Every year Leanne over at From Chaos Comes Happiness chooses a word instead of a resolution to live her New Year by, and that makes more sense to me than resolutions. I just about always break those. For the last couple of years I haven't been so great with my words, either, but I have at least tried to hold them close to my heart as Talismans. Last year I chose two: The Art of Allowing and Grace. I readily admit that I fumbled with both often enough, but I did try to remember these two things when life did its thing.
As everyone is well aware, a new year is rolling around, and that means it is time to dig out a new word to embrace it.
Having thought long and hard about this, I have settled upon SHINE. We have no control over outside forces, all we can do is shine with what we are given. Given that outside forces always seem to be changing, challenging, and are completely outside our circumstance, just letting go of that is a good place to begin. Accepting that the internal stuff is where you have the ability to make the difference and exert some change of your own. And SHINE.
For those who are interested, I actually settled on this word when I was listening to this song. We all have choices. One of them is shining.
Ironically, while I loved this song when it first came out, I hated this video. I didn't get it. I didn't want to see what they were trying to say. Now I see. It's funny how that happens.
All the right friends in all the right places
So yeah, we're going down
They've got
All the right moves in all the right faces
So yeah, we're going down
Let's paint the picture
Of the perfect place
They've got it better then when anyone's told ya
They'll be the King of Hearts, and you're the Queen of Spades
Then we'll fight for you like we were your soldiers
I know we got it good, but they got it made,
And their grass is getting greener each day,
I know things are looking up, but soon they'll take us down,
Before anybody's knowing our name
They've got...
All the right friends in all the right places
So yeah, we're going down
They've got
All the right moves in all the right faces
So yeah, we're going down
They say
Everybody knows, everybody knows where we're going
Yeah, we're going down
They say
Everybody knows, everybody knows where we're going
Yeah, we're going down
Do you think I'm special?
Do you think I'm nice?
Am I bright enough to shine in your spaces?
Between the noise you hear, and the sounds you like
Are we just sinking the ocean of faces?
It can't be possible... the rain can fall
Only when it's over our heads.
The sun is shining everyday, but it's far away.
Over the world that's dead.
They've got, they've got...
All the right friends in all the right places
So yeah, we're going down
They've got
All the right moves in all the right faces
So yeah, we're going down
[Repeat]
They say
Everybody knows, everybody knows where we're going
Yeah, we're going down
They say
Everybody knows, everybody knows where we're going
Yeah, we're going down
It don't matter what you see I know I could never be
Someone that'll look like you.
It don't matter what you say
I know I could never fake
Someone that could sound like you.
All the right friends in all the right places
So yeah, we're going down
They've got
All the right moves in all the right faces
So yeah, we're going down
[Repeat]
They say
Everybody knows, everybody knows where we're going
Yeah, we're going down
They say
Everybody knows, everybody knows where we're going
Yeah, we're going down
Yeah, we're going down [repeat x2]
All the right moves... heeey
Yeah we're going down
They say
All the right moves... heeey
Yeah we're going down
So, what do you think? Love it? Hate it? Did they paint the picture? What did you see? Are we going down?
It has been a little bit chaotic here in Robin Land.
You might not have noticed, but I haven't really posted a blog in a while. It has just been too overwhelming. We moved again. I know. That is crazy, isn't it? Moving sucks.
However, things happened with my mom and stepdad and they decided to separate and my mom and I really wanted to move back to Florida. So, we did. And, after several trips down and looking at a LOT of houses. And I do mean a LOT. There were several trips back home when we found nothing and I felt so discouraged by the entire process. Can anyone relate here??? Anyway, when we finally found THE HOUSE, it was such a relief. We closed and moved on Nov. 30. So, we it feels like we have been doing nothing but packing and unpacking for a very long time.
In fact, we are still unpacking. It does feel a bit endless.
Anyway, I have been trying to read and comment on blogs. I try to read. I don't always comment. Sometimes I do. Sometimes I don't. Sometimes I miss a day of reading. It has been a bit of hit and miss.
There is other stuff going on (isn't there always???), but I will save it for my next blog. I want to have something to write about!
There was a chemistry professor in large college that had some exchange students in the class. One day while the class was in the lab, the professor noticed one young man, an exchange student,who kept rubbing his back and stretching as if his back hurt. The professor asked the young man what was the matter. The student told him he had a bullet lodged in his back.
He had been shot while fighting communists in his native country who were trying to overthrow his country's government and install a new communist regime. In the midst of his story, he looked at the professor and asked a strange question. He asked: "Do you know how to catch wild pigs?"
The professor thought it was a joke and asked for the punch line. The young man said that it was no joke.
"You catch wild pigs by finding a suitable place in the woods and putting corn on the ground. The pigs find it and begin to come every day to eat the free corn. When they are used to coming every day, you put a fence down one side of the place where they are used to coming. When they get used to the fence, they begin to eat the corn again and you put up another side of the fence."
"They get used to that and start to eat again. You continue until you have all four sides of the fence up with a gate in the last side. The pigs, which are used to the free corn, start to come through the gate to eat that free corn again. You then slam the gate on them and catch the whole herd. Suddenly the wild pigs have lost their freedom. They run around and around inside the fence, but they are caught."
"Soon they go back to eating the free corn. They are so used to it that they have forgotten how to forage in the woods for themselves, so they accept their captivity."
The young man then told the professor that is exactly what he sees happening in America. The government keeps pushing us toward Communism/Socialism and keeps spreading the free corn out in the form of programs such as supplemental income, tax credit for unearned income, tax exemptions, tobacco subsidies, dairy subsidies, payments not to plant crops (CRP), welfare, medicine, drugs, etc., while we continually lose our freedoms, just a little at a time.
One should always remember two truths: There is no such thing as a free lunch, and you can never hire someone to provide a service for you cheaper than you can do it yourself.
Quote: "The problems we face today are there because the people who work for a living are now outnumbered by those who vote for a living." ~Anonymous
Simon & Garfunkel started looking for America back in the '60s. They woke up and it felt different, smelled different, looked different, and they got on the bus to find it. There was something in the air. They didn't know this place. And they had this revelation that they weren't the only ones. A cultural shift was happening. Their America was disappearing. And now it is totally gone. I'm with these guys. I don't know this place. But, I am beginning to see how it happened. Do you see the puzzle pieces? This is a gradual breakdown decades in the making. But, I repeat: I don't know this place. This isn't MY America. I only wish I could hop a bus, buy a ticket, and get to where I want to go. My America.
"As in geology, so in social institutions, we may discover the causes of all past changes in the present invariable order of society." ~Henry David Thoreau
Picking up where I left off with yesterday's theme of HERE'S TO YOU in a very general sort of way. Let's just get on with it, shall we? And if you missed out on yesterday's fun, it is still there, so check it out!
Truthfully, a HERE'S TO YOU post would have been the perfect remedy, but they can be a bit of work all on their own... and require prep and forethought. I can't get a Quick Fix from one of those. I have to decide to do it about a week ahead of time and then begin active planning and reading and taking notes. It is a *process* here. Then, I start looking for footage on youtube. It can take hours to find just the right video. Or minutes. You just don't know. So, when I decided Yesterday that a Fix was in order, I needed ::variation:: on my HERE'S TO YOU post. There was no way I could get one of those launched anytime soon.
Instead, I asked myself this question: "What youtube do I want to watch? What would make me feel better? What would give me a little boost, put a little pep in my step, a smile on my face, or maybe even bring a bit of a tear to my eye? What stuff would I like to remember with fondness?" The answer for me was 80s movies. I freakin' love 80s movies. I might have one early, early 90s movie thrown in there Just Because. But mostly 80s movies. Some are scenes. Some are songs set to scenes. Whatever. A lot of dancing. Why? Because dancing is fun to watch. Makes your heart sing a little bit. It is the body's way to express music. Dance is a very natural way to express yourself and your love for sound.
Well, as you can imagine, once I got rolling with this project I ended up with TWO days worth of material. So, this is just Round One. I hope you enjoy the watching as much as I did. And I hope you walk away just a little bit lighter than you came in.
