CENSORED AND STILL HERE or How I Carry On

 “ It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live. Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself in your way of thinking. “

I’ve been thinking about fear a lot the past several months. We all have an inner warning system that gives us situational awareness. Even people who are ruining their lives with addictive behaviors (drugs, alcohol, gambling, too much eating, not enough of the right kind of food and the list goes on…. )have a set of instinctive reactions that will, in the right set of circumstances, keep them from walking off a cliff. 

I tell people who come out to meet horses for the first time that fear is a normal, in fact healthy, reaction to being with a horse for the first time. You’re standing next to a sentient creature who is a thousand pounds of muscle and bone that can kill a human without much effort. Assessing your situation is smart! Thankfully it is not in the nature of a horse to kill without extreme provocation. Listening to your “lizard brain” has kept you alive. 

“ I must not fear. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see it’s path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain. “

Fear is one of the easiest ways to manipulate the vast majority of people. The use of the media and social platforms has been used very effectively to magnify a situation that has become untenable. Countries all over the world have been divided, neighbors and old friends are at odds with each other. Here in the USA our schools were closed, small businesses were considered non essential and closed. Our church’s, when people needed each other and their faith the most, were closed and the leaders of those church’s arrested for continuing to have services. 

We were told to wear masks to keep ourselves safe, to stay away from all gatherings. People died alone, without their families at their sides to help them through the transition from this life to the next. We were very effectively divided and isolated from each other. We were terrified in to submission using confusing information that came from so called authorities. If anyone asked questions, especially logical questions, about what was going on we were censored, castigated. 

When I began to openly ask questions, to refuse to wear a mask or play this game, I was called a heretic, a mass murderer, a monster. I was called a supremicist, a bigot, cruel and thoughtless, and so on. The list of so called evils reached ludicrous levels pretty quickly. So I withdrew from all social media platforms, from reading the news. That was a fear response on my part. What if these threats came back on my family? I was not prepared for the mob mind entering my home. 

I retreated to my cave while I recovered. I wasn’t sick. I was appalled. The veneer of civilized behavior was much thinner than I realized. No one, not even my former personal physician who had also been a friend, was interested in alternative ideas or questions. I was castigated for being me. The picture of me being painted by people I had known for many years did not match who I thought I had shown them. I needed to know why.

“ Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth. “

Evidently I had become the “horse” and people were afraid of my curiosity,  my ability to see outside their safe space. My questions were the unknown and I was shunned. Thankfully I have my family. Although those bonds were tested during the past year and a half, our love and respect for each other overrode the social pressure . Because of my adult children arranging a vacation for all of us to spend time as a family, we were for ten days together, supporting each other. For a time we were in the present without the woes of a confusing world, politics or societal issues interfering. 

“ The willow submits to the wind and prospers until one day it is many willows - a wall against the wind. “

There’s nothing small about love, but some of the smallest things that happened while we were on this vacation were the largest. When my grandchild offered to help me make a bed, and then we jumped on it, my heart was full. I laughed and it opened up the places I had retreated to for protection. The light shining in was perfect. All of the spontaneous hugs, a chipmunk round up when three chipmunks came in an open door, the hike that we met a black bear on, making pancakes together and hearing my favorite in-law say that I was an honorable person filled in all of the tiny wounds and helped me to heal. 

We were still Americans who loved each other for all of our complicated differences. And we were together. For those ten days I left fear outside the door and was able to look at it from a different point of view. It was OK to let it in because it is a normal and healthy part of life. There is no light without the dark to show us the edges. 

It’s occurred to me that we have become a society of very comfortable people who do not want our walls shaken. I genuinely think that the majority of us want to be kind. We want to raise our children, delight in their families and the grandchildren they bring in to our lives. We want to pay our bills, help our neighbors when we can and to live without too much strife. Most of the reactions this past year and a half were from frightened people who were being challenged and felt they had no where to turn, so they attacked. 

Very few people were ready to tackle a rocky, uphill climb with obstacles in their way. They had grown complacent, had forgotten how to meet a challenge. The fear was overwhelming and was used to create anger, confusion, strife and was magnified with the exhaustion of loss of sleep, lack of exercise and isolation. So they struck out with words and, unfortunately, sometimes actions. They were fighting for their lives, in their minds, and I was an easy to spot target because I was different in my reactions, a threat to their comfort zone.

“Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.”

I admit that I am still confused. I can not fathom why people are so complacent in a situation that is not logical. From my point of view we are all participating in the destruction of our own country. Very few small businesses have survived the past year and a half. Big box stores including liquor stores, pharmaceutical stores, strip joints and gambling casinos as well as big box grocery stores and gas stations have been left alone and considered essential. Small businesses are the backbone of our country. It’s the entrepreneurial spirit and imagination that makes the USA a power house, an example of freedom in the world. It’s the self destruction of the American Dream. Why didn’t people fight that harder? FEAR. Fear of the unknown and unseen. How do you fight something you can’t see? 

“ Listen to the mustn’t, child. Listen to the don’ts. Listen to the shouldn’ts, the impossibles, the won’ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me …. Anything can happen, child. Anything can be. “

So I am on a campaign of leading by example. I do not fight with anyone who thinks differently than I do. I listen and try to understand. And then I continue on my way, doing what I was doing. I have decided to live my life the way I always have. NO MASKS. NO SOCIAL DISTANCING (I despise that made up by the media term. ). I do what I have always done. I will not change to match society’s expectations. So far I do not see people going back to masks. Certainly there are some people who never stopped wearing them. That is THEIR CHOICE. The vast majority of people are back to living without the symbol of control, a mask. We’re being told that another lockdown is coming, that vaccines are not enough, that masks have to continue to be used. But the cat is out of the bag on that one. Too many of the so called “elite” are being caught with their panties down and NO MASKS. I prefer to think that people are going to ask questions about why ANY mask, lockdown or social distancing is needed. Resistance to thoughtless compliance is NOT futile. 

I am sharing from my gardens. I am sharing eggs. I am sharing time when someone needs me to be there, if I can. I smile, always a genuine smile too. I enjoy people, always have. I like meeting them, listening to their stories. I greet them, “ Good morning! “ or, “ Hi! “. I wave from my truck, smile at babies, compliment new mothers. And if someone obviously is distressed by my behavior I move on. I do not take it personally. How they behave is a reflection of who they are. I make no assumptions, and am actively refusing to participate in gossip. “ I don’t want to talk about that. “ 

I am planting even more flowers. The world needs color and beauty. I’ve put in to my budget BUY POUNDS AND POUNDS OF FLOWER SEEDS. I’m planting fruit bearing trees. If they don’t make it past the deer then at least the deer have benefited (although I am working on a system to protect the baby trees). 

We are repairing, to the best of our abilities, the house and out buildings. We’re painting and replacing as we can. I am following through on an old Girl Scout Moto, “ Leave a place better than you found it. “

. Notice that I said GIRL. I am standing my ground on the fact that I am female, that I believe there are two sexes, male or female. I support marriage between a man and a woman. Women are the ones who have wombs, a uterus, ovaries, vagina, breasts, and have babies. Men have testicals and a penis. A man can not be pregnant or have a child that he carries in his body. He has no womb nor eggs. He contributes sperm. 

I have nothing to say to anyone about the so called transitioning to another sex. No matter what you choose to do to your body, you were born either male or female. You will still have a set of chromosomes that identify you as female or male. 

I am not playing the color game anymore than I have at any other time of my life. I like people. I don’t care about their colors. ALL LIVES MATTER and they always have. The rest is just semantics. 

“ The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and although in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater. “

I don’t know what to tell you, dear reader. I have just been notified that my email list is no longer available . At this point I am writing to myself. I am being censored. How interesting. I’ve spent the vast majority of my life without an internet. Somehow I survived just fine without the so called approval of whomever it is that has flagged this BLOG. What I have to say still counts, at least for me. I AM STANDING MY GROUND. I am exactly who I have always been. 

“ Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed. “

I guess there is no end, no real conclusion to this. I will send this via text to friends. I am still, ever yours, Nancy, smiling….

“ The first duty of a (wo)man is to think for (her)himself. “

GIVE SOME EGGS OF KINDNESS AWAY, HELP YOUR NEIGHBORS

 I’m using up valuable planting time to write this, but it’s something that has to be said. I heard from an old friend a few days ago. (Always no names or gender used.) We caught up on friends, family, travels and projects the way people who’ve known each other for years do. But in between everything being said was a constant that I found disturbing. “ I h@te Republicans. I h@te Trump. I just spent the year isolated and afraid. “ I didn’t respond. I never do. I firmly believe that, as Americans, we have the right to our politics and religion without feeling a need to share them or to even be compelled to share them. And I usually don’t. It’s nobody’s business who I vote for or what I believe spiritually. But this year is different simply because people seem to feel the need to push their agenda on to me. 

I am an Independent voter and belong to no particular religious group. HOWEVER I am most definitely Judeo/Christian in my orientation and I am conservative in the majority of my views. I am exhausted with the “breakdown the family unit” rhetoric coming from an extreme left, politically. I’m worn out with the h@tefull propaganda being pressed on the public by a media that is no longer anything except a vehicle for the extremists. And it is getting harder to listen to h@te speech coming from people I’ve known for many years. (That four letter word, h@te, is powerful and full of venom. It is the worst word in the English language, or any other for that matter. It has power. I will not use it so I misspell it using another symbol.) I am tired of the fear mongering and the impact it has had on vulnerable people.

So here is what I have to say to all of you reading this BLOG entry. STOP IT. Be who you are and own it. Be proud of who you are, but don’t try to impress on me or anyone else how important it is to be just like you or be canceled. I’m not interested in that kind of exclusivity. I’m not interested in your politics or religion as long as you are not hurting children, animals or other people intentionally. If that is the case, find another to share your need to whine or impress on someone else how right you are and how wrong others are. I am interested in your story. I am happy to debate. I’m not going to join your group or belief system. I am exactly who I have always been. Like any of you I evolve through life experience but I am still just Nancy. 

Shall I tell you what I miss after a year of people being manipulated in to thinking they are going to die, businesses being lost, jobs being lost, people loosing it because they are suffering from loneliness and despair, churches being closed, schools becoming prisons, and this rancid cancel culture attitude? I miss seeing a friend at the grocery store and talking about fresh produce. I miss being able to, very occasionally, go to my favorite little restaurant and having a meal, watching the human drama going on around me. I miss being able to save my money and flying to see my grandchildren. I miss seeing families out with their children enjoying the parks instead of being afraid to go there because of the wigged out drug addicts and muggers, the human feces and bloody syringes. I miss weddings and funerals, birthday parties and potluck dinners. And I miss a challenging debate instead of threats and h@te mongering. And I miss the guaranteed Constitutional rights that I have to make my own decisions about how to take care of myself, to be myself with all of my good parts and faults without people threatening me because I do not follow a set of implied rules.

If I have any advice for anyone, it’s to let yourself out of your self imposed prison. Try being kind. If you have nothing nice to say, then don’t say it. If you see someone in trouble and you can help, hold space for them. Open the door, help pick up that bag of dropped groceries, mow their lawn or share a dozen eggs. Make cookies and take them to their door, smile WITHOUT a mask on and offer the plate to them. Tell them you miss talking over the fence. Ask how they are. LEAVE POLITICS out of the conversation. And keep your opinions to yourself. Just listen and enjoy the weather together. Offer a hand shake or a hug. 

We are a social species. We need to be together. We need our families, our neighbors, and we need fresh air and the sun on our faces . 

1. Be impeccable with your word.

2. Don’t take anything personally.

3. Don’t make assumptions.

4. Always do your best.

Shall I explain what those statements mean to me in the context of this post? When you are talking with a friend, remember they are as an individual. Be kind. My old friend sat there and told me they h@ted people because of their political choices. That is supporting a deeply divided nation, an ideal that it’s “my way or the highway”. How dull. How self centered, making that assumption. Takes you right to #3 doesn’t it? And ask yourself, during the process of denigrating people for their politics or religion, if that is your best. I don’t think it is. Your best is keeping your eyes open, asking questions, listening to what others have to say. Hold space for others. Be kind in your thoughts and intentions. 

Be an activist of kindness. I’ve been doing some things to honor my Grandparents for their incredible kindnesses during the Great Depression during the 1930’s. They helped to keep three neighboring farms intact, gave away dozens and dozens of eggs and truckloads of produce, helped people with chores and kept them smiling with their ability to tell funny stories. They were generous and kind without seeing the faults in their neighbors. They resisted the opportunity to judge people and chose to help instead.

The past two months I have : given away 14 dozen eggs, made cookies for three families, helped support an idea that became a wish fulfilled, opened doors and told funny stories to people who needed to laugh. And I did all of it with no fear, no mask, no expectations of a thank you or a returned kindness. Instead I tell people to just pass it on, pay it forward. 

Be that unexpected spot of color in the garden, the dandelion that makes people smile and stop to look at how wonderful sunshine yellow is in the Spring. 

I am, ever yours, Nancy, smiling 

NO MASKS PERIOD!

 

“The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.” 
― Terry Pratchett, Diggers

To celebrate or mourn, depending on how you look at it, a year of no common sense and fear buttons being punched so hard by social media and the press that people have grown in to a kind of mass panic over a virus that has a 99.94% survival rate, I am thinking about the ultimate practical joke. I found several websites that make masks with anything you want printed on the them. What if I had one printed up that looks like my face but with pale skin and bloody pus coming out of my nostrils? I could put makeup on the rest of my face when I wear the mask, put fake blood capsules in my mouth and when someone says something I could bite on the capsules, roll my eyes back and start staggering around like a Zombie. I could even attach some fake flies to the outside of the mask. 

What? You don’t like that idea? It’s gross and lacks respect. So what! For this entire year of bizarre behaviors while I watched Constitutional rights shattered over and over, cities burned and looted, suggestions of defunding police departments, people being attacked and vilified for not following the new social norm by refusing to wear a useless mask (me included) and convicted felons who are rapists, violent, arsonists released in to the world because “ they might get the COVID “ I think I might just fit in. Society is filled with Zombies who spend all their time hiding at home while others work long shifts wearing masks with no breaks. The Zombie people stare at little glass screens and attack anyone who isn’t also a Zombie. So, I become a Zombie only more so.

It’s occurred to me that the real lack in our world is that no one has a sense of humor anymore. We’re supposed to be afraid of being politically incorrect. There’s no space to be creative much less a creative problem solver. We’re supposed to be compliant even when everything is based on lies and mandates (. 

As nouns the difference between mandate and law

 is that mandate is an official or authoritative command; an order or injunction; a commission; a judicial precept while law is (uncountable) the body of rules and standards issued by a government, or to be applied by courts and similar authorities or law can be (obsolete) a tumulus of stones. 

As a verb mandate

 is to authorize. 

As a interjection law is 

 (dated) an exclamation of mild surprise; lawks.

A mandate is an official or authoritative COMMAND. I define myself as an American. I live by the law, not by authoritative command. This is not a monarchy or a communist country, at least not yet. I have chosen not to wear a mask. ( News flash : neither my spouse or I have taken any measures to protect ourselves for this last year against any virus or disease. We do not wear masks, do not practice social distancing. We’re both past 65 this year, so in the category of people least likely to survive this virus. Why haven’t we been sick? ) . Decisions are supposed to be made by the citizen through informed consent. My body, my space, my choice. 

How do you show you like something on ZombieBook? You click on the “ Bite you “ button. 

Come on, man! Smile. 

One of the things I’ve noticed is that no one smiles anymore. Everyone is hidden behind masks. How can you see a smile if it’s always covered up? How are you going to recognize friends when you’re out if the face is always covered? So how do you retain a sense of humor when your face, one of the ways you communicate, is covered? And how about children? Does anyone understand what they’re doing to children when they can’t play together, touch each other, laugh and cry or learn about how to interpret emotions when the face can’t be seen? 

We are social creatures. Basically the human race has been partially blinded with no one to help us find a way to see or communicate. I miss going in to the grocery store and talking to the person next to me while we choose our fresh produce. I miss watching people interact with each other. I love the theater of life! And I especially miss smiling... 

In our county 70 deaths total have been recorded, of COVID. More than 90% of those people were over 70 years old, most of those in the 80 years old plus range. Our population is 124,559 people. That means our percentage of deaths is .00056198 %.  My question is doesn’t anyone die of old age anymore? People I am considered old now. I’m not sick. I did not protect myself. How come? Luck of the genetic toss of the dice? How about you look at that number again. .00056198%. For that number our unemployment is now over 10% , children are either sitting at home with heads stuck to little glass screens or sitting in rooms with plastic shields around them and masks on. More than thirty percent of the small businesses in our area have closed permanently. People have been harassed openly for not wearing masks and churches are allowing limited capacity people instead of a full church. No funerals, no weddings, no school dances, no sports, no music recitals or dance recitals, and the list goes on and on. I haven’t even listed the growing suicide numbers, broken marriages, families torn apart, bankruptcy’s, or people who have not been going to doctor’s or dentist’s offices for regular check ups. 

.00056198%

One of my secret guilty pleasure is sitting here, after morning chores, with a cup of tea and listening to this YouTube channel. This one is very close to how I feel, how I react to a world that feels broken and upside down. The narrator has a good voice too.

Q: What kinds of streets do zombies live on?
A: Dead ends!

Please, dear reader, come up for air. Remember 2019 when unemployment was at an all time low, businesses were thriving, friends got together for potluck dinners and weddings, celebrated a life well lived at funerals. Families staid with a member who was dying, held their hands, washed their faces, told funny stories and remembered all things good and bad together and all of it, ALL OF IT, was done without the thought of a mask. People hugged, shook hands, smiled at each other, stopped to enjoy buskers on the street performing music or dance, theater or juggling. We traveled to wonderful places in our country and visited other countries too. 

REMEMBER your life and make a decision to regain it with an open face, NO MASKS. Go to the store to pick up milk and eggs without worrying about who used the cart before you did. And, even better, mind your own business. Stop making judgement calls and harassing people for not being just like you. Laugh more, tell stories, go to museums to look at astounding fine art, hike, walk, help your neighbors, WAKE UP.

Make cookies and take a plate to your neighbor’s house to share without a mask on. Smile when they open the door. It doesn’t matter whether they take it. It’s the fact that you are being yourself again without the bizarre restriction of wearing a mask. It has to start somewhere. Plant a seed of smiles and kindness. 

And STOP WATCHING THE NEWS. Give yourself a break from the deeply slanted news agencies and social media platforms. Watch a comedy. Read a good book. Clean your closets and give what you don’t want away and DO IT WITHOUT A MASK. Buy a cup of coffee for the person in line behind you. Shovel the snow from your neighbor’s driveway and DO IT WITHOUT A MASK ON. Plan your Spring gardens with your children. Let them decide what to plant. Play CLUE or MONOPOLY or GO FISH with your family and turn the TV off. 

Make a fire in the fireplace, cut some branches from a tree, buy a bag of marshmallows and roast them while you sit on the floor with just the light from the fire and tell stories to each other. Live your life and stop obsessing over the things you can’t control. 

Be creative in your choices and LAUGH. Do everything without a mask in the equation and smile as often as you can at the people you see. Life is too short to live the way the so-called experts are telling you to live. 

Get busy and live, love, laugh and be happy...

I am, ever yours, Nancy, laughing...

DANCING IN THE RAIN

 Today I danced in the rain. It’s January here in the Midwest and the rain was cold, just above freezing. My dogs , all three, said “ Nope. Not going out there Ma. I might be a tough ombré farm dog but January rain is not my thing. “ . So I put on my barn coat over my PJ’s, pulled on my barn boots held together with duct tape (every farmer’s friend), put on my gronkiest cowboy hat and out the door I went. I took off down our long, winding drive going west, and singing and dancing in the rain. They stood up on the porch watching. “ She’s kind of weird, nice but weird. Doesn’t she understand that it’s cold and wet? “. I kept dancing and splashing in puddles. I put on my Gene Kelley and off I went right down the drive.

Up on the road were some guys trying to fill a hole they had dug yesterday, putting in some kind of fiber optic tech line. They turned around and watched too. And then one of them put on some music, blasting it from their trucks. I waved and kept dancing. My poor orphan doggies couldn’t take that. They all came running out, splashing and rolling, doing their business and forgetting about whether it was cold and wet. All of us were soaked, muddy and playing in the rain.

And then the guys on the road started pointing and waving. I turned and here comes Lucky, my beautiful, glorious Lucky, running straight at the gate without stopping. And over he came, sailing like he was Pegasus and his wings were carrying him. He’s twenty years old! My Lucky is twenty years old and hasn’t jumped 4 and 1/2 feet for years and here he came, right over the fence. We all stood there, jaws dropped. He foxtrotted up to me and said, “ Whoooohooohooo hoooooo!” He was not going to be left out. 

I could hear the guys, up on the road, laughing and cheering. It really was a spectacular leap. Lucky’s take off to landing is always over 17 feet. I don’t show my horses, don’t care for the stress it causes the horses or people, for that matter. But we did jump out on the trails whenever I found a good place for it. And both of us loved it. And there he was, rain soaked and steaming because he had run from the back of his pasture to leap. I had some of his favorite cookies in my pockets so I gave him one. He chomped and chewed, humming the way he does. Everything Lucky does is with a verbal comment. He’s always done that, has cracked friends up when we ride or play together. Lucky’s full brother, three years older than him, was a world class jumper. He even looked like my Lucky, a beautiful copper penny of a horse with one white sock. They both were blessed with spectacular health and perfect conformation. I still marvel at the fact he is mine.

My beautiful stunning boy can still fly! John heard it, came out the door to help if I needed him. He asked if I needed a halter and lead. “ No, thanks. We’re fine. Lucky’s here because he wants to be. He won’t leave me. “ and he didn’t either. We played on the ground out where the old arena was, before the tornado took it, and up and down the drive. The dogs were still playing in the puddles, following scent trails and walking with us. Lucky and I played in the rain, practicing walk/stop transitions, walking circles, walk/stop/back and then just walking together as buddies. He knew when we got back and I took him through the gate there would be another one of those wonderful molasses cookies. He hummed, I sang off key and we all danced together in the rain. I was so cold I was shaking and it never occurred to me to stop. 

When we got back to the barn I took time to check his legs for heat, check his hooves for stones since he jumped on gravel and to walk him around a bit more to make sure he was cooled off. Apache, Stony and Willow joined us. I love walking with a herd around me. Maybe I was a horse in another life? I don’t know. It always makes me feel safe to have them there with me. 

How many people get to do that? Dance in the rain with three ancient farm dogs, one spectacular aging horse and more waiting at the gates? I don’t have a penny to my name because I spend all of it on my animals, and I love my life! I am married to my best friend, live with three wonderful, aging horses, one fierce bad donkey, three dogs, four cats, seven ducks and seven chickens. We work hard here, love this place we live in. If I had one wish for the world, it would be for people to have this kind of muddy, wet, messy, cold, grey January morning dancing with a horse down the road to some pop music blaring from a truck. If everyone could have these brief moments of unadulterated joy, maybe they would calm down a bit, relax to the rhythm of their lives and enjoy the moments in the real present, not the make believe they see on little glass screens.

We’re so lucky in our lives. We both enjoy living tight to the bone, meeting the challenge that comes with the choices we made. The land we live on is beautiful, off the beaten path. We are the caretakers of the land for the Universities nearby. It’s a preserve we’ve protected for twenty years. Living here allows me the chance to dance in my PJ’s with my dogs and flying horse.

I heard a friend say that they missed 2020 because this year was starting out worse. Not for me this morning, on a classic Kansas Winter day. It’s still grey, cold, raining. We’re in the middle of the day now. Evening chores will start in three hours and I don’t think the temperature has changed or the rain slowed down. It’s going to be muck on top of frozen ground and we’re all going to be sliding around. It’s the kind of day that folks huddle inside away from, waiting for Spring and sunshine. But today, for Lucky and I, my three amigos (Apple, Scout and Sandy) and my husband who hugged me, mud and all, when I came in and said he loved me, for today it’s perfect. I wish everyone could find a way to feel what it’s like to have a glorious 16 plus hands horse jump a fence, just to be with them. 

Magic. It’s all magic. I can’t wait to see what comes around the bend for us next. 

Isn’t he stunning? I am so in love!

I am, ever yours, Nancy (who forgot to take my phone with me so I couldn’t get images. How twentieth century of me!), smiling

I AM, EVER YOURS, LAUGHING .... AND MASKLESS because laughter should always be open and with delight...

 It’s happened. I left all social media platforms last June. Getting violent threats does that. It was a good thing, in retrospect. I was spending too much time in a virtual world, reading about and talking about other cultures and people’s ideas and not enough time here in my own, real, present time. The reason for leaving was not one I had anticipated. I was asking questions that went against the accepted norm of “be afraid, be very afraid”. And I refused to follow the mandated, mind you not lawfully mandated (and even then I would have refused) but simply being told that wearing a mask was now the accepted social behavior, that all people outside that group endangered the group. Even worse, it came along seven months after the public was informed about a virus and five months after the initial lockdowns. How interesting. 

But what is it that happened? I’ve begun to receive written notes, cards and letters, sent through snail mail, telling me to conform. I’ve kept all of them too. Some of them are sent with, I think, good intentions (The road to Hell is paved with good intentions. You’ve heard that one, right?) and some of them are openly threatening. Again, how interesting. The best I can say for all of them is that it is helping to support the USPO so good job guys for supporting all of those much needed jobs. 

Am I going to respond to any of them? Only with humor or just ignore them. Some people were stupid enough to actually put their home address on the envelope. Again, how interesting. News flash folks. If something happens to us, my family or my animals you are the first suspects along with all of the screen shots I’ve saved as well as emails. 

I’ve never broken any law, not even to shoplift bubblegum or to park where I shouldn’t. I have no traffic tickets at all on my record, never taken drugs (I don’t even take pain killers when I have a terrible sprain or broken bone.), never drink. I don’t lie, although I am a damn good story teller. But I always begin with, “ Let me tell you a story...” and inform people that it is a tall tale, something to entertain. I don’t gossip, although I have listened to my share of gossip without responding. Not sure that’s a good thing to do but I do listen because it gives me information about the person gossiping. Did you catch that? It’s the person who talks about others in a derogatory way that I am accessing and not the person they whisper about.

Basically I walk my own road. I love it when others walk along for a while, short or long, but I walk my path, not theirs. I listen to MY inner voice and not the finger wagging admonishments sent via text, email or snail mail. I don’t respond to people that yell at me, hit me with their truck door, throw things at me or come to my home to do damage such as bash a mail box. Kind of childish that one. We needed a new mailbox anyway so, as usual, something good always comes from wrong doing.

I admit I’ve watched what has happened in the world and especially our country with horror. People are incapable of asking questions, even so called well educated people. Instead they fall in to the “admonishing teacher” mode with an arrogance that is not unexpected. I would be lying if I didn’t write here that some of these people have made me cry. It seems that there is absolutely no acceptance of an opposing point of view in a country that has guaranteed the right to express that opinion. Indeed, cities have been burned, businesses destroyed along with entire neighborhoods, people harassed, beaten and even killed because of a guaranteed Constitutional right to follow our own politics, religion (you do remember that churchs were locked down too, right? People, at a time when they needed their community the most, were told that it was illegal to go to church.) and to express our ideas openly. Even worse it was sanctioned by small time bureaucrats. How interesting.

I’m not going to talk about the nature of a virus, the fact that it NEVER goes away. It will mutate but in some place it will continue exactly as it was. I’m not going to talk about the fact that viruses evolved before we did or that we are, on a daily basis, exposed to hundreds, even thousands of viruses. Our bodies build something called immunity. For the sake of people reading this who might not understand immunity, here’s a dictionary explanation.

im·​mu·​ni·​ty | \ i-ˈmyü-nə-tē  \

plural immunities

Definition of immunity

: the quality or state of being immuneespecially : a condition of being able to resist a particular disease especially through preventing development of a pathogenic microorganism or by counteracting the effects of its productsWould you like the medical explanation ? 

What is the immune system?

The immune system is what protects your body from diseases and infections. It's the bodily system that produces the immune response to defend your body from foreign substances, cells, and tissues. The immune system includes various parts of the body including the thymus, spleen, lymph nodes, special deposits of lymphoid tissue (such as those in the gastrointestinal tract and bone marrow), macrophages, lymphocytes including the B cells and T cells, and antibodies.

How about herd immunity? Unless you’re completely head blind you’ve read about that, yes?

What is herd immunity?

The term herd immunity refers to a reduction in the likelihood of someone catching a specific infectious disease because a significant proportion of the people in that person's community are immune to it. If you are less likely to come in contact with an infectious person, you're less likely to get infected yourself. The people in a community can be immune to a particular disease especially through previous exposure or vaccination.

I am here to be a friend when people need me. But I am not willing to change who I am while helping. I have an inner code that I follow. I will continue to form my own opinions based on the answers to questions I’ve asked, the research I’ve done. I do love having online access to some of the finest libraries in the world. 

“ Many are those who are my vigorous enemies; those who hate me without reason are numerous.

Those who repay my good with evil slander me when I seek what is good. “

PSALM 38, verses 19 and 20

How interesting. I opened my brother’s bible and it fell to this verse. I decided to do that again. This is what it fell open to :

“Do not plot harm against your neighbor, who lives trustfully near you. Do not accuse a man for no reason-when he has done you no harm. “ Proverbs 29 and 30

Again, how interesting. And one more time ...

“ The Lord spoke to me with his strong hand upon me, warning me not to follow the way of this people. He said :

Do not call conspiracy everything that these people call conspiracy ; do not fear what they fear, and do not dread it. 

The Lord Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, he is the one you are to fear, he is the one you are to dread, and he will be a sanctuary ... “

ISAIAH 11, 12, 13, 14

Everything is always open to interpretation, at least in this country it is still guaranteed under our CONSTITUTION, the BILL OF RIGHTS, and even THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. The way I read and respond to the passages the Bible has opened to without me choosing and under this set of circumstances reinforces in a wonderful, mystical way the path I am walking. 

There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that I am going to make mistakes every day. I will loose my temper, hurt the people I love, make poor decisions. But I also hope that I continue to learn from them too. I am going to break eggs and make a mess on a regular basis. But for right now, the more people push at me to join their herd mentality, the more I am going to settle my feet, stand here smiling and, when I go out my doors, I am going to walk a path that makes sense to me. It isn’t my job to fulfill other’s ideas of who they think I should be. 

You tend your garden, make your path and keep your well intentioned suggestions, or not well intentioned but vile, thoughts to yourself. And I will do the same.

THE FOUR AGREEMENTS :

1. BE IMPECCABLE WITH YOUR WORD.

2. DON’T TAKE ANYTHING PERSONALLY.

3. DON’T MAKE ASSUMPTIONS.

4. ALWAYS DO YOUR BEST. 

https://stlukegirlscouts.weebly.com/girl-scout-promise-law-motto-and-slogan.html

Girl Scout Law

I will do my best to be
honest and fair,
friendly and helpful,
considerate and caring,
courageous and strong, and
responsible for what I say and do,
and to
respect myself and others,
respect authority,
use resources wisely,
make the world a better place, and
be a sister to every Girl Scout.

The Exodus version (from the ESV BIBLE)^[3]

1. “You shall have no other gods before me."
2. “You shall not make yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God are only worthy of worship, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments."
3. “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
4. “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, or your servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy."
5. “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you."
6. “You shall not murder."
7. “You shall not commit adultery."
8. “You shall not steal."
9. “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor."
10. “You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.”

Are you beginning to get the idea? I THINK FOR MYSELF and I base my path and decisions on what I CHOOSE to, not what others think I should do. And I interpret what I have learned to DO MY BEST, to MAKE NO ASSUMPTIONS, to be HONEST about who I am, and to laugh at all of the rude attempts to change who I am.

I am, ever yours, Nancy, laughing at the way things go!