O - Only

When I wrote my N post, I was overwhelmed. Overwhelmed with thoughts, feelings, panic, fear, anxiety, you name it. Sometimes life is just hard; I don’t want to get out of bed. Life can overwhelm. Plain and simple.

Only love today. That’s the mantra of one of my favorite blogs. Sometimes you just have to stop and go to Nothing. Just sit. Be still. Be content with well, nothing. You have to deconstruct and start with something simple. Like Only Love Today. Or I would say, Only God. He’s the source of love, so without Him there is no love.

It’s too easy to respond to the overwhelm and the difficulties of life with bitterness, harshness, anger, hatred and all the rest. I read a quote yesterday from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: “Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” It’s kind of another take on “Overcome evil with good.”

That’s why I love the simplicity of the “only love today” quote. Remember to love ourselves, our kids, our spouses, those all around us. Only love. Only kindness. Only grace. Only good. When someone’s unkind or thoughtless toward us, choose love. It’s the harder choice sometimes, oftentimes. But it’s what we all need. When I’m hurting the most, that’s when I’m at my angriest, my meanest, my nastiest. That's when I most need someone to just be kind to me. 

Only love today.

N is for.....

Nothing....Just....Nothing.

M - Mock

Apparently there’s a new thing where parents post pictures of their toddlers crying or having tantrums and basically laugh at them. Now I have to say, I have a toddler and I get that parents need to vent. I get it big time. I will say that mine had a tantrum a couple of weeks ago because I took the string off the banana I had peeled for him. And he wanted it. What the heck? So, I get it. I do. We are frustrated beyond belief. But I don’t like the mocking thing. Who wants to be laughed at? Whether you are 2 or 92, no one likes that. I realize these kids may not realize they are being laughed at in many cases. But I have to say that kids, big and small, pick up on a lot more things than I think we realize. In any event, finding pleasure in someone else’s pain is a little on the disturbing side to me. I know that what they are upset about is, in our estimation, ridiculous. Even stupid. But it’s important to them. And they are important to us. So we should take them seriously. I think a better way to look at it is that they are frustrated when they can’t have something or do something that they want to. And I think they inherently know they don’t have a lot of control in their world. So they get frustrated, angry and upset quite easily. I don’t think it even matters what the actual issue is. They just have a tough time because of where they are developmentally. That helps me anyway to have a little more patience and not lose it completely sometimes. Especially after 4 or 5 meltdowns in one day.

Ok. Gotta say, I am hating this post. I threw it together and I don’t like my writing lately. But I’m determined to do an M post, so there you go….

L - Listen

Janice angrily jerked the shirt off the wet floor.

 “BRIAN!” she yelled.

“Yeah?!” he yelled back.

“Why don’t you listen to me? I’ve told you at least 25 times to not leave your clothes on the floor when you shower! I am so tired of picking up your messes!” she slammed the shirt into the hamper.
”And why don’t you ever listen to me?” eleven-year-old Brian shouted back defiantly.

Janice raised her arm to pop him for speaking to her in such a rude tone. But then she stopped herself. She just stopped. Taking a deep breath, she thought about what he had just said. She exhaled and clenched her fists.

Mustering up the best tone she could, she calmly answered back. “What do you mean? When do I not listen to you?”

He glared at her, then looked down. “You just never listen!” he said and stomped down the hall.

“Wait a minute. The wet floor and messy clothes can wait ….Is something wrong, Brian?” she felt a little less angry now. She walked over and put her hand on his shoulder.
”NO!….Well, maybe,” he looked like he wanted to tell her something.

“It’s okay….Whatever you did, I promise not to get mad. Just tell me,” Janice softened her tone.

Brian raised his eyebrows. “No. It’s not that.” He looked down again.

“Ok…well…. I’m listening now,” she tried again.

“You know Susan at school? Well, she’s got a new best friend named Rhonda and now she hardly talks to me anymore. I’m so mad at Rhonda! I wish she’d just move away or something!”

Ohhh….”Susan? The girl you sort of have a crush on?” Janice remembered now.
Brian nodded shyly. “Yeah. And we used to talk all the time. And now that Rhonda’s always around, she barely speaks to me! It’s like I’m invisible or something. She acts different when Rhonda’s around. I don’t know what to do! What if she doesn’t like me anymore?” he was close to tears.

Janice put her arm around him. “That stinks. I’m sorry.”

“I’m just so mad at Rhonda. And Susan too! Why does she act like that?!”

“Well, honestly I don’t know. Sometimes girls want to have other girl friends. Or maybe she doesn’t realize she’s hurting your feelings. She may not even know you like her. I bet she’s not doing it on purpose,” Janice said.

“Well, I think she is! What am I supposed to do?”

“Well, I think the best thing you can do is just to still be her friend but maybe step back and give her some space. Let her have some time with her other friend.”

“Hm….You mean like not talk to her as much? Yeah, that might work. Maybe she might miss me and come talk to me.”

“Maybe.”
”Mom, girls are just weird sometimes,” Brian said.
Janice laughed and tousled his hair. “Yeah, well boys are too.”

“Do I still have to clean my clothes off the floor?”
”Nice try. Yeah. You do. But I’m sorry for yelling at you. I shouldn’t have screamed like that.”

“Mom, I’m glad you listened,” Brian threw back as he ran to the hamper with his clothes.

“Me too,” Janice said to the wall.

J & K - Just Kidding

I said I was going to write an alternate ending for one of my earlier posts. Just kidding. Psyche! Actually I did have a J post. In my head. But I didn’t get it written down and fleshed out. And I know me. If I don’t just move on, I’ll get stuck and overwhelmed and flail the rest of the month. Maybe I’ll try to get it in under another letter in the A to Z challenge. But for now, I have to Just Keep plodding on. Moving on to L……

I - Iron Golem

Taking a break from my regular writing again and introducing another creature in Minecraft for my son...

The Iron Golem is a utility mob whose main purpose is to protect villagers from being killed by zombies and other hostile creatures. They do a lot of damage; when they attack, they fling their victim into the air, usually doing 3 ½ to 10 ½ hearts of damage. They may need some help with killing Endermen, though. They don’t take fall damage or drowning damage. But be aware that they cannot swim and will sink to the bottom, which pretty much makes them useless. They look a lot like villagers or so they tell me. They have big noses, a unibrow and are nearly as big as an Enderman. They naturally spawn in villages with at least 10 villagers and 21 houses. Or you can make them with 4 blocks of iron which is 36 iron gringots. (Got that?) They don’t usually mess with players but the big ole lugs don’t like it when you mess with their villagers. So a player that repeatedly attacks villagers might be on the receiving end of their wrath.

So, that’s the Iron Golem in a nutshell. I probably did not do it justice. But I am winging it at this point so there ya go. I’m going to return to fiction tomorrow and hopefully write an alternate ending for one of my earlier blog posts. Stay tuned.

H - Hard

Do the hard thing. Sometimes you know what you should do and you just need to do it. I believe in being easy on myself, and I’m certainly no martyr. I’m often guilty of not doing things I don’t feel like doing. Feelings are powerful, and believe me, I almost did a post on feelings. But sometimes you have to do the right thing, the hard thing, and wait for the feelings to catch up with you later.

 Take that little step. It could be as simple as shutting my mouth when I want to yell or returning a harsh word with a gentle one. (Or at least a neutral one.) Sticking with this challenge when I want to quit and see no benefit to plodding on, other than proving to myself that I can do it. It may be taking the opportunity to do a nice thing for your spouse even after they’ve been mean to you all day long. Even if it means gritting your teeth while you do it. Maybe it’s making that phone call to get the help you know you need. Or having a hard conversation you’ve been putting off. Sometimes it may mean walking away. Whatever it is, do it. Have the courage to do the hard thing. Regardless of the outcome or the opinions of others. Just do it. Make up your mind. And do it.