Unknown

Old Mennonite Burial Ground Lincoln, ONT
📷 by Canadian Cemetery History

Nameless. Faceless. A life lived in shadows.

Hidden neath vibrant lights of human stars.

While Rest in Peace all prayers to honor

Go often to the well-known other.

Alone yet close but distant daily

Barely leaving footprints across their paths

While roads and streets hail the famous and rich

As funerals fill with millions who worship.

Who then takes a moment to remember

A soul who’s passed from shadows onto yonder?

Are there tears are there prayers ever to be shown

To all who led quiet lives,

whispered away to stardust, unknown.

Theresa M.

📷 by Vassilis Tangoulis 

some twitter accounts who honor the long-forgotten: Canadian Cemetery History
Memorial Restoration & Safety
Southern Graves
  Pittsburgh Cemeteries
  New Hampshire Cemeteries
  Dead in Halifax

Realizing This Moment

I sat down and I can’t get up.  Luke and Lilly, my feline pals, insist on settling down on my lap at the same time.  I get involved in reading or tweeting, and they appear here around the same time, at first feigning interest in what I’m doing, then of course they totally ignore me so they can nap.

📷 Mihail Hukuna on pixabay

And as every cat lover knows, for some reason, we feel guilty to move them out of the way if we need to get up.  Just get up.  Go. But no, I hesitate.  Something about a furry warm critter napping on me is mesmerizing.  Even when a cat is not staring into my eyes (you know how captivating that is) they have some kind of magical hold, seizing my every muscle, stifling every reason I have for being someplace else.

What?  How can this be?  What is so difficult here?  It’s not like I am tied down, or locked in.  All I have to do is get up.

Okay, let me just pull the recliner lever a little bit.  They stir.  Oh, sorry I didn’t mean to wake you.  Oh, come on.  They’ve got all day to sleep…  anywhere they want to.

Anywhere.  Oh, I see.  That’s what it is.  They choose here with me, on my lap.  With me is where my feline pals choose to be.  Realizing this has me feeling as content as they do.  We’ve chosen one another.  How comforting that is.  I really want this moment to last.              🐾 🐱 💖Theresa M

Fear Ye, Fear Ye Not

Fear, so powerful, is deeply ingrained in our unconsciousness.  We all have the “fight or flight” response ready to react even before we think things through.  Although we have adapted into not necessarily immediately lashing out or running off.  We often instead have time to consider what is really going on with a situation.  We can allow ourselves time to find out what is really stirring up within our minds and emotions.

📷 by Conmongt on pixabay

Fear can paralyze if it is not addressed rationally.  We all know about phobias.  But what about being stuck in a reaction because of our fear?

Take the fear of losing your income, whether it be from a job or retirement.  Political points of view often use that fear as a tactic to persuade people to be on their side:  their version of what is happening politically may be a mix of truth and fiction, but they rely on people to instantly be afraid.  Be so afraid, strike out against the opponent, without bothering to review the facts.

📷 by Alexas_Fotos on pixabay

Sure I fear such a loss.  I don’t want the government tampering with social security, retirement, etc.  It could happen.  Let me investigate, however, what is going on.  And yes, I will then be on the side of someone who will protect us.

Jumping to conclusions, without investigating facts or just listening to one-sided opinions and letting the fear-inducing remarks set us off is primal.  But we are capable of stopping irrational reactions.  We are capable of taking responsibility to check out the facts.  Sometimes they are hard to find, with so many others muddying the waters.  Many give up or just jump in and yell and finger-point to no end.

But we can try.  We can stop, acknowledge our fear is real, but it does not have to own us.  Fear itself does not have to paralyze us.  Again I stress: Acknowledge Fear.  And stand up to it by searching for the facts.  Search for what you can do about the situation.  Don’t let someone take away your hope, your power, or your peace of mind.  Be motivated to learn.  Empower yourself, not your fears.    Theresa M.