The Pebbles Ripples.

My philosophy friends believe that good cannot exist without evil and vice versa. There is this whole philosophical argument around it. The argument is almost as popular as the "is there really a God" argument. Well, I happen to think that while evil is necessary, the world can do with a little less of it.
Especially true when the evil is fruitless and with no just cause. It is like an invalid argument. C does not result from A or B if they are not doing something that makes C true, therefore, why should C exist at all when D can do the job just as well...or some such nonsense.
I bear witness to this absent C evil a lot. All I can do is shake my head at it because it makes good people look bad and it drags innocent people into a situation that they have no business even knowing anything about in the first place. What snake will go to an orange tree and pluck an orange just to eat when snakes are predators in the first place? That makes no sense at all.
My point is that evil should not exist in abundance when there is not enough good to offset it. That makes no sense either. Remember the lady with the scales you see in a courtroom? It has to balance and without that balance, things begin to happen. Therefore, apparently, bad things are happening and maybe it is the second coming of Christ that everyone has been talking about or the end of the world.
So if all of this is blatantly evident, then why is there not anything done about it? I will explain. There is enough not caring and enough belief that one little act of kindness does not matter. The evil in all of us has beaten out any good there is left. Sure, we do kind deeds everyday but it is so far below the radar of being noticed that it is almost irrelevant that we even do such a thing.
Listen, folks, when someone tells you that one little pebble makes a big difference. If you dont believe me toss one into a still pond. That one little pebble has a ripple effect that eventually touches every square inch of that waters surface. Further, the "plop" sound reverberates through the air to our ears affecting the senses that we heard and seen the pebble hit the water. Underneath the surface, fish scatter and it hits the bottom eventually changing the landscape of the bottom to accomodate the fact that it fell there in the first place. To get even more depth out of the example, gravity is now pulling on that rock to keep it in place and every time a bottom feeder passes, a fish swims quickly nearby, or a plant grows near enough to push it aside, that pebble still has an impact. Also, the place where the pebble was before has left a pebble size space for something else to come along and occupy where it was.
Point being, while there are snakes in all of us, even the good that comes out of us, no matter how small or insignificant can have a positive impact in everything. If everyone were to cast a pebble in some form or fashion and good becomes of it, it grows from there because there is, essentially, more good in the world.
Those of us with children can do the same. So often we go through life too busy to see what is going on through the eyes of our children. STOP take a moment and revel in the wonder that they see the world in. Remember what it was like to stand in awe and truly experience the first sunset you REALLY noticed. I remember mine. I remember that, sometimes, being five is such a small place to be in such a big world and that mommy can make it better. I also try to remember that even though you are 13 or 14, you still need mom from time to time even if it is to talk about absolutely nothing or act silly in public just because. When my children get older (and for the step kids as well) I will try to remember that at 21, the world is not what it was made out to be and that I still need to be there for my kids no matter how awful they are. That, just to sit down, without a phone, television or other distraction and talk about how a lightbulb works will make the difference in their day and that is something that they will remember.
Toss that pebble, make life better, if even for a split second. The reverberations of that pebble last longer than you think. Holding the door for a perfect stranger to pass because they are using a walking stick makes a difference because, while you may not remember, they will.
I once had a lady sit in the booth next to mine in iHop. I was 16. I was miserable and thougth that life was truly the suckiest place to be. She chatted with me about absolutely nothing. The gloss on the menu, why people drive nice cars, and our coffee. She also told me to cast a pebble. She then proceeded to tell me that I will remember her. I may not remember her name and maybe not even what she looks like but I will remember the conversation. Guess what? I dont know her name, I remember brown hair and glasses and that she used her hands alot when she talked but I DID remember the conversation. She cast her pebble in my pond and the fish swim by every now and then and it moves. That is what I remember. Do you have pebbles in your pond? Why not cast some of your own?

Please bring my neighbor their paper! I stole it! (whisperingly)

As many of you are aware, I used to do customer service for a local newspaper. For those of us in customer service, we all have our "favorite" customers and our doosie stories. One of my favorite stories came from speaking to a lady about her neighbors paper.
Yes, I said the neighbors' paper. This particular lady (I call her this because I believe her to be one of our great elderly wisers) had occasion to call because her own paper had been missed or stolen and she wanted her paper with her morning coffee as per her custom. However, she was full on aware that her neighbors were late risers and she took it upon herself to take their paper. She called quite early, around 7ish I suppose and it was hilarious because she was whispering into the phone.
Now, imagine some little old lady about four foot nothin' standing on her porch whispering into her cordless phone with her little hand cupped over the speaker on the phone. Imagine it quite early and in the summer so she is in her nightie and slippers and she is looking over to the neighbors yard. Below was our conversation:
(Remember, she is whispering the ENTIRE time!)
Me: Thank you for calling the News! My name is Michele, how may I help you?
Lady: I am calling about my neighbors paper.
Me: Ok, what is going on with your neighbors paper?
Lady: Well, I need you to bring one out in a hurry so they don't miss it. You see, I didn't get mine today for some reason and I know they sleep late over there. Can you bring them one so they don't see that it is gone? I took their paper and I don't want to get in trouble with the neighbors for taking their paper!
Me: So, you missed your paper and you took theirs? O.o
Lady: Yes, I know they never get up before 9:30 every day. If you hurry, you can get one out here before they wake up and nobody will know! Can you do that for me? I really wanted to read my Sunday paper and it was just laying there. Please bring one out so nobody knows what happened. You can do that right? This will be a secret between you and me.
Me: Aw, certainly Ms. Lady. I can do that for you. Oh, and don't worry, it will be our little secret, ok?
Lady: OK, thank you! I am going now because I don't want them to see or hear me lest they find out what happened!
Me: Ok, is there anything else I can help you with today Ms. Lady?
Lady: No, you just have a good day and thank you for getting me out of trouble! :)
I hung up the phone and had a little chuckle about that. I don't know if she was in her nightie and slippers or not. I do know that she was outside because I heard traffic but it made me smile to know that our elderly population gets up to rambunctious goings on early in the morning!
Thought I would share this little smile for today. Though I am certain that if she knew, she would be quite upset that I shared her secret! :) Na, it will be alright.....

To breathe or not to breathe, that is the question.

I dont get it. How in the world to people of the large persuasion do it!  I am (on paper) considerably overweight.  While I do not look very large, I am a little thick.  I just don't understand how people who are like DAYUM! (Yea, according to the comedian Fluffy, big like that.) breathe, move, and even just stay healthy.

Here I am in a situation where I feel just as crappy as I did when I was smoking only five (yes 1/4 of a pack for you mathematicians) cigarettes a day.  When I breathe, it seems that my nose will randomly shut off for a moment and I have to sputter or skip a breath just to get back right.  I can hear myself breathe and it is embarassing to know that I can take a 99 cent muffin mix, mix it up, bake it in the bowl I mix it in and eat the ENTIRE THING!  That cannot be healthy.

I also have found that it is easier to plan to do something then to get up off my lazy rumpus and do it. BAD BAD Cheley.  Lets not get into that habit.  When I finally do get up to do something, I feel good about it and think to myself, well, I should do this more often because it makes me feel better.

However, I believe that the one thing that I need to do is to actually FORCE myself to eat right.  If I can do that, then that is the step in the right direction.  I do note that there are so many factors that make me just want to eat whatever makes me feel good at the moment.  There are drawbacks here to cuz, it may feel good when I eat it but boy do I sure feel like crapola when I am done. The guilt, the should haves, the regret. Ugh.

Don't get me wrong, I am not looking to get the fabulous body I had at 18 that I hated anyway.  I just want to get rid of about 60 pounds ideally.  Then I would be about a buck thirty and I would probably feel a whole lot better! Even if I could get 20 I think I would feel better.  I am so tired of waking in the middle of the night to turn over or to "wake up" an appendage that fell asleep.  Nobody is supposed to have tingly limbs all the damn time!  That happens when you are chillen on the couch while your leg is curled under you. NOT because you happen to be sitting there minding your own damn business.  Lets get real.  Being of the larger persuasion is no fun!

I am not knocking those that choose to live this way or have found themselves the victim of a doctor with a sense of humor. (You know those medications with steroids in them that blow you up like a ballon.)  No, if you so chose to be large and in charge, then that is your business and I am not forcing my opinion on you. I am talking about myself. I want to be comfortable in my own skin.  I was almost there about nine or ten years ago when number nine was a baby.

Not anymore and I want out of this place!  Yea, my soul has a lot more room to bounce around in this body because of the size pants I wear but I am miserable! 

I wrote this because I took a walk today and have decided that because my hours have been slated back due to the slow season, I may try to go back to walking to see if it will help me lose at least the first 20 that I am so desperately trying to shed.  I will be able to run with my boys more, and do more in general.

What do you think? Are you with me? Any suggestions?

Coffee Apocalypse

Ever wonder what the world would be like if there were suddenly no coffee anywhere? I shudder.....
Personally, I would go through withdrawal. Likely near what you see in the movies when the junkie goes into rehab. I used to do that to myself (Why?) before we bought our home and I have no explanation for my behaviour.
Lets talk about what I went through. Some background before I begin. I would only do it when we would move to a new rental place. Things like that happen when you seem to choose every landlord that wants to jack up the rent to an unreasonable fee after living there for a year and you are good tenants. At any rate, I would even go so far as to personally pack the coffee maker in my car and it is the last thing out and the first thing set up. I would still torture myself by going a week without the liquid gold of a hot caffinated beverage every morning for that week. I never plan it that way, it just happened. I guess I was too busy with the move to make coffee or notice I was not drinking it. Toward the end of the week, I would become grumpy and have a blistering headache. (Yea, headaches don't blister, that is just the best explanation of how it felt.)
Had I went further than that, I likely would have had the shakes and everything else that came with not quenching my mind with the one thing that makes me enjoy mornings more than I normally do. But let me tell you, that FIRST cup after an incarceration in reality is like unicorns, rainbows, and glitter, all while winning the superbowl for the first time.
It was the best cup of coffee ever! Well, at least for the moment then I would pick back up with my wonderful vice like I never missed it.
Ok, back to the rant. No coffee, disappeared, poof, gone. Know what? I am certain that if there were a Zombie apocalypse at the same time, they would NOT have a chance. You just send the caffiene deprived hot beverage drinkers out (without weapons even!) and they would tear the heads off them blitches in no time flat! Hehehe.
I am certain there would be anarchy and chaos and there will be a lot of people in the hospital believing they are afflicted with some sort of illness due to the fact that they had to give it up cold turkey and South America would be invaded with millions of people looking for the last coffee bean so they can be the hero like in the book the Lorax.
Surely society would fall and there would be a loss of power and people would instill their own martial law and there would be no need for politicians to discuss gun control because they would all be hunkered down under their desks with their own AK 47's and AR 15's ready to shoot at the first noise they hear. Nervous? You have never seen nervous like someone WITHOUT their caffiene. I am positive that it will also be a time where things such as speed and other amphetemines (sp?) consumption would skyrocket for those lucky enough to get hold of some to quell their inner coffee drinker. People would truly be different folks.
Crime would go up, murders, gun violence, assault, battery, and there would be quite a bit more conspiracy theorists. Why did I add that last one? Well, those of us who are seasoned enough coffee drinkers do not think clearly about things before caffiene. They think about noises, and absently hear the news and it gets us to thinking things that may or may not be true. Heard the news this morning about the Batman bringing in the bankrobber? Yea, Batman is real, therefore it must be true, how nice of him to pay our neighborhood a visit. Had the coffee drinker had their coffee, they would look at the TV with their jaw agape and go "How STUPID is that! Trying to do that for attention is all." Yes, folks, CLARITY.
What are your thoughts on the Coffee apocalypse? (Also, open to suggestions for more rants, fill up the page please!)