Greetings y'all ,
Sorry for the hiatus ,life
has been crazy , absolutely crazy. We've been worried about just
surviving and avoiding threats ,attacks, and folks trying to terrorize
and intimidate. Unreal what some people will do without consideration to
the affects it has on a child. What this has done though is bring my
son and I even closer together and help us discover the myriad of
friends we have in this neighborhood and community . Granted we are
looking to move soon though so my son can live in peace. In the meantime
he's watched and learned how his pa handles bullies. With silent
indifference, with sympathetic prayers, with caution , keeping a
distance and surrounding ourselves with good , decent, kind , loving
and positive people.
We've all heard the
expression; as one door closes another door opens. I wonder how many of
actually dissect and digest that .i know I never really contemplated the
simplistic complexity of it. So here is my philosophical if not sophist
opinion and viewpoint . We can choose to stand at the closed door
ponder the what ifs and if onlys , remembering and misremembering the
past , dwelling in the quagmire of would've , could've , and should've .
But I ask , is that healthy ? What does it really solve ? Our other
option is to notice our other choices and choose to walk through the
nearly opened door into the future and new if not fresh wonderment.
You may have discerned I chose to use the word choose . This was not
random . In life we have choices to make second by second. Choice to
speak or remain silent . The choice of how to act, react, interact ,
etc...The choice of who we associate or socialize with. The choice to
walk in the light or live in the shadows . The choice to live peaceably
or to create drama .
We choose to walk in
the light and to live peaceably . We choose to live, love and laugh. We
choose to be grateful , thank God for our blessings, We choose to pray
for those who are suffering to the point of hating themselves and thus
everyone else. We also choose to be safe. Sadly this has been difficult
at times during the last few weeks.
Yet
somehow, with the help of friends and a strong faith we've reinforced
our resiliency. In think it helped that we studied about and watched
film of the Freedom Riders and Martin Luther Ling this week . We've
studied about Gandhi and Jesus already of course but my progeny saw what
it's like to be tormented and have enough trust in God to not fight
back. So he can now pull from the archival footage ( ie his schema) of
Gandhi ( great movie with Ben Kingsley) MLK ( we watched actually
footage of his marches and speeches ) Freedom Riders ( again actual
footage)
Jackie Robinson and of course Jesus and the Bible.
Ok so we got sick this week but hey there's a few bugs being
bantered around and many folks are unwell. However our positive spirit
has remained intact. Some have asked how that can be? My response goes
back to my core- the love of God to guide us and watch over us , the
comfort and love of good and decent neighbors ( several of whom
delivered food and/or medicine and offered rides as needed) and friends
and the amazing unconditional love of my wonderful son. I am lucky to
have him in my life and heart.
Speaking of the boy wonder, he was amazing at his little league
evaluations last week , was a trooper this week as we walked to and from
school waiting for the tires to be replaced ( they were slashed last
weekend) and today he rocked my world , again. He had blood drawn ( big
fear for him) we played ball for a long time ( I ran some drills for him
and he loved it, very coachable and he got use his wood bat for the
first time ) we stopped by the library and he noticed a bottle rocketry
course/lab was being held there . Naturally he joined the class and
showed what he already knows about physics and what that he's an eager
learner. He had to design and build it then test his rocket . He
remembered that Goddard took decades to get his off the ground and that
engineering is trying and trying again. I'm so proud of him.