glimpsesbymelanie

Okay, the ones of you reading this right now have made it through nearly a full of a pandemic. It reminds me of having a dreaded disease where the doctors are pumping poison into you that not only works on ridding your body of the disease but destroys other parts, such as, your immune system as well. While this is happening you are in a quarantine similar to what we are going through now, wearing masks, social distancing and washing your hands. You do these things because you are very susceptible to infections.

When you are going through this you feel worse than you have felt in your life. You can either sit on your haunches and feel sorry for yourself or, you can see it as a test that you have been given. When you are learning things you always have a test to see if you got it or not, when you’re in school, learn to drive a car, get a job, get married and have children. We have these tests to find out how strong or weak we really are.

Our country is going through a huge test right now. We as a people seem to be growing angrier and angrier with one another. As for myself I stay here on my farm and do what needs to be done. I love photography and find a lot of peace in nature. I try to gives thanks and gratitude to God every day for all that I have. At this point in my life I don’t need much.

I will close this today with the beautiful sunrise that greeted me yesterday morning. I hope you find love, peace and good health. Someone said to me once….”Look how much you have, look how far you’ve come, look how fast it happened…how easy did you let be?”

I haven’t really been sleeping all this time but, when I see how long it has been since I posted anything I wonder, “what have I been doing?” Let me see, I have been busy but, with what? Well, I have been doing things around the farm that need doing, I have been watching a lot of detective stories from Great Britain and Australia, I have been watching concerts from Nashville, Carnegie Hall, from Royal Caribbean Cruise lines, and taking lots of photographs.

I don’t have a theme, I just walk around and take images of things that catch my eye.

It could be absolutely anything, a leaf changing color, a weird shaped twig, or bones from an animal long since dead.

I hope you are finding ways to occupy your time while waiting to celebrate. I will try and not take so long in writing again. I always have ideas flying through my head but don’t take the time to sit down and put pen to paper.

I hope this finds you healthy and happy. I will drop again soon.

Have you been doing things during this lockdown time that you don’t normally do? Here on the farm there is always plenty to do to fill up my time. I did get my camera out and have been taking more photographs and I have watched a lot of Netflix and shows on Amazon Prime. I like the British detective shows and I love old movies.

When the movie “The Help” came out I went to the theatre to see it. I grew up in the south and I knew this kind of thing went on but, I didn’t realize how degrading and demeaning the whites were to people of color. I was taught that I was no better than anyone else. We didn’t have maids and servants. There was one lady that would come and help my Mother at times but, we never thought of her as a maid. We transported her to and from our house, she ate with us at our table and I loved her. She was an educated person that made sure her children all received a good education.

That was in the 50’s and it saddens me to my bones to think we have not progressed any further than we have. We tell ourselves we are a Christian nation. Are we? A few years back we were wearing these bracelets with WWJD on them. Have we forgotten? Well, he knows what we are doing so how do you think that makes him feel?

Growing up in church I learn the Beatitudes, did you? Do you remember what they are? Let me jog your memory:

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God

Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven

There are a couple of more quotes that I would remind you of and they are Honor your Father and Mother & Love thy neighbor as thyself.

I will leave you today with these things to ponder. I hope you have a safe and loving day.

When I was a young, middle-class white girl growing up in a small rural town in Kentucky I didn’t give a lot of thought to how I, or the world around me, would be when I got old. My Grandmother lived with us and she was in her 80’s and 90’s but I never thought of me at that age. Now, all of a sudden, here I am an old woman.

I didn’t think I would go to college because it cost too much. Because of the generosity of an uncle I did go to college. I got both a BS and an MA degree.

Growing up I never really thought about getting married but, I did. I married my high school sweetheart. He was in the Marine Corps and this began my traveling. I got to go to Hawaii, I had never dreamed I would go there. I have been a lot more places since.

I had two wonderful daughters. I would never have believed I could have so much love in my heart but, I did and still do for my daughters.

I have had fun, traveled, met lots of people and been filled with love to the point of bursting. If I had imagined all this as I was growing up would I have done it differently? NO! Maybe, somewhere in the deep recesses of my mind I did imagine all this. They say “Thoughts become things, choose the good ones”. I chose the best.

Do you have a quest? I thought I did but, something was missing. In the mid-80’s I left my job in Kentucky and moved to California. A lot of people around here thought California was where the”crazies” lived. In order to get a job there I had to send my college transcript, be finger printed and take some test. While all this was being processed I worked at a childcare center.

I have always loved nature and the Native American ways. For several years I wanted to do a vision quest. In the dictionary it describes vision as the special sense by which the qualities of an object (such as color, luminosity, shape and size) constituting its appearance are perceived through a process in which light rays entering the eye are transformed by the retina into electrical signals that are transmitted to the brain via the optic nerve. Quest is defined as an investigation or the act of seeking. A vision quest is a solitary vigil by an adolescent American Indian boy to seek spiritual power and learn through a vision the identity of his animal or bird guardian spirit.

I found a person qualified to lead me on this quest. I experienced things I had never experienced before. It was a six month process to ready myself. I fasted, gathered and made items I would take with me , dig a hole and spend the night in it on the side of a mountain.

The last thing I had to do was take the items I needed, go up on the mountain again and find a place level enough to spend three days and nights. I found rocks and formed a circle. I could not leave that circle until I was ready to descend. I had no food or water with me. It was truly a life changing experience for me. I gained a lot of insight about myself.

On the afternoon of the third day I saw my guardian spirit.

He lit in the top of a dead tree to preen himself. A feather caught the wind and blew upward. A blanket of warmth spread all over my body and I realized my spirit name. When I came down from the mountain I had a new quest. I have been living that journey ever since.

Has the pandemic given you quest? It has changed the way we are doing things. Maybe we were not paying attention to the right things. Think about it. What is your quest?

Now that we find ourselves in the situation we are in you may have a lot of time on your hands to think about things. I have two large dogs, one older and one younger, that are in a fenced yard. The younger one is very energetic and needs more exercise or I could never let him in the house. First thing in the morning when I get up I get dressed and take them out in the fields for a run. There is a pond and I have an old lawn chair that I leave there. This is my thinking and meditation time. If it is raining I take my large umbrella. I have all these beautiful sounds to put me in such a peaceful state of mind: the wind in the trees, choir of song birds, fish jumping in the water and, if it’s raining, the rhythm of the drops on the umbrella. I can’t think of a better way to begin my day.

As to what I think about while I am in my special place, I want to stay in the positive mode. I pray for peace, health and love for the world. As I was growing up the thought never crossed my mind that we would ever be where we are now. With God’s help and us caring for one another we will come through this and, I hope, be better for it. God gave us such a perfect home. We are the ones that keep messing it up

I have given you a couple of my thoughts and now I want to know what you think about that. Have a wonderful day.

I have two big dogs, Obi Wan Kenobi (brown) and Charley (black and white).

Obi Wan is 8 years old, Charley is about 2 years old. For safety reasons I have to keep them in a fenced yard. Early in the morning, around sunrise I take the two of them out to the pond and fields for a run. Charley runs like the wind for awhile then, plunges into the pond and swims around a bit. He jumps out and take off running again. The closest Obi gets to the water is to get a drink. When there are frogs around the edge of the pond Charley jumps and stomps at them to make them jump into the water. It is a wonderful way to begin my day.

I have always loved being outside. This is one of my three ponds. I have an old lawn chair on the bank where I sit and watch the dogs and listen to the avian choir. That early in the morning the fish are jumping as well as the frogs. This is also when I talk with my maker. It is my church. I can clean all the cobwebs from my brain, wash the sorrows from my soul and lift up my prayers to God to give us the strength to get us through these hard times. This is the sunshine on my shoulders.

I truly hope you have a special place where you can go within your heart and soul and build your strengths and work on your weaknesses. Through our faith and love we will get through this.