Let me be.

Investing in.......unconsciousness.
Are you?



In our most beautiful land and country in all the world,
in  2016
we produced  at least 736 movies
garnering revenue of    $11,368,601,974.

Oh, yes.  We want to be alert, and productive and expanding our consciousness.  Not!

Spirituality is increasing consciousness.
The opposite is deadening our consciousness.

Escapism.  Fleeing the scene.
Foregoing creativity.
Mindless.
Mindlessness.

Our first defense against all things is a mind that has not escaped.  No?

Live your questions now, and perhaps even without knowing it, you will live along some distant day into your answers.
Rainer Rilke

nautilus/science connected

It's a new world.

It's a new world.

                                                                      Psych Central Professional

Respond appropriately.

Make necessary changes.

                                                                                xkcd

Great to see you!

Thanks for stopping by,

Riverwatch

From Pain & Suffering

If your daily life seems poor, do not blame it; 

blame yourself that you are not poet enough to call forth its riches; 

for the Creator, there is no poverty.

                                                                                            Rainer Rilke

From pain and suffering

come brilliance,

and wisdom,

and expression.

 From pain and suffering

come compassion

and consciousness

and eventually understanding.

                                                                       Riverwatch

The only journey is the one within.

                                                                Rainer Rilke  

                                                   

Nature trails resorts

Awake

                                                                                   Women's Health Queensland Wide





When she awoke to life and received her name, she asked, "Why am I here?"

You have been given the power to help us create life 
so there may be joyful movement and joyful sound.  
What is life without sound and movement?

You have been given the knowledge, wisdom and love to bless all the beings you create.  
That is why you are here.

                                      The Hopi Book by Frank Waters

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-As2jDFetw






Sher Institute/Facebook
                                               The Protracted Efforts It Took To Conceive





Rejoicing,
&rejoicing that you paused to visit me,
Riverwatch

special

geog.uoregan.edu

Quote: 

how surprising, said nobody ever

pinterest.com

"Cry in your dreams.  Be brave when morning comes."

Yeh, old age means sometimes running out of thoughts.

Scrambling,

Riverwatch

Attendance

Showing up at a function  for the first time in a long time, I was  warmly welcomed.
So warmly, that I wondered why in the heck  was I not "rounded up" to return when I went missing.
               ???

jensdecals.com

Fortunately for me, I gave birth some 50 years ago to a woman who turned out to be smarter than I !

As I whined, philosophically, to her about my "perceived neglect", my darling daughter sighed.
"Mom," she said.  "I think you have forgotten why we became Presbyterians:  our attendance is not required." 



Ahh, the beauty and freedom of those words.

"Your attendance is not required."


  Attendance is optional.



There really is nothing on earth like Freedom of Worship.

designzzz






Loving life and appreciating your call at this blog,
Riverwatch

I only whine philosophically.

Victory

The market place.
How I love the market place.
The market place is where community starts and ends.
It is the time immemorial human meeting place.

And there was Darla.
I hadn't seen Darla since I retired several years ago and left her behind in the workplace, the local hospital.
Yet there she was.
Happy to see me!

Catching up, Darla said, "Oh course I look good, Riverwatch!  I beat cancer."

Four years ago "they" gave her 2-6 weeks to live.  Even with chemotherapy she was considered doomed. Pancreatic cancer.
Thank goodness she went to see her favorite surgeon before starting the chemo.

He is one of the favorite surgeons for so many of us who worked along side him in the local hospital. 
He looked at Darla's tests and said, "Darla, I think I can save your life."
And he did.
The surgery was horrendous....took everything.....her recovery was slow, the chemo also deepened her nausea, but eventually that was all history.  "Can you believe the only thing I could eat was tomato soup?  How strange is that when you are nauseated?  Tomato soup, tomato soup, tomato soup!"

She was celebrating her advent into her 80's.  A happy shopper.  Cancer free.

"By the way", she said as we parted, "my husband died last year."



Beating cancer caps everything.


Riverwatch
Thanks for your visit.

I am my mother's mother.

Long before children become parents,

                                                           they begin to remake their parents. 

Wordsworth was talking about something else,

                                                                        but his line captures the point: 

“the Child is father of the Man.”

                                                                                                             



Think about it.

One of the sterling gems of old age is seeing how fluid are relationships.
How nothing is cast in stone.
How blended we are.
And how ok that is.

How identity is a cloak we wore to do that which we needed/wanted/had to do.
A cloak that is now worn and ragged, pulling apart at the seams no matter how rich we are,
showing glimpses
of someone else.  Someone finer.
Someone so valuable, who was cloaked in identity. Even multiple identities!

Ahh.   Old age.


God is Great.

                                                                                                                 thediamondworks.co.za

Pass the red wine!  I want to drink to old age.
Grateful for you,
Riverwatch

Seriously.  Pass the red wine!

A Different Kind of Prayer

A Different Kind of Prayer

I have always been serious minded and consequently I had to field my former husband's accusation that I am "heavy weather".

What can I say?

Am I supposed to choke up over what the irresponsible say about me?!  I think not!

Some doc once told me....in the work arena....that I think too much, but I was quick witted back then and reminded him he didn't think enough, "so it all evens out".

My kids have all told me multiple times (as though I don't get it!) that they get it on the first sentence and do not need a whole paragraph. That shuts me up for a whole day, or maybe an hour.

I've always been a sitting duck for extra large assignments because "if you want something done, ask a busy person".

As you can see, I'm not a party girl.  Never was.

But lately, since the sawdust has gotten soggy....or dry, I don't know which....I've begun praying a different kind of prayer on my behalf.

"Please bless me with a fun day today."

The first such prayer was in desperation.  And I  had trepidation.  Praying for fun? That doesn't sound humble. Naive and childlike, maybe. But, come on!

Really?

The whole world is going to hell in a hand basket and I am praying for a fun day for me???!!

Dare I?

Should I pray to be more mindful, more concerned, more focused on the trials and tribulations of the world??

I need help having fun!      I don’t need help having more panic attacks.

I justify my prayer for a fun day for me this way:

If I am having a fun day, that means there is no war within the sphere of my influence.

If I am having a fun day, there is no suffering within the sphere of my influence.

If I am having a fun day, my family, my friends and I have escaped death another day.

If I am having a fun day, my relationships are not gyrating in a whirlwind.

If I am having a fun day, there is no...well there might be poverty, but no grinding poverty.

If I am having a fun day, diseases have been held at bay for my family, my friends and me.

If I am having a fun day, I have far more energy to spontaneously impart to strangers needing care.

If I am having a fun day, there are no floods or fires or earthquakes or asteroid collisions in my neighborhood.

Winds make me happy (never having experienced a hurricane nor the twister funnel), so..... there might be winds on a fun day.

My little prayer is short, but it sure wraps up a lot of heretofore lengthy requests.

My little prayer turns out to be the most unselfish of prayers.

Do you wonder how am I doing?

Well, each prayer is followed by the relaxing of my hunched up shoulders.

I find I have stopped  waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Let it take me by surprise!  What the heck.  Quick surprises may not be as bad as long anticipations.

And I have had some surprising fun pop into my field of vision.

Glad I am I prayed for fun.

Still and all, I am thinking of the blondie bottle.  

They say blondes have more fun, and hey, one of the nice things about aging  is you might have snow white hair which you can color whatever color you desire.

I wonder about going red.

But it's fun I want, not comments.

So......I am thinking about going blonde.

It is always appropriate to do your part in helping get your prayers answered.

"Oh, but white hair is SO BEAUTIFUL!!"

Right you are.

But the three things that show our age most are, in order of impact:

1. gray or white hair

2. extra weight, overweight

3. wrinkles

We are first and foremost identified by our hair.

Want to remain relevant and “seen”?  Get rid of the gray.  Get rid of the beautiful white.

We live in a culture that dismisses old women.

Old men don’t need a dye job. They remain relevant through thick, thin, missing, gray or white hair.

Old men become distinguished.

Not so for us gals.

We need to fool people just a little.

“Go for the dye job!” I say.

Or not.  Whatever. If you think role modeling the beauty of aging is the way to go, I say you are probably thinking that because you still have a little waistline!

Good for you!

As author and screenwriter Nora Ephron once quipped: 

“There’s a reason why 40, 50 and 60 don’t look the way they used to, and it’s not because of feminism, or better living through exercise. 

It’s because of hair dye. 

In the 1950s only 7% of American women dyed their hair; 

today there are parts of Manhattan and LA where there are no grey-haired women at all.”

Me? I'm for the dye job.

My family starts going gray in our teenage/young adult years.

I have been dying my hair for years and years and years and years and years.

Ok. Decades and decades.

It's easy. It's quick. It's inexpensive.

But maybe blondes do have more fun.

They certainly couldn’t have less!

"Please bless me with a fun day today."

I appreciate your visit,

Riverwatch

A Good Name For God

A good name for God is Not Me.

                                                     comment by Anne Lamott.

                                  

Laughter

"Laughter is carbonated holiness,

                                 and grace has the last laugh."

                                                                                     Anne Lamott

knoxnewsentinal

Glad you could visit today and hear me quote a fellow Presbyterian Christian and one of my favorite authors,

Riverwatch

Against the Tide

blog.moneta.co.kr

The tide is moving.

and now,

all that I accomplish or do,

will be against the tide.

Wait!

I feel fresh air!

Perhaps I have been too hasty in my assessment of my place on the beach.

giphy.com

Thanks for dropping by,

Riverwatch

Remember: it isn't over until it is over

Drenched in Thinking

"God loves you, anyway."

That sounds like an ok message, yes?
That was the title of a little leaflet devotional handed to me by a "caring" semi-friend.

I like her but I list her as semi-friend because she is a person I do not tell my secrets to.

I like her but I list her as semi-friend because I am guarded about what I say to her, being careful to not expose her to the fire of my brain.  PJ Media

In other words, I am often silent while visualizing hitting her in the head with a 2 by 4  for not following good health habits, for not keeping up with the grooming as she ages, and for whining.

Did I mention she whines?
Whiners do not make much of an effort to sweep the entry way, do they?

But she is nice.

So here came the little leaflet:  "God loves you, anyway."

Do you think this was about being loved in spite of being a sinner?
Oh, no.
OMG!
This is about God loving me in spite of the fact I do not have physical beauty.

Oh, my God!

Did my semi-friend think I am beached and have no knowledge that I am 73 and UGLY?????

Do such little "devotionals" strengthen your inner beauty?

Oh, my God.  Have mercy.  I want to hit my semi-friend in the head with a 2 by 4.

PJ Media

But let's be honest here.  If I had physical beauty I would be more compassionate.  Yes?  No visuals of 2 by 4 smacks to the head.

It's all about the "lack of physical beauty".

OMG.

I am drenched in thinking.


Thanks for understanding,
and thanks for dropping by to hear me whine.
Riverwatch

Magicals

pinterest.com

The wannabes. The Magicals.

They say they can walk when they have never crawled. 

 They say they can swim when they’ve never jumped in the water. 

 They say they can fix the engine when they’ve never read the manual. 

 They say they can perform when they’ve never been on stage. 

 They say they are an author when they have never written anything.

LaLa Land is a stunningly beautiful place.
No work is required.
Problems do not exist.
And when they do, they evaporate on their own.

Lalaland is a land of love unfeigned,
                                                         applause,
                                                                       success,
                                                                                    understanding, and caring,

                                                                        where one is young,       
                                                                                                      always young.                                                                                   

 Some of us have created a permanent residence in LaLa Land.
 Some of us visit daily.

Everything that exists in LaLa Land 

was created 

for that one person living there.    

The older I get, the harder it is to create LaLa Land!

The older I get, the more important it is to create LaLa Land!!

No wonder so many of the old-old look so wretched.  No more trips to LaLa Land.  Out of creative juice. 

Pass the applesauce, please.

I appreciate your visit. 

You'll know I can't find LaLa Land anymore when I throw my little bowl of applesauce at you!

As a nurse, I have had many a little bowl of applesauce thrown my way.  

Applesauce.  Always applesauce.

Riverwatch

                           

Is Your Hut Burning?

BBC

By Unknown Author

The only survivor of a shipwreck was washed up on a small, uninhabited island. 
He prayed feverishly for God to rescue him, and every day he scanned the horizon for help, but none seemed forthcoming. 
Exhausted, he eventually managed to build a little hut out of driftwood to protect him from the elements, and to store his few possessions. 
But then one day, after scavenging for food, he arrived home to find his little hut in flames, the smoke rolling up to the sky. 
The worst had happened; everything was lost. 
He was stunned with grief and anger. "God, how could you do this to me!" he cried. 
Early the next day he was awakened by the sound of a ship that was approaching the island. It had come to rescue him. 
"How did you know I was here?" asked the weary man of his rescuers. 
"We saw your smoke signal," they replied. 

It is easy to get discouraged when things are going bad. But we shouldn't lose heart, because God is at work in our lives, even in the midst of pain and suffering. Remember, next time your little hut is burning to the ground---it just may be a smoke signal that summons the grace of God.



For all the negative things we have to say to ourselves, 
God has a positive answer for it:



NatBG.com


You say: "It's impossible"
God says: All things are possible (Luke 18:27)

You say: "I'm too tired"
God says: I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28-30)

You say: "Nobody really loves me"
God says: I love you (John 3:16 & John 13:34)

You say: "I can't go on"
God says: My grace is sufficient (II Corinthians 12:9 & Psalm 91:15)

You say: "I can't figure things out"
God says: I will direct your steps (Proverbs 3:5-6)

You say: "I can't do it"
God says: You can do all things (Philippians 4:13)

You say: "I'm not able"
God says: I am able (II Corinthians 9:8)

You say: "It's not worth it"
God says: It will be worth it (Roman 8:28)

You say: "I can't forgive myself"
God says: I FORGIVE YOU (I John 1:9 & Romans 8:1)

You say: "I can't manage"
God says: I will supply all your needs (Philippians 4:19)

You say: "I'm afraid"
God says: I have not given you a spirit of fear (II Timothy 1:7)

You say: "I'm always worried and frustrated"
God says: Cast all your cares on ME (I Peter 5:7)

You say: "I don't have enough faith"
God says: I've given everyone a measure of faith (Romans 12:3)

You say: "I'm not smart enough"
God says: I give you wisdom (I Corinthians 1:30)

You say: "I feel all alone"
God says: I will never leave you or forsake you (Hebrews 13:5)
flikr.com





Thanks for dropping by,
Riverwatch

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