Their goal, my post

Joey Jones2 Comments

How do you plan your goals?

I began writing today’s DP  about one thing, but my thoughts took me elsewhere. So I’ve deleted that and will tell you about someone else’s goals….

A  while back, I was invited by a young couple to visit them in their new home.

Her face was a picture. Eyes sparkling and a wide smile. The excitement hardly contained. He stood next to her strong and steady. Solid. A kind face.

As they welcomed me (in true hsp fashion), I could sense all was well within those walls.Even those walls which were down or about to be.

They walked me through what was pretty much a building site. It felt good. He told me about his plans for each area, inside and out. He’s a visionary, a true grafter, and brilliant craftsman.

Bravery is maybe what I saw when I read her beautiful face. I dont know. The eyes still shone, and the smile was real, but did I sense a little fear? I felt for her, a home at last, and here was her partner talking about their next project. His goals for the near future.

I hope they get to spend a little time in that house anyway before they move on. For her sake. It would be sad if she felt nesting was so near and yet so far away….but maybe she doesn’t feel that at all?

What does the cat have to do with it? Nothing, but so cute

Girl Guiding

Joey Jones14 Comments

Create an emergency preparedness plan.

Our Motto was Be Prepared. Yes, I was a girl guide many moons ago. Patrol Leader of the Robins, no less.

I loved the uniform, a rich blue cotton shirt with stripes on our pockets to show our status. The tie folded just so. The brown leather belt with the shiny buckle. A whistle dangling on one side my compass on the other. A perfectly white lanyard. A red one for Camp.

And then everything changed. They modernised the uniform. The new design was sloppy, the material horrible. The lanyard gone. I was gutted!

I never did like camping anyway.

Wishing…

Joey Jones6 Comments

From time to time, I find myself suggesting to youngsters…older people too as it happens. Not to wish their lives away.

Peeps looking towards days off, holidays, brighter days. The thing is, forward isn’t guaranteed, is it?

I need to practice what I preach. Currently, Patch  is outdoors, then indoors, and then he stands there not knowing which way to go.

It’s a third-world problem. An unusual heatwave in the UK and we’re beat.

Just now, I was wishing it was cooler. That we could have just one night of complete rest. How absurd! When millions across the globe would give anything to swap places with us.

I was lusting after autumn. But it will come in its own good time and it will be cold. Cold for a long time.

Clearly I need a word with myself. To remember the last words my mom said to me before she passed ‘ count your blessings,Love’.

Give peace a chance

Joey Jones12 Comments

What brings you peace?

It is today they call the Glorious 12th.

Not so glorious for the mass of red grouse slaughtered across the moors to celebrate the start of the shooting season.

For 5 long months, especially raised pheasant will be killed. Outright if they are lucky. There will be those left mained and in pain by poor shots, by those who have enjoyed an especially jolly lunch, leaving their eyesight impaired.

They call it a sport, but I don’t see it myself. How can it be a sport when one side don’t know they are playing? This is no game, no sport , it’s senseless killing on a massive scale across the UK.

Several times a week now, I will hear the Shoots across the countryside. It will not bring me peace. It will break my heart.

I salute you… Revisited

Joey Jones7 Comments

What profession do you admire most and why?

There are many people who begin their working day with little else on their minds but for making the world a better and safer place. These are the folk who have my utmost respect.

Let’s start with the Emergency Services,  Fire and Rescue, Police Service, the Coastguards, and the Ambulance Service.

It puzzled me for a long time why some of the people we are lucky enough to have are charities and not gov funded. The RNLI, Air Ambulance UK, Cave Rescue, Search and Rescue, and Mountain Rescue. But it slowly dawned on me. At least they are a law unto themselves, and not having gov interference would surely be a blessing.

I haven’t forgotten the surgeons, doctors, and nurses. In fact, the multitude of folk who facilitate everyone I have mentioned above and all the ones I haven’t  cited. That’s a lot of people I hold in high regard and give thanks for the light they bring into the world.

Sadly, we also have the dark side. Those people who wake up each day with nothing on their minds but power-building and greed. Those swinging dicks amongst our world leaders for who death and destruction is their plan for the day.

Yes, the warmongers and profiteers. The arms trade, manufacturers, and dealers. How they sleep at night, I do not know. But I do know…they sleep very well.

Imagine if that energy was used to address all the issues presented by the planet fighting back…. But with egos and greed at play, it is not going to happen, is it?

Edit. Peeps. So, I did my daily prompt and went about my day. As ever, more thoughts surfaced, and I knew there are so many people who do stuff every day who deserve our respect and gratitude. An example being a close buddy of mine was in Child Services. I always thought her job was so important and was grateful she and her colleagues did so much every single day to protect children and see they got the best of a life possible… I’m sorry I hadn’t mentioned folk like her before.

And in the words of Ricky Gervais ” May you have the life you deserve.”

There will come soft rains

Joey Jones7 Comments

If you were going to open up a shop, what would you sell?

That’s an easy one to answer WP. A thriving  charity shop on a busy high street with lots of footfall and plenty of regular customers…

……… The sky had suddenly darkened as I looked out the street, which had become empty but for a few souls hurrying home before the downpour.

I’d just finished changing the window display, The clothes rails were tidy, and if I say it myself, the place looked good.

With a few minutes to spare before I shut up shop for the day, I ran my finger along the bookshelf to see what had been donated recently, something i may have missed.

And there it was The Collected Poems of Sara Teasdale. I was excited to see it. Quickly taking ownership ( yes, I did pay for it!) I popped it in my bag, locked up and left for the day. There was one poem especially I wanted to read again….

(War time)

There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground,                                                      And swallows circling with their shimmering sound.

And frogs in the pool singing at night,      And wild plum trees in tremulous white.

Robins will wear their feathery fire,       Whistling their whims on a low-fence wire.

And not one will know of the war, not one, Will care at last when it is done.

Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree  if mankind perished utterly;

And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn,                                                                 Would scarcely know that we were gone.

Sara Teasdale ( 1884~1933)

     

Under the Sturgeon Moon

Joey Jones11 Comments

What is the most important thing to carry with you all the time?

My Superpower.

I was born lucky enough to have inherited a trait that now serves me well. Sadly, it hasn’t always been that way, ( many stories there).

Along with up to 20-30% ( the figure varies), I’m classed as an HSP – A Highly Sensitive Person.

Carl Jung ( 1875~1961) was the first person to recognise that some people were born with an ‘innate sensitiveness’. But he spoke about it from a child’s perspective.

American psychologist Elaine Aron ( 1944~)  addressed the adult view of it  in her book published in 1996 The Highly Sensitive Person : How to thrive when the world overwhelms you. It was then almost 30 years ago when I picked that book up for the first time that I recognised myself.

In true HSP style, I’m a tad overwhelmed now by the amount of notes I have in front of me, which I made yesterday when I read what our new prompt would be.

So, I shall leave this be, go walk with my dog in the woods and breathe.

Laters x

Consider this..

Joey Jones5 Comments

What change, big or small, would you like your blog to make in the world?

This prompt today simply goes back to  what I wrote about yesterday, the shameful and disturbing fact 2.2 billion souls worldwide do not have access to clean drinking water.

If my little blog could make any difference in the world, I would like folk to consider how their lives would be different without clean running water on tap. To think, talk, and write about it.

There is vast wealth out there. It needs to be channelled in the right direction.

‘ Globally, approximately one child under the age of five dies from diarrheal diseases every one minute’.

… from World Health Org ( WHO)

Other worldly

Joey Jones2 Comments

Describe your life in an alternate universe

Imaginations have been running wild in the DP community this morning as we ponder our lives in a parallel universe.

Thing is, we need shade to appreciate the light. So I’m not sure how life would pan out if it was all so very perfect…

Before I had read any of the other contributions to today’s prompt, I had already decided I’d just like to have the chance of a different path in this world. ( An odd thing to say all things considered, eh? Seeings how the place is an absolute mess) Anyways, bear with…

A philanthropist. Now, that would be something. Ideally, a self-made billionaire, but having said that it wouldn’t matter as I’d be giving most of it away.It concerns me when the likes of UNICEF tell us that 2.2 billion people worldwide do not have access to safe drinking water. So, I’m not going to use my wealth for an ego trip into space, I’m going to address this horrific and shameful fact that 2.2 billion people do not have clean water like we do. ..And let’s not forget the animals’ suffering  too.

Another thought is perhaps to be out there every day with my dog working as a team. Search and Rescue, maybe?

Failing that, as a younger version of myself today, a stylist.