Are we living on a movie set? (1/17/2021)

Oh wow, 2021 is starting out with a bang. Here I thought it could not get worse. We are setting record after record CORONA virus cases and deaths, and we are coming off a week where we had a coup attempt. tRump is quickly becoming the mass-murdering chief! The proud boys, skin heads, neo-Nazis, Q-anons, and other right wingnuts attacked the capitol in Washington DC to stop the certification of the election. As my wife commented on the 6th: “It feels like we are living in a movie.”

I am going to make this short, but I am just hoping that this week’s events will be peaceful and that we can get rid of this failure of a president, this demagogue, who somehow has been able to convince somewhere around 30% of the people that he is the next coming of whatever, the chosen one. I am still amazed how he was able to convince these folks he was special, instead of a charlatan. But then Hitler was able to do the same. 

I just watched a video where Arnold Schwarzenegger, the ex-governor of California and body builder, former citizen of Austria, compared it to Crystal Nacht in Germany. As he mentioned that night in 1937 the German “Proud Boys” rioted and broke a lot of windows in Jewish establishments in Germany. This was really the start of Hitlers fascist reign. Something to be proud of, eh boys? 

All I know is that we live in anxious times. There is a large group of people that are hell bend on stopping the change in leadership of our country. They have been whipped up by the current occupant of the White House and his cronies. I just hope that the next few weeks, or four years will be uneventful. All I can do is blog, express my feelings, and when it gets too much, I go out into the woods to destress and forest bathe. The other thing I can do is work for what I believe, just like what those violent folks are doing; however, I will be doing it in a peaceful way for democracy, social, economic, racial and gender equality. I will be doing that through my blog, by the way I live and through my church: the UU.

I took this photograph a few days ago at my favorite pond behind my home during a lunch-time walk.  Nice to be out and take in nature, meditate and relax!

"Please give me the SERENITY to accept the things I cannot change, the COURAGE to change the things I can and the WISDOM to know the difference!"

Stress free in Northern Virginia (5/27/2014)

This week I am in northern Virginia or what they call NOVA.  The trip up north was interesting as always.  The roads were crowded, and of course there was an accident on I-95.  So here I was sitting in a backup thinking about the radio show I heard this morning.  In an interview with Dr. Amit Sood about living without stress he spoke about being in a traffic jam and thinking of people you are thankful of, for being in your life.  I really think that would help a lot; why even bother yourself with people who are potentially toxic to you?  At work you already have to deal with people you cannot choose, so in your private life, concentrate on those people who contribute to your well being; be thankful for them and concentrate on what it is about them that makes you happy.  Quit obsessing about those people that bother you.  Life is too short! 

Well, in the traffic jam I was able to take this (horrible) picture by sticking my phone out of the window and shoot this image of the traffic jam, so symbolic of all the crap and toxicity that can jam up a person's mind.  To me this was particularly important, after a weekend of murders, such as the guy in Santa Barbara, California who had his mind poisoned by his inability to attract women.  As a father of a daughter and a husband I am very disturbed about the increased violence against women, but also of any other hate crime.