15 Below

Usually I think my job is fun. Working around horses and adorable ponies and getting to love on them in between mucking out their stalls is fun for me. However, today was not quite as much fun; working outdoors for four hours in -15 degrees F. Thank God it was not windy. We had to keep going into the tack room where there is a heater and changing out our gloves. We'd put the cold ones on the heater and put on warm ones that we had left there. Boy, did that feel good, but it didn't last long. Before you knew it, you had to go back for another change.

Luckily for me, I only do six stalls and water and then I'm done and can walk back up the lane to a warm wood stove. My co-worker does the other six stalls, feeds all the animals, puts them in and out, waters outside animals, plus all the other barn duties. She works all day, but she is young and can handle it. She works hard and she loves the horses. She is very knowledgeable and I am very impressed.

Anyway, this old woman was quite happy when her stalls were done and all were watered and it was time to walk up the lane. Sometimes it felt like the old lungs were frozen.

Weather report said colder tomorrow. Oh dear.

Naive, disingenuous, or immature?

Well, in my last post I mistakenly stated that President Obama was coming to Portland on the same day as the partially nude walkers were to be doing their thing. Wrong. He came on Thursday and got a great reception, rightfully so. And the bare-breasted ladies (and some men) walked through town yesterday. It seems they also got a great reception, with a lot of picture takers in tow. Some of the walkers took exception to having their pictures snapped without permission as per comments quoted in the Maine Sunday Telegram. One was angered by the idea that people thought it was an event that warranted taking pictures. One event watcher commented that he thought the walkers were naive if they did not expect people to take pictures. I'm not sure 'naive' is the word I would use. I'm thinking 'disingenuous' myself, but possibly just immature. What do you think?

Walking to a different standard

Haven't been here in a while. I just told my sister that it was because there is so much to do and so little time. Then said, no, be honest. I've just been lazy and not up to the task of working my thought processes as I should be. I really have no valid excuse other than it is too easy to find something else (or nothing) to do.  I saw a quote yesterday (and can't remember where or who by) that essentially said, saying 'I don't have time' is no excuse.

Time can always be found for what is important to us.  We just have to stop wasting it elsewhere.

Anyway, I was just reminded of an article in one of our local papers when I was looking over the feeds from blogs that I'm supposed to be following (but who has time?). One of them had something about "Clothes make the man..." and this reminded me of said article about the fact that this coming weekend a group of women (and some men) are planning to walk down Congress Street in Portland nude from the waist up. Their reasoning being they want to show their non-acceptance of the old double standard. They say, "if it's alright for a man to walk around without a top, then it's okay for a woman."

Aside from the fact that it could still be quite chilly on Saturday next, (it is still March, people, after all) I find this quite funny. No less for the fact that I also read that President Obama is planning a visit to Portland on the same day. I don't think there is any connection between the two events. It sounded like the nude walkers had planned this before any knowledge of the President's visit was made known. I can't help wondering if he has been told of the planned walk and if so, what his thought's were/are. Hope he gets a giggle out of it, as I have. Heaven knows, after the year he's had, he could use one.

I have a few other thoughts about the "if it's okay for the man, it's okay for the woman" rationale. Many years ago, I used that same rationale to condone my own foolish actions, namely, sleeping with whomever I pleased whenever I pleased wherever I pleased. And I pleased way too much.  My thinking, I'm not living by anybody's double standard, if a man can do it and everybody says, he's just being a man, then nobody has a right to say anything about me. I never stopped to think, hey, it is NOT okay for a man, they just tell themselves it is. It was naive, selfish thinking on my part. Thank goodness I snapped out of it.

There are many double standards still very much alive and well in this world, e.g. standards thought to hold for men and not women; for Republicans and not Democrats (and vice versa); for so-called Christians and not any other religion (and vice versa) and so on, and so on. We just have to see them for what they are: rationales for whatever person or group to use to condone their own bad behavior while condemning that of others. We simply have to be true to ourselves and to our God.

Only the first

Yesterday morning I had my first sewing lesson. When I entered my friend's home, the delicious smell and the warmth welcomed me in out of the brutal cold. I had flashbacks to walking into my Aunt Minnie's farmhouse kitchen as a child to the wonderful aromas of her cooking and the heat from her old wood cookstove. My friend had just taken a cinnamon coffeecake from the oven and the smell was incredible.

We chatted a while and inspected the various remnants that I had brought before getting down to work. Her instructions were clear, concise and easy to follow. Once I had cut out all the pieces, she suggested we take a break and have our coffee and cake. We did so in the coziness of her sewing room by the little wood stove while she told me a story about J as a boy. We laughed a lot.

She taught me how to use the machine and how to place each piece and how to line them up with the right notch on the foot as I stitch them together. As we worked, she included many little hints and shortcuts that made the job run smoothly and quickly. It seemed so easy; before I knew it, I had a beautiful apron. Needless to say, I felt quite proud of my accomplishment.

My friend is a good teacher and a lot of fun to be around. She graciously showed me the rugs that she braided and the quilts she had made and I felt humbled by her talent and the craftsmanship that went into each piece. She encouraged me to keep up the good work and to come back for more projects and I know I will; although I left with the confidence that I will be able to make another apron all on my own.

Blessings

"I am blessed every day." She said it often and meant it always. I was blessed to come into her life and she to mine a year before she passed on to her reward. Caring for this beautiful soul was one of the greatest joys of my life. I actually looked forward to going to work each day; it felt more like visiting and helping a friend than work. This lady held the most positive attitude toward life I've ever seen. She wasn't a pollyanna, but she found beauty and blessings in every day and nearly all people. She had many sayings that I have shamelessly appropriated. Besides the above there was "pretty, pretty, pretty," which she'd say whenever she looked out the window no matter the weather.  Of course it was true since she lived on an old farm on the side of a hill surrounded by rolling fields and forest with a great view of Mt. Washington and the White Mountains of NH. She taught me so much.

While writing this it has occurred to me that these are the same things that my mother tried to teach me growing up, but I didn't want to listen then.