Paul Harvey ~ A Christmas Story: The Man And The Birds

200

This is post #200 for 2024!
It is only the third time in my 18 years of publishing Out of My Hat that I've reached 200 posts in a year.
Because there really is no theme that ties my posts together, my following is limited to family, friends, and those curious enough to wonder what I might be thinking about on any given day. 
I've tried a couple of themed blogs along the way -- one on healthy living, one on cigars (such is my contradictory lifestyle) -- but mostly I just come back to rambling out thoughts here at Out of My Hat. 

I still look for clicks and comments, but not like I did in the early days. Today, I mostly write as a way of organizing thoughts and it seems to be a therapeutic way of grounding my spirit. I don't expect many views, comments, nor shares, and often think I should just write and publish articles without sharing them on my Facebook or BlueSky accounts (I've dropped X). A lot of my regular readers disappeared (see what I did there?) when I moved away from evangelicalism and my Facebook friends list went from nearly 1000 to fewer than 300 (some I dropped, others dropped me), so I know that most readers come from links to social media and only a few are regular followers of the blog itself.

No matter.
It is said that it is better to write for oneself and have no readers than to write for your readers and have no self -- or something like that.

If you came here for a Wednesday Wisdom post, try this:
Do something for yourself.
Write, walk, run, read, paint, craft, whatever. Do it for you and don't worry about what other people think or say. The hippie mantra of the 60s was -- If it feels good, do it! 
Perhaps, as with most things, moderation is the key.

John

A Poor Practice

It's a rare kind of Monday morning for me.
First of all, I slept much later than I usually do. I'm not sure why, but I did.
And secondly, it is warm enough to have my morning coffee out on the deck today!

Sitting out here, especially on a Monday morning, I am aware of how poor my meditation practice has become. Contemplative time and meditative time can be very different practices. Quiet time and meditative time are different things. 
A purposeful quiet time, a time for contemplation, a practice of meditation -- all are beneficial, but all are quite different. Heck, even relaxing with a good cigar is good for the spirit!

But I have gotten out of the meditation habit since I've moved my morning coffee and quiet time indoors for the cooler season. I'm going to have to find a way to move my practice inside. It's weird how the cawing crows, crowing roosters, and sounds of the outside have become such a part of my meditation that I stopped doing it without them. 

For this week's Monday Meditation post I am going to work on restarting my regular practice of meditating. Maybe you should, too.

John

Third Sunday of Advent

Hmmm...
Well, I have been more thoughtful about being kind and Christ-like this Advent season.
Isn't it the thought that counts?

Actually, having this little exercise in purposeful kindness has been good for me. I have noticed that there are opportunities that I don't really have to look for. I just need to be more aware of others and what they might need or how I might help. I have done better at being more proactive, but that is still unnatural for me. I may need to set up some kind of regular prompt to keep me focused beyond the Christmas season. It does kind of suck to realize that I really am not a naturally nice person.
Is it just me or do others also struggle with being nice? I don't think I'm a mean person. I just rarely think about people or things outside of my relatively small world. I have never really considered the downsides of living in the moment, but perhaps this is one of them.
Hmmm...

In any case, Christmas is getting closer -- fewer than 10 days to go!
I don't feel very Christmassy, but I am okay with that. Culturally, I think celebrating birthdays is a little weird. Picking a made up date to celebrate somebody's birth is even weirder -- even if it is for Jesus! I doubt that Jesus had birthday celebrations as a kid, and I imagine that he would much rather we actually work towards the whole "peace on earth" thing than just sing songs about it once a year.
If we're honest -- Christmas is more for us and satisfying our need to be good, holy, smug about ourselves than it ever was about recognizing the birth of a Savior.

Damn.
Now I've gone all bah, humbug.
I think I'll quit now and just leave you with a reminder to be purposefully kind to someone today.
...or tomorrow.
Whatever
Whenever

sigh
John

Fun Facts for your Friday

Maybe this is what's meant by not seeing the forest for the trees, but on a much grander scale...

At its closest, Uranus is 18.6 AU (Astronomical Unit, the approximate average distance from Earth to the sun) to the planet Earth. 1 AU is about 93 million miles (150 million kilometers) and we found this distant planet before finding an entire continent on our own planet!

     * * * * * 

Here's an interesting map that divides the Earth's population:

I find this truly amazing.
Even being aware of the crowded populations of India and China did not prepare me for this graphic. It's difficult to comprehend.

John

Thursday thoughts

It's Thursday morning and I am really not feeling like a theology/religious post today. I'm sure I could sort through some collected quotes or memes and find something worth posting, but how many times and in how many ways can you express that we need to love one another?

I'm still working on that - being purposefully kind for Advent - thing. As I mentioned earlier, the difficulty is that I just don't have the people encounters that most have. I have managed a few "touches" or contacts via the digital world's text messaging and social platforms, but even find that to be a bit of a stretch when it comes to comfort. I already knew that not being a jerk takes some thought and restraint, but actually being nice is hard work most of the time. 
Fortunately, there is now less than two weeks until Christmas and the end of the Advent season.
Unfortunately, I doubt that purposeful kindness will be a habit by then and I will continue to struggle in being Christ-like in my daily life.
Life would be so much easier if sarcastic assholery was considered a virtue.

Enough about me and my struggles!
Tell me about the nice things you do or nice attitudes you have during the holiday season that are mostly absent the rest of the year.
Are you nicer to people in December than you are in June?
Are you more tolerant of Christmas shoppers than you are of shoppers or crowds at other times?
Are you more generous during the holidays?
And if so ... Why?

It's probably good that we have a season when we are more focused on being nice, but why is it necessary? Are we still trying to make Santa's nice list and stay off the naughty list?

Just wondering...

John

Wednesday Wisdom

 

Did you know ... ?

We are just a scant 11 days away from this year's winter solstice in the northern hemisphere and I am settling into my morning routine of coffee by the fireplace. The living room couch is more comfortable than the deck furniture and the fireplace makes for a cozy atmosphere, but I would much prefer to be sitting outside, listening to the neighbor's roosters crowing and other of nature's morning sounds.

Speaking of crowing roosters, did you know...

According to Greek mythology -- A young soldier was assigned to be a lookout for Ares, the God of war, who was having an affair with the goddess Aphrodite. Unfortunately, the soldier fell asleep and Ares was caught by Helios, the sun god. For his failure, the soldier was turned into a rooster that always crows in the morning to warn of the coming sun!

Now you know.

John

Perspective

It's 50 (10c), cloudy, and between light rain showers in the Ozarks of SWMO. A couple of months ago I would have called it a cold and dreary afternoon. Today I am taking advantage of the warmer weather by sitting on the deck, smoking a cigar, and enjoying the sounds of the rural outdoors. 
Perspective matters.

Because I gravitate towards mindfulness, self-awareness, and the effects of self-talk, the algorithms that control my news feeds often point me to articles that cover the benefits and pitfalls of how we think and how we perceive the world around us. People can live in essentially the same conditions and environments. Some will be peaceful and thrive while others are anxious and struggle. 
At the shelter there are always people that are grateful for a warm, safe place to sleep, and there are always people that complain that it's too warm, too cold, we don't have the oatmeal they like, or something else.
Perspective matters.

So how do we control our perspective?
I guess that really is the key question. I wish I had the answer.
For me, it really is a matter of gratitude. 
However, I've also realized that it is not my place to tell you how you should see things in your world. My way of seeing the world doesn't diminish your way of seeing it from a different vantage point. And while I can try to understand your perspective; I cannot force you to try to understand mine, much less accept it as your own.

In a previous life I was a pretty good salesperson, In the retail world I sold jewelry and building materials and was pretty successful at both. Even as an evangelist (really just a glorified salesperson if you'll pardon the pun) I was pretty good at convincing others to my way of thinking. 
I've found great peace in being able to share my thoughts without the expectation of trying to convince others that they need to convert to my way of thinking. It's unfortunate that I haven't always sold a good product. In fact, I regret that I may have convinced people to believe some things that I now see as loads of horse manure.

I think that "Live and let live" might be too simple of a motto to follow for life, but it's a good beginning.

You may disagree with me, and that's okay.
As for me --
It's 50 (10c), it's December, and it's raining.
And I am grateful that you don't have to shovel rain!

John

It's the Weekend! (or just another day in retirement)

It looks like we are going to get a break from the cold for a couple of days. It won't be a big deal, but I'm all for a little warmer weather. 

Today's kindness will be doing a little housework before Chris gets back home later tonight. It's really not too big of a deal since the house never really gets that messy with just the two of us, and it's only been me for the past few weeks. 
It might seem like a bit of a cop out, but being kind to your spouse or partner should be a pretty regular behavior, don't you think?

As a kindness to myself (self-care is also important), I recently deleted my X (Twitter) account. Since the BlueSky platform is still underdeveloped and I don't think it will be something I really use much, I am saving a lot of time that was once spent on social media platforms. I am now spending that time trying to learn Spanish on a learning platform.
I took advantage of a Black Friday promo to re-subscribe to The Great Courses plus. It has a vast library of educational and informational courses to take and costs less than the monthly ESPN+ subscription that I just cancelled. The only thing I really used the ESPN+ subscription for was to watch the UFC events and I'm sure I can find them elsewhere when I really want to watch them. A little education is a better use of both my time and money. 
With The Great Courses plus app on my phone, I can keep up with the classes on my phone, on my Chromebook, or on the TV via Roku. Maybe I'll end up being a Spanish speaking, ukulele playing, master gardening herbalist by the end of next year! There really is a plethora of courses available.
Chris might find something she wants to learn about, too.

I didn't leave the house yesterday (not even to get the mail!), but I need to run an errand for Chris today, so fair warning, public! John will be on the loose today!

With new stuff to learn, books to read, and cigars to smoke -- who has time to interact with people?
I hope you can understand how being nice to people can be such a challenge.

John