t catch a break. Money’s tight, the kids are getting into everything, our spouse is in the worst mood in the history of moods, bills are piling up and…  Days (sometimes weeks!) when you’d be hard-pressed to find an answer if someone asked, “What are you most thankful for today?”

The pieces don’t fit.. no matter how hard we pound!

Yet, all the pieces are necessary to complete the big picture – the masterpiece that will be our life.

Have you ever worked a puzzle only to find a few pieces missing? If you have a cat like Alexa, it probably happens regularly.  I wish I had a dollar for every time I’ve crawled around on my hands and knees peeking under sofas, appliances, tables, etc for missing pieces she swatted.  I suspect it’s all part of the game she plays called, “Let’s see how many crazy things I can make the humans do today.”

A puzzle is anything but a work of art when there’s even just one piece missing. Isn’t that crazy? There can be 999 pieces beautifully in place, but if there’s one tiny piece missing, it messes everything up.  The entire picture is ruined.

Difficult times in our lives… the pieces that don’t fit… are just as necessary to complete the “big picture.”  They may take extra time, work, and patience, but they’re necessary – every bit as necessary as the pieces that glide into place.   In fact, these times will probably always have a special place in your heart.  After our Hot Air Balloon puzzle was completed, we’d all talk about the sky each time we looked at it!  We’d remember what a struggle it was to find just the right pieces of white for each cloud and we’d remember asking each other, “How many shades of blue can actually exist?!”  Looking at the beautiful cloud-filled sky may have even been more gratifying than the big beautiful balloons.

When we look back over trying times in our lives, we’ll be able to get a certain kind of satisfaction and relief from just knowing we made it through alive! If the events made us stronger, the satisfaction will be even greater.

I’ve heard from quite a few people lately who are currently going through difficult times. I know that there are many others out there who are just trying to find ways to make the pieces fit.  When I correspond with friends I meet through Self Help Daily, one of the things I always say is, “Stay Strong…” I should say one of the many things – anyone who knows me knows that some of my e-mails should come divided into chapters!  “Stay Strong” may seem like simple little words, but if you keep them as your mindset, they can help see you through anything.

Staying strong is the key to making  it through to the other side a stronger, better person.  It’s the key to hanging in there long enough to make the pieces of the puzzle fit.

Whatever puzzle lies before you, know that you hold all of the pieces.  Keep the big picture in front of you and… yes… stay strong.

~ Joi

The Marines Aren’t the Only Ones

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Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. – Martin Luther King Jr.

Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. Speaking at Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom'

I guess it’s because we recently celebrated Martin Luther King, Jr. Day on top of the fact that today’s Muhammad Ali’s birthday, but I’ve been thinking a lot about bravery, boldness, and guts.  By contrast, I’ve been thinking about cowardliness and meekness.  The two aforementioned me epitomized bravery and redefined boldness.

Whether every single person agreed with them or not wasn’t the issue – everyone knew where they stood.  Everyone knew what they stood for, they didn’t have to guess or read between the lines.

I’d rather an individual have ZERO beliefs than to have beliefs and keep them under wraps for fear of what others will say or think.  People like this are cowards and are a disgrace to the causes or beliefs they supposedly hold.

Take Tim Tebow, for example.  Whether people agree with him or not, everyone knows Who he believes in and Who he has dedicated his life to.

Personally, I think it takes a borderline nitwit to have a problem with that. Seriously? With all the disgusting sport’s stories we read about, people are going to say negative things about a young man who’s a devout Christian? One who spends so much time with sick kids?  One who does nothing AT ALL to bring disgrace to his team, his sport, or his family?

I once heard that, very often, the people we choose to hate has more to do with US than THEM. Whew, I’m glad I don’t hate Tim Tebow, I wouldn’t want to know what that said about me.

This post may be a little all over the place (not even halfway into it, I”ve gone from a civil rights leader to a boxing legend, to a quarterback), and I apologize for that.

Basically, what I’m trying to say is this:  We have a lot of ills in our society that need to be taken care of.  From Alzheimer’s Disease to child abuse, there are countless diseases and social issues that, to borrow from the Marines, need a few good men.  Naturally, in this instance, I mean men and women.

If everyone keeps pussyfooting around, scared to death of stepping on anyone’s toes – nothing’s going to get done. Cowards accomplish nothing.

  • If you’re a Christian, say so!  Why should any of us who are Christians hesitate for a second to say so?  We didn’t do anything wrong!!!
  • If you’re Catholic, say so!  Again, you haven’t done anything wrong!
  • Whatever your beliefs are, don’t be ashamed of them or afraid of what people will think.  Think about it, do you really care what bigoted, narrow minded people think? If you do, then that’s the first problem you need to address.

Don’t be a coward, for crying out loud. Don’t refer to God as “a higher power” or “the universe.”   Here’s the thing with people who do that:

  • Either they don’t believe in God, but do believe that there is something which is a higher power. Elvis? Yeti? A Ninja?
  • Or maybe they don’t believe that there is a God, and the Bible was completely mistaken – however, the “universe” DOES wheel and deal with people’s fortunes and misfortunes.  Perchance the moon is in charge of good luck, the stars control bad luck, and the planets deal with reprobates.

Wouldn’t they be better off just using the old fallback Karma?

A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on an installment plan. – Martin Luther King Jr.

Yes, as a matter of fact, I am being a little nasty. But when you’ve been reading (like I have) a lot about Martin Luther King, Jr. you lose zero tolerance for fence sitters.  At a time when there was so much bigotry, prejudice, and racial tension in our country, this black man didn’t sit on his hands, hoping someone else would take care of the problem.  He didn’t think, “Uh Oh, if I say something, what will people think?”  He stood up. He spoke out. He rocked the world.  The hatred that killed him didn’t have the last word.  What would his haters have thought if someone had told them that one day this man would have his own holiday?! That little boys and girls would learn about him alongside other heroes and heroines in history class?

I’ve never kept my own beliefs a secret from anyone – but I’d be willing to fight for anyone else to have the freedom to express their beliefs, whether or not they line up with mine.

The majority of this post has dealt with religion and Spiritual beliefs, but boldness actually entails other areas as well.  Boldness is being able to stand up and do the right thing, in the right way. It’s believing in yourself, enough to know that what you feel is important.  What you say matters because you matter.  Throw timidity and cowardice aside and boldly be who you are and say what you feel.  Make this the year you come out of your shell and crush the shell fragments under your feet. Grind them into the ground!

If everyone boldly stood up for their beliefs, then the one’s who actually DO wouldn’t be so rare.  They wouldn’t be like beacons of light in darkness, they’d just be beautiful lights in a sea of other beautiful lights.

In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. – Martin Luther King Jr. (more Martin Luther King Jr Quotes)

Photo Credit: The image is Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. Speaking at Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom. It’s available as an art print on Allposters.com