I am not really one for talking seriously about the “End of Times” but when yesterday a bunch of scientists declared we are 30 seconds closer…it made me…yes… Hummm…
Calendar on my desk with one of my favorite castles. Bamburgh is the setting for Bernard Cornwell books The Last Kingdom, I am sure the Saxons thought it was Doomsday when the Vikings came… Hummm… I have both DNA in my bloodline…
I laughed and made jokes and went about my day. I have heard it all before that we are close but this time, it could be actually true. Hummm… if you knew it was what would you do?
There must be people really thinking it could actually happen this time. As I was approached, not once but twice in this month by people who knock on my door and want to spread the “word”. Good for them, but I would rather do something creative with my time.
The “End Time” hand spun collection!Some of the collection has become a pair of socks… Hummm… the Doomsday sock collection.
The situation is concerning in both Ukraine and Afghanistan. War or the aftermath of war is never easy or fun. Hummm… at least it now seems my former employer is doing something to help!
More relief effort items sitting next to my door. Not waiting for doomsday!
I know that democracy must win! We can’t wait for others to do the hard work. If doomsday is closer we each should hope we did enough to stop or at least slow it down.
Sometimes it is just hard to choose the right path to take, even if it might end up at the same end point.
Hummm…
So, do I need Divine intervention?
I think if there is a possibility of a Divine then I think maybe it could give a push to fix some of these issues we are facing, or maybe push some people to do the “right thing” to help.
As far as my plan, I will laugh at the doomsday clock, continue to close the door at people who try to “push” their religious belief on me, help those I can and dance like baby groot from the Guardians of the Galaxy 2 movie intro.
For all you who don’t believe in democracy and want to stop those of us who do… Hummm… I will never surrender!
Well, well, well…this month is already shaping up to be an unusual month.
I opened my email this morning and scrolled through before my first cup of coffee I stopped…”hummm…what? No! Really?…ok, I have to open it!”
The White House
Response to your message
Now, I filled my cup of coffee, and had a seat. Maybe this was an actual response to my online comments to the White House about the situation in Ukraine or I had just been punked by one of my kids or friends? Either way I needed coffee before I could read it!
I have been still knee deep in seeking out bargains on wool clothing at the local thrift stores (BTW…if you are looking in the South Amsterdam area for wool clothing…hummmm… maybe you should find another location….), washing, drying, and then packing those items into boxes for the Ukraine. I have drained my savings this month for this effort! That is why I sent an email (really an online comment) to The White House.
I just keep collecting and keep boxing and keep thinking that my small effort will help, at least one person somewhere in the Ukraine!
The news boxes waiting to go to the drop off point. This morning.
I passed the boxes the waiting boxes, went into the living room and sat down for my morning coffee. I slowly opened this email coming from The White House…
hummm…
it didn’t explode…
all my other emails are still there… here is what it said.
Hummm…Mr President…nice, but what does this really tell me? NOTHING!!!!
Yup, I know he was busy trying to gain the release of a high profile WNBA star. But, this didn’t seem personal or even an answer to anything I asked about the humanitarian effort or support for the Ukraine!
That is ok, I understand totally that I would not get a real response. It hasn’t deterred my resolution to “get my hands dirty”, write more emails to people who might actually solve some of these issues by “getting their hands dirty and doing all they can for people who are facing horrible conditions at the hands of the Russian leadership.
No worries Mr President, I am in the trenches doing the work.
This morning (7 November 2022) at a drop off point in The Netherlands for Ukraine relief effort. 💛💙
As Americans we all know that the third Thursday of November is reserved for this holiday of eating turkey, pumpkin pie, and cranberry sauce. Many families will gather from across the country while others will celebrate it abroad, like myself.
I have spent many holiday seasons abroad. Explaining this holiday to people not familiar with this American custom can get some strange looks and weird questions. But, when it comes to the true meaning of this day it isn’t about the food and American football (I need to specifically mention that this year, as the rest of the World is watching the “other football”…soccer), the holiday is about being thankful for what we have and what others provide for us to maintain our lives. A moment each year to reflect we are NOT alone on this planet.
In 2003, I spent my Thanksgiving at the Salvation Army in Shawnee, Oklahoma. I was alone, I had lost my children to my ex-husband in a bitter custody battle. By Thanksgiving, I had already experienced homelessness, was jailed for several months, and really didn’t know that if my life would ever be normal again.
On that Thanksgiving day, I forced myself out of the small apartment I had just scraped together enough money to rent and headed to the free dinner at the Salvation Army. I needed to feel connected to other humans who also felt all alone on this holiday, I needed to feel “thankful”.
I am still grateful for those few moments years ago when I sat and ate with fellow Americans in a much to cool room to have a hot meal.
I felt hopeful at that moment and thankful that someone had prepared a thanksgiving meal, provided to so many who had mostly nothing on this day.
I was thankful for the volunteers who worked to prepare the meal, to those who “served” the meals to those of us who filtered in to a crowed rooms, some in rags, many of us looking like hope was totally lost. We each received a smile,a kind word from those volunteers. I am sure most of those in attendance had not received such kindness from anyone outside those walls in months. I know for the several months of that year I was one of those “forgotten” “unseen” people.
Yet, we all sat an ate a thankful meal together. We shared stories, we laughed, some even cried from the kindness of that Salvation Army community.
Kindness and being grateful for what we have at this very moment is what Thanksgiving is about.
It is obvious to my blog followers and my friends who helped me through that struggle in 2003, I have come a long way since that Thanksgiving Day. I have never forgotten that kindness given to me as I struggled to recover from such devastating events.
On this Thanksgiving please remember all those who will not be with family gathering around a table of abundant food. Show some kindness to those in your community who are homeless, or alone on this holiday, who knows, your one simple act could help a person who needs hope, who might one day become a American canoe blogger living overseas.
Thank you my fellow bloggers for your continued support, followers for reading, Hubby for proof reading and being my life partner and Captain of our canoe trips. I am grateful to all who are military serving away from home this holiday. I am so thankful for the two sons I have who have grown into fine young men who sacrificed so many holidays without a family holiday due to my military service and my unfortunate situation in 2003.
A box this morning sat next to the front door. One of many that have litter our house entryway in the past two weeks. This solitary reminder that it needs to get to where it will do some good instead of collecting dust within our walls.
Waiting…to leave
The situation of facing a cold winter is nothing new to me. Die hard Minnesotan farm kids learn early to dress for frigid temperatures. As a cross country and down hill skier, I learned to layer warm base clothing with jackets that break the wind. These simple acts of preparation can be the difference between having fun in the cold or lead to dangerous frostbite situations if improperly prepared. Part of my left ear is evidence and a constant reminder of what cold temperatures can do even if you have all the proper gear.
This winter we are all trying to conserve energy here in The Netherlands as the prices of fuel have sky rocketed.
Knowing what we could be facing I have been checking regularly in our local thrift stores and on our online second hand sites for real wool clothing. Nothing, insulates or keeps a body core temperature regulated like 100% wool. I have been lucky and found items that would be handy to have if our power was to go out.
That rarely happens here in The Netherlands, where almost the entire power grid runs underground. But, even though rare in occasion, it has happened briefly in the many years I have lived here. It helps to be prepared.
But, as bombs have fallen into the Ukraine and knocked out their power grid in the last three weeks my anger towards that situation increased, my empathy for those citizens and what they have faced at the hands of Russian government has me on edge.
“What can I do?”
As a retired combat zone veteran, I know the true situation of what it feels like to live in that sort of situation. Not knowing what the next minute will bring. Feeling overwhelmed by the destruction that is caused by such violent acts! Living in building that have “nice windows for air circulation” (meaning artillery shell holes) that do not offer proper protection from the cold brutal winter elements. Buildings with no heat or running water during the winter months lead to dangerous deadly suffering.
That suffering is cruel!
Hats of hope.
I turned my anger into useful positive energy. All those wool clothes, all my handspun wool yarn, all those wool hats I had knitted durning COVID just to pass the time, all of them boxed with care, labeled, sat next to the door. Each one with a prayer of protection to those who may be the final person who receives the item, a prayer of happiness for the woman who may have lost everything to receive a box, open it and find knitting needles and 100% Merino yarn handspun by some stranger she will never meet, my story she will never know.
Yarn of life.
This small drop of kindness in the sea of potential misery. A box filled with items carefully selected seems like it will hardly help, but I know better than most people, it can be a lifesaver of hope and that is all I would ask for if I was cold.
A box of warmth and love.Truckloads of compassion and supplies from our local community straight to Ukraine.
The poppy flower is the symbol of those military who have fallen in war.
Each year, weeks before Veterans Day, my email box is bombarded with emails. Cool, I have friends that want to reach out. If that was only true, but sadly that is not the reason why my email box is full. The continuous influx of email, some days as many as twenty, is to tell me all about the “free” deals I can get as a veteran on this most hallowed of days. They (these national and international companies) all want to “Thank me” for my service to my country.
2004 On the roof of Al Faw Palace in Baghdad, Iraq. This was the last of my three total combat zones.
I also get other veteran related emails, the impersonal ones from the Veterans Administration (VA) telling me also of all the “freebees” I can get from all those national/international companies and where to reach out if I am needing help “…in what can be a difficult time for some veteran’s”. Mixed in, are those emails from other veteran organisations I have been associated, providing with the same information only their emails state “we are here for you” on Veterans Day. What does that mean? Would a live person answer the phone and just talk? Would they just listen to why this day should be honored and not just another commercial advertisement for some national/international company suggesting that they “support the veteran”. The “Thank you for your service” seems shallow, empty, isolating. It also seems to me like they are all trying very hard to “buy my vote”, change my views with all the free stuff, and don’t even get me started on the environmental toll of all this stuff that is given to use for “free”.
I have some issues with these shallow impersonal emails.
First, when did my service to my country, warrant “free” commercial favors? I volunteered to enter the military. In 1988 when I received my commission as a second lieutenant, it wasn’t even a thought to ask “what sort of free stuff will I get?”. I did get military gear issued to me “for free”, most of it I had to return to the military at some point. As a young commissioned officer (mind you with no money in my pocket), I was just happy as a clam to have a pay check, be able to pay my bills, and of course see the country. I never would have even guessed that the military would provide a “free” ride to locations all over the world. Some of them the most dangerous on the planet at any given time.
Cool, a “free” trip to a war zone, who wouldn’t want that?
I don’t ever recall any of my military buddies ever saying seriously that they joined the military to get “free” stuff. I do remember as I was helping put up tents in a blowing sand storm, joking around to keep our moral up, “Isn’t this cool? The military is giving us a wonderful vacation in a sandy beach like environment with free camping gear, who would have ever guessed that when we sign our names to that paper!” (laughing by everyone).
A single rose is a symbol of the love. Be that love of country, love of self, love for another individual. Love a veteran today is a great way to honor them.
Second issue I have with all these emails from the veteran groups, is they all say “we are here to help you on now(Veterans Day)”. If they need to tell us all that for weeks ahead of the special day, are they really doing all they can in their jobs of providing support to each and every single one of us? A few years ago I received a phone call on my birthday from one of these groups and I almost lost it emotionally when they told me they were just checking in on me to see how I was doing. How nice, how personal, but I never received another phone call from that organisation ever again! Maybe a once and done, check the block was all that they needed, but I would love to hear a voice on the other end of the phone call today asking me about my day. Wouldn’t that be nice? Instead of every veteran getting “free stuff”, that today each one of us reaches out to someone who is serving our country or someone who has served our country and just asked how their day was going? Asked it like they really cared?
Free stuff will never bring back the people who have served our country and paid the price with their lives. It will never reduce the pain for those that remain to pick up the pieces and it really doesn’t honor any of us!
What I would like to see, as a veteran of three combat zones, is the end to this senseless cycle of war! I would love to see on this day a return to honoring the veterans who have served, not with free stuff, but with celebrating the day as it was intended with kindness and genuine gratitude for helping to keep a democracy free for all to enjoy.
For my friends who have all ready reached out today, I thank you all for remembering me. For those of you who want to really honour a veteran on this day and don’t know how to reach out personally I have listed below several ways you can that would be honorable to any veteran and the best way to say “Thanks for your service”.
This summer wearing a 100% wool sweater my mother made for me to honor my service while serving in my first combat zone in 1991 Desert Storm. The motifs and sweater design was my mother’s original pattern. They depict the dead broken phones I was constantly dealing with while deployed and a camel representing the location (Middle East) and on the sleeves are my branch in the Army, Signal Corps Flags. The sweater is now part of the permanent collection at the Minnesota Historical Society. A way to honor all veteran’s is to donate to preserve the history of our individual stories.
Please…don’t thank me…I volunteered. I am proud to say I am a woman, a mother of two military sons, an Army veteran, a disabled veteran who volunteered to help maintain our freedoms granted to us in our Constitution!
Ways to honor a veteran on Veteran’s Day
Donate to a local veteran’s organisation in a veteran’s name. Let them know you care and that you think their service was important.
Ask a veteran to your family dinner. Get to know their story. What they did in the military and what they accomplished after they completed their military service. Their stories are as unique, individual, and as diverse as the country in which we serve.
Ask a local food shelf if they have veteran or veterans in need. On this day make sure you reach out to those who are suffering from hunger and homelessness.
Reach out to your political leaders and make sure they support the actions in legislation that support (REALLY support!) veterans personally and don’t just fund more research.
Volunteer at your local Veterans Hospital/clinic or other veteran organisation in your communities that support those who serve.
On this day, please remember others in the world who are fighting and making sacrifices for continued freedom inside the Ukraine.
The Cedar Journal 