PRISMS AND POLKA DOTS

Ahhhhh, how can I thank my Tao devotional for helping me understand one of the most recent life bewilderments......the business of the younger generations not wanting our stuff.

Yup, the words I needed to feed my brain were these:

The panorama of the objective world (that which is not influenced by personal opinion) is meaningless until we interact with it.  For example, if there is a rock that we pass day after day but we do not notice, then that rock has no significance for us.  If we decide to make that rock a votive object and pray to it for decades, then that rock becomes quite important.  To an outsider who does not subscribe to the rock's assigned meaning, it will continue to be just a rock.  In all cases, the rock was just a rock.  It was only human interaction that created its meaning.  It is a mistake to assume that the meaning we give to something is as concrete and tangible as the object itself.  We should not confuse the two.  For example, our house may be precious to us, but our sense of preciousness has nothing to do with the building--it comes from the values and memories we associate with it.  If we lose our house, we must remember that it is the feeling we have for it, not just the building itself, that determines our loss. 

WOW, those words helped me understand my Christmas Santa collection.  I've placed such memories on them, that I think everyone else should do the same.  Well, how silly of me.  That's not how life works.  We make life real by the thoughts we project.

 Not a day goes by that a lesson isn't learned, or some teensy bit of understanding comes to me.  It's gotta be the stage of life, kinda like connecting the dots and all of a sudden we see what the big picture is supposed to look like.  After reading that one paragraph, my perspective has changed.  I no longer expect anyone else to love each one of my Santas.  No one besides me knows where I bought 'em, what I paid for 'em, how I felt when I found 'em, the whole bit.  I think all of us project our own personal feelings on others, and that's where a lot of the drama starts.  

I'm still unsure what to do with my tote filled with jolly old guys.  Maybe I'll just keep em for myself, give them shelter and love, and when I kick the bucket, well, then let someone else heartlessly destroy them.  That way I don't have to feel bad about parting with them.  All 100+ of them are stored in one tote.  Think I just made up my mind.  There ain't no one gonna get my collection while I'm still blinking.  A good decision made, and one less thing for me to swirl around inside my tired brain.  It took me a few weeks to figure it out, but it was my Tao devotional that led me to my best decision.  

We were thinking of going to a furniture store out of town today, but are unsure whether we'll go or stay home and piddle with stuff here.  We both slept in, now that we aren't yanked out of bed by the fuzzy one.  Our Mr. Coffee passed away, and we're using up boxes of Folger's coffee bags that I bought during the slice of time when I thought the world was about to end.  Expiration dates are accurate, cuz the coffee from these bags just doesn't have the punch anymore.  It's like drinking fairy pee, even with two bags in the cup.  Oh, well, we shall use them up and then bring out our new Mr. Coffee.  We're even purging our food that's in the cupboards and pantry.  

Tis a sunny day.  It would be an ideal day to go for a trolley.  Will see how we decide to spend the day.