change is in the wind
Have you ever gotten up an wondered what is coming next? We all know fall and winter are around the corner. Just after this 80 degree weather is done. There is a cold front trying to inch across Missouri. Hopefully it will have a little rain with it....if it gets this far.
I'm sorry I have been gone so long. It looks like a lot of other people have been gone too. I see the mssba group had another fall get-together. How nice it is to share stories and plans with sheep folks!
I went to see what everyone was writing about today. Couldn't find much....I suppose you couldn't either. Some of my links wouldn't open. Maybe someone was writing? My thought for today.
What do you need to change?
Is you life ideal today? What would give you some joy tomorrow? We really need to stop living life in the tomorrows and definitely not in the yesterdays....and get some todays in today!
You know, when we live on farms with livestock, we are contunually putting things away for tomorrow. We store wool, we store hay....we freeze food, We put away clothes....we store old stuff. My dear friend just had a flood. Not the outside kind, this was inside....and only happened in her house...not in her neighborhood. This is the kind of event that sets us back...it changes how we look at life...at things. Especially things. How many things do we all save that are not good for anything.....except to remind us of the past? I don't know about you folks....but I have lots. Perhaps these extra things make a new place feel like home to us. We have a box full of memories.....so we must be home. This is a good coping skill for our mobile society. I have lots of boxes....lots. Not as many as at my other home....but more than I should be keeping.
So what do you need to change today? Do you have so many old memories that you can't live today? Fall is a good time to take stock of where we are...look back at the year we have been living...and spend some wintertime planning our next forray into whatever life has for us.
One of the things I have been storing away is sheep. Surprise! I keep sheep. Lots. They don't fit in boxes.
Aside from all my little pet sheep, I have three dogs. Two are mentally and emotionally unfit. Likely because they live with me. I have Molly the goose. Why? You ask? Because! I have presently 9 cats....yes, they are all fixed. Some like to go outside....some would rather stay inside. Lucky actually would rather go outside at night...but, because she was a city cat and doesn't have front claws....she really shouldn't go outside in the wilderness at night. As I remember they removed front claws so the cats wouldn't claw holes in our furniture. Which should mean that all puppies should be de-toothed. This last one has chewed holes and parts off most of my household objects. Which brings me back to losing household objects.
What if, like Katrina....all our possessions were lost? We would have to grieve....because whatever furniture and other posessions we have around us....they reflect something of us. So....are we actually less because we have parted with something...or someone? No. I don't think so. I have been selling some of my older "packed away" pet sheep. It seems a hard thing to do. I can't tell you how many I have offered to sell...and then tucked inside the barn again. I suppose because when we raise or purchase a sheep. We are creating dreams of what ever little lambs might come about because of that sheep. So as I sell some of my pet sheep. I am giving up the dreams for myself and passing them on to the person buying my sheep. Now that sheep is part of their dreams. So if I give up...say, that little yellow plastic cowboy hat that I kept, because it was part of my youth, and part of my grandparents home....do I give up the memory? No, I think I could remember my youth and grandparents without it. Am I going to? Not today....maybe some day.
We took a trip. Really! We were going to visit our son, but found we didn't have time or the help to be gone long. So.....
We went to the beach. I like the beach. It is so very different from the life we live. I might get tired of it....I don't know. We had two days driving time to get there....one night on the beach and two days driving time to get back. Just the right amount of time. Kind of.
We really need to thank our oldest son for spending a week of vacation time from his job...to take care of our sheep, dogs, cats, goose....and neighbor. Children do take care of their parents.
So I have a little shock at being back. A little shock at what plans I need to make...at what possessions I need to keep....or not. At how much time I need to spend being a shepherd....a wife...a mother...a friend. I thought since at least one of my friends is changing right now. Some of the rest of you might be too. And....I want to encourage you to do just that. Change. Live. Enjoy. Love.
On that note....I am going north in the next two weeks to visit my brother and my children. So if there is anyone you know who could use a couple of nice shetlands. I am bringing the truck, and could tuck a couple in for you or some beginning shepherd who has a dream.
Dreams.....they are the beginning, if we only act on them.
posted by bopeep @ 8:18 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Ah, dear friend, you wax so philosophically on this topic... the very essence of this past week of my life. It is odd to come face to face with what one is willing to release and what one decides to cling to. Would you believe I've actually sent my 60+ year old panda bear to be dry cleaned along with lots of other stuff??? Why? Beats the h--- out of me. But the decision was made to move it out of the trash pile and into the dry cleaning pile... weird, even for me, understudy of weirdness.
On the other hand, lots of stuff simply went into the trash bin. I gave away some of my framed old college paintings to the guys who were packing up our stuff. I decided to keep about 1/2 of my fabric stash - it's going to the dry cleaners. The rest is being counted as "damaged" and I'll be reimbursed. I no longer want all that fabric! I still have way more than I will ever possibly use - but to a fabric artist, fabric is our "paint" of choice. Unless we paint or dye our own fabric, which I also do...
Lots of stuff in the garage (never unpacked from our last move about 5 years ago) was severely water damaged (those paintings, for instance). Most of it went into the dumpster, some of it will be repaired. Some was given away. And some of it actually survived undamaged by the water/humidity.
My mom's and grandmother's antique white bed spreads were in the laundry room closet where the water was freely spewing for 6+ hours. Somehow or other, all that stuff ended up packed on in the pod rather than going to the dry cleaners. I have to wonder if that isn't one way for the decision to be made FOR me... will they be beyond repair by the time we are able to move back into the house? Will they have contaminated other things in the storage pod with mold & mildew?
Time will tell. I couldn't over see everything and I did way more than I suspect I was responsible for doing. For instance, tomorrow we're going over to the house to take down the remaining curtains and drapes. Otherwise, they won't be in the dry cleaning pile on Monday, when the dry cleaners come to pick the stuff up. Now I ask you, am I really responsible for taking down these curtains or not? Will I do it? Yes. I love my lace curtains...
All of Frank's mounted/matted 8" x 10" and 11" x 14" black and white photos were water damaged. He'll never work in the darkroom again - do we want or need those 1970-1980 photos? Not really, but there are some of the family members that were wonderful...and some that simply reflect that era of our lives. Will I claim them on the insurance? Absolutely. If we had to pay someone to print and mount them at today's prices, it would be prohibitively expensive. But that money will go towards other things we now need.
The insurance will give us enough money to purchase equally equipped items. So the 18+ year old washer and dryer will be priced on the insurance form for the amount of the cheapest Kenmore products - which is what was in our townhouse when we arrived. We want to upgrade a bit, and to have the pedestals under them so my back and shoulder don't scream when I load or unload the clothes. Those silly pedestals cost $200/each. Why, I ask you? They're simply metal boxes to hold appliances that ought to have been taller in the first place!
Anyway, I've put in 50+ hours in the past week just sorting and packing up belongings - and there were 2/3 others being paid to do the packing for us. Tomorrow, at long last, the huge dehumidifiers and fans can be turned off. I'll be delighted not to have to go outside to hear someone on the cell phone! And I do wonder what our electric bill will be next time...not to mention the water bill!
Change. Yes, it is truly all about change. We can welcome it willingly, even invite it. Or we can bemoan it, try to fight it, even ignore it for a time. I'm choosing to move with the change and make the best of what is. Change, as they say, is the only constant. Why is it, then, that it's so hard to accept it so much of the time?
Fall is a wonderful time of year. It is also the time for divorces...interesting thought! Along with storing things away for the winter, thoughts often go to getting rid of the extras. Funny, I just cleaned up a 'pile' in my house too, packing into bags for the charities what I no longer needed or could use, and throwing away what no one else would want either. Sometimes we do that with people too, especially as we get older and realize it's not having tons of friends that counts, but just having good friends. Fall is indeed a good time for reflection. Thank you for posting again!!
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