Month: April 2017

Responsible or Not

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“Only by taking responsibility for oneself, to the greatest extent possible, can one ever be free, and only a free person can make responsible choices – between right and wrong, saving and spending, giving or taking.” – Paul Ryan

Responsibility : According to Merriam – Webster; the quality or state of being responsible such as:  moral, legal, or mental accountability.

When I watch the news I become so disenchanted with people who simply won’t take responsibility for their actions or their children’s actions.  My favorite one is where the lady blamed the police for her son crashing a stolen car.  In her words she said the police were picking on him because that was the first car he had stole.  Oh yeah, and he was only fourteen years old.  Really?  They were picking on him?  I guess the police would have been in the right if it were the second car he stole.

Parents seem to want to blame teachers for their children’s bad grades.  They never want to take the blame for any of it.  Some even go as far as to believe they have no responsibility in the education of their children other than financial.  After all isn’t that why the teachers get paid the big bucks?

One of my biggest pet peeves is the pet owner that gets an animal and after the animal has lived with them for five or six years and it is no longer a little one any more they shirk their responsibility and take it to the local pound.  The one that really gets my Scoobies in a knot are the ones that don’t want to take care of their pet of 14 years because they don’t want to deal with it and they take it to the pound.  They don’t want the responsibility of helping it through its bad days and the vet bills or cleaning up after it.  Really?  You OWE that much to that pet!

Use to be if people saw some lady getting raped bystanders would intervene and help her out and take the attacker down.  Now days the bystanders pull out their cellphones and start recording the act.  Ever wonder why the people recording crimes don’t put the cellphone down and help them?  Ain’t their responsibility to help another human being in trouble.  No siree!  That would be the responsibility of the police don’t ya know!

I remember in Missouri food stamp recipients use to get paper food stamp money to buy their groceries with.  They finally had to go to a card system because people couldn’t be responsible enough to use the food stamps correctly.

I apologize for the rant.  I could go on all night.  Why do you suppose their are so many folks now days that just won’t recognize responsibilities?  I have a couple ideas.  You probably won’t agree with me but that’s my story and I am sticking to it.

You think the preferential treatment of athletes might have something to do with it?  One that I am familiar with is the football player Leonard Little.  Little played for the St. Louis Rams.  He got drunk on his birthday and ran a red light and plowed his Navigator into a tiny little car killing the mother inside.  He got 90 days in jail and an 8 game suspension. Then, then 6 years later he gets picked up for drunk driving again and despite failing three field sobriety tests and refusing a breathalyzer test, and killing someone six years before, he was acquitted.  ACQUITTED!  Then he goes on to retire from the Rams.  Yep, let’s teach our kids responsibility.

Last but not least then I will shut up.  Would someone tell me how our welfare system teaches responsibility?  Our own government made people slaves of government handouts without educating them on how to break free of the system.  Our welfare program doesn’t teach people how to be responsible.  Our government has severely failed these people.

Thanks for reading my blog.  I know you may not agree with me but I will still respect your opinion.Be kind to one another, don’t squat with your spurs on and share the love. God Bless you one and all.

“At the end of the day,  you are solely responsible for your success and your failure.  And the sooner you realize that, you accept that, and integrate that into your work ethic, you will start being successful.  As long as you blame others for the reason you aren’t where you want to be, you will always be a failure.” – Erin Cummings

I think this quote can also be used for life in general.

 

 

Anger: the Negative Emotion

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“Every day we have plenty of opportunities to get angry, stressed or offended.  But what you’re doing when you indulge these negative emotions is giving something outside yourself power over your happiness.  You can choose to not let little things upset you.” – Joel Osteen

How many times a day do you get angry, stressed or offended?  Three times?  Five times? More than that?  You are running late and aggravated.   You walk into the kitchen for a quick breakfast and find the toast burned, the eggs are cold and the hash browns need the oil changed in them.  You are running late and you have an important meeting first thing.  You finally get in the car and fire it up only to find it a hair above empty.  Your husband took it to the baseball meeting and forgot to put gas in it.  How would you handle it or react to it?  How you handle these moments will pretty much dictate what kind of day you have.

I don’t know if Americans aren’t getting enough R&R or if they are just mad at the world. From public schools to the streets of the big cities it seems that more and more people are turning to fighting at an alarming rate.  Social media is filled with videos of fights between a couple of people to a whole neighborhood.   Is there an imbalance between love and hate or has love left the building completely?  It is something that we really need to look at because it is accelerating at an alarming rate.

A good start is to evaluate ourselves.  Do you get angry over burnt toast or does it take a lot to make you angry?   If it is the first one then perhaps you should seek out a counselor to help you deal with this.  If your anger is that easy to bring about then I just can’t imagine you ever having a good day.  Take that first step and seek out someone to help you tame this anger.  You will be glad you did.

All negative emotions are detrimental to one’s happiness  therefore we have to learn to control them and not let them control us.  Be positive and take control of your life and cleanse yourself of the negative baggage that you carry around with you.  Let us all try to bring some joy and kindness to the world.

I want to thank you for taking the time to read my blog and if you have a short temper I hope you seek help and address the problem.  Be kind to one another, share the love and God Bless you one and all.  Don’t squat with your spurs on.

 

Another Day on the Big River

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Big River just upstream from Leadwood Access

“Now this relaxation of the mind from work consists on playful words or deeds.  Therefore it becomes a wise and virtuous man to have recourse to such things at times.”  – Thomas Aquinas

For me relaxation of the mind from work consists of a visit to your local river.  I know, I know not everyone is a river rat.  Well it works for me and it is so easy to relax on the river.  If you have the opportunity to be on it at night you will experience total relaxation.  You will hear a symphony of frogs and crickets and some nights you can look into the night sky and see the best light show you ever saw.

My story begins on Wednesday the nineteenth of April.  I had kind of a bad day the day before so headed for the river to relax and recharge.  I didn’t get started as early as I wanted to but it was still a good day.  The water level was perfect and the weather was too.  I loaded the yak, pushed off and started making my way up river.

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Leadwood Access

I paddled up stream drinking in the magnificent scenery that laid before me.  Dogwoods and redbuds dotted the hillsides in full bloom.  A hawk soared above me like it was following me.  It was such a splendid day to be alive and take all of my surroundings in and file it away within my mind.

After about an hour I reached a point in the river that I always used to turn around and head back down river.  I got out of the yak and stretched my legs/  I grabbed a pole and began wading the shallows and fishing.  I heard something behind me so I turned around to see approximately 30 head of cows and calves.  All of a sudden one ole cow lunged at me.  All I had in my hand was my rod and reel so i took the rod and slapped her on the nose and she backed up and began bellering which got the attention of the bull on steroids.  Here he came and there I went.  I launched the yak and began my trek back to the boat ramp.

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First fish of the day.

The fish were biting good.  I caught over 30 fish that day.  Somebody did manage to leave the fish basket and stringer at the truck’  A……….that somebody would be me.  On the paddle back I did manage to catch my first Largemouth and Small  mouth.

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First Smallmouth of the 2017 season.

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First Largemouth of the 2017 season.

I would like to thank all of you for taking the time to read my blog.  I hope you liked it and enjoyed reading it.  Be kind to one another, share the love and don’t squat with your spurs on.

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Love and Compassion

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“Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries.  Without them humanity cannot survive.”  – Dalai Lama

As I lay here listening to the hum of the fan in the window and the little peepers off in the distance serenading the night, my mind wanders back to the teen age years of my life.   It was a simple time.  Life was good.

School was much different because the parents didn’t blame the teacher for little Johnny’s behavior or grades.  The responsibility was placed squarely on the shoulders of little Johnny and he didn’t get a trophy unless he earned it.  “Earned it.”  Isn’t that quite a concept?  When did it all change?  For the life of me I can’t remember.  Why?  I was told one time by a child psychologist that it was done out of compassion for the losers.  Really?

Unlike today, kids could stay out past dark and not have to worry.  They could walk down to the local grocery and buy a gallon of milk and walk home without having to worry about being abducted.  Don’t get me wrong.  It wasn’t a perfect world but there seemed to be a lot less crime then.  The real question is why?  Was it due to the way the news was reported or was there more love and compassion then?

From my personal experience I believe it was the latter.  People had more respect for life then.  Folks helped one another then instead of turning a cold shoulder and walking away.  They shared food, clothes or whatever they could.  Not everybody did but the majority of the people I knew did.

“Being loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.” – Lao Tzu

Something that I don’t see too much of these days is respect.  I am blown away by the way children talk to their parents.  They use words that they shouldn’t even have in their vocabulary.  Words that would make a sailor blush I tells ya.  See a lot more tantrums being thrown in the stores when the child doesn’t get what he/she wants.  This usually results in the child getting what he/she wants.  Sooooo is he/she going to throw a tantrum when they don’t get their way in the work force?

“The purpose of human life is to serve, and to show compassion and the will to help others.” – Albert Schweitzer

Compassion according to Merriam Webster: sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress together with a desire to alleviate it.  I am of the opinion that “true” compassion is hard to find in today’s society.  What about the donations that went out to the 9/11 victims you say?  Really?  Myself I really don’t think of that as compassion.  I felt it was more people expressing their patriotism than anything else.

Maybe I just expect too much out of people.  Maybe I am still caught up in the simplicity of life in the 60s and 70s.  I still have the vision of our family dinners where we actually talked to one another and asked how our day had been.  Compassion and love were abundant.  The world wasn’t perfect back then but it was far closer to perfection than it is now.  Maybe new technology was the trade off.  “Pappa tell me ’bout the good ole days.

Well thank you for taking the time to read my blog.  I hope you enjoyed it.   Love one another and remember the feeling of compassion and don’t be afraid to show it.

Don’t squat with your spurs, be kind to one another and share the love.  God bless you one and all.

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What Happened? Who Are We

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“How would your life be different if….You stopped making negative judgmental assumptions about people you encounter?  Let today be the day….You look for the good in everyone you meet and respect their journey.” – Steve Maraboli Life, the Truth,and Being Free 

I will be 63 years old this year.  I am a farrier and there are those days in which we have a lot of windshield time which leads to too much time to think.  Then it becomes a…………….thinking problem.  That is exactly what happened to me.

As I rolled down the highway listening to the whine of my tires on the highway and Don’t Stop Believing playing on the radio my mind began a journey back to the 70s.  Times were much different then I thought.  Life’s pace seemed slower, neighbors actually knew each other and families actually sat down around the table and ate and interacted with one another about the day’s events.

Yes there was bullying.  Pink bellies were a common occurrence in high school.  Young couples broke up and hearts were broken.  Children said hurtful things to one another. There were different groups of students that were brought together because of their similarities of life’s philosophies.

 

I personally don’t feel people were as vicious toward one another as they are in today’s society.  Social media was nonexistent.  I don’t know if people have too much stress in their lives or if we have just evolved to who we are.  What changed?

“Guard well within yourself that treasure, kindness.  Know how to give without hesitation, how to lose without regret, how to acquire without meanness.” – George Sand

I feel like everyone’s  “kindness bucket” runneths low or is empty.  Students now days have disagreements and declare war on each other.  After school the war continues through the avenue social media.  These attacks sometimes are so brutal that the victim commits suicide.  All because people seem to have lost compassion, love and plain ole common sense a life was wasted.  Who and what have we become?  I don’t know if it is just me or maybe I am too paranoid.  Is it just me?  Do I expect too much out of people?  There is a possibility I do.

There also seems to be a degree of rudeness that I don’t remember in the 70s.  Maybe I have a bad memory.  It doesn’t seem that young people value a life like we did.

In closing I ask that you work on the kindness and rudeness.  If you have a neighbor you don’t know, go over and introduce yourself.  Control your rudeness.

Thank you for reading my blog.  I hope you enjoyed it.  Remember to be kind to one another and share the love.