SoCS: Wild Animals, Church Music, and Eagle Wings

Today’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “wild animal.” Choose a wild animal (or many wild animals) and use it any way you’d like in your post. Enjoy!

Wild animals are not necessarily wild to each other. People can act as wild as (other) animals sometimes. Elephants grieve the loss of their loved ones in ways that we can see. Whale mothers carry their dead babies for days or weeks, not wanting to let go. Dolphins, Chimpanzees, and birds have been seen using tools. Wolves use strategic pack coordination in hunting. What makes them wild and humans not wild?

You can read about the emotional lives of “wild” animals

HERE in Greater Good Magazine

Today, penguins have been on my mind. Our choir director used to call us penguins because we dressed out in black and white choir garb. He has a collection of stuffed penguins on the organ. Now, his body is becoming overwhelmed by cancer. He’s been moved to hospice. It’s real now.

Chris has been a big part of my life for years of Wednesday night choir practice. His strange sense of humor made practice interesting. When Mama Cat was living at the church in the pre-pandemic years, Chris was the main person to feed her. She had a reputation as being mean, like a wild animal, but she was really scared. Her first expression of affection to a human was to rub against Chris’s legs. During the pandemic, when we were not having church, Mama Cat came to live with me. She’s not wild anymore.

Since Chris has been sick, I’ve been picking most of the music for Sunday mornings and playing my guitar to lead the congregation in singing. We tried a couple of hymns acapella, but that is risky. My guitar skills are very basic and much softer than Chris’s organ playing, but the guitar helps us be on key as I find the confidence to sing loud and clear enough to lead the singing.

On Tuesday, after seeing the scripture readings, I emailed my suggestions for Sunday’s music. Our priest added a suggestion from the hymn book. I started to feel a little overwhelmed. Sometimes it’s hard to find the guitar chords for traditional hymns so I’ve been leaning toward more contemporary songs. Now, I’d have to look for the chords and see how hard they were. I started to respond in an email that I was feeling a little overwhelmed. But I got a nudge. I checked one of my songbooks with chords and found the hymn there. The chords were easy! No problem.

Yesterday, I was praying. I started by giving thanks for the blessings of my life. I suddenly realized that with all the blessings – David, retirement, security, and relatively good health – I realized that preparing and leading music at church for a while is the least I can do. This is a temporary situation. Life is temporary. I can do this ministry with love and gratitude.

Animals act wild when overwhelmed by fear or maybe hunger. They act on instinct to protect themselves. The same thing can happen with us humans. We get anxious or confused. I think, this is too much. It’s not going to work. My stomach tightens and not in a good way. But if I take a deep breath, pray, and get more information, things work out. I also want to remember that most things are not life and death situations, except when they really are.

Here are some old and new photos:

Feral Mama Cat

Domestic Mama Cat

Me with Penguin Friends

Our Good Shepherd Window

Light beam on church pew

Church windows reflecting sunset

I can’t get the “Eagles Wings” song chorus out of my head and that’s okay.

It goes like (this with God saying):

And I will raise you up on eagles wings,

Bear you on the breath of dawn,

Make you to shine like the sun,

And hold you in the palm of my hand.

Here’s our choir singing it a few years ago with Chris playing the organ.

~~~

Update: Chris passed away this morning. I’m very sad, but thankful he did not suffer long.

~~~

For more information about Stream of Consciousness Saturday

and more wild animal posts,

visit our host, Linda Hill

by clicking HERE.

SoCS: Self Disclosure, Smoothies, and Mama Cat Goes to the Vet

Here’s the prompt: Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “lid.” Use it in the literal sense, use it in the metaphorical sense, use it any way you’d like. Have fun!

“Keep a lid on it,” sounds controlling. Maybe even harsh. But there are times when it might be a good idea. At times in my life I have disclosed too much personal information, like a confession almost. Sometimes I have been too honest. Ocassionally socially awkward. So, I’ve had to slow down and think, except when I don’t. There have been no major faux pas lately. At least not that I know of.

Keeping a lid on something might mean keeping a secret, keeping something safe, like food, or like don’t tell anyone I said this, but…… Maybe it’s better not to tell, then. Getting back to self-disclosure, maybe a lid could be loose or tight. If it’s tight, there’s always a possiblity it could be opened again, but you might need help from someone safe. I’ve heard that “you’re only as sick as the secrets you keep,” but we still have to be careful who we tell our secrets to.

I remember when I was single, trying to open a jar by myself. So as not to do too much damage to my hand, wrist, and arm, which were already compromised by so much work on the computer, I would work on the lid for a while, then take a break. Hit it with a knife on the corners, try again, and take a break. There was this one time when I took it across the street to the neighbor. Other times, I took turns with my daugther. Don’t hurt yourself trying to open a jar. Now, I try a couple times and take it to David. His hands are much stronger than mine.

When we were dating for the second time around, we didn’t keep a lid on much information-wise. We wanted everything on the table. No big surprises. We were in our 50s and didn’t want to waste time. We talked about past relationships and what we’d learned from them. I guess how much you disclose depends on whether you want to date or a committed relationship. Of course we didn’t share every gory detail. I don’t want to think about those. Quick! Think of something else!

I try not to use plastic, but when I do, I try not to use a plastic lid, which means I have to be careful not to spill. Since I don’t use straws, I might get a smoothie mustache, but that’s okay. Here’s my basic smoothie recipe at home: Oat milk, Banana, and Peanut Butter. Add other ingredients as desired. Lids are optional. (But if you take it outside, you might want some kind of a cover to keep bugs out.)

FYI, I don’t know what this has to do with lids, but my spell check on WP has not been working for a while. I chatted with someone from WP yesterday and he? said something in WP was not compatible with grammarly, or something, but they’re working on it. He told me to go to settings in my browser which I tried, but it didn’t work. Anyway, I have to go over this again to see if I catch any misspelled words. Does misspelled have two s’s? Yes, okay. That’s good enough for now. Apparently spell check is optional for some WP sites. That would have been a good transitional line for this paragraph. Now, I’m thinking too much. Time to put a lid on this.

Thinking about a photo gallery, I could have written about Mama Cat’s vet visit. One year ago I trapped her at my chuch and took her to the vet before bringing her home. She was still quite feral and escaped in the exam room. Tuesday I took her to a place that specializes in cats. It went so well, I almost cried with relief. They took the lid off her carrier and she did not run away. The towel helped. Mama Cat has come a long way in a year. Now she has a microchip.

Semi-Random Photos:

• 

  Mama Cat at the vet

• 

  A relaxation technique

• 

  Wave Therapy

• 

  Anonymous Sand Art

• 

  Backyard Lantana

• 

  Backyard woodpecker

• 

  Tiny Mushrooms

• 

  Accidental hitchhiker
  about to go back outside

• 

  Down by the Riverside

~~~

Continued thanks to our SoCS host, Linda Hill. You can find more SoCS posts and rules at Linda’s Blog.

SoCS: A Year of Challenge and Hope for Healing

Our Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “day/week/month/year.” Linda also invites us to write about the past year of pandemic, “how we have coped or not, to share our common experiences as a way to connect, to feel a little less alone.”

As a citizen of the United States, these past 12 months have been heavy, not just due to the pandemic, but also with the political divide and the racial injustice of the murders of George Floyd, Breaonna Taylor and others. It has been strange and confusing to have stay at home orders, masks and social distancing recommendations along with protests and demonstrations.

My hope is that with the pandemic calming down and someone less inflammatory at the helm, we can move into healing. It’s going to take a lot of work. A lot of compassion, listening, compromise, and seeking common ground… or higher ground.

I find myself feeling tired as I write this. There are bursts of energy when things get done, but maybe it’s a tired that comes with age. Still, my personal life has not been bad. I’m the oldest one in my family – my parents and siblings are deceased. Even Aunt Ruth in Wisconsin crossed over last year after a full life into her 90s. I am thankful not to have to worry about my parents anymore and feel for those who do. I am thankful to have the luxury of time and the freedom to study my father’s letters from Vietnam, and to write and paint.

Staying at home doesn’t bother me, except that I have not seen my granddaughter, son and daughter in law since October. I miss the mountains. It was in October that I last visited the mountains and first brought mama cat home from the church. She has kept me company when David is at his woodshop, and she has become much less feral.

Mama Cat has a plate of food.
She wants attention while I’m trying to write.

Having a cat has been a big change after being a dog person for so long. The pandemic and people not being at church much was one of two factors that led me to bringing her home. The other factor was the abduction of her daughter, Gray, in June. I still go to the church once per week to see if Gray has shone up, but I don’t think this is likely. I talk to Saint Francis and pray my hopes and thanksgivings.

St. Francis with last year’s hydrangeas

Not going to church and choir practice is probably the biggest change in my personal life. We do zoom church and I’ve sung and played a little guitar for that, because music is my favorite part of church. My voice is way out of shape when it comes to singing anything challenging. My friend Anne, who is in her 80s and teaches singing, is helping me with that. I’m thankful to have had both vaccines, in spite of the side effects, I’m glad to have a little more confidence if I do want to go out. I’ll still wear a mask and avoid crowds.

Hopefully we won’t have as much to protest or demonstrate for or against for a while. Maybe things will calm down and justice will grow. Maybe we humans will wake up, bridge the divides, and focus on healing Mother Earth as we celebrate diversity in all it’s beauty and strength.

…

Thank you to our host, Linda Hill for the consistency of SoCS through the year.

For SoCS rules and more streams, visit:

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS March 13, 2021 | (lindaghill.com)

SoCS: A Missing Cat Mystery, SciFi Distractions and NaNoWriMo

Today’s prompt is the word, “trick.”

The first thing that came to my mind was that I don’t like tricks. Not right now anyway. Mama Cat, the feral one, has disappeared. I could say she’s playing a trick on me, but that would be making light of something that is heavy on my heart.

Wednesday, I let her explore the rest of the house outside of her room. I didn’t follow her because then she would go right back to her room and hide. I figured after twenty something days, it would be okay for her to explore more of the house. I fed her at 9:30 am and saw her walking cautiously in and out of rooms while I was on the computer. Then I did some work on a bookcase on the side porch being careful to close the sliding glass door after I went through it. Around 11 am, I could not find Mama Cat.

My neighbor who has had a lot of experience with feral cat adoption thinks she could still be in the house. I’ve looked under every bed and piece of furniture, in every closet and cranny. I looked into the crawlspace and even up the chimney. I’ve set out food and put her used kitty litter in the front and back yard. I wonder if I had a momentary lapse and left the sliding glass door open for a few seconds and turned my back and she slipped out and then pushed her way through the screen porch door which doesn’t latch well. And I feel lousy. Awful. Terrible. I’m sorry I tricked her into the carrier to bring her to my house.

But I can’t change the past.

Is this another lesson to leave things alone? I thought she would be safer in my home than at the church her daughter roamed from and got trapped and carried away. If Mama shows back up at the church, I’ll probably let her stay there and go feed her every day if necessary.

I have resorted to distracting myself with science fiction in book and movie form. Star Trek, Star Wars, a couple of scary movies, sleep… And going out into the back yard at night calling “kitty kitty kitty, Mama Cat,” and praying.

This has been a year of bad luck for many people. I certainly have had bad luck with my feral cats. But it’s not over. I know things can work out when we think they won’t. I know we can find good things in this year.

Another distraction as we lean toward the end of the year will be NaNoWriMo. I’ve threatened so do it for a few years and now I have no excuse. So I signed up and will be writing a draft of a novel in the month of November. Will I add 50,000 words? Who knows? But I haven’t been writing much beyond this blog, so it will be an improvement. My novel which I’ve barely begun with 13,000 words is based on my parents, Betty and Jim. I’m taking a 99% break from Facebook until the end of November. It’s a big relief to be out of that fray as I refocus my attention on something I have some control over. I voted already. I’ve voiced my opinions, I try to live a good life.

When life gets to be too much,

please pass the scifi.

No Jedi mind tricks.

Beam me up Scotty.

I vant to be a Vulcan.

BREAKING NEWS!

I was finishing up this post on Friday night, wondering about a video, when David came out of his “den” and said,

“Mama Cat just ran out of our bedroom!

She went straight to her room. I grabbed a can of food and gave her some. She wouldn’t stop rubbing on my legs. She ate some, used the litter box and then started getting hyper. She had been hiding for over two days or she was stuck somewhere, so must have a lot of pent up energy, but seems to be okay.

WHAT A RELIEF!

…

For more streams of consciousness, rules, and tricks, visit our host, Linda Hill at:

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS Oct. 31/2020

SoCS: I Got Rhythm, But Can I Spell It?

Today’s prompt is to use a word we have to look up to spell. Rhythm is one of my top favorites. Maybe this post will help me remember how to spell it.

As I write this on Friday afternoon, I’m listening to the rhythm of the falling rain. The rhythm slows down and speeds up, yet remains comforting. I have to slow way down to be able to type the word, rhythm. We often think of rhythm in terms of music. I’m sure there will be a song or two in this post.

There are all kinds of rhythms. Dang, I might have to type rhythm a hundred times to learn it. Like writing our spelling words ten times in elementary school.

There’s the rhythm of breathing which is not always consistent with my sweet husband who has no experience about how his snoring and undiagnosed apnea sound. There’s the rhythm of dance and a long walk. A drum beat, a heartbeat. A cat’s purr.

I love to hear Mama Cat purr. It’s been just over two weeks since I brought her home from the church. She’s always been anywhere from very feral to semi-feral. She’s still skittish, (that’s putting it mildly) but she is affectionate with me, rubbing on my legs and letting me pet her, as long as I follow HER rhythm and don’t push the envelope. If I push the envelope at all, like touching her foot the other day, we have to take a couple steps back. But she is usually happy to see me in the morning when I feed her. She vibrates her tail and sometimes, once I’m seated in her room, she will roll over and show me her belly, which Jackson Galaxy of the show, My Cat from Hell, says is a cat hug – when they show their belly. I was able to rub her belly, but I’ve backed off of that since the foot touching setback. Mama Cat is coming around and being very affectionate again as long as I don’t make sudden or strange moves in which case she goes to hide in her cave.

People generally think I’m very patient and calm, but following Mama Cat’s lead is taking me to a new level of going with the flow and letting it be. She does not want to come out of her room and explore the rest of the house, but I have to trust her to come out when she’s ready. At least she has been sitting on the trunk perch and watching some cat TV.

CAT TV

My dad left me a lot of trunks. Like six or seven all together. I use them as furniture. Mama Cat is actually sitting on my dad’s safe which is virtually empty. Some day, maybe I’ll let it go, but for now, it’s a good height for this window.

Rythum rthym rhythm there, I got it, but I have to really think about it. Rhythm. Rhytym rhthym omg I’m getting worse. Maybe I need to handwrite it on a peace of paper so I can copy it from above. Rhythm. There. It’s hit or miss. rthym . I give up. For now. No, I just tried writing it on paper several times. It’s weird looking. Like it can’t really be spelled that way.

RHYTHM. Sigh.

I’d rather sing it.

I don’t really know this song beyond the main line, but I like it now that I’ve listened to it. Judy Garland has a great voice. This version is a bit lively for me, but it shows a lot of talent being able to sing and dance around like that.

May your rhythm be comforting or energizing depending on what you like.

Okay, here’s another version if you like it slower:

…

For more SoCS posts and rules, visit our host Linda G. Hill, at:

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS Oct. 17/2020