These are the days of darkness and cold. It's barely above freezing outside. While I was cleaning the downstairs windows (I enjoy cleaning windows BTW), I notice that something or someone has been gnawing away a bit of the frame from the patio door. The door is made from very hard hardwood and has been unblemished until six weeks ago when I last washed the glass and the frame (I take window cleaning very seriously). We decided that it's not the end of the world and that for now we shall observe hoping that the door will not collapse. Maybe the termites are coming to take over the house. Last night I dreamt of being back in Africa fighting with never ending columns of red ants.
My mind is otherwise blank and blissfully useless. I got yet another letter from the pension people in Ireland promising even more arrears to be paid shortly. As a matter of fact, shortly could mean anything and R thinks it's a scam anyway.
Here are some mostly anonymous bits from the wise internets. That's all I have the energy for.
History has shown time and again that defeating injustice is much easier than achieving justice.
You can relax. If you decide against climate protection, it does not mean that you are selling your soul. You are only selling those of your children and grandchildren, and if things go well for you, you won't even have to watch.
For all the mothers out there, I wish you would read this post, it's longish, so take your time. I admit that I got quite emotional reading it. And I am a hard nut as the saying goes.
https://katywheatley.substack.com/p/a-very-long-post-about-maternal-burnout
I read the post by Katy Wheatley, wow! She's a wonderful writer and she exactly captured parenting. Thanks for the link. And yes, we were gods:)
ReplyDeleteAll these advances, labor saving devices, everything in the world at your fingertips...I read somewhere once that humans are no longer evolving, we are, in fact, devolving. We have completely separated ourselves from nature. At least in this country. Lauren Hough has it right. Too much ease, too much of everything. We, as a species, no longer know how to survive, I think. My generation is perhaps the last that might know enough to manage it but we're all dying.
ReplyDeleteI'll have to save the Katy Wheatley post for later, no time right now.
Thanks for the link. All I can say, after having read that post is...we mothers have no idea how amazing we are. Every, every thing she listed I have gone through. Lived through. And other things too, as I am sure she has. As all mothers have. Sometimes I feel as if at the age of seventy, I am still catching up on my sleep. On my life. Do we ever catch up on our lives? I remember watching my hens when they raised a bunch of babies and admiring them so as they took such exquisite care of those little peeps from egg to about two months old, never letting them out of their sight, making sure they got food and water, teaching them everything they needed to know, protecting them from all harm and from cold, and then, one day...it was if she had never seen them before and off into the flock they went to find their own place in it and she had done her job. A far superior way of raising children in my mind to ours where we are truly never done, never finished. However, there is the fact that now my grown children are my best friends in the world and our love for each other is something I would not trade for anything. And of course...the grandchildren. And let's be honest- that is not always easy either.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I'm not a mother and only briefly wanted to be one, Katy Wheatley's post made me look at how my mother mothered us despite suffering from frequent migraine headaches and narcolepsy. When I was younger, all I could see was what she didn't do. It's astonishing what she WAS able to do. I know that she was relieved when my sisters and I were grown. It was then that she blossomed creatively, emotionally and spiritually.
ReplyDeleteOn a different note, I watched this and thought you might appreciate seeing it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nAvo43UeLM
It was part of this recent event:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4S13Yn0YVLg
You ARE serious about windows! Every six weeks?! I'm lucky if I clean ours every six months, and I fancy myself a fairly good housekeeper.
ReplyDeleteI'm not against climate protection, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't grateful that in all likelihood I won't have to watch -- much.
I am not a good housekeeper, ask my family, apart from two things I actually enjoy: cleaning windows and ironing.
DeleteI don't even want to say how often I clean the windows. Ha!
ReplyDeleteI've sometimes thought about how much knowledge we would have to help us survive if so many of the gadgets, automation we so take for granted was suddenly lost to us. Would we even have any books left we could consult if digital sources inoperable? As for my windows, I'm no longer able to clean them and they are in dire need of it.
ReplyDelete