The first thing that popped into my head when I read the Saturday Stream of Consciousness prompt: bear/bare, was that I can’t bear to watch the news anymore. But that’s not true. I can bear it. I just don’t want to. I get my news from the internet, where I have some control over what comes at me. I can bear a lot of things if I have to. Like the critical X boyfriend who constantly talked about what was wrong with the world. I could bear that if I had to, but I didn’t have to, so I stopped.
That boyfriend and the news both focused on what was wrong. They didn’t spend much time looking at the good or giving compliments. Oh, yeah, maybe a small percentage of good news or compliments, not that I need compliments, but I want some balance. I want some good news. And it’s out there. You just have to be willing to see it.
Focusing on what’s wrong in the world makes it seem like the world is a bad place. And yeah, my house needs some work, and our world needs some work. Okay the world needs a lot of work. But what we focus on gets bigger. So if you’re going to criticize, also bear in mind that it helps to make suggestions or look at people who are trying to help.
If the cupboard is bare, what can you do to help? Just don’t put any bear meat in the cupboard. Don’t even want to go there. I don’t want to look at polar bears stranded on ice flows with no where to go. I do need to know about global warming melting the ice, but tell me what to do about it. Give me stories about people who are trying to help. Encourage me to go one day a week without driving my car, like Smilecalm’s latest post did. Can I bear to not drive my car one day a week? I bet I can do that. Maybe I’ll get that bike fixed so I can ride it on my no car day. When the weather is warmer. Until then, I’ll stay home. If I can get someone to feed my feral cats at church, I can stay home now since I’m leaving the job I’ve had for thirty years. I could have stayed that job longer if I’d had to. I could have grinned and beared it for a few more years until medicare kicked in, but I don’t have to, because I have been blessed with the chance to do something different.
We can bear a lot of things if we have to, if it’s going to do some good to bear witness to pain, but I’d rather focus on doing what good I can in my little corner of the world and look for people to hold up to the light, people bearing gifts.
Now, I’m thinking about those polar bears…. But at least I’m feeding the feral cats I got fixed so they can’t bear anymore feral cats. We do what we can.
Here are some pictures I took yesterday of my Mama Cat and her daughter, Gray, enjoying the sun.
It’s taken a long time for Mama Cat to let me close to her. Food helps.
Is she going to give us more food?
And here’s Gray when she was a kitten this past spring.
Gray’s sister, Patch, had her eye surgery and was adopted by the vet-tech who fell in love with her. That was good news!
Linda G Hill bears the responsibility of hosting the Saturday Stream of Consciousness. You can find out more at her blog:
https://lindaghill.com/2016/12/09/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-dec-1016/https://lindaghill.com/2016/12/09/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-dec-1016/
Here are the rules:
1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing, (typos can be fixed) and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.
2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.
3. There will be a prompt every week. I will post the prompt here on my blog on Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” “Begin with the word ‘The’,” or simply a single word to get your started.
4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS:” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours. Your link will show up in my comments for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top. NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, such as Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.
5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read everyone’s! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later, or go to the previous week, by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find right below the “Like” button on my post.
6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!
7. As a suggestion, tag your post “SoCS” and/or “#SoCS” for more exposure and more views.
8. Have fun!
Anything is Possible! 