“When I think that I am moving, suddenly things stand still.”  I was reminded of those words from a song this morning, as I thought about how important the words I speak are.
There are like “doh” times.  Things have been going along smoothly and I haven’t put my foot in my mouth for a while.  Then I go and say something I immediately regret saying.  Sometimes it impacts another negatively, and sometimes just me. I find out what I am capable of.  Often I had no idea but an idle word catches me out.  It may or may not be the way I feel, but it was something that need not have been said – maybe at all or in that way.
I hold to the thinking that no lesson in life is designed to pull me down or make me out to be lessor than I am.  Having said that I do think sometimes I may need to be brought down a peg or two.  Not to make me feel worthless, as I do not think I ever am, but to give me a realistic self-assessment.
That is never pleasant, but it can have good results if I let it.  Reality checks can not seem pleasant at the time they happen.  As someone said something like “we live for the future, but we learn from the past.”    I don’t see myself saying something potentially hurtful but the present which becomes the past can show me otherwise.
By the same token the opposite can be true too.  There are times I say something and I just know it is the right thing at the right time and in the right way.
On a few occasions I have seen people unexpectedly cry tears of joy because what I said was something needed at the time.  It is never said in any guru like fashion.  It is always said in passing and meant.  It is like everyday conversation that, unknown to me, contains a hidden gem.
Merril and I are doing something together and it contains an element where we deliberately find another to encourage.  Naturally encouragement can be something done, but we are ensuring it is something said at least.
I admit I am very much into that as I feel everyone needs encouragement.  I only need to listen to conversations around me to know others are regularly pulled down.  I had one lady thank me for something I said yesterday.  She was purchasing something at our market and was highlighting the inadequacies of another and working herself up about it.  I mentioned something I feel strongly and that is I am not responsible for another’s response but only my own.  Her words were destroying her and the shift in focus suddenly highlighted that it was her response that mattered. The perceived inadequacies of another were not her problem.
To me there are so many hurtful words out there and I do not want to be a part of the problem but part of the answer.  My goal is to build up and not pull down.  I am not and never will be perfect at it, but I will always keep practicing.

Here we are at post 2,800.  Who’d have thought?  Not me for sure. That is like over 7.5 years of posts.  I was…well…over 7.5 years younger when I started.
I have written about unintended consequences before.  I mentioned one where a number of solar panels were pointed towards a point that converted the heat to electricity.  The unintended consequence was that birds flying through the unseen heat were instantly cooked.
Another unintended consequences was putting little alarms in fish so their migratory patterns could be traced.  The unintended consequence was that the alarms were like dinner bells to predators, and the fish being studied were eaten.
We have a few unintended consequences from things we have done around here.
We put down some hollow cement bricks.  The idea was to put dirt in the and grow grass.  This meant we had a strong area we could drive on.  So we put down the bricks and filled them with dirt, then added grass seed fully expecting grass would grow and cover the bricks.  What we forgot was that we feed the birds seed.  They thought our new area was like a feeding zone.  I will never forget a pile of birds eating the seed we had put down.
The other again involved birds.  There are a coupe of birds we regard as our birds.  They are very trusting of us and we put extras and scraps aside for them.  Some of the same type are in the area too.  There were a couple of them with gammy legs.  We felt sorry for them and would let them eat.
What we did not anticipate that one of the birds mate who is bigger and stronger than any other bird would muscle into this area and treat it as their own.  Consequently “our birds” are shy to come here and I spend time watching over them when I feed them.
Another unintended consequence again involved birds and hanging pots.  We love the pots and put a few out.  Turns out the birds love the pots too.  Or should I say they love the coconut husk material and find it ideal for building their nests.  We now put heshen down first to prevent the birds taking the hessen for their nests.
They have been a couple of the lessons learned around here.  I read yesterday that a mistake is only a mistake if I do not learn from it.  We have learned our lessons, but it has been entertaining along the way. 

I saw the word “schedule” this morning and it had me thinking how different mine is now days to what it was.  I realize that my experience is  different to many but there is no doubt it has changed.
I would work from sunup to sundown and then into the night - no problem.  Whether it was combining my paid employment with activities I wanted to do around the house, with music, preparing for events that I often was responsible for organizing.  I was into it and made it happen.
These days I still get things done but I know my best times and utilize that.  For example yesterday I knew I had to organize some things.  I set aside the morning to do it.  I am a morning person and am at my best then.  So what I had to do I set aside the morning to do as I did not know what I would be like in the arvo.  Experience has taught me though to strike while the iron is hot.
It’s funny but I do remember at work there would be a period in the early afternoon where I would feel drowsy.  I know that was choice time.  In many ways there was only one choice that was any good for me.  Shake it off and push through.  That is what I consistently did.  I realized that when I pushed through inevitably I would get over the tiredness and while not at peak performance 70% or so was a decent “make ground” amount.
Since retiring I often choose to rest when I get weary.  I do not need to, but I am genuinely surprised that I do actually sleep.  Evenings are productive but to a lessor amount to what they were once.
When I have activities on, I am ok with them but when I have a choice the choice is often to rest.
I feel I have needed to accept the way things are and make the most of the way it is.  I am not what I was, but that sure does not make me useless.  I get things done and it reinforces to me the need for each other.  Maybe two are needed where one only was, but it is the result to me that counts.  The way achieving that result happens may be different, but it still happens.