Tag Archives: Carrie Underwood

Ten Beautiful Things (and People)

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Posted by on in Assistance, collaborating, Community, Entertainment, impediments, Inspiration, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual, Striving

February 18, 2024, Blythe- (Getting around “no internet” is always fun. I am posting this from a location other than my motel-Relax Inn.)

My favourite zoo animal, when I was a child, was the black panther. Stoneham Zoo and Franklin Park, in Boston, always had at least one melanated leopard. As it happens, Heritage Park zoo, in Prescott, has a melanated jaguar. This panther is named Notch. So, Notch ranks #10 on the list of beautiful things and people that come to mind, as I sit here in this desert town, on the Colorado River.

He is also the only one for whom I will present a photograph, in this post. The other nine have been posted previously, at one point or another.

#9 is the western sunset, which is almost given a run for its money, by the sunsets of the Midwest.

#8 is the Aurora Borealis, which I have seen only once-in Flagstaff, circa 1980.

#7 is the voice of Carrie Underwood, when she is fully engaged in a spiritual song.

#6 is the portrayal by Keala Settle, of the Bearded Woman, in “The Greatest Showman” (2017).

#5 is the snowscape, after a storm, on the South Rim of Grand Canyon.

#4 is a mother black bear, nestling her newborn cub-and viewed from a safe distance.

#3 is the look on the face of a little girl, when her family is relocated from a flimsy shack, to a tiny house, on the outskirts of Sacramento.

#2 is the smile on the face of a grizzled and cynical Right Wing political activist, when he is given a packet of Earth Breeze laundry sheets, by someone he knows to be a social justice activist, from the other side of the political spectrum.

#1 is the smile on the face of a very dear friend, when those she trusts include her in activities.

Everyone has their own ideas of what, or who, is beautiful. That is what keeps this world glued together.

The Road to 65, Mile 301: I Hear the Rolling Thunder

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Posted by on in Inner Struggles, Inspiration, Personal goals

September 24, 2015, Phoenix- I drove a friend down here, this quiet and subdued evening, that she could pay homage to a woman for whom she cared, in the last throes of the lady’s battle with Alzheimer’s.  I did not, of course, know the woman, yet seeing the story of her life, on video, and listening to my friend’s account of her interactions, I was as moved to tears as I would have been, had I known her.

We all have our differences of opinion, and for some, that is the be all and end all of relationships.  Sitting in the chapel, though, and listening to the words of the immortal hymn, “How Great Thou Art”, as sung by Carrie Underwood, I can honestly say there was a total unity, that I have only rarely felt, when in a group of people previously unknown to me.

There are those who anticipate a cataclysmic occurrence, this very weekend, or not long afterward.  I am a skeptic, along those lines.  I believe that something such will happen, but on God’s timetable, not on Man’s.  The truth is, each of us experiences our own personal calamity, from time to time.  The Alzheimer’s and its aftermath were catastrophic to the departed woman and to her family and friends.  Penny’s illness , of nearly eight years, was heart-wrenching to me, to our son and to our families-and how much worse it must have been to her, a woman of high intelligence, drive and achievement.  Every day, people endure natural and man-devised crises and acts of destruction, such as few onlookers can appreciate.

Our strength, as a species, lies in our resilience.  I am entering a phase, in my own recovery, that I could not have anticipated, even three months ago.  This is how it has been, for the last four years and eight months:  One step after another, relying mostly on faith, doing things that are humdrum and ordinary for  many, but for which a person like me, come only with struggle.

I will surely thrive, even through the worst of whatever may lie ahead- so my spirit guide tells me, and I believe her.