School Rules!

Yellow buses. Back-to-school sales.  Clothing discounts.  Sighs and smiles, depending on how one looks at this time of year.

📷 by UzebekIL on pixabay

Back to school starts on different dates for different states.  Some parents are relieved - kids do need structure.  Some kids will be happy too, whether they like the social aspect of learning - or both.  Some kids will dread it - whether it’s the social aspect or learning - or both.  Same difference. 😁🤷

Even years after attending school, and for that matter college, I still enjoy looking through back-to-school supplies displays:  the choices of pens, notebooks, folders.  And backpacks.  Oh yes, lunchboxes too (do they make those anymore?)

Being poor I could never get a lunch box.  I don’t remember having a backpack either until college.  There were also expensive notebooks I would love to have had.  But nonetheless I did get basics - pens, pencils, erasers, paper folders, crayons, colored pencils, and later years highlighters.

📷 ringsphoto on pixabay

Not only was there an array of beauty in the colors, but the smell of new supplies still take me back to the good memories of school.  Freshly sharpened pencils with a whiff of wood scent.  Opening a new box of crayons - mmmm - wax colors raising their pointed ends, calling for me to color with them. Ha!                                                   
If I was able to get a new outfit or two, that was always both exciting and awkward, wearing it the first day, getting used to the feel of the crisp fabric.  And the shoes!  Ouch!  After a summertime of mostly bare feet or flip-flops, there were always those darn blisters to deal with when school started.

But there I was in a new outfit, carrying my plain notebook with colorful folders and ruled paper.  If I was lucky I would also have the vinyl zipper bag to contain the pens, pencils, erasers and whatever else I could stuff in there.   

The books would be assigned from the school.  I do love the smell of books.  I always enjoyed trips to the school library to get more books.  I loved to learn and I loved to read.  Still do.

📷 geralt on pixabay

Being shy, I was not particularly happy to be in school around people.  But I was glad to be there for learning.  Teachers liked me and were good to me.  I did have a few friends, but was never popular, never in a club, or a study group.  There were times I missed a lot of days but despite that I got good grades.  For years I would keep my notes and information I learned from each grade.  The material is gone now, but the education remains.

📷 by Skitterphoto on pixabay

I don’t know why school supplies make me happy.  Maybe they were like friends during those early years as I struggled to learn to socialize.  We all get attached to things, even though many are fleeting.  Perhaps the supplies are symbolic of something within me.  I feel a sense of control, of having a bit of power.  I can use these tools to gain knowledge.  These tools are instruments to attain some worth, to find a place of belonging.

📷 ringsphoto on pixabay

A sense of empowerment.  Wow!  Thinking of this has me wondering what it would have been like to be a teacher.  Teachers are powerful.  They have a strong impact over so many lives.  How unfortunate they are not remunerated adequately for their services.

So here we are in these times - today - back to school. 

📷 Dystopos on flickr

How many supplies do kids need now, when there is so much technology in use?  Guess some of the tools will remain despite computers.  I think that is a good thing.  There is something much more deeper and stronger in what is gained when you write with a pen or pencil on paper, than when you type on a keyboard.  It’s as if there is a harmonious connection among the written tool, the paper and our inner selves, a collective unconsciousness of sorts.  Maybe it even goes back to cave men drawing on the rocks!  An awareness of being among others, animals, nature...a whole world.

📷 Alexas_Fotos on pixabay

Writing this down gives me a sense of being.
I am here.
 (Rinnnnnngggg!!!!)
Oh, there’s the bell.  Gotta go!  😉
Theresa M

Dare I Wonder (song)

Refrain:

Dare I wonder how you are

away so far in heaven.

Dare I somehow know the way

but have to stay from heaven.

     ⌛⌛⌛⌛⌛⌛⌛⌛

Night time sleep
doesn't keep me well
It only tells of a day
gone by.
Worries piled up so high,
so worn
I'm just so torn
living here on earth.

(Refrain)

Not a day do I stay too long

📷 by cg cowboy on pixabay

or is it wrong?

I need peace within.

Yet shadows always

know so much

I’m out of touch

with reality.

(Refrain)

Here I go once again tonight

I'll take the flight

tryin' to get to heaven.

Dare I wonder how you are

away so far in heaven.

Dare I somehow know the way

but have to stay from heaven.

Theresa M

📷 by Imaresz on pixabay

                                          Happy Birthday Mom. 💕

Why On Earth?

Why on earth?  Oh boy! Another existential question from me.  I was watching a Nova show on PBS about planets and stars.  Really not many updates from what has been known for awhile except the fantastic images and data from Mars.

Blue Marble 2012 - NASA image

But that thought - why on earth? - occurred to me.  We have life because of water.  Scientists are looking for existence of water on other planets, and think they found that Mars used to have it. 

But that doesn’t mean that their life forms were like ours.  Why on earth (oh there it is again!) is our planet the only one with us on it?  Why human beings?  And supposedly we’re evolving, getting smarter, making huge advances in technology, science, money-making, etc.  And over-populating while we’re at it.  Crowding out animals from their habitats, depleting people of basic needs: air, food, water.  Water.

More water flows as the polar caps melt, but not more in a good way.  Oceans rising, average climate temperatures increasing, creating more problems.  And the water - will it just evaporate from the increasing heat - dissipate?  Despite the melting will we have a shortage of water that isn’t sea-water, isn’t potable?

earth's atmospheric layers - image NASA-JSC

Will there be a turning point hundreds of years from now (or sooner) where this planet has had enough of us human beings and finally gets rid of us?  Life on earth will be fine without humans.  Really.  Why on earth are we needed here to begin with?  To each his/her own answer is within.
Theresa M

Play It Forward

Yeah, you read it right:  Play it forward.

This isn’t about when you do good things for others as have been done to yourself.  But kind of.

image by john hain on pixabay

There are several definitions in our dictionary; for the word “play.”  From a dramatic performance to using a musical instrument.  Or to move about lightly or quickly; to imitate.  To engage in fun or jest or in a sport.

To amuse.  You know how it’s so popular on the internet to watch cat videos, bloopers, or other antics.  Countless times we forward these images by tweets, email, or instagram.  We become easily “aahed” at little kittens just being cute.  Or watching a raccoon climb a building.  One recent viral vid was of a father having a conversation with his toddler son while watching TV.  Adorable!

Playing it forward is sharing the amusement with others.  Maybe adding our own little “punny” view.  We brighten up people’s day when we play.

Play is universal, even animals do it.  It is obviously an important part of life for all ages.  Play simply breaks down barriers and friction.  It builds up bonds.  It eases the hardship of daily life.

Take time to play with your kids, or friends, or a pet.  Even a little “peek-a-boo” with a stranger’s toddler as you are all waiting in line at the store, just to see mom and kid smile.  And by all means, keep sharing those playful videos.  You can help someone, somewhere in the world, smile. 😀     Theresa M

image by john hain on pixabay