SoCS: Listen for the Lions, but Don’t Worry Too Much

Our prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “too/to/two.” Use one, use ’em all, bonus points if you use all three. Extra bonus points if you start your post with one. Enjoy!

Two ears and two eyes would be an evolutionary advantage over one eye and one ear. Two ears makes it easier to tell where the lions are. With only one ear, you’d have to turn your head, always wondering where the lions are. I’ll come back to that. Two eyes and two ears look better, or is that just a cultural thing? What I was getting to, in a round about way, is that we have two ears and two eyes, but only one mouth which would suggest that we should listen and watch more than we talk. That’s sorta how the saying goes. Are there any animals that have more than one mouth? A Venus fly trap, but that is not an animal. Would more than one mouth be too many? I’m not going to worry about it.

Recently, I had another example, a lesson, reminding me not to worry too much. You might remember that I mentioned needing to step back from a group I was in, a weekly zoom meeting. It wasn’t a good fit anymore for my schedule or my energy. I worried about what and how to tell the friend who ran the group. I constructed an email with limited explanations of why I wanted to take a break from the group. I ended up texting or emailing something more simple – just that I was taking a break from the group. She didn’t ask why as I thought she would. What she wrote was that she had been getting tired of the group too (!). I didn’t need to explain anything! She has since decided to disband the group. The lesson (without the codependent notion that I caused the group to end) is that I spent way too much time worrying about how she would react to my absence.

How many times have I worried about something that never happened? Too many. Maybe writing this will help me remember, not to worry too much. Or maybe not to worry at all!

I think I’ll take a break from worrying. Maybe it’s a privilege some don’t have. But I hope there will be moments of peace here and there for everyone.

There are plenty of metaphorical lions, but I have nothing against actual lions. I just want to know where they are. Coincidentally, but not really, my CNN Good stuff newsletter has an article this morning about Tanzania’s Lion Defenders who just want to keep track of where they are. That might pop up in my Good News Tuesday post.

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For more streams of consciousness and guidelines, visit out host, Linda Hill HERE.

Maybe

Maybe everything will turn out okay. Maybe even better than okay. After all, look what happened to my love life that was in the toilet at the beginning of this century. And now, things have turned out better than okay.

Back when I was newly divorced, then in the sick rebound, then in the not as sick rebound, then lonely and wondering if I should just give up on romance, I had to work hard to imagine that maybe things would be okay or even better.

But imagine I did.

I’m good at imagining the worst, or the drudgery of a life of a life of drudgery. Correction: I WAS good at that. Whatever we practice, we get better at. I’ve gotten better at imagining good things happening, because look what’s happened! Not only has the man of my dreams come back to me at the perfect time, but he’s empowered me to pursue my creative soul’s desires!

Yet, I still have to work at imagining that maybe things will turn out great for my grown children, especially my baby girl. I guess I had a lot of practice worrying as a mom. Too much worrying. It helps to remember what I was like in my early 20s. I got side tracked by my emotions just like she has a tendency to do. I floundered as to my direction and career goals. I didn’t know just how to get back on course. But, eventually, I figured it out and went back to college. She is not me, so she might not go back to college. But maybe things will work out okay. Probably things will work out okay.

Maybe they will work out even better than okay.

Maybe we can slow the damage we are doing to our planet.

Maybe we can reverse the damage we’ve done.

Maybe we can learn to live in peace, at least more peace.

Maybe there is hope for each and every one of us.

Maybe imagining things working out better than we imagined can improve out chances, especially if we take steps in the direction of our hopes and dreams.

Maybe it will take more time than we imagined, but maybe that time is what we need to grow up.

Maybe the human race will grow up before we destroy ourselves.

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 Our Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday was: “mb.” We were instructed to “find a word that has those two letters in it, in that order,”and base our post on it. We were also instructed, by our fearless leader of SOC prompts, to have fun!

If you’d like to give it a go, visit Linda by clicking this link:

https://lindaghill.com/2016/06/10/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-june-1116/

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.

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!