Family

Posted by Sagittarian Seeker on December 25, 2019 in children, Family, Inspiration, Matters of Faith, Personal Values, Spiritual, Striving

December 25, 2019-

There is no group of people in all the world,

who matter more, than those called family.

As far back as I can remember,

there were four of us,

my sister always being in my memory bank.

One grandfather existed only in my subconscious,

as a spirit guide, who never left me,

even though I was willful,

and selective about hearing

what he was telling me.

My paternal grandfather was

all too fleeting a presence,

but his lesson was

to enjoy life to the fullest,

even as he had to leave

too soon.

Nana and Gramma though,

were solid presences,

both farm women,

who had to settle

for a more citified life,

in their later years.

My birth family

peaked at seven.

David’s first steps

on his own,

greeted me one day,

when I came home from school.

I’ve been proud of him

ever since.

Glenn has led a masterful,

ever forward-looking life.

He will always be

the sailor, the golfer,

the Man of the Year.

Cheryl has survived

so much of life’s challenges,

raised the strongest of families,

and is the most beloved of Nanas.

Brian taught us, me most of all,

to have patience and to see

the world through eternally

innocent eyes.

He left us, too soon,

but much the better

for having lived in his midst.

Dad also left, way too soon.

I like to think,

that in the end,

I have made him proud.

Through all life’s struggles,

I have always followed

his admonition:

“Land on your feet!

That’s why the Good Lord

gave them to you.”

Mom is still here,

the beloved matriarch,

having proven.

time and again,

that there is nothing

a man can do,

that a determined woman

cannot equal.

Time passed,

and each of us raised

families of our own.

Penny was by my side,

teaching me that there were,

and will ever be,

people who love me

for myself.

She also passed beyond

a lifetime of suffering,

and is foremost in the firmament

of those who urge me forward.

Now, it’s my turn,

to be something of a mentor,

as my son and his beloved

begin their life,

in the private sector.

I would enjoy being

a grandfather, but

that’s not my decision to make.

I love those whom God has

brought into my life,

always on their own merits.

I can hear the voice of my youngest brother,

telling me: “Leave them alone,

and it’ll be alright.”

Finally, there is the family of choice:

My indomitable sisters-in-law,

whose parents gave from the very core of their being;

The many friends and extended family,

many of whom are still in this world,

and whose sometimes daily messages

and acts of kindness,

remind me that God never has,

and never will, leave Man alone.

On this 2019th commemoration

of the Birth of Christ,

no more powerful message can be shared.

New Beginnings

Posted by Sagittarian Seeker on December 21, 2019 in collaborating, Community, impediments, Inspiration, Personal Values, Social, Striving

December 21, 2019-

I am a late viewer of “Game of Thrones, Season 8”. Although not knowing quite what the author of the series, “A Song of Ice and Fire”, will have to say in the last two books in that series, the television adaptation covered some basic themes, albeit in a modest way.

One of the themes mirrored the plight of the United Kingdom, which has chosen to leave the European Union. In the program, the leaders of the northern sector, on the fictional continent of Westeros, chose to leave a continental political union, even though one of their own was chosen king, when the union faced a political vacuum.

Another was the matter of loyalty, and how easily it can shift, in uncertain times. I’ve seen much of what passes for loyalty depend on how closely the views of the loyalist dovetail with those of the one being supported. In the program, loyalty was a fleeting thing, at best.

The greatest theme, though, was that of new beginnings. The capital city, in the story, was nearly obliterated, by days of brutal warfare. In the early days of the new regime, following continued carnage, there was squabbling about which projects would begin the reconstruction. This is, of course, universal to our day and age, as well.

I have a simple idea about such reconstruction, though. That is, whatever area is given priority should have the support of the community, state or nation, as long as the project will be of demonstrable benefit to those who have been left behind, in the prior progress of the political unit or community. It is not a matter of mutual backscratching, per se, but a case of a new start being consistent and incremental, in the progress of the realm.

While each of us is headed forward, in one way or another, it’s a good thing if there is a network of support.

Fall’s Farewell

Posted by Sagittarian Seeker on December 20, 2019 in Community, impediments, Inspiration, Personal Values, Social, Striving

December 20, 2019-

The days of harvest, of thankfulness,

give way to the time when half the Earth gains rest,

when many feel a time of festivity,

and others abide their glee,

whilst wishing for joyfulness

of their own.

The season of my birth comes to an end.

The season of my growth will start,

in a few short hours.

We will likely enjoy winter’s coating.

whilst those in the antipodes,

bake, sweat and fear the flames.

Those who will begin the New Year,

the new decade,

without work,

have received the ill tidings,

at the time favoured

by the Scrooges in our midst.

Christmas, it’s said,

falls too close

to the end of the

last quarter of the Business Year.

The Big Boys quip:

“There’s no way around it,

men.

Goodbye and good luck,

and thank you for your hard work.”

I think:

“May each one of those

cast-aside workers

find a livelihood,

in the year ahead,

that makes their bygone toil,

the stuff of well-discarded memories.

They are among the true heroes

of this nation.”

May we begin to find our path, an

and walk out of the darkness,

as the Earth alternately

rests and fumes.

Those Who Never Leave

Posted by Sagittarian Seeker on December 19, 2019 in children, Family, Inspiration, Personal Values, Spiritual, Striving

December 19, 2019-

After a delicious and congenial dinner, this evening, three of us watched a heartwarming Korean film: “Little Forest”. It concerns a year in the life of a young woman, returning to her childhood home, from a less than successful foray into the capital city, Seoul.

The seasons play out, beginning with winter, as she regains a sense of who she is, with random help from a couple of childhood friends. Her thoughts often go back to her absent mother, who is revealed to have left, in search of her own identity.

Essentially, the film shows that one’s parents, especially one’s mother, never really leave. All the life lessons are ever present, as a grown child employs skills both consciously adopted and subliminally imparted. This is the true meaning of the common saw: “I’ve become my mother (or father).

I see a little of both my parents in myself. From my Dad, came an easy grace around people, a love of family gatherings, and a desire to learn from my mistakes. From my Mom came a love of knowledge, a basic regard for all people, irrespective of their station in life, a sane and intelligent patriotism, the ability to look beyond my own interests and yet, to put family first.

Mother is still very much alive, yet even when the time comes for her soul to take its flight, she will remain, just as my father has. No parent, no ancestor, ever really leaves a child, a descendant, behind.

Kaleidoscopes, Courtyards and Red Rocks

Posted by Sagittarian Seeker on December 17, 2019 in Community, Entertainment, Hiking and Nature, Inspiration, Personal Values, Slow Food, Social, Travel

December 17, 2019, Jerome-

Today being a day free of commitments in the Prescott area, I took my daughter-in-law, Yunhee, on an excursion to the fascinating Red Rock area, via Jerome. We made this little town that clings to the east face of Mingus Mountain our first and last stop of the day. Yunhee is not put off by winding roads and steep drop-offs, so we made good time, getting to the Kaleidoscope Store, in Nelly Bly’s old office, around 10:30. This amazing little shop is actually the largest kaleidoscope shop in the world and sports at least two dozen kinds of the visual treats. Yunhee was shown how to take a cell phone photograph, with a kaleidoscopic image as the backdrop. I had a kaleidoscope as a child, so I picked up a small one for myself. Then, I got one for a friend who celebrates a birthday, this month. I can see myself making another excursion up the mountain, just to spend a morning or afternoon trying out the many other kinds of image-shifting toys.

We took a straight shot to Sedona, afterward, and I first brought her to a courtyard, with the intent of taking lunch at Momo’s Kitchen, a Korean Food Truck. Momo’s turns out to be closed on Tuesdays, so we headed over to the stylish and avant-garde HP Cafe, which offers exquisite, reimagined Mexican fare. After that great lunch, I brought Yunhee to a viewpoint, where she was able to photograph Midgeley Bridge, a breathtaking sight over Oak Creek Canyon.

Then, it was off to Tlaquepaque, a replica of the large, charming market city of the Mexican state of Jalisco. As it was not the weekend, we nearly had the place to ourselves. Here are several photos of Tlaquepaque’s courtyards and bric-a-brac.

Having had a chance to digest lunch, we went to Synergy, a small shop in West Sedona, which specializes in healthful chocolate and digestive-enzyme beverages, as well as organic chocolate treats. We both opted for Norwegian Wood, a chocolate mocha, maca, chaga and Surthrival pine pollen libation. One of my friends from Prescott Farmers’ Market happened to be there, as well, so we had a fine conversation about keeping our dietary focus keen, balanced and organic, to the extent possible. Yes, Pegasus greets the visitor to Synergy!

Red Rock State Park was on the hiking agenda. The office people seemed to know that we were there for a walk outdoors, and said “Good Afternoon”, without looking up from their desks. So hike, we did, on a loop up to the fenced-off House of Apache Fires, a defunct resort, and back to the Visitors’ Center.

The views of Sedona’s many sandstone spectacles were well worth the jaunt. Besides, when is a hike ever wasted?

Oak Creek runs through the middle of the park.

The red sandstone formations in the distance, are part of the Schnebly Hill formation.

Here is a view of the House of Apache Fires.

This sandstone giant appears to be keeping tabs on everyone.

Here is another view of the Schnebly Formation, taken from Eagle’s Nest Overlook.

So, that was my daughter-in-law’s introduction to the Red Rock country. We will be sure to return there, when Aram comes back from his final active duty, in the Puget Sound area, in early January.

For now, it’s a pleasant dinner at Haunted Hamburger, on the west side of Jerome, then back over Mingus Mountain we go.

Losing Love

Posted by Sagittarian Seeker on December 15, 2019 in children, Community, impediments, Inner Struggles, Inspiration, Matters of Faith, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual, Striving

December 15, 2019-

A couple of things reminded me of the line in Paul Simon’s song, “Graceland”: “My traveling companion is nine years old. She said she’s losing love.”

I received several frantic messages, this morning, from someone who feared a family member was messing with him. The more direct thing, that reminded me of the song, was a paraphrase of that line, in another friend’s online post.

In the first case above, it’s unlikely that the person is living without love. It’s more a difference in communication styles. In the second case, the child is very much loved, by two generations of family.

It is terrifying to lose love, especially for a child. I know people who have themselves never known at least one of their parents. Some have gone on and made great examples of themselves, with or without the love of the remaining parent. Others have not thrived, and have grown, physically, while remaining emotionally stunted and listless.

In my case, I was never without love, from the time I was born until the day I left home to make my way in life. The times since, that I felt I’d lost love, were figments of my imagination and were more a deficit, on my part , of reflecting love. I’ve since learned how to be consistent, in that regard. God’s grace always mirrors itself in those who love us.

These thoughts just came into my mind, as I get ready for the last big event before Christmas.

Rotating the Plates

Posted by Sagittarian Seeker on December 14, 2019 in collaborating, Community, distraction issues, impediments, Inspiration, Personal Values, Social, Striving

December 14, 2019-

In the late 1940’s, a man named Preston Tucker conceived and produced a modest number of innovative automobiles, bearing his name. The attitude of the United States government towards entrepreneurs, in the 1950’s, was a far cry from what it is in this century. Tucker was harassed by the Eisenhower administration, on charges of stock fraud and false advertising, though he was eventually exonerated. Today, many of his innovations, from disc brakes to air-cooled engines, are standard features in many lines of cars.

For many of us, change is most easily accepted if it is piecemeal, and even more so if it mainly involves re-arranging the chairs on the deck, or rotating the plates on a table. Preston Tucker, with Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Stanley Kubrick, Jackson Pollock and Joe Sample, among many others, challenged the way people thought about everything in our society. How can machines be made in a different manner and serve mankind more efficiently? How can music and art be wildly innovative, even whimsical, and still have deep meaning? The powers that be are averse to asking these questions, even in this national unity,age of deep change.

We are finding this in public service, as well. Those who propose large scale changes in the way public affairs are conducted, primarily with a view towards bridging gaps, are dismissed by both the nation’s leadership and the mass media as Lost Causes or Just Plain Weird. The idea that people with liberal viewpoints can find common ground with those of conservative bent has led many with a conventional frame of mind to publicly retch. The “ruffle no feathers” crowd almost prefers widespread incompetence to warm and vibrant appeals to national unity. Thus, “minor” candidates are shut out of the process by clever, but putrid, political machinations.

It is thus in business and industry, in the arts and in the halls of government. It would be refreshing to see the popular will resist these incessant appeals to mediocrity.

We, the People

Posted by Sagittarian Seeker on December 11, 2019 in Community, Family, impediments, Inner Struggles, Inspiration, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual, Striving

December 11, 2019-

In the film, “King of the Gypsies”, the late Sterling Hayden plays the titular role, and remarks, upon encountering a different group of Roma: “Whose Gypsies are these?” It struck me as a curious thing for anyone to say-as I never have taken to the idea of one human being owning another-or others. Indeed, it was a few years ago that I relinquished use of the possessive pronoun “my”, when referencing any person by name, saving its use solely for clarifying a specific relationship.

I guess this is part of a larger movement in my mind- to get past thoughts of “Us and Them”. Growing up in a small town north of Boston, I was first aware of belonging to two large families, then to the Roman Catholic church, then to a town named Saugus, whose residents, for the most part, were of families whose forebears came from Europe. My education, as to how to regard people who looked different from us, was simple: We were to address them as “Sir”, “Ma’am” or by honorific (Mr._____, Mrs._____). Other kids were always called by their first names. The pejorative for African-Americans (My folks called them coloured people, in the 1950’s) was forbidden in our house. Needless to say, nobody with half a brain would ever have called Mrs. Robinson, who ran the junior high cafeteria, anything other than ” Miss Matron, Ma’am”. Mr. and Mrs. Woo, who had a laundry in Cliftondale Square, on the southeast side of town, were likewise accorded full respect, and the Chang family were pillars of the community.

So there was an early perception, in my head, that anyone who used racial or ethnic slurs was just plain ignorant. To be sure, lots of people moved into Saugus from other places, and brought their less than enlightened ideas about race and ethnicity into the social fabric. I never bought into any of it, and remember feeling sad when four little girls were blown to bits, in Birmingham, and when Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, were gunned down. It was as hard for me, as losing the Kennedy brothers.

Nonetheless, there was work for me to do on myself, as so many “harmless” stereotypes and inflections had made their way into my consciousness. My Black fellow soldiers, being as diverse a group as any similar collection of Whites, disabused me of a lot of preconceived notions that growing up in a mostly white community had imparted. To be sure, I have never been physically assaulted by anyone of African ancestry. I can’t say the same about my fellow Euro-Americans.

Gradually, I outgrew stereotypes about other groups of people, all residual from what I had observed in others, over the period of my childhood and adolescence. My inclusive views finally came full circle, when the humanity of those who spouted unfortunate views of exclusion and bigotry became apparent, without my having to adopt their way of thinking. Some people just need more patience than others.

So, it is with a fair degree of incredulity, that I hear one group or another say: “The People won’t stand for this!” To paraphrase Mr. Hayden’s character, ” To which people do you refer?” All humans are people-and while appealing to their humanity is hard, sometimes exasperating, work, I feel I can do no less.

The Wayward Jacuzzi Jet and Other Joys in Life

Posted by Sagittarian Seeker on December 9, 2019 in Community, distraction issues, Family, impediments, Inspiration, Personal Values, Social, Striving

December 9, 2019-

Sometimes, the unexpected can seem to hit at a time that might ordinarily be unnerving. Sometimes, the expected does not happen, and the choice as to whether it IS unnerving is strictly up to the one doing the expecting.

It was quite unexpected, last night, when I turned on an in-room Jacuzzi, that one of the water jets came flying out of its anchor, and water was sent clear across the room-to the bathroom mirror. I turned off the motor and cleaned up the water mess. Needless to say, I’ve had better whirlpool baths.

After many years of knowing people, I expected, at an event I attended prior to greeting Yunhee at the airport, to be more warmly welcomed by the hosts. It was, however, a social justice event and those who rate highly in the Social Justice hierarchy are given top priority. Those of us who are lower on that particular totem pole were not introduced to the higher echelon, even when we were sitting right in front of the hosts and their Higher Ups. This says a lot about the Social Justice movement-and about why it will fail, unless the same old pecking order mentality finds its way to the dust heap. I can do hierarchies well, (wealthy benefactors are just people, at their core), but I can’t do apartheid thinking.

Family matters most to me, though, so I accomplished my main objective, and this morning and afternoon were spent taking breakfast at an American chain restaurant (IHOP), tending to two personal business matters for Yunhee, visiting Penny’s grave site, taking in a bit of Cave Creek and Carefree, having lunch at Rock Springs Cafe, and getting DIL settled in at a friend’s house, two blocks from Home Base. We had a lovely dinner, prepared by said friend, and discussed our “rough plan” for the rest of the week.

It’s comforting having family around.

	Patty Wolters on Limits of Responsibility
	Sagittarian Seeker on Limits of Responsibility
	Patty Wolters on Limits of Responsibility
	Sagittarian Seeker on Limits of Responsibility
	slmret on Limits of Responsibility

A Sagittarian Seeker

Sharing a life of inner and outer journeys

Category Archives: Inspiration

Family

Those Who Never Leave

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