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Philosophically on Nature and Life

An ongoing series of Informational and Pondering entries

What Can We Learn from Lava?

December 11, 2020

htMany are saying these are the worst times. They, the economy, normal life will never recover. Look at these pictures of lava flows. Plants have begun to spring up new life after a 2000 degree Farenheit burning! A depressed and suicidal lady in Puerto Rico said she had given up after the hurricane and the devastating effect of looking at completely denuded trees. The island was ugly now, like her life. However, in a couple of weeks, see saw a sprig of green, then more. She decided if nature can make a comeback so can she, a wonderful insight and now a survivor.

The second picture looks like a sad face. It was created by lava wrapping around a tree trunk. Maybe it immortalized a tree's sadness, yet created a haunting beauty. Expand your mind, eyes, perceptions to create new realities, new possibilities for a healthier life. You can choose to leave a legacy of positive or negative; it is your choice.

The third photo is from a lava tunnel. Molten rock can create charred, rough surfaces or as seen in this photo, a beautiful shiny silver rock face. With trauma there is a time to grieve what that experience has taken from you in your youth, leaving behind the sharp, rough rock(anger, shame, untrusting, bitterness). Working to completion in Trauma therapy is getting to where you see the silver coating at the end of the dark tunnel. Moving from the shame and victim perception to one of survivor and putting the shame and blame on the perpetrator.

Need help, you simply have to ask.


                                                              Where is your focus?

December 15, 2020

So often we focus on what we can't do; with this isolation I can't go to some of my favorite restaurants, theatre, or gym. I wonder what it would be like if more of us focused on what we can do, and how that might affect our environment and attitude? 





Here is one idea of something that you can do. Have you taken the time lately to absorb a beautiful sunset, really absorb it. Do it tonight. Sometimes we simply need to look out our window to see beauty that can inspire.













Watching a sunset with a loved one can even make it sweeter.

Ants at work in their Society

Can you see the little ants in this video? Each is carrying a chunk of leaf the ant cut out of a bigger leaf. They cut and then haul a chunk bigger than they are to the nest. No complaints about serving the greater whole nor about the extreme terrain they must traverse. They just do. So how many of you are carrying your weight in society. We have gotten so Politically Correct that we have forgotten how even the most minute job can benefit society as a whole. It also benefits us directly. Mentally, depending on the system to feed you, creates opportunities for depression and anxiety. One criterion for Suicidal Thoughts is lack of Purpose.

Ants at work in their Society

 A job, providing for self and others, gives a person a sense of purpose/meaning. If retired, think about volunteering. I have personally seen the great benefit of retirees serving with the Red Cross. Here is an idea! Complain less and become part of the solution! Don't like what some call Systemic Racism, then volunteer to read books at a school or library or assist in Math in the impoverished areas, help repair, build homes in these areas. In other words, just do, and talk/complain less. Be an ant and carry your load?! Novel ideal!

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