Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Blah Blah Blah





My second writing piece from the weekend. This one was also kind of fun. :^)

an advance p.s.: I can't get my fonts larger and I don't like this layout. 

I’ve given up.

You know those people on Facebook who poss a dozen nuggets of inspiration at at time? I read them with an upturned eye.  Might as well unfriend me because I not only won’t benefit from your effort to show me the path to a happy life; I will growl at you. There is no sound on Facebook proper and for that reason I am glad you take no offense. 

Just today: 

When the world says ‘give up, hope whispers ‘try it one more time.

Not every day is a perfect day, but every day is a miracle.

You get there by realizing you are already there. 

and today, my personal least favorite: 

Don’t be afraid to rock the boat. If someone falls out they weren’t meant to be in your boat.

Today I am saved only by one true nugget:

You can’t polish a turd, but you can roll it in glitter.

I have not earned the right to be righteous. A time ago I too looked to affirmations for comfort and clarity. I too shared them with others, although as an aside, six in a row one after another is a bit much, don’t you think so too? But I yearned for a vessel to float my confusion and who wouldn’t welcome the simple compass of assurance? 

How many meditations, ashrams, workshops, silent breakfasts, prayer chains, tarot cards, solstice gatherings, yoga poses, goddess channeling, dragon slayings, and floatation tanks have I experienced? Ask me. 

Many. Enough. I am an optimist who looks at the world with eager hope and willing hands. I have seen plenty, felt plenty, wandered plenty. 

Look at me and you will see a woman who luck has coveted. I have everything I’ve aspired to. I am healthy, I have roots, I am loved, I have a bank account. I am smart and wise and I know my way. 

It must be my age. I still think hope floats and hearts bounce.  But I see that the landscape ahead requires different provisions. 

“A happy childhood is poor preparation for human contacts.” 

That observation is not mine. I told you I don’t have the right to be righteous. That observation belongs to Colette, born in 1873, the same Colette who also said “On this narrow planet, we have only the choice between two unknown worlds: One of them tempts us, ah! what a dream, to live in that. The other stifles us at the first breath.”

I am not beneath offering up my own affirmations when the time is right. Though I would never roll out six at a time. 

My point is this: sometimes life is easy and sometimes life is hard. there is no way around that. The simple easy is often common: planting a garden, kissing little toes, reading Hemingway on the couch. Complicated easy is still easy but maybe risky too: being swallowed by passion, the long awaited trip to Africa, the job that delivers but also demands.

And simple hard: staying in shape, honoring fences, steadying when the wind blows.

But complicated hard: that is when the road to enlightenment misleads. I tell you what you already know: there is no redemption in wrestling grief, in watching Syria on the nightly news, in finding a lump, in watching your father die. Hard is hard and sometimes that’s what the world is and what your life is and all the affirmations in the world can’t change the fact that sometimes you just have to get through hard as best you can.

If you’re lucky, there is consolation. The sun has never refused to rise again, sooner or later.  

Ah! The sun also rises. Should I put that on Facebook? Now what I would I hope for if I did that? 

Love
kj 

33 comments:

  1. Oh my, how I LOLed at the turd/glitter quote. Awesome post, KJ! See, you just don't have enough cynical/flippant friends like me on FB! :) PS Just finished reading Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult. Thought of you! I picked it off the bookshelves at the library quite by chance. When will it be made into a Movie of the Week I wonder? (Remember those?)

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    1. Andrea, I identify with Jody picoult. Did you already know that? Xo

      My cynical flippant friend: the book gets mailed this weekend :-)

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  2. The Colette quote is far nicer than any of the "nuggets". Facebook seems tailor made for nuggets. Of course, I don't use Facebbok.

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  3. Did you see the clip I posted by Rainn Wilson "Your Facebook is False." It's about just those inspirational quotes.

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    1. No, and I want to, cs.

      I have an ongoing love-hate relationship with FB


      kj

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  4. How is my boy Chase doing? I want stories ánd pictures, KJ !!!

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    1. Just for you wieneke : pictures coming. Chase is a very very sweet dog. We've had one seizure so far. Not the easiest, but we'll all do what we can to manage them. He runs like a racehorse. I hope we don't soften those muscles up too much with all the love and massages he's getting :-)

      Love
      kj

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    2. OK, I will wait for the grand Chase-tour :-)

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  5. i am just thinking of rolling a turd in glitter...and wondering who i could gift it to....

    yep 23 months facebook free...and living my life...

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    1. Good for you, Brian! (The FB part, not the glitter gift) :-)

      I am determined to participate in FB and our beloved blogs only for joy. No obligation allowed.

      Love
      kj

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  6. Oh....how I TOTALLY LOVE THIS!!!
    I too, old curmudgeon that I am, GAG at the overdose of saccharine-sweet *inspirational* posts on FB. (and yes, the turd and glitter is about the best thing going!) I would love to BAN people that do that; seriously take those little nuggets of idiotic *joy* and shove them where the sun don't shine.
    Do you sense a little anger here? Perhaps because one too many have suggested these as a way to *keep my spirits up*....yeah right. A glass of SPIRITS is a much better, and tastier solution.
    We share brain waves on this one KJ~~~is the world READY FOR US???

    XXOO~~
    Anne... Old Fart In Training

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  7. Thank god for kindred souls Anne!

    I know what you mean. Sometimes the best and most needed gift a person gives to another is a willingness to simply witness their pain, their path

    What makes a person post a dozen sugar quotes at a time? Everyone knows a dozen cookies all at once gives a stomach ache :-)

    Love love
    kj

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    1. But at least, if it's a dozen SUGAR COOKIES, they are WORTH the stomach ache!!! There's some delight and substance before the pain.
      The others just give a big fat PITA......
      Just sayin'.... ;-)

      XXOO~~
      Cranky-Pants lol!

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    2. Good point, girlfriend :-)

      xoxo

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  8. the time when i dislike short affirmations the most is when I am in great angst about something, telling someone who i hope cares and understands and all they can say is: some short little quote.

    still at times I like to read them in the quiet of my head.

    i LOVE colette and at one time read everything i could that she had written and many bks about her life etc. thanks for her words.

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    1. Hello suki,you say this well. Witnessing is not advising. And too, sometimes one statement says everything

      Xoxo
      kj

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  9. Amen. I am done with the platitudes. I might well be done with FB altogether. I agree with you, and I have to wonder about anyone who thinks up (or looks up) more than one of these 'nuggets' a day.
    Yours hermitly,
    Pam

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    1. Honestly I don't get it either, Pam. Maybe it's a person's way to be creative. I appreciate that. But for me it's hard to scroll past 12 entries from the same person, one after another

      Love love
      kj

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  10. I like this, although I do have a fondness for quotes. The big guy gives me a hard time about that, he says, why not just write what you think instead of what someone else thinks.

    I watched a wonderful movie not long ago, "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" which I would highly recommend. There was a quote from the movie that I love and use now. "It will all work out in the end. If it's not worked out, it's not the end." Gives me hope and makes me smile.

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    1. Oh deb i too enjoyed that silly wake-up movie!

      And yes, a very good quote :-)

      Love
      kj

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  11. LIfe notwithstanding, blessings and Bear huts to you!

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  12. Hmmm... I feel conflicted...

    I think I would much rather be bombarded by positive affirmations (even though I don't "get" posting one right after another) than the negative mudslinging I also see on facebook. Although, I do believe that the constant stream of "nuggets" has a tendency to dilute the message.

    I personally love quotes of all kinds (my mom bought me a set of flat pens because I'm constantly writing down bits from the books I'm reading)... Your turd quote is definitely one I will be writing down ;)

    And, I have to admit that I am reading a little bit from "Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy" each day... It is definitely over-the-top-and-filled-with-platitudes, but it's exactly what I need right now.

    xo
    Kristin

    p.s. Here is my favorite turd quote (I can't believe I just wrote that! You know you're a quote junkie when you have a favorite "turd quote! Hahaha!):
    "If you are going to act like a turd, go lay in the yard."

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    1. I learned a lot from 'simple abundance', Kristin . I have it still

      My problem with anything negative on FB is political endorsements I can't agree with. They come mostly from old high school friends, and sometimes I am offended :-(

      Even though I'm complaining about all these inspirational quotes, I love finding the really good ones too :-)

      Love
      kj

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  13. Mmm I think you are being a bit harsh on those fb-ers as so many of those 'sayings' are needed and clung to in bad times. I had my own 'mantras' that I used to say over and over again when going through rough times. e.g. 'This too shall pass' (still one of my best ones.) I know that there are people who only rattle these off without actually saying anything themselves, but I do think,believe and even know that these (sometimes pithy) sayings have saved many a person from madness! Me included.

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  14. But soul, you have anyone on your FB who leaves 12 at a time? Or 20?! Jeez louse!

    This too shall pass? I say it too, all the time

    Love
    kj

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  15. "Everything happens for a reason, but sometimes the reason is that you're stupid and you make bad decisions." That's one of my favorites, probably because I hate that phrase...everything happens for a reason. This past year my feeling has been, don't try to cheer me up; I am never going to be happy about my Misters' cancer. DO try to make me laugh with something witty, such as
    I'm not an alcoholic; alcoholics go to meetings. I'm a drunk; we go to parties. HA! and **happy smiles** Deb

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  16. Deb, you are a breath of fresh air! I hope and think I totally understand what you are saying here. If I try to comfort you because I am uncomfortable, the distance between us gets wider.

    And some of those gooey sayings are not good for digestion!

    Love love
    kj

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  17. Phrase for the day: If I ever go missing, I would like my photo put on wine bottles instead of milk cartons. This way my friends will know to look for me.

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    1. Good, I'll be looking for you if ever necessary :-)

      xoxo

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  18. kj,
    I enjoyed this post. I agree, that sometimes we need to experience the hard, whether we chose to or not, it is apart of life's experience.I think that's what you are saying.
    Affirmations are helpful in moderation, I think, but not as rote.
    I don't use FB so am not familiar with this habit some people have of posting affirmations one after another. In a way it is nicer than negative stuff, but could get abit trite.
    When I was in my late teens, and dealing with difficult things, I subscribed to a magazine called Grapevine, (published by AA - I actually wasn't a member, but found a copy of the book somewhere, and it spoke to me.) I benefited from reading the stories by people who told difficult things in a simple way, and how they made it through. Every now and then there were phrases that I still try to remember to use, "This too will pass" was one.:)
    Brenda

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  19. Nuggets lose their impact when tossed at you like gravel, hahameow! I'll take mine one at a time, too...

    I have 3 on my FB page as my 'favorite quotes' but there are so many more, I don't often throw them out on FB as what might sound right for me at the time, totally trite to someone else in a different situation.

    1)
    It's never crowded on the extra mile.

    2)
    For every feared thing, there is an opposing hope that encourages us.

    3)
    I didn't fall off the turnip truck yesterday..

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