A Celebration of Spring... and Memories of Childhood on St. Patrick's Day
The Light is returning!
Last night, Mrs. Denmarkguy and I went to St. Patrick's Day "potluck" at the local Unity Spiritual Center where she works.
It was really the first time this year that I have left work and gone somewhere while it was still daylight and sunshine outside. That is definitely one of the upsides to daylight saving time. It gave me a chance to look around and appreciate my surroundings.
Spring has definitely arrived here!
The beauty of spring is here!
I took the opportunity to just stand outside in the spring sunshine and look at nature around me coming back to life.
They have some lovely ornamental cherry trees by the Spiritual Center, so I snapped a few pictures to share here.
Nearby, there's also a very distinctive red barn. The cherry tree next to it was also in full bloom — even though it's a bit of a cliché, I had to get a picture of that, as well.
The red barn in spring
Moments of Appreciation
It feels like there's a lot of "heavy" energy in the world, these days. Injustice, exploitation, unconscious behavior, abuse, bigotry, manipulation, intolerance... they all seem to be running rampant.
Sometimes I just want to take a break and get away from it.
A single cherry blossom in the afternoon sun
As I reflected on the beauty of spring, I realized that I increasingly lack the "civic stamina" to constantly preoccupy myself with "issues" and the things we need to do to make the world a better place. It often feels like people don't even want a "better" place, they want an uncontrolled "wild west" scenario in which everyone can revert to their base "cave instinct" and be as shitty and inconsiderate as they feel like with no consequences. A world dominated by their primitive "reptilian" brain.
I experience that as a "weight." It's not a world I want to live in.
A Memory Fragment
Someone once asked me if there was a single overriding "characteristic" or "thought-memory" I had from being a kid; what was my "focus" in the world.
I thought about that again, yesterday, in the spring evening sun.
The same answer has always come to me: "spotting exploitation."
Cherry blossoms
I wasn't exactly a "snitch" or "tattle-tale" but I was always ready to point out when someone engaged in some kind of activity for gain that was at the expense of someone else. I wasn't a "fighter" though; I was a "highlighter."
If someone did something shitty, I wanted to broadcast it to the entire world, so that everyone on the planet knew they had been shitty.
What made me particularly "lethal" was that I had zero respect/fear when it came to someone who was powerful, popular or influential taking advantage of someone powerless.
I guess what made me think about it was the whole "social justice warrior" idea and how it has been misappropriated in our times. My childhood sense of justice wasn't about anything but "exposing the truth" of people; let bullies be bullies, but simply shine the light on their actions for public consumption.
Then I fell out of my reverie and went inside.
How about YOU? Is it springtime, where you are? I know some of you are in the southern hemisphere, so maybe it is fall there? Do you have any strong memories of what you "stood for" as a kid? Or was it many different things? Leave a comment-- share your experiences-- be part of the conversation!
created by @zord189
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Created at 180317 16:58 PDT
A few weeks back I was in the pool. It was pool weather!!!! Then I went back to only being outside to take the trash out and other tasks. I can’t for this cold front and weather to go away.
The world gone raving mad or I have. I just think we were not aware of just how much insanity really was in it. Now we are reminded every constant moment. The world will just seem more and more dishonest and disgusting as the population increase. Crime could be down but you could hear triple the amount of news about bad things happening. I fear I’ll still be around when we are stuffing to such overpopulation that there are global wars over water supplies. It’s already running out in a number of towns. Even most sea areas are not prepared to extract water from the oceans for drinking purpose.
As far as what I stood up for as a kid. I was the nerd with glasses. I avoided trouble as much as I could as it was easy to spot back then. All I cared about was math, science, and playing the violin. Sadly, I care very little about those things these days. Trouble is also much harder to spot as well.
Maybe the world has always been somewhat mad, but with the advance of technology the pace of the mad has gone crazy. Besides, "bad news sells," or as they say in the newspaper industry: "if it bleeds, it leads."
Bad news, however, can also be a tool. I am not a conspiracy theorist or tinfoil hatter, but there's a definite purpose to serving us a steady diet of violence and disaster-- it keeps people in fear. And people in fear are manipulable. And they do "reactive" things, rather than think things through. If we live in a "post scarcity" world, there's no more need to be afraid, and they we become less controllable.
Aside from my strange sense of "social justice," I was mostly the weird kid in the corner who kept to himself, as far as it was possible. In one sense, it was a blessing to be almost 6'2" by age 12-13-- it made me "scary." On the other hand, the knuckle draggers (who measured everything in terms of brute strength) saw it as an opportunity to pick a fight for "territorial" reasons.
We are in dry season for another couple of months but I can't wait for the rainy season to start when everything turns green and the land comes to life.
I couldn't agree more.
I must confess I know little about the climate in Central America, but I imagine it has "monsoonish" tendencies? Closest to you I have spent significant time is Port of Spain, Trinidad.
Not really "monsoonish". Just it rains for a few hours every day. You wonder where the water will go but within a half hour the sun comes out, it's gone!
Beautiful. I want to take a break too and get out in nature and watch signs of spring :)
It's good to just make a point of doing it. We easily get caught in our little routines and... end up not noticing the changes around us.
Spring is a beautiful season @denmarkguy! we wish you a happy and nice to meet you my friend ...
Yes it is definitely a beautiful time! Thanks for visiting!