Culture

I just returned from the United Tribes International Pow Wow  in Bismarck, ND.  This will be the second time I have attended.  It is fascinating!  I experience a people's pride in their heritage and culture. 
There was a time when this was not understood.  This was heathen and evil.  I say no.  It was judged by someone who could not open their mind to something that was not their way of thinking.  Or their experience with someone in that culture was not a good one.  Their are good and bad individuals in every culture.  It not not specific.
How many cultures have been down-trodden or destroyed because of bias.  Have we missed seeing the beauty of their ways?   I really am disappointed the way religion and strong armed their way into other cultures.  Religion has destroyed beauty, all because they feel the have the correct way of doing things.  It is so closed minded that it is frightening.
I believe in a deity greater than myself.  I don't believe in a deity that destroys.  I believe in a deity that evolves all people into a greater understanding.   

Thinking

Why?  I like when thinking takes me to an Ah-Ha moment.  I t releases me from old damaging thoughts and creates a new outlook.  We are bombarded with so many people telling us how we need to act, think and do.  We forget we can think and speak for ourselves.  How 'bout it.  You know what you think and feel.  If any cannot be good with that--let them go.  There is a reason some people never can go along for the ride--they can't let go.  They need a push.  Don't be held back because it's safe.  Move ahead and beyond your comfort level.  The times that I pushed myself were the best times I've had.  I pushed myself to write this blog.  I would have never before let anyone else know the feelings I held in.  Now it's like I have lost 50 pounds.  

Reading

What is it about reading that takes you away.  I was wishing I could not think for awhile.  Then the book I'm reading jogged my thoughts.  I guess it was a form of not thinking.  Not thinking about what is bothering me.  Just letting the story take me out of it.  Reading is my way of forgetting about certain problems.  Sometimes the solution comes to me while I'm reading.  Good way to move on with your life.  I know I need to read more.  The past few days have made me realize this.  I let my reading habit lapse.  Reading is my thought process.  Reading filters out all of the junk.  Reading brings knowledge, relaxation, joy, peace and calm.  

Coyotes

Last night was the closest the coyotes have been.  It was amazing.  Coyotes really don't howl.  It was alot of yipping and a sound that is very hard to describe.  In my reading about women homesteaders,  they have described hearing coyotes.  These women of course would tend to be very religious.  One woman described it as sounding like the gates of hell opened and demons escaped.  At first in was a little frightening because I was sleeping.  It sounded just unreal.  The second time I was awake and it was still unbelievable.  In the two times I heard them, only once each time sounded like a howl.  They were right across the highway in a pasture.  We were listening to the birds as we fell asleep and it sounded like we were in Africa.  It is such a rush to listen to all the sounds.  We used to have cattle.  When we were calving, I had the graveyard shift.  I  would hear the coyotes, but they sounded farther away.  Last night  I was glad I wasn't in a tar paper shanty.

Don't Rock The Boat

This is probably heard by most of us at least once in our lives.  But really what does it mean?  Do we really think we'll tip over?  Or is it we have to be careful that we might piss someone off?  I believe it is the later.  Some have more control over our lives than we like to admit.  Our lives can be made miserable.  But what if you  didn't rock the boat.  Our lives can be made just as miserable.  Talk about a lose, lose situation.  I think I would rather rock the boat and deal with the consequences than keeping it steady and be miserable.

How To Be?

How to be?  Is to be yourself.  Wow, how many times do we need to hear that before it sinks in.  It is something you need to tell yourself until it is a part of your thought process.  If one lesson I could pass on this would be it.  Be Yourself.  We need to realize not everyone will love us or like us.  The ones who are worth it are the ones that make the cut.  We take the world way too seriously.  Like it has the final say on who we are.  We all have ups and downs.  In reality, the ups have the higher percentage.  We just tend to focus on the downs, as if there was something in our control to change it.  Leave it scattered on the floor and move on.  We have control over more in our lives than we realize.

Fire

Campfire, bonfire, fireplace.  Any type that lets me sit there and watch the flames dance.  I really need to sit by a fire when life gets a little rough.  Watching the flames is like watching every stress burn up.  It is so relaxing.  Clears the mind.  We have a fire ring in our front yard.  We have a fire almost every night during the summer.  Now that doesn't mean life is that stressful, just is relaxing.

Everything is not bad

Everything that happens to us is not bad.  It is the way it is perceived.  We have been taught since we were "knee high to a grasshopper" that we are being punished by God for what is happening to us.  What if we're not?  What if it is a kick in the pants to get us to look at a situation differently?  What if it is just a matter of looking at it from a different angle?  Maybe it is not trying to find the answer because the answer might be staring you in the face and we are so blocked by thinking, we can't see it.  There are times that pulling back is what we need to do.  Extract ourselves from the situation.  Take a step back to look at it.  Answers may not come.  Maybe we just needed the breather.  Maybe the step away needs to be more permanent.  We may not be able to physically remove ourselves.  Our minds are beautiful things.  If we limit our minds, we lose our greatest gift.  Imagination can take us anywhere we need to be.

Families

The saying goes you can pick your friends not your family.  Who is to say your family wasn't picked for you.  We think we are so evolved.  The human emotion hasn't evolved compared to technology.  We still let old hurts get to us.  New hurts are just the old hurts regurgitated.  When do we start letting go and move on?  I have started to let go.  I am tired of the same old shit delivered to me in different ways.  I choose how I react to this invasion of my space and my integrity.  I CHOOSE!

Lots of Thoughts

I have an active mind. I come up with the strangest perceptions or comments. I plan on voicing these thoughts a lot more here in this blog. I will struggle with titles and how to put my thoughts into words. It is a challenge to myself to be able to express myself in writing. I will not always be popular for my way of thinking. Most comments or questions won't have answers. Just a means of making our minds think.