We escaped major ice storm, but feel our neighbors’ pain
We escaped a major ice storm here in Southwest Missouri where I live, but truly feel the pain of our neighbors further south and east who were blasted.
In January 2007, our town — Springfield, Missouri — was smacked with 1-2 inches of ice accumulation, followed by huge tree damage and power outages that lasted for many more than 2 weeks. (On that occasion, my wife and I lost power for 3 days and suffered damage to several big trees; our son was out of power 13 days and lost some beautiful trees; our daughter and son-in-law lost a huge tree and lost power for 13 days.)
So — we truly feel the pain of those tens of thousands (something over 300,000 households) who are shivering in the dark right now.
I know when we were hit, we learned to appreciate warm footwear, lots of blankets, and even the little bit of joy hot water could bring. But by the end of only 3 days, we had sunk into deep despair at ever having heat and light again.
So if you’re reading this, my guess is that you haven’t lost power, or that your power is now back. I encourage you to send prayers/positive thoughts, whatever, to the many all over America right now who are cold and without heat and power.
Life comes along one day at a time, calling us to be alert, pay attention
Many years ago I decided to start a home-based business. One of my first stops, according to recommendations of the home business “gurus” of the day, was a trip to a local shop that made rubber stamps. I was told by my gurus that I needed a stamp with my business name and address to address envelopes and packages from my business.
That home-based business failed and I still have the stamp pad around here in a drawer somewhere.
Nowadays, with new technology in every home and office, I have no idea whether there’s much business for rubber stamps and such doing-it-by-hand packaging/mailing procedures. (“Nowadays” seems like an archaic term that ought to be followed by something like, “You young whippersnappers” — but I don’t even know what a “whippersnapper” is, really, do you?) It seems likely to me that our age of online office solutions and quick pickup and delivery services may have changed or eliminated a lot of stuff.
All of which is to say, as I ramble on: Life and work is rapidly, radically changing. If we are to “take time for living” as the title of this website suggests, we MUST really pay attention. We ought to be willing to embrace new technology as it is useful in our businesses and our everyday lives. At the same time, we must pay attention and learn to discriminate between real, valuable change and change just for the sake of doing something differently.
Embrace life all over again today!
Nation looks for fast, easy answers — but faces lots of hard work
In America, we are a nation looking for fast, easy answers to our problems. I mean, who actually LIKES to suffer or undergo hardships?? I think most of us would rather take a Leptorexin or other diet pill/fat burner to lose excess pounds than put ourselves on a moderate calorie, balanced diet and exercise program.
Perhaps the “good” thing coming out of our current economic and political chaos in America is that it serves to remind us that “change” or solutions to our problems do not always come easily. As I listened to his inaugural address yesterday, I was struck by President Obama’s effort to face the difficulties ahead and encourage us all with hope — hope based on our willingness to “choose our better history,” i.e., each of us taking responsibility and getting involved with helping each other.
That’s pretty idealistic, I guess. It was, of course, our new president telling us what we wanted to hear — the message that there is hope, that there are solutions to our economic crises. It is a good, solid message. It may be hard to accept or hard to believe if you’ve just lost a job, seen your savings disappear, or lost your health care benefits.
But idealism, combined with accepting that responsibility for ourselves and for helping others, is what will get us out of this mess. When we face our problems and start step-by-step to work on solutions, that’s idealism in action at its very best. Go, idealism!
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