ready

Ol’ Blue asked—erv, you want the political answer or the honest answer?  This “It’s Saturday” is the honest answer as far as I can tell!  But, you all can decide for yourself. Such is life. Sooo it's like what ThisGuyFromWyoming,MI told me recently--So, when I see someone driving with a dog on their lap, I wonder what would happen if the airbag went off (i.e. you can decide for yourself)!

ItchieBitchie said nonchalantly to me—I have a fight going on in my head. Maybe we all have a fight or multiple fights going on in our head as we are infinite a.k.a. human. Maybe it’s like a white dog and a black dog fighting in our heart, mind and soul.  I can tell you which one will win, it’s very easy, the one we feed the most and eventually keep. LuckieEddie says—erv, it’s not rocket science. Just look around. A neighbor lady says--I don't want ItchieBitche to be my Valentine! 

RickyRick says—"Here’s the point:  For us to reach our goals, we’re going to have to learn how to delay gratification.  The difference between successful people and unsuccessful people is that successful people do things unsuccessful people are unwilling to do. Successful people often do things they don’t feel like doing. Successful people know how to delay gratification. They do the right, tough thing before they do the fun, enjoyable thing.” SusieQ says--Maybe we aren’t ready for that yet; but maybe we should be ready!  And maybe we will never be ready. I have no idea what is going to happen with us. But an ol’ deceased friend would say to me—erv, decisions have consequences and guess who gets to make the decisions!

I got up really early recently to think through some stuff when it was quiet and dark. I really enjoy this experience. I thought about adjusting my life, once again. I asked AI about humility. I got great information, my opinion, and one piece was that what I was doing by being alone was cultivating humility and one suggestion AI gave me was—Practice Mindfulness: Mindfulness practices, such as meditation, can help cultivate self-awareness and reduce egocentric thinking. I think that was good stuff for me to think about. Maybe not for any of you but for me it seems to make a lot of sense. But remember folks, I'm just another booze on the bus!

I/we have been around several folks who were married to narcissists, and they told us their stories (i.e. we heard one story from a friend just recently). How do you think those marriages went? Even worse is a marriage where both folks are narcissists! How do you think that went? And some folks have friendships, marriages, or business relationships with folks who have the traits of a narcissists which is probably very challenging. And maybe we all have some traits that are narcissistic. Whowhatme! Missperfect says—I’m not ready to talk about me; I will take a rain check, please!

Last Sunday before the service started the guy ahead of me started waving at someone to the way right. I looked and it was someone from our park who is a friend. I started waving tooooo as I thought she was waving at me. She waved more vigorously and with more action. The guy ahead of me did the same and I did as well. Then she smiled. I looked to my way left and saw her husband waving back at her. The guy ahead of me turned to me and said--I didn't know her but thought she must know me. I said--Don't feel bad, I waved at her as I thought she was waving at me; I guess neither one of us are as important as we think we are!  Has that ever happened to you?

A friend told us about her recovering from an addition. It was quite a story with a happy ending. Absolutely amazing. The reason why she went into rehab was because she was ready to change; she said, if anyone is not ready, change won’t happen. Wow! Her husband who is also a recovering addict said—If the person doesn’t want to change, they won’t! We quizzed her more about being ready and her response was—The Holy Spirit just got ahold of me and I was ready to change and wanted to change. These two folks are also my heroes. Another friend recently told me about his daughter who was also an addict. She decided to quit drinking and she did. She told him that for some time it was tough but after that it was much easier and the end result is great. I asked why she decided to quit—‘cause she wanted to change she said. TheGuyDownTheStreet says--We can’t fix what we won’t face.

In all 55+ parks in the south are older folks with maybe the average age is 77, I don’t know but something like that. Most of the stories of their lives are that they started with nothing but worked and saved and here they are. For most, it is quite amazing. Ok, some inherited a lot of money and some married into money, yes that is true also. Many also have pensions and Social Security that they depend on. Most of their “pot of savings” didn’t happen over night. Here’s the truth: Everything takes longer than you think it will. That’s why, if you want to be in a different place 10 years from now, you have to start today. Right now. Because everything takes longer than we expect.  The rule of 72 is that if we divide the interest rate into 72 that is how many years it takes to double our money. Our son tells me that we have lived in the best time in history; we have had it very good; everything was exceptionally good during my life. If we look at history, he might be right.

This, for sure, will be relevant to everyone, yes, everyone! We are ready but they aren’t! Yikes! I’m talking about some of our children, grandkids, great grandkids, spouses or friends. We have to be patient and that is soooooo hard to do. I’m thinking about how we would like to have some of them change but it doesn’t seem like it is happening. And they might not ever change (i.e. they are unchangeable we think, we have almost lost hope). It is soooo hard to be patient as it might take some time and we might not even see it in our lifetimes (i.e. I’m not talking about micky mouse stuff but really important stuff). They just aren’t ready yet! Maybe someday they will be ready! A friend told us her story of her buying a high end, very cute dog but she could not train it. She eventually had to give it away along with its rap sheet to someone else. Seven others took the dog, but they could not train it either and they all brought the dog back and said—I give up, that dog is untrainable. She asked her sister to dog sit the dog in her home while she went on vacation. After two days, her sister couldn’t stand the dog and put it into a commercial kennel and texted her sister and told her that she could pick up the dog at the kennel when she got back!

Constant beggin’ and complainin’ and pitchin’ can wear a person down until many folks just give in, ok, They might say--I’m ready to give in. Some develop a “give in type of attitude” a.k.a. I’m ready now; I’m tired of always being hammered; it’s easier to just give in (e.g. like a parent giving in to their kids begging for candy at the checkout). Our neighbor wears this tee shirt and she says she always gets some type of response or remark from folks when she wears it (i.e. there must be a reason I guess). VioletStillwater says—If we don’t want to give in, we won’t! CrazyMarvin says—I think five out four folks have trouble with temptation!

Five minutes is all it took pic. I golfed with an old Canuck acquaintance who I met probably 10-12 years ago in an Alzheimer's support group here in AZ. Both of our wives ended up dying from the disease (i.e. soooo far no one has got better from the disease) and both of us found another gal. My search was a God wink but his was different but also maybe a God thing, I don’t know for sure. He used Fast Dating at a 55+ community. The ladies sat at different tables and the guys dated them at their table for 5 minutes and then they would go to the next (i.e. hence the title fast dating). He said--Some gals tried to entice the men with perfume, one with a shot of whiskey, some have done it many times, some looked like they were rode hard and put away wet and some did not fit his personality but one gal rung his bell and the rest is history. Five minutes all it took!

The infinity symbol (∞) has been used in mathematics to represent a number that has no limits or bounds. OneSmartPerson says—“The Hebrew word ‘olam, rendered “everlasting,” is also difficult to comprehend. It can mean, “generally, time out of mind (past or future), i.e., (practically) eternity.” We can’t seem to wrap our minds around this concept or is it a precept or is it a principle? But OneSmartPerson says--But God’s love can be described like this. His love has no end. Now that can be hard to understand. Saturday question—What do we think it takes for the human mind to understand that? LuckieEddie says—Miracles are never explained!

Lena from Ahgosatown Landing, MI was telling me that last year her neighbor, Mabel, really was excited as she got to take her husband, Ralph, to Alaska on a cruise. She said it was really great. She plans to go back this year and pick Ralph back up!

Have a FUN day my friends unless you have other plans. (-:

erv

MyDeceasedFreindJean said—Discipline is the ability to make yourself do something you don’t want to do, in order to get a result you really want to get.