Rude Awakenings

So spring has sprung, the grass has riz, and we know where the birdies is.  The temperature is starting to become more stable and we can almost feel safe putting away the warm woollies.  People are planting gardens and putting out flower pots and opening pools and planning vacations.  We wake in the mornings to the sound of birds singing sweetly as they make nests for their new offspring.  It is a sweet and joyful time of year.

But once or twice a week the peacefulness of the neighbourhood is shattered by the hounds of hell that are roaming the country in the guise of  leaf blowers.  Their roar is ear splitting, nerve shattering and totally without purpose.   For some reason the leaf blowers  only  seem able to roar to life  at 7 a.m  Rarely are they heard in the late afternoon or evening.  They start their cacophony even before the grass is cut.  If the fates are kind the noise is over by the time the lawn mower has started, but that rarely happens.  I have seen landscaping companies with three or four employees all armed with leaf blowers and blowing the same pile of leaves and debris!   And don't bother trying to holler at them for silence, they are all wearing protective ear muffs!  And some of them work for the city so they are a different species altogether and better left alone.

What is the benefit of these horrible pieces of machinery?  I have pondered this question for many years.  And the only thing I can come up with is that they are toys for boys.  Men love their machines.  They love their gadgets, especially the ones they can hold anywhere near their waist. (jackhammers, floor polishers, golf clubs)  It's not like the leaf blower is more efficient than a rake.  It's not.  It spews the leaves and litter and dirt and pebbles and small animals all over the yard and onto the street where the whole mess clogs the storm drains.  A lot of the "debris" is food for squirrels and birds...pine cones, and seeds are blown to the street.   Is it a time saver?  Perhaps it's faster, but if you need 3 or 4 people to do one area how much money are you really saving?  And what about the gas and maintenance of those monstrosities.  They can't be saving money.  Raking is a sustainable and ecologically sound way of taking care of the yard.  Has no one realized that?

Here's the real question though.  Everyone is entitled to get their job done in whatever way works for them and if that means blowing the leaves all over the place, then whatever floats your boat.  But why in the name of all that is holy, has no one come up with a way to make the damn things quieter??  There must be some technology that could eliminate the noise and the fumes.   Why are these not outlawed, or bylawed the way cars are.  If you have a car that has no muffler you are required to have it fixed, it's a noise violation!   I have not met anyone who thinks these leaf blowers are great.

I want to start a petition to have these made illegal if they are not made silent.  But this is a first world problem.  There are so many other serious issues to get angry about.  Eventually the noise stops and the fumes blow away, the squirrels carry the pine cones back to where they were, and the birds find the seeds.  And I take advantage of the early wake up call and write rants about the leaf blowers.  Something for everyone.

Oh Give Me A Home...

Last Wednesday I attended a presentation about homelessness hosted by HOPE  (Hamilton Organizing for Poverty Elimination), and I have been deeply disturbed ever since.  I had no idea the desperateness of this situation.   I was shocked at the number of people who are homeless. I knew it was serious, I just didn't have any idea HOW serious.  You see homeless people on the streets here and there asking for change, but there are thousands we don't see...in shelters, or staying with friends short term, or in hospitals.  Many of the homeless are youth who have reached the age where they are no longer eligible for foster care and they are forced to leave.  And there's no where for them to go.

 I was even more shocked at the amount of money homelessness costs in tax payers money.  Homeless people usually have a variety of medical issues and most of them use the hospital as their primary health care place, ...they have no family doctors.  We spend more money on the homeless problem than we do on providing housing for them.

I don't have a head for statistics and can't really remember the exact numbers.  A lot of statistics were mentioned by many different organizations.  I just know how hopeless I felt coming away from that meeting.  Because I know that if it weren't for the generosity of my former partner, I could very well be on the streets myself and it terrifies me.  Most of us are one pay cheque away from being in the same situation.   One illness, one accident, one job loss, one marital break up....we are precarious.  One statistic I do remember is this:  OW pays 602.00/mth/couple for housing costs.  The average one bedroom apartment in Hamilton is 749,00. It boggles my mind that the government doesn't see the absurdity at this situation.  Or they see it and choose not to do anything about it because homeless people don't vote and can't possibly compete with the big corporations whose  asses the government loves to kiss.

There are many organizations who are gathering forces to make a change.  Medicine Hat Alberta has solved its homeless problem by....wait for it...providing homes for them!!
They actually acted on the problem  rather than sitting around talking about it, and forming endless committees, and hosting endless workshops...or presentations where they preach to the choir.   We could take a page from their book.

The next time you see a homeless person on the street, remind yourself that they are just the tip of an enormous iceberg.  They are not always drunk or addicted, they are not always poor and uneducated. There are families.  There are children who are going to school after spending the night sleeping in a shelter or in a car.  And after you remind yourself of this, then thank the powers that be that you are not there with them, and pray you never will be.

Today I drove by one of the new community mail boxes that are sprouting up all over the city.  There were three of them and they had all been knocked off the cement foundation, the bolts completely pulled up.  Apparently this is the new form of protest.  Last week the Spectator ran an article about a young man, Howard, who stood in the hole made for these mailboxes and refused to move until the workers left.  There have been petitions, and a huge outcry of protest against the phasing out of home mail delivery.   It just proves the point that people will not pay attention to an issue until affects them directly.

Really people?  This is what you are choosing to protest?  Having to walk a short distance to pick up your mail?   Or more realistically, having to stop your car on the way home to pick up your mail.   This is so definitely a first world problem!  First of all, no one really gets much of any importance in their mailboxes anymore, if my own is any indication.  And by the way, I live in an apartment, I have to take the elevator to get my mail which is mostly ads, and flyers, and bills for accounts I already receive emails about. I have never thought of protesting that my mail doesn't come right to my apartment! Besides, it's not like you have to pick up your mail every day!

We should be grateful that it's not water we have to walk to get.  Or medications.  People in Africa who are sick with HIV or AIDS walk hours to clinics for medication that is most likely all gone by the time they get there.  People in third world countries have to walk miles and stand in line in the hot sun to get clean fresh water.  A basic necessity of life.  Their whole day revolves around getting water, and hauling it back home.  And I realize my pointing out Africa is very similar to the "eat your dinner there are children in Africa who are starving" but I stick to my point.  We are so fat and lazy and feel so entitled that the slightest inconvenience sends us in to a whiny protest.  And the outcry about seniors and the disabled not being able to get their mail?  They will figure it out.  They have to for everything else.  

What people don't seem to realize is that the community mailboxes have been around for a long time.  Many, new suburban subdivisions have this system of mail delivery. You don't hear any complaints from them.

We really need to wake up and fight for things that matter.  Clean water, and good food for EVERYONE.  A place to live for EVERYONE.  Freedom to be who they are, for EVERYONE.

Walking to the mailbox is the least of our worries right now.

Well it's over for another year.  I have had my pity party and my cry and now I will move on.  And even though every year I promise myself  I will not go on Facebook and see all my friends posts about how wonderful their Mother's Day was, I always do.  Like a moth to a flame.  My children each sent me a text.  And I suppose I should be grateful that they acknowledged me at all.  But it hurt anyway.

You hear it said all the time that Christmas is the most difficult holiday for a lot of people.  Perhaps.  But I think Mother's Day is even more painful.  It is fraught with all kinds of baggage, old and new.  Past hurts from our own mother's, and present hurts from our own offspring.  Everyone of us has a mother.  How can it not be an emotional time for most of us?

Mother's Day has always been difficult.  My mother did her best, but she was very young when she had me at only 18 years old.  My father left when I was 10 and my mother, not quite 30 was left to raise two children on her own, as well as pay off the mound of debt left by my father.  We lived in poverty.  We lived in shame as no one we knew had a single mother. And to top it all off she was struggling with mental illness.  Of course as a child you don't understand the pressures your parents face and the burdens they must bear.  All you know is your mother is tired, depressed, and too wrapped up in her own hurt to be available for you.  And then along comes that holiday to rub salt in the wounds.

My brother and I tried hard to make good Mother's Day's for her.  But when I was a teenager and young adult, I was bitter about my relationship with mother and angry with her most of the time.  Choosing a mother's day card was an ordeal.  At one time in my life I even considered making a line of greeting cards for dysfunctional families.   Maybe I should have.  "Mom, you were always there for me....passed out on the couch, but there just the same"...you know...stuff like that.  But I had to choose a Mother's Day card out of the array of sappy, sentimental cards that were available.  They just didn't fit.  So I went with the humourous ones, humour being my first defense when feelings become too intense.

Fast forward to present day and my own experiences of Mother's Day as a mother myself.  My children when they were young did things for me and it was always so sweet.  And we all tried to get together for brunch, or dinner.   But then they all went off and created lives of their own, with partners and children of their own.   I stopped arranging get togethers for Mother's Day because I figured they were old enough to do it.   Besides I am not comfortable saying"come and see me and tell me how great I am".   So I waited for the invitations for a get together, or a card, or a phone call.  Nothing.  Just the text messages.  And my heart broke.  Was that all I am worth to them?  Did I do such a bad job of raising them that they don't appreciate me? Are they spoiled and selfish?  And on Mother's Day evening, those are the thoughts that run through my head.

Then Monday comes and I regain my sanity and I realize that, just like me, my children are busy with their own lives.   They don't need me.  They don't think about me.  That's as it should be to a certain degree.  They have fled the nest.  And as I look back, I realize I never made a big deal about Mother's Day for my own mother, once I had a family of my own.  What goes around come around.  We never realize how much we hurt our parents until we become parents ourselves and our own children hurt us.

Anyway, I am glad it's over.

As Long As I Have Music

I have heard it said that religion and politics are topics to stay away from when talking with others.  I am going out on a limb here, to share some of my thoughts. If you are offended I am sorry, that is not my intention.  I am writing about MY beliefs and am in no way suggesting others should believe the same if it doesn't work for them.

I am not a religious person in the traditional sense.  Like the song by Blood, Sweat and Tears, I swear there aint no heaven and I pray there aint no hell, that pretty much sums it up.  I attend the First Unitarian Church in Hamilton every Sunday.  This church is more humanist than deist.  Our mission statement is "To nurture each  other, serve the community and inspire action that heals the world".  I like that.  The responsibility is on us to change things in this world.  We cannot wait around for "God" to do something.   I don't intend to be blasphemous.  It's not that I don't believe in GOD
, but rather I don't believe in religion as dictated by the church.   I have no doubt that there is something out there that is greater than us.  To me it's an energy, rather than a person who sits in judgement and metes out punishment to the non believers or the sinners.   As a Unitarian I believe ALL people have worth and dignity and are deserving of salvation, in whatever form that may take.

 I also have no problem with people who believe what the Bible tells them.  I have a daughter who swears by it.  We have had many discussions about our differences and the one common ground we have is that the basis of most religions is love.  Love for one another, and love for the earth.  If you look up the golden rule, you will find various interpretations of it in all religions.

I do consider myself a spiritual person.  I feel connected to the earth and to the universe.  I am aware of the energies, and I feel the power in one way or another just about every day.  Through meditation I connect with the universe in a way that is hard to describe.  And there are various ways of meditating.   Whether it's mindfulness, being totally present in the moment,  or whether it is through a creative outlet, like painting...or singing.   I love hymns!   Unitarian hymns often have the same tune as traditional hymns but with slightly altered lyrics.

I belong to a feminist choir.  We meet once a week for rehearsals and we perform in the community at various social justice events.   Every week while I am there singing, I am transported in to another state of being.   The sounds of all of our voices blending together in harmony is magical.  And when we perform for an audience, the feeling is such a high it lasts for days afterwards.   It's spiritual for me.  It's like prayer to lift up my voice and sing.   And I sing almost all the time.  I hum. I make up silly songs with my granddaughter,  or with my friends.   No matter how tired, how sick, or how tough my day has been, I always find singing lifts me up.  Sometimes the songs start in tears, but they usually end in the sweet release of the negative energy and eventually some peace.

My wish for humanity is that we all learn to accept, not just tolerate, each person's differences, and have compassion for those who are struggling.   I can't imagine any religion that kills  people for not sharing the same beliefs, can be good for anyone.  Yeah, that seems like an obvious statement, but sadly there are those who disagree.

Open Minds, Loving Hearts, Helping Hands.   That works for me.

A to Z Reflections

This challenge has been really positive for me.  As a person who needs external pressure to get anything done, I really liked the structure of this.  A to Z on anything you want.  Boundaries, but freedom within those boundaries.  

Writing my posts also made think about things more clearly, and in an articulate way.  I had to come up with topics and then write something that didn't sound like  inane stream of consciousness blathering.

The best part is meeting other bloggers!  I am brand new at blogging and felt so happy when someone read, and commented on my blog.  It is motivating me to keep going.

I am looking forward to next April to do this again.

ZOUNDS! I made it! (caution , this post contains coarse language)

Swearing has become so much a part of our casual vocabulary that in a lot of cases it has lost its punch.  Swearing used to be shocking, now it is just rude.  Even children are allowed to say Oh My God! and no one bats an eye.  I used to get smacked for just saying 'shut up'.  Now I casually drop 'f-bombs' without even thinking.  I am not one of those people who has to lace my speech with an f bomb every other word, but I love that word for it's power when emotions are high.  Like when I dropped my laptop and corner of it hit my toe, there was no other word that would express the degree of pain I was in.  Well, maybe there was, but I couldn't think of it at the time.  And the word fuck lends itself quite nicely to being a verb or an adjective.

In trying to decide what to write about for the letter Z, I thought of the word Zounds!  It's an old word no one uses anymore.  So I started thinking about other archaic expletives.   Egad!  Gadzooks!   to name a few.   These expletives have religious origins, but so do a lot of our current expletives. Even fuck means From Unlawful Carnal Knowledge.

Imagine if we started using those words instead of the same old ones we've always used.  Imagine if those words came back in vogue.   Gadzooks!  I am late for work.  Egad! It's hot out here.  Zounds!  What a great idea!   People would probably think we were crazy.   And none of them really pack a punch like the fbomb.  Yelling Gadzooks or Zounds just makes me want to laugh.  And maybe that's a good thing,

Zounds! I can't believe I completed this challenge.  And it has been a challenge.  But I enjoyed it. And now I have a few followers so I am motivated to keep blogging.  Egad! What will I write about now?  Thank you to everyone who supported me during this challenge and especially to those who commented and began following my blog.  I hope you continue to follow me, and Gadzooks! I hope my future blogs don't disappoint.