COMPASSION

    This is my neighbor.  A fairly young person trapped in a wrecked body.  There is no hope short of a miracle that will restore the body to a form of normalcy. This person is homebound and has friends that do all the transportation,cleaning, cooking and so on.  Yet, Basically  this individual is alone.  It invokes pity to see what effort it takes to even walk outside to potty the dog. The story is  multiple surgeries as a child, removing even  the intestine and treating  the body with large doses of steroids which caused the bones to become brittle.  
Sometimes, when I see this person walking bent over her top half almost touching the ground because the weight of the upper body is too heavy for the spine to support my heart breaks with compassion.  
Finding out more I  discover that this individual is not only handicapped in body but the mind is swimming in very powerful drugs for what I am told is for constant pain. One day this person was actually weeding the plants in our shattered yard.   These plants are taken care of by a professional gardener.   At the time I was not aware that she was under the influence of drugs which causes her not to  make good decisions.  Apparently she was bitten by something while weeding and it was bad enough to send her to the hospital.  
While there I visited her and was brought up to speed about her condition.  Osteoarthritis caused by the steroids which turned her legs black. She asked me to care for her animals while she was away. I cared for her little medically fragile dog, and also her cats, one that stands by the back screen door looking out most of the day. Being an animal lover that strikes me as very sad.   

Her excessive and self undulant life continues downhill.  
She used to drive and one day the manager of the place where we live found her asleep at the wheel in the drive apparently what happens when she comes home from a weekly methadone clinic she goes to.  I had thought such a drug was only for heroine addicts.  
    Shortly, after that she came home in a taxi, we all heard her chewing  out the taxi driver in the parking lot waving her cane at him yelling.  Later, her car with all the windows in the back broken, was driven home by her caregiver/roommate. The gossip was she had fallen asleep in parking lot on her way home from the clinic, and a passerby thought she was in danger and they called 911.  The sheriff and the fire dept. came and broke out the window in the back to get to her. She stormed and argued about how unfair it all was yet, we all knew it was for the best.    
Her roommate/caregiver commented that she would not longer be driving per request and warning of the sheriff.   Well, at least they did not get her controlled substances she remarked loudly to her dog and caregiver in the backyard.  The caregiver remarked,"yes and if they did I'd have had to come get you in jail not the hospital."
My mom took her to the clinic today and while she was waiting she told me that a man drove up and let a woman out and parked to wait for her.  He then suddenly leaned out of the window and threw up. I think it dawned on her that moment where she was. 
  She shared that even pregnant women come to this Methadone clinic and take the drug even when they are pregnant. The baby is addicted when it is born.  Putting some thought into this I felt  a sense of disgust come over me. Such a selfish thing.  

I listened to the Presidents address last night.  By the end I was clapping for the young Army Ranger who had been injured and almost killed in Afghanistan on his 10th tour to the middle east. An amazing story of courage and determination unfolded.  The clapping went on for over 2 minutes, unprecedented as  appreciation applause goes.  
Afterwards I  turned off the TV and went out on the porch that overlooks the shared yard.  I saw the neighbor woman  in the dark talking on her cell,I realized she was talking on the phone to no-one for what seemed to be 30 minutes.  I listened for a minute.  Nothing made sense as she conversed on and on in a drugged up stupor to an obviously empty connection. 
I wondered what kind of a reality she was having?  I felt at that moment, being the type of person who doesn't alter my consciousness much, that this must be what a magical mystery tour is like.  
Then I was suddenly convicted that it was not funny but a terrible shame I was witnessing     Here is a lost person.  
Further why is it that people give up?  Do we help them to with our attempts to try to heal them?  Or is it something deeper. Is it nature or nurture?  
Perhaps, it is that some do not understand the importance of life.  I have contemplated this situation over and over again.  I have allowed myself to think at some length that perhaps they are right, the evolutionists and the Godless orators. I allowed myself to imagine what life might be like to live without hope or faith or to know God and his son Jesus my savior?    The sense of hopelessness is so overwhelming to think that this life ends and it has all been for naught.  
Quickly, I come back from that brink and remind myself that just because God hasn't answered my latest prayers, and my problems are so seemingly insurmountable, that I should act like a child and forget his loving kindness to me all of these years. 
How could I forget being touched by him and falling back into my seat at church being unable to stand as a supernatural feeling of joy overwhelmed me?  Or all the answered prayers? Of all the things he has done for me?   Perhaps, I was allowed to go there because I might gain a better understanding of those who do not believe in eternity with Jesus and his father God who would have wiped us out had it not been for that sacrifice.  I know all of this and have a living testimony that proves to me beyond any doubt that God is real and lives. That I am as we say, a pilgrim and stranger passing through. That this life is a merely a speck of sand in all of eternity.  

This language I have come to know is the reality of God that clashes against the reality of this physical life everyday.  The problems that arise when what I want, is not what is. 
I remind myself that being human limits my sight into the unseen world of the future.  That is the world of faith.  
I must walk by faith and not by sight.  Hard as that may be I ask God to give me understanding of this stunted person I have come to live with and for the compassion to continue to be kind and loving despite the ugliness I see.  ~

FOR THE LOVE OF HORSES, CHILDREN, AND THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

Being a horse lover all of my life I have been very concerned about  what has been going on in America concerning the care and treatment of our loyal and steadfast pets and companions.  I have heard both sides of the story at his point and found the argument for horse slaughter completely void of logic and compassion and disrespectful of a creature that has been so integral to the development of this nation.   In my lifetime I have seen everything become so brutal and violent concerning mans inhumanity to everything, not just the earths creatures but to each other. Its all so overwhelming and seemingly never ending.  We become  immune as if under anesthesia to the world around us, ultra focused on our own lives allowing this to go on and on.  
     Apparently 100,000 American Horses are crammed into trailers  and shipped  across two borders to be brutally murdered.   We must not allow this to go on.  My heart just aches for the creatures that are beaten and squished into livestock trailers to have the doors slammed on their body parts for being loving companions and friends to similar too legged friends. Their cries of fear  unanswered.  (Fear is a part of the horses makeup it is  and integral part of their flight or fight nature.)  
     I am continually writing letters to people I believe  could stop this cruelty such as: President Barack Obama, PETA, USHS, Private Nonprofits such as; DreamChasers Horse Rescue and Rehabilitation. Senators for my own state Nelson, Radel, and Rubio.    PETA responded and said they are aware of this and have followed a trailer full of healthy horses to the border of Canada, one horse having his leg slammed in the door, its hoof dragging just above the highway the whole trip.   I do not know how those people do that. I would  have probably done a drive by shooting when they pulled over for a bathroom break.  
My gentle readers might just say, oh, they are old animals and  are on their way to dog food, or whatever, this is not the case.   These people who do this are the rotten fruit of this society, the bottom feeders. Soulless and money hungry they participate in something that is no better than child abuse as it is the exploitation of the innocent for profit.    I fully believe that these are devils in the flesh.  God has a special place in hell for these kinds of monsters who not only beat and torture animals but participate in any way in such an industry. Horses are not food! For anyone or anything!    
     On the other hand, we also need to consider the end result, the destination of the meat.  As a horse owner I have given my horse immunizations and treated them with antibiotics when they have been sick. I have given them Eastern/Western flu shots and various  drugs for regional animal diseases.  Their feeds are full of pesticides.  I would worm my animals on a rotating schedule and stated on the side of the box that any animal treated with this pesticide is unfit for human consumption.  Logically, these animals cannot be utilized for food and shipping them out of the USA to slaughter is not only morally wrong but it is evil. 
    To add insult to injury another industry has popped top, "The Evil comes in like a flood," I get a letter in the mail about Premarin, a hormone that declares it will preempt uterine bleeding in women who have to take estrogen. This is another attempt to dupe the American public. It is modern day quackery.
      In the old days elixirs were peddled by a person that was called a snake oil salesman. He would go around the country and sell what were touted as,"wonder drugs" brewed with  ingredients such as Camphor, red pepper and Turpentine, animal fats and lots of mineral oils. 
     The peddlers boasted that these "wonder drugs" could do a myriad of things. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_oil.  
     Yet, I doubt a billion dollar industry which causes the destruction of over a million horses a year through the extraction of the hormone was born. http://dunsgathan.net/horses/pmu.htm
  How can we allow this? Why are we so stupid that we do not see these money mongers coming?  Our ancestors did.  They often ran the fake doctors, the elixir sales people out of town.  They would then set up shop on the edge of the city or town and market their poison to anyone who was foolish enough to come and buy. 

     Why do we not question as our ancestors did what we put in our mouths?  So called reputable companies are reputable because they are rich not because they earned a reputation by helping people. They have staying power because of their money.   Their money goes  to advertising which is intended to dupe the American consumer. Put on a white coat and make a commercial and Americans will buy anything. This highly lucrative quackery is nothing more than exchanging peoples' lives for profit.  

   We have a vulnerable generation because that has been saturated by media which does not distribute the truth. Yet, what can we do to stop this plague of lies? 
    We send our service people off to fight in foreign wars for the freedom of that foreign country and we consider ourselves righteous for it. However, should we not turn our attentions back to our own homeland? How much good can we do as a country , a united people, when we have been exploited and drained, rendering us weak.  How can we help anyone else when we cannot even help ourselves?         Upon closer examination we have more Americans out of work than ever before, there is a raging war against the destruction of the unborn and we are drugging ourselves into oblivion.  We are trusting the drug companies to be concerned with our health when in fact all they care about is their pocketbooks. Because money brings power and power brings money.   There is no knight in shining armour here, no heroes.  Super president is not going to make it right.  
     It is we the people that must decide what we want this country to look like for our own children. This is our honor and privilege brought to us through the sacrifices of those that have gone before us. 

American Quarter Horse Association

American Quarter Horse Association, a photo by MeltCupid on Flickr.

My youth

On the Road Again

Arizona

As each day turns into another, one loses a sense of time on the road.  Drive all day, only stopping for bathroom breaks and for snacks which get crunched and smashed by unloading and loading again and again before they are even eaten. Bags of peanuts, crackers, candy, coffee and bottles of water all spilling out of the vehicle each time the door opened.  Not to mention the dog in the picture decided that she did not want to stay in her seat next to me when a very loud semi truck passed.  She decided to climb the mountain of belongings to the back seat, making a home as far away from that sound as she could.  There was nothing I could do as I was sandwiched between 2 trucks traveling: hmm...about 80!I only hoped they would both see my little compact, not change lanes, and the dog did not become completely wild and cause me to lose control. A doggie seat belt  seems like a good idea however, in practice I could not train the animal to sit nicely buckled.   At the next rest stop I made a little place for her by repacking the trunk and filling her spot on the front seat.  We would stop each night at a Motel 6 as they always take animals with no extra charge.  The rooms are not usually beautiful but they are clean.      The place I took this picture was an unusual find.  A local hotel, not a chain which not only allowed our pets to stay, they also included a full service breakfast with our nights stay.  It was just beginning to get cold in Arizona as they had the pool closed and the morning air was nippy somewhere around 65 degrees.  The hotel had an inner court and around the corner from the ice machine were small gardens filled with flowering plants and bushes.  Statuary and roses followed a straight line near the edges of the sidewalk.   A peaceful native woman, made of desert materials, was pouring water from her vessel.  She was nestled amoungst a bevy of fresh bloomed flags and roses.  It was obvious that someone cared about this establishment.   They served us breakfast cereal and eggs cooked to our order, hot yet somewhat weak coffee, toast or bagels. Of course, the waffle machine was churning out waffles from the industrial user friendly machine, just like every other hotel we had  been in that boasted a congenital breakfast.  Fed and alert we loaded up and moved  onto New Mexico, The Land of Enchantment.   Each night the same ritual:  Unload my bicycle and put it in the room. All coolers needed to be brought in and parrot and cage set up, canary bird last, followed by the dogs.   Then my one soft trunk and moms various bags of make-up, snacks, road food, breakfast foods, lose clothing, bird food, dog food and boxes of whatever she had purchased at the local dollar store that we "Needed." Cars locked, conversations with neighboring travelers about where to eat dinner, how far we had come, where we had come from and where we were going to.  Then eating take out in the room and watching cable until we were relaxed enough to sleep on rock hard beds,  with scratchy wool blankets  decorated with cigarette burns.  Well, sort of sleep. I would not say it was really sleeping.  I suppose that is why each day started to blend into another, that each place began to look the same.  Miles and miles of malls and stores with the same names like Home Depot, Ross, Walmart, Sears and K-Mart.      On occasion there was a traffic accident which was  exciting but held us up, so we did not make our milage for the day.  Once in Texas we sat in traffic for over an hour, creeping up on a panel truck that had turned so sharply it rolled over in the freeway. No one was hurt, and the police and driver of the truck, who was waving his arms in the air and chain smoking ignored all of us baking in the heat,  as they turned the middle of the interstate into their own 3 ring circus.    Each night Motel 6 became our home  again and each day just after the sun had risen we loaded up  and off we went: fuel, coffee, road.  Around noon I would see my moms car start to weave a little and her speeds became erratic, 85, 70, 65 and so on.  That meant she was hungry. I would call and suggest a lunch stop.   By the time we made Mississippi I had enjoyed barbecue at "Jerry Mikeskas"https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jerry-Mikeskas-BBQ-Catering/28543540154 where we had personal service by Jerry himself, a dapper  bow tied gentleman who gave us delicious food, and assured me he did not kill all those animals on the walls.  I can always say I had real barbecue in Texas! Pretty cool I think.   After eating our way throughout the West and then the Southern United States our pocketbooks decided that the best financial advantage besides cold luncheon meat and bread was Dairy Queens nationwide $5.00 lunch. They were always clean, and the food was always hot and then of course my mothers favorite: ice cream for dessert. If mom was happy the rest of the day was bliss.        I am not a sweets person, I love Asian food.  Mostly Thai. The first time I had Thai food It was in "Thai Heaven." That was the name of the resturant and I was literally in Thai Heaven, # 9(for heat) Pud Thai, and Swimming Rama. That was the first time in my life I was tempted to lick my plate.  I became a fan of things called green curry paste and those little green things that resemble hot peppers that float around in the coconut milk. I make a complete Thai meal for my family that turns everyone's faces red yet they love it.           I knew when I left the West that would pretty much be the end of real Asian Cuisine. I was right. In Seattle there are many places to eat good Thai and  Chinese.   Here?  Nothing yet, maybe I saw a Chinese restaurant the other day way down on the outskirts, when I was searching for a particular store.  How disappointing is that?  I have imagined myself in Maine again where the word Asian was replaced with oriental and their ethnic culinary wonders were few and far between.   Just one more thing about food.  As it seems to be a main focus when one is traveling, not that a person does anything but sit most of the time, I have concluded it is all the action going on between the temples. Many of the seasoned travelers I have seen this trip, get out of their land yachts and walk at the rest stops.  We did most of our eating at rest stops and I will let rest stops be another subject as they are a subject. One hint: there are none in Louisiana. A couple welcome centers once in a while therefore, I recommend not drinking anything before or during traveling through Louisiana. Yet wait! Before we got to Louisiana we  traveled through Texas. It was in Texas that we encountered: Cowboys! When I say Cowboys, I do not mean Rodeo, bucking broncs and all of that.  I am referring to people that drive in a way that they do not care if they driving into hell and who they take with them.  The Cowboys do not observe speed limits, or any other traffic rule known in any nation.  The closest thing I can relate their driving to, I witnessed at the State Fair in the demolition derby.  Its just pedal to the metal and may God help anyone that gets in their way even passing on the right! Wow! .  These drivers persuaded me I wanted to live,  and question how it was they still did, and further, to examine any bad driving habit I may have and repent appropriately.