Little things during your day

MichaelWinicki said:

I've been hit with two things today that made me go "Hmm...".

The first actually started yesterday.

Where I live there are lots of "critters" running around outdoors. Feral cats, racoons, bear, deer, fox, coyote... You get the picture. We're not out in the country but live next to a Woodline which provides shelter for many of these animals.

Anyway yesterday I noticed something furry behind the house next door. An older lady lives there who has has issues and so she rarely goes outside–especially the backside of her house.

I kept an eye on the furry whatever it was but it did not move for several hours. I thought it was probably a critter that had passed away. We don't get may critters passing away near the house or any of the houses nearby.

I walked over and it was a dead opossum. It did not look like it had tangled with another animal, but instead it just looked like it had taken its last steps and passed away peacefully.

I left him or her where they lay and thought maybe a predator would "get it" during the night. Needless to say that didn't happen.

I woke up this morning, looked out the bathroom window and saw the animal was still there.

I decided that I would take the animal down the road and place him within the boundary of the woods for the predators to do what they do.

After I picked up the animal and placed it in my wheelbarrow for transport, I looked down and saw the animal had found an piece of abandon carpet to spend its last moments on–the carpet providing a bit of comfort for the dying animal.

That gave me pause for today.

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Runwildboys said:

Strange, I found a dead opossum a few months ago, next to my shed. (I do live in a more rural area, so not too big a surprise, even though it's the first time in my 50+ years of living in the country.) What surprised me is that it smelled like burnt rubber, more than rotting flesh. I suppose that could be the maggots, but I've encountered maggots before, and they've always had a distinct smell, which wasn't the same as this.

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MichaelWinicki said:

Blowing through our day...

For many of us the mantra is "Let's get through today so I can get to tomorrow, so that I'll be (pick one or more) financially secure, retire, be happy, find the love of my life, the kids will be out of the house, be done with school, yada.

I think it's a horrible treadmill to be on because you end up burning-through your life for some "end-game" which many times doesn't meet expectation.

A couple years ago I started focusing on how to slow-down my day instead of just trying to rush through it in order to reach tomorrow, because I realized that time is our most precious commodity. And while we can't always control how we spend our time–most of us have obligation to others through work and family, we can step back over the course of the day when something interesting occurs that most of the time we would either ignore or not take notice of.

These small interruptions may make us happy, sad, irritated or excited but they have the capacity to break the "hypnotic spell" of "Let me get through today".

If you have some little thing that interrupts your day and allows you to break that hypnotic spell at list for a short time, please post it here. And again, it doesn't need to be a happy thing or a sad thing or something that irritates. It should be something that makes you go "Hmm...".

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MichaelWinicki said:

Blowing through our day...

For many of us the mantra is "Let's get through today so I can get to tomorrow, so that I'll be (pick one or more) financially secure, retire, be happy, find the love of my life, the kids will be out of the house, be done with school, yada.

I think it's a horrible treadmill to be on because you end up burning-through your life for some "end-game" which many times doesn't meet expectation.

A couple years ago I started focusing on how to slow-down my day instead of just trying to rush through it in order to reach tomorrow, because I realized that time is our most precious commodity. And while we can't always control how we spend our time–most of us have obligation to others through work and family, we can step back over the course of the day when something interesting occurs that most of the time we would either ignore or not take notice of.

These small interruptions may make us happy, sad, irritated or excited but they have the capacity to break the "hypnotic spell" of "Let me get through today".

If you have some little thing that interrupts your day and allows you to break that hypnotic spell at list for a short time, please post it here. And again, it doesn't need to be a happy thing or a sad thing or something that irritates. It should be something that makes you go "Hmm...".

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MichaelWinicki said:

No, my days don't always provide those pauses that cause me to stop whatever I was doing and allow my thoughts go in a different direction.

Today, I had two. The first was the dead opossum that found a soft-place to lay in its final moments.

The second was when I was digging through a pile of mud.

This winter we had to replace our sewer line out to the street. Not only was it costly but my yard took a beating and they had to tear through our flower bed.

I do have a landscaping lined up to take care of the mess, but it won't happen for at least another couple of weeks.

While our weather was great today, I decided I would go out and do a little yard work including starting to clean up in the area where the sewer line was replaced.

We knew a lot of our flowers were doomed due to the digging.

So as I dug through a couple piles of dirt I found 3 batches of Daylilies that appeared to still be alive...

I freed them from the piles of dirt, told my wife what I found (that made her happy–she was very unhappy about the flower bed being destroyed). I replanted the Daylilies in temporary locations and wait for the landscaper to show up.

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Vtwin said:

A few days ago I was out in the woods with the dogs. They were zooming around chasing squirrels from tree to tree and exploring for any treasures the snow had been hiding. I noticed the younger one sort of prancing around with his head and tail held high and an exaggerated gait like those fancy show horses have. 'Proud as a Peacock' might be an apt description of his appearance. It was funny as heck. He pranced his way towards me and I saw that he was carrying something in his mouth. I told him to drop it which he did not want to do, but after strutting a circle around me he did reluctantly drop the skull of a raccoon sized animal at my feet. I checked it out and told he him could have it. He snatched it up and started prancing around again, showing off the priceless treasure he had found. He carried this thing for the rest of the hike and all the way back to the house. This experience might make the top 3 best times of his young life, if you were to ask him.

Watching this made me think.... I hope someday one of Earth's inhabitants is able to get such joy and happiness from the decomposing remains of my lifeless corpse.

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SlammedZero said:

Love it!! My wife and I got into this conversation awhile back. We were reminiscing about our 20s and how fast they flew by. Then I made mention that we were in such a rush during those years. Hurry up and work, get through the week, and then go party with friends on the weekend. Always in a rush. "Hurry up Friday!" That was the mantra for so many years. Like you, I've been trying to slow down a bit, and while the days still feel like they're peeling off the calendar at a rapid rate, I sure am trying to "stop and smell the roses", so to speak.

One of my favorite quotes of all time is "The youth is wasted on the young". Heard it years and years ago and it didn't stick with me as it didn't resonate with me at the time. Today? I 1000% understand it and feel it to my core. lol

Anyway, great post.

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Fredbeard said:

About a week ago , I had decided to spend a few hours at my local park just to relax on my day off . my local city government had recently converted part of the park into a skate plex.as I watched the skaters perform their various tricks, I noticed a grown man performing tricks with them. He looked
Like he was in his forties. He even had a helmet and knee and elbow pads on.
I taught it was great to see someone pursing their passions regardless of their age. I was actually a little encouraged and inspired by him.Also. I noticed how crowded the park was by people of every age range, doing various activities and socializing. It was nice to see the world start to return to normal since the pandemic is waning.

This was a great idea for a thread and is something I have taught about at various times in my life. Especially since I entered my 30's , there have been times where I have felt like a robot simply going tru pre programmed motions. I remember that line from Ferris Buellers day off whe he says " life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around . You might miss it"

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