Thursday, February 27, 2014
Good Book Day
Mrs. Mike by Benedict and Nancy Freeman has been on my to-read list for about a decade, and I finally read it and am glad I did. It's a love story set in Northern Canada in the early 1900s. Katherine has pleurisy and is sent from Boston to her uncle in Canada to help with her condition. She meets Sergeant Mike and they fall in love. He takes her away to his remote outposts. Together they live through vicious nature and heartache, but each incident eventually draws them closer together in love.
There are some parts that could make a squeamish stomach queasy with the worse side of nature, and there are definitely parts that will make you cry. But the overall story is compelling enough to keep you reading until the last page.
Check it out and have a good book day.
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
Love Is
Love is many wonderful and good things, with one caveat- love is vulnerable.
Once you love someone or something, you become vulnerable. The happier you can be, the more pain you can feel. But to not love introduces a different kind of pain or numbness, a lack of happiness.
The life of a spy may seem glamorous and adventurous in the movies, but they try to stay unattached to anyone or anything. If they become attached, love something, they have a weak spot which enemies will certainly attack.
Once you love someone or something, you become vulnerable. The happier you can be, the more pain you can feel. But to not love introduces a different kind of pain or numbness, a lack of happiness.
The life of a spy may seem glamorous and adventurous in the movies, but they try to stay unattached to anyone or anything. If they become attached, love something, they have a weak spot which enemies will certainly attack.
Whether it's your parents, siblings, spouse, children, family, friends, or pets, you open yourself to joyful love and to worry and pain. Luckily the love should more than outweigh the worry and pain, making it worth the risk.
As a child I think I just took for granted that my family would always be around and would always love me. As I grew up, I realized that people change, get sick, leave, die. But I've always known that my parents loved me, and that has been a strong anchor for me.
Now I've got a husband and kids, and it's a whole new ball game. It's more intense and more filling of my life, partly because I stay at home with my little girl. My family is my life and my job. I wouldn't change it- it's my favorite thing. Growing up I thought about different things to be, but the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to be a stay-at-home mom and good wife. I still have a very part time job I can do at home, and other interests, such as this blog, but my family is my main priority.
My mom stayed home and my dad worked while I grew up, and it was just right for our family, for me. I have learned a lot by watching my mom be a stay-at-home mom, and by watching how my dad would help around the house too. They provided a good pattern of parenting and family life.
Some people would say the worry and pain isn't worth the commitment of love. But if you have a good family, good friends, find the right spouse- it is worth every second.
Love is one of the best things- to love and to be loved. "'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all." -Alfred Lord Tennyson
Now I've got a husband and kids, and it's a whole new ball game. It's more intense and more filling of my life, partly because I stay at home with my little girl. My family is my life and my job. I wouldn't change it- it's my favorite thing. Growing up I thought about different things to be, but the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to be a stay-at-home mom and good wife. I still have a very part time job I can do at home, and other interests, such as this blog, but my family is my main priority.
My mom stayed home and my dad worked while I grew up, and it was just right for our family, for me. I have learned a lot by watching my mom be a stay-at-home mom, and by watching how my dad would help around the house too. They provided a good pattern of parenting and family life.
Some people would say the worry and pain isn't worth the commitment of love. But if you have a good family, good friends, find the right spouse- it is worth every second.
Love is one of the best things- to love and to be loved. "'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all." -Alfred Lord Tennyson
Saturday, February 22, 2014
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
It Matters To Me
Little kids are cute, and they have little clothes, and little toys, and little likes and dislikes. They are just all around cute because they are little. The little things in their lives are the only things in their lives, so to them, they are big things.
Some people reason away children's wishes with a thought that they are just little things, but to each individual kid, their best friend is a stuffed animal and they really want to have a sleepover every night with their best stuffed friend.
Even older kid's wishes and dreams are sadly easily dismissed. A pre-teen in love is thought of as just cute, it's just a phase, just puppy love. But to the pre-teen, it feels like real, intense, unalterable love, to them it is real love. Dismissing their thoughts of being in love hurts them. It's little to us, but to them it's big.
A child's imagination is far greater than ours. We've lost most of our imaginations. When a child wants to be a cowboy, have cowboy clothes, toys and sheets, it's a real thing for them. To them they really can be/are a cowboy, they can make that happen with their amazing imaginations.
Same thing goes for adults. I know several people who are zealously protecting their views, both on different sides of the argument. I haven't made a zealous effort one way or the other, it's not a fight I'm fighting- I chose other fights. To me, it seems like a lot of effort and love put into a topic that I'm not willing to put the effort in to. But to them, both sides, it's a big deal, it's a big part of their life. It's real, it's not little, it's big.
They may see my zealous efforts in other fights as inconsequential and pointless, but to me, those things are worth fighting for.
We all live in our own realities- personal, familial, societal realities that vary from person to family to country. Other people's realities may not seem like the real reality, but they think the same of us.
If it matters to you, I'll try my best to understand that it's big for you, not little, and hope you do the same for me. It matters to me.
Saturday, February 15, 2014
Friday, February 14, 2014
Tuesday, February 4, 2014
What Do We Deserve?
Recently I read a book set back a couple hundred years ago with privileged families and servants. An orphan named Anya is made a servant in her uncle's household after his death. She eventually escapes and finds love. Her husband says it's her right and privilege to be a fine lady of the house enjoying good food, nice clothes, and extravagant parties because she has the right blood line. She doesn't deserve to be treated like a servant, working longs days, emptying chamber pots, and having work chapped hands.
Why does she not deserve to be a servant and actually deserve to be waited upon? Because she was born into the right family. She didn't do anything to earn it, but according to her husband, she deserves a blessed life.
Why doesn't he think the other servants be waited upon instead of serving? Because they were born into the 'wrong' families. Since they don't have royal type blood, they deserve a degrading life of emptying chamber pots and washing royal underclothes?
In the USA there isn't royalty, but many people still feel they should not have to do certain jobs because they are above them. Other people can do those jobs because it's okay for them. Where does this feeling of entitlement come from? Money which equals power equals entitlement. How many poor people clean their own toilets? How many rich people clean their own toilets? How many poor people clean the rich people's toilets?
If I had money would I hire someone to clean my toilets? If I was rich enough, probably? Is it fair to the person cleaning my toilet? I don't know. I guess the justification would be that I'm paying them, and if they worked hard enough then they could be rich like me too. Wrong! It's easy to work extremely hard and still be living paycheck to paycheck.
Moral of my story: You're not better than someone who has less money and power than you, just fortunate to be in a better lifestyle, so appreciate it!
Disclaimer- I did enjoy the book and would recommend it to someone interested in a historical romance book.
Why does she not deserve to be a servant and actually deserve to be waited upon? Because she was born into the right family. She didn't do anything to earn it, but according to her husband, she deserves a blessed life.
Why doesn't he think the other servants be waited upon instead of serving? Because they were born into the 'wrong' families. Since they don't have royal type blood, they deserve a degrading life of emptying chamber pots and washing royal underclothes?
In the USA there isn't royalty, but many people still feel they should not have to do certain jobs because they are above them. Other people can do those jobs because it's okay for them. Where does this feeling of entitlement come from? Money which equals power equals entitlement. How many poor people clean their own toilets? How many rich people clean their own toilets? How many poor people clean the rich people's toilets?
If I had money would I hire someone to clean my toilets? If I was rich enough, probably? Is it fair to the person cleaning my toilet? I don't know. I guess the justification would be that I'm paying them, and if they worked hard enough then they could be rich like me too. Wrong! It's easy to work extremely hard and still be living paycheck to paycheck.
Moral of my story: You're not better than someone who has less money and power than you, just fortunate to be in a better lifestyle, so appreciate it!
Disclaimer- I did enjoy the book and would recommend it to someone interested in a historical romance book.
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