Challenging Times…
Just when I think I have a toe hold on sanity in this week’s crazy world here in Arizona, I get a call that we’re running out of gas in California. No, I don’t mean gas for your car, I mean Propane Gas to heat the house and guess what? It’s freaking cold in California this week.
I had called the gas company a week ago and just assumed they’d be out by now to fill the tank. It’s Friday and hubby is panicking, and I am in Arizona, so I get on the phone. I start making calls. Finally, about quarter to closing time the gas truck arrives and yay, I don’t have to worry about how hubby is chillin’ with the puppy dog wrapped up in his arms back in California while I’m basking in 65° weather in Arizona
Didn’t have such worries in our old house, I had a real fireplace. I didn’t worry if the power went out and the well pump didn’t work, we had a pool so there was always water for the humans, the animals, and those proverbial “johns”. Heat no worries, light a fire.
Different time, different place, different worries. Got a solar generator to manage well power at our new place but hadn’t even thought about no heat, didn’t freeze last year. Now there is beautiful snow on the mountains all around and frost on the ground in the valley. We can’t have real fireplaces in CA anymore, just gas ones so… no gas, no fire. Good news is there is a full tank of propane now and heat worries off the table.
Deep breath, relax… wrong! Driving home from Tandy Leather my car overheat warning light comes on, then my car starts beeping at me. Good grief, I’m doing 65 mph down the 101, heading home, there’s no place I want to pull over. “Just get me to Cave Creek Road,” I pray silently. Got off the freeway and stuck in a left turn lane at a super busy intersection. “What else, I’m muttering. My last experience with an overheating car was about 40 years ago.
Thank God, Glenda was with me. I pull into a gas station, she popped the hood, and I could smell the old familiar hot radiator stink, but I didn’t see any radiator. She knew where the reserve tank was so while I filled the gas tank, we waited for the car to cool down. Glenda went inside and bought a gallon of 50/50 antifreeze mix. I am so grateful for her knowledge. Outside of hooking up a trickle charger to the battery, I haven’t messed around under the hood of a car in twenty years. Cooled down, filled up, we made it home safely and tomorrow I will get it to a garage.
What would we do without phones and states apart? Not going there… 😀
It sure brings to mind the lifestyles of the older and infamous, of our parents and their parents and their parents. Miles between homesteads, states, even countries between families. I can only imagine being in that world and “running out of gas (wood) or overheating (horse drops dead)”.
What I “see” from back then, is friends depending on friends, couples leaning on and supporting each other, families taking care of family, and communities coming together in fellowship and crisis, be it circling the wagons or building a shelter together to welcome someone home.
Times they say, we’re simpler then. Were they? Times were easier then, ya think?
My take on all this and that, then and now, time… different hard times still they were hard, different problems but they had their problems, just different spaces and places in those different times.
What I would like to believe now…is that people have the unending capacity to resolve issues, to care for one another if they choose to, and to come together in community when times are tough, and when they are led too. More importantly, I believe we have the capacity to come together for good; for support, for encouragement and not just in emergencies, but any time, all the time, every time we feel the urge or see a need.
That is my vision for my children’s children and their children and their children. To care, to come together, to be kind human beings, and even when some are hanging on to their sanity by their toes, they will know there will be another someone there to catch them if they fall.
Instead of fear, my children’s children and their children will live with the faith and knowing that people care and share and are there for one another as they will be for those in their communities and their world.
In grace and ease, I pray so it be.
May this weekend find you joyously involved in your pursuit of happiness and encouraging everyone around you to find theirs. Check your gauges.
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“Get my Free Gift Living An Intentional Life”
Vicki Dobbs is a bold and adventurous warrior walking a path of heart to manifest spirituality in everyday lives. She opens existential gateways for individuals to face their challenges and embrace these tests as the great teachers that they are.
Her goal is to see everyone walk in beauty and balance every day of their lives empowered by the voice of their own authentic truth.
Through Wisdom Evolution and Sacred Wisdom Workshops, Vicki creates opportunities for others to make deep personal changes through experiential classes, ceremony, sacred art and story. She endeavors to inspire others to create their lives intentionally. Vicki is an Inspirator of everyday awareness, an Instigator of spontaneous stories and a Connoisseur of Creativity. Gratitude and grace sprinkled with humility and humor are the medicine she brings to the world.
As an Elder, Teacher and Entrepreneur, Spiritual Coach, Ordained Minister and Crafter of Sacred Art and Tools, Vicki perceives life’s journey as an ever-upward spiraling ascension of the human spirit leading her to wisdom, wholeness and authenticity.
Her experience includes being trained in the Harner Method of Shamanic Counseling and the Pachakuti Mesa Tradition of Cross Cultural Shamanism. She is a Graduate Teacher and Mentor with the Lynn Andrews Center For Sacred Arts and Training and has been the Administrator and Writers Guide for Writing Spirit, the School.
Vicki is also an Artist of the Spirit Certified Spiritual and Energetic Life Coach, a Graduate Mentor in the AoS program and a founding member of HeatherAsh Amara’s Warrior Goddess Leadership Team and Facilitator of the Warrior Heart Practice.
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