Gratitude

[LisaS961881]

     Yesterday, I was sitting on my patio listening to a 24 year old phone message.   A cardinal was perched nearby scrutinizing me as I watched the sun rise….

      And then a tiny smile edged across my face as I reflected that….all those years ago, not one soul called to make a final stock deal, not one soul called their boss to tell him that he was a jerk, not one soul called their neighbor to tell them to stop their dog from barking all night, not one soul called to tell a friend with opposing political views that they were insane, not one soul called a colleague to tell them that they stole an idea ….

They all reached out to someone one final time to tell them that they were loved.

    I realized that there are just so many precious fleeting moments that I need to recognize - and that I should somehow more proactively better my own tiny part of the world.

     So I did.  Silly little gestures and pocket-sized acts.

      I helped to weed the garden at my church.

      I filled out the TSC survey - describing the kindness of the cashier.

      I told a total stranger that the color she wearing looked lovely on her.

      I walked my 90 year old neighbor’s dog.

      I shared cuttings from my garden with 2 neighbors and my mailman.

      I started tutoring a struggling reader.

      …and lastly, I mailed an emergency box of Dolly Bars and fudge to my grandson in Chapel Hill because he insists he cannot effectively focus on Biomedical Engineering without snacking on my goodies!

      While I is not within my power to stem the tsunami of truly horrific national and international events, I can make my own backyard an itty-bitty bit better.  I’ll readily confess that when 66 year old me heard that “NATO Article 4” news, I flashed back to my 5 year old self hiding under a desk during air-raid drills, terrified that my moment of instant annihilation was seconds away.   ….and I suppose that trying to better things as best I can staves off that terrible feeling of helplessness that I felt then and still feel now.

       So today, I say my gratitude list aloud and celebrate the truly amazing, once in a lifetime stretch of perfect weather we are having here on the East Coast. 🌳☀️🌈🙏☘️🍂. 

        Life is good.

[MsStretch]

The good ol' days, before our world became centered into the palms of our hands.

Don't get me wrong, I love the technology that makes our lives easier, but it's just as much fun to get out and "smell those roses" for real. When you can actually greet a stranger without being eyed with suspicion and when those "precious fleeting moments" mean something and bring a smile.

[LisaS961881]

…..Yes!  ….I sometimes become wistful when I think about those simpler days, and yet I too relish the perks of technology!   I enjoy the iPad upon which I’m typing this reply, and I marvel at how I am wearing a watch just like the one Dick Tracy wore. 😁

      MsStretch, I have to share a moment when, so many years ago, I echoed your “get out and smell the roses for real” sentiment, but not quite as eloquently.😇

       I was sitting at a round table meeting.  Present at this “brain-storming”  were over a dozen local bigwigs, several even bigger bigwigs, 😏 and three teachers, including myself.  The bigwigs from the upper echelons were just waxing euphorically about how the internet was going to revolutionize teaching and save school districts across the country boatloads of money.  They foresaw a golden future where, with just “the click of a mouse”, students would have the world of knowledge at their fingertips.  Truly, a new dawn was just around the corner - including sky high tests scores as well as the eradication of truancy - a veritable utopia.  

     (Now, up until this point, I had been behaving myself and was dutifully listening to what was being described by those in Supervisory and Administrative positions, and successfully stifling my impulse to speak out….).

     But then, one of the bigwigs added that another perk of school districts having internet access would be that Field Trips would be totally unnecessary - a quaint  “thing of the past”.  Because, with “just a click”, students would be instantly transported to a museum,, an apple orchard, or a farm.  

….It was at the moment when yet another bigwig joyfully quipped, “Just imagine - no more money wasted on fields trips for your Elementary and Special Education students! “,  I just couldn’t take it anymore,  

    I threw up my hands - palms forwarded - and blurted out, “But you gotta smell a farm!  You gotta touch a cow! 

     After a cringe-worthy and very awkward silence, I further explained that, if my students simply watched a video about a farm on the internet, they’d never have the opportunity to pet a cow, to feed a cow hay, to crouch down and look at its udders, to watch its tail flick away a fly, to smell manure, to bottle feed a young goat and then watch it dance a fast-motion ballet on haystacks, to hear a horse’s rumbaing nicker in response to a voice, to hold a palm flat out and feel a horse's lips nibble a treat, to run a hand down a horse’s amazingly long jawline, to feel its rough mane, to touch that feather-soft spot on the top of its nose, ….at one point I even muttered something about “throwing out the baby with the bathwater”. …sigh

Oddly enough, after I finally completed my oral epic, they all got it!
They realized that while the internet might be a groundbreaking tool, we needed to proceed with caution, and that we should strive to maintain a balance when we chose to use it.

     (And, about a month after that meeting, my students, for the first, and for many of them, the only time in their lives,, went on a field trip to a farm.)

      All these years later, I find comfort in knowing that the children at my local Elementary School still travel on Field trips.  

      And yet sometimes I am saddened at the aftermath of this “ new dawn” we created.

I enjoy  “this place”  - sharing with people that are hundreds of miles away from me!  🙋🩵. Yet, I am going to follow that very conclusion that committee came to all those years ago, and head back out to my town’s Fall Festival because the bands will be starting soon! 🩵🙋🍂☘️

[MsStretch]

@LisaS961881 , Dick Tracy watches! 😄Yes!  That's what I always think of when I see a smartwatch.  Only Dick Tracy had a little antenna on his, didn't he? 

And speaking of field trips, no HDR pics or surround-vision or virtual tours will ever replace those.  I grew up a military brat and we moved a lot.  Half of my growing-up years were spent overseas.  When we were living in Germany, our elementary school teacher decided we needed to learn a little more about the army considering all our dads were in the army.  Just mostly basics -- branches, ranks, a little history.  She ended up scoring us a field trip to a nearby base.  Even though we lived (well, not my family -- we lived in military housing, but it was a small enclave smack in the middle of a town call Ludwigsburg, but that's another story), shopped, went to school on base, they were parts of it not open to civilians and dependents (it was the Cold War, after all).  However, we were granted a visit to one of "verboten" places.  Let me tell you, you can look at the pictures, even see them flying overhead, but there is nothing like standing next to one of those behemoth aircraft on the tarmac or in a hangar, to truly appreciate the massiveness and sheer power and capabilty of one of those machines.  It was awesome!  And even the Stars & Stripes, the newspaper which was basically the only media at the time where Americans living abroad got news about what was going on in the States and the rest of the world, ran a blurb about Miss Parmenter's 5th grade class being taken on a rare visit.

I always liked the trips to historic sites, too.  When we were living in Baltimore, we were learning about the War of 1812 and we went on a field trip to Fort McHenry.  Yeah, we learned all about the British bombardment, but to stand on the very same ramparts where Francis Scott Key stood as he was inspired to write "The Star-Spangled Banner" makes it so much easier to imagine what he was seeing and feeling.  Yep, the "ghosts" are always there, just let your imagination take you back.

One more memory to share concerning "smelling the roses" (and then, I'll shut up), I'm reminded of a field trip to a Wonder Bread factory.  As we were ushered into a room where fresh-baked bread was just coming out of the ovens on conveyer belts to the cooling racks, the smell was so heavenly and irresistible, I remember thinking, "I wonder if anyone will notice if I sneak a chunk out of one of the loaves".  Of course, I didn't, but I seriously remember entertaining that thought. 😁

All right, @LisaS961881 , you brought back a flood of memories, but I've always believed it was the field trips and the weekend adventures/road trips my father used to take us kids on wherever we were to historic places, forts, battlerfields, that has fueled my current passion in visiting historical sites and abandoned places.  Yes, of course, I value how easy it is to look up things and find background information on these places nowadays (which I do), but there is no substitution for experiencing them in person and to actually get a context.

[LisaS961881]

    Wow!   MsStretch, your skillfully crafted words!  I can just see you standing there in awe of the sheer majesty of that aircraft - just soaking it all in….  and Stars and Stripes!

     (I am re-reading what I have written before posting, and I balked a bit at my use of Wow!”, but then I decided that if “wow” is good enough for all those people on Antiques Roadshow, then it is good enough for me. 😉)

      I wanted to share what came to mind as I was reading your Fort McHenry experience.  It’s that whole Fleur du Mal thing going on, with the added commingling of our knowledge of those who have come before us, and it all comes together in a gentle avalanche.  I had a very similar experience at Skara Brae, which is way up in the Orkney islands.  Just standing there where a small group Neolithic people had made a tiny community more generations ago than I can even imagine…..seeing the same sun in the sky that they had seen and knowing I was walking where they had once argued and laughed, lived and died, and that I was hearing the same crash of the waves and was shivering against same frigid wind as they had done all those years ago, is something that I will never forget.

    I too have developed a passion for searching and savoring the nooks and crannies of historical places.  All my life I’ve been traveling “off the beaten path”

    Gosh, and yes Dick Tracy’s phone did have a tiny antenna, just like those early car phones!

[WebWiseWoman]

Lisa, thank you for this awe-inspiring post! 💐

[LisaS961881]

….and I thank you for gently reminding me a few months ago that God most certainly doesn’t care about what shirt I’m wearing, or if my hair is a mess because he is too busy attending to my heart and listening to my prayer!  🙋🩵🙏

[LeeS4949]

 Perfectly said...