Today, I listened...

It was a beautiful, sunny day in Northern Arizona so I decided to sit out in the back yard for a while. There was a slight breeze blowing and things couldn't be more perfect. In just a short while, I began to doze off and almost forget where I was at. It was so relaxing.

Although, I was about half asleep I began to listen to all the different noises around the neighborhood. This particular area is at the edge of town and people have all sorts of things growing around here, things that might not be allowed in the city.All sort of critters...
Besides, everyone having too many dogs that bark constantly at everything, or sometimes nothing, we also have quite an array of cats(gives the dogs something else to bark at), and on down the road someone has a bunch of Geese. I have never seen them but they are making their distinctive sounds all day..all night. If I hadn't been raised on a farm their incessant noise could easily become irritating.A couple blocks over someone has horses, and I remember(somewhere) seeing a cow. So many different living beings and all totally different. I know they can't all think alike or be the same and yet (I realized) they don't spend all their time fighting with the ones that are NOT like THEM.They, actually, get along better than humans...
Watching the clouds rolling across the sky, I began to think about the one that created all this...including myself. The one and ONLY Creator...What some call God, others, maybe something else. But as the saying goes: A rose by any other name...

If for only a moment, we as individuals, would stop and look at all God has created and the wonder of his perfection (Perfect in his eyes and for his reasons), we might have to ask ourselves WHY would he go to all that trouble just so someone can come along and destroy it? I was told long ago that God is found in the SILENCE, not in the words of man or anything that man has tampered with. Men can't seem to help being anything but self- serving and meddlesome. Maybe, we would be better off talking directly to our Creator instead of listening to other men or reading and living by some book that,  GOD ONLY KNOWS, who wrote...
I, seriously, do not think evil was suppose to be the dish of the day. Nor did our Creator intend for us ALL to be the same, and in one way or another, to be different, for whatever reason.  Somewhere along the line men took it upon themselves to start judging God's DIFFERENT handiworks. If I remember the story right, someone else took it upon himself to rebel and try to take the place of the Creator. I hear he got in big trouble for that childish fit...
Whatever happened to meeting new(and different) peoples and each learning from one another? As to skin  color or anything else, it is only skin deep. Beneath all that, there isn't two ounces of different in any of us...Like it or not! I think humanity's biggest problem is ATTITUDES! Try smiling at a stranger instead of throwing rocks. Hopefully, he will smile back and all is well...
It is said that we should return good for evil. That is dang hard to do, UNLESS, we decide we are better than the guy with the bad attitude. A stronger person will do what is right, and I think we all (REALLY) know in our hearts, what is right and what is not.
Hate is never a cure for hate...

Just A Nice Day...

Believe it or not, I have nothing in particular to write about, but it is such a NICE day, I just felt compelled to say so.
For Arizona, in August, it doesn't seem too hot. A slight breeze makes what heat there is, tolerable. A couple of clouds in the sky....Maybe? A little rain would be nice about now, but till it happens, I won't hold my breath. It just feels like one of those days, that I am not rushed and want to lay around...

I am retired and don't understand why I EVER feel rushed. It's not suppose to be that way when we're retired...Right? Sounds good, anyway.
I live across the street from a school and I watch the kids running about, and remember how, LONG AGO, that was me doing the rushing thing. My whole life ahead of me; countless dreams of exploring, conquering the world. Yeh! I guess we all have a few memories, but now, my worlds have been conquered(as much as possible), all the hills have been topped and it gets increasing more difficult to reach the top. I knew I shouldn't have eaten that last Burrito...

Oh well, I have had a good run(life) and don't have too many regrets(except that Burrito), and regardless of the circumstances, I hope everyone else has, at least, one smile... and a good day...

TICKING OF THE CLOCK...

As I sat in my kitchen this morning, I realized how quiet it was. I could hear the smooth running of the Refrigerator in the corner, and the even louder sound of the clock ticking...For a change, there seemed to be no noise from outside and I had really never realized how noisy that clock was, before,  Tick, tick, tick...An almost haunting and antagonizing tease...

After a while the sound of the clock became almost hypnotic. Tick, tick! Before long I started thinking back to an earlier time. I remember a time when we visited different family members, long ago. Even a a young boy, I had noticed how utterly quiet  their houses seem, when the conversation had momentarily ran out and nobody was saying anything. I remember the sudden, alarming silence that filled the room. back in those days, a lot of people either  didn't have a television or it wasn't running 24 hours a day, as some do now. If someone wasn't talking, the only sound was of the Wall clock just ticking away; just counting off time and lives...

All these years later, as I sit and listen to my own clock ticking in the background, I realize that all those people listened too long to that old clock, and now...are gone...
Clocks may have their purpose but can also be a grim reminder that we only have so much time...Then, things run down...

Maybe it is better if we DON'T know what  time it is. Reminders only seem to make things worse...