Being Alive

Listen to the body’s words
In the event of pain
Very unusual to withstand
Even as infection is lanced

So my orange tabby, ‘Cutis has a puncture on one of his legs. It’s healing, but I have to lance it for any new infection at least once a day because of the way cats heal. If a cat has a wound, it has to heal on the inside before you let it fully scab over (unless there are stitches involved, I think.) If you don’t let it heal on the inside first, then it can become infected and burn through a cat’s skin making a new hole.

It was not fun learning that with a previous cat.

Anyway, with other cats, it hasn’t been fun having to lance a scabbed-over wound to make sure it isn’t growing infected underneath the scab. Very few animals like it with you have to clean and bandage a wound in the first place, much less have to lance it at least once a day, just in case.

‘Cutis lets me lance any infection with at least two pokes before he gets antsy. He could break free really easy but just shifts away from me a little. He’s large and strong and heavy, but he just lets me check his wound over as it heals. I can’t remember anyone, animal or not, who let me do that something like that so often. The fact that it was with someone who I can only understand via body language…

‘Cutis might be one of the most patient and calm person I have ever met.

image: ‘Cutis; from martha0stout’s phone

Moments in the Dark

The Spirit is still and small and it doesn’t compete. –from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

 

Let me help to gently quide

In and out your daily life

Sending comfort and love in stride

To bolster you up through all strife

Especially when the boat does rock

Never forsaking you in the stocks.

 

Often I find myself in places that I don’t remember straying,

Wondering just what I was saying

To myself to let me take this turn

And losing my mind as my stomach does churn.

But with a still small voice

I remember I have a choice

To follow through the darkness where it will lead

And find myself in my mind while I plead

To be found no matter how lost

And accept the payment of the cost.

I won’t give up trying

No matter how I feel like dying

And take one more step

Then another, and yet…

I was not as alone

As I had previously thought

I was always with

The One that I sought.

Make the Effort

The world is not quiet,

It is loud, shouting out!

Pay attention to me!

 

The Lord is quiet,

Whispering softly in your heart.

Be still and know that I am God.

 

Everything moves so fast!

There’s never enough time to rest,

Never enough time to sit and listen.

 

Make the time;

It’s never going to be the right moment,

So it is up to you to make that moment.

 

Some ghosts are so quiet you would hardly know they were there.

–Bernie Mcgill, The Butterfly Cabinet

It’s one of those morning when the world is so loud it is all the harder to hear the promptings of the Spirit. These are the times when you must make the effort to listen because if you wait for a moment to arrive, it will never come. The Lord expects much of us as He has given us much to work with.

He gives everyone a long piece of rope and it is up to us to tie the knot that we use. It could be a single knot that gives us a place to hang on, it could be a series of knots to help us climb up or it could be the knot in a hang man’s noose.

The choice is up to you.

This poem and bit of prose was double inspired today by Dungeon Prompts (So glad to have you back, Sreejit!) and today’s prompt from the Light and Shade Challenge.

Listen

She lay back and listened to the sounds around her. The whir of the fans, the sound of water turning on and off, the footsteps up and down the hall, voices from a television set and from her family.

It was a quiet day, a slow day, a day to just sit and listen to life around you.

She let out a sigh and smiled as she closed her eyes.

See the World, Don’t See An Ocean

To go the distance is a wonderful thing!

Remember all the moments that had you smiling…

Away we shall drive, across the continent

Vows to make it the the next graduent.

Even though it’s the middle of the week

Live while you can and don’t be too sleek.

Sometimes it’s cheaper just to drive rather than fly.

To California now! The other way,

How long are we going to stay?

Even though we’ll be together  all the way.

Everyone will help when only one moves away.

Wow! You’ve scattered all over the place!

One to the West and one to the East states.

Recall that you’ve sent another to the South.

Let me know what it’s like going that route.

Don’t forget that wherever you go, you’re always home.

Home is where the heart is.

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Written for Suzie’s Weekly Word Challenge this week: http://suzie81speaks.com/2014/05/26/weekly-word-challenge-travel/

When I was 12 years old, my family decided to drive across the Continental U.S. to see my second eldest sister graduate from boot camp. It was the middle of exams and we only had a little money. We went anyway and made up all the exams the week after.

Five or six years ago, another of my sisters was moving to California. So the majority of my family got time off, packed her up and we headed out. Nevada is a beautiful place, but once you get through the mountains and into California near Sacramento… There are practically no mountains. I spent the entire time completely lost. I grew up surrounded by mountains, without them I have absolutely no idea where I am. Having a compass didn’t help at all. (I have slight panic attacks when I have no mountains for an extended period of time.)

I’ve been to both the East Coast and the West Coast and yet have never seen an ocean.

I’ve had a panic attack and had to spend all day under a blanket while driving through Arkansas.

Many of my family have been all over. At one point I had a sister in Germany (stationed there), a sister in Hawaii (college student), another down in the bottom corner of Utah in the middle of the National Parks there (college, again) and my elder brother over in Baton Rouge, Louisiana (mission). They were all gone at the same time and the household was the smallest I’ve ever seen in my family (there were only five of us at home: one mom and four pre-teens/teens.)

My parents did all their traveling before they had us passel of kids (Dad was in the Air Force when they first met and he was stationed in various places) so I know about places, but other than reading, I haven’t actually been to very many of them.

Well, my imagination has always been up to snuff enough for me  and I do so love to look things up and then picture them in my mind. Maybe someday I’ll actually see an ocean in something other than through a lens, but until then, I’ll listen to the stories my family can tell and enjoy every moment of my travels through my mind.

Listen

What does it take to get everything done?

Who says what stays and what goes?

Do my opinions matter at all?

Or is it only you who gets to speak?

If I do not matter, than I do not matter,

Don’t pretend that you’re doing this for me.

You’re doing this for you and using me as an excuse.

You were elected to serve as my voice, as the voice of your people,

Not to stand in a grand hall and listen to your own voice.

Just because you have a grand title,

Does not mean that you are serving for yourself.

We have chosen you to help lead us by listening to our voice.

So listen and listen well, and take the time given you

To hear our voice, the voice of the people.

Our fate is in your hands because we believed in you to believe in us.

Take this time to remember that you are in service to us

And not we in service to you.

http://theseekersdungeon.com/2013/10/17/dungeon-prompts-week-10-entitlement-ideology-making-up-the-rules-as-we-go/

These are my thoughts upon waking up and finding out that my government is once again up and running, but with the knowledge hanging over us that this too has a stop clock. We have an abeyance in order for all of Congress to get their act together.