WELCOME 2017

I wish I felt better about this new year.

A huge part of it is our president-elect.

And no, he isn't everything.

But he STANDS for so many things that are simply NOT RIGHT.








I feel at though we are heading into a historic era - either the overthrow of all that is right and good, or the strongest stand for what is the best of humanity.

God help us all.

SUNSHINE GO AWAY TODAY

This song keeps going through my head - I'm not exactly certain why.

Sunshine go away today, I don't feel much like dancing

Some man's come he's trying to run my life, don't know what he's asking

When he tells me I better get in line, can't hear what he's saying

When I grow up, I'm gonna make him mine, these ain't dues I been paying

How much does it cost?

I'll buy it!

The time is all we've lost

I'll try it!

He can't even run his own life,

I'll be damned if he'll run mine--sunshine

Sunshine, go away today, I don't feel much like dancing

Some man's come he's trying to run my life, don't know what he's asking

Working starts to make me wonder where fruits of what I do are going

When he says in love and war all is fair, he's got cards he ain't showing

 

How much does it cost?

I'll buy it!

The time is all we've lost--I'll try it!

He can't even run his own life,

I'll be damned if he'll run mine--sunshine

GOODBYE PRINCESS

I have a little 14 year old neighbor who comes over occasionally and watches movies with me and eats.... a lot.

I usually let her select the movie.

And tonight she selected "Singing In The Rain."



With Gene Kelly, and Debbie Reynolds.





So I didn't tell her until the movie was completely over, that the character of Kathy Selden, was played by Carrie Fisher's mom.

It made both her and I a little sad.




It's always difficult when a parent outlives their child.

GOODBYE GEORGE

 A whole lot of you have no idea who George Michaels is.



I've been in love with his voice for years.



He did a lot of very silly songs - and some absolute classics.



He died on Christmas Day at age 54.





I'm glad they will be playing a lot his songs for a while.



But he's gonna be missed by me.

THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTMASES PAST

Everyone seems to have wonderful Christmas memories from their childhood.

I don't.

I hated Christmases growing up.



I hated them because my mom always went overboard.


She wanted a picture-perfect, Leave-It-To-Beaver happy-family postcard picture.

Never happened.

Not once.






Regardless of how much money she spent, how much time and energy on decorations, on planning, perfectly-planned meals and nicely coordinated family gatherings.

It was always tense - awkward - lots of anger and frustration and tears.

Always.



 I don't blame my mom - she wanted something for us kids that she  never had herself.

It just never worked.

ALL HAIL DICTATOR TRUMP

Wednesday, 9 November 2016

It’s 2:00 a.m., and I’m sitting here crying.

I honestly thought America was better than this.

I was so certain that the clear majority of the public would see how shallow and uninformed this man is.

But we have elected for president a bigoted, insecure, selfish and ignorant boor.

This man has insulted every single American woman, every minority, every veteran of war. He advocates violence, suppression, and pettiness.

He is only interested in his self-interests, his little empire, and his personal battles. He couldn’t care less about us as a nation or a world power. He now is going to be able to put his nasty supporters in positions of power, regardless of their background or experience, and will try to put all of us back in our proper places – underneath his feet.

I can’t believe we have done this.

Perhaps if I go back to bed, I’ll wake up and find this all a horrible nightmare.

I realize I have posted more political things this season than I ever have in the past.

I wish now somehow I had done more.

God bless American. We are certainly going to need it for the next four years.

POLITICAL IMAGES

This image upset me quite a bit.

And I know exactly why.

No one wants to view themselves as the woman on the left.

At least not with the kind of figure.

And we automatically WANT to relate to the woman on the right - pretty, long hair, great figure....

This has absolutely NOTHING to do with politics.

This is cheap, plain sexualization of women.

And it's wrong, in every way possible. 

THE RIGHT TO NOT STAND

There is a news story going around, that quite a few of my internet friends have posted.

How upsetting it is that a young man refused to stand for the national anthem.

"San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick has willingly immersed himself into controversy by refusing to stand for the playing of the national anthem in protest of what he deems are wrongdoings against African Americans and minorities in the United States."

Comments like "Funny, he doesn't feel strongly enough to refuse to play in this country and accept his multi-million dollar paychecks. I guess it's selective"

"He is an idiot who doesn't even know the facts of what he claims to be in protest of."

"YOU THINK YOUR BEING BRAVE, WELL HERE WE PUT UP WITH THIS KIND OF THING, SORT OF GIVE YOU A PASS (NO PUN INTENDED ) YOU WANT TO PROVE HOW BAD YOU ARE, GO TO IRAN OR SOME OTHER COUNTRY THAT HATES YOU BECAUSE YOU ARE AMERICAN AND DISRESPECT THIER FLAG, I DON"T THINK THEY WILL BE SO KIND, PLEASE GO, GO NOW , BEFORE YOU LOOSE ANOTHER GAME. BIL"

(I especially enjoy the misspellings in this last one)

Gosh.

Maybe I look at this all wrong - but isn't one of the most important things in our United States of America culture FREEDOM OF SPEECH?

The right of FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION?

And THE RIGHT TO DISAGREE WITH... well, whatever you want to disagree with.

We have the right, and, dare I say it, the RESPONSIBILITY to speak out.

And if not standing for the National Anthem, or not saying the Pledge of Allegiance, or flipping off the Statue of Liberty, is something you do or do not do to DRAW ATTENTION TO YOUR POSITION....

.... that's the most American thing I can think of. 

BIG PHARMACY IS GIVING PHARMACY A BAD NAME

There's a lot of press right now about the inflated prices on Epi-pens.

And I just have to put in a few words of my own.

I know certain people have gotten wealthy beyond anyone's wildest dreams by taking advantage of sick, needy people by manipulating prices on medicines and prescriptions.


But I know how one, at least, research pharmaceutical company worked.

It began with an idea - say, focusing on finding a cure for brain cancer.

It was quite a few  people pooling their resources - begging for loans - mortgaging their homes sometimes.

And they begin with nothing.... other than that idea.

They work - build labs, find funding, sell stock, hire researcher - and hope.

And hope.

And hope.

And SOMETIMES this translates into something that WORKS - which can then go into clinical trials.

And hope it gets approved.


And hope.






And MAYBE, just MAYBE, then, you can begin to MAKE the medicine, and charge for it, and begin to actually MAKE SOME MONEY.

Don't make everyone the bad guy here.

PINK RAINFALL

We have incredible sunsets here in Arizona.

I suppose we have wonderful sunrises too, but they come too early in the day for me to appreciate.

But the cloud formations - the sun just sliding behind the mountains - the rays pouring up....

It's lovely.

Someday I may actually get a REAL camera and learn how to photograph more than pointing my iPhone towards the site.

BEAUTY IS IN THE EYE....

I don't live in the Arizona desert, I live in what they call "high-chaparral" country. We get too much rain during our two monsoon seasons 12 inches is the average) - although we are pretty parched the rest of the year.




So when it rains, this landscape turns green and lush and plants aggressively take over EVERYwhere.





So to me, these are simply lovely.




And beautiful.



Our INSANE amount of birds. who take advantage of even our CACTUSES to protect their babies. 






And we have the coolest moonrises in the world.

COUNTING MY BLESSINGS - ONE, TWO, THREE....

I'm sitting here feeling pretty good.

And I began wondering WHY.

I normally have a nagging sense of doubt, worry, and/or fear hanging around.

And right now, I don't because:

... my oldest daughter and family are safely back in the United States after being in the Middle East and Europe for a month.

... my son passed his final test and begins working tomorrow.

... my brother's dialysis has been knocked down from three times a week to two, and I have the transportation to it adjusted and okayed.

.... my husband's boss, who was supposed to leave for Afghanistan next month, isn't going - he's sort of the only one my hubby feels support from.

.... I got out early and got the fly masks and spray on the horses.

... I don't have a Gospel Doctrine lesson to prepare, just a nursery email and Facebook update to do.

... I feel rested.

It feels nice.

ANIMAL LOVE

Usually when the expression "animal love" is used, it refers to unleashed, untamed love.








With some brutish force coming into play.




No, friends, this is animal love.


A dog on one side, and a cat on the other.

NO, THE BEST PEOPLE AREN'T ALWAYS IN THE USA

Some Sundays, I get more than a little irritated by some church-goers "airs."

Especially with the "we are obviously better than they are."

By the virtue of being born in the United States - of being white - of being born into the LDS church.

Like we are the top dogs, in every possible way.

I've been looking at it a little bit differently.

If we come down to earth to gain a physical body and learn and accept the gospel, yeah, this makes it easier, perhaps, being born in America.

But we also do temple work for those who don't get the opportunity to learn about Jesus Christ in this life.

So people who DON'T learn about it, get their temple work done, and ACCEPT it, aren't denied any blessing.

So perhaps....

Just perhaps....

Those of us who get dumped (in the mortality sense) into a comfortable, clean, civilized area like the U.S. of A..... maybe it's because we couldn't HANDLE a more difficult environment.

And perhaps, just perhaps, people who are born in deepest darkest Africa or being the Great Wall in China, are the MORE valiant - the MORE righteous - the MORE spiritual ones.


And CAN handle a darker world.

How about the people who lived through the Dark Ages? 

Most of them had no resources - no scriptures - very little direction, and in a lot of Europe, very little hope.

Maybe they JUST needed to come down to get a physical body.

Hmmm.

Maybe you comfortable Americans SHOULDN'T be so proud of being you.

FEELING LIKE HOGGLE

Have you ever seen the movie "Labyrinth" with David Bowie and Jennifer Connelly?

My kids grew up with watching that movie on VHS tapes like every week.

So do you remember this scene?




Today I was stalking around the house, wielding a flyswatter, and COUNTING as I killed the stampede of flies that had invaded our house.

And felt JUST like Hoggle!

THIS IS A TEST. IT IS ONLY A TEST.

Okay, there are two commandments that Jesus emphasizes in the New Testament.

I'm even gonna quote it here from Mark 12:

  28 And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all?

 29 And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:

 30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.

 31 And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.

Once again, "There is none other commandment greater than these."

I think Jesus meant that.

Love God.


And love each other.

That's the test.

He's saying, right here, this is what He wants.

And I think He is NOT saying, "AND decide how other people live THEIR lives"

He is NOT saying, "and love everyone EXCEPT FOR THOSE PARTICULAR SINNERS."

And finally, I am CERTAIN He is not saying, "AND JUDGE OTHER PEOPLE WHO DON'T DO THINGS THE WAY YOU DO THEM."

It's pretty simple, isn't it? 

IF I HAD A MILLION DOLLARS....

There's a great song by the Barenaked Ladies, called "If I Had A Million Dollars."

You can hear it at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8zdNe_l3M8.

Really, if you don't know the song, listen to all of it.

Isn't it cool?

Now, most times it you ask a person what they'd do with an unexpected windfall (landfall? which word is better here?), most people would IMMEDIATELY pronounce something that they would purchase... FOR THEMSELVES.

"A 1967 Chevy Impala!"

"A Fiat!"

"An island in the Pacific!"

But in this song, the dude is getting something FOR SOMEONE ELSE.

I like that.