Gitalongs: THE FIVE GIFTS OF THANK YOU

1. I notice that you did or said something that pleased me and that brings me joy.  
2  I say “thank you” to you and that gives your kindness our shared recognition.  
3. You receive a portion of my joy. 
4. You experience the personal pleasure of having your gesture recognized.  
5. We share together a happy interaction that adds to the balance of positive human energy available at that moment on the planet and in the universe.

Every expression of the “gratitude attitude” is a step toward world peace and mends a hole in the universal energy field. Saying "thank you"gives five gifts to the universe and, according to the ideals of all faiths, makes the gods of all peoples happy.

The Five Gifts of Thank You by Abby Freeborn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. For permission to use contact randmxcentric@gmail.com

Crusty Sayings: PEANUT BRITTLE

With apologies to whomever may have said this before the source cited:
 
Families are like peanut brittle; it takes a whole lot of sugar to hold all those nuts together.      Virginia A.Tracy

Crusty Sayings collected by Abby Freeborn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. For permission to use or to correct a source contact randmxcentric@gmail.com

Bread Crumbs: EDITORIAL BY ROBERT LOVE

Executive Editor of THE WEEK: The Best of the US and International Media; All You Need to Know About Everything That Matters, November 11, 2011, Volume 11, Issue 540, WWW.THEWEEK.COM

THE WEEK“Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow.” These were Steve Jobs’ last words before he slipped the bonds of earth on October 5, 2011. We know this because we heard it from his sister, the writer, Mona Simpson, who was with him in his final hours and described them in an eloquent eulogy published this week in the New York Times (...). Like the rest of us, Simpson had no idea what Jobs was seeing when he uttered his last words, but she invites us to ponder their meaning in the context of his life. She speaks of her brother’s “capacity for wonderment,” and his last words seem apt and authentic for an enthusiast given to phrases like “insanely great.” It is tantalizing to think that in his final moments of consciousness, Jobs was privy to a wondrous vision of the other side. Maybe he beheld a beckoning mist, as Emily Dickinson did: “I must go in, the fog is rising.” Or the “shifting sands” seen by writer L.Frank Baum, who wished to cross over to the Land of Oz. Thomas Edison, to whom Jobs was often compared, said of his final destination, “It is very beautiful over there.”

We value last words for their honesty, their wit, their advice from eternity’s doorstep. Once in a while we get a grand summation, as we did from Errol Flynn: “I’ve had a hell of a lot of fun and I’ve enjoyed every minute.” Or an adieu, per Lord Byron: Now I shall go to sleep. Good night.” George Harrison left us with five simple syllables: “Love one another.” Oh wow. In the end we will find out what Steve jobs was talking about. Meanwhile its somehow comforting to know that he was impressed.

About Me: MY ANGELS

My grandmother was a devout Episcopalian who said Morning Prayer out of the Book of Common Prayer every morning since way before I knew her. We often had long philosophical and religious discussions as we walked the beach when I was a teenager. She would wonder aloud how I could have so many questions when, as far as she was concerned, her Book of Common Prayer and the Bible took care of all the deep matters that I was so curious about. I think it was a bit of a generation gap as well as different personalities.

Once, when she came to visit my home in later years, she offered to dry the dinner dishes I was washing. “Oh, no thank you,” I responded. “God dries my dishes.”

“Oh my!” she said. “Don’t you think God has more important things to do than dry your dishes?!”

Wordage: FREELY BORN WORDS

Contributions Welcomed and Credited
Unless otherwise attributed Freely Born Words are created by Abby Freeborn and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. If you have a different source for any of the words listed above, please comment so proper acknowledgement  can be made.
 
Ignorrance ( ig`nor`rance) - 1 (n) the capacity to avoid distraction of focus (e.g., “When he's reading, he is capable of great ignorrance.”); 2 a willful lack of attention, especially by a child (e.g., “Her ignorrance falls just shy of defiance.”)

Aguessment (a`guess`ment) – (n) tests and efforts by medical practitioners to determine and explain the various processes of diseases and aging (e.g.,“This Cat-scan and blood work are inconclusive. We’ll send them to our specialist for her aguessment.)

Transectional (tran`sec`tion`al) - (n) 1. a singer of one voice singing another voice (e.g., "Our chorus is short on tenors so I need some transectional altos and baritones in some parts of Mozart’s Requiem."), 2. a worker who has jobs in more than one department of the business (e.g., “The guy on the backhoe; he’s transectional. Two days a week he does filing and mans the phones in the office.”)

Da Kine Stories: RUNAWAY

One evening in the spring of 1989, while on spring break from her senior year of college, my 22 year old daughter wistfully remarked. “I sure would like to live and work in Annapolis, but it’s too expensive.”

“Not for you, I replied. “You can live at home.”

“Oh I would LOVE to live at home! But not with my MU-THER”

“Great! You take care of the house and I’ll go to Hawai`i.”

“Would you really?”

“Would you really?”

“Deal!”

Gitalongs: YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR WAKE

If your words, silence, action, or inaction purposely or inadvertently interfere with or hurt another, it is up to you to restore equilibrium as sincerely and quickly as possible, immediately taking the time required to do so – a quick apology for a bump, a full scale pick-up-dust-off for a knock-down. Defense and denial are wastes of time and pervert human interaction and harmony.

You are Responsible for Your Wake by Abby Freeborn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. For Permission to use contact randmxcentric@gmail.com

Politics: AN OPEN LETTER TO OBAMA'S CAMPAIGN STRATEGISTS

Dear David Plouffe, David Axelrod, Jim Messina, et al,

I get ten pleas for money every day, but asking for money is not enough! Your grassroots are parched and burned out just trying to survive. We need HELP from YOU in working to re-elect President Obama!

HOPE IS NOT AS STRONG AN EMOTION AS FEAR SO MUST BE COMBINED WITH EVIDENCE TO BE NOURISHED AND EFFECTIVE.

A PICTURE IS WORTH 1,000 WORDS AND WE ARE SICK OF WORDS.

Here are some suggestions from a grass roots campaigner for Obama who doesn't want to lose! HELP US restore hope, counter Republican spin and get Barack Obama re-elected. He has done both wonders and blunders so let’s maximize the former and minimize the latter and strive to circumvent campaign rhetoric. Give us concrete facts in concrete form, please?

The Kitchen Sink: CRUSTY SAYINGS

With apologies to whomever may have said this before the source cited:

It takes a child to make a man out of a boy. P.H.Harrison,Jr. 

Crusty Sayings collected by Abby Freeborn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. For permission to use or to correct a source contact randmxcentric@gmail.com

Parenting: POOR PARENTING CAN TEACH GOOD PARENTING

As I was growing up there was one thing my parents tried to practice with me that I vowed never to do to my kids. Raised by authoritarian parents themselves in the early 1900s, they felt entitled to immediate, unquestioning obedience “because I'm your mother,” or “Because I said so,” or “ No back-talk from you, young lady!”  When I was caught smoking at age 14, my chain-smoking father chastised me:”Do as I say, not as I do,” and he meant it. Hmmmm - what’s a kid learn from that?

I have always had a strong need to understand and personalize what I am expected to do and why. This enables me to take full responsibility for my actions. I felt these parental pronouncements to be very disrespectful so they provoked more questions and usually led to arguments, sometimes punishments.

The Kitchen Sink: CHRISTMAS 2011 - THE BIRTH OF A NEW TRADITION

As Christmas commercialism bears down upon us, popping up from behind the displays of leftover Hallowe’en candy, this item is making the rounds on email. A friend sent it to me and didn’t know who wrote it. I found it again by Google Search at Post A Day 2011/ Wordpress Challenge.  Kudo’s to whomever wrote it and thanks for the sanity. I share it here as a thoughtful way to make Christmas giving in 2011 a more personal, relevant and American experience.  Just don’t forget: Thanks-giving comes first. Enjoy:

Christmas 2011 - The Birth of a New Tradition

NOTE: NO OFFENSE: you can Insert your Country for the same gift giving New 2011 Traditional Ideas

As the holidays approach, the giant Asian factories are kicking into high gear to provide Americans with monstrous piles of cheaply produced goods — merchandise that has been produced at the expense of American labor. This year will be different. This year Americans will give the gift of genuine concern for other Americans. There is no longer an excuse that, at gift giving time, nothing can be found that is produced by American hands. Yes there is!

Poetry: GIVEN TO

by Ruth Berbermeyer

I never feel more given to
than when you take from me –
when you understand the joy I feel
giving to you.

And you know my giving isn’t done
to put you in my debt,
but because I want to live the love
I feel for you.

To receive with grace
may be the greatest giving.
There’s no way I can separate
the two.

When you give to me,
I give you my receiving.
When you take from me, I feel so
given to.

-

Song “Given To” (1978) by Ruth Bebermeyer
from the album, Given To.

The Kitchen Sink: CRUSTY SAYINGS

With apologies to whomever may have said this before the source cited:

“It takes two people to create a work of art - one to paint and one to tell him when to stop.”     Snowden Hodges


My friend Snowden is Head of the Art Department at Windward Community College and an established Hawai`i artist. His remark applies equally well to writing.

Crusty Sayings collected by Abby Freeborn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. For permission to use or correct a source contact randmxcentric@gmail.com

Gitalongs: THE WANTS/NEEDS GAME

We become adults when we finally get it that, once we pubesce, there is no one on the planet whose job it is to meet our “emotional needs” except ourselves. In the first place, there are no such things as emotional “needs”--- “wants”  a-plenty, but no needs. A need is something we cannot remain alive without. The needs list is short: food, water, shelter from prolonged exposure to hostile elements, and sufficient warmth to maintain functional body temperature. We can live without any emotional interactions at all - as hermits and recluses demonstrate - and still enjoy emotions. The only emotion we actually need in order to survive is fear which, in appropriate doses, warns us of real or imagined danger.

It’s okay to have emotional wants. Emotional experience enriches our lives. And it’s okay to ask for help from a friend if we're feeling stymied, lonely, or vulnerable, and want to connect on some emotional level. But when we try to control (expect, demand, and/or manipulate) others to meet our wants by insisting that our wants are needs we are being dishonest and childish - refusing, or somehow unable, to grow up. That is a recipe for frustration because, aside from the protective/instructive aspects of raising kids safely,  the only person one is entitled to control is oneself.  And that effort is challenge enough!

The Wants/Needs Game by Abby Freeborn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. For permission to use contact randmxcentric@gmail.com

Bread Crumbs: ALWAYS UP FOR A PARTY?

I worked with a woman who seemed desperate to do a lot of nothing. Her family hired me to "keep her active." They were distressed that she was “giving up.”  When I visited, she was blandly disinterested in whatever I suggested. The house was always immaculate, the TV was always on - but the only thing she watched with interest was The Dog Whisperer.

She was a different person when any of her family stopped by – animated and eager to please – agreeing with whatever they suggested. When they left, I would prompt her to follow their latest suggestion. “Not today,” she would say. “I’m too tired.” It quickly became clear to me that she had no intention of fulfilling her family’s desire for her to act younger than she felt. She only made that effort when they fulfilled her hunger for their company.

The Kitchen Sink: A RICH FINANCIAL DIET, Part I

I am a retired social worker who loves to travel. Two thirds of the IRA that I funded at $600/month while working was wiped out by Wall Street back in 2000 something. I now live on Social Security, a small pension and the annuitization of what was left of my IRA. Fifteen percent (15%) of my modest monthly income goes for health care. I am better off than many of my fellow sliders on the slippery end of the well-under-$50K slope because I spend every dollar twice.

I love to travel and I have several tips on how to live a champagne lifestyle on a soda-pop budget. These tips require some steady income, maturity, intelligence, discipline and vigilance, but these are traits we all need to develop.

The Kitchen Sink: A RICH FINANCIAL DIET, Part II

How did you do with Part I? Those suggestions really take more thought than time, once you get to know your spending needs and put a rhythm to your finances. Now we move to my favorite part - gaming banks and airlines. Spend Every Dollar Twice.

I repeat: 19. Take advantage of credit card offers, sign-up rewards, and benefits. 

This is actually the secret that turns my soda-pop into champagne. But it takes good impulse control, planning and vigilance. As you know, the credit card industry counts on you to overuse the convenience of deferred payment that they offer in hopes that you will carry debt that earns them exorbitant interest and makes them lots of money. If you fall prey to their ploy, you can pay way more than double what your purchases cost over time. I get a kick out of exploiting the banks' and airlines' eagerness to have my business.  And they thank me for it.

Wordage: FREELY BORN WORDS

Contributions Welcomed and Credited
Unless otherwise attributed Freely Born Words are created by Abby Freeborn and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. If you have a different source for any of the words listed above, please comment so proper acknowledgement  can be made.

Ignoromnibus (ig`nor`omni`bus) - (n) a person who knows nothing about everything and doesn’t know it (e.g., “That new freshman loves to show off, but he’s a real ignoromnibus.”)

Ignorrant (ig`nor`rant) - (n) a monologue that continues despite demonstrations of boredom by the audience (e.g., “Today I had to listen to a twenty minute ignorant about the President being a foreigner.”)

Ignorrant (ig`nor`rant - (adj.) 1. an argument that overlooks a preponderance of available evidence (e.g., “Politicians often make ignorrant assertions.”); 2. someone who is willfully inattentive (e.g., “She heard you; she’s just being ignorrant.”)

Bread Crumbs: ANY TIME YOU THINK OF ME

My friend Tommy had come home in the spring of his first year of college with blinding headaches. When I went to visit him, his Mom told me he had a brain tumor. I asked her if it could be removed and she replied that they were Christian Scientist and many were praying for his recovery.. I prayed too and visited every couple of weeks all summer. When I came home from college for Christmas break, I found him optimistic but so weakened that his main exercise was squeezing a tennis ball. He had pain medication but there would be no surgery. Back at college, I was busy and his Mom said he did not like to talk on the phone, so I stopped calling.

Gitalongs: THE GUNNYSACK AND THE HANG-UP TREE

Some days when we arrive home from work at the same moment, I see my neighbor stop and admire a dogwood tree along the pathway from his car to his door. Some days he just eyes it as he passes, perhaps nods and smiles at it. Other days he appears to examine it for quite a while. On one such day, curiosity got the better of me and I hailed my friend as he was gazing at the tree. My friend half waved and continued to look at the tree. I approached quietly and looked at the tree to see what was so interesting. When my friend finally turned to me, I asked, "What are you seeing that I don't?"

Poetry: NIGHT ON THE SANDBAR

Here we sit, friend, you and I, silent,
Alone with the sea on a moonless night.
I look for the line where water meets air.
It isn't there.

Have you ever completely lost faith in facts,
In what we all preach about Life, Cosmos, God?
Ever lost touch with your body, with Earth -
Your reason adrift?

Parenting: SIX-YEAR-OLD WISDOM

Every night I would spend 15 minutes sitting in the dark bedroom with one child while my husband sat with the other child for quiet “debriefing” time before going to sleep. Then we would switch rooms. This was our solution to the incessant calls for water, the bathroom, and other attention-getters after we had put them to bed.

One night my six year old daughter asked me,”Do you like how you are?”
“Well...yes, I do. Why do you ask?”
“And does Daddy like how he is?” She was almost asleep.
“I think so, sure.” Catching on, I asked, “Do you like how you are?”
“Uh-huh,” she yawned, “everybody has to like how they are. Megan and Sarah won't share their toys with me.”
“Oh, what seems to be the problem?”
“I think they don't like how they are. G'night, Mom.”

My six year old daughter had discovered the root of self-confidence. 

Six-Year-Old Wisdom by Abby Freeborn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. For permission to use contact randmxcentric@gmail.com