Many songbirds are arriving like little construction crews. They are loud and busy. They boost my work ethic. Up and at work by 5am. I wonder how long I can keep this streak going? I’m supposed to be doing vocals in the studio but it’s time to take care of my neglected homestead and my not-so-neglected horses. There is horse dentistry and spring vet check up visits scheduled. Everything is made harder by the fact that my well goes out a lot. Today it was because I fucked up and did not monitor a load of towels in the inferior samsung washer I should never have bought. The springs are really weak and the loads go off balance then restart over and over, draining the well. I have back up water for the animals but not the humans. Ugh. I have been waiting for well service for over three years. Sometimes it’s hard to stay positive.
That photo that is so unexpected but so "of course that's how it would be." -!!!-thank you! I love reading about your life home and elsewhere. I'm finding myself stuck on your question. I often feel purposeful and that makes me feel content, but not sure if it's the same as feeling useful. I'm going to ponder more. xk
Check out YouTube videos for fixing the Samsung washer. Ours did the same thing but we repaired it ourselves. Sections of garden hose and zip ties on the springs did the trick.
Neko, do you have a My Bird Buddy bird feeder? I got one last year (I wish I could share some pics here). It's a bird feeder with a high-def camera installed that's aimed right at the perch on the feeder. It is connected to an app that sends me photos and videos of all the birds in my yard having breakfast, lunch and dinner when I'm not there to see it. I love it so much (and the birds). It had been my goal to lure the neighborhood mourning doves to hang out at my place (their call is my favorite bird song ever) and it worked!! I have two mourning doves who now hang out all day, as well as cardinals, chickadees, wrens, goldfinches, and a massive blue jay I've taken to calling "Biggie" (I don't think I ever realized how mammoth they can get). Bird selfies are something I didn't know was missing from my life & now can't imagine it without them.
(Just thinking that when you're on the road, it's something that would send you bird postcards to enjoy when you couldn't be there to see it yourself. I promise I'm not, like, sponsored by them as a brand or anything. Though I might be open to that!)
Tough question Neko. Just try to help my clients, my wife and kids and pick up after myself. I cook for all and listen to the venting of the evening bats circling outside. Just got back from Melbourne and my mates funeral, he was so beloved by so many I felt quite challenged to have a good look at myself.
Norms a good horse as we say down here as a general compliment. I aspire to be more useful than I was yesterday.🙏
I make small, achievable moves to feel useful. Paying bills. Taking recycling or garden waste to their depots. Emptying or filling the dishwasher. Cooking a meal. Don’t need to leap tall buildings to feel like a hero.
You are very, very useful. ❤️ I understand what you mean about being hands-on, but you're useful to many around the world every day through your music, too. Music uplifts, music accompanies experiences, music heals... That is highly useful. ❤️
Useful... this one strikes a nerve for me. I used to be what I thought was useful, meaning I worked 80-hour weeks in a giant, man-eating corporation. When I became chronically ill, figuring out who I was and what I was good for became my angst-ridden, urgent purpose. All these years later, I still don't have that quite figured out, but I know it has to be about how i connect, not the things I do, that remind me there is a place for me in this world. It is in the interactions - with other people, other animals, other living things, and even the inanimate things - where I find evidence of my usefulness in the bigger scheme of things. And of course, sometimes those interactions involve doing someting, but not always. Sometimes just being presrnt for whatever happens is very useful. Then there are times when I just have to settle for being useful to myself, rather than beating the shit out of myself for not being more useful.
Interesting you bring up useful. I’m retired and this morning had to explain to my boyfriend (who is still working) that rearranging his cupboards is not a criticism, but something small that makes me feel useful. If I do just “me” things all day I feel slightly guilty. So I volunteer and try to help people out a little every day.
“I just want to be useful. That’s my core. That’s where my intent is in everything I do. I want SO badly to be useful, to be helpful, to be effective. It can be a black hole that’s hard to fill. It’s hard to know what effect we have sometimes, especially as individuals.”
neko just casually reading me to filth, on the humble subject of the literal meaning of life
Never thought about my life that way. About being useful. I like to keep busy and I like to get shit done like cleaning out draws that have stuff in them that will never get used. I also like to volunteer and give back to environmental causes. I try to spread the word about regenerative agriculture and how we can mitigate climate change and the crisis we’re experiencing. There is a great film called Common Ground. I highly recommend that everybody watch it. It’s very inspiring. And we all need to get the word out because this is a viable solution. And have a wonderful day.
I have traveled for my work for the past 27 years. I just arrived in Missoula for a week with my team. I spent most of yesterday in the kitchen, making cookies and preparing a big roasted chicken dinner for my family, well the two who are still home– my husband and our middle daughter. I’ve worked through feelings of shame and guilt for leaving as often as I do, which is much less than previously. Setting the kitchen to right and leaving the fridge full of groceries and things they like to eat, Moving all of my shoes away from the front door and the back door and getting my laundry out of the way all serves to make me feel like it’s OK to leave. I’m a different animal when I return however. It works best if I can walk in the door on my own sort the mail, kick off my shoes at the door and sprinkle my belongings back through the house. Have they unloaded the dishwasher since I left? A 50-50 chance. Did anyone water the plants that I just put in the gardens? Are the chickens running through the neighborhood unattended? We have an oldish gelding too. He lives about 15 minutes away, and so there’s the business of checking on him and, probably, schlepping a ton of poop out of his pen. Is any of the serving others or am I just self soothing? I don’t know. But this is how it works for me.
That photo that is so unexpected but so "of course that's how it would be." -!!!-thank you! I love reading about your life home and elsewhere. I'm finding myself stuck on your question. I often feel purposeful and that makes me feel content, but not sure if it's the same as feeling useful. I'm going to ponder more. xk
Check out YouTube videos for fixing the Samsung washer. Ours did the same thing but we repaired it ourselves. Sections of garden hose and zip ties on the springs did the trick.
Wanna get burgers in Fairlee Wednesday? That is my only plan for the next week
Neko, do you have a My Bird Buddy bird feeder? I got one last year (I wish I could share some pics here). It's a bird feeder with a high-def camera installed that's aimed right at the perch on the feeder. It is connected to an app that sends me photos and videos of all the birds in my yard having breakfast, lunch and dinner when I'm not there to see it. I love it so much (and the birds). It had been my goal to lure the neighborhood mourning doves to hang out at my place (their call is my favorite bird song ever) and it worked!! I have two mourning doves who now hang out all day, as well as cardinals, chickadees, wrens, goldfinches, and a massive blue jay I've taken to calling "Biggie" (I don't think I ever realized how mammoth they can get). Bird selfies are something I didn't know was missing from my life & now can't imagine it without them.
(Just thinking that when you're on the road, it's something that would send you bird postcards to enjoy when you couldn't be there to see it yourself. I promise I'm not, like, sponsored by them as a brand or anything. Though I might be open to that!)
Tough question Neko. Just try to help my clients, my wife and kids and pick up after myself. I cook for all and listen to the venting of the evening bats circling outside. Just got back from Melbourne and my mates funeral, he was so beloved by so many I felt quite challenged to have a good look at myself.
Norms a good horse as we say down here as a general compliment. I aspire to be more useful than I was yesterday.🙏
I make small, achievable moves to feel useful. Paying bills. Taking recycling or garden waste to their depots. Emptying or filling the dishwasher. Cooking a meal. Don’t need to leap tall buildings to feel like a hero.
You are very, very useful. ❤️ I understand what you mean about being hands-on, but you're useful to many around the world every day through your music, too. Music uplifts, music accompanies experiences, music heals... That is highly useful. ❤️
Useful... this one strikes a nerve for me. I used to be what I thought was useful, meaning I worked 80-hour weeks in a giant, man-eating corporation. When I became chronically ill, figuring out who I was and what I was good for became my angst-ridden, urgent purpose. All these years later, I still don't have that quite figured out, but I know it has to be about how i connect, not the things I do, that remind me there is a place for me in this world. It is in the interactions - with other people, other animals, other living things, and even the inanimate things - where I find evidence of my usefulness in the bigger scheme of things. And of course, sometimes those interactions involve doing someting, but not always. Sometimes just being presrnt for whatever happens is very useful. Then there are times when I just have to settle for being useful to myself, rather than beating the shit out of myself for not being more useful.
“My veterinarian uses DeWalt” is the last thing I would think I would ever hear!
Interesting you bring up useful. I’m retired and this morning had to explain to my boyfriend (who is still working) that rearranging his cupboards is not a criticism, but something small that makes me feel useful. If I do just “me” things all day I feel slightly guilty. So I volunteer and try to help people out a little every day.
“I just want to be useful. That’s my core. That’s where my intent is in everything I do. I want SO badly to be useful, to be helpful, to be effective. It can be a black hole that’s hard to fill. It’s hard to know what effect we have sometimes, especially as individuals.”
neko just casually reading me to filth, on the humble subject of the literal meaning of life
Never thought about my life that way. About being useful. I like to keep busy and I like to get shit done like cleaning out draws that have stuff in them that will never get used. I also like to volunteer and give back to environmental causes. I try to spread the word about regenerative agriculture and how we can mitigate climate change and the crisis we’re experiencing. There is a great film called Common Ground. I highly recommend that everybody watch it. It’s very inspiring. And we all need to get the word out because this is a viable solution. And have a wonderful day.
i know why you find it difficult to stop working. My daughter is Paid to sing Opera
She had jacked my Yamaha acoustic guitar and was playing it almost right away like Hendrix or *Cotten and singing Nirvana.
Guitar teacher at school discovered Helen was fluent in Reading music as well as English and Spanish.
She practically ripped off the flannel shirt ANd Nirvana shirt I had Given skinny Daughter and dragged her to Band Teacher and said
HERE: You need a tuba and a sousaphone player and this Helen kid is trying to Embody Grunge in a Serious kinda way. Also she is Good on Piano.
Against my wishes I got a Drum Major/a jazz band upright bass player/a multi horn player ad infinitum.
This was all in spite of me being born into a fantastic world of Poverty and Love. I wish everyone had that for sure. Keeps me honest if nothing else.
I miss My garage Band kid and yet I know she was merely on her way to being the amazing Coloratura that she is at 25.
She Can’t hardly slow her roll because she is a Healer.
She told me that when she was little. (wow)
I hope anyone who might slog through this silly long 🎵 Note is Laughing.
I have traveled for my work for the past 27 years. I just arrived in Missoula for a week with my team. I spent most of yesterday in the kitchen, making cookies and preparing a big roasted chicken dinner for my family, well the two who are still home– my husband and our middle daughter. I’ve worked through feelings of shame and guilt for leaving as often as I do, which is much less than previously. Setting the kitchen to right and leaving the fridge full of groceries and things they like to eat, Moving all of my shoes away from the front door and the back door and getting my laundry out of the way all serves to make me feel like it’s OK to leave. I’m a different animal when I return however. It works best if I can walk in the door on my own sort the mail, kick off my shoes at the door and sprinkle my belongings back through the house. Have they unloaded the dishwasher since I left? A 50-50 chance. Did anyone water the plants that I just put in the gardens? Are the chickens running through the neighborhood unattended? We have an oldish gelding too. He lives about 15 minutes away, and so there’s the business of checking on him and, probably, schlepping a ton of poop out of his pen. Is any of the serving others or am I just self soothing? I don’t know. But this is how it works for me.
Doug!!!!!
Does your equine dentist/vet travel ?